allAfrica.com: Kenya: Dilemma of Hiring Top Executives (Page 1 of 3)

While the hunt for a new chief executive officer of the Capital Markets Authority remains top on the radar of corporate recruitment, questions still linger why the recruitment executives at Hawkins Associates, charged with picking a person for the job, have not found the right candidate yet despite the ordinary credentials advertised.

With a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA), Economics, Finance, Law, Insurance or related fields and 10 years experience gained in securities and financial markets, one could easily become a CMA boss, if the job advertisement was anything to go by.

But five months down the line, and a month after Hawkins Associates re-advertised the position, the post is yet to be filled.

A previous short-list was drawn and interviews conducted but the search flopped, an apparent admission that the process failed to attract the calibre of executives needed to take CMA to the next level and tackle emerging challenges.

The unsuccessful protracted hunt for Mr Edward Ntalami's successor and previous hiring of top executives brings into focus just what credentials recruiters are looking for and the unique challenges they are facing as they embark on opening some of the most impressive CVs sent to their mail boxes.

The Business Daily sought insights from leading professional recruiters, human resource practitioners and consultancies on whether there is a particular career path or qualifications that could propel one to the top of a company. What specific talents are they looking for?

A glimpse into Kenya's dynamic and flourishing corporate sector reveals that a sizeable portion of the finest brains running leading companies in Kenya have had what appears like uniform skills, qualifications and experience.

Looking at bosses at the helm of the 11 top companies gauged by market capitalisation at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), a sizeable number of them have a business inclined training, eight of them being holders of Bachelors degrees in Commerce, Accounting or Finance.

Theirs is a picture of a trendy career path which has thrust them to the top of the country's corporate scene, where their decisions determine the fortunes of thousands of Kenyans who have invested in the companies they head.

These are East African Breweries, KenGen, Mumias, Barclays Bank of Kenya, Equity Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bamburi, CFC Bank, Kenya Airways and Nation Media Group.

Just like in politics, in the business world, institutional-investor pressure has intensified, forcing management to show results, with globalisation and the Internet making competition stiffer. The overall result has been a sea change in the choice of chief executives.

Management experts and executive hiring firms say recruitment decisions for the top dogs in most company boards revolve around whether to hire an outsider or insider CEO, considering the reasons for a replacement. They are in agreement that the success of a new CEO to spearhead the growth of a company will hinge on the ability to follow through on one's own vision - but its a corporate blunder for a company under siege to pick an insider.

Factors such as the level of experience under their belt and a personal dynamism and vision that would help transform a company come into play. Simon Muthiora, the manager at Joblink - an executives recruiting firm in Kenya -says CEOs with a marketing and finance- biased training or experience are the most sought after in the local corporate scene.

"Keen directors and shareholders want someone with a 'commercial mind' who can lead a marketing wave from the top, and this is what sells a company," said Mr Muthiora, who is also a management consultant with Manpower Services. Boards of companies- charged with the responsibility of choosing CEOs in most firms- are normally faced with a dicey dilemma on who to select.

A trumpeting caution is normally that a hiring blunder could come with a heavy thud of employees' lay-offs, hurt families, furious shareholders and a possibility of demoralising power wars within the firm.

William Muchangi, a human resources manager at audit firm, Ernst &Young, says the state of the company while hiring determines which candidate to pick, with most hiring being guided by a specific strategy that the company wants to embark on.

"Companies are looking for people who have demonstrated sound leadership on account of their managerial prowess borne out of wisdom and experience in the world of business, within and outside the country," said Mr Muchangi.

While some CEOs were in the right place at the right time, most owe their success to meticulous management, exposure and staff training sessions by some of the companies they joined as ordinary employees.

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