Jose Ruiz

CHICAGO, Dec 12, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., the leadership advisory firm providing executive search and leadership consulting services worldwide, announced today it has named Eric Olson to the role of Global Practice Managing Partner of Leadership Consulting. He will serve on the firm’s operating committee and report directly to CEO L. Kevin Kelly.

“Eric possesses a rare combination of functional experience, client focus and a true passion for people. Over the past decade he has successfully led several international leadership consulting firms and will have a strong business impact on both our firm and clients,” said Heidrick & Struggles’ Chief Executive Officer L. Kevin Kelly. “Under Eric’s direction, our global Leadership Consulting team will be in a solid market position for strategic growth.”

Olson joins Heidrick & Struggles from Oliver Wyman Leadership Development, where he led their European consulting operations. As an accomplished business strategist, Olson has worked closely with many Fortune 500 companies. He also served as CEO of Health Address, a UCLA-based company providing online specialty services between the US and international medical centers in the Middle East. In addition, Olson has taught several change and complexity courses at UCLA and UC Irvine Business Schools.

Olson holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, CA, an MA in Complexity and Organizational Change from the University of Hertfordshire in England, and an MS in Counseling Psychology from Central Washington University.

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.,  is the leadership advisory firm providing executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment, talent retention management, executive development, 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 globally. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com .

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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.

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According to Merriam-Webster Talent is a noun. But bottom line, talent while defined as a noun is really more a verb, it’s about execution and performance.

Definition of  TALENT: “General intelligence or mental power : ability”

Definition of ABILITY: “Competence in doing : skill”

Definition of SKILL: “The ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance”

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AESC, January 2011.- Optimism in the senior recruitment market continues with executive search consultants 68% positive and 30% neutral for the year ahead. The 2011 Outlook, released today by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), showed a peak in industry confidence since its low point at the end of 2008.

AESC President, Peter Felix, commented, “The New Year outlook by our members is most encouraging and confirms the renewed demand for executive search services that we witnessed in 2010. Our members are more confident about their pipeline of assignments and although not all markets around the world are recovering at the same pace the underlying trend is strong. This creates more positive planning support for the expansion of resources that in many cases were severely depleted in 2009.”

66% of respondents indicated that their search practices are planning to hire more consultants in 2011 – rising 18% from mid 2010 results – and 44% plan to hire more researchers.

Felix continued, “As the world economy recovers from the financial services trauma so the scarcity of executive talent in many sectors and regions of the world has become apparent again. This is most pronounced in the booming economies of China, India and Brazil where the talent gap is of critical proportions. However, the scarcity of talented general management executives persists even in the developed countries. Given these conditions the outlook for executive search consulting is bright.” Global findings revealed that the Industrial, Energy/Natural Resources and Financial Services sectors are expected to see the most growth in executive hiring in 2011. Consultants in the Americas held particular optimism (over other regions) for Financial Services, Technology/Telecoms, Energy/Natural Resources, Not-for-Profit, Private Equity/Venture Capital and Real Estate/Construction.

China, India and Latin America are expected to see the greatest scarcity of talent in the year ahead, while the functional outlook places General Managers, CEOs, Chief Operating Officers and Board Directors in strong demand in 2011 – suggesting an increase in high level search assignments as reported in the AESC’s third quarter 2010 industry report.

The 2011 Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) Member Outlook Survey of December 2010 totaled 210 responses from AESC executive search consultants worldwide, including 52% from EMEA, 30% from the Americas and 15% from Asia Pacific. A full copy of the report is available upon request to AESC members and the press.

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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

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The world is rapidly moving to a new carbon regime, with the G8 economies already on board and the G20 working hard to develop and implement a global solution to reduce carbon emissions. To take full advantage of the opportunities in the low carbon economy, while adeptly navigating the potential pitfalls that will ensue, organisations will require a new type of leader. Specifically, these individuals must be able to manage the new “triple bottom line” – the natural environment, the social and political system, and the global economy.

Are You Carbon Ready? explores the key questions that directors, senior executives and others should be asking as they prepare for the low carbon economy.

[Download in PDF]

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By Chris Kraul – LATimes.com
December 11, 2009

Led by resource-rich Brazil, the region is forecast to enjoy 4.1% growth next year, far outpacing the U.S.

Reporting from Bogota, Colombia – From appliance stores in Brazil to auto assembly lines in Mexico, signs are evident that Latin America has seen the worst of the global economic crisis and is poised for solid expansion.

The region is expected to post economic growth of 4.1% next year, according to a forecast released Thursday by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. That’s a stronger rebound than previously anticipated.

| Read full article

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Jobs: Lessons from the Great Recession (Business Week)

Those who still have jobs should get used to pay cuts, furloughs, and all-around uncertainty. Welcome to the age of the microentrepreneur

By Chris Farrell (Source: Businessweek.com)

Thanks to the Great Recession, another corporate taboo has been shattered: large-scale pay cuts. As a general practice, companies typically resist slashing worker pay during downturns, especially for their white-collar employees. The preferred response to falling profits has long been layoffs. The main reason both managers and workers prefer layoffs to pay cuts is that pink slips seem to concentrate the pain while pay cuts spread the distress.

“Employers are reluctant to cut the nominal rate of pay,” says Daniel J.B. Mitchell, professor emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the School of Public Affairs. “It causes morale problems and antagonizes the workforce.”

| Read full story

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

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By Jose Ruiz
Consumer Markets

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon (August 21, 2009).- A few days back I read an article about how Starbucks’ baristas were complaining about the new ‘lean’ initiative that was turning them into robots. The baristas – from Italian etymology referring to a person working behind the bar, in this case an espresso bar – were talking about the efforts to eliminate unnecessary movements and steps to improve efficiencies. Methods long used in manufacturing lines…and fast food restaurants.

A grinder next to an espresso machine

The article called it the McDonalization of Starbucks. McDonalization? I have to say I’m not sure what the baristas were complaining about. Starbucks has been in the fast food business for a long time. It’s been years since I’ve seen a stand alone espresso grinder or a tamper in a Starbucks coffee house.

When you walk into a neighborhood coffee house the smell is different. You can spot at least two stand alone grinders that are hand calibrated to get the perfect grain size of different types of espresso beans. The barista grinds the beans, places the grind in a porta-filter and compacts the grind with a tamper and then places the porta-filter in the machine to obtain a shot of espresso. The grinder settings, the hand pressure used to compact the grind into the porta-filter, the time used to extract the shot are all variables the barista controls. It’s an art. To prepare espresso drinks, such as the now famous, caramel machiatto or a cinnamon latte, the espresso shot is added to vapor heated milk. Achieving the right temperature and speed in heating the milk to release sweetness is an art itself. Syrups are then used to add more sweetness and flavors. It has been a very long time since Starbucks baristas have controlled those variables.

Coffee Syrups

Starbucks has long used super automatic espresso machines. At the push of a button, an internal grinder, grinds the right amount of espresso and automatically does everything else for an espresso shot to come out of its spout. There are no syrup racks at Starbucks, only pre-prepared concentrate mixes for their drinks. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a bad thing. It guarantees me that a teenager who just got started will prepare my short latte the same way a seasoned barista can in the same store. It’s a good thing for consistency. But it’s no longer an art at Starbucks. Baristas can complain about the McDonalization of Starbucks but they really have not been true baristas in a long time.

A Tamper

But here is the irony. This morning I walked into a coffee shop. The smell was there. Two grinders stood tall on the bar along side a syrup rack. A tamper and a used grind box was there sitting next to a three group espresso machine. I asked the barista if he could do something special for me…and he did! I took my drink and sat on a real leather sofa to read the newspaper. I wanted to take out my laptop to write this but it just did not feel right.  Ahh, a real coffee shop: A McCafe. Yes, you read right: A McCafe sitting next to a McDonald’s sharing a terrace. McCafe’s are incorporating traditional coffee house techniques and training real baristas.  

Maybe those baristas complaining about the McDonalization of Starbucks should go work for a McCafe.

…Oh, and the price of my short latte was about 20% less compared to Starbucks.  

A McCafe: Notice the grinder on the bar and the real cups sitting on top of the espresso machine. It's a coffee house! They're getting it right.

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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

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