(intrebari puse cu ocazia nominalizarii GB pentru World Finance Executive RecruitmentAwards 2010 – pt Romania)
1. Which initiatives or strategies implemented over the past 12-24 months have had the greatest impact on your success?
The most ambitious initiative we had in the last years, and which we have already successfully implemented, was to increase our productivity at its highest limit by using the top technologies and especially to eliminate the paper from our office. Indeed, we have succeeded to eliminate COMPLETELY the paper from our office and have more that 100,000 resumes (+ a lot of additional documents) entirely in electronic format. We use all tablet PCs for electronic writing and the latest Web technologies of “mobile office” type, which allow us to work from anywhere exactly as we are in the office next door. Consequently, our productivity and strict control of the information gave increased steadily and significantly, as well as our margins.
2. Are there any ways in which your business methods exceed your standard governing code of practice?
Given our productivity ratio (as described above), which seem to be higher than that of any of our competitors on the market, we can afford to consider by far more candidates in each search process than the usual practice on the market. While the average pool of candidates for a usual search is 30 – 40, we usually include the double, and we often exceed 100 for a single assignment. Also, given our technological capabilities, the reference check is often more exhaustive.
3. How do you ensure the ongoing professional development of your employees?
My passion for optimization, procedures and technology has always been contagious to my employees, so most of their “training” comes directly from me, on daily basis.
4. How would you describe your philosophy or “mission statement”?
“Executive search is mainly information processing power, more than the executive search professionals openly admit. That is why we try hard to give our clients facts and figures, more than opinions.”
5. If available please supply the following figures for the past 12 months compared to the previous year
- i Percentage difference in placement numbers
- ii Percentage difference in client base.
- iii Percentage difference in candidate referrals.
Our main business figures have roughly decreased with 20% in 2009 compared to 2008, mainly owing to the severe crisis which has hit Romania and is still in all areas of our social and economic sectors. We also predict a 5% decrease in our business in 2010 compared to 2009.