The ultimate purpose is to not just focus on the finish line but also understand the best method to get there and not hope or expect, but drive to achieve our career goals in the desired time. 

If you are reading this you must have an interest in business, management, leadership and your own role in an organization. As students of these disciplines we constantly seek and find stories of success as defined by academics and executives that we identify as examples of who we want to be and what we want to achieve. 

In many cases we follow those leaders of industry, who constantly grace the cover of magazines, are in the headlines of newspapers, and become the center of discussion in academic case studies to gain from their insight and experience. You could say we are obsessed with being amazed by their success stories, as well as documented failures, going through their experiences in an attempt to learn and duplicate their success, and avoid their mistakes in our own lives and careers. We cherish those experiences and they provide us with inspiration as we attempt to climb the corporate ladder and create our own success stories.  

I remember reading about Lee Iacocca and his resurrection of Chrysler. About Roger Enricco and how he took on Coca-Cola as CEO of PepsiCo proclaiming victory in the cola wars. The magic of Michael Eisner in turning Disney into an entertainment power house. The constant feed of articles and books as Bill Gates, a Harvard drop out, built a software empire while his nemesis Steve Jobs took Apple from an icon of personal computing into a lust driven power house of digital music and iconic consumer electronics. For years I obsessed with how Jack Welsh transformed General Electric and used applied statistics to create one of the most successful operational excellence models in recent history based on Motorola born six-sigma. This week I just can’t stop reading about “Steve on leave” and the impact on Apple.  

Over time the reading has provided me with many aha moments, knowledge, and inspiration.  In many cases, some conscious, some unconscious, I have snuck knowledge tidbits and game plan pieces into more than one strategic plan or business presentation. But in the end, is it just that? Pieces of knowledge and information? Pieces of insight? How can we use that information to plan and drive our own career?  

We know who they are and we can ask ourselves how they got there. In fact, we can read most of their biographies and analyze every step of their careers. Studying their thought processes, their decisions, and the outcome can be very useful and insightful. However, in many cases reading through it can be no different than looking at a collection of solved Sudoku or cross-word puzzles. The result can be obvious and understanding how to achieve it is a challenge but executing it and getting it right is a whole different thing.  

We also tend to be selective observers. As we read through case studies and stories of success we tend to focus on the highlights of the story line, the center character and the end-result. But as Boris Groysberg points out in his book Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance, “No one works alone”. Boris challenges the notion that outstanding performance is simply the result of a combination of innate talent and good educational preparation. His research points towards additional key factors for success that are typically taken for granted as we admire profiled executives and their success stories. Groysberg identifies outstanding performance as heavily dependent on an organization’s culture, resources, networks and colleagues. In the end, tell me where you work and I’ll tell you who you are.  

As an Executive Search Consultant (as we call ourselves), or headhunter (as most people call us), I speak to hundreds of senior executives every year.  By the time we speak most executives are at a point where they are willing to consider a move or are faced with the need to find a new position. Very few have a clear understanding (or are willing to express) which elements of their achievements can be attributed to their specific experience, individual talent, competences and traits, and which are a product of the organization, the culture, their teams and the specific challenges that they faced. It’s critical in order to predict future success.  

If you have been on a commercial flight lately, and browsed the in-flight magazine you have probably come across the Chester L. Karras ad promoting his seminars to improve negotiation skills. Prominently at the top it reads “In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” A bit radical, but somewhat true. While we don’t get a chance to negotiate everything and we don’t get to choose when it comes to the limitations that life throws our way, we do get to choose where we want to be, and we decide if we want to drift or drive to attempt to get there.  

Most executives will tell you that they do have goals and they do know where they want to be. But when they consider career planning most focus on climbing the ladder. Looking for the next step and working hard to perform where they are to achieve key promotions. Career planning tends to be title driven, and most often than not, little attention is paid to how each position contributes to key factors for future success. Those factors include leadership competencies and skills, that as Boris Groysberg identifies in his work on talent portability, fall into one of two categories: Transferable and Company or firm specific. What you do is just as important as when you do it and where you do it.  

Multiple factors influence the success of a career. Starting with the inevitable, ever changing definition of success. We all have one based on our goals, and those tend to change as we grow, mature, face different challenges and define our needs based on our desired work/life balance. A career plan today will likely be different a year from now. They key is to obtain and maintain a heightened awareness of how every step of this career marathon affects its outcome.  

The ultimate purpose is to not just focus on the finish line but also understand the best method to get there and not hope or expect, but drive to achieve our career goals in the desired time.  

Realted Reading: It’s Not You, It’s Not Me, It’s Just Not Meant To Be 

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com

Executive recruiters can usher you into the corner office or leave you stranded after the fourth interview. Here’s what to expect.

by Joseph Daniel McCool

Executive recruiters—or headhunters as most businesspeople know them—are especially influential agents of executive mobility and management-career opportunity.

They are powerful ambassadors of hiring organizations’ brands and cultures, and their work lubricates the wheels of corporate growth, change management, and leadership like no other external business advisers. Their actions can shape corporate performance, because they hold the keys to most of the world’s highest-paying management jobs by virtue of controlling access to them.

Collectively, executive recruiters network their way to millions of experienced managers around the world each year to identify the most promising candidates. Their judgment determines who deserves to be introduced to client hiring organizations.

The truth is, whether you’re building a company or your own senior management career, you can’t get anywhere in business without the headhunters.

| Read full article at Businessweek.com

Jose Ruiz is Principal and Executive Search Consultant in Heidrick & Struggles. You can share your views of this article or aything related to the manufacturing, maquiladora operations or executive search at: jruiz@heidrick.com

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.

The world’s premier provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. The firm’s executive recruiters and leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In Mexico, Heidrick & Struggles operates offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles please visit www.heidrick.com

“You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.” – David Ogilvy

A lot has been said in the past few years about personal branding. A term introduced in the early 80´s by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their book: “Positioning: The Battle for your Mind”. In chapter 23 Ries and Trout point that you can benefit by using positioning strategy to advance your own career.  Key principle: “Don’t try to do everything yourself. Find a horse to ride”. And so the personal branding band wagon began to roll.

It’s a great concept and it’s a very valid concept: Build your career with focus. Define yourself. But somewhere along the way, as the bandwagon kept rolling, personal branding began to be defined as personal marketing and brand identity.  Somewhere along the way the focus was taken off building a career with focus and put on self promotion.

A great tool if you’ve planned your career, or even if you have hit a few bumps along the road but understand how you want to position yourself.

A very bad idea if you have not done the homework to define your personal offering. Social media has made this a very dangerous proposition for those with a bad or undefined ‘product’ and just following the trend of self promotion on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN.

Some of the personal branding efforts I’ve seen remind me of not following one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten in my career.  It came on my first sales call shadowing my boss.  Before stepping into a meeting he leaned over and told me “Just remember: It’s better to stay quiet and let them think that you are clueless, than opening your mouth and confirming it”. Not that I’ve always followed it. But I’m sure you get the point.

Your brand identity is about what you want to communicate about yourself. It’s tricky because the bulk of it is not explicit.

Personal branding is about how everything you do: every job, every social and personal endeavor will define who you are and what you can offer in the next step of your career. You can’t go wrong if you focus on that.

Loyalty is not what it used to be… and it shouldn’t be.

By Jose Ruiz
Translated from articule published in CNNExpansion.com on Dec. 6, 2009

A few weeks ago my grandfather, who was a top ranking executive in the banking industry back in the 80′s, asked me what I thought about the perceived lack of loyalty in today’s employees. He was surprised to see that now, the average time an employee spends working for a company is around 5 years. An uncle, an entrepreneur, quickly responded loaded with sarcasm: “And what do you think about the perceived lack of loyalty in companies? They think short term and fire people when they don’t need them anymore -this month.” Touche. Hey, in the end, it isn’t personal, it’s just business. It may sound cold and ruthless but it’s not. We just need to sit back and analyze some paradigms that have been redefined over the past decades.

To many, especially amid these hard economic times, loyalty has been discarded in the work place. But the truth is, loyalty has only evolved. I’m sure you will agree with me when I say it is crazy to assume that an organization can commit to an employee for life, just as crazy as an employee committing to an organization for life. It could happen under the right conditions, but one cannot assume or guarantee that it will. Things change and they change fast. Organizations and employees need to achieve independence. Now, this may evoke thoughts of selfishness, but it is quite the opposite. Business relationships exist for a mutual benefit. Employment is not an exception. Loyalty is assuming that the relationship can end. Loyalty is taking into consideration what may happen to the other party when it does and loyalty is taking action every step of the way to guarantee that neither party in the relationship becomes dependant. A dependant relationship in business is not a healthy relationship.

The current economic environment has exposed many of these unhealthy relationships. Let’s delve deeper into the concept of dependence using an example: Bill, an employee at ACME, Inc. is a close friend of his manager. He has helped him when unforeseen events have required him to do a little extra of everything. Bill is a go-to guy at ACME and has been rewarded over the years with generous pay increases. The economy has hit ACME hard and has forced the company to close down. Bill is out of work and now struggles to make ends meet. He was presumably loyal and did everything that was asked of him, including jumping from one position to another. Now Bill is in the open market. His post switching did not allow him to define his own niche or career within a discipline -he has no brand- his resume is a mess and his salary expectations are well above what the market will pay for his skill set. Bill was dependant on ACME and ACME never considered what would happen to Bill in an open job market. By not helping him define a career path, (both internally and externally) and overpaying him, Bill was put in a very bad situation. ACME made him dependant and Bill never realized that he was.

Now, let’s assume a scenario where an investor stepped in, ACME re-opened its doors and re-hired Bill. Bill knows that his life style depends on his current job with ACME. The relationship is at a high risk of turning toxic because Bill’s dependence would most likely have an impact on the decisions he makes at ACME. He knows he needs to protect his job. At best, he will make decisions with a higher degree of fear.

A healthy business relationship and true respect comes with the independence of both parties and the trust resulting from it.

 True loyalty in an employment relationship takes into consideration what will happen to the other party when the business relationship ends. A.J. Smith, General Manager for the San Diego Chargers preaches “We are all Chargers one season at a time, one game at a time”.

As an employee, one must consider all the possibilities, including that your job may end at any given moment. Are you ready for it? Do you know what your market value is? Do you know who may demand your services? Ask yourself these questions constantly. If you are taking on a new assignment, inquire how this will impact your personal brand and your resume. No matter what you do, or what your job may be, consider yourself a freelancer and your job as an assignment. Perform as if every assignment was an trial for the next. Above all, never forget that healthy relationships are based on mutual benefit. Push the other party’s benefit to the edge and you may break the relationship. If you guarantee your independence you will become a better employee. Guarantee the independence of those that work for you and you will have more loyal employees and a healthy relationship.

Be independent and be loyal. The new kind of loyal.

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.
The world’s premier provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. The firm’s executive recruiters and leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In Mexico, Heidrick & Struggles operates offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles please visit www.heidrick.com 

Business trends and the current recession are forever changing the way corporations hire and retain talent.
By Jose Ruiz

Monterrey, Mexico (August 28, 2009).-  These are hard times for finding a new job or making a career transition. The state of the economy and uncertainty has forced many companies to downsize. Yes, downsize. Not rightsize. I don’t hear clients tell us they need to hire 100 people because they are rightsizing. Companies are downsizing and in many cases executing accross the board pay cuts. They have also been forced to rethink their strategic and business plans forcing changes in their talent needs. Requirements and career paths have been forever altered.

In the executive search business we are finding that it’s taking longer than usual for executives to transition and find a new job. It’s frustrating and difficult amid hard times and many executives end up questioning if they might be doing something wrong, if they did something wrong in the past or if they are making mistakes during their job search.  No two individuals are alike and while every case is different there is a broad trend on how corporations are hiring and retaining talent. Understanding those trends can help eliminate frustration.

Short term requirements, speed and reaction time dominate the business environment. Corporations need to plan for shorter horizons building organizations that can execute seamlessly and react quickly while guaranteeing profits and long term sustainability.

Time is money. The need for speed and lower costs has made learning curves unbearable in many business environments and it’s having a profound impact in how corporations hire. It’s not about quick learners. They want executives who have been there, done that and can have an immediate impact.. Executives with the right leadership qualities for the task at hand, industry knowledge, technical experience and proven business success in a similar environment.

Hire for attitude and build aptitude is now relegated to entry level employees. The trend for executives is now hire for attitude, assure aptitude and guarantee success.

Assuring aptitude and guaranteeing success requires a close match and fit at four different levels:

I. A broad cultural fit - Broad cultural fit includes the business and corporate cultures. The culture and business dynamics of a private family owned enterprise tends to be very different from a public global corporation. A broad cultural fit will help guarantee long term success.

II. The “Must Haves” – What we typically see in a job description: Qualifications, experience, knowledge, technical skills and functional competencies. These used to be very broad and have now become very discipline and industry specific. These are key elements to a quick learning curve, a fast start and short term success.

III. A “micro” cultural fit –  The broad cultural fit focuses on a global business and corporate cultural. A micro culture focuses on a regional or site level. At this level it is important to seek a fit in behaviors, leadership and management styles of the immediate team including subordinates.

IV. The task at hand - A position or discipline takes on a different meaning depending on the task at hand. The executive and leadership competencies required for turn-around, growth, a contraction or a stable environment can vary widely. A successful turn-around specialist is seldom the best choice for a stable environment.

A fit at all levels is not easy. Many elements that were once considered intangible are now part of a tangible evaluation process and from the stand point of an executive it’s not about right or wrong, good or bad, it’s simply about fit.

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.
The world’s premier provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. The firm’s executive recruiters and leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In Mexico, Heidrick & Struggles operates offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles please visit www.heidrick.com

By Jordan Golson (GigaOm/Businessweek.com)

As social networking sites explode in popularity, they have become the prime avenue for many job hunters

The Internet has changed a lot of things over the past decade or two—including how we search for jobs. Sure, the basics are the same: Find an opening and apply for it. But the Web has permanently altered the employment process. And with more than 1.2 million info tech jobs lost this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a lot of people are going to be using every tool they can get to find their next job.

While networking is (and has traditionally been) the best way to find a new job, the second-most effective tool is another type of networking: sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, according to a poll released Aug. 17 by placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Old-school employment search tricks like attending job fairs and reading newspaper classifieds got the lowest ratings. Here’s how the Web is changing how we look for jobs.

| Read full article

We’re closely watching indicators in the US that would signal an improvement in consumer demand.  Mexico’s efforts to tackle the effects of the ongoing global financial crisis can help mitigate the impact but the recovery will come from an improved US economy.
 
“Mexico’s fate is so closely linked to the United States that they can’t get out of the recession on their own,” said Eugenio Aleman, a Latin America economist from Wells Fargo Bank.  “They are trying to smooth over the problems. The central bank has loosened policy. But there is not much the government can do.”
 
Looking for signs of recovery…
A report last Friday confirmed consumer confidence in the US tumbled more than expected in June, to a 28-year low. The report by the Reuters/University of Michigan said the confidence index fell to 56.7 from May’s 59.8. The figure is the lowest since the record low of 51.7 in May 1980.
 
Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said the U.S. unemployment rate could get closer to 10 percent instead of 9.5 percent. He added that the jobless rate could peak later this year — earlier than a mid-2010 peak previously expected. This could signal a deeper fall but an earlier recovery.
 
Potential risks that can derail a recovery…
A current point of concern for many is soaring commodity prices. Food prices in the US have jumped 5% the past 12 months, with bakery products (up 10.5%), dairy (+11%) and oils (+12.8%) leading the way. Energy prices have skyrocketed. Fuel oil and other fuels have soared 50.7% in the past 12 months.

_

Jose Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles’ Monterrey office. As an executive recruiter he has worked on executive search projects for multinational clients in industrial sectors and consumer markets. He can be reached at +52 (818) 8625-6521 or jruiz@heidrick.com

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.
The world’s premier provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. The firm’s executive recruiters and leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In Mexico, Heidrick & Struggles operates offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles please visit www.heidrick.com

The peso remains strong floating around 13 pesos to a dollar and inflation in April was reported at 0.38%, an improvement over March’s 0.58%

In another positive sign for manufacturing in Mexico the U.S. government report showed employers cut fewer jobs in April than economists forecast. The U.S. buys 80 percent of Mexican exports.

“This was a good number,” said Jaime Ascencio, a fixed- income strategist in Mexico City at Actinver SA, the nation’s biggest independent money manager. “It raises bets that diminishing job losses will translate into more consumption.”

Economists are forecasting Banco de Mexico will trim its target to 5.25 percent from 6 percent on May 15, according to the median of 16 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. The bank has reduced rates by 2.25 percentage point so far this year to 6 percent last month in an effort to revive growth.

With information from bloomberg.com>

Jose Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles’ Monterrey office. As an executive recruiter he has worked on executive search projects for multinational clients in industrial sectors and consumer markets. He can be reached at +52 (818) 8625-6521 or jruiz@heidrick.com

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.
The world’s premier provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. The firm’s executive recruiters and leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In Mexico, Heidrick & Struggles operates offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles please visit www.heidrick.com

By Jose Ruiz

Monterrey, N.L. (April 1, 2009) – The peso rose 0.8 percent to 14.1722 per U.S. dollar and the Bolsa stock index climbed 0.5 percent to 19,626.75. Both signs of optimism as Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon announced that Mexico’s public finances are in order and we’re able to take a line of credit from the IMF as soon as this week.

Overall Status of Manufacturing in Mexico
The outlook remains grim. Mexico’s industrial fell the most in almost 14 years in January as the country’s ties to the declining U.S. economy crimps manufacturing and trade. Mexico is one of the worst performers in Latin America because of its close business and consumer ties to the U.S. Geographically within Mexico the impact of the recession is felt the most in the northern cities that are tied closer to the U.S. business cycle. However some manufacturing sectors begin to show positive signs.

Transportation
It is expected that U.S. companies operating in Mexico will pay higher shipping costs after the U.S. scrapped a trucking program designed to eliminate daylong delays at the border. “The fact that we can’t have a truck go door-to-door generates a cost,” said Cesar Castro, president of the Mexico City-based National Council for the Exporting, Maquiladora and Manufacturing Industry.

Because of the suspension, companies that were in the program now must pay about $120 per trailer for a transfer service that hauls cargo across the border. Delays compound those costs because shippers must drop the trailers on the Mexican side of the border, hook them up and deliver them to the U.S. side, where an American trucking company picks them up.

Automotive Industry
Uncertainty currently looms on Mexico’s automotive industry and the automobile industry is Mexico’s largest manufacturing sector and a key employer.

 The Group of 20 nations suggests the global economic slowdown could last through the end of 2010. But most importantly the Obama administration said as it set the stage for a crisis in Detroit that would dramatically reshape the nation’s auto industry. The immediate future and strategic direction of GM and Chrysler will have direct short term impact on Mexico’s manufacturing environment.  President Barack Obama and his top advisers have determined that neither company is viable and that taxpayers will not spend untold billions more to keep the pair of automakers open forever. Protecting U.S. jobs will remain an will have an impact in GM and Chrysler’s operation in mexico.

Jose Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles’ Monterrey office. As an executive recruiter he has worked on executive search projects for multinational clients in industrial sectors and consumer markets. He can be reached at +52 (818) 8625-6521 or jruiz@heidrick.com

The Houston team with guests Dale Visokey, Kay Fuhrman and Jose Ruiz at the Annual CEO Dinner.

Houston, TX – The Heidrick & Struggles Houston office held its annual CEO dinner for 85 guests, most of whom were public company CEOs and board members. The group listened to a thought provoking address from Robert Bryce, the New York Times bestselling author of Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence. Bryce, whom the Times has called “a visionary, perhaps even a revolutionary,” gave a stirring address, followed by a Q&A session that was moderated by Loren Steffy, an award winning business columnist at the Houston Chronicle.

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.
Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. is the world’s premier provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including talent management, board building, executive on-boarding and M&A effectiveness. For more than 50 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles executive recruiters and leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In Mexico, Heidrick & Struggles operates offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles please visit www.heidrick.com