Background
A second-generation general contractor with roughly $260 million in annual revenue, operating in a single market, approached Advastar as its owner began planning for retirement. The company had been founder-led since inception. No family member was positioned to take over and no internal candidate had been developed for the role, a fact the owner had recognized only recently.
The Challenge
Recruiting an outside president into a family-owned contractor is a different exercise from filling an executive vacancy. The owner needed absolute confidentiality, since any suggestion of a transition would unsettle staff, bonding relationships and long-standing clients simultaneously. The candidate pool in the region was small and largely known to the owner personally, which ruled out an open search. Compensation was the other obstacle. The owner had budgeted a salary and bonus package benchmarked against his own historic compensation, which no external candidate of the required calibre would accept for a role carrying succession risk and no equity.
The Solution
Advastar began with a candidate map covering four adjacent markets, built before any approach was made, so the owner could see the realistic universe rather than guess at it. Approaches were made without naming the company until mutual interest and a confidentiality understanding were in place. After the first two candidates declined on package, we returned to the owner with market evidence and recommended restructuring the offer to include profit share, which changed the conversation from a salaried job to a stake in the outcome. Reference checking extended to owners, subcontractors and the company’s surety, on the view that how a construction executive is regarded by those parties matters more than a reporting-line reference.
The Outcome
A president was recruited from a larger contractor in an adjacent market and started ahead of the ownership transition timeline. Staff learned of the hire on announcement day. Bonding capacity was maintained through the transition, which had been the owner’s principal fear, and the founder moved to a chairman role over the following two years.