Familiarity breeds missed opportunities

Familiarity can be comforting and maybe it’s one of the reasons that, when recruiting for positions at all levels, companies often go with what they know – hiring people with similar approaches, characters or skills to the previous incumbent or only considering those who work in the same sector.

It’s understandable but it frequently means businesses miss out.

A company’s processes, products and culture might already be excellent but there will always be room for improvement. Yet without some form of external stimulus, change is perhaps unlikely – appointing a new person presents that opportunity to secure an injection of new ideas and fresh perspectives.

Of course, the person chosen for a role needs to be able to do it. However, this ability could take the form of transferable skills and, as above, the subsequent approach could be the positive challenge a company needs, whether it knows it or not.

Here’s an example. Last year, I was asked to find a senior leader for a well-known FMCG business and the brief specified a background in the same industry. I challenged this and offered that it might be the reason why they were struggling to find someone with the required aptitudes. So I presented a shortlist of three people from FMCG and one from an aligned but different sector and, surprisingly for them but not so much for me, they recruited this fourth person.

So I understand it, this person is now flying in the business and my client absolutely loves them but, had they continued to pursue familiarly for no sound reason, they would never have found them.

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