These are the first, few words used by Fayaz Saleem, Sri Lanka's top headhunter, in approaching a prospective client when scouting for the best person, for the best job in town.

Don't be mistaken. Headhunting is not like the sport of yore when people hunted for heads or scalps to prove their victory over the enemy. Headhunting in the present day context is a highly specialized job.

Headhunting has now become a norm in Asia rather than a segment sought by a select few and it is taking off at a rapid pace from its success in the west. Current global research indicates that nine out of 10 people in top corporate jobs are selected by headhunters.

In the busy world of the corporates, anyway, who wants to spend time sifting through dozens and dozens of applications and still being unable to get the right candidate for the job? Leave that to the headhunter who is becoming an integral part of Sri Lanka's business and corporate culture which is preparing for a major never-before development phase in the country's history if the peace process takes off and succeeds in finding a permanent solution to the ethnic conflict!

As the country's propels itself to being the latest Asian Tiger - a level the World Bank Vice President Mieko Nishimizu believes the country could achieve with 10 percent economic growth levels - the scope of the headhunter would widen and expand. Headhunters are expected to be a vital cog in the wheels of the new economy, particularly in scouting for talent here and the abroad to fill specialized and non-specialized jobs required to turn this country into an economic powerhouse.

Financial Centre
Everyone including the World Bank and foreign donors believe this country has what it takes to become a successful business and financial centre in Asia if only Sri Lanka can end the conflict and get on with the job of peace building, nation building and ending poverty.

Important
It is in this context that professionals like Saleem and his now legendary group of consultant headhunters assume a lot of importance in finding the "right people for the right job" in the corporate sector.

It is also fitting that Saleem, Principal Consultant and Managing Director of Executive Search Ltd and Principal Consultant at AIMS (Appointments of International Management Specialists), celebrates 25 years (in November 2003) in the business, at a time when headhunting is becoming much more important and relevant in Sri Lanka.

"Many people living abroad in the US or UK are keen to return to Sri Lanka with the peace process showing some success and are looking for suitable jobs and placements. Many have sought our advice and counselling," noted Saleem.

Ironically, the now veteran headhunter with a marketing and human resources development background returned to Sri Lanka in 1978 after a successful career in the UK keen to look at opportunities that were opening out then after a new reforms-friendly government had taken over.

"You see some similarities here. While the 1977 reforms set the pace for massive economic development and a major shift in the business and corporate culture in the country, you see that happening in a way now as the private sector prepares to move into a league of nations like Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia for instance, " he said.

"Services were important then (in 1978). Services are much more important now and even more for a professional sector like headhunting because companies don't have time to spend shopping around for the best executive in town. Time is money. That's where we play a role … and an important role at that," said Sri Lanka's best-known headhunter.

Persistence
It may have not been … if not for Saleem's persistence and dreams in the late 1970s. Brimming with ideas and a couple of impressive qualifications to boot, the young management specialist launched - what he calls - Sri Lanka's first placement agency, Maritime International Ltd in 1978.

He was not discouraged when his first client was skeptical - like many others in corporate circles - about the whole affair.

"Why should I use your agency when we get thousands of applications in response to an advertisement?" one prospective client asked.

That was not surprising given a business community that was going through a learning curve and in a "time is not money" culture that was prevalent at that time. "My argument was that was that you (companies) are too busy to do research, chart a career path and select the best. That's why you need us," he recalled with nostalgia.

Happily that company - despite initial reservations - hired the services of Maritime and 25 years later is still one of the Saleem's most important clients. "I am very proud that we have been retained by this top group for the past 25 years. They have realized the importance of placement services and headhunting."

The group, now MIL Holdings Ltd, has over the past quarter century, expanded in different areas of the placement business and in recent years has placed a lot of emphasis on the top-end of the market - finding MD's, CEO's, marketing/finance directors and country managers, etc for local and multinational companies.

Some of Saleem's top assignments include finding a CEO for the United Motors group (Anil Wijesinghe was headhunted for the job) and the Kodak Country Manager here.

The search process in headhunting involves three stages. First the consultant talks about the client's requirements in detail and discusses their culture, structure, future, etc. Then the search firm carries out extensive marketplace research and analysis and produces a detailed list of possible candidates, their strengths and weaknesses, willingness to move and salary expectations.

For the client, the greatest benefit of handing over to an executive search firm is the time it saves. Headhunters also follow rules that are sacred - they keep motivating the selected candidates by encouraging high performance, advising and guiding them. Headhunting, as the term implies, is to hunt for heads, not to look at a database of people who are on the look out for jobs. The best don't look for jobs; they prefer to be headhunted officially or unofficially.

"The best person doesn't send his CV. The best people are not looking for jobs. In such cases, I come along and say hey … what are you doing in the place like this. Would you like to change careers, work in a place where the culture is better and there are better promotional prospects?" Saleem said, adding that, that kind of approach makes people think about their future.Unfortunately given the Sri Lankan culture of shyness in seeking a better job, most people don't want to discuss their future with an outsider, in this case, headhunters.

"Many people who want to switch jobs ask a friend who may or may not have heard of our organization, that they want to switch jobs and then come to us - through a third party - for counseling," he said, noting that it was unfortunate as headhunting firms like AIMS provide free counseling and guidance on career paths and prospects.

"It is unfortunate in the sense that an individual may be a brilliant corporate boss or whiz kid but finds he or she is unhappy in the workplace for many reasons. Remember in high positions, money is not the most important factor. It is the culture of the workplace, promotional prospects, being part of a team and being able to take decisions," Saleem said, adding that often for CEO's, directors or finance managers what matters most is a comfortable and people-friendly environment to work in.

Four out of 10 people have poor career paths, are misfits in the job and are unhappy. For the 35-40 age group it is difficult to change the clock, so they don't venture out to change jobs even if they are unhappy. "Come seek our guidance. It's your future that is at stake. Think about it. Look at the options particularly in the context of a growing economy," Saleem advises.His company has placed more than 5,000 people in the corporate sector over the past 25 years while helping hire 300 top executives, CEOs, finance, marketing and sales directors for multinationals and Sri Lanka's best firms.

How much?
Ten years ago, the first question asked by managers was - how much do I get if I switch jobs. Times have changed. Corporate executives are now more interested in finding out the type of organization they are considering joining, promotional prospects and overseas opportunities. Salary levels have come down a few pegs in the list of priorities.

Saleem reckons outplacement is also becoming a vital feature in the private sector particularly when downsizing or "rightsizing" an organisation.

Headhunters are sought to find jobs for staff who may become redundant when resorting to structural changes in a company. Saleem said this is done discreetly and staffers told gently that there is another good job available outside which he or should is free to take up, in addition to a golden handshake. "This is a company's way of saying they care for their employees and would not leave them in the lurch when downsizing is inevitable. A headhunter becomes an important part of this process because of the confidentiality and research required for tasks of this nature."AIMS has over the years tied up with executive search companies in India, the Gulf and Singapore in order to source Sri Lankan or foreign nationals for Sri Lanka and vice versa find Sri Lankan candidates for overseas positions.The future? "Very, very bright.

The demand for headhunting is growing in a new and expanded economy. Our role will always be to find the best person for that top corporate job," Saleem said.

Conserving elephants in Sri Lanka
Dung to dollars
This island is small in size with diminishing forests, yet we are still home to about one tenth of the estimated total of Asian elephants in the wild. Although the 1990s marked a disastrous decade for the elephant in Sri Lanka, there are some bright spots to be found in three innovative projects that may save the elephant and support rural communities through converting elephant dung into dollars.

Last year on average, three elephants were killed per week, and wild elephants in turn killed people at the rate of one per week. This is the result of a conflict between humans and elephant that has escalated for a variety of reasons. This conflict is nowhere more serious than in the northwest, where between 1992 and 2001 a total of 472 elephants and 231 people perished. Given the rarity of tuskers in the island, this struggle has become the most critical cause for elephant mortality in the wild.

The conservation and management of the elephant in Sri Lanka is indeed a very complex issue. It requires skills and strategies to deal with numbers both within protected areas, and outside, where almost 70% of the animals range.

And it is outside the protected areas where elephants are running out of space. Agricultural expansion is gradually encroaching into wilderness areas and natural wildlife dispersal corridors, thereby forcing wildlife and people into increasing conflict over the diminishing unfenced land.

Understandably, many local communities who bear the brunt of elephant depredations are turning against the elephant because they identify the animal as the main cause of their misery. We must therefore recognize the fact that the problem of human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka can be mitigated to a certain extent, if the people concerned change their perceptions of the elephant from that of a dangerous agricultural pest to a dependable economic asset .How can the attitudes of farmers towards a species whose members have devoured their crops, destroyed their goods and chattels, devastated their fragile economies, and decimated their people, be changed from one of intolerance to goodwill ?

This can only be achieved if the local communities are provided with opportunities to derive tangible benefits from the presence of the elephant in their neighborhoods.

In the rural areas where the human-elephant conflict is rife, elephants will not survive for long unless a balance is to be found between their asset value and their liability cost. utilization on a sustainable basis may perhaps be the only means by which elephants and other wildlife will have a long-term future outside the boundaries of protected areas.

Three Ingenious Projects
But not everything about elephant conservation in Sri Lanka is doom and gloom. There are some encouraging new developments. Three enterprising Sri Lankans are trying to reconcile elephant conservation with the welfare of the human communities. They have already demonstrated through their innovative, echo-friendly projects that there are indeed ways in which rural people who bear the brunt of elephant depredations in conflict areas can derive tangible benefits from the presence of the elephant in their neighborhood. Their projects are designed to sustainably utilize an 'end product' of the elephant that no one cares about - the dung - as a renewable natural resource.

An adult elephant on average can produce up to 200 kg of dung per day. Until today, no one has had any use for it. Three ingenious projects, all self-funded, plan to tap this resource, demonstrating that the elephant can indeed be an asset rather than a pest to farmers in conflict areas.

Pachyderm Paper
One project, the brainchild of Mr. Thusitha Ranasinghe, CEO, Maximus Pvt. Ltd., deals with the manufacture of paper from elephant dung. Started in 1997, Maximus had successfully produced and marketed what is known as "pachyderm" paper.

This "pachyderm" paper can be a substitute for regular paper in manufacturing just about anything (may be with the exception of paper products like toilet paper and chocolate wrappers) including notebooks, cards, badges, boxes, albums and other stationery all proving extremely popular with both local and international clientele who care about the environment, and also appreciate the novelty and quality.

The second project concerns the transformation of "pachyderm" paper by Mr. Rajan Rajaratnam, CEO, Badu Pvt. Ltd., into up-market, value-added products such as lampshades and greeting cards. The "Pachyderm" paper used in the manufacture of lampshades, given it destructive texture a result of elephant dung's fibrous nature, provides a soft yet bright luminosity, ideal for homes, hotels or even hospitals. These items have become so popular they are now being regularly exported to the west and are an important source for earning foreign exchange.

The third project, designed by the wildlife biologist and lecturer at the Vavuniya Campus of the University of Jaffna, Mr. S. Wijeyamohan, produces biogas from elephant dung for use as a cooking fuel by rural people in the areas of conflict.

As Prof. Ralph A. Lewin of the prestigious Scripps Institute of Oceanography outlines in his extremely entertaining book, "Merde" (French for shit): one of the major constituents of farts, not only of ruminants such as cows and goats, but also such vegetarians as elephants, tortoises and some of us, is marsh gas or methane, which along with large amounts of another combustible gas, hydrogen, is formed by anaerobic bacteria.

Conservation of the elephant in Sri Lanka is inextricably linked to the welfare of the rural poor and socially disadvantaged who are struggling to survive in areas frequented by potentially dangerous wildlife.

Elephant conservation is about the survival of one of Sri Lanka's best-loved animals; it is also about rupees and dollars, people's well-being, preservation of biodiversity and human survival.
Charles Santiap (University of Peradeniya)

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