ABC Consultants, one of the oldest (and topmost) recruitment firm in the country missed out on the Internet era and Naukri.com zoomed past everybody to become the defacto name for hiring in the corporate world.
Having said that, Naukri still needs to hone its positioning in the mid-to-senior management jobs and that’s where the next tussle would be. If you look at Naukri, they are well placed in fresher ( and upto Project Lead position) hiring, but when it comes to senior level hiring, most of the references comes from LinkedIn and various niche consulting companies.
In the next few weeks, ABC Consultants is launching a senior level hiring website – theheadhonchos.com that caters to the need of executive hiring in India (and maybe, a revenge to Naukri! 
). ABC Consultants already have a senior level hiring consulting practice called “HighCircle” – but they need to play a platform game in order to monetize their network (candidate database).
HeadHonchos was created to address the unique recruitment needs of job seekers and companies in the INR 15 Lakh+ employment market. We aim to make mid- to senior level job search less stressful and more successful for executives and more effective for organisations. On HeadHonchos, you can look forward to the most comprehensive database of 15L+ jobs and candidates across India, backed by an authoritative search engine, a range of specialised services and values that have stood the test of time.
As far as the site is concerned, theheadhonchos is lined on the basis of the famous, theladders.com, a US based executive hiring website), the differentiator obviously being ABC’s network/brand name in hiring space.
When launched, the site will allow only those who have annual salaries more than Rs. 10Lakhs to register. The site has freemium pricing plans varying from INR 50 (montly fee) to INR 420 (for annual membership).
Services Offered
Resume Building
A dedicated, two-member team will work with you to understand your knowledge, competencies and career aspirations. They will analyse how to leverage your strengths and position your profile for a specific role. Your new resume will bring to life your professional achievements, in a crisp format that will tell recruiters and employers all they need to know
Job Connect
Job Connect creates a periodic report of jobs that are posted only on company websites, while incorporating your preferences and predefined rules in terms of search frequency, companies, role type, etc.
ONICRA Reports
Organisations today request you to comply with verification and background screening formalities. HeadHonchos, in association with ONICRA, introduces an employee background screening service that takes care of tedious paperwork.
Thomas Assessments
HeadHonchos has tied up with Thomas International, a people profiling company for profiling and assessment services.
—
Call for Niche?
Spread horizontally or Grow Vertically?
Well, there are a few niche sites like iimjobs.com that are doing quite well, owing to the niche they have (i.e. MBA jobs).While ABC has greater reach (network effect?), a few niche sites will also do well in India, owing to candidate intent that they harvest.
As far as Naukri is concerned, they have a serious competition in making.
What’s your take?
Update: Naukri too is working on a ‘confidential’ product for the last 6 months.
After working almost 2 years in Quadrangle, I shifted to another division in Info Edge. Now I am a part of the Sales Systems team, handling the launch of a new product- Naukri Confidential, which is a premium database of Senior candidates & candidates with niche skills. It gives an opportunity to the Senior candidates to upload their profile in a confidential manner on naukri.com.
Here I am handling everything related to the launch & working of this product- Naukri Confidential. I prepare snapshots of Senior candidates & upload them on naukri.com, contact Consultants, meet & tie up with them for this product, train their team of Consultants on how to use this product, do a QC of the profiles uploaded by the Consultants. I also handle the back-end operations related to it, in co-ordination with the Sales, Marketing, Technical and Design teams.
Naukri Confidential has been launched successfully & now we are tying up with more Consultants & Candidates to take it ahead. – an employee’s linkedin profile
» Recommended Read: Sad State of Job Portals in India [Startup Opportunity]
» Startup Idea: Job Board for Websites
Note to headhonchos webmaster : Backdoor entries should always come with a key!
