Play the game

Sarasota-based search firm executive Charlie Fridley spent a considerable amount of time on a recent assignment, to track down someone with a specific set of mergers and acquisitions skills.

Fridley and his team found the candidate in Dallas and told him about the opportunity, which would include a move to Sarasota, where the client was based. But the find was only the beginning of an arduous process littered with obstacles. A onetime manufacturing and consumer products executive who founded his firm, The Beneva Group, in 1999, Fridley says this case signifies a significant point in the hiring process: There's nothing to celebrate until the candidate actually becomes an employee and starts working.

The first obstacle was to prove to the candidate, with a large firm in Texas, that the work in Sarasota would both be intellectually challenging and financially rewarding. “My role isn't to talk someone into a job,” says Fridley, “but to figure out if you are a good match, and then talk about your objections.”

There were plenty of objections. A big one was to come to an agreement between the client and the candidate on salary and bonuses. The candidate would be trading a higher salary in return for a significantly larger bonus opportunity, so there was a risk-reward factor. That led to more than a dozen phone calls from Fridley to the candidate and Fridley back to the client. “There was a huge amount of negotiations,” says Fridley. “I had to bring a reasonable take to the process.”

The sides eventually came to a salary agreement, but Fridley's work wasn't done. The candidate has three daughters, including one in a gifted educational program, so The Beneva Group team researched top area schools. The Pine View School, a nationally recognized school for gifted students in Sarasota, fit that request. The Beneva Group also researched how many Indian restaurants there are in the area for the client, a native of India. Fridley, finally, connected the candidate with a local Realtor.

“It was difficult to do that one,” says Fridley, “and get all those people together.”

- Mark Gordon