Has anyone had experience in hiring an external operator / GM right after acquiring a company? If so, would love to ask you a few questions:
-How do you source external GMs?
-How do you assess GMs fit?
-At what point do you bring the GM into the fold during the acquisition process?
Assume external because nobody internally can be brought up to a more senior position replace the seller. For the businesses we acquire, we are looking to spend our time working on the business rather than managing the day-to-day. I am budgeting that cost into my financials but would like to chat with folks that have gone through the hiring / sourcing process.
Experience in Hiring External Operators or GMs
by a searcher from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - College of Business
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For industry experience, I think whether it’s necessary depends on who will be training them and who will be reporting to them. The two external GM hires I did came from similar but not exact industries and had to learn a lot from the outgoing owner.