Profile: Eric Salmon & Partners. Chic boutique thinks big

This does not put Eric Salmon in the same league as global recruitment heavyweights, such as Heidrick & Struggles, which had revenues of $350.7m in 2002. But it does give the company a distinct presence on the European recruitment map.

"We are the biggest of the small and the smallest of the big," says Eric Salmon, the firm's founder and managing partner. "People recognise that we are a factor in Europe. We have 20 consultants here."

Operating from its office on Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the company is certainly well established in France.

One rival Parisian banking headhunter says: "Eric Salmon is a boutique with high visibility. It is very chic."

Chic was not a feature that the Economist Intelligence Unit commented upon at Eric Salmon & Partners in its 2002 report Executive search in Europe. The company was singled out as one of the French executive search industry's leading participants, ranking behind national market leaders such as Heidrick & Struggles, Korn/Ferry, Spencer Stuart and Egon Zehnder.

However, when it comes to international financial services recruitment, Eric Salmon & Partners is distinctly lower key.

The company is not a financial services specialist. Its London office is staffed with consultants who are generalists, and is located in the West End instead of the City of London or Canary Wharf, making it better suited to corporate than to banking recruitment.

The firm's financial services capability is stronger in continental Europe. It employs two finance specialists in Milan, and two in Frankfurt, with another two Frankfurt finance consultants to be recruited by the end of the year.

Sophie Wigniolle, who works in financial services recruitment in Eric Salmon & Partners' Paris office, says the firm is strongest in private equity, private banking and corporate finance search and selection.

She says most financial services clients are French banks. "Our American base is not strong enough to get referrals from New York to work for American banks in Europe."

This is evidently a hindrance, and may be remedied in future. Eric Salmon says the firm has no intention of opening any new offices until it has built up its presence in the US. "A lot of firms have over-extended themselves in the past five years. It would be too adventurous for us to move into new markets like Asia without having a more established US presence first."

Salmon's caution is vindicated by the firm's past performance. Revenues increased by between 21% and 30% a year during the boom years of 1997 to 2000. Since then, Salmon admits the firm has been struggling against the crisis that has beset the recruitment industry. However, he says it has avoided making any consultants redundant, unlike its competitors.

Reluctance to make redundancies is also related to the firm's structure.

Like Egon Zehnder International, where Salmon worked for 20 years as a consultant before setting up on his own, Eric Salmon & Partners pays its consultants on the basis of profits pooled across the whole firm, instead of individual performance. Salmon says this means the firm is united and works as one on behalf of its clients.