It takes effort to find out about the newsletters, and more effort to read them. Los Angeles executive-search consultant Tom Meade says he's contacted the networks to identify candidates for retained searches. Their subscribers tend to be high-caliber people. Not all recruiters share his enthusiasm. We've always based our search work on specific outbound calling and a rifle-shot approach.
Executive search targets a few select individuals.
Exposing an opportunity to the mass media detracts from the core group of people we're focusing on. Mr. Meade's approach is to use networks as one of several tools. My clients need results and don't care about the means. Second, the people who find them have to pay to participate. That means they have to take a leap of faith, read the tea leaves and be a little more conceptual.