Seagate as one of the world’s largest manufacturer of disc drives -- the technology inside every PC, laptop, and netbook in the world. The company both supplies and operates in a high-stakes market and global supply chain.
Seagate needed expert help to identify their first ever CTO. Its leaders had heard about the excellent work of The Executive Search Group (formerly Infonet) within Silicon Valley, and contacted CEO Tim McIntyre discuss the CTO role at their company.
Challenges
Seagate was growing rapidly and re-organizing the IT division. It needed an individual who could plan and build the strongest possible IT team and implement best practices.
McIntyre conducted face-to-face meetings, phone conversations and e-mails with senior executives and board members to understand Seagate's needs and company culture. He built and refined a list of requirements for all candidates, and discussed the ideal candidate profile with all the stakeholders.
"We quickly learned that, compared to other technology hardware manufacturing, building disc drives is like an extreme sport," said McIntyre. "Seagate's CTO would have to be not only an exceptional leader, but also competent in physics, tribology, aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, information theory, magnetics, process technology and numerous other disciplines."
Results
While The Executive Search Group did check existing databases, it did not stop there. "The sort of person Seagate needed was one in a million," said McIntyre. "In addition, the ideal candidate would almost certainly turn out to be someone employed, very well paid, and not looking for a new position."
McIntyre recruited and placed a former Sun Microsystems executive in charge of Information Technology infrastructure. The winning candidate led this effort with great success for them and reestablished credibility for the Information Technology practice, methodology and delivery.