Read more about our expertise within Manufacturing and operations.
Every Chameleon client is at a different stage of their journey through the ‘digital revolution’. This means that every Chameleon client needs a service tailored to their specific situation, whether they are first stage digitising, optimising, or mature transformational vanguards. Working as trusted advisors and partners we are optimally poised to make certain our clients invest in the talent to execute their digital strategy and deliver their business objectives.
IT has evolved away from being just an operational function, CEO’s are now seeing technology leaders as their principal strategy partner across the C-suite. As the importance of technology within the enterprise soars and the emergence of new job functions has to keep pace with the continued emergence of innovative cutting edge solutions, organisations have now identified the need, even pre-requisite, for more holistic attributes in the individuals driving their IT strategy. Yes, these individuals still need a systems mindset, a service orientation, the ability to solve complex problems, think critically, and possess the ability to not just manage but lead. But to what extent are these essential skills now seen as a given. It is the softer skills that our clients are placing an increasing emphasis on and want to define in more detail: Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Flexibility, Creativity.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began, organisations recognised it is no longer enough for CIOs to be trusted operators or strategic business co-creators. Technology leaders were already being called upon to serve as agents of change who envision, enable, deliver commercial growth and help their organisations navigate the shifting landscape and get in front of it.
Although the pandemic may have paused many in-person business operations, it has been a catalyst to accelerate the adoption and integration of digital technologies and capabilities that has helped many organisations maintain resilience and agility. In turn the role and importance of technology leadership has been elevated significantly during the current context.
The new challenges faced by our clients are conversely opportunities for today’s technology leaders. Their mission, to recover from the pandemic while also identifying growth investments and transformational initiatives that will help their organisations thrive in the long term.
Chameleon International’s expertise across Executive Search, Talent Market Mapping, and Leadership Assessment gives our clients the luxury of establishing, fine tuning, and future proofing the leadership and significant players within their technology divisions.
Our clients are increasingly asking us to support them to identify manufacturing Finance leaders, to support their wider Operations strategies. We have supported multinational corporations and SMEs to hire Controllers (both BU/Divisional and Plant) and Cost Accounting Managers.
These can be very challenging areas to recruit into, as candidates need the right educational background & deep technical knowledge, combined with a strong understanding of manufacturing site environments and the ability to act as a business partner to Operations leaders.
The business partnering role is crucial. Ensuring control measures and compliance is critical, as is the creation of accurate financial & cost reports. However, these roles are not solely administrative or reporting: Finance leaders are expected to operate as the right hand of Operations leaders. This ability to be a “critical friend” – to use the financial data to guide and shape business decisions – is both vital, and rare.
Businesses know this, and are putting a lot more emphasis on internal progression and retention, further reducing the number of candidates available. To find the right people requires an understanding of what good looks like, a deep search of the market, and a compelling narrative to catch the interest of potential candidates. The Chameleon approach can deliver that.
With our developing world finding its feet with renewed focuses on mental well-being, social mobility and technological development, HR continues to play a pivotal part. The modern, innovative HR leader is tasked with helping to uphold, establish and design an evolving organisational culture, managing talent and hiring needs and build a competitive advantage, in addition to being a true business partner for a wide and diverse audience. In short, HR ensures we are fit for purpose and all pulling in the same direction.
Our modern, commercial world cannot function without a heightened awareness of its human capital. Chameleon partner with our clients as their “brand ambassador” assessing how behaviours, personal values and the attitudes of our candidate pool compliment the businesses that we represent. We are invited to recruit HR Directors responsible for group, business unit and single site transformation projects in parallel with those who require our support for more bespoke worth in OD, business partnering and compensation and benefits.
When approaching a commercial General Manager search, Chameleon pay specific attention to the overall task of this skill set, which is essentially to lead an organisation through the commercial landscape within which it finds itself. This involves the oversight of product development, finding new market opportunities, determining the optimal pricing to balance profit with customer/client satisfaction and direct marketing operations.
Chameleon know that hands on experience of operations within a given industry is a requirement to effectively navigate the commercial function within a constantly shifting market. Specific operational know-how sets up commercial leaders to succeed when faced with various industry/economic disruptions. With a challenging market making sensible margins harder to achieve and an increasing focus on innovation, Chameleon find the best commercial profiles that are responding by adapting their skill sets and inspiring their teams to do the same.
With consumers at the heart of product innovation and marketing strategy, marketeers continue to face an evolving list of challenges. Shifting customer preferences, emerging technologies and fragmented audiences are making traditional marketing practices obsolete, with new channels and digital innovating changing the way we engage with customers nearly instantly. A wealth of data needs to be processed to extract insight that can be actioned and brands require the agility to rapidly adapt their strategies to keep their customers engaged.
Achieving and sustaining such agility requires forward thinking marketing leaders with exceptional skill-sets. The competitive edge provided by such marketeers is increasing the race for talent across this function as companies seek to stay a step ahead of their competitors.
Chameleon have partnered with both multi-nationals and privately owned businesses, developing extensive global networks of best-in-class talent across the marketing domain. We are able to create high-performing teams, whilst absorbing the culture of our clients, which enables businesses to explore new geographies, diversify their product range and grow their customer base.
Today’s salespeople play a crucial role in a constantly expansive, data-led market where organisations continuously joust for competitive advantage. Businesses of varying maturity and product focus rely on their client facing arms to canvas new and existing markets and build bespoke solutions to an expectant and diverse, global audience – an audience that we have access to in ways previously unfathomed. Today’s sales leaders are expected to extract actionable insights, champion technology led change whilst simultaneously offering a tailored service to meet unique customer demands. They have a responsibility to drive, educate, motivate and probe whilst setting examples through the delivery of robust, commercial proposition.
Chameleon support a broad range of organisations from start-up to those in the FTSE100 who require our understanding of how to unearth and scout appropriate sales talent. Our clients require a variety of skills across industry – those to establish commercial footprints in previously uncharted territories, those to supercharge a technical approach to a more niche, competitive arena or more simply those to build discipline and rigour into a business to help protect margin.
With innovation and entrepreneurial spirit always at the core of our recruits in this sector, we headhunt and deliver those across a variety of experience levels.
Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) is a fundamental part of Manufacturing and Operations – irrespective of industry, company size or product portfolio. However, HSE is a highly tailored function depending on geography and their consequent regulations, as well as industry compliance and production methodologies. HSE has been a part of a business corporate structure for decades, however has evolved over that time through software advancement, business culture shifts towards sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). HSE will further develop through the promise of Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and QMS systems due the newly apparent correlation between HSE performance and bottom-line performance.
Chameleon has been exposed to HSE related mandates across an array of businesses and sectors, each with their own focal point. Whether that be implementation or optimisation of Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS), Crisis/Risk Management, Asset Management or Process Automation and SOPs. Chameleon have an awareness of market trends and future advancements, enabling us to utilise our fast growing network to provide solutions to your HSE needs.
From fast-moving consumer goods through to pharmaceuticals, automotive and heavy manufacturing, the way we manufacture products continues to diversify and the need for skilled engineers is ever present. Integration post-merger and acquisition, the evolution of technologies and external partnerships require internationally experienced engineering leaders who are able to push the boundaries of efficiency, set new sustainability benchmarks and commercialise the latest innovations.
As businesses continue to transform and shift their hierarchies, engineers must be capable of working in flatter hierarchies or across wide geographies and technologies. This leads to the need for strong leaders with astute technical insight, increasing commercial acumen and leadership skills that can span across culture and nations.
As a global search firm, Chameleon have been successful in supporting a broad range of clients in scoping positions to suit their individual objectives and needs prior to executing unique and lasting hires who are able to add value across both site based and corporate engineering leadership positions. Our deep technical understanding and ability to profile culture and leadership across talent pools enables us to provide a competitive edge to our client base as they seek to achieve their company goals and off-set the challenges presented in low-margin and highly competitive business landscapes.
Quality has become an increasing area of work and expertise for the consultants here at Chameleon. Its diverse nature has brought us into working on various mandates, each with different backgrounds and solution to achieve.
Regardless of the specific focus area of an assignment, the common element in defining the quality of a product, service or process is the perception of a standard that meets customer and regulatory requirements. With this concept in mind we have consulted clients into reaching optimal quality structures and systems through the introduction of individuals specialising in anything from the quality of a manufacturing site to the design of the product. Henry Ford once said “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking”; here at Chameleon we take pride in assisting our clients in reaching standards of excellence through our consultative work.
Operational Excellence (OpEx) is a skillset that straddles all of our industry verticals here at Chameleon. We have a rich history of sourcing well-rounded senior OpEx experts from around the world, who have both the technical knowledge and soft skills necessary to implement lasting change in a company culture from the shop floor to senior leadership teams. This holistic view and combination of top-down/bottom-up approach is key in implementing the methodologies of OpEx, from the Lean toolbox to Six Sigma, that launch the real momentum of change in any organisation.
Performance improvement is the marriage of technical and soft skills – it is ultimately people that lie at the heart of tangible transformation in production lines. Chameleon identify OpEx leaders to build programs from the ground up, create clarity on KPIs throughout a whole organisation, assess site maturity, diagnose key problems and bottlenecks and administer specific OpEx tools accordingly.
Chameleon International profile the market to understand which businesses and industries are leaders within distinct disciplines of Operational Excellence and then support our clients by delivering best in class candidates who have the coaching capability, leadership skills, and transformative vision to deliver long-term value and lasting improvement.
Identifying Site Leaders with the right combination of technical skill and leadership capability is a challenge for many businesses, and is a core area of expertise for Chameleon.
We have helped multinational corporations and SMEs to find the right Site Leaders to deliver their manufacturing goals.
The right technical skill set is crucial: a deep understanding of the specific manufacturing processes on site, combined with P&L management, continuous improvement methodology and increasingly, the ability to drive the automation & digitalisation agenda, is the foundation for success.
On top of that is leadership capability. Many businesses are moving away from a traditional “command & control” style, towards a servant leadership ethos. Leaders who can inspire, engage and develop their teams from the bottom up are increasingly in demand. Providing ownership and development opportunities can improve retention and succession planning, and fostering a collaborative culture of continuous improvement vastly increases the team’s buy-in and delivery of site priorities.
Whether you are looking to deliver a step-change in results at an existing site, to relocate or establish a brand new site, or to integrate a newly acquired business into your current manufacturing footprint, we can help you to put the right Site Leader in place.
Logistics is a core component of the Plan, Source, Make, Deliver & Return cycle as it enables the actual flow of material product from suppliers through an internal network to customers.
Chameleon International partner with our clients to ensure effective search and selection of talent within this highly complex discipline. We seek to understand the unique challenges our clients face with respect to the flow of raw materials, semi-finished and finished product across the E2E Supply Chain spectrum.
Whether it is working with Pharmaceutical or Food & Beverage clients with highly regulated chilled transport requirements or partnering with Automotive clients ensuring Just-In-Time delivery, Chameleon seek to align talent with the right attributes to excel in leadership positions.
We understand the complexities around the various modes of transportation and the plethora of service providers operating within the category across freight forwarding, rail/air/sea port terminal operators and 3PL providers. This understanding enables us to truly qualify prospective talent against our clients requirements and unique logistical leadership needs.
Global events continue to expose planning shortfalls and educate all industries on the importance of having robust and scenario-proof planning processes in place. The evolution of consumer preferences requires planning to move from a historical-sales based exercise into a forward-thinking topic that is able to support an organisation in realising their commercial and strategic objectives for years to come.
The evolution in planning technologies, reshaping of manufacturing footprints and distribution networks coupled with interaction across complex stakeholder networks is increasing the need for internationally experienced planning leaders who are able to navigate matrix led organisations and curate specific planning initiatives on behalf of their businesses.
Planning has long been a focal point of Chameleon’s work and we are proud to have built high-performing planning organisations across complex site networks in our client base. WE are asked to support as our clients strengthen and up-skill existing planning organisations whilst transitioning into more strategic functions. Our track record in this field and extensive global network allow us to quickly engage with planning leaders across all sectors and to deliver competitive and diverse shortlists against mandates in all geographies.
Procurement and Strategic Sourcing has always been a key specialisation of our work at Chameleon, fitting clearly within our focus area of Plan, Source, Make & Deliver. We have worked with clients across the broad spectrum of skills from Category Managers and Lead Buyers through to Directors of Procurement and CPOs. Projects that we have been involved in have seen us assist major multinational corporations with a redesign of their whole procurement organisation, placing strategic people into leadership roles and making multiple hires along the way.
As the world begins to recover from the Coronavirus pandemic and moves further into the new decade, procurement once again is under the spotlight – there has been a clear move away from simple raw material price negotiation and cost saving towards availability of raw material, security of the supply chain, the focus on procurement as a value creation function and technology driven transformation. We have positioned Chameleon with enough experience and expertise to be able to provide such candidates to our clients giving them significant competitive advantage.