Practical, non-promotional guides on executive search, leadership hiring, C-suite roles, executive compensation, governance, and building leadership teams — with deep focus on beauty, personal care, and the broader consumer sector. Start with our hubs: C-Suite Roles, Executive Hiring Guides, Beauty Leadership, Executive Compensation, and the Glossary.
How to Hire a Subscription Business Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire subscription business leaders who deeply understand the model’s economics — recurring revenue, retention, churn, and lifetime value — and can build the customer relationship and experience that keep subscribers. The best combine command of the metrics and mechanics of subscription with genuine customer focus, […]
How to Hire a Grocery & Food Retail Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire grocery and food retail leaders who combine operational and commercial rigour at scale with a genuine understanding of the customer and the sector’s razor-thin margins — and increasingly the ability to lead through digital and omnichannel change. The best pair disciplined execution across complex, […]
The Role of Psychometrics in Executive Assessment
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerPsychometric assessments — structured measures of personality, ability, and behavioural preferences — can add a useful, objective dimension to executive assessment, offering insight into how a leader thinks, works, and leads. But they are one input among several, not a verdict: at their best they […]
What Is Talent Pipelining?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerTalent pipelining is the ongoing practice of identifying and building relationships with potential future leaders in advance of a specific need — so that when a role opens, a business already knows strong candidates and has begun engaging them. It shifts leadership hiring from reactive […]
Executive vs Non-Executive Roles: What’s the Difference?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerAn executive role involves running the business day to day as part of management, with operational responsibility and accountability; a non-executive role involves overseeing and advising the business from the board, without operational responsibility. In short, executives run the company; non-executives govern and counsel it. […]
What Does a Fractional CFO Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA fractional CFO provides part-time, ongoing finance leadership — bringing genuine CFO-level financial strategy, expertise, and judgement for a fraction of the time and cost of a full-time hire. It suits businesses that need senior financial leadership but cannot yet justify, or do not yet […]
What Does a Divisional CEO Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA Divisional CEO leads a single division or business unit within a larger group — running it much as a CEO runs a standalone company, owning its strategy, performance, and team, while operating within the group’s structure and accountable to the Group CEO or centre. […]
How to Hire a Managing Partner
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire or select a Managing Partner who can both run the firm as a business and lead fellow partners — owners with a stake and a voice — through legitimacy, influence, and consensus. Look for genuine leadership and business capability combined with the standing and […]
How to Hire an Executive Chairman
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire an Executive Chairman by being very clear about the role’s scope and its relationship with the CEO, and by finding a leader with the experience and standing to be actively involved while working well alongside the chief executive. Because the role concentrates power and […]
How to Hire a Group CEO
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire a Group CEO for the ability to lead a portfolio — allocating capital and attention across businesses, leading through the CEOs who run them, and creating value at the group level — rather than running a single business hands-on. Assess for portfolio strategy, capital […]
