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Wanted: high-tech execs
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September 18, 1997: 7:58 p.m. ET
Big technology companies have difficult time filling top-level jobs
From Correspondent Casey Wian
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LOS ANGELES (CNNfn) - A critical shortage of executives with high-tech experience is making top jobs at large companies like Apple Computer and AT&T tougher than ever to fill.
Executive recruiters say the present gap between supply and demand is the biggest they have seen in the high-tech industry. New technologies, like software, the Internet and cellular phones, are growing faster than the ability of people to manage the companies developing them.
"The whole industry is exploding," said Rae Sedel, managing director of Russell Reynolds Associates. "You have more opportunities than you've had time to develop the talent to handle the opportunities." (243K WAV) or (243K AIFF)
In Silicon Valley alone, during the second quarter of 1997, venture capitalists poured $1 billion into high-tech start-up companies. They are drawing lower level executives at big companies with lucrative compensation packages including big equity stakes.
"It's a lot easier to find top, world-class people to run small companies [than big ones] ... because you get a much bigger equity upside if your company is successful," said Apple Computer's former CEO John Sculley. (163K WAV) or (163K AIFF)
Many executives also may find the opportunity to lead the next Netscape or Cisco Systems more attractive than fixing an Apple or an AT&T.
Some companies have turned to outside industries for top executives. IBM, for example, lured Louis Gerstner from food and tobacco giant RJR Nabisco.
But high-tech companies are also trying to solve the problem internally by identifying and training potential CEO candidates among top-performing employees as young as in their early 30s.
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