There are very few opportunities for a company to improve organizational performance and culture by taking one single, solitary action.

In the six months after Marissa Mayer was hired as Yahoo!'s CEO, the market value of the company increased by $17 billion. Imagine making one decision that created $3.8 million in market value an hour! At nearly the same time Yahoo! began its rapid ascent, Ron Johnson, the new JCPenney CEO, caused sales to plummet—by $4.3 billion. A single decision of his brought losses of $500,000 an hour!

Those are two diametrically opposite examples of how hiring an executive leader can dramatically impact an organization's bottom line. Hire a “star” and you'll win because they'll inspire innovation, invigorate employees, and generate wealth for the company. Choose poorly and you'll suffer serious financial penalties. A bad hire may even mortally wound an organization, with far-reaching consequences. The ripple effect of corporate failure impacts an extensive food chain, from stockholders to customers. These days, no organization survives long without strong leadership.

Organizations today live in a glass pressure cooker with the heat turned on high. An expanding global economy coupled with shareholders who aggressively demand positive financial results at the speed of a Ferrari have driven executive turnover to an all-time high. Not surprisingly, and in exponentially increasing numbers, companies are engaging outside assistance when recruiting senior executives. No one understands more about what it takes to attract key executives than those who make a living talking to them every day.

Professional executive recruiters—or headhunters, as some are known—spend all their time working and negotiating between client organizations and executives. The best executive recruiters understand what it takes to secure the best talent, and what it takes to keep it. Considering the very public results of Yahoo! and JCPenney, it's easy to understand why organizations are increasingly turning to professional executive recruiters to deliver on the critical task of sourcing, vetting, and hiring exceptional executive leadership. The benefits and “simple paybacks” of hiring competent recruiting professionals are significant.

The executive landscape continues to change at an incredible pace. More—and increasingly younger—executives continue to ascend to the C-Suite. They face a fragile and complex global business climate and unforgiving stockholders. Yet they must plot corporate strategy, despite an admitted lack of adequate training for their roles.

In recent years, the global recruitment industry surpassed $590 billion in annual revenues, but that growth often comes at the expense of quality and reliability. Overall, the recruiting profession has a spotty track record when it comes to delivering results. In an industry that regards a 30 percent “stick rate” as successful, the authors truly stand out. “Stick rate” is defined as the rate at which a recently hired executive stays in the position for more than a year, and we've designed a methodology and process that delivers success 99 percent of the time. We're not bragging. It's just a fact.

Like a magician revealing inside secrets to the public, Hiring Greatness invites the reader behind the scenes of professional executive recruiting. We'll explain in intimate detail how your organization can learn to discipline itself and adopt a structured and comprehensive approach to its next executive search, and how to avoid the judgment errors that have cost other companies billions of dollars in losses. We will also demonstrate the kind of comprehensive service and expertise you should expect from your Executive Search Professional—should you choose to hire one. To illustrate our approach, we've used the story of David's 1,000th search project as an anecdotal backdrop throughout the book.

David E. Perry and Mark J. Haluska