Business Context
We define the outcome behind the title—what must change, grow, improve or become possible because this person is hired.
Ken Edwards
Executive Search &
Leadership Advisor.
Helping Textile & Apparel Companies Hire Leaders Who Last
President, Precision Placements · Founder, TextileJobs.com · Author, Staying Power
Before Executive Search
I learned hiring by living with the results.
My perspective on executive search was shaped before I became a recruiter.
After graduating from NC State University, I began my career in the textile industry as an Industrial Engineer and later moved through Production Management, Plant Management and Vice President of Operations responsibilities.
Those jobs made hiring tangible. The wrong person did not simply create a recruiting problem. The consequences showed up in production, customer relationships, employee confidence, quality, cost and ultimately the performance of the business.
That experience still shapes how I approach a search today. A job description matters. But the more important question is: what does the business actually need this person to accomplish?
What Clients Get
Direct involvement from the person whose name is on the search.
I personally manage the search process and vet candidates before they are presented. The value is not simply access to names. It is the judgment applied to the assignment.
Industry Perspective
Decades in textiles and apparel provide context for competitors, product categories, customers, operating realities and the executives who know the market.
Candidate Judgment
Experience is evidence, not the whole answer. We look at results, motivation, adaptability, leadership style, integrity and the environment in which someone has succeeded.
Candid Advice
A good search partner should be willing to challenge the specification, compensation assumptions or candidate profile when the market tells us something important.
Why “Leadership Advisor”
The search often begins before the candidate list.
Many of the most important conversations happen before a candidate is ever contacted: What should this role really own? What kind of person can succeed with this leadership team? Which experience is essential and which is simply familiar? What compensation will the market require? How should the interview process test what actually matters?
That is why I describe my work as Executive Search & Leadership Advisory. The objective is not to fill a requisition. It is to improve the quality of the leadership decision.
That advisory role is especially important in senior sales, operational and executive assignments, where the consequences of getting the hire right—or wrong—extend well beyond the individual position.
See our Engaged, Retained & Contingency search optionsExperience Behind the Search
Manufacturing leadership. Entrepreneurship. More than three decades of executive search.
Industrial Engineering
Learning to understand work, systems, productivity and the relationship between people and performance.
Operations Leadership
Progression through Production Manager, Plant Manager and Vice President of Operations roles in textile manufacturing.
Precision Placements
Founded in 1994 to combine first-hand industry knowledge with a more professional, relationship-driven approach to recruiting.
TextileJobs.com
Online since 1995, extending the firm's reach while building long-term relationships across the textile and apparel professional community.
A Relationship Business
Technology helps us search. Relationships help us recruit.
Precision Placements has used technology aggressively from the beginning, including launching TextileJobs.com in 1995. Today that includes professional networks, research databases and artificial intelligence. But the most valuable candidates are often successful where they are and will not respond to a job posting.
The distinction
“The best candidate is frequently not looking for a job. Finding that person requires more than a database. It requires a reason for them to take the call.”Recognition & industry presence
A Direct Conversation
If the hire matters, start with the business problem.
Tell me what you are trying to accomplish, and I will tell you how I would approach the search.