Sherrington Associates successfully recruits Marketing Director for the Inprova Group leadership team.
Inprova Group
Inprova Group are a privately-owned, technology-enabled procurement services business who have demonstrated exceptional growth over the last decade both organically and through strategic acquisition. Located in Warrington, their 67 staff serve a variety of customers in both the public and the private sector, providing intelligent procurement solutions that reduce costs and increase bottom line as well as creating value by managing complex supply chain arrangements on their behalf.
Following strong and sustained growth after a history of M&A and private equity backing, in November 2022, Group Chief Executive Officer Steve Malone led another management buy-out, this time backed by investment house NVM Private Equity. This investment has given the business the opportunity to continue to drive organic growth, whilst simultaneously deploying their innovative technology and data solutions across the customer base, whilst also achieving further growth ambitions through exciting M&A activity in the near future.
Inprova Group retain their reputation as the UK’s market leader in outsourced procurement solutions for the private, public and social housing sectors. Today, they manage circa £450m of managed spend on behalf of clients with a specific focus on the UK social housing market.
Culture
Over many years, Inprova have developed a strong family-feel by providing a highly supportive management ethos. The workforce is collectively customer-focused and highly accountable (self-policing and not afraid to challenge each other). The team is innovative and agile, there is an open-door to leadership and the organisation operates in a way which is socially conscious and mission-led. Their growth can be attributed to a culture of innovation, agility, dedication and mutual support.
Inprova Group have developed a strong internal culture over many years of ‘doing the right thing’ by their staff and their customers. Knowing that every pound they save for their clients, is money that can go towards providing better accommodation and services for social housing tenants. This focus on social value and prioritising both people and profit, has become a common thread across the business. The success of the relationship between Sherrington Associates and Inprova Group over many years, and through several investment cycles, has been down to a deep understanding of their organisational purpose, shared values and a mutual appreciation for their commitment to social value.
Marketing Director
Against a strategy of leveraging their strongest assets to achieve growth, in late 2023, Inprova Group made a decision to sieze the opportunity to communicate their culture along with the value of embracing innovative technology and consultancy. To achieve this, the group sought a highly experienced and capable marketing leader to join their senior leadership team and lead the development and execution of a new marketing strategy, including a review and upgrade of the current brand architecture.
To recruit the best possible candidate for the role, Inprova needed a search partner who understand their unique culture and values and could accurately assess candidates against those attributes. Sherrington Associates were appointed as the retained executive search partner in the Winter of 2023.
The Search
Having previously worked with Inprova Group's CEO to deliver two highly successful executive searches (Finance Director - 2021, Head of Sales - 2016), we knew that developing a successful partnership to recruit the Marketing Director would be about asking the right questions to illicit the right insights about the brief and the ideal candidate during the briefing stage. Our Head Researcher and Lead Consultant spent time with the CEO and COO to develop a clear and accurate Recruitment Pack to demonstrate our understanding and showcase the opportunity to potential candidates.
Desk research covered a range of sectors, majoring on professional services and tech businesses where their approach to B2B marketing was innovative and creative, and their organisational ethos was clearly communicated in a consistent manner across all marketing channels. Our researcher spent time analysing the marketing content of all target organisations to gain a sense of professionalism before making targeted approaches to selected candidates. Over several weeks a series of discreet and confidential approaches engaged the interest of a number of highly experienced marketing leaders. After meeting the client to discuss the longlist, our team carried out behavioural assessments and competency interviews, supported by data gained from Personal Values Assessments using Barrett Values Centre. This helped gain a strong sense of which candidates were most likely to fit with Inprova Group's leadership culture.
After completing our interviews, a final shortlist was presented to the client. Sherrington then supported the client's selection process by facilitating all interviews and delivering constructive feedback to all parties. After a thorough and comprehensive search and selection process, a successful appointment was made and the new Marketing Director joined Inprova Group in April 2024 after working their notice.
Commenting on the search campaign, CEO of Inprova Group, Steve Malone said...
Recruitment is by far one of the most influential elements of business success, especially during significant growth. Making sure the leaders we recruit fit culturally, but also raise the bar and create value is critical, therefore it is crucial to appoint the right search partner. The Sherrington team understand our business, values and expectations. This has built a long term relationship that has led to us recruiting a number of key senior roles within the organisation and created a relationship based on trust and confidence in their people and process. To support our growth we recently wanted to bring on a new Marketing Director and we had very specific needs for the role. The Sherrington team understood the brief and provided a wide range of talent for us to engage with. The process was managed with the high standards that we would expect and the result has been fantastic.
Steve Malone - CEO, Inprova Group
