{"id":10288,"date":"2017-12-01T07:55:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T12:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=10288"},"modified":"2017-11-30T12:51:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T17:51:31","slug":"global-search-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2017\/12\/global-search-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Search Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Krishnan<\/a>\n

With two degrees in electrical engineering<\/a>, Krishnan Rajagopalan \u201982, MS \u2019 83, wouldn\u2019t seem a likely candidate for CEO of a global executive search firm. But he credits the training he received at Johns Hopkins Engineering<\/a> for helping him succeed in a career that has culminated in him being named president and CEO of Chicago-based Heidrick & Struggles International.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Hopkins, you learn how to disaggregate problems,\u201d Rajagopalan says. \u201cYou put them into bite-sized chunks, organize them, and then develop a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

An example: Rajagopalan says clients will often ask Heidrick & Struggles to find an executive who is \u201cagile,\u201d a term that, while popular, is vague. So the firm breaks down what it believes to be component parts of a leader who can keep up with today\u2019s fast-paced world. Those qualities are, in the company\u2019s terminology, foresight, learning, adaptability, and resilience. Then, each of those qualities is broken down: Foresight includes the ability to simplify complex problems, think with solutions, and so on.<\/p>\n

The analytical impulse extends to data as well. Rajagopalan recently co-authored an article for Heidrick & Struggles about creating algorithms by which online information about a young job candidate\u2014interests, work products, connections\u2014can be used to help predict the candidate\u2019s likelihood of success at the company. In isolation, the data only go so far. But objective information can help companies overcome inherent biases that may be restricting their pool of strong candidates, he says.<\/p>\n

Rajagopalan\u2019s own career has taken some unexpected turns. He initially worked on commercial satellite communications with Harris, then was drawn to business. He earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and went to Wall Street. Looking for new intellectual challenges, he opted for management consulting. He worked for Price Waterhouse and A.T. Kearney before joining Heidrick & Struggles.<\/p>\n

Heidrick & Struggles is one of the world\u2019s top five search firms, with 1,600 employees on four continents and annual revenue in excess of half a billion dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Krishnan Rajagopalan credits the training he received at Johns Hopkins Engineering for helping him succeed in a career that has culminated in him being named president and CEO of Chicago-based Heidrick & Struggles International.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1514,2063,2068],"class_list":["post-10288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-electrical-and-computer-engineering","tag-johns-hopkins-engineering","tag-krishnan-rajagopalan","issue-winter-2018"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGlobal Search Leader - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2017\/12\/global-search-leader\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Global Search Leader - 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