Executive search manufacturing trends in 2023
As we near the end of 2023, it is evident that companies are now looking for leaders who are not only capable of driving growth but also have the skills to navigate the changing business landscape.
We’re in the digital age and the increasing demand for executives skilled in digital transformation is evident in all business sectors – especially in manufacturing. Leaders in this sector now need to be adaptable, innovative and able to predict and respond to the evolving market.
Partnering with leading organisations in the automotive, packaging, industrial, and food and beverage markets across Europe, USA and Asia, the InX manufacturing team are deeply immersed in the industry and continuously keep their fingers on the pulse to understand the latest trends and how that will impact their network of C-Level executives.
This month, the team sat down to discuss the trends they have seen this year and what they expect will continue as we head into 2024.
Reiss Gregory, Head of Global Manufacturing Division, InX
“One trend we have seen a substantial increase in 2023 is the shift in manufacturing leaders looking to the future with their hires and reinforcing a longer-term vision in their hiring approach.
The nature of the ever-changing industrial world, whether it be through turnaround, M&A or new product developments within organisations, has always given businesses within the industry a reason to stay aligned to current shifts in the world. However, this can sometimes result in making hires of a more ‘reactive’ nature.
Now that a lot of the dust and turmoil of the Covid period has settled, we have seen a big increase in clients and leaders looking to hire executives that can not only future proof their business and work towards something longer term, but we have also seen the development plans and career paths of the new employees being thought through well in advance of the hire and onboarding.
During a chaotic or uncertain period, we often see an increase in businesses needing to hire people to fix an immediate problem, or sometimes even fill a position that is vacant and becoming an issue for the business. This can sometimes overshadow the fact that the person coming in has ambitions of their own beyond the current issues in business, so it is very refreshing to now see organisations thinking ahead with what's next for their hires and how they can create a career path, and not just a job for their leaders.
This is something we have aimed to advise and provide effective solutions on more and more throughout 2023. The last three years has seen an unnatural number of leaders and executives out of work unexpectedly, and very natural response to this is that candidates should rightfully be more sceptical about their next move.
I spoke with a very impactful executive talent leader recently from Pepsi (Mauricio Pordomingo – CHRO & VP Talent) on his thoughts around thinking ahead whilst planning for the future. This discussion ties well to both candidates and their job searches; but also to what we see as a good approach to building foundations within an internal hiring process to make sure hires are made in a win/win way for both candidate and organisation.
It is always good to assess how prepared you are for the next bonus payout, loss of employee, retirement, succession and what could be done in the current time to prevent it being a problem when or if the day comes to avoid internal panic and rushed candidate interview experiences.”
Connor Foyne, Principal Consultant, InX
“I have seen a large influx in demand for strong engineering profiles, due to the drive for innovation and digitalisation which has come from an increasingly competitive market post-Covid, especially within the automotive and electronics fields.
I have also noticed a strong drive on optimising cost efficiency, which has led to a huge demand in both strong operations executives and supply chain executives.
On the operations side, it seems to be highly focused on business and process optimisations through operational excellence deployment and deep footprint analysis, and on the supply chain side, S&OP expertise is in high demand as there is a key drive for enhanced demand, capacity and production planning as well as deeper market trend analysis to really synergise production with market movements.
This is massively important currently as the manufacturing world has become much more unpredictable from a trend's perspective thus deeper analysis and enhancements are required from an operations and supply chain capacity.”
Ellis Trickett, Global Partner, InX
“If we’re talking about trends specifically within the automotive sector, I would say majority of the executives I have spoken to this year have discussed the continued rise of electric vehicles and AI-powered autonomous driving.
AI is a big topic in all markets and one all executives are watching. They want to be armed with as much information so they can try to make the best decisions for their businesses. So if you’re aspiring executive in the manufacturing sector, or a current executive looking to keep up with the market, make sure you keep learning. AI was just a buzz word for many years but now it is very real and here to stay.
However, when talking about recruitment / executive search trends within the manufacturing sector, I have noticed this year a vast increase in the number of senior marketing positions. There are many reasons for this, but two worth highlighting are:
Due to this current wave of uncertainty and market volatility, businesses are looking to be a lot more strategic to stay competitive. While marketing for a long time was considered a ‘nice to have’, it is now a crucial senior position within manufacturing. Staying on top of technologies, growing the brand and analysing market data, it’s a role not for the faint hearted, but a very welcome position on more and more boards.
As companies within manufacturing continue to transform their product offerings into different areas and technologies, they are looking for senior leaders outside of their sector. The idea of switching industries was an unlikely choice for many executives before, however the new market dynamics is now making this thought more reasonable. We are seeing the manufacturing sector looking for those senior professionals they don’t know yet and more and more external candidates are wanting to take that strategic career move.
I believe these trends will continue throughout 2024 and I am excited to see the sector grow.”
Sam Sheppard, Delivery Consultant, InX
“When I first joined the team to build out on our junior leadership to director arm of our corporate desk, my first initiative was to focus my attention to speaking to as many site level leaders and business partners up to regional directors across manufacturing industries within the US & EMEA, in order to learn what was critical for talent in this space.
There have been some significant changes in dynamic based on both region and sub-industry that have been interesting to watch unfold over the last two years. One in particular has been the candidates’ interest to explore different product lines within the overall industrial space due to changes and activities in their current area.
If we look at the automotive and electronics space, which was heavily impacted during the Covid period due to things like the semiconductor shortage, and pausing of manufacturing procedures, there was a direct correlation of professionals in these fields looking to explore new options for stability and safety of their jobs. This has lifted in the last few years, however recently the increased discussion around automotive union strikes has created a new level of workload that is less attractive to certain individuals, also recreating uncertainty.
Comparing this to industries like packaging and food and beverage, which generally speaking had an increase in productivity during the covid period, an attraction to these markets has been higher than usual. This has been an equally comparative trend across the business partner, management and director functions.
Another interesting trend and shift in environmental interest we have seen, which was almost completely unheard of during the ‘coming out of Covid’ period, was an interest to move to start-ups or start-up-esque environments. A consistent in the interest of up and coming professionals is almost always the long term stability and the growth on offer when moving roles.
Two years ago when the direction of business’ and bounce back from Covid was unforeseeable, leaders from global corporations were less inclined to take into consideration the risk/reward ratio on offer when going to a business area still in development or start-up phase. However now with there being a lot more clarity on future, we are seeing directors from large corporations becoming interested in taking their skillsets and showing ambition to put them into practice in a startup as an opportunity to take on wider ownership roles as opposed to the sometimes safer bet of growing steadily through a corporate.
Both of these options are equally a great career path; however it is good to see leaders on the come up in their career with an entrepreneurial spirit now getting the opportunity to apply this in environments that allows them to thrive.”
Whether you’re looking to strengthen your leadership or you’re a senior manufacturing professional looking to make a real difference for an organisation, get in touch with our manufacturing team to find out how we can help you.