History
1964
The success enjoyed by executives is often dictated more by their personality than by their technical expertise. This was the concept upon which in December 1964, Horst Will founded ifp, the aim being to offer companies professional advise on the search and selection of their decision-makers. ifp is therefore ranked among the pioneers of an industry that was in the infancy of its development. Today, over 40 years later, only very few of those "propeller heads" are still present in the market today.
In those days, the remit was to select suitable candidates for executive positions from an oversupply of applicants. In order to guarantee the quality of the assessment process it was supported through the use of diagnostic suitability instruments. ifp has, at all times, consistently pursued this consulting approach and expanded it to become its hallmark.
1970
In the early days, the search for executives was largely advertisement-based - not least because there were only few tolerated and/or permitted exceptions from the agency pool held by the Federal Employment Service. Since the 1970´s however, we at ifp have been developing a systematic approach for researching executives, contacting them direct by telephone and recommending them to our clients. Nowadays, Executive Search is the focus at ifp.
1980
Over the years, our consultants have had to meet the most unusual challenges. In the 1970´s, for example, ifp-consultants accompanied policemen during their night operations to develop a recruiting strategy for them. Or in 1986, when they had to select the astronauts for Mission D2.
1990
Since the late 1980´s, ifp clients have become increasingly international and hence, so have their requirements for consulting services. To enable highly-qualified personnel to be able to search and select across frontiers, in 1990 ifp founded the isg International Search Group - a network of comparable Executive Search companies in both Europe and non-European countries, thus opening up access to more than 20 markets outside of Germany. ifp helps its clients fill key positions at home and abroad and also select international managers.
Associated with growth in personnel the consulting business expanded to encompass a multitude of industries, and our teams achieved a high market-related expertise. In addition to that our clients benefit considerably from our long standing contacts to key players and decision makers in each market.
In 1996, Horst Will handed over the ifp reigns to his son Jörg, the majority shareholder.
2000
Backed by this specific assessment expertise, we started supporting clients assessing and developing their personnel already during the1970´s. The success and resulting transaction volume did encourage us in the year 2000 to focus these specific services in an independent field of business - Management Diagnostics. Here the focus lies in an in-depth look at each personality, their professional expertise and their potentials. We achieve high acceptance levels on the part of both our clients as well as our candidates by using innovative aptitude diagnosis instruments and individual, customised methods and processes.