Talent for the times.

• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Management of Russell Reynolds - Editorial

ABOUT A YEAR AGO as you read this I was in a briefing with a small group of CEOs and corporate directors in which a senior recruiter for one of the major search firms revealed that the firm had 30 open searches underway for directors with social media expertise. You could have seen the jaws drop around the room. We all knew there was something afoot with boards needing to enhance their digital competencies. The number of alerts on t his that were crossing my screen had been increasing in frequency, and presumably the other participants were seeing some of the same advisories that I was seeing. But most of the group had no idea that companies were embarking so aggressively on this quest to fill board seats from the digital space.

Since then, the trickle of alerts has turned into a torrent, and it seems as if the talent quest has become a kind of 'gold rush' by boards and recruiters to nab the top players available. In a telling example of what's happening in the marketplace, our colleagues at Russell Reynolds just launched what the firm is calling "the industry's first fully integrated Digital Transformation Practice." The firm's CEO, Clarke Murphy, notes that "In the last 18 months we've had the privilege of identifying more than 500 digital leaders for our clients."

A voluminous amount of material has been churned out this past year on what boards need to know about the digital and social media spheres. We decided to go in a different direction. Reflecting back on that surprising 'heads up' from a year ago, we chose to go right where the action is. We reached out to a select few of our colleagues in board search to tell us (and you, the reader) what they were seeing in the talent marketplace and what advice they have for...