CASE STUDY
Identifying & Engaging Leadership Talent in the Nordics
Client
A Global Energy Leader
Sector
Sales
Scope
Building a succession pipeline of commercial leaders from the external market in Nordic countries, focusing on candidates with P&L management experience, to fill Director level roles.
Location
The Nordic region, covering Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.
The Challenge
A leading global energy company partnered with Parkhouse Bell to design and deliver a succession pipeline of senior sales leadership talent across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.
The project’s primary goal was to to identify and engage top-tier sales leaders at Grade 9 and 10 (Director/Senior Manager level), with a specific focus on enhancing our client’s succession pipeline for Vice President-level, and above, sales leaders. The individuals we identified needed to be regionally based and already demonstrating the capabilities required to assume significant commercial leadership responsibilities.
Our research focused on experienced sales professionals with a proven track record in shaping and delivering go-to-market strategies across transactional, systems, services, and software business lines. In addition to strong commercial acumen, we prioritised candidates who exhibited progressive leadership qualities, particularly inclusivity, collaboration, and success in complex, matrixed environments. We also sought individuals with deep stakeholder engagement, including C-suite interaction, and a demonstrated ability to lead transformational change and build high-performing teams.
Parkhouse Bell delivered a comprehensive succession planning research campaign, providing detailed insights into the Nordic sales leadership landscape.
Our Solution
Parkhouse Bell targeted international organisations with a strong presence in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Our focus was on companies undergoing a strategic shift-from product-led to solution-led models, particularly those transitioning from hardware-centric operations to software-led business models, with a growing share of revenue from Software as a Service (SaaS).
In the first phase of the project, Parkhouse Bell mapped over 200 senior profiles across the Nordic region with direct P&L leadership experience. This provided a clear picture of the available talent and revealed how narrow the pool was, prompting a shift in focus towards leadership attributes, growth potential, and long-term fit.
Following initial interviews the brief evolved further, removing P&L ownership as a core requirement and instead prioritising leadership potential, energy, and curiosity.
Parkhouse Bell adapted the search strategy accordingly, redefining the brief to focus on emerging leaders with progressive, ambitious career trajectories and a clear appetite for growth. This phase also explored adjacent industries and non-traditional competitors to uncover untapped pools of high-potential talent.
The result was a more diverse and compelling shortlist, featuring candidates from a wider range of backgrounds, each with strong leadership attributes and readiness to step into future-facing
commercial roles. Several progressed to interviews, providing a refreshed and strategically aligned leadership pipeline.
The Outcome
Parkhouse Bell partnered with with our client to conduct proactive talent research focused on succession planning at the grade 9 and 10 level—targeting individuals with 10 to 20 years of career experience across the Nordic region.
Our initial research revealed that the original criteria defined too narrow a talent pool, with limited alignment to our client’s evolving leadership needs. In response, we worked closely to refine the brief, broadening the focus to identify high-potential individuals earlier in their careers, with the required levels of curiosity, capability and ambition.
This strategic shift enabled further mapping and deeper insight, resulting in a significantly larger and more dynamic candidate pool. The final pipeline featured diverse, engaged talent with strong leadership attributes and a clear appetite for growth, ideal for our client’s succession planning process.
CASE STUDY
Identifying & Engaging Leadership Talent in the Nordics
Client
A Global Energy Leader
Sector
Sales
Scope
Building a succession pipeline of commercial leaders from the external market in Nordic countries, focusing on candidates with P&L management experience, to fill Director level roles.
Location
The Nordic region, covering Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.
The Challenge
A leading global energy company partnered with Parkhouse Bell to design and deliver a succession pipeline of senior sales leadership talent across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.
The project’s primary goal was to to identify and engage top-tier sales leaders at Grade 9 and 10 (Director/Senior Manager level), with a specific focus on enhancing our client’s succession pipeline for Vice President-level, and above, sales leaders. The individuals we identified needed to be regionally based and already demonstrating the capabilities required to assume significant commercial leadership responsibilities.
Our research focused on experienced sales professionals with a proven track record in shaping and delivering go-to-market strategies across transactional, systems, services, and software business lines. In addition to strong commercial acumen, we prioritised candidates who exhibited progressive leadership qualities, particularly inclusivity, collaboration, and success in complex, matrixed environments. We also sought individuals with deep stakeholder engagement, including C-suite interaction, and a demonstrated ability to lead transformational change and build high-performing teams.
Parkhouse Bell delivered a comprehensive succession planning research campaign, providing detailed insights into the Nordic sales leadership landscape.
Our Solution
Parkhouse Bell targeted international organisations with a strong presence in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Our focus was on companies undergoing a strategic shift-from product-led to solution-led models, particularly those transitioning from hardware-centric operations to software-led business models, with a growing share of revenue from Software as a Service (SaaS).
In the first phase of the project, Parkhouse Bell mapped over 200 senior profiles across the Nordic region with direct P&L leadership experience. This provided a clear picture of the available talent and revealed how narrow the pool was, prompting a shift in focus towards leadership attributes, growth potential, and long-term fit.
Following initial interviews the brief evolved further, removing P&L ownership as a core requirement and instead prioritising leadership potential, energy, and curiosity.
Parkhouse Bell adapted the search strategy accordingly, redefining the brief to focus on emerging leaders with progressive, ambitious career trajectories and a clear appetite for growth. This phase also explored adjacent industries and non-traditional competitors to uncover untapped pools of high-potential talent.
The result was a more diverse and compelling shortlist, featuring candidates from a wider range of backgrounds, each with strong leadership attributes and readiness to step into future-facing
commercial roles. Several progressed to interviews, providing a refreshed and strategically aligned leadership pipeline.
The Outcome
Parkhouse Bell partnered with with our client to conduct proactive talent research focused on succession planning at the grade 9 and 10 level—targeting individuals with 10 to 20 years of career experience across the Nordic region.
Our initial research revealed that the original criteria defined too narrow a talent pool, with limited alignment to our client’s evolving leadership needs. In response, we worked closely to refine the brief, broadening the focus to identify high-potential individuals earlier in their careers, with the required levels of curiosity, capability and ambition.
This strategic shift enabled further mapping and deeper insight, resulting in a significantly larger and more dynamic candidate pool. The final pipeline featured diverse, engaged talent with strong leadership attributes and a clear appetite for growth, ideal for our client’s succession planning process.
