Strategic Relationships – Westport International

In the world of manufacturing, companies often have preferred providers, those vendors that they have strong relationships with and depend on, day in and day out to supply materials. They have trust in one another, they have ridden through the ups and downs of the business cycle together. They have strategically aligned themselves to one another. In the world of talent acquisition, why should it be any different?

Our organization is not just about filling job searches, it is about building strategic relationships with our clients. Our firm was founded on strategic relationships with a handful of core clients. From there, the voice of the customer has resulted in the expansion of our service offerings. For example, we have ongoing dedicated recruiting projects at both the mid-level and retained executive search levels that have existed for five plus years.

These relationships are successful because we have taken the time to understand our clients – their business, their markets, their culture and their operating principles. With a depth of knowledge like that, finding the right talent for your business becomes less challenging. With our partnership, we have a much greater understanding of who you are, how you operate and the type of talent you are looking for.

So what exactly does a strategic partnership look like?

You focus every decision on what is the right thing to do, you ignore the ‘noise’
An ability to communicate freely and honestly with each other – even over the tough stuff
A commitment to each other – we don’t recruit candidates from our clients, we offer the best talent to you first
An immediate alignment of priorities
An understanding of each other values and principles

Additionally, we have provided referrals on executives for free, recommended companies that have become acquisition deals, provided market intel and introductions resulting in new large business orders, advised internal talent teams on where the talent is and even helped clients build out their internal talent teams.

Simply put, we view ourselves as an extension of our clients. What adds value for them eventually adds value to us. We don’t view our clients as just a revenue stream, we view them as a strategic partner and that makes our relationships very rewarding – for both us and our clients.