THE Chinese executive search industry has over the last year become one of the most important growth areas for international headhunting firms.
For years regarded as an underperformer in the revenues of the major search firms, China is now starting to bring home the bacon, according to the head of one of the world's largest headhunting firms, Egon Zehnder.
Daniel Meiland, the firm's international chief executive, says the firm's Chinese operations are now the fastest-growing single area of its international practice. Revenues have grown by 100 per cent over the last year for the group's Greater China practice, Mr Meiland said.
Egon Zehnder does not have a billing practice in China. It simply operates a representative office out of Shanghai which is used predominantly for marketing purposes.
The firm has a main base in Hong Kong and a smaller one in Singapore from which virtually all revenues for mainland searches are derived.
Based on the policy of virtually all of the major international executive search firms - with the exception of Amrop International - not to operate joint ventures on the mainland, it appears the Chinese operations of most practices will continue to bill largely out of Hong Kong.