MSS Recruitment stakes its claim as Asia’s specialist company for sourcing gaming executives
“In terms of gaming executive recruitment, there is no other executive search company in the region with our level of expertise.” So says Jiji Tu, an entrepreneur who set up MSS Recruitment in Macau a year ago after identifying an important gap in the market.
“I established MSS Recruitment because Macau has been developing really quickly. But in terms of the supporting service industries, it’s still an immature market,” states Ms Tu.
“People are definitely starting to recruit again now in Macau and elsewhere in the region. The layoffs and retrenchment have stopped, and people are now looking at hiring again, and hiring the right candidates.”
Market intelligence
Despite the fact that general tourism has been growing in the Pearl River Delta region for decades, few recruitment companies retain information on senior job candidates from the gaming industry, or candidates that have CVs that would be a good fit for the industry, suggests Ms Tu. MSS Recruitment has that knowledge she says.
“Macau is a regional gaming centre and so there are gaming executives from all over the world working here. As a result, we at MSS Recruitment have a very comprehensive database of gaming executives—especially from the land-based sector,” states Ms Tu.
Because of the size of its gaming market, Macau has attracted a lot of the best industry executives from around the world. As the Asian gaming industry expands, those senior people are interested in taking exciting new jobs in new markets. We at MSS Recruitment are in close touch with these candidates via our existing database and can help to match them with companies across the region.
Global perspective
Although the ‘MSS’ part of the company name stands for ‘Macau Search and Selection’, the business is now a global one to reflect the underlying nature of the industry it specialises in serving.
“We have a regional focus in terms of candidates, but we also have global partnerships,” says Ms Tu.
“If a casino operator wants a gaming executive and gives the assignment to us, not only will we search through our connections in the region or in Macau, but we will also work with our executive search partners in the US and Europe in order to conduct a global search for the client.”
That ability to search across the world for the right person is vital in an industry such as gaming that has been built on the promotion of excellence and innovation in management culture says Ms Tu.
“We have a partnership with a Las Vegas-based executive search firm which is really strong in casino recruitment. And we have another partnership with a recruitment firm based in the UK, which is very strong in iGaming [online and interactive gaming].
“The demand currently for iGaming executives in Asia Pacific is limited because in many markets the necessary regulatory policies are not yet in place. But in a few years they may well be. We want to position ourselves for that.”
Experience
Ms Tu has an international background of her own, having worked for eight years in senior executive positions in the human resources and recruitment sectors in Sydney, Australia, and in Singapore. Working in those major financial centres with trading and investment links across the world has helped her to understand the truly global nature of 21st century executive placement. And her human resources roles have, she maintains, enabled her to see things from the client’s perspective as well as from the recruiter’s viewpoint.
“We’re committed to sourcing, screening and delivering top quality professionals,” she stresses.
“We pride ourselves in finding the right fit for our candidates and for our corporate clients.”
Values
One of MSS Recruitment’s stated brand values is “Right People, Right Expertise”. That means having the right team to execute the search and selection process in order to find the best candidates. MSS has a team of six multilingual professionals based in Macau committed to that task.
“Gaming recruitment is all about network and connection. You have to know the industry, and you need to have the right network and connections in order to deliver the recruitment service,” concludes Ms Tu.
