The Market Is Strong!
As seen in the last two Blog posts, some interesting trends have been identified that we are already seeing come true. Adding to the trend data, the executive/retained search industry is considered a leading economic indicator. We see how the economy is doing - and will be doing for the next 6 to 12 months.
We have listed a few websites in past Blog posts where we find the trend data. One more to add is www.execunet.com. Many search firms participate in frequent surveys from this organization (we are one of them). They compile the data and give us additional insights into the marketplace. On March 21st, they sent out an e-mail titled, Where Executive Jobs are Expected to Be. Here are their lists:
Top 10 Fastest Growing Functions
- Business Development
- Sales
- Operations Management
- MIS/IT
- Engineering
- Marketing
- General Management
- Finance
- Research and Development
- Human Resource
Combine this with their second list:
Top 10 Fastest Growing Industries
- Technology
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Pharma/Medical/Biotech
- Financial Services
- Software
- Energy/Utilities
- Consumer Products
- Business & Professional Services
- Internet/e-commerce
Let's add one more item - from Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends 2014 Survey (see www.deloitte.com/hcdashboard):
- Finding 1: Leadership, retention, HR skills, and talent acquisition are the top global trends in perceived urgency
And here is where it all comes together:
- Finding 2: Companies report generally low levels of readiness to respond to the trends
For all of us, the opportunities and how we can impact the economic future look very positive!
Future posts will focus on how to work with search effectively, including what we do AND don't do as well as the impact we can have.