IBM's use of two firms to recruit a CEO is double trouble for other companies

IBM's decision to hire two rival executive-search companies to help it find a new chief executive may end a long-standing US business practice. The rules of the Assn of Executive Recruiter Consultants calls for a executive-search company that gets a contract with a firm to regard that firm's executives as off-limits for two years. For years, many US firms have employed different executive searchers in order to get on as many off-limits lists as possible. IBM's decision to hire two executive-search companies, SpencerStuart and Heldrick and Struggles Inc, means that one can recruit executives from a firm that is off-limits to the other. Companies are now worrying that IBM's new strategy will make it easier for their own executives to be recruited away.