Protiviti is a global business consulting and internal audit firm specializing in risk, advisory, and organizational transformation and in human capital consultancy.

Protiviti advises its clients on selecting the right talent for the right position as part of its advisory services.108 In one such assignment, the client faced challenges in selecting the right candidate for a key leadership position.

The client was a newly established insurance company based in Oman and had aggressive growth plans. The client wanted to differentiate itself by using technology to provide convenient services that would allow its customers to carry out their transactions from the comfort of their home. Being in its nascent stage, the company did not have a clearly laid out IT strategy to support this vision.

The existing IT department consisted of a fairly qualified team, some of whom had been with the organization since its inception three years ago; however, the team was driven largely by day-to-day operations, query resolution, and gathering of business requirements for system enhancements.

There was a general perception that the IT function was not responsive enough to cater to the dynamic nature of the evolving insurance industry landscape and the needs of consumers within it. The teams were process-oriented and felt that requests from customer-facing departments were coming in an ad hoc manner.

In this context, the client now wanted to fill a key leadership position, that of a chief information officer (CIO). It appointed Protiviti to assist them in evaluating and identifying the best candidate for the position; the bank then shortlisted four candidates. Protiviti studied the business context, identified the job specifications, and conducted preliminary assessment covering technical and leadership skills. The following were the observations on the top two candidates:

Candidate A is a very confident and assertive individual currently heading the IT department of a very large, well established, and old insurance company in the country. He leads a team of more than 100 staff and is actively involved in the development of the IT strategy as a mandate from the board; however, he has only three years of experience in the insurance industry, the other 12 years being in the telecom and the oil-and-gas industries. He looks at the big picture and prefers to delegate a lot of tasks to the team. He is comfortable in stakeholder management and confident in resolving situations where there are disagreements. This candidate is very well read and follows the latest global trends in the insurance, banking, technology, and related industries.

Candidate B is an internal candidate leading one of the teams in the IT department. He is a structured, planned, and organized individual. He has been with the company since its inception three years ago and has more than 14 years of experience in the insurance industry. He is well aware of the work environment, leadership expectations, growth plans, and operational aspects of IT in an insurance company in addition to the regulatory and compliance requirements. Being an internal candidate, he knows all the challenges the department is currently facing and has a clear, well-laid out plan for the IT function if he were offered the CIO position. His communication skills are satisfactory, but he shows signs that he need to polish his capabilities in managing stakeholder demands and expectations.

Discussion Questions 

1. What are some of the technical and leadership skills that you feel should be assessed at the recruitment stage and why?

2. Which candidate do you think should be offered the position and why?

3. What impact would Candidate A have on the team if selected for the position? Please provide reasons.

4. What impact would Candidate B have on the team if selected for the position? Please provide reasons.