Executive search · Interim leadership · Government relations
Simple Machine finds and approaches the leaders who change what an organization can do, with the discretion their position demands.
Every organization reaches a moment when the next leader matters more than the next plan. A founder steps back. A firm opens in a new state. A board needs a steady hand for a year. Simple Machine finds the person for that moment, and approaches them with the care a serious career deserves.
Chief executives, presidents and the leaders around them, found and approached in confidence for organizations at a turning point.
An experienced leader in the seat within weeks, to steady an organization through a transition and hand it on in better shape.
Heads of government relations, association executives and senior lobbyists, where judgment and reputation are the whole of the role.
Founding partners and senior lobbyists for firms entering a new statehouse, with the standing and the book to lead from the first day.
Four standards every search holds itself to, anchored by the one that defines the firm.
Other firms send a senior partner to win the work and a junior team to do it. We don’t. The person who learns your organization, your board and what “right” means for this seat is the person who writes to every candidate, and the one you hear from the night before an offer goes out.
You see who we are speaking with and where each conversation stands. When a direction is not working, you hear it from us early, with what we would change.
Every approach is written for one person and held in confidence, so the people you most want to reach are willing to take the call.
In a state capital or a sector, the serious candidates are usually already known. We start the first conversations soon after the brief, not after a month of research.
We work on a small number of searches at a time, and the person who first writes to you is the person who runs the search.
We start with what the client is building, not a job description: the market, the people already in it, and what the right person would change.
Each person we approach hears from us directly, in a letter written for them, never a mass message. Most are not looking, and we do not assume they are.
Names are shared only when both sides want to go further. From there we stay in the room until terms are settled, and after.
What you tell us stays with the small group running the search, and goes no further without your say.
Our clients engage us. There is no cost to anyone we approach, at any stage.
We tell you where things stand, including when they stop.
For organizations considering a search or an interim appointment, and for anyone we have written to. A line is enough. Email keeps the first exchange between you and the person who will answer it.