'War of talent' intensifies despite global economic challenges

But in fact, the search for the 'right people' becomes more complex.

"Those financial institutions surviving the financial crisis find themselves confronted with an excess supply of potential candidates," says Thomas W Hofer, Managing Partner at Executive Search firm Taylor Hofer Partners AG in Zurich, Dubai, Singapore and Perth.

"Second, enterprises from those countries which suffered from brain drain (i.e. the loss of talented executives) like Australia or South Africa, are eager to re-attract their laid-off countrymen who were made redundant in the UK or in the Middle East. The Arabian gulf states will soon discover that restricting Western employees from certain positions by favouring locals will not work out, once the labour market picks up," Mr. Hofer adds. According to the IMF the Gulf States have amassed liquidity of $3.3 trillion which cushions the impact of the financial crisis.

This requires not only a state-of-the-art recruitment consultancy but also a profound knowledge of those markets which have been not so much affected by the credit crisis, such as the GCC or the Far East.

"The biggest mistake companies can make in 2009 is to miss the train for a possible relief of the economy and leave top executives to their competitors," Managing Partner Mrs. Cécile Hofer adds, who lived and worked for many years in Saudi-Arabia. "In emerging markets the crisis might be an opportunity for firms to get rid of undercapitalised investments. Capital will be channelled to infrastructure projects with a profound basis, while unrealistic and leveraged objects more and more disappear from the investment universe."