Referring to Dubai, one of the 22 countries in which Antal International operates, Tony Goodwin, chief executive of the international and professional services recruiter, said having a local business partner was vital “otherwise the business will not progress”.

He added: “There are lots of hoops you have to go through and you have to know what you are doing, otherwise, to put it bluntly [in some countries] you could end up in jail.”

As the UK economy contracts, many recruiters have already diversified into countries such as Poland and the Far East, while Hays recently opened an office in Mumbai, India, and plans further expansion.

Chris Sheppardson, chief executive of international hospitality recruiter Chess, who, with Goodwin, took questions from the floor during the panel session, said that before entering a foreign market, it was essential to have access to someone who understands that market, and how to do business there. “Unless you have expertise, I would advise against going into new international markets in the present credit crunch,” said Sheppardson.

Goodwin admitted that he had learned the hard way the importance of choosing the right managers, after concluding in the mid 1990s that Antal needed to have local rather than UK managers working in its foreign offices.

In 1999-2000, he said he had replaced his UK-born Russian country manager with two Russians. However, he admitted this had proved disastrous. “They ran the business into the ground,” said Goodwin. He said the problem had been their lack of understanding of Antal’s business model. In China, the appointment of a Chinese national to head up the office had proved similarly unsuccessful for the same reason.

“There is no set of guidelines that can be applied toeach situation,” added Goodwin.

Sheppardson said being successful abroad “comes down to people”, but he added “finding a person who could fit into the culture of the company is so hard”.