Cipher^®: A Proven Framework to Hire the Best People

Nearly half of new hires fail within 18 months. That’s not a “people problem”—it’s a process problem.

Most hiring still runs on gut feel, vague job descriptions, and unstructured interviews—an approach with odds worse than a coin toss. The cost shows up fast: wasted time, lost money, and a team that can’t deliver.

For 15 years, Craig della Penna has helped leaders hire with clarity and rigor using his proprietary HireBest^® system resulting in better hiring decisions, reduced attrition, and less time wasted in extraneous interviews.

The key component of that system is the Cipher^®, a simple, powerful framework that defines what success must look like before you meet a single candidate. It distills any role into four essentials: Charge, Outcome, Deliverables, and Efforts so everyone evaluates talent against the same standard.

Book Resources

We are excited to share these exclusive resources with you. Each resource can be used to help you master the Cipher and further teach you how to approach building your very own.

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Bring Cipher To Your Organization

Bring the Cipher framework to your organization through sharing the book with your entire team, training sessions or speaking engagements.

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HireBest Software

Interview Smarter. Hire Better. With our AI-powered software that enables Cipher® creation and brings structure, consistency, and confidence to every hiring decision.

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In this practical, step by step guide, you’ll learn how to build and use Ciphers to help:

Define Success

Define exactly what success looks like in any role before you interview a single candidate.

Rely on Data

Replace gut-feel hiring with a data-driven method improving accuracy and confidence.

Beyond Hiring

Use one practical framework to hire better, onboard faster, and coach performance over time.

Reduce Cost

Reduce costly hiring mistakes by focusing on the few factors that truly predict success.

If you hire or your business depends on hiring, stop gambling with your most important asset. Learn the clear, teachable framework that improves decision quality and hiring outcomes. It’s time to HireBest.

Preview the Cipher Book

Hire with Confidence. Not Guesswork. Read a sample of Cipher and see how structured interviews lead to better hiring decisions.

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"Craig and the Aesop team have become fundamental parts of my value creation playbook. I view them as an extension of our team, in the single most critical facet of business performance and scaling – People. At the core of People is hiring; Craig’s Cipher approach is simply a more effective way to get the right team members into an organization, transitioning the process from an art to a science.”

"There are few things more important to a successful company than having the right team in place. Craig and the Aesop team have been instrumental in helping us build a high-performing and scalable team. Their Cipher approach helps drive clarity to our toughest hiring decisions. I recommend this book for anyone interested in building a great team."

"Partnering with Craig and his team has been a game changer. “The Cipher method has helped us identify who will excel in key roles and clarify the capabilities needed for our organization to grow. This practical, data‑driven approach has transformed our hiring process and given us clear insight into the talent required for long‑term success."

"Craig delivers practical, no‑nonsense guidance. For five years, he’s helped us solve tough hiring and organizational challenges with his ability to diagnose issues and identify talent gaps. The Cipher method enables fast, data‑driven decisions, and we value it so much that we had him teach it to our entire leadership team this past summer."

About The Author

Craig della Penna is the creator of the HireBest® system and founder of Aesop Partners, LLC. For more than 25 years, he has advised leaders at Fortune 100 companies, private equity–backed middle-market firms and privately held businesses on their most critical business decisions.

After beginning his career in financial and operational advisory roles, Craig shifted his focus entirely to talent strategy and executive assessment, where he has spent the last 15 years helping high-performing leaders focus on the thing that matters most: talent. His work replaces gut instinct with structure, clarity, and measurable results.

Craig has partnered with over 250 clients, has conducted 2,000+ structured interviews, diligenced 175+ organizations, and trained 800+ leaders. He is a professionally certified executive coach and trusted advisor to CEOs navigating growth and transformation.

A graduate of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College (MBA, High Distinction) and Trinity College (B.A., Economics), Craig lives with his wife, two children, and his ferocious standard poodle, Sherlock.

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Cipher®: A Proven Framework to Hire the Best People