Jose Ruiz

Forbes.com | Guest post written by Jeffrey S. Sanders

Jeffrey S. Sanders is Vice Chairman and Managing Partner of the North American CEO Practice for Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search and leadership consulting firm.

While we all know stories of legendary CEOs who seem born to the role, most CEOs are not born, they are made. People who aspire to the role have to seize the opportunity and set a path: to manage their career choices and craft their experience to make them a likely CEO candidate.

Interestingly, consulting, at four percent, ranked as the least common early career experience among CEOs. Nevertheless, some highly successful CEOs have come from that world. John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, started as an associate consultant at Bain & Co. and rose to become the firm’s Worldwide Managing Director. DirecTV’s CEO Michael White, after graduating from Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, worked at Andersen Consulting and then spent five years at Bain. Both Jerry Storch, CEO of Toys ‘R’ Us, and Russ Fradin, CEO of SunGard, worked at McKinsey, and Indra Nooyi spent six years at The Boston Consulting Group in the beginning of her career (she was eventually appointed CEO from the CFO position).

Settle In – Eventually – and Climb the Ladder

More than three-fourths of today’s top leaders were appointed internally. When evaluating CEO candidates, companies tend to favor internal appointments, as opposed to external appointments, because internal candidates understand the company culture, are familiar with the key stakeholders, and are known to the board members and other members of the executive team. Given that internal executives know and are well-known to the company, promoting the internal executive often poses less of a risk than hiring someone from the outside.

However, while more than three-fourths of today’s top leaders were appointed internally, less than a third of CEOs were “lifers” (people who spent nearly their entire careers at the company they now lead). The average time to CEO appointment for those who rose through the ranks at
their company is 16 years, but the average age at time of appointment is 50. Therefore, when executives reach their early thirties, they begin to settle in at one particular company to rise through the ranks. While companies value executives who understand the company culture, they also recognize the importance of executives who have spent time at multiple companies. Experience at several companies provides CEOs with an outside perspective and enables them to draw best-in-class practices from a broad range of companies.

Time to CEO Appointment

While the average time to CEO appointment is 16 years, it differs from industry to industry. Not surprisingly, technology appears to offer the fastest path to the CEO chair, while industrial companies appear to offer the slowest. Technology companies make up about 10 percent of the Fortune 500, but comprise 15 percent of the CEOs appointed before age 50. Industrial companies, making up about 37 percent of the Fortune 500, have only 30 percent of the under-50 appointments. Similarly, average time to CEO appointment for internal appointments at technology companies is close to 14 years, whereas average time to CEO appointment for internal appointments at industrial companies is closer to 18 years. Also of note is the fact that technology companies appoint almost 20 percent more external CEOs than industrial companies.

Board Experience

About 45 percent of CEOs served as non-executive directors on public company boards before being named chief executive of the Fortune 500 companies they lead today. Executives typically look to join boards before becoming CEO because they view board experience as a form of professional development. Serving on a board provides them with the opportunity to learn from other high-caliber executives, see the CEO role through the board’s lens, and gain corporate governance experience. While serving on a board can often help with an executive’s professional development, there is also an opportunity cost associated with joining a board given the time commitment required. Executives who would like to become CEOs should be mindful of this and should join a high quality board where they can develop their experience, exposure to corporate governance, and visibility.

While this portrait of a CEO could shift in the coming years, most of the attributes reflected in our findings are likely to become only more pronounced with the passage of time: financial acumen will continue to be important in an increasingly globalized and economically interdependent world, companies will place a high value on organizational and cultural knowledge, and an increasing number of executives will look to board service as a way of gaining a broader perspective prior to becoming CEO.

What does that path look like? To find out, the CEO & Board Practice at Heidrick & Struggles analyzed the careers of all current Fortune 500 CEOs.

Here’s some of what the study discovered:

Develop Financial Acumen

About 30 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs spent the first few years of their careers developing a strong foundation in finance. This is by far the most common early experience of today’s CEOs. As the second-largest constituent, CEOs who started out in sales and marketing roles account for only about 20 percent of the current big company CEO population.

The prevalence of CEOs with a strong financial background points to the fact that large companies prefer CEOs who can create value for the company and who understand the company’s financial drivers. Typically, companies are looking for CEOs who can develop a strategy and understand the financial ramifications of business decisions.

A foundation in finance is an important building block for a career. However, only about five percent of these CEOs were promoted directly from the role of CFO – more than half were appointed from the role of COO or President. Though the prevalence of Fortune 500 CEOs with strong financial backgrounds underlines the importance of developing financial acumen, above all, companies value a strong operator.

For example, while Oshkosh’s Charles Szews spent the majority of his career in a variety of finance roles, prior to his appointment as CEO in 2011, he spent three years as COO. Similarly, Patricia Woertz began her career as an accountant, and then rose through the ranks in the finance departments at Gulf Oil and Chevron before she was rotated into broader operating roles and eventually appointed CEO of Archer-Daniels-Midland in 2006. At the other end of the spectrum, the CEO of Pfizer, Ian Read, began his career in the finance department, but transitioned into general management after a comparatively short 10 years in finance roles.

With a few notable exceptions, such as Marcel Smits at Sara Lee and Bill Delaney at Sysco, executives very rarely move directly from a finance role to the CEO position. Rather, over three quarters of these CEOs came from an operating role. Though they often began their careers in finance, the executives who have made it to the top are those who have successfully used their financial expertise to become excellent operators.

Career Development, Drive It (Book), Leadership, Mexico Executive Search CEO, Executive Recruiters, Mexico Executive Search, Recruiter

by Kelly O Kay, Global Managing Partner of the Software Practice at Heidrick & Struggles

During the worst of the recession, the approaches companies took to talent fell into three broad categories. Some simply froze hiring or made across-the-board cuts. Others, assuming a buyer’s market for talent, failed to attract or retain genuinely top talent. Still others continued to make strategic hires – no matter what it took and despite economic turbulence – putting themselves in the best position to ride out the rough waters and to meet the rising tide of recovery.

The first two groups of companies now need to make up lost ground. The good news is that there is still time. The bad news is that as the recovery gets under way, all three groups will be fiercely competing for the same limited pool of top talent – even those farseeing companies that continued to make strategic hires will need to work to hold the ground they’ve gained in strategic hiring and to advance as growth returns.

Learning the lessons of the previous downturn
The recent market downturn was steep, but it’s hardly the first of its kind. Just eight years ago, the U.S. economy experienced a sharp contraction, one that particularly affected the technology sector. The executives who led companies through that downturn learned the hard way how to refocus organizations on the fly and they applied those lessons to their recruitment activities during the more recent recession – lessons from which other companies could profit while the present window of opportunity remains open. “Unless an organization is going out of business, it should always be thinking about recruiting,” says Mark Tapling, now CEO of Language Weaver, who successfully steered a high-tech company through that sector’s 2001 free fall. “Many companies I know have had to hire in new talent to re-position themselves for success in this turbulent economy. And hiring the right people is never easy.”

The right staff with the right stuff
As companies adjust to economic uncertainty, they likely need a set of skills that they didn’t previously require or have in-house. Hiring in these new skills is pivotal for the ability to adapt to the changing economic conditions and seize new opportunities. Unfortunately, some companies, as a result of the uncertainty in the market and their own uncertain futures, have been reluctant to invest in recruiting the top-level talent they need in order to successfully reposition themselves. Typically, they have tried to delay hiring or make do with what they have, promoting someone internally into a stretch position or using their internal networks to try to locate the person they need.

It’s certainly understandable that companies have taken that cautious approach. During the initial trauma of the downturn, boards and stakeholders were demanding swift, decisive action. In the face of frozen credit markets and plummeting stock prices, most organizations had to put aside grand strategic plans and focus on immediate operating plans. But they should have also started seriously evaluating their future staffing needs.

Though the emotional and logistical turmoil of downsizing leaves most organizations feeling like they don’t have enough staff, the truth is more subtle: companies typically don’t have the right staff to achieve their objectives. For example, in a growing market, companies typically focus resources on branding, voice, and demand generation. But in a shrinking market, they’re more likely to need tight segmentation and skill in packaging products to meet the needs of specific communities. An executive who’s strong in demand generation may not have the segmentation skills to double down on segments where the business has been successful to drive maximum profitability.

“All change is disruptive,” says Dave Habiger, CEO of Sonic Solutions. “But ultimately, it can either advance your business or undermine it. Any winning strategy is partly a talent strategy. You can have the perfect business plan, but it’s the people who make it work.”

The illusion of a buyer’s market for talent
Some companies recognized early on the need for new skills called for by the uncertain economy. However, some of them also bought into a widely held – and largely unexamined – belief about the effect of the recession on the talent pool. “People think that even the very best people, the ‘A-players,’ are a dime a dozen,” says Tapling. “That belief is dangerous.”

While there are certainly more people out of work, it is usually the best people that smart companies do their utmost to retain. So, while the talent pool was larger in absolute numbers, top talent remained in relatively short supply. As Mark Tapling suggests, the notion of a talent market that overwhelmingly favors buyers is an illusion. Companies that have been laboring under that illusion have typically made two mistakes.

First, they have underestimated the difficulty of finding the talent with the demanding mix of skills needed to see the company through the recession and prepare it for recovery. As a result, they have failed to fully understand how difficult it is to get top external talent – believing that they could get “A” players at “B” prices and with a “B” recruiting effort.
Second, the notion of a buyer’s market may have made them complacent about retaining the top talent they already have. “There’s a belief out in the market – just as there was in the previous downturn – that absolutely nobody is hiring,” says Tapling. That has also proved to be a dangerous belief for those companies that have seen some of their top talent seek greater appreciation elsewhere.

The drive for efficient recruiting
Companies that do understand the real dynamics of the talent market have not only been hiring strategically but have also been doing it in a systematic way, with a full commitment of resources and an understanding of what it takes to define, find, and attract top talent.
SumTotal Systems took that approach. “First, we fleshed out our new strategy and operating plan, including reductions,” says Arun Chandra, the company’s CEO. “Next, we defined the roles and skills that we required to succeed in this new environment. Then we started discussing execution: what skills we would need to achieve our new goals, and what skills we already had in-house. From there, we moved on to discussing specific positions that we would need to create and recruit for.”

Once companies have developed their plans to create new roles, they face the biggest hurdle: the difficulty of finding top talent. Not only is the idea that there are great people just waiting for a call a myth but also the existence of many more candidates, most of whom are unsuitable, makes the market noisy and complicates the process of finding candidates who really fit.

Even more challenging is the fact that when organizations try to bring in new skill sets, they’re often venturing into unfamiliar territory, where it’s all too easy to make mistakes. Hiring new talent also carries other risks, especially when new hires are high-priced corporate change-makers. Such executives are expensive and inherently disruptive, and in today’s rapidly changing environment they’ve got to be successful quickly.

Minimizing the hiring risk
Companies can meet the challenges of strategic hiring and minimize the risks by working closely with an experienced executive recruiter. The recruiter can help the company thoroughly explore corporate strategy and requirements, conduct a systematic search to identify the best candidates, implement a skillful recruitment and integration process – and make all the difference in the company’s ability to compete successfully for talent that will only get harder to find.

“Some of the roles I had defined in the plan were not just new to me, but also new to the culture of the company,” says Christopher Franey, President of Kensington, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACCO Brands. “We didn’t have experience in evaluating candidates with those skill sets – and we couldn’t afford to learn through trial and error.”

Sonic Solutions’ Dave Habiger had a similar experience. “We needed help in identifying who the key candidates would be, and how to qualify them through interviews and reference checks,” he says. “Finding and recruiting the best and brightest is a time-consuming process that requires precise expertise not typically found in-house. Plus, we couldn’t afford to have our executives spending time and energy on dozens of interviews. Now more than ever, we need them to be focused on operations.”
Efficiently choosing the right person is especially important because, with the pressures on businesses today, companies can’t afford hiring mistakes or slow starts – especially in a crucial rain-maker position. “If you’re going to the board and asking for a strategic hire, you’ve got to make your case strongly, and it’s your credibility on the line,” warns Tapling. “Whoever you bring in won’t have time to learn on the job. They’ll have to perform as expected, right out of the box. And you’re going to be accountable for their performance.”

Overcoming ‘organizational freeze’
Savvy companies are also looking for ways to reduce or eliminate “organizational freeze,” the operational paralysis that tends to occur between identifying a critical new position and filling that role. One such solution is “talent mapping.” At Heidrick & Struggles, we find companies coming to us and saying that although they’re not ready to launch a full search, they want to get started so they can move quickly once they get the authorization they need. We draw up a profile of what they’re looking for and identify specific individuals who fit that profile. When they get sign-off to hire for a position they can move swiftly to interviews and offers, often saving a month or two in the process.”

Some of the best-run companies have also been looking past the most pressing needs on their talent maps and asking recruitment firms to introduce top talent on an ongoing basis. With a full commitment of resources and an understanding of the real dynamics of the current talent market, they are taking advantage of the opportunities created by market uncertainty to secure A-players before the recovery dramatically heats up the competition for top talent.

It’s not just who you know
The A-players who could make all the difference to an organization’s success are usually still employed. Further, economic uncertainty has made many people reluctant to leave positions they regard as safe. But even if they’re not employed, they typically have had the financial success or foresight to allow themselves to be choosy about their next position. Finding them isn’t easy, and persuading them to join a new company and stay for the long term is even harder. Just knowing the people isn’t enough. You also have to know how to pry them out of their current positions or lure them out of wait-and-see hiatuses in employment.

“Top talent always has options,” says Lori Goler, Head of Human Relations at Facebook. “We’re thoughtful, creative and aggressive about targeting the right candidates, yet nearly every situation is a competitive one. If nothing else, we’re competing against a candidate’s incumbent company, which can represent a comfort zone. And, good companies are doubling down on their best talent, which makes them even harder to lure away. In these cases, knowing your company’s value proposition and being able to convey it compellingly is the key to success in getting top talent to make a move.”

A company that is aiming high must position the role as exciting and the company as superior to other companies, with far more upside potential. Organizations often need to adjust their recruiting strategy to the needs of the individual being recruited, considering such factors as money, security, and career potential.

Retention as recruiting
Persuading a desirable candidate to say yes is just the beginning. Before the new executive begins work, a comprehensive onboarding process should be firmly in place. The onboarding process should set expectations with the new hire and current employees in order to smooth the path and address any of the cultural differences or anxieties that people may have about the new star on the horizon. Organizations can’t afford to create the kind of disruption that might make the new hire less effective or lead other talented staff to consider other offers.

Organizations also cannot afford to neglect retention of these A-players, especially as recovery approaches. These talented executives will have far more opportunities, both as a result of economic expansion generally and as companies that have been sitting things out or haven’t fully understood the recent talent market commit to making up lost ground.

Talented staff must be carefully nurtured and managed, with ongoing development, training, and professional opportunities that keep them fully engaged and committed to the future and the success of the company. Think of it as a kind of ongoing recruiting that can pre-empt the need for at least some actual recruiting – with its uncertainty and time lag – when the recovery takes off. Companies that do not do a good job of retention are likely to find themselves with a talent gap at precisely the time of greatest opportunity.

| Download PDF

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

Economy, Job Market, Mexico Executive Search Executive Recruiters, LinkedIn, Mexico Executive Search, Recruiter, Recruiters, Talent

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

Drive It (Book), Job Market, Leadership, Mexico Executive Search Drive it, Executive Recruiter, Executive Recruiters, Jose Ruiz, LinkedIn, Mexico Executive Search

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

Mexico Executive Search Executive Recruiter, Executive Recruiters, Jobs, Mexico Executive Search, Search

By Jose J. Ruiz – Heidrick & Struggles

Monterrey, Mexico (August 18, 2009).- Positive signs continue to bring hope that an economic recovery, though a slow and long one, has arrived. There is an emphasis on slow and long.

The peso dropped against the dollar by 1.3 percent on Monday, the single biggest drop since May 11, before climbing back and positioning itself slightly below 13 pesos per dollar around noon today.

Concerns were awaken a few days back as Finance Secretary Agustin Carstens said Mexico faces the worst “fiscal shock” in 30 years because of declining oil production. This means there will be little money left to stimulate the economy. However, the biggest factor in Mexico’s economic recovery will continue to be consumer demand in the United States simply because Mexico sends more than 80% of its exports to the U.S.

“The United States was not only at the origin of the crisis, it is central to any world recovery,” said Olivier Blanchard, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.

At least for now, the positive signs in the U.S. continue.

Automotive Industry
GM has called back over 1300 union workers as the company prepares to boost production during the second half of the year. In Mexico, GM recently inaugurated a transmission plant in San Luis Potosi. This is a great sign for Mexico considering 21% of exports come from the automotive industry.

Blanchard believes the recovery has started but has cautioned it can’t be sustained by government programs such “Cash for Clunkers”. The private sector needs to be the engine of economic activity.

Demand still needs to recover and it will take years for it to reach pre-recession levels but having inventories drop enough to kick-start plants that had be shut down is a great step forward.

Housing and Construction in the United States
There are still many negative sides to the housing equation in the United States. Foreclosures will continue to be fed by many variable-rate loans that will reset between now and 2012 putting downward pressure on pricing but for the first time in many years renting is now more expensive than buying for those with a good credit rating and cash in the bank.

The amount of deals in the market has stopped the price slide in places like San Diego where the medium price of a home in July stood at $320,000, up from $316,250 in June but still below July 2008′s $364,000. Some builders like KB home expect to show year-over-year increases in sales for the current quarter.

U.S. housing starts declined by 1 per cent in July, ending a two-month winning streak but despite missing expectations, watchers viewed the housing data as a largely positive development. The drop can be attributed to apartments since construction of single-family homes rose by 1 per cent to the highest level since October 2008, for the fifth straight monthly increase.

It’s too early to pop the Champaign bottle but it appears that activity in both the construction and automotive industries may have stabilized to a degree.

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

Mexico Industry Executive Recruiters, Jose Ruiz, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Recruiter, Manufacturing Recruiters, Maquiladora Recruiters, Mexico Executive Search, Mexico Manufacturing, Mexico Recruiter, Mexico Recruiters

You Corp.
Succeed by applying to your personal life and career the same principals that propel leading corporations.

by Jose Ruiz

The exact definition of business is a matter of debate.  But without getting into much detail or controversy a business is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers.  Formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its stake holders and grow the business itself.
 
If you are reading this there is a high probability that you work, you are either an employee or an entrepreneur.  It really does not matter.  In the end, you do something (your product) and someone pays for it.  People who surround you or depend on you such as your wife, kids, parents are affected by how you do it and what you get. They, along with you, are stake holders. I’m pretty sure that you and your stake holders have felt the need to increase your wealth. You are a business.
 
Working in executive search I speak to many managers and directors from Fortune 500 organizations. They are masters of business strategy and execution yet, most of the time, I get a strange look if not a blank stare when I ask how they have applied those concepts to their person and how they have used those concepts to get to where they are. I truly can’t say they got there by chance. But I’m also not sure it was always something that was planned and mapped out. There are moments in time which change the course of events, alter the paths of your career and change your professional life. Some are positive and some are negative and for most of us the majority of these events are unexpected.
 
When I ask people who have had successful careers what the secret is, the most common response is “hard work and perseverance”. Check! You won’t be successful without them. But I also know many people who have worked hard, been relentless and have fallen short of their goals. There are no guarantees that you will be successful and achieve all of your goals, but I bet you can increase your chances by applying the same business concepts great corporations use. You might already work for one and apply them everyday, you just might not be applying them to yourself.
 
Identify and understand your stakeholders
People who surround you or depend on you such as your wife, kids, parents are affected by how you do it and what you get. What are their needs today and what will they be tomorrow? Your needs and those of your other stakeholders should be your big objective.
 
Know, understand and develop your product/service 
Know what makes you valuable and think about how your current job or activities will affect that value. In the end, your employer is your client. How many potential clients do you have? Be strategic. Everything you do should be part of the creation of a unique and valuable position. A good strategy may require you to make trade-offs – Your resources are limited. Choosing what not to do is just as important as choosing what to do.
 
Create and propel your personal brand
Yes, you are a brand. Distinguish yourself and make sure you never forget that perceptions matter. People remember you and what you are by what you do and what you reflect. Work on a positive brand.
 
Apply The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles)
Good-to-Great companies do what they can do best (as opposed to what they want to do best), what they are deeply passionate about, and they focus on what drives their economic engine.
 
Be effective: Plan and execute seamlessly
Know where you want to go, plan how you are going to get there and when. Be visionary. Spot trends but stay focused and constantly reassess everything.
 
Focus, document and measure relentlessly
Use a central score board and share it with your stakeholders. Goals slip when progress is not being measured…and measured against time. Set milestones at frequent intervals. When gaps occur, question what went wrong and apply corrective actions.
 
Be ruthless with resources and stay financially flexible
We live in a world of cycles. Recessions and economic crisis will happen and most likely a few times in our lifetime. Be prepared, don’t lose focus and be sustainable. Plan long term.
 
Don’t B.S. yourself
B.S. your clients or your stakeholders and it will have an impact on your personal brand. B.S. yourself and you will be on a direct path to failure. Believe your own B.S. and you are done.

Jose Ruizis 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

HR Management in Mexico, Leadership, Mexico Executive Search Executive Recruiters, Jose Ruiz, LinkedIn, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Recruiter, Manufacturing Recruiters, Maquiladora, Maquiladora Recruiter, Maquiladora Recruiters, Mexico, Mexico Executive Search, Mexico Manufacturing, Mexico Recruiter, Mexico Recruiters

By Jose Ruiz

Monterrey,  Mexico (August 5, 2009).- I’ve said it more than a few times: A full manufacturing recovery in Mexico will be slow and very dependant on the automobile industry which makes up 20 percent of Mexico’s industrial production and it looks like we are headed in the right direction.

Factory orders in the US rose in June for the fourth time in five months, an unexpected gain and the latest sign that the ailing manufacturing sector is recovering

Cash-for-clunkers, the program in the US that gives up to $4,500 in rebates for trading in old gasoline chugging cars for newer fuel-efficient vehicles has injected new life into the automotive industry. Almost 250,000 consumers have taken advantage of the program.  This is not even close to a permanent solution, but it is certainly a life line for the automotive industry when it needs it the most. Dealerships had huge inventories going into the second half of the year when 2010 models start arriving. The program coupled with the automakers’ production cuts has slimed down inventories.

Dealers in the US have reported very slim inventories of the Jeep Patriot, Ford Focus, Fusion and Honda Civic. Some GM dealers are even reporting spot shortages of full size pick-ups.

This may not fix the overall demand issue but it has at least cleaned out the excess inventory of smaller models and given manufacturers a clean slate to plan production according to demand.

All of this is good news for Mexico’s automotive industry manufacturing facilities that supply parts and assemble small and compact vehicles.

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

Mexico Industry Executive Recruiters, Jose Ruiz, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Recruiter, Manufacturing Recruiters, Maquiladora, Maquiladora Recruiter, Maquiladora Recruiters, Mexico, Mexico Executive Search, Mexico Manufacturing, Mexico Recruiter, Mexico Recruiters

By Jose Ruiz

Monterrey,  Mexico (August 3, 2009).- Overall the free fall appears to have slowed but we are still falling.  In the US the stabilization of consumer spending, unemployment benefits and the housing markets, a lessening of financial turmoil and increased government spending all suggest the longest recession since the 1930s may be close to ending.
 
In the U.S. Manufacturing shrank in July at the slowest pace in many months and factories moved closer to stabilization. In a Bloomberg News survey, The Institute for Supply Management’s factory gauge increased to 46.5, from 44.8 in June (readings less than 50 signal contraction).
 
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan believes the worst is behind us, “collapse, I think, is now off the table…I’m pretty sure we’ve already seen the bottom… In fact, if you look at the weekly production figures for various different industries, it’s clear that we’ve turned, perhaps in the middle of last month, the middle of July.” Greenspan said.
 
U.S. Recovery will be the first step for a recovery in Mexico but other concerns are looming.  A growing deficit and falling oil output may be sleeping monsters that can put added pressure on growth, the exchange rate and an already tricky inflation scenario.

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

Mexico Indexes, Mexico Industry Executive Recruiters, Jose Ruiz, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Recruiter, Manufacturing Recruiters, Maquiladora, Maquiladora Recruiter, Maquiladora Recruiters, Mexico, Mexico Executive Search, Mexico Manufacturing, Mexico Recruiter, Mexico Recruiters

By Jose Ruiz

Monterrey,  Mexico (July 23, 2009).-  Mexican manufacturers are seeing an end to steep declines in output as U.S. companies begin ramping up orders and reducing inventory.

Overall manufacturing activity is still declining but it is doing so at a slower pace. U.S. Manufacturing declined in June at its slowest pace since August of last year, a sign that the bottom is near in the U.S. and consequently in Mexico which is closely tied to U.S. activity. Mexico last year sold 80 percent of its $291 billion in exports to the U.S.

A full manufacturing recovery in Mexico will be slow and very dependant on the automobile industry which makes up 20 percent of Mexico’s industrial production. A number that is too large to be offset by other industries.

Production in that industry sank 42 percent during the first part of 2009 as General Motors and Chrysler adjusted factory production to match lower demand in the U.S.

Local recovery will depend less on internal factors and more on U.S. consumer demand where employers cut more jobs than expected in June threatening a decrease in consumer confidence and consumer spending which will be critical for an economic recovery.  It is expected that the unemployment rate in the United States will hit its worst point until early next year.

Other indicators pointing towards hitting bottom is the factory index from The Institute for Supply Management which rose in June for a sixth consecutive month to 44.8, after hitting its lowest point in December (32.9). An index below 50 indicates a contraction. So the trend, while still reflecting a contraction is positive as the contraction rate slows. 

_

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

Mexico Industry Executive Recruiters, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Recruiter, Manufacturing Recruiters, Maquiladora, Maquiladora Recruiter, Maquiladora Recruiters, Mexico, Mexico Manufacturing, Mexico Recruiter

Mexico’s peso has rallied to achieve its largest quarterly gain in 14 years rising 7.5 percent over the second quarter of the year after reaching a record low in March.

Mexico Indexes Executive Recruiters, Jose Ruiz, Mexico Executive Search, Mexico Manufacturing, Recruiter