HighFive helped the client find the right Ed Tech General Manager for Asia in under eight weeks.
General Manager (GM) for Asia
CLIENT
B2C Ed Tech enterprise with 500+ employees and $200M+ in ARR. This growing company was looking for an executive to drive their expansion into the Asian market.
CHALLENGE
The right individual would need a broad skill set including fluency in both English and Mandarin, proven B2C business development experience, and a nuanced understanding of the education movement in Asia (a knowledge domain that extends far beyond sales to include public policy across many varied geographies). The right individual for this broad role would be taking on responsibilities in localization, customer success, and overall P&L for this regional expansion.
Our client initially engaged an executive search firm based in Asia to manage the search, making the rational assumption that specialized geographic expertise was needed. Five months later, they were left with a sparse slate of irrelevant candidates. And the need for a leader to oversee this expansion was more urgent than ever.
SOLUTION
This client had successfully partnered with HighFive on past recruiting efforts in the United States. They brought on our team to reboot the search process and find the right candidate to oversee this urgent growth initiative.
We scaled up custom research for the search immediately, with a focus on sourcing from US, European, and Asian Ed Tech companies that had posted strong growth in the Asian market.
RESULT
Conducting screening interviews at any hour necessary to support the time difference with many candidates currently working in Asia, HighFive helped the client find the right GM leader in under eight weeks.
HighFive employs client-specific market outreach to find the right candidates for urgent operational needs—even those that require a search for a “unicorn” candidate on the other side of the planet.
