Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaExecutive search firms evaluate leadership potential through structured competency interviews, psychometric and behavioural profiling, and reference conversations that go well beyond a candidate's own provided contacts — a deliberately layered approach, because no single method reliably predicts how someone will...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaMarket mapping in executive search is the systematic work of identifying, profiling, and tracking senior leaders across an industry before a specific vacancy ever appears — and it's the single most consequential stage clients rarely see, because it happens before...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaA leader can be highly successful in a functional role and still face new challenges when promoted to a broader leadership position. A successful sales head moving into a business head role, for example, suddenly needs to think about finance, operations,...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaExecutive search firms approach passive candidates — leaders who are currently employed, performing well, and not actively job hunting — through confidential, direct outreach rather than job postings, because roughly 70 to 80% of genuinely strong executive candidates fall into...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaHiring for a senior leadership position is very different from filling a routine vacancy. At the executive level, the right candidate needs to bring the right combination of leadership experience, industry knowledge, strategic thinking, cultural alignment, and long-term business value....
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaA board evaluation can look straightforward on paper. Directors complete questionnaires, meetings are reviewed, individual contributions are discussed, and an annual assessment is documented. But a meaningful evaluation asks a more important question: Is the board equipped and able to perform the...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaAn effective CXO hiring strategy treats every critical leadership hire as part of a longer leadership architecture, not as an isolated vacancy to fill — a distinction that separates boards making resilient long-term decisions from boards perpetually reacting to the...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaThe biggest challenges in CXO hiring today aren't about finding capable people — India and the wider talent market have no shortage of accomplished executives. The real difficulty is finding the right fit for a specific role, at a specific...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaA step-by-step CXO hiring process matters most for growing businesses precisely because they can least afford to get it wrong — a single senior mis-hire can cost a scaling company months of momentum it doesn't have to spare. SHRM estimates...
Reviewed By Vijay Karkare Managing Director @Cornerstone IndiaExecutive leadership skills that mattered five years ago aren't sufficient on their own in 2026 — the bar has moved, and it's moved fastest in exactly the areas AI cannot replicate. I see this directly in how client briefs read...
