The president of Boyden Global Executive Search, Professor Christopher Clarke, has attacked his competitors in the industry in a speech given at Henley Management College. Clarke said that those firms who had become publicly owned during the search boom of the 90s were ‘laying the seeds for future disaster’.

In what was a thinly veiled attack on publicly owned search giants like Heidrich & Struggles and Korn/Ferry, Clarke said that search businesses had diversified into areas where they had no competencies and that some incumbent partners had cashed in at the height of the boom.

His greatest criticism was that the 90s boom had led search companies to cut corners, to the detriment of client service, under pressure from shareholders to deliver financial returns.

‘The stock prices of publicly quoted search companies had all collapsed prior to 11 September, as their diversifications did not pay off and as acquistions were made at too high a price, at the crest of the boom,’ he said.

‘It is no surprise that all the firms in public ownership have changed their search CEOs in the last few months, are downsizing by up to 35% and are closing offices. They are now explaining to their remaining clients why their erstwhile searchers have left the firm. Others are queueing up to leave,’ he added.