Vice President of Operations Strategy and Automation, France

As the Insurance industry continues to evolve and innovate, many of the major Insurance firms around the globe continue to focus on Operational Excellence through end to end process transformation and by utilizing automation and digitalization solutions to enhance the customer experience whilst improving margins and expense management. The COO of this leading firm had already partnered with Pacific to support their Lean Management roll out 3 years prior and now required us to support the mandate for a global Vice President to develop and lead the Automation and Innovation journey.

Having supported many clients within the Insurance sector, we were able to provide an advisory solution to the client on the job description creation and market data survey for the compensation leader in the business to correctly grade this newly created position prior to commencing our search. On commencing the search mandate, we targeted the strategy consulting firms who were market leading in the areas of Operations Strategy and Automation. Our networks into McKinsey & Co, Bain and BCG allowed us to present a highly qualified shortlist for the project within 4 weeks. The specificity of the position required us to search across the European market and we utilized our French, Spanish and German colleagues during the research process.

The project wasn’t without its ‘bumps in the road’…. The first individual who was selected and offered the position chose not to accept due to a conflict of interest and contractual restrictions. We fortunately were able to present two very strong alternative candidates (both Engagement Managers with McKinsey & Co). The chosen individual was offered the position in the final interview with the group CEO and we have since delivered on two further Global Automation Program Director retained search mandates to further assist the company’s transformation journey.