Post by Simon Childs

Boxing Day 2007, just before the Lehman shock and the GFC, my co-founder Jason Dacaret and I, together with our PE backers, sold CDS, a leading executive search business, to Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.. This sparked a ten-year period of growth and activity across Asia, as Recruit IPO’d and acquired several search firms in China, Southeast Asia and the wider region, giving them a presence in all of Asia’s main cities. The initial plan was to make further investments in the US and Europe, but this changed with the decision to acquire Indeed.com and then Glassdoor, emphatically underlining Recruit’s ambitions in HR tech and AI matching platforms, rather than people-centric and less predictable search businesses. I was fortunate to work under three different global and regional boards during the ten years post-sale, and I was always impressed by how Recruit treated my former company, which became RGF Executive, ensuring the original DNA and leadership remained intact. Yesterday, Recruit sold RGF to Fullcast, a listed Japanese business, as detailed in Struan’s post. It was not a surprise given Recruit’s strong emphasis on data, predictability, compliance and process, favouring science over art and recurring, forecastable revenue streams. I am sure many large recruitment groups in the US and Europe would have been interested in exploring RGF’s presence and reputation across key global economies such as Japan, China and India, but selling to a listed domestic group likely made sense given the familiarity and language advantages. I am excited to see how Fullcast can grow the business, not only in Japan but regionally and globally in search, and I look forward to supporting what has been an amazing journey, from a small office in Ebisu to a true powerhouse in executive search. Struan Mckay has been with the business for over 20 years, and I am sure he will play a pivotal bridging role in the years to come.