The Challenge
Mortenson Construction, a privately-held, $5.1 billion-dollar global general contractor headquartered in Golden Valley, MN, was in major growth mode within their Sports and Entertainment division when its executive leadership team set out to design a new capability for its customer base by bringing low-voltage digital technology design and build capabilities in-house, a service that no other major general contractor has offered commercial customers before. The General Manager of this new business unit needed a senior level go-to resource for all low-voltage integration work across the nation with Mortenson’s premier clients, from discovery to design to build. This leader would help continue developing this new service offering and drive the end-to-end customer journey supporting all LV technology within new large scale construction projects. They would also be tasked with building a team at Mortenson over the long-term to support this offering, not only in their Sports and Entertainment division, but also across Hospitality, Healthcare, Retail, and other vertical practice areas. Aside from hiring the most impactful leader possible, two of the most critical challenges facing Mortenson’s hiring team were the fact that this role was entirely new to the firm and the role was not fully defined when they engaged with our firm. We had the opportunity to ideate and brainstorm together in partnership, landing on well-aligned expectations for this new, innovative leadership role.
Our Approach
Our principals spent several months with Mortenson’s General Manager of Digital Integration, General Manager of Sports and Entertainment, and Senior Director of Operations to better understand the business unit, customer base, unique value proposition, goals of bringing digital capabilities in-house, and ultimately, the new role that the Digital Integration Design Phase Leader would play in this company-wide service transformation. Once we aligned on expectations and role requirements, we then spent six full days devoted to research and sourcing, building a targeted prospect chart of specialized leaders with knowledge across all low-voltage platforms, and an understanding of commercial clientele in the Twin Cities. Our ideal target prospect was one who could navigate ambiguity and set out to build a new offering in a space that needed innovation. It was imperative that we identified a leader who was knowledgeable across all low-voltage systems from a technical perspective and capable of building rapport and credibility with commercial clientele in this category.
The Results
After four weeks of exhaustive outreach and messaging, engaging with over 200 targeted prospects, which included a strategic, targeted footprint expansion effort to cast a wider net and capture more diversity in the candidate pool that was lacking in the local market, we then met with the executive leadership team at Mortenson to formally present a shortlist of nine thoroughly assessed, highly knowledgeable commercial low-voltage technology leaders. All candidates were selected to move forward to first round interviews with the General Manager and interview team, and subsequently, four were selected to return for final meetings with the entire executive leadership team across all functions within the Sports and Entertainment division. Challenged by the decision to pick between two incredibly impressive finalists, the leadership team attempted to find a spot for them both within the organization. With the existing open role as priority, they made an offer to one of the finalists who was ecstatic to accept, subsequently joining the Mortenson organization as the new Digital Integration Design Phase Leader.