Founder essays
Operational arguments that orient the firm's work. Concept-by-concept, in the founder's voice.
Editorials are the firm's foundational intellectual content. Each piece introduces or develops a concept that underlies how we approach senior search: how candidate pools behave, how identity differs from capability, why direct outreach matters more in saturated markets. They are written slowly, refined carefully, and meant to be read in full.
The editorials are by Alessio Montaruli, Founder and Group CEO of KiTalent. They are the load-bearing layer of the firm's published thinking: each editorial introduces a concept that the rest of the site (methodology, services, market intelligence, case studies) refers back to. A reader who works through all the editorials understands how the firm thinks about its work.
For the academic versions of these arguments, see Research Papers. For their operational application, see Methodology and Case Studies.
5 editorials, in reverse chronological order
-
No. i.
A profile is not a person
The category mistake at the heart of AI-led executive search. The analytic-philosophical companion to the position paper of the same name.
Read the editorial -
No. ii.
Why AI maps the talent market but cannot read the candidate
A practitioner's note on the boundary between AI-assisted mapping and consultant-led assessment. Phenomenological companion to The Ontological Boundary of Algorithmic Assessment.
Read the editorial -
No. iii.
Culture fit and soft skills are not the same
Soft skills can be learned. Personality cannot. Conflating the two is the most common cause of senior-hire failure.
Read the editorial -
No. iv.
The qualitative edge of speed in talent mapping
After thirteen years in executive search, an argument that engagement bandwidth, not assessment rigor alone, is the load-bearing determinant of shortlist quality.
Read the editorial -
No. v.
Why we don't send blind CVs
Forwarding unvetted candidates is not search. A short essay on what proper candidate context looks like and why shortcuts compound into hiring failures.
Read the editorial