Amid stories of poor financial results and restructuring, there is a call in the cannabis industry for an increased focus on execution and the need for experienced management. The profile of the cannabis business executive is changing. Many cannabis companies were started by young, inexperienced leaders, or by lawyers and bankers. These were smart and passionate people with the right resources to start cannabis companies, but not necessarily the profile of the business leader needed for maturity of the industry.
We’ve been hearing a lot about hiring executives from the CPG space. The industry is asking for experienced leaders from more mature industries and organizations. Why? Because it can shorten the learning curve - add people to the industry who have been through a similar growth cycle before, have foresight about where the pitfalls will be, and can make adjustments before they become mistakes.
As a cannabis recruiting firm, we watched as cannabis companies recruited executives from CPG, Alcohol Beverage, Tobacco, and Pharma over the past couple of years. However, in many cases the executive search was only focused on bringing in one or two key people - a CFO for example. This was a step in the right direction, but adding one CPG leader to a company was not going to solve executive dysfunction in cannabis. You didn’t have to look far to see that these hires were often motivated by the need to create news for a press release - a token hire to signal maturity where it didn’t really exist.
We predict that cannabis executive recruitment will increase in 2020, but not just at the executive level. Cannabis management recruiting is needed throughout organizations to affect real change. We will see C-Suite leaders added to bring proven leadership from similar industries. We will also see an increase in revenue-accountable leaders and growing sales teams. Seasoned leaders will be added to optimize production and operations. We will see more strategic supply chain professionals incorporated into the industry to ensure that product can make it out the door and into the hands of customers. Lastly, execution on brand promise will be a make-or-break, and we will continue to see an investment in leadership focused on executing on brands.
Here’s to 2020!
