About us
When we started The Bedford Group in 1979 there wasn’t much need to inspire leaders to join anybody. The leaders were excited to have good careers thrust in front of them. By 2000, the signals were clear. The world was changing. The best leaders didn’t want just a great job. They wanted the great job that melded with their whole life—the way they wanted it to. At that time we reinvented the executive search process with proprietary tools that measure leadership capabilities and align them to the client’s culture. We pioneered this process with Dr. John O. Burdett, a world authority on leadership and transformational change, because we recognized that executive search had become commoditized and needed better processes.
Our foresight has proven itself. If we were a public company, we’d be reporting 33 quarters of growth while most of our competitors have gone through retrenching and downsizing. We’ve been growing organically and gaining market share because we produce results that minimize risk to our clients and candidates.
We built a better mousetrap. We are innovative, we have better products, and we are unique in the way we find and inspire the leaders our clients need.
Our approach
Finding those leaders—the “A” players, nationally and globally—is the core of our executive search business. In today’s much more demanding world of search, we are having new and different conversations with our clients. Learn more.
Our Global Reach
TRANSEARCH International is one of the world’s largest international search organizations. Through our membership in this alliance, we have reach, research and databases at our command in 53 offices in 33 countries. Steven Pezim, Co-founder and Managing Director, sits on the TRANSEARCH International Board and is one of 38 partners devoted to its Global Technology practice. Our TRANSEARCH International partners recognized us as the Number One Performing Office in the World in 2004 and 2007. Learn more.
Deep knowledge in specialty sectors
We are proud of our long-standing relationships with many of Canada’s best-managed organizations in a number of specialty fields:
- Consumer Products/Retail
- Legal Services
- Financial Services
- Industrial/Supply Chain
- Life Sciences
- Not-for-profit
- Private Equity/Venture Capital
- Real Estate
- Resources, Energy and Infrastructure
- Technology/Media/Telecom
Member OF the AESC
The Association of Executive Search Consultants promotes the highest professional standards in retained executive search consulting, broadens public understanding of the executive search process and advocates the interests of its member firms. The US government and the European Commission recognize the AESC as the representative body of the retained executive search industry.
Intensively service-dedicated
Over and above our innovative programs, The Bedford Group also holds fast to some good old-fashioned service precepts. Each of our Partners has at least three to four supporting consultants and individual administrative support. Some of the other major executive consulting firms have one consultant supporting a partner; unacceptable to us.
The Bedford Group’s bonuses are heavily weighted to reflect customer satisfaction. After every search we ask the client to respond to a customer satisfaction questionnaire. We share the results of every one with our staff.
Every short-listed candidate is interviewed by one of our partners.
Our own researchers
The Bedford Group is one of the few executive search firms with on-staff researchers. One result: Our own database of over 100,000 candidates across North America. Through our affiliations in TRANSEARCH International, we have access to company and individual databases throughout the world.
Conflict-of-interest limits
Surprisingly, we do turn away business that we feel would be in conflict with other of our clients. By choice, we limit the number of companies per sector with which we work so we can hunt relatively unfettered for the best talent.
Proudly independent, proudly Canadian
Over the last ten years, we repeatedly have declined being acquired by our publicly traded US competitors. We believe there’s a conflict of interest in a professional services firm being a public company. Many of our customers agree with us, some in principal and some because they compared service and performance levels. The Bedford Group is an all-Canadian firm, managed by its founders. The last thing we ever want to hear is a client complaining that they felt like they were just a number.
We’re proudly Canadian, proudly independent, and always focused on finding the best talent from North America and around the world.