For companies today, recruiting is still on the agenda, and even if some sectors such as Telecommunications, Internet, Banking and some computer manufacturers have reevaluated their needs in dynamic executives and lower-level managers, most other sectors have apparently hung on and keep on creating jobs or replacing people who leave the company.
The present study, like the previous ones in October 1998 and in July 2000, is intended as a tool for Managers or their advisors (HRM, Board of Directors, etc.), to help them make up their own minds on who will be the provider best able to fulfil their expectations, whether in the framework of a simple search-contract or a full partnership with their consultancy firm.
In this time of changing and evolving information, communication and contact means and resources, prompting us to work somewhat differently, we have felt it necessary to add a kind of supplement to the study, first in the guise of a CD-ROM related to this work, as well as an Internet site that will initially serve as promotional medium for the study, and will later become a place for management readers to meet and exchange information in the framework of a platform for sharing experience, writing articles, announcing communication events, and so on. These new media in no way replace the printed word which retains all its worth and relevance, and, which remains necessary in our western civilization.
The study is comprised of two chapters: the first one discusses only what is happening in France at the end of 2001 and in the spring of the year 2002, and is made up of several parts: in our previous editions, the first part presented the results of two studies, one on companies and the other on Executive Search firms. It will be left out this year so as not to make too large a book and to focus our study and our action on the firms themselves.
The second part of the study gives a brief overview of the profession, its history, French and American professional organizations, their Codes of Ethics.
The third part provides an opportunity for six Managers of French and UK Executive Search firms to voice their opinions and thoughts about current topics related to the preoccupations of company managers. We also have a written contribution from an Interim Management Consultant, from a rather unusual firm Manager who specializes in 50-year-old executives, and from the President of an international professional association that brings together a significant number of great Executive Search firms (Retainers) from around the world.
A fourth part presents some figures, followed by a detailed and meaningful presentation of the 75 direct-approach firms (compared to 63 in 2000) selected for our study, with a short biography of all the Managers and Consultants.
The fifth part of this study includes a number of thought-inspiring topics on the trade, such as guaranties to clients, firm logistics, files, the progression of the trade, the use of the Internet, Interim Management, the search for Non-Executive Directors, as well as a short overview of the main Search firms in the world.
The sixth and last part mainly provides advice to readers in management positions with respect to the choice of a provider or a partner, and on the pitfalls to be avoided. This will be followed by a short note on the CD-ROM which is a complement to the printed work. This last part concludes with a short bibliography of works on Direct Approach which the reader should find of interest.
Between the first chapter on France and the second one on Europe, we have intentionally chosen to include, once again this year, a few ‘whimsical’ pages by discussing not "promising young stars" but rather "late revelations" in a global meaning; for one of them, it is a complete turnaround and a new challenge in a nearly unknown world, and for the other, older than the former, it may represent a new recognition of a life almost exclusively devoted
