Hiring Situation

• ・Company E, Global Pharmaceutical company, was short of hands in its marketing division and was looking to hire replacement.
• ・This position was for someone to take charge of product marketing for their mainstay products. The position required flexible thinking and the capacity for problem solving.

Our Approach

We initially started a search focusing on their competitors; however, we were unable to find anyone with the business expertise their company demanded after screening candidates.
We changed our approach and directed our search instead at individuals at consulting firm who had been involved with projects in the healthcare industry.
Additionally, given the criteria of "flexible thinking and the capacity for problem solving," we interviewed the client for more details on the specific skills and professional experience they wanted. This allowed us to more clearly reiterate their criteria.

Through the process, we understood that a candidate who simply had web marketing skills from PPC advertisements would not be sufficient. Rather, someone who had a broad experience in digital marketing, such as building communities, growing a loyal customer base, etc would be more suitable for this role. Also, since such a skill set would entail being able to smoothly communicate with parties inside and outside the company, we added another criteria: excellent interpersonal communication skill.

Ultimately, we approached a candidate in charge of healthcare industry clients at a consulting firm, and this candidate was successfully hired.
After he joined the company, he made many novel recommendations and become trusted by his peers for his flexible thinking.

This was a challenging experience in which the number of viable candidates was limited, but we were able to introduce an appropriate candidate by having detailed inquiries into the requisite skills and experience.