Consulting
Consulting leadership search in Japan.
We recruit Partners, Directors and Senior Managers for consulting firms in Japan, in cybersecurity, data and AI, digital transformation, and SAP and supply chain.
- 11 yrsHiroshi Torobu recruiting leaders in Japan
- 10 daysTo deliver a referral map, once you sign off the firm list
- 2003Murray Clarke in Japan executive search since
Practices
Where we recruit.
Four practice areas, at Senior Manager grade and above. Each firm names and organises these differently, and some run them as separate companies, so we map the practice that produces the profile rather than the firm as a whole.
01
Cybersecurity
Cyber strategy, risk and resilience, identity, and cloud and OT security. Partner, Director and Senior Manager hires, including practice leads for firms growing a cyber business in Japan.
- Cyber strategy
- Risk and resilience
- Identity
- OT security
02
Data and AI
AI strategy, data platforms and analytics, and the governance that comes with them. People who can win the work with a client and then lead the team that delivers it.
- AI strategy
- Data platforms
- Analytics
- AI governance
03
Digital transformation
Technology strategy, cloud transformation and operating model work, where the Partner owns the client relationship from the first proposal through to delivery.
- Technology strategy
- Cloud transformation
- Operating model
04
SAP and supply chain
S/4HANA programmes and supply chain and operations transformation, at Partner and Director grade only. Below that it is high-volume delivery hiring, which is not our work.
- S/4HANA
- Supply chain planning
- Operations transformation
Where to start
Three situations where we help.
A practice lead, the team that follows them, or a map before there is a requisition. Each one needs a different brief.
Situation one
A Partner to build or take over a practice
The hire has to bring clients, or a platform to grow them, and the people in Japan who can do that are few and known by name.
- How much of the client base will move is the first question
- Titles don't transfer between firms, so we check grade on scope
- Most candidates are not looking and won't answer a cold message
- Confidential replacements of a sitting leader are run unnamed
Situation two
The team under a new leader
A new Partner usually needs Directors and Senior Managers behind them within the first year. We map once and hire in sequence.
- One map covers the lead hire and the team
- The new Partner's former colleagues are often the first names
- Grade and pay are set against the firms people come from
Situation three
No requisition yet, and you want the map first
You are planning a practice build or a new offering and want to know who is out there before anyone is approached.
- A dated, named map of the practice across the firms you choose
- Your own Partners and Directors matched against it
- Delivered 10 business days after you sign off the firm list
Who runs your search
The consultant you meet runs the search.
Hiroshi Torobu leads the consulting practice and runs each search himself, from the map to the offer. Murray Clarke, Founding Partner and CEO, has oversight of every search we run.
Hiroshi Torobu
ヒロシ・トロブ
Consulting Partner
Technology consulting · Japan
Hiroshi has recruited in Japan for eleven years, on executive and senior appointments across consulting, technology and manufacturing. He has completed Partner appointments into a Big 4 consulting firm in Japan, Country Manager appointments for overseas firms setting up here, and senior specialist hires.
His consulting work sits mainly in the industry and sector practices and in technology consulting, where a hire has to carry a programme end to end and hold a client room in Japanese and English.
Before Aspiring Partners he was Executive Search Consultant and Manager at LHH Executive and International, and led consultant teams at PERSOL Career and JAC International.
Background
- LHH Executive and International
- Manager, executive consultant
- PERSOL Career
- Manager, principal consultant
- Languages
- Japanese and English
Murray Clarke
マレー・クラーク
Founding Partner, CEO
Executive search · Japan
Murray has been placing senior leaders in Japan since 2003. Country Managers, presidents and go-to-market VPs, for established technology companies and for startups opening here for the first time.
Along the way he helped build three search firms. The last was his own, and it was acquired by ManpowerGroup (NYSE:MAN) and folded into Experis Executive.
Between that exit and starting again in Tokyo, he spent the interim building software, because the tools sold to recruiters have barely changed in twenty years. Aspiring Partners is the result. One market, one focus, running on research tools they built themselves.
Background
- Experis Executive
- Founder and exit, acquired by ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN)
- RGF Executive Search
- Head of technology and digital
- VMware Japan
- Internal executive search
Referral mapping
A map of the market, with your own people on it.
Most people who can do these jobs are not applying, and many will not take a call from a recruiter they don't know. We map everyone at the grade first, then match your own Partners and Directors against that map by shared employers and overlapping dates. It goes well beyond a LinkedIn search, and you have it before anyone is contacted.
01 · The firm universe
Signed off by you first
The firms in scope and the ones we left out, with the reason for each. The ten-day clock starts on the day you sign it off.
02 · The market
Everyone at the grade, not only LinkedIn
Names from firm directories, published rosters, conference programmes, books and industry press as well as LinkedIn, searched in Japanese and English. On the last map built this way, 61 of 345 senior people had no LinkedIn profile we could find.
03 · Your people
Where your careers overlap with theirs
Your Partners, Managing Directors and Directors are mapped the same way, then matched on shared employers and dates on Referable, our referral tool. Your colleagues confirm which overlaps are real relationships.
See our technology →04 · Two routes in
Your introductions first, our approaches after
Your people take the names they can reach and we approach the rest. The map is a dated list, so both sides can see which names were on it and from when.
Client Brief Pages
One message to market, and you can see who read it.
Most roles go to market as a job description and a link to the careers site. A Client Brief Page covers the firm, the role and the opportunity in English and Japanese, and answers the questions candidates ask before a first interview.
On a search, every approach carries the same page, so candidates arrive at the first conversation already informed. Each unique view is tracked, so you can see who has read it.
- Candidates decide on the real story, not a forwarded JD.
- Common questions are answered before the interview, so first meetings go deeper.
- Tracked views show who has engaged with the role before the first call.
Candidate feedback
A sample of the feedback we receive from candidates. Names and identifying details are withheld to protect candidate confidentiality.
“It’s genuinely the best recruiter briefing I’ve ever received. It was thorough, well structured, and gave me a very clear picture of the opportunity.”
“I could understand the requirement perfectly thanks to your page. It was really helpful!”
“That was really interesting - a fresh approach. Most agents just send the JD, which is very basic.”
Search quality
Why consulting searches stall.
At Partner and Director grade the usual recruiting channels only see part of the market.
| Where searches lose people | What it should be |
|---|---|
| Waiting for applicants | Mapping the practice by nameSenior people in these practices are rarely on the market. They move when someone they trust brings them the right seat. |
| A LinkedIn search only | Public sources in Japanese and EnglishAbout one in five senior people on our last map had no LinkedIn profile we could find. Names in kanji and in romaji also turn up different people, so we search both. |
| Matching on title | Matching on scopeA Director at one firm can sit at the same level as an Associate Partner at another. We check the practice, the client book and the team, not the title. |
| A generalist recruiter | A consultant who has placed PartnersHiroshi has completed Partner appointments into a Big 4 consulting firm in Japan and works in Japanese and English. |
If you already know who you want and can reach them, you may not need a search. Most Partner briefs are not like that. For those we recommend starting with the map.
How it runs
How a consulting search runs.
A Partner search takes about three months end to end. Each stage produces something you can check, and disagree with, before the next one starts.
Briefing
A working session with the practice lead and your people team to agree the grade, the practices in scope, the pay band and what counts as evidence.Output: written criteria and the firm list, the same week
The map
The population mapped from public information, with your own people matched against it.Output: the dated map, 10 business days after you sign off the firm list
Approaches
Named or confidential, agreed at briefing. At this level your firm's name is usually why a strong person takes the call.Output: engaged candidates, and what the market says back about the brief
Conversations and scorecards
Structured conversations against the agreed criteria, with the evidence for each one recorded and sourced.Output: candidates as they clear, not held back to fill a shortlist
Offer and start
References, offer, resignation and counter-offer, and contact through to the first day.Output: an accepted offer and a start date
Terms
What it costs.
Search runs on the same terms as our executive search. Referral mapping is a fixed price, which we give you on a call once we know the practice and the firms in scope.
Search
Engaged search
30%
Of first-year OTE, with the engagement fee deductible from it
- Engagement fee
- On commencement
- Balance
- On placement
- Consultant
- Hiroshi Torobu
- Guarantee
- 120 days
Referral mapping
Fixed price
10 days
From the day you sign off the firm list
- Scope
- One practice, one firm universe
- Your people
- Partner, MD and Director
- Referral hires
- Flat fee per hire, no cap
- Our approaches
- Search fee
If someone we place leaves inside 120 days for reasons down to them, we run the replacement search at no further fee. On a map, first contact decides the route: where we made the first approach to a person, it is a search.
Next step
Book a call.
A short call with Hiroshi. Tell him the practice and grade you are hiring for, and he will tell you what the market in Japan will support.
Hiroshi runs every consulting search, with Murray Clarke, Founding Partner, overseeing it.