Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, urged a London gathering of recruiters on Tuesday to take their place in business as “trusted advisers”, a role that is crucial for today's professional services provider to play.

“I don't understand why you people don't take over the world,” Peters said at an afternoon roundtable gathering hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland. He added that he considered recruiters the critical partner for businesses in dealing with “the talent thing”.

During the two-hour roundtable, Peters railed against procurement departments' involvement in recruitment, benchmarking against competitors and human resources departments for not delivering to their potential.

* Read more about Peters in the 14 November issue of Recruiter.