What Is Executive Search?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerExecutive search is the specialised process of finding, assessing, and securing senior leaders — done by proactively identifying and approaching the right people, rather than advertising and waiting for applicants. It is built for roles where the cost of getting the hire wrong is high, […]
What Is Succession Planning?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerSuccession planning is the deliberate work of ensuring a business has the leaders it will need for the future — identifying critical roles, developing internal candidates, and knowing how each key position would be filled if it became vacant. Done well, it turns leadership transitions […]
What Is a Headhunter? Headhunter vs Executive Recruiter
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA headhunter is a recruiter who proactively approaches and recruits specific individuals — typically senior or specialist people who are not actively job-hunting — rather than advertising and waiting for applicants. In practice, “headhunter” and “executive search consultant” describe much the same proactive, direct-approach work […]
CEO vs COO: What’s the Difference?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerThe CEO owns the direction, strategy, and ultimate accountability of the business and largely looks outward and forward; the COO owns execution and day-to-day operations, turning strategy into results. At their best they are a partnership — the CEO deciding where the business goes, the […]
COO vs President: What’s the Difference?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA COO owns operations and execution across the business; a President’s role is broader and more variable, often encompassing operations but sometimes extending to commercial leadership, a division, or a near-CEO remit. Where a COO is defined by function (operations), a President is defined by […]
What Does a Chief Experience Officer Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA Chief Experience Officer owns the end-to-end experience a customer has with a business — across every touchpoint, channel, and interaction — as a single, coherent responsibility. It exists where experience is a competitive differentiator too important to be split across marketing, product, and service, […]
What Does a Chief Customer Officer Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA Chief Customer Officer owns the business’s relationship with its customers — their satisfaction, retention, loyalty, and advocacy — and represents the customer’s interests at the executive table. It exists to ensure that the customer has a single senior owner, rather than being everyone’s concern […]
What Does a President Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA President’s role depends entirely on the business, but most commonly they are the senior leader running the company or a major part of it day to day — often as the operational counterpart to a CEO, the head of a division, or a successor […]
What Does a CMO Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA CMO owns marketing and demand for the business — brand, positioning, and how the company is perceived, alongside the performance, digital, and data engine that turns awareness into growth. The modern role spans brand-building and commercial accountability at once, and the best CMOs hold […]
What Does a CEO Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA CEO owns the direction and performance of the whole business — setting strategy, building the leadership team, allocating capital and attention, shaping culture, and answering to the board and owners for the result. Beneath the breadth, the job comes down to a few things […]
