Notes on leadership in the Gulf.

Three considered names beat thirty filtered ones. The best shortlists are arguments, not catalogues. Here is what to ask for from any search firm you hire, and why the answer tells you most of what you need to know.

The cost of treating CEO and chair succession as something to handle when it arrives is almost always borne by the person who comes next. Boards that plan for succession while they are not in crisis have more options, not fewer.

The best regional appointments are made away from job boards. The people who could change the direction of your organisation are, by definition, not on the market. Reaching them requires a different kind of firm and a different kind of conversation.

Most reference conversations are not worth making. The format is too polished, the sample too selected, and the questions too easy to deflect. Here is what to change.