A Scientist vs. a Leader of Scientists

This multi-billion dollar crop input company was seeking to expand and restructure its R&D capabilities, and needed to find a truly unique individual to lead the way as a change agent. The client engaged Kincannon & Reed to conduct a high level, extremely targeted global search and provide competitive analysis on how R&D functions are structured in other organizations. Because of our Principals’ own professional backgrounds, we understood the real driver for the client: the need to distinguish between those candidates who were superior scientists and those who were superior leaders of scientists.

Led by firm Principals who had served in executive positions overseeing research organizations at crop input companies, our global research team identified major and minor competitors and mapped their organograms. Our Principals reached out to personally call the prospective candidates jointly agreed upon with the client. Thanks to our deep expertise and connections in this specialized area, we were able to meet the client’s needs by determining priority candidates and providing useful competitive intelligence on R&D organization structures.