Message from the President & CEO

Welcome to the Boyden website. Whether you are a client, a candidate or a consultant considering joining our firm,  you will find a wealth of information that will be of interest and offer insights into the unique expertise of Boyden. Whatever your goal, seeking executives for long term employment or in interim management, Boyden stands ready to help you.

My challenge here is to summarize what it is about Boyden that drives our success with clients and thereby our global growth of over 30%. So what is the one thing that best differentiates Boyden, from other global search firms?

It is not our global reach. We do have wider coverage of both the developing growth iconologies and in the developed countries, than the other large search firms.

It is not our vast experience in both internationally organized industry and functional practices, and our ability to place both long-term executives and interim managers.

It is not our rigorous focus on the excellence of every aspect of every search, and exceptional delivery to client. We have an overarching quality program, from the recruitment and training of our professionals to tracking performance for every client assignment.

It is not our 'one for one, one for all' cooperation across the world to deliver for the client.

While it is none of these things, these are all true and important to our success. But what is it?

It is that we are upside down and therefore rather unusual. What does this mean, and what is the benefit?  Like firms in most industries, large executive search firms develop hierarchical pyramids and matrix management. The shareholders are at the top and then the corporate and functional managers cascade down in several layers. This is an attempt to manage the complexity of global operations. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that this leads to expensive overheads, bureaucracy and clogged communications channels. The search professionals and the clients end up at the bottom of the pyramid.

For more than 60 years, Boyden has evolved away from this flawed approach. Boyden's pyramid is upside down. We place the clients on top, recognizing their premier place in everything we do. The search professionals, who are serving the clients are the key decision makers, who then call on everyone else in the organization to help them to deliver for clients. The person you are dealing with has our firm behind them. Anything that does not help support the client's needs is rigorously reviewed.

Our success as a large integrated search firm is the result of this unique structure. It is not that we have a global strategy, unified processes, access to the best executive talent, though each very important. It is the enthusiasm, excitement and commitment to being a part of a unique organization where our professionals are each responsible for the overall success of each and every client relationship — being upside down!

Therefore, the role of CEO of Boyden is very different from the norm. The primary goal is to support our client-facing colleagues and facilitate alignment rather than to command and control.

Competitors may wonder why we share this insight into Boyden’s success. The answer is that it would be very difficult and time consuming to reproduce the way we operate. Hierarchies and egos alone limit replication. This is a mindset, not just a structure.

Let me add a few words specifically for candidates visiting our site. Without us having access to the best people for each client assignment, we cannot be effective and thereby delight our clients. Both clients and candidates tell us that the major problem with most search firms is arrogance. Search firms portray themselves as king makers, dropping names and people, as soon as they are not immediately useful. Clients judge us partly on how well we represent them to candidates. Therefore the way we treat candidates must be with honesty, courtesy and consideration for their needs.

Thank you for visiting our site. I hope you find what you are looking for. If you want to learn more, do contact the Boyden person in the office nearest, who can best help you.

Sincerely

Chris Clarke