Search Engine Musical Chairs

There has been a lot of coverage recently about Microsoft and Google in the case of Kai-Fu Lee, one of its former executives, who was due to join Google from Microsoft.

Will this be the one and only case this year or will other companies follow the same path?

It reminds me of my time when I was working in the IT and Telecoms industries for IBM and Nokia as a recruiter. Both industries were experiencing fast growth and there simply weren't enough employees available with the right skills and experience to fill the number of positions.

Therefore instead of new talent coming into those industries talent was usually found from within those industries.

So the lack of available employees is nothing new, but what has increased is the cost to a business of leaving positions unfilled.

Whereas before it used to be millions of dollars in today's world it is more likely to be hundreds of millions of dollars instead, hence the lengths companies will go to keep hold of their best employees.

Thanks
Mike