September 2026Ray Gong5 min read
Why Some C-Suite Hires Struggle to Succeed
Executive hiring in APAC can look successful on paper and still lead to a difficult transition. A senior professional may join with strong sector experience, a proven record of results, and the technical background the business needs, but performance can change when the environment around them changes.
Team capability, available resources, decision-making structures, senior sponsorship, and organisational maturity often shape previous success. When those conditions differ in a new role, even an experienced professional may need to adapt how they lead, prioritise, and make decisions.
This is something Ray Gong, Associate Vice President at DSJ Global in Singapore, sees through his work leading executive search across APAC and the UAE. Ray specialises in end-to-end supply chain, procurement, manufacturing, operations, engineering, and commercial leadership, working closely with employers and senior professionals across these areas.
For employers, the challenge is not simply finding someone who has succeeded before. The bigger question is how well that experience fits the problem, structure, and expectations of the organisation they are joining.
Look beyond the track record
Long tenure with a respected company can demonstrate experience and achievement, but it does not show the full context behind those results. A professional may have benefited from mature systems, strong executive backing, significant investment, or an experienced team that made certain outcomes easier to achieve.
During the hiring process, employers should explore how results were created rather than focusing only on the outcome. Ask which decisions the professional personally owned, what support was available, where resistance occurred, and how they would respond if those conditions were different in the new business.
Ray Gong, Associate Vice President, DSJ Global:
A strong track record tells us what a professional has achieved, but employers also need to understand the conditions behind those results. The real test is how well that experience transfers when the team, resources, decision-making structure, and expectations change.
Make sure the professional is solving the right problem
Senior professionals are often recruited because something needs to improve. The business may be dealing with rising costs, service issues, supplier risk, capacity constraints, or an underperforming operation, and there can be pressure for the new leader to show progress quickly.
The risk comes when someone recognises a familiar pattern and moves directly to a solution. A previous approach may have worked elsewhere but fail to address the real issue in the new organisation if the commercial model, customer expectations, or reasons behind past failures are different.
Ray’s market perspective highlights this as a business misread, where a professional applies a familiar playbook before fully understanding how the company makes money, where margin is being lost, or why earlier initiatives stalled. Employers can reduce this risk by giving the incoming leader access to financial performance, operational history, customer feedback, and previous plans before major decisions are made.
Similar experience can still be the wrong experience
Industry and functional experience matter, but they do not always mean a professional has handled the same type of business challenge. Leading growth is different from managing a turnaround, while building a new capability requires a different approach from repairing an established one.
Employers can make the assessment more precise by defining the outcome before starting the search. A request for a “supply chain transformation leader” could mean reducing supplier concentration, improving service levels, redesigning a network, increasing capacity, controlling costs, or strengthening operational discipline, and each of those situations calls for different experience.
Be clear about the operating model
Two professionals can hold the same title while working in very different environments. A regional supply chain leader in one company may control a large team, significant budget, established systems, and broad decision-making authority, while the same title elsewhere may sit within a leaner structure with stronger global oversight.
An operating-model mismatch can occur when the professional expects authority, infrastructure, or support that is not available in the new business. Employers should explain reporting lines, budgets, team capability, technology, data quality, and decision rights during the search so the professional understands what they are stepping into.
Replace “culture fit” with more useful questions
Culture fit can be too broad to add much value during executive hiring. A better approach is to look at how the organisation actually operates, including how quickly decisions are made, how disagreement is handled, how much authority sits with headquarters, and how clearly responsibilities are defined.
Decision speed, governance, conflict norms, communication style, and senior stakeholder influence can all affect how easily a new leader gains support and gets decisions made. Employers should also avoid treating familiarity as fit, because a business hiring for change may need someone prepared to challenge established thinking rather than mirror it.
Early confidence can change quickly
Executive objectives may be set across six or 12 months, but internal confidence in a new appointment can start forming much sooner. Early stakeholder interactions, the quality of the professional’s diagnosis, and the priorities they establish can all shape how the wider business views the hire.
A useful early contribution may be to identify the root cause of a recurring issue, prevent a costly decision, clarify ownership, or create a realistic sequence of priorities for the first 90 days. Employers should therefore look at the quality of early judgment rather than measuring success by the number of initiatives launched.
Ray Gong, Associate Vice President, DSJ Global:
There can be pressure on a senior professional to prove their value immediately, but speed should not be measured by the number of initiatives they launch. A stronger early signal is the quality of their diagnosis, the priorities they set, and the decisions they make once they understand the business.
Senior professionals still need structured onboarding
Experience does not give a new executive immediate knowledge of an organisation’s history, internal relationships, previous decisions, or informal power structures. Yet senior hires can sometimes receive less support because the expectation is that they will work these things out for themselves.
A structured transition should give the professional access to key stakeholders, relevant data, the history behind major decisions, and a clear understanding of what they have authority to change. Gallup reports that only 23% of employees strongly agree that their onboarding experience was exceptional, which shows how much room many organisations still have to improve the transition from recruitment to performance.
For an executive appointment, onboarding should involve senior leadership directly. Access to the CEO, board, or functional leader can help clarify expectations and address issues before they begin affecting performance.
Give the first 90 days a clear purpose
A 30, 60, and 90-day plan can provide useful structure, but it should focus on learning, decisions, and business impact rather than becoming a list of meetings. The early stage should give the professional enough time to understand the organisation while making clear what the business expects them to accomplish.
During the first 30 days, the priority may be understanding the business, meeting key stakeholders, reviewing previous decisions, and testing assumptions about the role. The next stage can focus on establishing priorities and clarifying decision rights before moving into larger actions.
Executive hiring is a shared responsibility
When a senior appointment struggles, the immediate conclusion can be that the wrong professional was hired. Sometimes that will be true, but performance also depends on the quality of the mandate, the accuracy of the hiring conversation, and the conditions the organisation creates after the person joins.
For organisations hiring across supply chain, procurement, manufacturing, operations, and engineering, recruitment should not be viewed as complete when the offer is accepted. The quality of the transition can have a direct impact on how quickly a senior professional becomes effective and the value the appointment ultimately creates.
Hiring senior supply chain professionals in APAC?
DSJ Global works with organisations hiring senior professionals across supply chain, procurement, manufacturing, operations, and engineering throughout APAC. If you are building your leadership team, request a call back and discuss your executive hiring requirements with DSJ Global. DSJ Global supports senior supply chain recruitment across areas including planning, logistics, procurement, operations, and transformation.
For C-suite and executive professionals considering their next move, DSJ Global also works on senior supply chain opportunities, including Chief Supply Chain Officer, VP, director, procurement, logistics, planning, and transformation positions. Visit our Supply Chain Executive Search page to explore executive opportunities and submit your profile.
