Colt Mackenzie McNair (CMM), the specialist executive search firm operating across the global golf markets, ended 2012 on a high, completing a string of successful assignments in the EMEA region. However, CMM warns there will be significant recruitment challenges for many golf businesses in 2013, driven by a burgeoning candidate pool.
Richard Wood, Director of Colt Mackenzie McNair, explained: “The candidate market is very large at the moment – the golf industry continues to streamline in many areas – and job vacancies are typically attracting lots of applicants, of very mixed quality. Businesses do not have the resource or knowledge to sift through hundreds of speculative CVs hoping they will find the perfect person.
“Hiring companies should not be fooled into thinking a growing candidate market makes identifying good people any easier – in fact it makes it harder, and more time-consuming. Many candidates are taking a lower salary just to be in work but the very best people, many of whom are still employed, are hard to find and it requires a full and proper search to establish the best individuals.
“We know many of these candidates personally and so are able to speed up the whole recruitment process by only introducing those who have the right experience, and importantly are the right personal fit for our clients’ business.”
CMM’s strong finish to 2012 was underlined with a series of senior international placements to high-profile businesses, including Raffles Country Club in Singapore, The Wave in Oman, Oxford Golf & Country Club in India and La Manga Resort, Spain.
Toni Aguiló of MedGroup, owners of La Manga Club, said: “CMM was directly involved in the recruitment of our Director of Golf, Gary Silcock, at La Manga Club in Spain and played an important role in ensuring we got access to the best golf professionals in the market, benchmarked against our strict selection criteria. CMM assisted us in making the right choices to match our requirements and business plan.”
In addition, CMM’s thriving UK business included placements at The Berkshire Golf Club, Chigwell Golf Club in Essex, The Buckinghamshire Golf Club, MyTime Active, Collingtree Park Golf Club near Northampton, and leading research company, Sports Marketing Surveys Inc. CMM was also charged with leading the selection process for the Chief Executive role at the Golf Club Managers’ Association (GCMA).
Michael Hoare, Chairman of the Golf Club Managers’ Association, added: “Once we received the formal resignation of our CEO, Keith Lloyd, our first priority was to assess how we were going to set in motion a replacement process. High on our list of requirements was the essential help of a professional recruitment consultancy.
“CMM had a sound understanding of our business and a clear knowledge of our specific requirements and after weeks of systematic analysis, an impressive shortlist was agreed upon. Throughout the process CMM were highly professional, discreet and trustworthy.”
Richard Wood added: “It was encouraging to see CMM deliver a strong performance in the last quarter of 2012. We assisted a wide variety of golf businesses and organisations across a range of functions, including sales and marketing, golf operations, course management and general management. We have also started 2013 on a positive note, running searches in North, Central and South America – new markets for CMM, making us truly global.
“Of course, we are sympathetic to the fact that businesses are constantly having to adapt to changing market conditions, move at greater speed, and tightly manage their costs. In light of this, we too have had to think about our own services to cater for this changing landscape and will soon announce a new CMM product that will complement any existing recruitment processes that a client already has in place.”
CMM www.coltmm.com