The Second-Time CEO: What Changes
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA second-time CEO brings the experience of having done the job before — knowing its realities, having learned from successes and mistakes, and carrying greater confidence and perspective. This experience is valuable, which is why second-time CEOs are sought after. But it comes with caveats: […]
IPO Readiness: The Leadership Dimension
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerIPO readiness includes ensuring the leadership team and board are ready for life as a public company — with the right capabilities (such as a public-company-ready CFO and strong governance), the ability to meet public-market demands, and a board and leadership that can operate under […]
The Remuneration Committee: Role and Purpose
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerThe remuneration committee is a committee of the board — made up of independent non-executive directors — responsible for setting and overseeing the pay of senior executives, particularly the CEO and executive directors. It exists to ensure executive pay is set independently, fairly, and in […]
What Does a Senior Independent Director Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA Senior Independent Director (SID) is a non-executive director who serves as a senior, independent point of reference on the board — providing a sounding board for the Chair, a channel for shareholders and other directors when normal routes are inappropriate, and a counterbalance that […]
How to Hire an Oral Care Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire oral care leaders who combine credibility on the health and science the category involves with strong consumer and brand capability, and an understanding of oral care as an everyday-habit category increasingly touched by premiumisation and innovation. The best pair genuine understanding of the health-and-science […]
How to Hire a Bath & Body Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire bath and body leaders who combine a genuine feel for the sensory, ritual experience the category offers with strong consumer and brand capability, and an understanding of its accessible, everyday nature and gifting dynamics. The best pair a sensibility for products that make people […]
How to Hire a Swimwear Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire swimwear leaders who combine genuine product and design capability — including the technical demands of fit and performance — with fashion and brand sensibility and an understanding of the category’s pronounced seasonality and its body-confidence dimension. The best pair a feel for desirable, well-fitting […]
How to Hire a Sun Care Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire sun care leaders who combine genuine credibility on the science, efficacy, and safety that sun care demands with beauty and consumer brand capability, and an understanding of the category’s regulatory and seasonal dynamics. Because sun care is both a beauty product and a health […]
Retained vs Contingency Search: What’s the Difference?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerIn retained search, a firm is engaged exclusively and paid a retainer to conduct a thorough, committed search for a role; in contingency search, one or more firms are paid only if they place a candidate, with no exclusivity or retainer. Retained search suits senior, […]
CFO vs COO: What’s the Difference?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA CFO leads a business’s finances — financial strategy, management, reporting, and often capital and investor relations; a COO leads its operations — running the day-to-day execution of the business. In short, the CFO owns the financial engine and the COO owns the operational engine. […]
