Australia, India, Singapore Help Fuel Executive Search Gains In Asia-Pacific As Covid Impact Wanes

Australia, India, Singapore Help Fuel Executive Search Gains In Asia-Pacific As Covid Impact Wanes

Growing demand for business and engineering talent in Australia, India and Singapore is giving a boost to executive search services in the Asia-Pacific as the impact of Covid in the region largely wanes, long-time industry executive and Boyden board member William Farrell said in an interview on Tuesday.

“There’s been a lot of strength in the first half,” said Farrell, a managing partner for Taiwan and South Korea who represents the APAC region on the company’s board. “It’s a very good year,” particularly in Southeast Asia markets, he said. Boyden has 75 offices in more than 45 countries; Farrell, an American expatriate, has lived in Asia since 1987 and joined Boyden in 1993.

Search companies are benefitting from a shift in multinational strategies away from setting up one large regional hub for their regional operations toward the creation of a larger number of smaller hubs that lower the risks of disruption in any one place – such as what has happened to some businesses in China this year during the Covid lockdowns.

Covid has brought a “plateau” in executive search in that country, Farrell said. “There's a push to identify other sources of goods and materials,” he said. “It’s not to cut ties