For companies valued at one billion that are looking to hire senior executives, the biggest pitfall is insisting on bringing that specific target candidate on board at all costs.

A founder client once told me a very interesting sentence: "If you hire him, you will end up looking like a fool the day he leaves you; but if you cooperate with him, you will be his brother."

I think this statement is extremely vivid and situational.

Last week, I met several founders in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta one after another. Most of their enterprises have reached an annual revenue of over 1 billion RMB, and they are all leading players in their respective niche sectors.

But today, they have to hold their ground in the domestic market while expanding overseas. When we talked through all topics, all problems boiled down to one single point: no suitable people. It's not that there are no employees at all, but that there are no people who can take full charge of their own areas and lead the whole battle to victory on behalf of the founder.

Many cities in the Yangtze River Delta are facing the same problem: high-caliber talents are constantly siphoned off by Shanghai and Hangzhou. Business owners in Suzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo and Wuxi run enterprises of considerable scale with solid business performance, but they still find themselves in an awkward position when competing for top-tier talents. The Pearl River Delta seems to be full of young people with great drive, but restricted by factors such as the single industrial format in the past and the lack of experience among young people, top-tier outstanding talents are still extremely hard to find.

After all, top talents are definitely forged in top-level campaigns. The rarest quality for a top talent is having experienced the complexity of major campaigns, mastered the rhythm of leading a winning battle, and being able to deliver sustainable growth even after securing a victory.

I often say that companies with an annual revenue of around 1 billion RMB are at one of the most awkward stages for Chinese private enterprises. People may think they are not short of money, as they do have a certain amount of capital; but if you say they are wealthy, they are actually far from being a match for the truly scarce top talents. Why would a person who has already fought in a 5-billion-RMB company give up his existing platform and go through the whole journey from 1 billion to 5 billion RMB with you again? This is common sense, and it is also human nature.

Therefore, the biggest pitfall for 1-billion-RMB companies when recruiting senior executives is probably not that they cannot find candidates, but that they insist on hiring such a person as a full-time employee, and most likely they will end up recruiting someone unqualified, because the truly suitable candidates are extremely scarce.

A founder client once told me a very interesting sentence: "When it comes to talents, if you hire him, you will end up looking like a fool the day he leaves you; but if you act as his client and cooperate with him, you will be his brother no matter what."

Hahaha, the words are crude but the logic makes perfect sense. For the very same person, why do you two easily end up resenting each other after you pay him a salary?

Because once an employment relationship is established, the boss will naturally think: I have paid you so much money, so you should be able to solve all problems.

Senior executives will also think: You promised me all good things before I joined, but after I came in I found the team is incompetent, no resources are available, and I am not granted any authorization.

Eventually the task fails, the boss thinks the senior executive is a fraud, and the senior executive thinks the boss is an idiot.

But cooperation is different. From the very beginning of cooperation, everything should be made clear: what exactly is the problem you need to solve? What part of the task is he responsible for delivering? What resources will you provide? How long will it take? How will the results be evaluated?

The relationship has clear boundaries, the problem has a clear definition, and the result has clear standards. In this way, it is easier for both sides to respect each other, and it is easier to get things done.

So what founders really need to figure out is never "whether I lack a senior executive", but: what exact problem do I have that no one can solve right now?

Many problems do not require you to recruit a full-time senior executive in the first place. You should first define the problem clearly: is it an overseas expansion problem, a growth problem, a product problem, or an organizational problem? What capabilities are needed to solve it? Does this capability require the person to be present in the company every day, or is it enough for him to show up once a week and make judgments at key nodes?

Then you need to meet enough people who have such capabilities. People who are all labeled as "growth experts" can be very different: some are good at To B, some are good at To C; some are good at building a business from 0 to 1, while others can only drive growth from 1 to 10; some can make strategic judgments, while others have real hands-on execution capabilities. If you do not meet a sufficient number of candidates, you will never know what kind of person is useful to you.

Finally, you need to wait for the right timing. The truly outstanding person may not be available exactly when you are most anxious. You cannot stop your business and wait just because the most desired candidate cannot join you for the time being.

A better approach is: first find a person who can really solve the problem, and bring him on board in the form of a mentor, consultant or project partner. Push the current work forward first, and get to know this person clearly through real cooperation.

He may become your senior executive in the future, or he may always remain as an external partner. But as long as the problem is solved and the required capability is introduced into the company, this relationship is valuable.

You should not decide who to hire first and then assign the problem to him; you should first find the person who can solve the problem, and then decide what kind of cooperative relationship you two will adopt.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Zhang Meiji", author: Zhang Meiji, published with authorization from 36Kr.