Changing environment needs new breed of business leaders

Tougher regulatory requirements, fast changing technology and volatile investment markets worldwide demand new types of leadership in companies, which pose challenges and opportunities for global headhunters.

Rajeev Vasudeva, 54, newly appointed chief executive of Egon Zehnder, one of the largest international executive search firms, said the new breed of business leaders needed not only knowledge but the skills to identify risk and business trends quickly to handle the new regulatory and technological challenges and scrutiny from social media.

Vasudeva, who was born in Delhi and grew up there, studied economics for his first degree before qualifying as a  chartered accountant and lawyer.
After seven months working in his father’s legal firm in India, Vasudeva realised that was not the career for him, so he went to the United States to study business administration.

After gaining an MBA, he worked in a management consulting firm in the US for a few years before returning to India to set up his own management consulting firm in 1986 to serve international companies that wanted to expand there. 

In 1995, his company merged with Egon Zehnder, where he became a partner. In January this year, Vasudeva was appointed chief executive of the headhunting firm, which has 68 offices across 41 markets worldwide.

During a visit to Hong Kong this week, he talked to the South China Morning Post about the recruitment of leaders.