1. WHY SIGNIUM?
50% of senior hires fail. It isn’t because
they are incompetent - only 20% of
those failures are down to a mismatch
of competencies - they fail because
they don’t fit; the culture or the
chemistry is wrong or both.
Too often, executive search and leadership
consultancies focus on the easier to uncover
and measured factors like competencies, past
experience and expectations, but don’t really
concentrate on the other aspects of fit, the
softer more human side; the nuances of
culture and art of good chemistry.
At Signium, we’re different.
We understand that executive search and
leadership consultancy is a process of
structured subjectivity. It’s about aligning
the 3Cs - competencies, culture and
chemistry - to deliver you a greater
certainty of success.
It’s what we do; it’s what makes
us different.
WHO ARE WE?
Signium is a global partnership of
local entrepreneurial executive and
leadership consultancies. Founded in
1951 in the United States of America
as Ward Howell, Signium was a
pioneer in executive search consulting.
We now have nearly 50 offices in
close to 30 countries, operating in
the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe,
the Middle East and Africa. We work
both in specialist markets and wider
industries, with consultative experts in
every business sector and functional
area. By 2020, we aim to have doubled
in size and be the best regarded
global network of executive search and
consulting firms in the world.
We have the rigour and reach, the local
understanding and senior high touch to
deliver the perfect fit for your company.
INTELLIGENCE...

2. AESC
WHAT CAN WE
DO FOR YOU?
Our aim starts with getting
to know you, the challenges
you face and what your needs are. We
don’t want to just take a brief, we want
to understand what you need to see if
there are problems behind the problem.
Our combination of global reach and local
knowledge means we can then deliver better,
more interesting, diverse
and international candidate lists, with people
you might not have thought of or expected.
We recognise that our role often includes selling
candidates the role/company, which is one of the
areas where our hands-on senior involvement is
important.
Then, in assessing candidates against your needs, we
take a fully-rounded assessment of the potential fit in
terms of competencies, culture, chemistry
and leadership.
WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT?
We have a unique structure and governance. We are a global
partnership of local consultancies. While this isn’t necessarily
important in itself, the combination of global reach and rigour
combined with local knowledge and senior level commitment
allows us to work in ways that we believe ensures you get
better results.
Our partners have chosen to work together; they know and
trust each other in a way many of the people at the other large
multinationals don’t. We commit to collaborating worldwide,
and our close relationships prove invaluable in finding the right
talent for the right role.
Every partner has individual accountability and recognises that we
are only as good as our last assignment, ensuring standards are
consistently high across the globe. However they also have the
freedom to adapt our philosophy to the specific needs of the local
market and can do so based on their deep understanding of local
cultures and businesses. They are not constrained by a one-size-
fits-all model.
Our partners are actively involved throughout the process; they
don’t just top-and-tail the work. They do the work they love doing,
which is solving your leadership needs.
In short, we’re different because we provide the best of
both worlds – the scale and rigour of the largest firms with
the passion, local knowledge and personal involvement of
the boutiques.
INTUITION...