Building a new business division from concept

How the engagement arose.

A diversified European group identified an under-served synergy between its real-estate and insurance operations, but lacked the leadership profile — and the conceptual blueprint — to build a stand-alone operating division around it. KiTalent was retained to translate the strategic intuition into a defined search, then deliver against it.

What made the search structurally hard.

The mandate started without the inputs most senior searches assume as given. The first weeks of work were as much about defining the role as filling it.

• No established blueprint or business model to guide the leadership profile.
• Undefined role requirements beyond general entrepreneurial ability.
• Limited internal expertise in the target sectors at the start of the engagement.
• Pressure to identify market opportunities quickly to maintain competitive advantage.
• A leader who could both develop strategy and execute its implementation.

How the engagement resolved it.

KiTalent ran a four-phase engagement that combined market intelligence and leadership search in a single workflow, rather than treating them as sequential disciplines.

1. 01.

   Comprehensive market research

   Eight adjacent sectors were mapped: property-management services, real-estate fintech platforms, home security and automation, utility management, home-appliance insurance, smart-building technologies, condominium-management software, and community service platforms.

2. 02.

   Expert knowledge gathering

   Targeted conversations with sector operators surfaced emerging trends, common business-model traps, key success factors, and a short list of potential acquisition targets that could accelerate market entry.

3. 03.

   Leadership profile development

   The role specification was built from the market evidence: entrepreneurial experience in adjacent sectors, demonstrated success launching new business units, cross-functional reach across operations and business development, and change-management capability for the integration that would follow.

4. 04.

   Targeted search execution

   Outreach focused on executives bridging property services and financial products, leaders with prior new-venture launches, and entrepreneurial profiles combining strategic vision with operational execution.

Operational results, not narrative ones.

• The initial concept was translated into a defined business model with clear revenue streams.
• An internal technician network was built for claims handling, reducing operational costs by 42% versus outsourced alternatives.
• The acquisition of a regional condominium-management franchise delivered immediate market access.
• Insurance offerings were integrated across the acquired network, opening cross-selling opportunities.
• The home-services division generated €5.2M in revenue within 18 months.
• Profitability was reached 14 months ahead of the initial plan.

Operating lessons, not platitudes.

• For new ventures, the leadership search and the business design cannot be separate workflows — they have to inform each other in real time.
• Adjacent-sector mapping is search work, not consulting work: candidates and operators are often the same people.
• When the role does not yet exist, scope discipline at the outreach stage prevents the search from drifting into a recruiter's preferred profile.