Executives often begin a search with twenty recognisable logos. Those lists feel safe and usually stall. Many senior mandates in Germany sit inside family holdings, private equity portfolio companies, and regional industrial groups that never post a public Stellenanzeige for the role you want.
Start from constraints, not prestige
Geography, travel load, ownership type, and whether you need a pure P&L seat should prune the map before brand names enter. A Magdeburg-based search that insists on weekly München presence is a different mandate than one open to NRW commuting.
Use search firms as channels, not oracles
Retained search partners know pockets of the market. They do not own it. Treat them as one channel alongside direct approaches to holdings and warm introductions through former Aufsichtsrat contacts — always within your contractual limits.
Keep the list living
A static spreadsheet of forty names becomes theatre. In an Executive Search Mandate, we revisit the map every fortnight: who responded, who went quiet, which sectors cooled after earnings season.