“We don’t work with a lot of search firms because we work so hard at developing our own talent.

The culture is valued here beyond the person’s pedigree. Howard & O’Brien Associates takes the time to understand not just the Sherwin-Williams Culture but they dial it down to the operating division leadership level as well.

I don’t take a meeting with search firms.  I never see any value in that. And I trust my head of Human Resources to handle the selection of the outside search firm. The reason I meet with Howard O’Brien Associates is because they are trying to build the value of the whole candidate pool for the future not just for the immediate needs. They sponsor the program Conversation with the Board to provide exposure for not only the prospective board candidates but CEO’s and Chairman to build those connections.  They look at the long term relationships even knowing that we weren’t in a spot to give out search assignments (at that time).

I look at large search firms as having more of a factory mentality, more mechanical, there’s an opening they go to their database and plug the hole versus understanding the kinds of purposed this opening creates in the organization.  Where Howard & O’Brien Associates is different is understanding the importance of cultural fit and going the extra distance to insure this is a successful search for the long term-that the candidates should have a career with SW for years to come.

It was also a defensive move on SW’s part – we hired Howard & O’Brien Associates because we know the quality of work they did and we didn’t want them recruiting against us.

Since we were named one of the Top 100 Best Companies to work for, its’ a double edge blade – it’s great to recruit people into SW, but we know we are also a target firm to recruit our talent from.

Howard & O’Brien Associates delivers the executive who is “ready to roll” at Sherwin-Williams.