The goal of this blog site is to inform, entertain, share inside know-how, poke and provoke audiences that have a professional relationship with, can greatly benefit from, or are interested in Executive Search Services.

This site attempts to be a conduit of knowledge for peers working in the Executive Search Profession, HR executives  - buyers and their internal clients. It aims to achieve this through articles that are valuable and informative reads, amusing, sometimes even poking fun. Never fiction, but by times some friction.

The abundance of information quickly becomes toxic, because there is way too much noise, too few content, a direct result of what is happening in the blogging sphere: knowing more and more about less and less; too much quantity, too few quality.

The executive search subjectis further put into the context of Emerging Markets, specifically the Eurasia and Africa regions. The search and methodology that works so well in the US or Western Europe can  and does encounter many roadblocks in this specific region. One can start with the abundance of languages and alphabets, political, business and societal cultures that are alien compared to what someone working within open Western societies encounters. Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore !

1. Executive Search Consultants

Like yourself, I am an Executive Search Consultant. Like any professional advisory service, the quality of the people, consultancy and results in this advisory business varies, which should be no surprise, greatly.

To a client, hiring the services of an Executive Search Consultant is similar  to a new hairdresser visit. A trail haircut is impossible: it can't be undone. You can complain, even get your money back, but not your hair. Therefore it is of prime importance to get the job and placement done right, and deliver the value the client expects. There is no room for error in a service business where getting a mandate is highly dependent on referral.

As there are various different levels of quality, there is a requirement for education. How to conduct efficient business development ? How to pick the right candidate, find the needle in the haystack ? How to properly assess candidates ? When to be assertive with clients to safeguard your value-add ? There are many, many more questions, with answers spread around literature, and across the web. Here is a repository of knowledge that helps to frame questions, but also answers them.

I look forward to get to know you.

2. HR Executives and Hiring Managers

Many of the interactions of HR Managers is through pitches from search consultants, and the relationships with consultants to whom they have given mandates. However, pitches and vendor relationships do not give the whole picture of the Executive Search profession.

I have worked with a whole spectrum of HR professionals, with differing competencies, diverging requirements, who work in highly challenging environments and corporate cultures, environments that  by times do not fit the Western institutionalized model - think of Siberia or Mongolia for a start. Whereas HR professionals have a responsability stretching far beyond the niche of executive recruitment, most of our interaction with the firm goes with and through them.

Here there is information that enables HR to understand how we work and should work, how they can find the best service provider, and how they can manage the relationship to much higher efficiency and satisfaction, including their internal clients; what can and should be expect from Executive Search firms, how these expectations are filled, and how they can effectively engage to achieve maximum ROI.

Hiring Managers quite often miss the right person to do the job. An internal candidate does not want the expatriate position, the required competence can not be located in the existing cadre of managers, or the person in the job does not live up to expectations, and needs to be replaced.

It happens more than often that these individuals have few or no interaction with the Executive Search Consultant working on a mandate that affects their performance directly. Some do not have the time, others want to get involved intimately in the whole process (and by times find an HR screen between themselves and the consultant).

This blog site gives them a collection of resources explaining how the Search profession can help them effeciently, effectively and practically; they can find idea's on how to turbo charge their teams, on how to tackle problems where they lack the expertise.

3. Interested Executives

Welcome! You might have questions, seeking advice on how to plan your career, to change track, on taking up a position on the other side of the globe. Feel free to contact me should you have questions.

Search is an exciting field, and most of us in the business never intended to become an Executive Search Consultant. Most of us got into the profession somehow by "accident", usually through an offer of someone in the business.

It is my opinion, and shared by much of my peers, that someone with previous "real" P&L and people management experience can become a great consultant. But only when he or she likes to learn,  and enjoys combining the various eclectic bits and pieces of information into a coherent blueprint;  one that is the basis of a succesful search strategy, and ultimately, a great placement.