Small businesses need headhunters, too

MANILA, Philippines -  The secrets to success are varied. In business, having a good product and excellent service is one such secret.

But equally important is to have good people to steer the business, according to Global Executive Solutions Group president and chief executive officer Ray Silvestre Canilao.

A number of small and medium enterprises in the country often overlook this important factor. Often times, small and medium enterprises contend themselves with just asking friends and families for referrals for top executives and people they want to hire.

But according to Canilao, while this also works, there are also better alternatives that would enable a small business to employ the best people. And this is where Global Executive Solutions  comes in, Canilao said.

The company serves clients in varied industries to meet their needs for skilled management. Its roster of clients include big names in the industries – from multinational companies such as Sanofi to conglomerates such as the Aboitiz Group and the MVP Group.

But Canilao also wants to help the small businesses. “At the end of the day, the real competitive advantage are the people who will run it,” he said.

“These small and medium enterprises with billion plus in revenue are founded by entrepreneurs. A lot of them are Chinese-Filipinos. They are growing but they are not used to bringing in professional people,” Canilao said.

Canilao said when he took over Global Executive Solutions many years ago, the company’s clients were a combination of conglomerates and multinationals.

“But in the last five years, I saw the opportunity to service the small and medium-sized industries. We focused on servicing the SMEs. These are Filipino companies or Chinese companies. Sometimes they rely on referrals or the traditional mode of getting people,” Canilao said.

But he said in an increasingly competitive environment, this cannot be sustained. As such, he enjoined other SMEs to professionalize the way they hire skilled management. The benefits, after all, are worth all the efforts.

“It (the traditional ways) cannot be sustained. With the globalization of business, how can they compete with bigger companies if they don’t professionalize? You may have a good product or a good service but if you don’t have good people, it’s useless,” Canilao said.

He cited the example of Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest Filipino-owned food conglomerate in Asia. “Many years ago, they were having problems. It took them years to adopt to the professional set up. Now, Jollibee is a leading company because in addition to having good products, they now have very good people,” he said.

Indeed, at the end of the day, when business is good and growing and companies want to be competitive and grow it some more, they need the experience of professional people coming from multinationals, Canilao said.

It is for these reasons that SMEs have to invest in people as what big companies do.

“SMEs have to accept the fact that for them to grow, to sustain their growth, to achieve their goals, they have to invest. First, they have to invest in people, and then invest in technology. They don’t have any choice but to avail the services of headhunters,” he said.

“Headhunters know the people in the different industries. They know where the resources will be coming from. They also know the clients well and know which candidates to be matched with which clients. It’s a real matching game,” Canilao said.

In doing its work, Global Executive Solutions considers several factors including culture of the company, career path of the candidate and the financial stability of the company among others.

Culture is important because a candidate who has previously worked in a multinational company  may be shocked with how things work in a locally owned firm.

“So we have to understand the culture of a client. There will be a gestation period from a multinational company moving to a local company,” he said.

This, he said, is the role of the headhunter – to identify a candidate and the culture where he or she would fit.

The career path of the candidate is also important and should match the client’s needs and what they can offer.

“If they move here what will happen to their careers? We have to know that so first we really talk to the clients. We understand the need. It’s important to to know their culture, leadership style. These things are very important for the candidate,” he said.

The financial stability of the company is another important consideration.

“If there’s some problem on stability, we will advise the candidate to look into it seriously. Everything should be defined and transparent,” Canilao said.

Global Executive Solutions has an excellent understanding of today’s diverse talent pool. It invests its time and resources in rigorous profiling and researching.

“We are experts from various industries,” Canilao said.

Indeed, in business as in anything in life, getting professional help is always a good idea.