Nexus Consultants, a Bangalore-based IT executive search firm run by Anuradha Parthasarthy and Poornima Shenoy, believes in match-making rather than head-hunting. ``In the infotech world, skill requirements are more technology-oriented than in other industries, with global exposure being an added advantage. Other businesses are relatively more insulated,'' says Parthasarthy on the demands of IT businesses when it comes to choosing senior managers.

Startups (no longer garage affairs) now offer fatter pay-packets along with juicier stock options than most IT front-runners. Most start-ups manage to get venture capital funding and so, says Shenoy, they can afford to bankroll the executive acquisitions.

However, for Nexus, its reputation (and network by which both the founder-directors swear) rests on the placements it makes-each cantake as long as six months.

``Typically start-ups are focussed and have a good management team as also a certain integrity,'' says Parthasarthy. However, they don't go in blind. As Shenoy puts it, ``We don't put a person in place with a company we're not comfortable with as I can't put someone's career on the line.''

The modus operandi with new IT firms on the block is to discuss at length with the promoters their vision and game plan, to figure out their objectives and attitudes. Based on this we look for a suitable match from our database, she says.

Prospective candidates (read potential movers) are monitored on a continuous basis -- not merely when openings come up -- with peer perception forming a key component of the evaluation.

On the high rate of employee turnover, Shenoy says it is a phenomenon restricted to the lower and middle levels since at the level of functional heads or CEOs any move is carefully strategised with the long-term view in mind. Both by the individual as well as thecompany.

Among its clients are IBM, Microsoft, Infosys, Sun Microsystems, Oracle Software, Cisco, Hughes Software Systems, SAP and Lucent Tech. So how's the money? ``Well, we've completed six assignments in as many months and made as much as a CV-driven firm recently made with 500 placements,'' says Shenoy. Figures, obviously, are out.

The bottom line, however, is the satisfaction that comes from helping enhance top executives' personal brand equity in the industry. And the networking edge that comes with it.