Cultural Dialogue for Executive Search: know the culture before you fill the role

Your candidate knows the culture before signing the contract.

You know the role, the board and the profile. What the organisation thinks about its new leadership, you usually only hear once things start to grind. In the Cultural Dialogue, your client's employees write anonymously what they expect from the new leadership and where things are stuck today, and weigh each other's contributions.

After 21 days you and your candidate know the culture, the taboos and the hot spots of the first 100 days.

Proven with more than 60 clients in business, public administration & politics. On average, our clients did not know 8 of the 10 strongest contributions.

What you deliver to your clients

1. A map for the landing: What moves the organisation, where loyalties lie and what nobody talks about. Your candidate knows it before day one.

2. Cultural due diligence: In acquisitions and successions, the board gets a diagnosis in the words of the people who will have to carry the change.

3. An honest picture: Anonymously, people say what they would never tell a headhunter in an interview.

Your business case as a partner

• An offer others don't have: Culture diagnosis as a fixed part of your search process, with a ranking instead of interview notes.

• Placements that last: A failed placement costs your client a lot and you the follow-up mandate. Good landings bring the next one.

• Backing for your recommendation: Behind your assessment stands the weighted voice of the organisation, even when the board would rather hear something else.

How it works

• Strategy workshop: Three hours, with you and, if you wish, with the client. We arrive with a concept and sharpen the questions.

• Launch: Within 48 hours the dialogue space is ready, in your design or the client's. We write the invitation.

• Dialogue: Three weeks, moderated daily. We check every contribution. You follow along live.

• Result: Report and a one-pager for board and candidate, presented together if you wish.

Why BrainE4 is different

• More than reference calls: A dozen interviews show you a slice. In the dialogue hundreds take part, and you see what many share.

• No interview effect: Whoever writes anonymously doesn't have to please anyone. That's why you also hear criticism of the predecessor or the owner family.

• Your mandate stays yours: We provide the instrument and the analysis. Advising the client stays with you. White label is possible.

• Insight Guarantee: In the strategy workshop we record six assumptions per question: what you expect. We mix them covertly into the contributions. If on average at least five of the top 10 are new to you, your knowledge has doubled. Otherwise we refund the dialogue.

For whom

• Executive search: when you fill C-level mandates and don't want your candidate to land blind.

• Leadership advisory: when you accompany new leaders through their first 100 days.

• Board advisory: when a succession or an acquisition is coming and culture is a risk.

In practice

Medartis: Matthias Schupp took over as new CEO and wanted to know at once where the global workforce really stood. Nine open questions in every local language, anonymous: 1,340 arguments and 95,961 Idea Duels, condensed into the issues that move his people. An honest assessment in weeks. Read the interview

«It's a direct line to your employees.» Matthias Schupp, CEO

Uster Hospital: 85 of 115 managers contributed their own theses, including uncomfortable ones. The executive board replaced some of its assumptions as a result. Read the interview

«Some of my hypotheses were replaced by better statements from management.» Martin Werthmüller, CEO

Ideal for:

CEO succession · Onboarding new executives · Cultural due diligence · Post-merger integration · Board mandates · Leadership change in family businesses

Frequently asked questions

How do I bring this to my client?
As part of your mandate: before the appointment as a culture diagnosis, or in the first weeks as onboarding. The initial call with us is free, and we tell you openly if a dialogue isn't a fit.

Does the client see who wrote what?
No. They see arguments, rankings and analyses by unit, never individual people. The results go to the client first.

Does it stir up unrest in a sensitive phase?
The issues are there anyway. Every contribution is moderated in advance, with no names and no stage. The client decides what is communicated.

What does it cost your client?
Scope and cost ceiling are fixed before the start. On top comes the Insight Guarantee: if the dialogue brings too little that is new, we refund it.

All questions and answers

See more

Video: The Cultural Dialogue in brief. Watch the video

Leadership Dialogue: New leadership, transformation, merger. Learn more

Try it yourself: An Idea Duel from the employees' point of view. Experience the Idea Duel

Good candidates deserve a good landing.
Give them the map.

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