Internal promotion works when judgment, production capability, and board trust already sit in the house. If the bearer is missing, or the title does not carry the yes, retained mandate remains the path. Promotion paths and longlists do not replace judgment about the seat.
Christian Pobbig and Beyond Chiefs work from Hamburg on AI Executive Search in DACH. Here only the buyer form: promote versus external retained. No fee inventory. No fee comparison. No H1 twin of interim or fractional title questions.
False assumption: "We promote the Head of Data. Done." A title change without a yes-test stays an org chart. Second false assumption: "External search is always more expensive and therefore later." Price and timing are not invented here. Architecture matters: do judgment and kill rights already sit in the house?
Promotion success rates and market shares remain unknown. They are not invented. Exact suggest often stays thin. Nobody fills that with invented conversion rates.
Not a fee comparison. Not an interim or fractional title clone. Not a best-of list. No invented ranks, volumes, or fees. Not a drain to home. Not an org-chart PDF as product.
Search appears when promote was tested and the bearer is missing, or when the promoted title does not carry the contested AI yes. Then retained mandate applies for seat, mandate, and judgment. Not another internal longlist alone.
Buyers: CEO, management board, CHRO, supervisory board, PE operating. Not candidates hoping for promotion. Ranks and volumes remain unknown.
When promote does not carry the seat: the AI Executive Search mandate for the lasting bearer of the AI decision.
