A story over that emeregd that you may – or may not have noticed…….
The backdrop to the story was that on November 18th the English Football Premier League proudly announced the appointment of a new chief exec Susanna Dinnage.
The news was emblazoned across their website. Various other media channels communicated this very high profile appointment. Susanna said she was “excited at the prospect of taking on this fantastic role” describing it as the “pinnacle of professional sport”.
Susanna was expected to lead the organization in its quest to continue the growth of the brand globally. The premiership TV rights attracts over 4 billion viewers beyond these shores – so no exaggeration in the importance of the job itself. According to The Guardian Newspaper Susanna was lined up to be “the most powerful woman in sport”.
Susanna however changed her mind over Xmas deciding that she was staying put at The Discovery Channel.
So back to the drawing board ……. for the Premier League to appoint a Chief Exec. This is of course by no means an isolated incident, recruiters find the right candidate – “things happen”, and candidates accept an offer and then change their mind for good reasons – and sometimes not.
Until the candidate starts, we can never be sure it is going to happen.
Whilst we must do everything to mitigate the chance of a candidate not doing a u turn everyone involved must bear in mind that it could happen – managing expectations is key.
Let’s hope that the recruiter involved with the Premier League had a backup plan for their client.
I have been working in recruitment for 17 years at various levels; during this time I have worked for large global recruitment firms as well as niche, high-end operations. The core of my experience…
