Horton International’s Consultant of the Month features one of our global consultants to find out more about them, their expertise and what they bring to the group.
This month we’re delighted to introduce Matt Grose, Partner of Horton International Thailand, who joined Horton earlier this year. Matt has 25 years’ experience, covering an array of Human Resources and organizational transformation achievements – Read Matt’s full bio here.
Matt, you recently joined Horton International Thailand, tell us a bit about yourself and what you were doing before joining the group.
I am a newbie to Executive Search but by no means unfamiliar with the industry, having worked with plenty of search people over the years as a client!
I left MSIG Insurance at the end of 2019 after 14 years as SVP leading the Human Resources and Customer Experience functions, and joined Horton earlier this year. Unsurprisingly, given my background, I am focusing on search and consultancy assignments in the Financial Services and HR spaces across the emerging markets of Southeast Asia. By choice, I am working out of Bangkok, Thailand, my home now for nearly 40 years.
What attracted you to Executive Search?
I developed quite firm ideas about my expectations of search firms as a client. In the early days, their core competency was mainly built around their candidate network. As technology and the internet began to enable companies to seek out and approach talent directly, clients started to ask what else search firms could bring to the table. So rather than ask about the size of their research team or candidate database, I would instead grill them on their understanding of their particular industry speciality, whether they had their finger on market and competitor activity, and check whether they could show an awareness of trends and newly emerging capability areas in the industry likely to impact on talent needs.
Can you tell us about a recent client success?
Although the economic situation is still a long way from full recovery across the region, we are seeing senior hire activity pick up in the less COVID impacted industries, including Financial Services. A number of companies that I am close to are in, or have just completed, their 2021 budgets and talent acquisition is back on the table again for many of them. As a result, we are already picking up retained search assignments across industries and territories as companies try to stay ahead of the game and make their moves for top talent before their competitors do.
What can clients and candidates expect when they work with Horton International?
Our value proposition has to be substantively superior to that of our competitors. I aim to add value in some way through every dialogue I have, whether it is with a potential client or candidate. Leveraging both my HR and managerial experience and qualifications, a dialogue with a prospective client will be one about business goals, capability and sustainability, rather than recruitment per se. A dialogue with a potential candidate will be about aspirations, opportunities and advice on how to achieve them, irrespective of whether a move opportunity is immediately available.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
I still see myself essentially as an HR professional. I believe that the dual overarching goals of any HR leader should be to deliver on organizational objectives and at the same time help individuals and teams achieve their full self potential. If you are able to do both, HR is an incredibly rewarding profession to be in. I think this is a useful philosophy to apply in the way we engage with both clients and candidates in executive search.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone just starting out in the industry, what would it be?
Learn as much as you can about your clients’ businesses with each assignment, earn their trust and build a long – term sustainable partnership with them around this.
Ready to talk? Contact Matt here
