Anyone who talks about people as commodities should "roast in hell", American management guru Tom Peters told an audience of recruiters in London on 30 October.

Speaking at a roundtable event hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Peters savaged the use of procurement officers as recruiters. "It's not a procurement job," he said. But he also called on recruiters to rise to the challenge of providing professional services. "Any idiot can make money renting bodies," he said. "Professional services is like a priesthood — it requires thought and diligence."

He went on to say that professional services providers — "which you are", he said — must sometimes take advantage of one of their greatest options: sacking their clients. "Never work with a jerk," he urged. "Growth for the sake of size is an appalling notion."