A leading global fund with a significant fintech presence in India was looking for a head of strategy. The key components of the role were formulation and implementation of strategic initiatives as well as identification and execution of acquisition/strategic partnership opportunities.

The fund’s management had already met senior strategy staff in relevant organisations but had struggled to find the right composition of attributes. On receiving the mandate we took a strategic approach – rather than focussing solely on strategy staff in similar companies we worked on identifying key strategic thinkers with relevant industry experience who also had experience in M&A transactions but were not necessarily in strategy roles. Using our network, industry knowledge and internal database we compiled a list of such candidates. One of these stood out – a former bulge bracket investment banker who had joined a government entity where his role was to drive tech strategy for the government across several sectors, with fintech being the largest component of his portfolio. We were successful in bringing him to the table (along with some other strong candidates), and the client concurred that this was the indeed the strongest candidate they had come across. Again, by focussing on the fundamental attributes that the role required rather than commonly used search methodologies, we filled this position for our client.