What's the first thing most people look for in an applicant? Experience. What's the bulk of the content on a resume? Experience. Considering how fast the world is changing, how mediocre doesn't cut it, how radically marketing concepts are changing, how function is being replaced by meaningful experience, etc., it's likely that the "most experienced" candidate may no longer the best selection...especially if the majority of that learning took place over the last six years...times have been so good that you could basically sleepwalk your way to success. If you've built your organization to be remarkable and have committed to building long lasting relationships with both customers and employees, you'll probably spend too much time deprogramming someone if you focus on the experience side of their resume. Contrarily, dig into much more challenging territory like personality, communications and the ability to think...find out if people who are willing to learn, show passion for something, can demonstrate the ability to adapt, and are interested in doing some "open field running" vs. bringing the play book from their last job.
Your only chance for long-term success is to build a team of passionate, hair on fire, values oriented players..who can admit defeat, adapt, think their way through problems and push the edge at every turn. Anything less will result in a futile endeavor.