Airport Business - 36

MANAGEMENT MATTERS
AUTHOR Eric Mercado

Executive Search Part 1:

AN EDUCATION ON A WIDELY USED BUT MISINTERPRETED TOPIC
Using the right strategy and firms will aid in finding the best executives to
fill your leadership roles.
IF YOU conducted an internet search on executive
search, you will likely to find very brief and often
vague explanations. Some explanations are from
those who explored the topic themselves and are
now attempting to educate their readership, while
others are consulting firms attempting to describe
their craft of recruiting leaders for an organization.
As I dug deeper into the topic that
What is Executive
Search
is a good part of my business, I found
that the term executive search is often
incorrectly used for describing types of
recruitment services that are not true
executive search.
The topic of executive search is a
massive topic that dates back to the
mid 1920's. Over this series of articles,
we will explore recruitment for leaders
and managers, focusing on executive
search. In future articles, I'll explore
its impact on the aviation industry,
and finish with various perceptions
around executive search and f irms
who conduct recruitment for executive
management.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ERIC MERCADO

Eric founded ACS with the vision of
offering a fresh perspective on talent
management, learning and diverse
recruitment to the airport and aviation
industry. His experience spans general
aviation, Part 139 commercial service, and
shared-use airport management ranging
from non-hub to large hub airports. He
has managed airports and their operations
and maintenance departments as a
supervisor and manager while recruiting
and developing their respective staff.

The practice of true executive search has
a long history dating back to its start
in 1926 by Thorndike Deland. Deland
was a pioneer in executive selection and
evaluation in the retail industry. He
founded Thorndike Deland Associates,
the very first executive search firm.
He charged his clients 5 percent of the
position's salary - a bargain in today's
dollars where the fees range from 25
percent to 40 percent of the first-year
salary.
It took nearly 20 years before other
executive search firms began to see
the market for recruitment services.
Boyden was founded in 1946, followed
by Heidrick & Struggles in 1953, Spencer
Stuart in 1956 and Korn/Ferry, Russell
Reynolds Associates and Charles Aris
Inc. in 1969.
E xe c ut ive s e a rch 's hu m ble
beginnings in the retail sector grew
to today's multi-disciplined executive
search f irms that include Financial
Services, Technology, Consumer Goods,
Transportation, Industrial, Health Care,
Education, Public Sector and most other
career sectors in the world. With the
vast network of professionals in executive

36 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / MAY 2019

search, the Association of Executive
Search and Leadership Consultants
estimated that the global total revenue
for executive search in 2017 amounted
to over $14 billion and that is an 8.34
percent increase from the prior year.
These numbers show that executive
search services are growing in most
career sectors due to the challenges faced
with securing and retaining top talent
in today's markets.
The executive search firms that
pioneered the profession in the mid
20 th century started the true practice
of executive search - a process of
outsourcing recruitment support
to a detailed and skilled third party
consulting firm to lead the search process;
professionally engage with the client and
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