CLEVELAND, Ohio - In his short time as Browns owner, Jimmy Haslam has become quite familiar with coaching searches.

It doesn't mean, however, he's experienced enough to run one.

Among the more interesting nuggets to come from Sunday night's news conference was the revelation that the Browns have hired an outside consulting firm to spearhead their coach and general manager searches.

Jed Hughes, a former Browns assistant coach under Bud Carson, has been retained by the Haslams to guide the interview process. Hughes is the vice chairman and head of global sports at the Korn/Ferry firm.

It's an encouraging development given how little graduate-level football knowledge resides in the building. Former CEO Joe Banner and general manager Mike Lombardi led the previous two coaching searches, which some candidates privately said did not run smoothly.

Hughes directed the search that helped the Seahawks hire Super-Bowl winning coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider. He's partnered the Chiefs and coach Andy Reid. His other success stories include Bill O'Brien and the Texans; and CEO Mark Murphy and the Packers.

Not all of Hughes' searches produced long relationships as the Jets and former general manager John Idzik discovered, but Haslam wanted to give him a shot.

Jed Hughes was an assistant coach for both the Browns and Steelers before getting into the world of consulting.

It marks the first time the owner - who fired GM Ray Farmer and coach Mike Pettine on Sunday - has used an outside consultant for the Browns. It's also the first time the organization has publicly acknowledged using one since its 1999 NFL return.

"We've used Korn Ferry a lot in our other lives (at Pilot Flying J) and had gotten to know Jed," Haslam said. "Actually, when we first bought the team, he approached us. He's around at NFL meetings, and we've talked to him a lot. I just think it will help the process and help us run a better process than we have in the past. Jed has a tremendous amount of contacts in the league. He's been involved in both college and pro football for literally his entire life, very smart, very well educated. I think he'll help us a lot."

Jimmy Haslam, Dee Haslam, Hughes and new executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown will interview the coaching candidates. Obviously, the final say belongs to Jimmy Haslam.

After the club makes a hire, the same group - plus the coach - will add a general manager.

Some franchises have worked with independent executive search firms over the years. Asking for help, however, became more common after 2013 when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell unveiled the league's Career Development Advisory Panel.

One former league executive told cleveland.com last month that Haslam would be wise to seek outside help if he decided on new coach and GM hires.

"People want to criticize Haslam for what he doesn't know," the former team executive said on conditions of anonymity. "Let me say this, there are very few owners who really know. They are not close enough to it. Some have better experience and better contacts and are more in tune with it like a John Mara (Giants) or the Rooneys (Steelers).

"Even if you keep the general manager, who should be on top of it, I'd bring someone in to have another voice in the room."

Advisers' roles vary. Some sit in the back of the room, listen to candidate interviews and offer opinion. Others become highly involved in the process - formulating questions and running the interviews.

"You have all watched these searches before, it's much different than searches in the regular world in that there's an intense desire to hire somebody quickly and our desire is to get the right person," Haslam said. "And I have no idea if that's going to take two weeks or two months."

Hughes entered the consulting world after spending years as a college and NFL assistant coach. He was a Steelers linebackers coach for five seasons before working as the Browns' secondary coach in 1989.

His matchmaking is not limited to the NFL. He's assisted college teams and conferences in landing coaches and commissioners. He's even yoked executives with English Premier League soccer teams.