How to Choose And Hire a Great CEO for Your Startup in India?

With numerous startups emerging and achieving business growth and market expansion, the demand for CEO search services has increased across major cities in India. Whether you are looking for a CEO in Kolkata or seeking services for CEO search in Delhi, find out the best way to ensure the recruitment of a leader who is best suited for your company. This blog offers insights shared by some of the most experienced CEO recruiters in India.

The Indian startup market welcomes the startups that make the lives of the common people easy. Startups related to education, healthcare, and finance are finding success in India. During the Covid-19 pandemic, numerous such startups have made personal, professional, and academic life easier for people.

If your startup has acquired a good reputation and its revenues are fast increasing to go beyond a billion in rupees, you are all set to enter a new phase of growth. The challenges and opportunities for a startup at this stage can only be managed by a leader who has experience in bigger deals and transformational strategic moves – a CEO.

Hiring a CEO has very little in common with the recruitment process for other positions in a company. Finding the perfect leader with the right vision to lead your company is a difficult job. You might find outstanding leaders, but they might not find your business plan quite appealing. You might come across candidates with international experience, but they might lack the knowledge of your industry segment.

Find out the trends and best practices in CEO recruitment in your region before you plan a CEO recruitment drive.

CEO Hiring Trends in Kolkata

With the status of being a major metropolitan city in the Eastern region of India, major startups have risen from Kolkata.

The most promising startup companies in Kolkata are in media, entertainment, education, food, and lifestyle products. The pay scale for a CEO in Kolkata varies a lot from one sector to another, going from INR 3 million-INR 5 million a year.

The general focus of most companies hiring a CEO in Kolkata is on traits such as emotional intelligence, academic records, industry knowledge, and critical thinking skills. Experience in major market moves is also highly preferred by startup owners when they look to hire a CEO Kolkata.

If you are looking for a CEO in Kolkata, be ready for a complex, long hiring process that cannot be hurried at any rate. That is what most CEO recruiters in Kolkata report. Everything from the first interview session to the final one needs to be planned in a highly systematic manner. There is a tendency of candidates in the region to assess everything with a critical eye.

CEO Hiring Trends in Delhi

New Delhi, being the capital of India, is home to startups across sectors. The CEO search New Delhi firms report the tendency of companies to focus on highly experienced and competent candidates irrespective of geographical boundaries.

The startups in Delhi have spread out their branches in major cities of India, although headquartered in the capital. Companies hiring experts for CEO search in Delhi give a lot of preference to experience in dealing with country-wide operations and business growth moves.

Recruiters with experience in CEO search in Delhi also report that many companies based in the region have international operations and seek a leader with outstanding communication skills and global marketing experience.

When conducting a CEO search in Delhi, be prepared for suave, quick-thinking, highly-educated professionals who can overwhelm you with their knowledge and insights. Your CEO hiring committee members might need to conduct long sessions among themselves to look beyond the fantastic aspects to what is highly relevant to your company.

CEO Hiring Trends in Hyderabad and Chennai

These cities have mostly witnessed a rise in the number of startups involved in Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, IT, ITeS, healthcare, and the engineering services industry.

Startup owners looking for a CEO in Hyderabad seek candidates with international business expansion experience and high levels of industry knowledge and strategic planning skills. Hiring a CEO in Hyderabad is extremely competitive, with thousands of startups emerging every year in the region, with most talent CEO searches based in Chennai, Bangalore, and Delhi.

How To Ensure An Excellent CEO Hiring Process For Your Startup in India

1. Reflect Before Considering A Proverbial Grey-Haired CEO

A proverbial grey-haired CEO is one usually in his or her fifties. Such CEOs bring a wealth of industry experience to the table but might lack every single trait that represents the startup – disruptive ideas, major digital transformations, new work culture trends, etc.

You could partner with a manpower CEO agency specializing in hiring a CEO for startups and find out what levels of CEO talent are available in target markets. If your startup benefits more from a younger CEO who has experience in converting the latest ideas into major business growth areas, do not hesitate to hire such a candidate.

2. Choose A CEO Who Correctly Understands Your Products And Potential Over Someone Who Has General Industry Experience

A CEO who is apt for your company should get hold of the idea that drives the actions of your startup. It is advisable not to choose someone who is not remotely familiar with even the types of challenges and opportunities that your startup faces.

Whether you are hiring a CEO in Kolkata or a CEO in Hyderabad, the first thing is to check is the candidate’s experience and understanding of your solutions, market segments, technologies, and opportunities.

3. Assess How Good Is The Future Hire’s Ability To Expertly Take Huge Risk Financial Decisions

Not only for pitching ideas, but the candidate who you are willing to hire should also have the decision-making skill to decide for the start-up if any step is worth the financial risk.

The future CEO of a successful startup should have good exposure to financial risk management insights, investor relationships, financial risk assessment, etc. The CEO need not have practical experience in conducting financial risk analysis or modeling but in understanding the models to correctly assess risks and opportunities.

4. Check How The Best CEO Candidates Fit Your Startup Ability to Be Agile and Resilient

Most tech startups follow agile and resilient project management models and need a CEO who can strengthen their performance based on these operation models.

Whether you are conducting a CEO search in Delhi or a manpower CEO search in Kolkata, choose candidates who have experience in leading companies with similar operations models. Lack of experience with the same project management and operations styles leads to a lot of confusion when making major strategy changes.

5. Do Not Avoid Assessments – Take Help of External Experts To Refine Your Screening Process

No hiring process is complete without assessments. Before the entire recruitment process, the key members of the company should discuss the assessments to test the CEO candidate’s knowledge and potential. The assessments could be in the form of site visits and consultations, presentations for targeting specific business growth, interviews discussing technology knowledge, etc.

Consider hiring an external expert who could serve as a mentor for your CEO hiring stages – search, outreach, interviews, candidate analysis, etc.,

6. If You Have Inorganic Growth Plans – Assess If the Future CEO Has Outstanding Track Record in Acquisitions, Mergers, and Takeovers In Your Industry

In case your startup has future plans of inorganic growth, then you should look for candidates who have been in companies that have successfully taken over other companies to merge into an entity of high influence.

Look through their CVs and know if they have been involved in the merger of two or more companies in the past. Also, listen to their opinions and the plans that they wish to bring into action for inorganic growth. Their profile should also reflect their contribution to increased profits at their former companies. Their motivation for expansion should reflect their personality as well as work experience.

7. Do Not Avoid Detailed Background and Professional Reference Checks

Skipping the background check could be fatal for the startup. Owing to the fact that a startup is in its initial stages of development, there need to be extra measures of background checks.

You should involve a recruitment agency in finding out about the candidate’s background, history, and reputation at his former workplace.

His or her educational and experience certificates and credentials should be verified thoroughly. The testimonial issued for them should be traced, and the issuing body or person should be contacted to verify their opinions for the same. A good recruitment agency partner undertakes all these security measures in a thorough manner.

Partner with Alliance International CEO Search Agency

Alliance International has an expert team of manpower CEO experts who assist in hiring a CEO and the staff needed to run a CEO office.

With our branches in New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and many more cities, we understand the startup scenario in India. Hiring a CEO involves numerous activities, such as market talent mapping, benchmark CEO profile creation, nationwide or international CEO search, outstanding CEO candidate outreach, among others.

Work with expert CEO recruiters to manage CEO recruitment in the most optimized manner. Reach out to us for CEO search and recruitment services!