Five years ago, DRG embarked on a mission to expand our services beyond Executive Search and to define what it means to be a talent advisory group. As 2023 ends, and as we celebrate this milestone, it’s amazing to look back and see how much we have accomplished. We’ve evolved from a leader in nonprofit executive search, building on the 30+ year history of our company, to becoming a comprehensive talent advisory company offering a diverse portfolio of services to meet the dynamic needs of our clients in mission-driven organizations.
First and foremost, at this five-year anniversary benchmark, we want to highlight our gratitude to our 500+ clients who have placed their trust in our team and their confidence in our work. We are in awe of the unbelievable transformational impact that mission-driven organizations consistently actualize when they are powered by dedicated, professional and volunteer leadership working together—an example set by the organizations with whom we work every day.
The incorporation of Organizational Consulting (OC) into our business model was a decision made with the intent of providing even greater value to our clients. Our approach to OC is grounded in and provides a deep understanding of an organization’s culture, structure, and strategic objectives, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of the organization’s current state in times of leadership transition, capacity building, and mission expansion. Particularly during executive transitions, this added insight is invaluable in tailoring executive search efforts to identify candidates not only with the requisite skills and experience but also those whose values align seamlessly with the organization’s ethos. By integrating our executive search experience with our organizational consulting expertise, our clients can now ensure a more strategic and culturally aligned placement of executives. This integration enhances the success rate of executive hires and contributes to long-term organizational success by aligning leadership with the organization’s vision, values, and overarching goals. It is a symbiotic relationship that optimizes the synergy between organizational strategy and executive leadership, fostering a resilient and forward-looking organization—which ultimately helps drive an organization’s mission forward. Over the past five years, we have seen this effect in real time with our clients as they have partnered with DRG to set the stage for their success and made real progress against their impact goals.
DRG’s journey has taught us invaluable lessons about building a company. We’ve learned that resilience, adaptability, and a commitment to excellence are the cornerstones of success. During COVID, we gave up our office space in New York City and pivoted to becoming a remote team, which gave us the opportunity to bring on the highest-value prospective team members regardless of where they lived. We are now a team of more than 40 people based in over 16 locations across the United States. In the past five years, our company has grown 400% and more than tripled the number of mission-driven clients with whom we partner across a wide range of talent engagements. The expansion of our team and our portfolio was pivotal to our growth and success during the pandemic; it helped us stay ahead of the curve and ensured we could provide holistic solutions to our clients.
Bringing in new partners and elevating our own team members has enriched our perspectives and added layers of expertise to our leadership team. We’ve learned the art of collaboration and understand more deeply how diverse voices contribute to our collective success. Always striving to foster an inclusive and innovative workplace is a foundational cornerstone of DRG. This work is hard and requires commitment and difficult conversations; we do not always get it right, but we are developing and reflecting, and we are committed to continuing that work.
Navigating the challenges of growth has been a significant part of DRG’s journey. We’ve learned that creating a human-centered company is not just about providing a high-performing workplace; it also means creating a community where every individual feels valued. In the past few years, we have had to make many difficult choices, and in hindsight not all of them were the right ones—but we are always committed to considering multiple solutions and learning from our past. We have learned not to fear pivoting from choices that seemed appropriate at first, but in fact were not. We try to be honest and reflective with ourselves, with each other, and our clients at every critical juncture.
As we look at building for the future, now more than ever, at this painful and divisive time in our world, we need mission-driven organizations to be high-functioning; to hire and support amazing leaders; to compensate, evaluate, and train professional staff equitably; and to develop a cadre of deeply invested, nuanced, intellectually engaged and committed volunteer leaders—all in service of making the world a better place.
Our commitment to your success remains unwavering, and we are eager to embark on the next chapter of our journey together.
Thank you for being an integral part of our story. Wishing you and your team a Happy Holidays, and we look forward to (re-)connecting in the New Year!
