Built for the decisions that carry real weight.

The Thirdway executive search process runs across three phases. Pre-Season covers founder alignment, role clarity, risk mapping, and search strategy. This is the foundation work that most firms skip. Main Campaign is the active search: market mapping, direct outreach to passive candidates, deep leadership assessment, and a carefully constructed shortlist. Grand Final covers final decision support, offer management, onboarding alignment, and a six-month guarantee. Every phase is designed to reduce hiring risk and give you full confidence in the outcome. One partner runs the entire process from the first conversation through to the hire and beyond.

Pre-Season is the alignment phase that makes everything after it sharper. We work through founder expectations, business stage, and the leadership profile the role genuinely requires, beyond what a job description typically captures. We define what success looks like at twelve months, surface the risks most leadership hiring processes miss, and build the search strategy before a single approach is made. It typically runs over one to two weeks. Founders who have been through it consistently say it changes how clearly they see the hire. The best searches are won in the preparation, and Pre-Season is where that happens.

Market mapping in executive search is the process of building a comprehensive picture of the available talent pool before outreach begins. Rather than posting a role and waiting, we identify the strongest leaders in the target market, assess their relevance, and approach them directly and confidentially. This is particularly important at senior level, where the right candidates are rarely visible on job boards and are not actively looking. Market mapping gives you access to a far broader, stronger field than any advertisement could reach, and it means the shortlist is built from the full market, not just the visible part of it.

Passive candidate search is at the core of how executive recruitment works at this level. The strongest leaders are typically well-placed, well-regarded, and not browsing job boards. We reach them through direct, discreet, one-to-one outreach built on a thorough market map and a well-crafted opportunity proposition. The approach is personal and confidential. It works because it respects the candidate's position and gives them a genuine reason to consider the opportunity. This is fundamentally different from advertising, and it is why retained executive search consistently produces stronger shortlists than contingent or advertised approaches for mission-critical roles.

Risk reduction starts in Pre-Season, before we touch the market. We surface the hiring risks founders often miss: culture friction, misaligned expectations, succession gaps, and the difference between what a role says and what it actually requires. Through the Main Campaign, every candidate goes through a deep leadership assessment process that covers capability, commercial judgement, founder compatibility, and behavioural and psychometric evaluation. You only meet people we have full conviction about. Combined with onboarding alignment in the Grand Final phase and a six-month guarantee, the entire process is structured around one outcome: a hire that works long-term.

The executive recruitment process does not end at the offer letter. Grand Final includes structured onboarding alignment, where we work with both the founder and the incoming leader to set the conditions for a strong start. The first 90 days are where many leadership hires succeed or quietly begin to unravel, and we stay close through that period. We also back every placement with a six-month guarantee. If the hire does not work out within that window, we re-engage the search at no additional professional fee. Our accountability to the outcome does not stop when the contract is signed.

Yes. Pre-Season Advisory is available as a standalone engagement for founders who want to think through succession planning, role design, or internal leadership gaps before committing to a full search. It covers the same alignment and risk mapping work as the first phase of a full search, without the full search attached. For founders who are building toward a transition, planning for a senior departure, or simply want more clarity before going to market, it is often the smartest first step. That clarity typically saves significant time and cost when a live search eventually begins.