Headhunting in high technology

High technology is information-intensive: high technology firms require much more information than they can produce themselves, and they require it quickly. Much of this information is acquired by personal and informal means through information networks. Those same networks also provide the connections by which individuals can move easily from one job to another, carrying information with them as they go. With the rapid expansion in high technology activity during the late seventies, informal information networks have proved unable to provide complete coverage and interconnection even in such dense concentrations of high technology industry as Silicon Valley. Consequently, an opportunity has arisen for headhunters - recruiters of key personnel - to provide formal links among informal information networks. A study of the operation of high technology headhunters in Silicon Valley provides some insight into the role of information, and the importance of information networks, in high technology industry.