I have a client that was looking to the outside for their first non-family member for their C-Suite.
I had a small part of the process during the interview process; it was interesting seeing the process from my viewpoint.
I challenged the applicants on their require compensation and they demurred that they were secure and looking for the right opportunity. Yes, bullshit. When it came down to it they wanted bags of money and equity, even though they were told it was not an option.
It kind of reminded me of the old days were large businesses would hire a CEO to turn the place around and they wanted bags and bags of money and huge amount of exercisable stock options. The CEO then fires half the staff pushes product out the door at alarming rates to pump up the sales and stock price short term, only to have it tumble when there are records amounts of returns. Check out “Chainsaw” Al Dunlop and Sunbeam for a great example of this. He missed his exit window and is caused havoc on the company, I believe he actually killed it as an individual company; it is now a subsidiary.
The right fit is incredibly important for the C-Suite to begin with and even more so for a smaller company. So use caution in whom you hire.