Building a leadership team to drive a D2C transformation

The Challenge

World of Books is a market leader in sustainable book retail, with a loyal customer base and a mission-driven brand. 

By 2024, the business needed to evolve. A new CEO was brought in to lead a major transformation, shifting to a Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) model, rolling out a Shopify-led ecommerce strategy, and making data a central part of decision-making. But to deliver, the company needed to build out a tech leadership team and fast-track its reputation as a tech employer.

Having previously worked with Chief People Office, Caroline, on a similar transformation at Bionic, we were introduced to the World of Books team and engaged as a hiring partner. From day one, it was clear this would be more than just recruitment – it was about building the structures, processes, and reputation to attract and hire the talent they needed.

World of Books faced four key hurdles:

• A shift to D2C: Moving to a direct relationship with customers meant new systems, new capabilities, and a different way of working.

• Low visibility as a tech employer: A strong consumer brand, but no presence in the tech talent market.

• No clear EVP or hiring structure: Without a strong Employer Value Proposition or recruitment processes, senior hiring risked becoming slow and expensive.

• A need for speed: Leadership hires were critical to delivering the strategy, and time was short.

The Solution

We partnered with World of Books as their recruitment agency, delivering a mix of retained and contingent services to address their immediate and long-term needs:

• Retained leadership searches – Director of Architecture & Director of Data.

• Contingent & contract recruitment to build out supporting tech roles across Data.

• An Interim Head of Talent to get delivery moving quickly and help shape employer branding.

Our role was to make hiring as efficient and impactful as possible:

• Embedded with the leadership team, building strong relationships with the CEO and decision-makers.

• Opened up direct channels via Slack and weekly calls to keep delivery fast and transparent.

• Created tailored job specs and candidate packs to help position World of Books as a serious tech employer.

• Helped shape the EVP and recruitment process, ensuring a smoother candidate experience and faster time-to-hire.

The Results

Three key leadership hires brought in to drive a D2C transformation:

• Director of Architecture
  Bringing experience scaling ecommerce and D2C technology in fast-moving, international businesses.

• Director of Data
  A specialist in high-volume ecommerce operations, driving the company’s new data-first strategy.

• Global Talent Lead
  Brought in to own the hiring project internally, speed up delivery, and kick-start World of Books’ employer branding journey.