Off-limits is the real constraint
A firm cannot approach people at its own clients. A global firm with hundreds of clients has a large part of your target market fenced off before it starts, and it will not volunteer which part.
Ask directly: which companies on our target list are off-limits to you? A boutique with six clients in your sector can usually approach almost anybody. That single question changes more searches than any other in this article.
Who actually does the work
At a large firm the partner sells and a researcher delivers. That is not automatically bad, researchers do the mapping and often do it well, but it is not what the pitch implied.
Ask who runs the search day to day, how many other mandates they carry, and insist the answer goes in the contract.
What each is genuinely better at
| Boutique | Global | |
|---|---|---|
| Off-limits footprint | Small | Large, and often undisclosed |
| Partner time | Usually the partner throughout | Partner sells, team delivers |
| Sector depth | Deep in one or two | Broad across many |
| Multi-country search | Usually a partner network | Genuinely in-house |
| Assessment tooling | Lighter | Psychometrics, benchmarking, structured referencing |
| Fee | Often a little lower | Top of the 25 to 33 per cent band |
The straight answer
One seat, one country, one sector: a boutique with real depth in that sector almost always wins, because off-limits is smaller and the partner is present.
Several seats across several countries, or a board mandate where process and benchmarking matter to your own board: a global firm earns the fee.
Questions
- Are boutique search firms cheaper?
- Somewhat, but it is not the reason to choose one. The reason is a smaller off-limits list and the partner doing the work rather than selling it.
- What does off-limits mean in executive search?
- A firm agrees not to approach people working at its clients. It is a real restriction on who they can reach for you, and you should ask for the list before engaging.