Category: Uncategorized

Even seasoned executives are facing stiffer competition. We’ve compiled a few tips on how to help your headhunter represent you most effectively.

Learnings for talent strategy from the 2018-19 US-China trade wars and how they can be applied in the face of uncertainty and volatility.

Paul Mendelssohn shares insights for Series A and B companies on whether to hire a VP of Finance or a CFO

If the past year has demonstrated anything, it’s that we live in an unpredictable world supported by technology. To thrive within these conditions of uncertainty and to future-proof our businesses, we must strive to become ‘sensing organisations,’ that can sense and respond, continuously, in real time. In the latest of Savannah Group’s series of exclusive Harvard Business Review Press events, we welcomed Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden. Authors of the bestselling book Sense and Respond, Jeff and Josh discussed how organisations need to rethink the way we organise work in order to sense and respond quickly.

Diversity is not just a moral obligation or the right thing to do from an ethical standpoint – it’s an economic imperative, powering more profitable, innovative and creative businesses. Through this report, supported by interviews with 24 female E&C CEOs and executive leaders and a range of quantitative data, Savannah Group explores the sheer scale of the challenge and an actionable roadmap to achieving better diversity.

For leaders in the current climate, everything is magnified. Rapidly changing business environments require strategically agile leaders, able to quickly adapt to changing situations and with a high degree of cultural sensitivity to make them equally effective across the global span of their business operations.

Savannah Group recently hosted an event with panel of experts
to get their thoughts and insight into what defines leadership agility and how to identify and develop it within teams and organisations.

Following on from our First Market Insights report released in May, we’ve continued our conversations with board members and senior executives across a range of sectors and industries to gather insights and opinion in the current yet ever changing business landscape. This document summarises key themes, concerns and forward plans from those conversations.

Over the past six weeks we’ve held hundreds of conversations with board members and senior executives across a range of sectors and industries during phase one and the early part of phase two of the coronavirus crisis. This document summarises key themes, concerns and forward plans from those conversations.

New ecosystems are superseding conventional business models in many industries. The recent global pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in sectors that we couldn’t have foreseen even a few months ago. As this evolution takes shape, the roles of CIO and CDO are at the forefront of digital transformation. But this isn’t digital transformation as we know it. Moving from paths to platforms requires technology to fundamentally reinvent the business as digital-first.  The role of the CIO and CDO is to bring the right tech to the table.

Recently published analysis by Deloitte found that poor mental health costs UK businesses up to £45 billion each year – a rise of 16% since 2016. Rob Stephenson, Founder of InsideOut is a campaigner for creating healthier workplaces. Rob describes mental health as one of the big challenges of our lifetime.

So how do we capitalise on this £45 billion opportunity? And what is the role of the board and the executive committee in really pushing the mental health agenda forwards?

To explore these questions, InsideOut partnered with Savannah Group for an event hosted at KPMG to bring a room of senior executives together to educate and inspire about the opportunities addressing mental health in the workplace can bring.

Digital disruption doesn’t respect industry boundaries. As incumbents dabble with digital, bolder players are seizing their chance to dominate a new, technology-driven world. The only way to compete is to embrace digital at the core of your organisation and adopt a digital mindset to transform for tomorrow. Savannah Group in partnership with PA Consulting and Prof. Venkat Venkatraman from Boston University have collaborated on a research study and report, collecting views and opinions from over 400 senior executives on the current state of their organisation’s digital transformation and how to achieve competitive advantage.

Each half-year our Commercial Practice puts together a 5-minute update which briefly covers some of the activity we have been seeing in the market relating to the commercial function, the trends we have spotted and some of the work we have been asked to undertake from a sales, marketing and customer acquisition perspective.

Competition for talent continues to be a very hot topic in business today on both local and global level. And not least because of the extraordinary competitive edge afforded to those organisations – across the world – who invest in spotting and retaining talent. At Savannah Group, every day we see the rewards that high-growth organisations reap from positioning themselves to attract and retain highly-talented and agile workforces.

It seems that the rate of change in the energy sector is taking people by surprise. Given the falling costs of technology and availability of new renewable technologies, so much is being achieved in pushing the boundaries of this industry. We discuss what are the organisational implications for business leaders and investors are.

Savannah Group recently hosted an event for a selection of CIOs, CTOs and CDOs and invited Dr Jai Menon, Chief Scientist at Cloudistics to lead a discussion on the major technological changes driving change in organisations at the moment.

It’s hard to ignore the hype surrounding Artificial Intelligence. If it hasn’t been deployed within your organisation already, the deployment of AI within most businesses looks inevitable. Decisions being made right now about AI within your organisation bring significant opportunities such as cost savings, new insights into data patterns and enhanced customer service but it also brings risks and vulnerabilities.

The impact of digital on organisations has been well documented over the years. Some would argue that the answer to the question “What is digital?” is customer-centricity, and that everything that an organisation does is about serving the customer. How then can some organisations still be getting it so wrong?

Savannah Group, in partnership with PA Consulting Group, recently hosted a breakfast briefing on digital disruption and strategy, welcoming CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, HRDs and their senior colleagues to our venue in London, overlooking the Thames. The highlight of the event was a presentation given by Professor Venkat Venkatraman of Boston University Questrom School of Business, one of the world’s leading researchers and commentators on digital transformation.

The requirements, objectives and dynamic, can vary significantly when working as a CFO in a PE environment versus a corporate environment. Michael Williamson, an experienced CFO, has worked for a number of blue chip businesses like Oaktree Capital, GSK and Sanofi, and recently led a finance transformation project within the asset services division.

We are delighted to launch Savannah Group, a new Executive Search and Interim Management brand offering a fresh approach to executive recruitment.

Our core team has been together for 10+ years, and until now we were the UK operation for another global search business. We recognise that our market is changing rapidly and our rebranding offers us the opportunity to adapt our business to support our clients and candidates better in this continually evolving landscape.

Cancer and Cystic Fibrosis have either directly or indirectly affected a number of our employees. We wanted to do something to raise money as a thank you for the support and treatment that was received, so employees from Savannah Group are completing a cycle ride from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money and awareness for Macmillan, Breast Cancer Now and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.