Recruitment consultants are the kingmakers of the business world – largely hidden hands who pluck here and place there. Post financial crisis, they find themselves in some awkward situations. Richard Northedge reports
It has been a summer of musical chairs at Britain's top companies as bosses move from one boardroom to another, creating vacancies that must be filled by others, who in turn leave empty chairs behind them. But not all these moves have gone smoothly, and the headhunters orchestrating them have been thrust into an unwelcome limelight that has left their judgement questioned.
Last week, the leading recruitment consultant Odgers Berndtson was forced to part company with Johnny Cameron, a former Royal Bank of Scotland executive, after his appointment lost the firm a key government commission. Odgers was relieved of finding a new chief executive for UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the agency that holds the taxpayers' stake in RBS. Richard Boggis-Rolfe, Odgers' head, had to admit he had not correctly read the public mood in relation to re-employing RBS bankers.
The Independent