What is Executive Search ?

The first question often asked during a visit to prospective candidates and clients in emerging markets is about what an Executive Search consultant does, and how he works. In the US or Western Europe , HR executives and hiring managers have gone through many pitches from search consultants and the concept is already known to a great extent. I face the question quite regulary as what and how I achieve what I do as Executive Search Consultant. In this article I will answer the what part of the question, and focus on the how in a series of future articles.

Executive Search is a service usually provided by external consultants with the aim to solve a particular business problem (some firms I worked with, Google for instance, have their own talent acquisition team and only rarely require outside assistance). The service aims to solve that problem through filling a critical and sensitive position in the company with the best available talent in the market.

I have come across consultants who claim they focus on filling positions determined by their hierarchy in an organization, say CEO and CEO -1 for small companies, and to -3 or -4 for large multinational firms. While this could be true in most cases, defining the focus of service in function of a company hierarchy is too limited, because it misses the dimension of value implied by critical and sensitive. Let me illustrate this. A Multinational Internet Security company retained me in 2007 to find them a Sales Engineer for their teams in Czech Republic, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. I should correct myself, not just "a" Sales Engineer, but the best available professional, CISA certified, with project management and pre-sales or consultancy experience in each of those countries. They simply wanted to meet, and interview the best available professionals in those countries, and select the best individual, nothing less. This firm was therefore willing to pay our retainer fee because they clearly understood the value proposition of the service.

The tangible reasons why companies resort to Executive Search are manifold. An Executive Search Consultant could be mandated for the confidential replacement of an under performing senior member of the management, filling an executive position which became available for various reasons, expanding management bandwidth with new expertise during periods of fast and sustained growth, bring in the best expertise when entering a new geography or market, compare an internal candidate for a senior management slot with some of the best outside candidates for the role.

Executive search is therefore a rather small subset of recruiting, and involves consulting both the client and potential candidates. Furthermore, it is definitely a very focused activity, specifically aimed to bring to the client the best available people in the market. The impact of a great hire on a balance sheet  of the employer can be tremendous, and even a marginal improvement in overall performance can bring a significant revenue upside. Imagine then the burden of the wrong hire and resulting under performance, additional intangible costs related to higher churn, inefficiencies and lost opportunities.

Great marketing, brands, logistics, strategies, IT, manufacturing are meaningless without three key factors:

1. Management
2. Management
3. Management

The prime responsibility of the Executive Search Consultant is to bring this vital and essential business ingredient of to the client Company.

One important last note is that Executive Search cannot create the best people, a feature some prospective clients seem to expect. Though this might sound quite obvious to some, I did not accept mandates because clients expected me to find candidates below market price, or willing to consider contractual terms where they would be foregoing the benefits of their existing employment. Why should exceptional executives, successful in their career, be willing to consider an offer below their current package ? There are HR executives and hiring managers who are troubled and disturbed candidates reject such offers. Hence, just as companies should pick their Executive Search Consultant carefully and in a well informed manner, consultants should equally assess properly what value the client is expecting to materialize.