Simon has closed a position of Director-Marketing today with his one of the fortune five hundred high technology client. The client has signed a deal of Rs.4.00 Crore per annum with the concerned candidate. This happens to be the fifth headhunting deal Simon closed during last one year.  The other four candidates who has joined the top management position of various high profile companies, has signed a deal of Rs.4-5 Crore per annum in an average. One can roughly estimate how much commission Simon has earned from all five assignments closed during last one year at the rate of 16 per cent of annual Cost to the Company.

Simon decided to quit his lucrative job of a reputed MNC one year back and jump into headhunting business of his own. From then he has decided to work on maximum 5-6 top management assignments per annum with his very few limited clients. During last one year he has received many other assignments including bulk recruitment package for junior and middle management positions from various companies. However he has refused those offers since his prime objective is to redefine the rules of headhunting.

According to him very few individual in the market really does justice with headhunting profession. It is not a simple process of picking up few profiles of so called star performers from the fortune five hundred companies and shooting mail to the client. As a result of tough competition in the marketplace, majority of the high profile headhunting agencies are today engaged in this mail shooting process only. Simon added that majority of the headhunter today either does not know their business or they does not have the passion and time to demonstrate commitment to this profession, due to the tough market condition and strong focus on volume game. In this process, fundamentals of headhunting are seriously compromised. As a result, today a typical headhunter advertises a vacancy in the few available job sites, receives large number of profiles, short-list few profiles only on few “Short-Cut” factors such as name of the company where candidate is working, his/her designation, location, number of years of experience and current cost to the company. If they receive a profile from a company of reputed employer brand that is immediately short-listed even without going through each aspect of the profile in detail. In many such cases, the concerned headhunter remains completely ignorant on much critical information presented in the profile. This is nothing but a sheer mockery.

Often it was found that a candidate has preferred to spend his/her time with a reputed company without making any significant contribution to the business process. It is because the concerned candidate knows that at the end of the day a glorified presentation with some of the top official in another company during the process of interview can ease him/her, another high profile job. Therefore his/her focus remains only in building network in and out of the company. Moreover many such employees will prefer to remain attached with such company only during its good time, not in bad phase. Simon found many such glorified “White Elephant” in his past several years of experience. On the other hand there are many good candidates available in the so-called low-profile company, who never believes in “Showmanship” and demonstrates serious commitment in the business process of the company. Under the current trend those people always remains a neglected category to the headhunters. We need to realize that if there are many “Showman” available in high profile companies, there are also some very good candidate available in so called low-profile companies.

He further added, What is necessary is to understand the various dimensions of candidate’s background in detail by focusing on various complex dimensions of the available vacancy of client company, reading the profiles between the lines, short-list few profiles accordingly, interact with the Short-listed candidates to understand their complex experience on various issues, (not simply superficial dimensions), their professional value systems and ethics, character as an individual, moral values, purpose of life, passion etc and accordingly conclude. Otherwise Client Company will be of the opinion that the profiles sent by the concerned headhunter are the best available candidate in the job market without realizing that there are better candidate available for the vacant position. In this process many clients are taken into ride by so-called “ Smart Headhunters” who believes that “ you got to get the job by any means”.

Simon further added that his style of operation is against the popular market syndrome that is “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks”. “ Keep pushing the E-mail” mentality does not lead to long-term success in today’s highly competitive marketplace and the turnover rates in these operations tell that sad story.

Mr. P.Thomas, CEO of a high profile MNC who has recruited two of the top executives in his company through Simon is of the opinion that, Simon is a man of passion. He narrated that initially he wanted to recruit a Director-Marketing for his massive countrywide operation. Accordingly he wanted a person from the same industry having good track record. In this process many headhunters has worked, he received many profiles, but he could not find out a candidate having “breakthrough potential”. He wasted lot of time in this process. At this point he met Simon. But Simon took several weeks to understand various complex dimensions of the vacant position though in the mean time Mr.Thomas met Simon only twice for short duration. At the end of two month Simon came out with a complete breakthrough idea, a candidate from an altogether different industry having some path-breaking achievement in marketing. Mr.Thomas met him and found the most ideal candidate for the role he was looking for. He immediately offered him a job. The concerned candidate accepted the offer and today, nine moths down the line this candidate happens to be the most brilliant performer of the company. Similar experience Mr.Thomas developed while recruiting a Director-Sales few months back through Simon who again happens to be from an altogether different industry.

Mr.Thomas added, he admires Simon a lot. According to him Simon has the ability to challenge our conventional thought process, come out with altogether different perspective and most importantly maintains un-compromised professional value and ethics.

Mr.T.Mathew, Managing Director of another high profile MNC who has also recruited Senior Vice President-Corporate Planning for his company few months back through Simon believes that Simon’s style of operation is entirely different with other headhunters. According to him, Simon spent more than two months only in moving around his company premises, its canteen, meeting people informally, meeting customers, trying to understand the complexities of their business process from various dimensions before coming out with any prospective candidate. Mr.Mathew further added that, today perhaps Simon understands the culture of his company better than many senior level employees. Moreover his un-compromised passion for research on client’s organization, its role, ability to challenge conventional norms, ability to offer different perspective etc helped him to earn unmatched credibility and build brand with his client.  For a clients like ours Simon is not a simple headhunter, he is an advisor for the entire business process. According to Mr.Mathew while he came across with many headhunters with “Yesmanship” nature or no courage to question the decision of their client, Simon comes out with entirely different approach. After all, a successful headhunter thoroughly understands every step of the placement process and how to execute skillfully each step. They understand their “ Headhunter Power” and use it seemingly effortlessly to guide every participant’s (client’s and candidate’s) actions toward the placement. They make it their goal to understand exactly what the client requires to hire a candidate and differentiate those qualities from what they prefer to have in the desired candidate.

To end Mr.Mathew added that Simon never believes in hunting prospective candidate from the job sites, since according to him the best people are generally employed at what they do best and not looking for a job, a headhunter must go to them and present them with an exceptional opportunity.