One of our clients is a large MNC in market research and business intelligence, rapidly scaling up into different areas such as analytics, KPO. With an extremely stable leadership team, it had to prepare for the replacement of its IT head, who had done a commendable job for over 20 years. The president of the company saw it as an excellent opportunity to bring in not only a capable successor, but also help change internal opinions in the way the IT function was seen. Working closely with him, we suggested individuals who besides meeting all the technical and behavioural competencies belonged to the gender opposite to that of the incumbent head. Something not very common in India. The client readily agreed and this helped us not only close the position, but also signal the intended change in the perception of the function to the company’s employees very quickly. Besides enhancing its already formidable reputation of being an equal opportunity employer.