Listed among the “Most Powerful Women Leaders” by FORTUNE India and ranked on The Economic Times “Women Ahead List 2018,” Anuranjita Kumar is a recognized champion of diversity and inclusion. She spoke with AESC’s Executive Talent magazine about her book Colour Matters? and the state of diversity and inclusion in organizations and the world, today. What inspired you to conduct this research and write Colour Matters? To be honest with you, I think the genesis was my experience in different parts of the world and different parts of the country; the fact that I have two children, where one is very American and the other is very British; and having experienced the intersectionality of color and gender myself, having worked in some global organizations. I found colour an often neglected topic, which led to the almost normalization of victimization and racism at work. People who are discomfited are too fearful to talk about it, lest they would be branded. As a result, everything that weighs on and pulls on people is just repeating. Can you give us a trend-line of diversity and inclusion in organizations? Unless we consciously strive and work towards changing attitudes, the well-known numbers around diversity in [...]

By Christian Coley, Account Executive, Invenias by Bullhorn Over the years, executive search has seen shifts and changes, but never at the pace, or unfortunately, with the global impact that we are experiencing today. We are living in an unprecedented time of uncertainty and economic upheaval. As we navigate through these difficult waters, running our businesses will require innovation, creativity, and increased efficiency, all with work and travel restrictions never before imagined. These challenges impact all stakeholders in a search engagement: the consultant, the candidate, and the end-customer. This has search leaders thinking, “How do we adapt to and support the terms of engagement to compete and stay productive during this ‘new normal?’” In February of 2020, Invenias by Bullhorn released its annual Executive Search Trends Report surveying 400 executive search professionals for the year ahead. While this survey was conducted long before the COVID-19 pandemic had spread globally, the key issues elucidated will impact executive search in all business environments. While respondents are excited about the possibilities provided by technology, they are anxious about how to maximize use of it. Digital transformation and candidate engagement all play significant roles in the day-to-day lives of their teams. Let’s take a [...]

"As disruption continues to hit with increasing speed and impact, business leaders more than ever look to trusted advisors for a competitive advantage in the markets in which they operate. It is imperative that AESC and its global members continue to operate at the height of the profession and be at the forefront of talent consulting on behalf of their clients." -Paul Benson, AESC Global Chair and Regional Market Leader for Europe, Middle East & Africa, Korn Ferry Future Growth AESC research published in State of the Executive Search and Leadership Consulting Profession reveals “2018 brought the best growth for the profession since the Global Recession. Executive search experienced 12% growth by year’s end and leadership consulting grew by 12.8%. We estimate that global revenues for the executive search and leadership consulting profession, across all lines of business, has now climbed to $15.6B USD.” Is that growth sustainable? What will drive continued growth in the profession, and how will the changing needs of clients shape the services offered and even the profiles of search and leadership consultants themselves? Members of the AESC Global Board of Directors representing 13 firms from nine countries consider the future of the profession, its drivers [...]

Companies that are winning the war for talent are providing meaning, value and purpose to their teams and their stakeholders. Their leadership, culture, and purpose inform how they are perceived in the market, drive rewarding employee experiences, and may even change the world. Purpose-driven organizations Purpose is a company’s reason for being. It drives the culture, directs strategy, and is often the glue that holds an organization together. Purpose, along with an employer’s brand and value proposition differentiate organizations competing for increasingly scarce and increasingly selective top talent. Purpose unifies management, employees, and communities. It drives ethical behavior and creates an essential check on actions that go against the best interests of stakeholders. Purpose guides culture, provides a framework for consistent decision-making, and, ultimately, helps sustain long-term financial returns for the shareholders of your company. Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO, Blackrock Investments 2019 Letter to CEOs Ynzo van Zanten, speaker at our 2019 European Conference, is Chief Evangelist at Tony’s Chocolonely, a company founded and focused on a single purpose: making all chocolate 100% slave-free, worldwide. That purpose has fueled tremendous growth and the fierce loyalty of employees, customers and the supply chain. Van Zanten explains, “For a company like [...]

How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today — By Linda Yueh In The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today, Yueh looks at current economic questions through the lens of some of the most influential thinkers in history: Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter and other greats. After first putting the economists and their theories into the historical context of their respective times, Yueh then applies their thinking to some of the pressing questions of our time. How might Joan Robinson explain sluggish wage growth, today? How would Alfred Marshall view growing income inequality? What can we learn from the global financial crisis through the eyes of Friedrich Hayak? And finally, what would the great economists make of the backlash against globalization? Blending history, economic theory and current affairs Professor Yueh makes the historical arguments around economics and public policy both accessible and timely. Professor Linda Yueh holds senior academic positions at London Business School, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. She is TV and radio broadcast journalist and has served as an anchor and correspondent for Bloomberg TV and BBC news. Dr. Yueh has consulted some of the world’s most [...]

By Andrew Shapiro, Principal & Co-Founder, The Cluen Corporation Retained search firms achieve long-term success with the support of their many trusted partners. Whether lawyers, brokers, technology providers, accountants, or the professional association, there are outsiders that play a critical role in supporting the business of executive search. Search firms need not only world-class experts in specialties beyond their own staff, but need them to be committed, trusted partners with a proven track record and experience working with similar organizations. Part of AESC’s great success is the implicit nature of these qualities (of course its staff understands retained search and they’re committed to its success—it’s the whole point). But when making critical decisions about other potential partners, how can search firms know that they will be aligned with their business and will remain aligned over time? As the longest-standing AESC partner, technology innovator, and expert in delivering data systems to thousands of search professionals over decades, Cluen’s team has a great opportunity to see the trends (and the impacts) of different models of engagement. When a search firm chooses a technology provider, there are many considerations (some enumerated below), but it usually boils down to a choice between a trusted [...]

By Peter Lagomarsino, Managing Director, Mintz Group Fake degrees created by diploma mills—those scam schools that exist only on a computer server somewhere—are proliferating throughout the business world, according to professional organizations involved in academic credential evaluation. That fits with Mintz Group’s observations as a background-screening company. We and our executive search firm clients need to remain alert to signs of this academic fraud. The risks of employing someone with a sham degree grow as more candidates cross borders to get jobs, and as the software needed to make authentic-looking school documents is disseminated more widely. The creators of the fake schools, who might be based anywhere from Pakistan to Peoria, create websites showing photos of beaming students and ivy-covered campus buildings from stock photo banks. They also create other sham companies that act like college accreditation services and, of course, tell people that the school is on the level. The good news for employers and the search consultants who assist them is that more jurisdictions are digitizing and consolidating degree checks into a single source like the US’s National Student Clearinghouse. China has done this with its CHESSIC service, as has France with Verifdiploma, Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) [...]

By Jen Anderson, Director of Experience Marketing, Invenias by Bullhorn Digital transformation has become a ubiquitous concept in today’s business landscape. This is especially true in the executive search profession, where a new digital era means disruptive initiatives and profound changes in the way leadership talent is found. Yet despite digital transformation’s pivotal role, many struggle to implement formal plans within their organizations. In fact, there still exists a debate and confusion among many on how to even define digital transformation. With so many options and limited guidance, it can be a daunting task to know where to start.  We recently surveyed over 300 executive search professionals on the topic of digital transformation. The culmination of that data yielded some interesting findings regarding the perception of digital transformation among executive search professionals, the ways in which firms are prioritizing and investing in technology, and the information search firms need to create their own plan to transform their business.  Digital Transformation Remains an Elusive Concept Of our respondents, only 25 percent reported having a deep understanding of digital transformation. The remaining 75 percent replied that they possessed either limited or no understanding of digital transformation. While the majority of respondents realized [...]

How companies are employing artificial empathy to connect with customers “I think that I can show that robots are not only industrial or military machines made of cold metal. We can be warm, and gentle, and caring.” - Erica an autonomous, humanoid robot, Created by Hiroshi Ishiguro in collaboration with Osaka University, Tokyo University and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International In 1995 the MIT computer scientist Rosalind Picard coined the phrase “Affective Computing” to describe computing that relates to, arises from, or influences emotions. “Affective Computing research combines engineering and computer science with psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, sociology, education, psychophysiology, value-centered design, ethics, and more.” (Picard, MIT Press 1997). The products derived from the field include devices that can recognize, replicate, respond to, and manipulate human emotion and behavior. Recognition Advanced facial and voice recognition systems are identifying the emotional and cognitive state of humans. For example, MIT spin-off Cogito provides real-time, in-call voice analytics to determine a customer’s emotional state to help call center agents diffuse frustration, close a sale, and more. In developing the technology, MIT researchers engineered sensors that track body and speech patterns during conversation. As Greg Nichols wrote in “Artificial empathy: Call center employees [...]

AESC, together with our members, are dedicated to strengthening leadership worldwide. AESC and its members share a deep commitment to the highest quality standards in executive search and leadership consulting—for the benefit of clients and the profession. Through collaboration and innovative thinking, we deliver the future of global leadership today.Mission Statement, AESC Independent research published by The Conference Board (TCB) and two recent studies released by AESC take the pulse of global business executives and leaders of AESC member firms worldwide in order to gauge the top issues facing organizations, now and in the future. Karen Greenbaum, AESC president and CEO, pulls the research together to explain the leadership challenges faced by a changing world. “Attracting and Retaining Top Talent Remains the Number One Business Issue Around the World” The Conference Board, C Suite Challenge 2019: The Future-Ready Organization The talent shortage continues, and according to Greenbaum it is only getting worse. “Everyone is looking for the next generation of digital, diverse leaders, and it’s a candidate market. The top talent has choices, and there is a high demand for talent with similar profiles.” Greenbaum identifies four key forces that influence the global business climate: global uncertainty, a mass demographic [...]