Archives for September 2019

Retained Executive Search can be like an iceberg in some ways. What you see on the surface is only a percentage of the benefits that can be lying beneath the surface. A topical example is Talent Optimization.

Earlier this year, a Predictive Index survey revealed that 52% of CEOs did not achieve their strategic goals in 2018. Digging a little deeper, PI confirmed that nearly all senior leaders developed a business strategy identifying the operational and financial metrics for success. No surprise. And sitting between the strategy goals and results are people. No surprise there either.

But failing to relate the two, which in hindsight should not be a surprise, is the biggest single reason for that 52% failure rate.

Talent Optimization is a hot issue today. It’s not rocket science. If your people are not suited to deliver your strategy, you are treading water. Over the past decade, it’s been drummed in to us that people are the core asset that makes or breaks a business plan.

But how many leaders actually dig and actually understand if the talent to execute is there when they draw up the plan? And how many are guided by this awareness when it’s time to replace an executive.

PI is in the talent optimization business and they have identified what they call four essential truths.

• Diagnose: measure and analyze your people data and identify remedies
• Design: create and evolve a people strategy
• Hire: find and engage high-performing people based on the above
• Inspire: use the data to drive important people-oriented activities and goals

There are tools to help you to succeed on each point. The tool for the third point is called Retained Executive Search.

There are three accepted methodologies for acquiring the talent you need: retained search, contingent search and DIY. If you are not on a Fortune 100 list, forget the last.  The difference between retained search and contingent are explained in detail here but let’s cut to the salient points.

The contingent search firm is paid when you hire the person it finds and it competes with its peers to be the one to come up with the winner. The result is the spaghetti-on-the-wall school of recruiting — an avalanche of seemingly suitable resumes on your desk which you are left to digest.  This can be a lower cost option for standardized, mostly operational positions.

The retained search firm is contracted exclusively to find the best person for the position, usually at a leadership level. With more complexity in the role, the research of both you and candidates is many times more extensive and time consuming and selection more demanding.

Characteristics sought extend well beyond skill and experiences and include culture, compatibility and learning agility among many other aptitudes required of today’s leaders.

In fact, executive search it is the only process capable of matching incoming talent to the precise needs defined by the unique people strategy you have aligned with your business goals.

That’s Talent Optimization.

Atlanta, Ga. September 23, 2019 –   International executive recruiter Cornerstone International Group (CIG) continues to expand its footprint in Europe with the addition of a member office in Paris.  Peak-Lifecycles HR will represent the global network across France.

 The new Cornerstone Paris is an owner-managed, specialist firm with extensive experience in Board & Executive Search, Talent Management and Consulting services.  With an office also in the U.S., it has a strong record in the global life sciences community where owner and Managing Director Anne De Landsheer has 16 years of experience along with her decade in Executive Search.

“We are delighted to welcome Anne and her highly skilled team to Cornerstone,” says CIG President Larry Shoemaker of Atlanta.  “We feel confident that we have found the ideal partner in France for our high level of search and leadership development services.”

The culture of the company is a perfect fit with Cornerstone, sharing a belief that the essence of a search is not just finding the talented candidate you want, but the person you need.

“Our clients have one thing in common” says Anne De Landsheer, “and that is the challenge of managing radical, rapid and frequent change.  Our services allow companies to adapt their human resources to these changes in their environment.”

Cornerstone International Group is present in 36 countries and celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year.  It maintains two headquarters – one here in Atlanta and one in Shanghai, China. With members appointed recently in Zurich, Brussels and Kyiv, Cornerstone International Group (CIG) now has 28 members in Europe.

For information visit www.cornerstone-group.com

Information:

Larry Shoemaker, President
Cornerstone International Group
larry-shoemaker@cornerstone-group.com

 

There’s a valid argument that says the worst time to recruit leaders is when you need one.  What you wish you had then is a recruitment strategy.

Or think of it this way:  don’t wait to fix a leaky roof until it’s raining.

The pressure today is intense on finding “the best people” to lead an organization.  It is widely recognized that, in most firms, a skilled and experienced management team is the most important of many components.  By management team, most people are thinking of the leaders throughout the hierarchy from line and sector managers up to the executive floor.

These are the people who plan, investigate, test, strategize, take chances and motivate others. They are the motor driving the organization.  Adding a new leader or needing to replace an established one is therefore a critical moment.

Executive search is a high stakes game.  The investment of time and money is significant as is the risk.  A hurried evaluation can end in a costly repetition in 15 months with grave reputational risk all around.  Get it right, and your growth flourishes.

Getting it right is much more likely in moments of calm and deliberation.  The more pressing the need to fill an empty slot, the greater the danger of overlooking warning flags or compromising the criteria.  So, before it rains, fix the roof.

An increasing number of well-managed companies today develop talent acquisition strategies.  This does two very important things.  It Anticipates the need and it Positions you to respond to that need in a fashion likely to achieve the most success.

Here are eight reasons for setting out a recruiting strategy laid out in an earlier post by contributor Anne Glenn:

• Build stronger companies and foster teamwork where everyone understands the goals and embraces the priorities
• Better attract top talent with skills, values and culture that most exactly fit the short- and long-range environment of the business
• Anticipate recruiting and growth staffing needs (as well as wants) in advance of an actual job opening
• Refine and clarify the company’s Employer Brand as a key basis of communication with potential employees
• Target and locate the best talent pools relative to your specific needs over time
• Enable the executive staffing process to move more quickly and efficiently to fill vacancies and minimize disruption in the work process
• Challenge employees to continually look for the best talent available

• Foster sharing of company values, pride in performance and personal satisfaction.

Developing and implementing the recruiting strategy that is best for you is hard work.  It is critical to get it right since it is going to drive your executive recruiting process for better or for worse.

We are familiar with Talent Acquisition Strategy here at Cornerstone.  As a retained executive search specialist, every mandate has a strategic component and must conform with criteria outside issues of skill and experience.

Strategy development should start at the highest executive levels and incorporate the organization’s needs, vision, goals and operational realities.  This is where the input from objective experts such as our consultants can be of immense value.

Contact us at editor@cornerstone-group.com and find out how we can help you to optimize a process that you will be going through one way or the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Companies are obsessed with recruiting the best candidates. Not just qualified candidates, the best candidates. More than technology, more than assets, the key to delivering the mission is the best team.

It is a mantra in the recruiting business, particularly in our sector of retained search. We are the people who contract to find not just suitable people but the best people. And not just the best available people.  We see our task as knowing where the flat-out best people are for your opportunity and, if they are working elsewhere, discreetly making that opportunity known to them.

At that point, the spotlight swings back on you, the hirer. Do you have the vision, the processes, the policies to make them interested in joining you?

To recruit the best, it helps to be the best. That means more than an empathetic work environment, generous compensation and upward mobility.  Job seekers are now concerned about your social responsibility and whether it aligns with theirs.

Are you the best?

Driven partly by this, companies are understanding that their place in the community is important. Last month, 180 leading US companies agreed that their mission was no longer to create shareholder value, the holy grail since the mid-90s, but also to work for the benefit of employees, customers and the community. This will make them more attractive to the up-and-coming talent which want to work for firms that involve themselves in the social and political issues of the day.

Firms in some areas of the economy are fundamentally better placed than others in the recruiting beauty contest.  A five-star example is climate change.  Companies in the business of renewable energy appeal to today’s candidates by default.

But that would not be enough in the long run. You have to demonstrate an ongoing commitment that becomes a fundamental purpose.

This is the example of Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest electricity and heat providers with revenues over US$150 billion and 20,000 employees.  It is over 100 years old, dating back to the beginning of hydro power in the northern forests of Sweden, but that is not the reasons for its status and market leadership.

Firm re-invented itself

After studying and understanding the implications of climate change, Vattenfall committed to re-invent itself.  It undertook to enable fossil-free living within one generation.

That is a bold mission into little known territory. It helps to be in a part of the world that views climate change as an existential imperative: wind is the second largest energy source in Europe, overtaking coal in 2016.

Technology and innovation play a major role in Vattenfall’s future – district residential heating networks utilize excess heat from data centres and industries — but the company views human resources as a  critical component.

“We have to learn and acquire many new skills and competences in order to deliver our strategy” says Borg, CFO. “We look for specific attributes. For example, you have to be a fast learner and comfortable with change, otherwise we will be too slow in our transformation. You need to have an unbiased mind, so we don’t assume at the start what the market will look like. “

According to Borg, the company’s objective of fossil free living in one generation resonates with today’s pool of bright, concerned youth. Recruiting the best candidates is made easier as future employees make the first move and approach the firm.

“We have a value proposition for them that has three areas. We call them limitless learning, vital work, and brilliant people.

“We want to be company where these people come and free their superpowers.”

A virtuous cycle. To be the best company, you need the best people. To get the best people, you need to be the best company.