The Flawed Playbook of Executive Hiring in Buy-and-Build

Summary

• The Problem: Many senior executive hiring in buy-and-build, in fast-scaling, acquisition-driven companies fail within six to nine months. Traditional hiring processes—relying on interviews, resumes, and past experience—often fail to predict whether an executive can thrive in a high-growth, high-uncertainty environment.
• The Idea: Instead of committing to full-time executive hires upfront, companies should test leadership through execution by engaging senior candidates in project-based or interim roles. This allows businesses to filter out those who struggle in rapid-scaling settings and identify leaders who can truly drive transformation.
• The Solution: Before offering a permanent executive role, companies should assign senior candidates a real, high-impact operational challenge—such as integrating a newly acquired company or turning around a struggling business unit. Only those who successfully execute in these conditions should be offered full-time leadership positions.

The Flawed Playbook of Executive Hiring

It’s a familiar scenario: A company in acquisition mode needs senior leadership to steer its rapid expansion. After an exhaustive search, they bring in a seasoned executive—someone with an impressive track record, industry credibility, and the right pedigree.

Within months, however, it becomes clear that something isn’t working.

The executive is struggling to adapt. Decision-making is slow, execution is lagging, and instead of accelerating the company’s growth, they’re getting stuck in tactical issues. The organization, meanwhile, is losing valuable time.

By month six, the leadership team is quietly acknowledging that the hire was a mistake. By month nine, they’re already planning the replacement.

And just like that, the cycle starts all over again.

The issue isn’t the quality of talent—it’s the hiring process itself.

Traditional hiring assumes that past success in one company translates to future success in another. It favors stability over adaptability, polished interviews over real-world execution, and credentials over demonstrated impact.

But in buy-and-build strategies, these assumptions break down.

Companies in acquisition mode don’t need executives who are skilled at managing steady-state operations. They need leaders who can navigate uncertainty, execute at speed, and transform complex business environments on the fly.

The traditional hiring playbook simply wasn’t designed for this kind of environment.

A Smarter Approach: Test Before You Commit

If the old playbook isn’t working, what’s the alternative?

The answer is simple: Reverse the hiring process.

Instead of committing to a full-time executive hire upfront, companies should first test leadership through execution.

Before extending a permanent offer, bring the executive in on a project-based or interim role that focuses on a high-stakes transformation challenge inside the company.

This isn’t about hiring consultants or placing candidates in temporary advisory roles. It’s about giving them real operational responsibility, under real conditions, with real consequences.

• A COO candidate doesn’t just outline operational efficiencies—they take charge of integrating a newly acquired company and stabilizing it within six months.
• A CRO candidate doesn’t just present a sales strategy—they take ownership of a struggling region and deliver measurable revenue growth.
• A Head of M&A Integration doesn’t just create a playbook—they lead an actual post-merger integration, aligning teams and driving synergies.

At the end of this period, there’s no guesswork.

Either the executive delivers results, or they don’t. Either they align with the company’s culture and pace, or they don’t.

And if they do? Only then should they be considered for a full-time leadership role.

Why This Works (And Why Smart CEOs Are Already Doing It)

This isn’t theory. It’s a hiring model that some of the fastest-scaling buy-and-build companies are already using.

A private equity-backed firm that had experienced a 50% failure rate in executive hires within 9–12 months restructured its hiring approach to a “prove it first” model. Instead of hiring outright, they embedded senior candidates into transformation projects first. Since implementing this approach, their executive failure rate has dropped significantly.

Another CEO, who had previously spent nine months searching for a Chief Revenue Officer—only to fire them within a year, now refuses to hire executives without first seeing them execute in real-world conditions. His company’s growth has accelerated, and leadership turnover has nearly disappeared.

The reason this approach works is simple: great executives aren’t defined by their resumes. They’re defined by their ability to execute inside real business challenges.

If they can do that, their results will speak for themselves.

Rethinking How Leadership is Hired

For years, companies have operated under the belief that executive hiring is about making the best long-term choice upfront.

But in buy-and-build strategies, that approach is expensive.

Fast-scaling companies don’t have the time or margin for error that traditional hiring assumes. They need executives who can step in and drive transformation immediately, not six months from now.

The companies that recognize this are shifting their hiring approach. They no longer rely solely on referrals, polished interviews, or past credentials. Instead, they hire based on real-world execution inside their own business environments.

And that shift is leading to better hires, stronger leadership teams, and faster growth.

For companies that don’t make this change, the pattern will continue.

Six months from now, they’ll be back in the same place—replacing yet another executive who wasn’t the right fit.

So before making your next senior hire, ask yourself:

Are you hoping they’ll succeed?

Or are you giving them the chance to prove it?

Because in buy-and-build strategies, hope isn’t a hiring strategy. And the cost of getting it wrong is far too high.

Leadership as the Foundation of Organizational Success

At the core of this issue is leadership—not just at the executive level, but as an essential pillar of how organizations are structured and scaled. Leadership sits at the heart of Organizational Structure and Leadership, the "O" in the PROMISE framework—a methodology designed to create high-performance, scalable businesses.

Without the right leadership in place, companies pursuing aggressive growth through acquisitions will constantly struggle with misaligned teams, inefficient decision-making, and slow execution. But by rethinking the way executives are hired—by testing their ability to lead before committing long-term—companies can strengthen their organizational foundation and position themselves for sustained, scalable success.

The original blog was published on the Fifth Chrome webpage.

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