What to Expect From an Executive Search Partner

The companies that have the best outcomes from executive search partnerships are not always the ones with the largest budgets or the most prestigious mandates. They are the ones that understand the nature of the engagement: what they should hold the search firm accountable for, what remains their own responsibility, and what will determine whether the search closes well.

This clarity prevents the most common sources of friction in an executive search engagement — and it starts before the search begins.

What the search firm is responsible for

A well-defined brief. The search firm's first obligation is to produce a brief that is specific enough to make the search targetable. This requires investing significant time in the intake conversation, pushing back on vague criteria, surfacing stakeholder disagreements before they become problems, and writing a document that the sourcing and evaluation process can actually run against. A search firm that accepts a vague brief and begins sourcing is not serving the client — it is avoiding the difficult conversation that would produce a better outcome.

Comprehensive market mapping. The search firm is responsible for identifying everyone who is potentially right for the role, not just everyone who is in their database. For VP and C-suite searches, this means active research into who holds relevant roles in relevant companies — not a database query. A market map that produces 80 to 150 names, qualified down to a sourcing pool of 30 to 50, is the output of genuine mapping work. A market map that produces 20 names from a pre-existing list is not.

Quality outreach. The search firm is responsible for approaching candidates in a way that gives them a genuine reason to engage. Not a generic "exciting opportunity" message — a personalised approach that demonstrates knowledge of the candidate's background and explains specifically why this role is relevant to them. Response rates are a direct indicator of outreach quality. A search firm that explains low response rates as "the market is difficult" without examining the quality of the messaging is deflecting accountability.

Honest candidate assessment. The search firm is responsible for presenting candidates with an accurate picture of their strengths and the areas of concern — not just their strengths. A candidate brief that reads like a sales document for the candidate rather than an honest assessment of their fit is not useful to the hiring team. The search firm's job is to give the hiring team the information they need to make a good decision, including the information that might make the decision harder.

Consistent communication. The search firm is responsible for keeping the client informed of progress in a format and frequency that allows the client to make decisions. Weekly updates on where the search stands — outreach sent, responses received, candidates in evaluation, pipeline status — give the client visibility into whether the search is working and what, if anything, needs to change.

What the company is responsible for

Timely decisions. The search firm can surface candidates. It cannot make the company respond to them. Every day between a candidate completing an interview and receiving a next step is a day in which a competing offer can advance, the candidate's enthusiasm can cool, or their employer can make a retention offer. The company's obligation in a search is to move with the same speed it expects from candidates.

Decision-maker availability. VP and C-suite candidates expect to meet the CEO or the most senior relevant stakeholder as part of the process. A search where the CEO is unavailable for a month during the evaluation phase is a search that will lose candidates. The company's leadership needs to treat the search as a priority during the period it is running.

Honest feedback. When a candidate advances and is later rejected, the search firm needs to understand the real reasons why — not a polished version that protects feelings. Honest rejection rationale tells the search firm whether the brief needs to be adjusted, whether there's a stakeholder misalignment that wasn't visible at intake, or whether the evaluation process is working as intended. A search firm that receives "not quite the right fit" as feedback after a rejection has learned nothing.

Reference check support. The search firm can conduct reference calls. For the most senior searches, it is valuable for the CEO or a board member to conduct a reference call directly with someone they know and trust who has worked with the candidate. This produces information — and builds accountability — that an external reference check cannot replicate.

The boundary: the hiring decision

The search firm's role ends at the point of recommendation. The final hiring decision belongs to the company.

This boundary is important because it prevents two failure modes. The first is the company that delegates the decision to the search firm — that accepts whoever is recommended because the process was thorough and the recommendation was confident. The search firm does not have full information about the company's culture, the specific dynamics of the leadership team, or the nuances of what will work in this environment. The company does.

The second is the search firm that tries to influence the decision beyond its mandate — that pushes a candidate because the relationship with that candidate is stronger, or because the search needs to close, or because the firm believes it knows better than the client. A good search firm presents its best assessment and then defers to the client's judgment.

The partnership works when both parties understand and stay within their respective roles. The search firm creates the conditions for a good decision. The company makes it.

Majhi Group operates as a retained search partner. Engagements are structured to be transparent on both sides — what the search firm is doing, what the client needs to do, and what the shared commitment to a quality outcome requires.

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