Time flies...

Happy Novruz Bayram! Happy Ramadan Kareem!

I decided to launch my corporate LinkedIn page. Start writing. The first time after its eight years of silence passed since its birth on March 2015. Thank you all for accepting my invitation to join!

Time flies... On March 1st I raised a glass of Montapulciano for the sixteenth anniversary of my career in executive search consultancy. The well-balanced corporate consultancy life perfectly split into two eight years old tenures within two different working environments (a global executive search firm with 53 offices worldwide, and an own boutique local brand) within the same functional profession reached the equation, and having crossed the line started a new slot of next eight years, inshallah.

Certain observations inspired me to start writing to share some thoughts.?

Well, executive search consultancy is an amazing profession in so many senses. An enriching one in an entirely different way. It invites you to look at many things in business from different perspectives, encourages you to broaden the vision both of corporate world as well as a human nature. This invitation is hard-wired into the job’s DNA.

Firstly, the essence of this advisory service (in comparison with many others) inspires you always to learn new things about so many different subjects: business functions (finance, sales, marketing, HR, operations, production, supply chain, law, IT, general management, and others), industries (Telco, Banking, FMCG, Pharmacy, Energy, Heavy & Light Industries, Hospitality, ?Agriculture, Construction, Retail, Real Estate, Entertainment, and others), companies (multinational, regional, national, public), commercial, operational and relationship management insights, written business English nuances, local market trends, policies, laws, regulations & compliance issues, human capital phenomenon, its rich and complex nature, – both at individual and collective levels, – its drivers and traps, and so many more. The job nature motivates you to regularly enlarge your general business management knowledge, and not only.

Indeed, the exact fact of working with different business functions in various industries with people of certain corporate seniority level from different countries, nations, cultures, traditions, habits, backgrounds, etc. allows you to broaden and deepen your experience avenues due to such a diversity of aspects of the corporate world. Not many professions stimulate you to dive into and explore so many areas of business knowledge, and inspire you to keep an eye on so many subjects to get updated and keep learning further.

Usually, major part of other functions and advisory services inspire you to dive into your own ‘ocean’, focus on your own ‘garden’. Function and industry wise. Whatever it might be: finance, audit, investment, law, supply chain, HR, engineering, etc. Sure, such executives with such a deep narrow expertise are extremely important. No doubt about it. They are crucial for success. But that is not the point. The subject is different.

Secondly, besides giving a great hands-on opportunity to develop certain Skills, both hard and soft ones, and Qualities – ‘hands & heart’ – (like, for example, learning to write high quality (competitive with the one at multinationals) business English texts, or honing the subtle communication nuances, polishing listening skills,?improving emotional intelligence, etc.), the job nature of top management recruitment (flow of interviews with a mosaic of mid & senior management executives from different walks of life) leads you to develop also the Knowledge basket (‘mind’) from different angles: not only its ‘hard’ part (technical/functional knowledge), but as well as its ‘soft’ part by allowing you to hear so many interesting business stories. In addition, it allows you to get to know different corporate life stories, both success and failure, love and hatred, various business cases, projects, team works, achievements, challenges, betrayals, intrigues, wars, passion, stress, dedication, loyalty and other.

Thirdly, last but not least, the job fully satisfies the spiritual part of the soul by giving a ‘sense’, by creating a 'noble' mission, and answers the inside questions “What does my job SERVE for? What is its final outcome?”.

As the raison d'être of the job is to generate a POSITIVE change in human lives via a right career move. Savab i?dir, as we say in Azerbaijani. The successful placement of a right-fit candidate is not only a positive change in both executive’s and shareholders’ life. Not only they yield the fruits. The successful executive placement touches positively as well the lives of all employees in so many aspects (better corporate culture, less negative stress, better team relationship, more joy, engagement and satisfaction, higher sales/profits and as a result higher bonuses, and many others). A right-fit CEO/GM or Function Head leading by example, if s/he is a true leader, may contribute significantly not only to the top & bottom lines of the business, but also to improving lives of employees over many years to come, both financially and emotionally.???

WHY am I writing all this on the birthday of my 17th year ES career?!... ?