Functions

Functions we work on

We specialized in the search and placement of managerial and executive candidates for roles that are strategic for the development of the company. We have extensive experience in the areas of Marketing, Communication and Sales, Human Resources, Commercial Operations, and all the digital counterparts in these areas.

Marketing

Communication

Sales

Business developer

Commercial Operations

Human Resources

FINANCE

digital

We have an in-depth knowledge of the marketing and communication areas. We work for the headquarters of major Italian groups and foreign multinational affiliates in fields ranging from FMCG to clothing to sporting goods, as well as luxury, telco, retail, media, entertainment, and communication agencies. For each of these fields we have conducted numerous searches in all of these fields, identifying the best experts and leaders in terms of experience, skills and attitude.

Our roots lie specifically in the Marketing and Communication departments of consumer companies where the brand is a crucial factor of success. For many years now, we have worked alongside companies and candidates in evolving these departments and developing their success.

How did the role of the CMO change?

Today, CMOs are increasingly being asked to play an advisory role within organizations, not only to contribute to the company’s strategy but also to prepare it for digital transformation.

The numerous changes in CMO posts over the last few years, particularly in the headquarters of consumer companies where the main strategic lines are mapped, seem to indicate the need to identify candidates with new skills, most of which are still rare today.

The complexity of the role is such that it becomes important to have an eclectic knowledge mix, but most of all what’s needed is an attitude, a mentality, a behavioral style that is both open to change and able to drive it. Obviously the type of industry in which a given marketing department operates demands different skills, but some are transversal, although of different weight.

The growing importance of data has given rise to new and sophisticated professions, and the ability to make data-driven decisions remains fundamental for marketing, especially as data becomes increasingly complex and abundant, yet there never seems to be never enough. Knowing how to quickly and correctly identify among the available data those that are useful for understanding consumers, future trends, and what guides the customer decision journey is crucial to the function. And it will become increasingly important to develop new ideas on how to use the available information to guide key decisions.

At the same time, it is essential to have the insight and courage to make decisions even in the absence of all the information necessary for a totally clear picture (i.e. dealing with ambiguity).

The speed required to make decisions and to deliver is constantly increasing. For this reason, some companies are experimenting with new ways of working, aimed on the one hand at improving creativity and problem-solving, and on the other at streamlining processes and increasing efficiency, all aspects in which marketing leaders are directly involved and are required to have a great ability to embrace change as well as to guide it.

The multichannel marketplace has increased complexity and it has thus become crucial to be able to communicate with consumers in a consistent way on all touch points and to keep communication continuously active and transparent. Companies and brands that fail to do so end up being “punished” and abandoned by consumers.

Communicating to customers the experience they can expect to have with their brand, and being inspiring through the transmission of values are other aspects that have transformed the way companies communicate in recent years.

As McKinsey demonstrated in a recent study, consumer companies that are able to continuously develop products and services are growing more than their competitors.

The biggest difficulties encountered seem to be not the creation of new ideas, but understanding which of them to bet on and how to implement them quickly. So, the ability to redesign the ways we work by identifying those that are most appropriate to the type of business and organizational model, then to guide the team to implement them is fundamental, as well as the ability to dialogue with the entire organization, and to inspire colleagues by working alongside other C-levels in driving change.

Among the skills indicated by the World Economic Forum on the Future of Work, it is interesting to note that Emotional Intelligence, defined as the ability to consciously recognize, use, understand and manage one’s own emotions and those of others, comes in at 6th place.

The report confirms that first place, of the ten priority skills in 2020, belongs to Complex Problem Solving. In second place is Critical Thinking, up from the 4th position in the 2015 report, which means the style of thought that, through analysis, stimulates innovative solutions. Creativity, which in 2015 was only in 10th place, rose to the top three main requirements of the work world of the near future. In 4th place is People Management, which lost one position compared to three years ago. In 5th place, Coordinating with Others, which dropped three positions.

These valuations have a particular resonance for us. In fact, when Calenti & Partners was founded 20 years ago, we understood from the outset the importance of considering candidates in their entirety, in their complexity as human beings with specific values, attitudes, and behavioral styles. And we understood how emotional intelligence and the soft skills associated with it are essential to the success of a candidate’s placement in a new company, along with finding the right match between the culture/behavioral style of the candidate and that of the client company.

That’s why we are partners of Six Seconds, the world’s largest emotional intelligence assessment and development network. Moreover, in such a rapidly changing world, the knowledge required of the candidate at the time of the search is no longer sufficient a few months after joining the company, thanks to the rapidity of organizational and market changes. For this reason, today, the most predictive criterion of success is the ability to continuously learn from experience in order to quickly acquire new skills. For us, potential means the ability to learn from experience (as the Center for Creative Leadership established many years ago), which is why we have introduced learning agility and emotional intelligence as key elements for assessment in the selection process.