Private Clients

At Fenton & Co, we believe your career should be managed like a business.

With our Private Client Services, we create an environment for entrepreneurs, directors and senior professionals to make better career decisions, achieve their business objectives and, when in transition, to secure new roles and/or business ventures. We achieve this by helping them focus on raising their emotional intelligence to underpin career strategy; pro actively sourcing leads and opportunities; representing them in and to the market, and by facilitating successful outcomes that build authentic, exciting, fulfilling and financially rewarding futures.

We deliver our services through bespoke programmes over a fixed term of between four months and one year.

How We Work

For Directors and Senior Professionals seeking new roles, we speak with peers, bosses and direct reports to establish reputation. We work with clients to draft a Career Business Plan including a detailed marketing plan and collateral. We agree a long list of targets which we approach using "back channels" to secure high quality meetings. We manage relationships with head hunters to ensure progress, not just activity. We prepare our clients for interview and support them in negotiating packages and deals. We provide bespoke First, Next and Last 100 Days via Fenton Performance Support Programmes.

For those pursing Portfolio Careers, we work with clients to write a Portfolio Business Plan which meets their needs and we source consultancy, non-executive director and philanthropic opportunities.

For Entrepreneurs, we offer pre-commitment counsel; we help road-test business concepts before the business plan stage and help source funding and key people. We also offer a specific Earn-Out De-Risk Programme.

The Fenton Model™

The Fenton Model™ which Founder Ciarán Fenton developed over 10 years, treats senior executives as if they are micro businesses.

Our view is that particularly post-crash, organisations are but a coalition of these micro-businesses for a short period of three to five years. The Model views an individual as having Career Equity/Capital/Intellectual Property which is a function of three components: (1) their CV or curriculum vitae which is a list of skills and experience, (2) their EI, or emotional intelligence, which is about their ability to get their needs met, their empathy towards others and their self awareness, and (3) their PR or reputation, which is what the market is saying about them - usually accurately.

Private Client Services

Reputation Audit
  • We conduct telephone interviews with peers, bosses and direct reports including at least one "difficult" relationship.
  • We note their perception on strengths, weaknesses and potential.
  • We feedback the detail and, more importantly, the nuances of the audit.

Career Strategy
  • We help define where you are now and, especially, why.
  • We support a decision on where are you going, precisely.
  • We help figure out, in considerable detail, how you will get there.

Performance Business Plan
  • We draft your personal business plan using our Fenton Model™.
  • We establish what "A Asset" you are exploiting.
  • We research and agree with you who might need it.
  • We draft your Marketing Collateral: Biography & CV.

Lead & Opportunity Generation
  • We research in-depth an agreed target list.
  • Using "back channels" and networks, we approach the targets on your behalf.
  • We secure appropriate introductions and meetings.

Meeting/Interview Preparation
  • We use the Seven Interview Steps and other tools.
  • We focus strongly on market "Needs Analysis".
  • Our preparation emphasises demonstration of competence, rather than assertion.
  • For those who don’t know, we teach our clients how to "close".

Performance: First 100 Days, Next 100 Days, Last 100 Days
  • We help align personal objectives with those of the business.
  • We use the Relationship Grid and other tools.
  • We focus on "delivery" within a personal career strategy.

Head Hunter Relationship Management

Whilst our primary focus is on proactive approaches to targets via discrete networking, we also work with the search companies. In our experience, clients find the head hunter route can often lead to high activity and low progress. It can be a lottery. On the other hand, head hunters see us as part of the solution because we don't charge them any fees and because we are a source of good candidates. We manage reactive leads by requesting further information on the opportunity without revealing your name. Typically we secure several pieces of information or nuances around roles not obvious from the advertisement or job specification. We can then determine whether or not we counsel our clients to apply for the role. If we do so, we will brief the head hunter on our client and our client on the head hunter's comments thereby improving the quality of the cover letter which our clients submit. We recommend our clients only apply for roles to which they are suited and for which they have a chance of securing.

Process

The Reputation Audit, the Away Day, Business Plan and Marketing Collateral can usually be completed within 10 days. The rest of our engagement is spent pro-actively generating opportunities by approaching an agreed list of targets and by carefully managing any reactive leads from head-hunters or adverts, preparing clients for interview and taking feedback after each meeting from all parties thereby improving performance at the next interview.

Fees

Consultancy fixed fees are paid in advance against specific agreed deliverables within an agreed time frame.  Individuals or organisations pay or both contribute.