I'm throwing a stone into the pond: 20 years gravitating around the executive recruitment market and two headhunters have really taken an interest in me. Fortunately, I am still in communication with both of them. The 50 or so other headhunters I've been in touch with over the years have disappeared from the landscape. Radio silence. Do the ratio.

My experience over the past 20 years has led me to draw a bitter conclusion: the headhunting business is clearly broken. I now realize just how transactional the executive recruitment business is. To my surprise, we're in a market of commodities. This casual way of doing things has to stop, because it's at the peril of our talents' sanity, our companies' success and, more broadly, our economic power.

Doing business as usual means getting depressed and burning our best business opportunities. Let's stop ticking boxes and filling chairs like robots. If you have strategic ambitions associated with your recruitment, it's high time to evolve in terms of practices.

Let's pause and rewind for a moment: the executive search activity should be noble, important and exhilarating. We're building for the future, because mind you, we're not hiring for yesterday or today, but for the future. We don't look at the tree, we look at the forest. We don't just shoot the gun in the air; we aim precisely at the target. Would you like some more images? The elephant is in the room.

If we want to flourish, we need to stand out from the crowd, and return to a certain form of rationality. Paradoxically, we also need to add a significant dose of creativity. We need to pull ourselves together, reposition ourselves. If it's necessary to ask the right questions, it's even more important to listen to the answers. Is the culture in place and the current mix of skills right for executing the strategy? Do we have the necessary level of creativity in our organization to face up to our competitors' innovation?

Back to the two good headhunters I'm still in touch with. By the time I met the second, it was already too late for me. A disillusioned candidate in the recruitment market, I had already decided to create my own executive job. That's when I founded a real estate management company. Just over seven years after starting my firm, with the help of my team, I can humbly and unreservedly say that we disrupted the condominium real estate market.

After stellar and relentless growth, an unsolicited offer came to the table in 2021. So, I sold the company and took a professional break. I refocused. I took the opportunity to spend quality time with my family, and play about 50 rounds of golf during the summer.

Throughout my entrepreneurial years, I kept contact with my two favourite headhunters. Now as a young retiree, it was only a matter of time before they smelled blood. Within weeks, each of them invited me to join their respective companies. It took one of them just over a few months to convince me. Only you can appreciate why. I finally agreed to join forces in early 2022.

As if starting a new business from scratch in real estate management wasn't enough, unbeknownst to me, I was destined to disrupt a second market. This time, it was going to be the executive search industry!

Looking back, I must say that the past two years with my new team have been an enriching experience. I was given the keys to a small research laboratory and permitted to study the business model, as well as the executive recruitment market as a whole. I had been a candidate and a client before, but this time I had the unique opportunity to have an inside view.

Today, my singular background inspires me to propose a groundbreaking action in my new market: a paradigm shift. Therefore, I suggest immediately eliminating the role of “headhunter” and replacing it with “executive search strategist”. Consequently, by this action, I officially denounce the transactional approach. Starting today, I suggest that we do things more strategically, with the ambition of creating a recruitment process that is part of a global and long-term vision of the company. It will be a cornerstone for creating economic value, as well as values to support a high-performing culture.

Let's change the discourse and improve our approach. Let's take more time upfront instead of constantly reacting. Making mistakes in hiring leaders costs companies, and talent, too much. To start, if we want to find good leaders, we need to approach them using their language. An “executive search strategist” can elevate the level of conversation and bring to the table the best performing and most relevant talent in the unique context of your company.

I must end now as I need to discuss strategy with a client. I apologize, but please stay close. In my next column, I will provide more context and data. This will be followed by a description of the new role of “executive search strategist”. And you know what? I am also considering sharing my recipe with you. Until then, I suggest we exchange one on one.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.