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News Release from: Cavendish | Subject: Executive recruitment
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 17 August 2006
Does Headhunting Executives Succeed As
It Should?
If a company is looking to fill a boardroom or senior management job, it is likely it will approach one or more 'headhunter' companies to help.
If a company is looking to fill a boardroom or senior management job, it is likely it will approach one or more 'headhunter' companies to help But according to printing industry consultancy Cavendish, how does a company with a senior vacancy ensure its search and selection firm is up to the task? Cavendish's director, Colin Thompson, said: "Little appeals to an executive's ego more than being headhunted
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 27 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The first time a headhunter calls you will always be remembered.
At last you think your ability and talent have been finally recognised as well above the status quo." And he added: "But, in many cases of the UK's top companies, hiring on a headhunters recommendation is often an exercise in disappointment because most headhunters are general practitioners and not specialists." In his opinion, generalist headhunters promote their recruitment network's market and sector knowledge and expertise in talent spotting.
However, some of their clients are becoming disillusioned by the quality of candidates that they deliver and, in most cases, generalist headhunters sell people like bars of chocolate and are not necessarily interested in whether or not they can do the job.
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Thompson continued: "At present 11 companies account for over half of the GBP300 billion of shareholders value of the FTSE-100 index over the past year and that the same old names - both directors and headhunters - appear on that list again and again.
These generalist headhunters are more concerned with where candidates have been, than what they have achieved." In a bear market, having the right people on board is critical for survival and growth.
A rising tide lifts all the boats but when the tide is going out companies need the right people who are good at rowing against the tide, explained Thompson.
He added: "Headhunters should be looking for more of those people but the headhunter needs to be a specialist.
The specialist headhunter will have executive consultants who have themselves been managing directors with vast experience of green-field sites, corporate turn-arounds, business re-engineering, new corporate identities, mergers and acquisitions and good profit returns." He believes that specialist headhunters will recognise the right people for their clients.
The recruitment industry was blossoming during the 1990s but collapsed in the last quarter of 2000 for generalist recruitment firms.
That collapse is the most severe downturn since the 1970s, added Thompson.
According to the Economist Intelligence Units report, 'Executive Search in Europe', the global search market was worth GBP10 billion, down 30 per cent on the previous year.
In Thompson's opinion, companies are managing their relationships with headhunters far more carefully and many businesses now favour businesses that offer specialist sector knowledge who have executive consultants with first hand knowledge of working within that sector at director level.
"But the larger generalist headhunters are moving to gain lost ground, diversifying in to areas such as management appraisal, executive coaching and leadership training.
Some of those recruitment firms are in the process of becoming relationship-driven providers of executive human capital services," concluded Thompson.
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