30 Years of Executive Search

30 years ago today, I set up Hanover Search in a basement in Covent Garden. We called it “the bunker”. There were just four of us then – five if you count the giant pipes that ran across the ceiling – and not a computer in sight. 

We’ve lived through some immense change in those three decades, including generational shifts, technological revolutions, and some of the biggest economic shocks of the last century. Needless to say, I’ve had a front row seat at the metamorphosis of executive search.

That’s how I’d like to mark Hanover’s 30th anniversary: reflecting on how this industry has evolved, and what I see shaping the years ahead.

How executive search has evolved in 30 years

The market is more competitive and crowded

Technology has widened access to talent, and in doing so, made hiring more dog-eat-dog. In the 90s, finding senior people was slower, more manual, and far more constrained by geography. You were working within a narrower field, which meant fewer firms were reaching the same individuals at the same time.

Whereas today, technology has made talent more visible, while globalisation has made it more mobile. Firms are no longer competing only with the businesses in their immediate region. They’re competing with anyone, anywhere. That raises the premium on speed, judgement, and the depth of relationships.

The definition of “executive search” has widened

What clients want from a search partner today goes well beyond longlist, shortlist, and placement. They want benchmarking, proper assessment, onboarding support. They want advice around succession and leadership structure, and a greater degree of conviction before they make a senior appointment.

In response, executive search has evolved from working from a fixed mandate to helping shape the mandate itself. We spend a lot of time in those early conversations, understanding the priorities, ambitions, and challenges of our clients so that we can architect a role and secure a candidate that genuinely improves the business. 

Our value as a search partner is helping clients make sense of a leadership market that is far more complex, and far less predictable, than it used to be. Whether the phrase “executive search” even remains 10 years from now, I don’t know, because it feels too narrow for what the work has become.

Parts of executive search that have never changed

Relationships

Strong relationships have always been hugely important to the search process. Without them, you’ll never have that depth of understanding needed to meet your clients’ needs, nor the trust required to engage the right talent. 

For instance, back in the day, if a client wanted a Chief Actuary, we had to rely on knowing those people, because there wasn’t an enormous online sanctum of names. We’d pull out a list, make 50 calls to 50 Chief Actuaries, and they would answer because they knew us. It’s the same today. Recruiters may be able to see all the Chief Actuaries on LinkedIn, but candidates are less receptive to unsolicited approaches from people they don’t know.

Hanover has always prided itself on our deep network of relationships with talent and businesses; that’s one of the benefits of being around for 30 years. We present an opportunity to a candidate, and more times than not, they engage with it, because relationships still hold incomparable power. 

Judgement

We’ve always had to be part psychologists in this business. Very often, what a client wants and what they need are two different things. They might know they need transformation, for example, but be unsure of what that means in role-design terms. 

Candidates can also be a little opaque. Even in the bunker, our job was never limited to matching a specification to a CV and calling it a day. It’s always been about reading between the lines and getting a true sense of who someone is and if they will be a culture-add. 

Over the years, Hanover has built very strong client relationships, and one reason is that we have always cared about that cultural dimension. The job doesn’t end just because someone ticks all the capability boxes. We have to go deeper, assessing personality, values and leadership style to ensure the candidate has long-term alignment with the organisation. 

This is why good judgement is the lifeblood of executive search. At Hanover, it’s always been, and will always be, our people who bring the finesse of matching exceptional talent with great businesses.

Leadership capabilities that have grown in importance

Resilience

Resilience holds a business together when the ground falls away, and Hanover is no stranger to building that muscle. Five of the eight biggest recessions of the past 100 years have happened during our 30 years in business. We’ve survived them all – including COVID, when recruitment firms everywhere were hanging up their hats.

We pulled through periods like that because we’ve built a loyal culture, a strong leadership team, and a business where people glue together when the going gets tough. I’ve always believed a resilient culture starts at the top. If people feel steadiness, honesty, and resolve from their leaders, they’re far more likely to hold their nerve.

People leadership

Leaders have to nurture talent far more than they used to. They have to support mental health, create a sense of purpose, and build environments where people feel appreciated. It sounds obvious in 2026, but it definitely wasn’t the norm 30 years ago.

Hanover has tried hard to reflect that change internally. In 2025, with almost 100 people in the business, we didn’t lose a single member of staff. I don’t say that as a boast, but because retention on that level quantifies the value that comes from prioritising people.

An abundant mindset

From my experience, people fall into two categories: they’ve either got a scarcity mindset, where they believe there’s only so much of something, or they’ve got an abundant mindset, which means the more they give the more they get. It’s a rule of the world. 

I love to find people who have that abundant mindset. They create energy around them. They help others succeed. They make 1+1=5. I’ve always admired that type of leader because they build stronger teams, stronger cultures, and stronger institutions. With uncertainty making many people more defensive, that quality carries incredible value.

Trends in the market that concern me

The obsession with speed

Too many firms want to close senior hires quickly because the vacancy feels painful. It’s understandable, but mostly anything you do quickly is fraught with danger, and a poor appointment at the top reverberates through the whole organisation.

That’s why we place so much emphasis on the process around the hire. The assessments we conduct, the strategic market intelligence we gather, the coaching we offer – it’s all designed to give hiring decisions the scrutiny they deserve, and to take the candidate from the cradle to the grave to ensure they’re not only an excellent fit, but are also set up to succeed.  

Overconfidence in technology

AI and digital tools can improve the process when they’re used intelligently. They can also produce sameness, false pattern recognition, and an illusion of certainty. It’s one reason I feel very uncomfortable when hearing about AI, “no human” recruitment platforms.

Amid a sea of fear mongering headlines, it’s important to remember that there is so much a machine can’t do. It can parse CVs and identify the candidates that tick all your boxes on paper, but when it comes to assessing emotional intelligence, personalities, leadership styles, and all the indicators of cultural fit, AI falls short. 

At its core, executive search is about people. It will always be this way. If organisations over-rely on AI systems to fill seats quickly, I guarantee they will wind up with mismatched hires that will soon have to be replaced. As technology becomes more powerful, the parts of the process that require human judgement and individuality become even more valuable. 

Underestimated opportunities that will shape the next 30 years

Alternative talent pools

For a long time, leadership hiring leaned heavily on familiar signals, like tenure, pedigree, or closely-aligned, industry-specific experience. That made sense in a more stable environment. Today, the conditions are less predictable, and require a different kind of person. 

Alternative talent is becoming a prized commodity. People who have moved across sectors, built something from scratch, or navigated uncertainty tend to carry more diverse judgement, capability, and resilience. Firms that widen their lens will find leaders who are already comfortable operating in the kind of ambiguity the future is likely to bring.

Returning to family values

As the market becomes more complex, there has to be a return to the fundamentals around culture and care. Businesses often underestimate how much tangible value comes from genuinely looking after your people. It’s the key to attracting and retaining key talent, to building a workforce that carries you into the future and buffers you when the hard times hit.

It’s our people that has allowed Hanover to thrive over these last three decades. I’ve always believed in trust and collaboration as core values, and in building a family of team players rather than a team of rock climbers. That foundation is what carries you through difficult periods – more so than revenue, and more so than great ideas. 

Agility and innovation as daily disciplines

Two more core values of Hanover are agility and innovation. Many organisations still talk about change as though it’s something approaching on the horizon that will require a major overhaul. But change is happening in small increments, all the time, and it’s the cumulative decisions you make today that will decide how well you adapt in the future.

Those choices live in who you hire into leadership roles, what capabilities you introduce to the team, and how confident those individuals are to test, refine, and apply new approaches. Real agility and innovation take root there; if you don’t have them in place, no amount of expensive technology will give you the edge you need. 

For all the change, executive search is still a people business 

30 years in this business has left me with a fairly simple view. While the mechanics of executive search have changed dramatically, the heart of the work still comes back to people: judgement, culture, resilience, and most importantly, relationships.

That was true in the Covent Garden bunker. It’s true now in the world of AI. I suspect it will still be true thirty years from today.