Broaden executive searches

Chief Executive, The, June, 2004 by Frank Smeekes

Regarding the March letter from Mason Carpenter about the international experience CEOs need to get to the top ("Global Value"):

I'm an executive recruiter with an international (Dutch) background, and my clients come from all industries. My team and I look for the types of individuals who are capable of creating impact from the top. More than 90 percent of my placements are Americans who have had global responsibility, yet only 20 percent have lived and worked overseas.

Over the past 12 months, we have placed the general counsel for a major global institution who came from Peru, the Japanese chairman of a major technology company, and a CIO who lived in Europe for several years. However, they were hired on the basis of not only their international experience but also their awareness of and adaptability to change.

We in the executive search profession are too willing to stay within our comfort zone: the old-boy network. We should set the course in attracting the unexpected, rather than present the usual suspects. Even with the recent high turnover in the executive suite, it's amazing to see the familiar faces as companies make safe bets. All too often, it seems, our profession is more inclined to review databases of known entities than to conduct original research. In other words, the establishment is still the establishment.

Frank Smeekes

Vice President

A.T. Kearney

Chicago