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.
Derma & Clinical Beauty Leadership: Hiring for the Category
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire derma and clinical beauty leaders who combine genuine scientific and efficacy credibility with brand and commercial strength — and an understanding of the category’s distinctive dynamics, including its links to dermatology, the professional channel, and rigorous claims. The best pair real credibility on the […]
Leading a Matrix Organization
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerLeading in a matrix organization — where people have more than one reporting line, such as functional and business, or global and regional — takes the ability to lead through influence rather than clear authority, manage ambiguity and shared accountability, and navigate the tensions the […]
Leading a Global Team
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerLeading a global team takes cultural awareness and respect, deliberate communication across distance and time zones, the ability to balance global consistency with local difference, and extra effort to build trust and connection across borders. What is hard about any distributed team is amplified by […]
Executive Resilience and Avoiding Burnout
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerExecutive resilience — the ability to sustain performance and wellbeing under the sustained pressure of senior leadership — matters both for the leader and the business. Building it means managing energy and boundaries, building support, maintaining perspective, and recognising the signs of burnout early. Sustainable […]
How to Hire an Events & Experiential Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire events and experiential leaders who combine genuine creativity and a feel for experience with the operational rigour to deliver complex events flawlessly and the commercial capability to build a profitable business. The best pair creative vision with the discipline to execute at scale under […]
How to Hire a Travel & Tourism Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire travel and tourism leaders who combine a feel for the customer experience the industry sells with commercial and operational capability, an understanding of its distinctive dynamics — seasonality, distribution, and increasingly digital — and the resilience to lead through a cyclical, disruption-prone sector. The […]
How to Hire a Hotel Group Executive
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerHire hotel group leaders who combine a genuine feel for hospitality and guest experience with the ability to run complex, multi-property operations at scale — and, often, an understanding of the brand, real estate, and commercial dynamics of the sector. The best pair service and […]
The Offer Stage in Executive Search
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerThe offer stage is where a chosen candidate is made a formal offer and, ideally, accepts — the culmination of a search, but a stage where strong candidates can still be lost. Handling it well means understanding what matters to the candidate, structuring a compelling […]
How Executive Candidates Are Approached
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerExecutive search approaches candidates directly and discreetly — reaching out to leaders identified as strong fits, including many who are not actively looking, to explore their interest confidentially. Done well, the approach is personal, credible, and respectful, opening a genuine conversation rather than pitching a […]
Board vs Management: Who Does What?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerThe board governs and oversees the company on behalf of its owners — setting direction with management, holding it to account, and providing counsel — while management, led by the CEO, runs the company day to day and executes. In short, the board oversees; management […]
