Executive Search

Picture this: you’re working as the Corporate EHS Director for Amazon. You’re leading a rapidly growing Global Real Estate EHS team, and each member is based in a different region. To make matters more challenging, you’re looking to establish a development strategy that enables a consistent approach to EHS across the function that also allows for local flexibility in each region.

The simple-yet-cleverly designed, iconic-yet-informal footwear that many people have been wearing for years has a big emphasis on comfort – it is a USP. 

In line with the battle against climate change, the comfort now runs deeper than merely how your feet feel when striding out in a pair of Crocs. The company want consumers to step out confidently in the knowledge that their chosen footwear brand is meeting – and even better exceeding – their environmental and social targets, by elevating its sustainability profile.

For this to happen, the company needed a passionate, multi-skilled individual to steer the brand towards a strengthened sustainability strategy.

Acre was therefore very privileged to be engaged by Crocs to support the extensive search for VP Sustainability of the brand. 

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Why Acre?

Acre was selected by Crocs due to our expertise in sustainability and track record of recruiting both apparel as well as manufacturing businesses across the USA.  

Our 18 years of experience in sustainability recruitment means we have already cultivated an expansive global network of exceptional sustainability leaders; a network of purpose-driven professionals.

Determined to create a positive, sustainable legacy for Acre, for our society, and our planet by supporting businesses who are ambitious to create change, it was a natural fit to work with Crocs on this search.

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​The Role & Remit Required

The globally recognised brand specifically required a highly driven individual with the expertise and confidence to develop and execute the company’s sustainability strategy to steer towards the goal of becoming net-zero carbon by 2030, across the business and supply chain. 

The level of bold ambition this VP Sustainability role would encompass to drive impact and change across the business became evident after initial briefings with senior leaders - including Crocs’ CEO, Andrew Rees.

It was understood that the successful candidate would report to Andrew in the near future, with a mandate to work closely with - and influence - senior executives across all key business functions. A key requirement when conducting the search was to be able to provide a diverse shortlist of well-qualified and experienced sustainability leaders, where inclusivity and belonging would be vital to success.

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​Why are Crocs Uniquely Positioned to Drive Change in the Fashion Sector?

Crocs have raised the sustainability bar to operate in a way that benefits its customers, the community and the people who work for the company, regardless of their job title because the cornerstone of success is engagement (with internal and external stakeholders), understanding how people feel and what they need, and ensuring inclusivity for all.

Crocs have focused energy on scrutinising climate and packaging efforts (selling shoes without shoe boxes is one way the company is reducing its negative impact), as well as paying attention to chemical, biodiversity, and social issues.

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​What Sustainability Strategy Would the VP Sustainability be Working on? 

By the end of 2021, Crocs announced they would become 100 per cent vegan by focusing on sustainable ingredients for the footwear. Crocs is using a new bio-based version of its Croslite™ material for a lower-emissions shoe (45 per cent of which is recycled).

The bio-based material update is created in partnership with Dow, a global materials science company, and Crocs is the first footwear brand to use new ECOLIBRIUM™ technology to reduce its carbon footprint. The technology turns waste, by-products and renewable bio-based feedstocks into the familiar shoe which may provide future recycling opportunities.

The results are the same for consumers, they will see a casual shoe that encompasses all the familiarity of the original Crocs, for the same price as before, but with a lower environmental impact. 

Crocs also ensure it gives back to the community through its internal giving program ‘Crocs Cares’ and currently donates shoes as part of its sustainability commitment thus avoiding waste and supporting those in need. It has donated shoes to healthcare workers who have put their lives on the line during the pandemic and has recently announced it will donate 30,000 pairs of Crocs to students and staff within the Boulder Valley School District in the wake of the Marshall wildfire earlier this year.

"Very receptive and understanding staff. Professional approach to work. They tailor the job match to your background in the short-to-long term."

Aygun Kazymova

Responsible Jewellery Council

The RJC is a whole-of-supply chain standards initiative for the jewellery supply chain, from mine to retail. It is unique in its participation of organisations at every step in the value chain, each bringing a commitment to a responsible supply chain and implementation of responsible business practices.

Acre were selected to conduct the search for two roles, an Assurance Manager and a Certification Manager. Our mission was to support the organisation through a significant change in structure and delivery, responding to increased pressure and legislation through jewellery supply chains, from mine to retail.​

After a careful consultation period, we responded quickly, with focused shortlists, giving an overview of the market with a range of experience.

This resulted in a quick process, and two senior placements, one from responsible sourcing within a retailer exposed to significant high-risk supply chains, the other from a well-known consultancy responsible for the certification and assurance of audit data throughout relevant sectors.

By understanding the organisation thoroughly, we were able to support not just the technical elements of the role, but the important qualities around culture, long-term vision and motivations to reflect the internal changes within the client.

​If you don’t often find yourself immersed in the professional development space, you may not be overly familiar with the concept of a growth mindset. So, you might be wondering, what exactly is this?

Think: Someone who is not only open to new ideas and concepts but actively makes decisions and achieves outcomes based on them.

Enter: Dave Dite, QHSE Director at CBRE.

Dave is no stranger to the idea of a growth mindset. Having worked with him here at Acre for the better part of the last 8 years, we’ve seen him continue to raise the bar for himself and those around him when it comes to abandoning ‘the way we’ve always done things’ and opting for new ways of achieving the desired outcomes.

When he was tasked with building a team at CBRE, the UK leader in commercial property, he recognised that the traditional professional development programmes that had historically been delivered within CBRE were a little dated, and he wanted something more innovative.

Then, by coincidence, Dave had two separate interactions in quick succession with the Acre Frameworks team and these showed him that he’d found what he’d been looking for - engaging content and delivery, focusing on impact and change in purpose-driven roles.

As we all know, in business, the bigger and more complex an organisation is, the more difficult it can be to get key stakeholders to engage. Over the following months, Dave strove to get the right people onto his team. He decided to take more ownership of that process and used Frameworks initially as a programme for his team which worked incredibly well.

The process began with everyone in the team undergoing our ‘Discovery’ process. This involves the completion of our market-leading non-technical skills assessment, followed by a 1-1 feedback session with an Acre Frameworks development coach to discuss the findings of the report; a process that Dave found fascinating.

After his original team had completed Discovery, Dave spent the afternoon with a couple of the Frameworks coaches going through all the results and they then mapped the results to gauge how the whole team worked together. “What really startled me was a couple of things - firstly, when you mapped the data together, it formed quite a nice picture. In other words, it said to me that the team is actually quite strong as a group because their strengths and weaknesses seem to counterbalance each other.”

"The second thing I found really interesting was that I could recognise quite a few members of my team from their Discovery results - so essentially, I could look it on the screen, and say ‘That's Person A. And that's Person B’ - but not for every single one of them. I’d probably say I recognised 60 per cent. But strangely enough, the one person that I didn't recognise from Discovery was myself.”

Dave then started a journey into his own personal development with Frameworks, which he says uncovered some fascinating high-level things about himself. Prior to his coaching, he states that he used to put on an avatar to come to work. i.e. get ready to leave the house, find his keys, grab his wallet, walk out the front door. At that point, he assumed the character of Dave the QHSSE lead. “That was why I didn't recognise myself on the Discovery map - and that is what the coaches at Frameworks and myself have been working on for the past couple of years. At that point, I felt able to throw the avatar in the bin and it was like a breath of fresh air.”

Dave has moved around quite a bit within CBRE since the avatar was discarded. Not only is he personally happy, but he is also professionally fulfilled which not many people can genuinely say. It’s been a great process for him to be part of but it has been hard work, and has kept Dave on his toe for five years.

Dave has built a team over the past couple of years that complement each other, who meet regularly, and whom he believes are now confident in their own skin. However, none of that would have been possible without the group working together as a team, and that is a direct result of them being part of the Frameworks product.

“Ultimately, it's been a fantastic journey.”

At Acre Frameworks we are passionate about facilitating the non-technical growth of purpose-driven professionals within the realms of health, safety and sustainability - we know that each journey is unique but equally as rewarding to the teams that embrace the process. 

Most people know a high-performing team when they see one and broadly speaking, it is one which shares a vision, end-goal and a collective ambition to achieve great things. The way in which a team navigates this journey has a number of different facets – for example, it might be the collective development of a growth mindset, empowering opinion and thought diversity through a sense of psychological safety, or embracing each other’s differences through trust and vulnerability.

The EHS team at Siemens, under the leadership of director Louise Harry, has been a great working example of this process. Siemens is a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport and healthcare. Crucially, the company places an unrelenting focus on empowering its people to make key decisions to create the greatest impact possible with a multitude of stakeholders, in often high-pressure situations.

The Siemens EHS team began their journey with the Acre Frameworks ‘Discovery’ programme. Using our unique psychometric tool, we give each participant feedback on their personal preferences mapped against our own specific competency framework. This approach aims to inform the individual of their key areas of strength and growth to inspire their development journey.

The second stage of our Discovery programme is to bring teams together to explore individual preferences as a group, we call this part of the programme the ‘Team Data Review’. We encourage the exploration of thought diversity and how having similar and/or opposite preferences can really shape a team to become a high-performing unit.

For the third phase in our development programme, we start to work on new skill acquisition. We get the team together each month for a 90-minute team coaching session. We call these sessions ‘Learning Pods’. Each month we explore a different topic with the team while encouraging mixed opinions, debate and the practical application of these new skills, with relatable challenging tasks to complete during ‘the day job’.

“For us, the power has been in investing in the learning pods month-on-month with the team because they feel like they've all got to know each other. They all understand each other’s style…and for some of them it's been utterly transformational”. 

Louise Harry, 

EHS Director

Siemens

We understand that not everyone has an automatic willingness to change or to adopt new skills, as nobody is born with a growth mindset – it’s like a muscle you need to exercise. Acre works hard to make sure each individual understands their learning style and that new skills take time to polish and perfect. Each participant learns at their own pace within a supportive and psychologically safe space.

It is very typical within a team for some to have a strong growth mindset, and others to be more fixed or static. Initially, some members of the team were slightly resistant to the concept of exploring new ways of working, but once they understood the process and embraced it, they really blossomed within 12 months. Now, we are collectively moving to the next stage of the process where we look at impact and influence.

At Acre, we are passionate about facilitating the non-technical growth of purpose-driven professionals within the realms of health, safety and sustainability - we know that each journey is unique but equally as rewarding to the teams that embrace the process.