Talent Mapping & Market Intelligence – International

Project

One of the world’s leading global professional services firms and a Fortune 500 company was seeking to explore the international talent market, specifically across APAC, to make two business critical senior MD level appointments in Singapore and China. The company’s growing digital services arm offer a range of digital technology strategies and solutions to clients such as e-commerce and customer content services. Universe were engaged by the Global Head of Digital Services and APAC Head of Talent as the business wanted insight into the market in these regions from a competitor and people perspective and had previously encountered challenges sourcing suitably qualified talent at MD level in these regions.

The company wanted to scan the APAC region, focusing on Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia, but Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan and Philippines were also scanned to uncover the best technical leaders in Asia for the MD appointments based in Singapore and China. The client wanted visibility and up-to-date information on all major players locally and globally in digital services.

The project brief also included identifying and profiling all senior leaders in the Asia Pacific region for the business-critical senior appointments to their Singapore and China locations. Our objective was to provide in-depth market intelligence and data analytics to support the successful appointment of two senior leaders, both responsible for Digital Delivery in the APAC region.

Solution

Working to a tight brief and with a finite pool of suitable prospective technical leaders in the market, our experienced research team mapped out all of the companies in the region, capturing data including company size, service offering, clients, business type and locations. The market data, analytics and insights provided for each competitor in the region was critical to support and reinforce their final decision-making.

Using a range of expert research techniques, our team identified highly technical senior leadership talent across APAC within direct competitors and large technology companies who were aligned to the brief for these key appointments. Our established networks and our in-house research team helped identify and verify all relevant prospects across APAC including anyone with significant ties to the region but who were now outside APAC.

The final report included tailored market insights and data insights represented graphically for each country which clearly showed the key competitors in each region and the composition of relevant prospective talent for the MD level roles, by gender, company, location and company type, accompanied by market insights, observations and trends for each country. An exhaustive talent map included a detailed report on the top profiles, including career history, photo, qualifications, contact details, summary of skills, checkbox of criteria matching the brief and commentary around suitability for each role.

Outcome

The APAC Head of Talent and Global Head of Digital Services were impressed with the insight provided on each specific country of interest in APAC and used the data to build strong networks with senior leaders in the region. The business reached out to the top prospects and appointing an MD – Digital Delivery to their Singapore and China offices, which had been a challenge for the company previously. The extended talent map was later used to also appoint a Director to the Digital Services business in Singapore.