Lengow

Background

Founded in 2009, Lengow had successfully built a strong business and good reputation across France but had little international traction.

They wanted to build a German business but with a lack of brand awareness in the region, no local infrastructure or resource, an understanding on where to locate the Germany office and no immediate talent pool, they recognised they could not do this effectively without the support of an experienced talent acquisition partner.

Solution

Alto was brought in to deliver a DACH Market Entry and Multi-Hire Project using our Momentum service.

The initial objective was to secure the strategic hire of a new Country Manager, this was achieved two months from project start. Whilst resourcing this key placement, the additional cross-functional hires were profiled, identified, engaged and hired creating a complete DACH business unit.

The process for securing the correct talent for each role included:

• A rigorous salary benchmarking exercise
• Talent mapping to assist with office location and talent pool identification
• A robust Hiring Plan
• Successful brand promotion and profile raising

Forensic search methodologies coupled with resilience enabled Alto to be successful in a competitive German ecommerce talent landscape – delivering a complete business unit for Lengow across the DACH region, all based in Germany (with German language skills).

Engaging on a Multi-Hire agreement, the Alto team initially helped us with a ‘salary benchmarking’ and ‘talent mapping’ exercise to understand the challenges of market entry in Germany.

Considering the talent pressures across DACH, Alto were instrumental in helping us hire and onboard a Country Manager and subsequent multi-disciplined team across the region, leading to the opening of a Munich office.

Alto were structured, professional and transparent throughout the project. Our international expansion objectives have benefited greatly following our relationship with Alto.”

Gautier Briendo
Chief Human Resources Officer

Outcome

Alto delivered a complete regional team for Lengow across DACH which included Sales, Marketing, Customer Success and Solution Consulting – all based in Germany (with German language skills).

Lengow’s first-year results, following the start of the project, delivered a significant uplift with year-on-year results.

The new multi-disciplined team and local presence positively influenced client perception with a fully functional legal entity in the DACH region – giving confidence through the in region delivery of all customer needs.

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