Leadership

A requirements profile is a hypothesis about the future.

Many requirements profiles describe the predecessor: what did they bring, what was missing, what should be better this time? That is understandable and legitimate. The more productive question, however, looks ahead.

Rear-view mirror and windscreen

When a position becomes vacant, a comparison with the previous incumbent is the obvious starting point. You know their strengths; you have experienced their gaps. A profile built on this is precise, but it looks backwards. It describes the role as it was, not as it will be.

In companies undergoing change, this is a trap. New markets, new technologies, a new ownership structure: the person who would have fitted yesterday is not necessarily the one who will be needed tomorrow.

A requirements profile is not a record of the past. It is a hypothesis about the future.

Three questions for a robust profile

Before we begin a search, we clarify three questions with our clients:

• Where is the company heading over the next few years, and what part does this position play in that?
• Which decisions will the new person have to make that nobody makes today?
• What must they be able to do that the company currently lacks?

The answers often shift the priorities considerably. “Ten years of industry experience”, for example, becomes “experience of building up sales in a new market”. That is a different search, with different candidates.

Testing the hypothesis in the market

A hypothesis has to prove itself. Our research shows early on whether people with the profile described exist, where they work and what might persuade them to move. Sometimes the market confirms the profile; sometimes we refine it together. Both are valuable, because they prevent a search for someone who does not exist in that form.

What this means for selection

Searching with an eye to the future also changes how candidates are assessed. Certificates and qualifications remain important, but they speak of the past. Motivation, the ability to learn and a visible will to drive a task forward are just as telling. At Hannover Messe 2026, the plant manager of the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg described exactly this weighting as the key to his success.

In our candidate audit with 114 criteria, we therefore assess not only what someone has achieved so far, but also how they approach new tasks. That is how a good hypothesis becomes a good appointment.