Recruiting a CEO for Kenya - Preliminaries

(This post was to appear 3 years ago!)

The election time in Kenya is fast approaching. The date is set for 4th March 2013 and the presidential race has attracted a number of candidates - I dare not try to count them all.

In my working career, I have had the privilege of being involved in recruitment exercises. I will borrow a few of the lessons I have learnt through these experiences in my analysis and decision-making as pertains to the Presidential Elections in Kenya.

Before starting the exercise, a few principles that I hold firmly when it comes to recruitment:

1. I put a lot of weight on the references especially when they come from former employers. However, I would rather get the references in an informal setting rather than the formal recommendation letter that the candidate presents. I have had to cancel a job offer to a hitherto qualified candidate on getting some informal but factual reference to his character at a former employer. The recommendation letter on the other hand is to be held with little regard. I can bet my few remaining hairs that a majority of the recommendation letters are drafted by the candidate and then signed off by their favourite managerial staff at their former employer. If however the former employer is of unbecoming character, and the candidate is endorsed by that employer, I safely invoke the "birds of a feather flock together" ideology.
2. I believe in conducting a thorough short-listing process and only subjecting 3-4 candidates for the interviews. The rest of the applicants are dropped off at the preliminary stages. If the preliminary stages cannot reduce the applicants to 3-4, then it cannot have been thorough enough.
3. I prefer having the cut-off criteria decided before the interviews begin. Anyone who does not make it to the cut-off mark after the interviews drops off from the race. It is not uncommon then that none of the short-listed candidates makes it through to an offer. I am OK with that and I have no qualms in starting the recruitment exercise all over again if none make it through.
4. Candidates who present clumsy applications or display any clumsiness in the application and interview processes are just living their true character and will most likely be even more clumsy if offered the job. Such candidates are shunned at the earliest.
5. I believe in evidence-based interviews. Do not just tell me what you can do, show me what you have done in the past in similar (not necessarily the same) circumstances and I can extrapolate and judge how you would perform in the new job should you get it.

So these are the 5 principles I hold firmly and exercise whenever I am involved in recruiting.

I would want to imagine that Kenya at the moment is my company/business and I put in my money to fund the ventures of this company. I am now in the process of recruiting a CEO for this great company to run my affairs for the next 5 years with a possible extension for further 5 years. The incumbent is set to leave and although he has done some exemplary things and brought in some growth and achievements, he has still left quite a bit to be desired. I am now looking for a leader that will take this great organization to the next level.

The advertisement for the position has been out in the public for a while now and has attracted quite a number of applicants. The ones whose applications I have acknowledged receiving are (in alphabetical order):

1. Charity Ngilu
2. Eugene Wamalwa
3. James Ole Kiyiapi
4. Kalonzo Musyoka
5. Martha Karua
6. Musalia Mudavadi
7. Mutava Musyimi
8. Peter Kenneth
9. Raila Odinga
10. Raphael Tuju
11. Uhuru Kenyatta
12. William Ruto

I know this is not the full list, but it represents those whose applications I have received and acknowledged. There might still be some who are yet to table their applications, but I have a feeling that such will be time-barred.

Next will be the short-listing exercise...coming soon.