Before you appoint, extend or back a leader, get an answer from someone with nothing riding on it. Six weeks. One fixed fee, agreed in writing before work begins.
The method is the same either way. What changes is the clock.
A founder who may not be the one to take it further. A CEO whose results have stalled. A sale ahead that changes the job. A board split on who should lead. A new CEO building the team around them.
An investment that rests on one person, or a team that arrives with the asset. The same method on your deal calendar, with findings sent as they land.
Nobody here is acting in bad faith. Each party is doing its job. None of those jobs is to tell you whether this is the right leader for what comes next.
Five voices in the room, and none of them is paid to tell you whether this is the right leader. Consensus is not confirmation.
Fortune 500 boards can hire a major consulting firm to pressure-test a decision like this. Many mid-market investors, family offices and boards rely on people with a stake in it.
of PE firms report replacing a portfolio company CEO during the hold
of PE executives say unplanned CEO turnover lengthens the hold
of first-year pay: a commonly used fee for a retained CEO search
One fixed fee, agreed in writing before work begins.
Often a fraction of what a search costs, and it can start before one.
Sources: AlixPartners PE Leadership Survey, 2026 (n=427); search fee norms.
The criteria are set with you before anyone is scored, so the answer cannot be reverse-engineered.
Board decks, management reports and the data room. Where does the company need to be in 12 to 18 months?
Weighted criteria for what the job requires, agreed with the board before anyone is scored.
Structured interviews, references we source, and company records, with the candidate’s notice and consent. Only decisions a candidate owned count as evidence.
Not a search, a personality test or a background check. Weekly check-ins with the board chair. The incumbent can be a candidate.
A voice is who told you. A root is where their view came from. Four voices growing off one root are one source, not four confirmations.
Here is what that looks like in a sample engagement: a board weighing an internal candidate who arrived with eleven glowing references. When we traced each reference back to where it came from, this is what we found.
One reference that came through the candidate’s side
One reference we found ourselves
11 references → 5 separate sources
Six of the eleven glowing accounts traced back to one person: the founder sponsoring this candidate.
Counted honestly, the candidate who sounded strongest had the thinnest evidence. That changed the recommendation.
A representative sample. The company and candidates are fictional.
If the answer is yes, you back your leader with evidence, not hope. The recommendation is ours. The decision is yours.
The dark panel is the summary from the sample engagement above. The other boxes show everything else the board receives.
Why. Leads the two most heavily weighted criteria, on decisions the candidate owned.
Risk to manage. Culture transition: a 90-day founder handoff and a plan to retain the internal candidate.
Where privilege matters, we can be engaged through your counsel. We don’t give legal advice. Public companies are scoped separately and run eight to ten weeks.
Independence is only worth something if it costs something. These are terms in every engagement letter.
No equity, debt or economic interest in any company we evaluate, and none taken afterward.
No further work discussed with anyone until findings are delivered.
Framing and emphasis are yours to direct. What the evidence says is not.
The full set of commitments, including our standing exclusion list, is provided in writing before scope. We turn down search, requests to confirm a decision already made, and diligence that cannot change the decision.
Six weeks fits inside a typical close or board cycle. Wait longer, and the decision gets made by default.
Want to try the first step yourself? The free Source Map counts the separate sources behind your view of a leader, and the one-page tests are free with our newsletter.
