I enjoyed reading the article ‘Raynaud’s vision for Hudson’ (Recruiter, 27 May). Obviously the UK market is important to Hudson and the next CEO is a key appointment that, with Ms Raynaud’s presence in the UK, they do not want to take any chances on not finding the right person. Yet among all the good stuff about ‘change agenda’, ‘riding the storm’ and the like was this apparently innocuous sentence: “We like to think of ourselves as a talent management company rather than as a recruitment company because at the end of the day… etc etc”.

My buzzer sounded and a big red ‘X’ appeared above Ms Raynaud’s head in the true tradition of the latest round of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.

This apparent denial of her very routes in recruitment reminded me of a good lesson I learnt at a training course I went to, 15 or so years ago, when I had cut my teeth in recruitment. The speaker opened the meeting by showing the 40+ crowd of eager recruiters a £20 note.

“The first person,” he said, “to place a business card on my desk with the words ‘Sales’ anywhere in the job title can have the money.” A great deal of rustling and downward glances ensued, but no one moved. The guy smiled broadly and started his session exploring all the skills, talent, knowledge, empathy, attitude etc, etc… required to be successful. The message, however, that at our heart we had to be good sales people and should be proud to be such, stuck with me to this very day.

I have been in the recruitment industry 20+ years and the growth of our industry has fuelled the economic growth of UK plc and will be an integral part of regenerating our stagnant economy now. Whatever industry sector we are involved in we supply talent at all levels, be that a hard-grafting road sweeper for a council contract, a dedicated nurse to cover extra shifts at an NHS department or Hudson’s own ‘mid market specialists’.

Recruitment, in all its guises and specialisms, is at the heart of what we do and we should be proud of that fact and make sure every client, candidate and publication we may be conversing with understands that. I will leave you with a fact about Mr Philippe Foriel-Destezet who is abillionaire, and the source of that wealth, as described in the many business and finance publications about his illustrious career, is… ‘Recruitment services’.

Well done, that man! And it’s a ‘Yes’ from me!

Keith Gallagher, director, Millbank Group