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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3 years after graduating from college I accepted a position as a Design Engineer with a company that built custom HVAC equipment. I had been invited by an Engineering Manager who had also just joined the company but had many years of experience in the industry. 

In our first staff meeting he began talking about changes in the department. He spoke of creating design standards and changing the way we did things towards a more structured approach that would foster continuous learning and improvement. Half way through his speech one of the guys that had been there for a long time interrupted him and began to say “In my 10 years of experience…”, and that was really as far as he got before he was interrupted and harshly told “Jack (let’s just call him that), before you continue, let’s get this straight: You have one year of experience and then just 9 more doing the same thing. At some point you’ll learn the difference”. Uncomfortable silence followed and the meeting continued. 

It was a truly unforgiving statement but with a lot of truth in it. Forcing ourselves to learn continually is hard and we tend to gravitate towards our comfort zone. 

In his book Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin mentions Noel Tichy’s illustration of concentric learning circles. Tichy, former chief of GE’s Crotonville management development center, labels the inner circle the “comfort zone,” the middle circle the “learning zone,” and the outer one the “panic zone.” It is well documented that we acquire knowledge and experience by developing activities in the learning zone, but this is only one part of the equation. 

Getting back to the career theme, learning for the sake of learning can be a waste of time and learning as a simple reaction to what we face can lead us in the wrong direction. 

Consider every lesson, every interaction, every position and every experience as a building block of your potential. High performers build on solid foundations that allow them to focus on elements that average performers don’t even consider or notice. They begin to make decisions and execute at a higher level. 

Consider the analogy of learning to play hockey. You need to start by knowing how to skate. Understand the objective of the game, the rules and the broad strategy. As you keep learning you start to develop speed and instinct that allow you to react at a high speed and at some point, at a high level, predict.  If any of us mortals is placed in front of a hockey goal and we are asked to block a shot, it’s very likely that we will focus on the puck. A professional will be looking at the shooter’s eyes, shoulders and hip movements. He will know where the puck is going the moment it is touched by the stick.   

These same principals apply to business. To achieve a certain level in an organization or as a business owner you need to know where you want to go, how you need to “build yourself”, understand the building blocks and most importantly take continuous and persistent steps towards getting it done. 

I’ll make an emphasis on continuous and persistent because it does not happen overnight. In fact, it will not happen over a few years. Studies have shown that people on top of their game have been focused on it for more than a decade. 

If you are not paying attention and not working towards a firm goal, by the time you realize it, you may find yourself with scattered building blocks of knowledge and experience that are no where close to being aligned to where you wanted to be. 

So, do you or will you:
a) Have 10 years of experience
b) Have one year of experience, and 9 more doing the same thing
c) Have 1 year of experience in 10 unrelated things.  

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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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The current challenge is to identify where you can be a ‘speed factor’ in your position, product and market and continue to build on what you have to increase your impact in a company or organization. 

Every day as I walk into my office I face the dual phenomenon of calls from talented people who do not have a job and of clients who are struggling because we can’t find the right talent. There once was a time when a good sales person was a good sales person. Now when clients call us they want a good sales person but with solid product and application knowledge and proven success in a specific market or channel.

There is no way around it. Companies want people that will come in and hit the ground running. They want great talent with experience in the position, the product and the market with little room for a learning curve. It has become more difficult, for both talented people and companies to match, as each one of those elements become more and more specialized.

According to Delloite Research in 1998 the average time to market for a new product was 18.1 months and on average a company’s revenue from new products was around 21%. In 2007 the average time to market had dropped to 12.8 months and the average revenue had increased to 34%. The reliance on new products and innovation is evident in every single industry. As Jason Jennings’ book title reads “It’s not the BIG that eat the SMALL, It’s the FAST that eat the SLOW”.

Fast and the speed of having ‘been there, done that’ is currently shaping the demand for talent. Fast learning is very important, but with a strong, solid knowledge and experience base.

The current challenge is to identify where you can be a ‘speed factor’ in your position, product and market and continue to build on what you have to increase your impact in a company or organization. 

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

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The term globalization has been thrown around for decades but it has never applied as much as it has in recent years as organizations become more focused and specialized within a specific industry or product, and reach beyond their traditional regions of business. Globalization has evolved from being a commercial exchange to a multifaceted integration of many aspects of the business.  This trend has created a need for strong leaders who can manage a complex environment with a high level of interdependence.

When we looked at background of the top 100 CEOs in Mexico our analysis showed that fifty-four percent of the newest CEOs have performed assignments outside of Mexico and 53 percent hold Master’s degrees from institutions outside of Mexico. But Robert Grosse, Dean of EGADE Business School, cautions: “overseas experience is not the same as overseas business experience…Mexican executives could still benefit from more overseas experience in business activities”.

Executives who have been successful in international assignments have usually excelled in understanding the environment, leading visionary change and results, as well as mastering complex business problems. These competencies, coupled with already acquired industry expertise, translate into a small learning curve and quick results.

According to research performed by William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, and Carmit T. Tadmor (Harvard Business Review, September 2010, p24) people who have international experience or identify with more than one nationality are better problem solvers and display more creativity. This based on measuring the ability of these managers to see and integrate multiple perspectives on different issues. In these studies bicultural managers scored higher than monoculturals. Their research also suggests that people with international experience are more likely to create new businesses and products and to be promoted.

Senior executives of successful organizations are a more diverse group than ever before and the impact goes beyond the leadership teams. Middle managers and staff members are being exposed to global management techniques, metric-driven environments and matrix organizations that are preparing them to be the next generation of leaders.

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

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Q:

I understand the importance of branding and social networking; however, what I find difficult to understand is that any recruiter or C-level hiring manger can fully grasp a candidate’s brand through online presence. I could be wrong, but in my opinion it’s the recruiters who need to fall in love with a candidate’s brand because the hiring companies have their trust. How do we build our brand with recruiters?

JR:

There are three key things that must be considered:

1. Branding, by definition, is the creation of an identity for a specific product. You build your product and your brand through every element of your personal and professional experience. What you do with social media is present and promote the brand, but the key lies with you – your product.
2. What you do online and with social media will help attract the attention of executive recruiters. It is part of the initial selling point that should get you in the door. By no means will an online profile replace the evaluation process that will help a recruiter identify if you are the right fit for a specific position or a specific organization.
3. In direct response to the question, it starts with having an online profile that will provide visibility for executive recruiters to find you, but you will need to build a relationship in order to build your brand WITH them. Nothing can take the place of the relationship. Going back to the brand-product analogy: The recruiter needs to know, understand and, as you say, love the product to help you brand it for a specific client and a specific position. You don’t achieve this by just sending a résumé, selling yourself and calling every month to see if a position is available. It is built on valuable interaction regarding trends and issues that affect the disciplines and industries that you work in helping the recruiter stay on top of what is happening in that space. This level of interaction helps you and the recruiter build knowledge and expertise making the relationship valuable for both beyond the specific transaction of a single job opportunity.

ExecuNet.com

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

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Q:

What is my better option when a job is posted on the company’s website and also advertised by the recruiter? Should I apply through the recruiter or on company’s website? 

JR:

Your chances are improved if you work with the recruiter and let him/her present your resume. These are the reasons:  

a) If it’s a contingent search the recruiter will not be paid if the client (company) already has your resume (obtained via the website). You might burn a bridge with the recruiter. 

b) If it’s a retained search the company will most likely not put much effort into reviewing resumes from their website.

c) You will have an edge if you talk to them, discuss the requirements and get a better understanding of what the company is looking for. You will get specific feedback on your resume and help grooming it to reflect what the company wants to see. 

d) Discussions with the recruiter will help you manage expectations and eliminate potential frustration if the position is not a true fit. It really beats sending your resume into the black hole that is a website resume database. 

This is assuming that your background and experience are a potential match for the position. You might not get the recruiters attention if they are far from what the client (company) is looking for. 

ExecuNet.com

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

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By Jose J. Ruiz

In 1996, Dr Elisabeth Marx conducted a study, analyzing the backgrounds of the CEOs of the FTSE 100 Companies. In 2007, Dr Marx also explored the CEO profiles of the Fortune 100 Index, allowing for the first time a transatlantic comparison of top business leaders. This study provides a compelling snapshot of the top CEO’s in Mexico and compares the results to those obtained by Dr Marx.

These Chief Executives populate the financial and social pages of newspapers and magazines in the country. They make decisions that routinely affect millions of people, influencing economic, social and environmental outcomes. So who are they today and who will they be tomorrow? What are their common characteristics and how are those characteristics changing?

As the country continues to change rapidly, what is already defining the new breed of CEO’s in Mexico?

Two numbers are presented for Mexico’s CEO’s in order to identify current trends. We show the totals and have also isolated the numbers for the newest CEO’s: A group of 47 with 5 years or less on the job.

Broad Market and Industry Trends

In the past few years we have seen dramatic market and economic driven changes in the strategic direction of many organizations. The great recession and the intense competition have forced many companies to focus on vertical industries in order increase their level of innovation as well as product and market expertise. This

has brought consolidation in many industries and a need toincrease global reach in order to achieve the volumes required to provide competitive prices. These changes have shifted the focus from regions to industries demanding executive talent with specific industry and product expertise that can perform across borders. There are already instances o foreign companies in the Expansion 500 that no longer have a country managing director and instead have leaders for specific business units reporting directly into regional or global heads.

Talent Trends

Let’s look at how these broad trends are reflected in the results of the study and how they translate into current and future talent and leadership requirements for executives in Mexico.

Global executives

The term globalization has been thrown around for decades but it has never applied as much as it has in recent years as organizations become more focused and specialized within a specific industry or product and reach beyond their traditional regions of business. Just looking at the numbers can be a bit misleading. One can assume that the increase in foreign nationals running the Expansion 100 companies is a sign of Mexican nationals losing control. However it is clear that the new breed of CEO’s and executives in Mexico are better prepared and better educated in a global environment than ever before. 54% of the newest CEOs have performed assignments outside of Mexico and 53% hold Master’s degrees from institutions outside of Mexico.

Executives who have been successful in international assignments have usually excelled in understanding the environment, leading visionary change, leading results and mastering complex business problems. Competencies that coupled with already acquired industry expertise translate into a small learning curve and quick results.

Senior executives are a more diverse group than ever before and the impact goes beyond the leadership teams. Middle managers and staff members are being exposed to global management techniques, metric driven environments and matrix organizations that are preparing them to be the next generation of leaders in or outside of Mexico.

Increased focus on key industry and market expertise

One of the most surprising trends is an increase of CEOs in Mexico that are being promoted from within the company with great importance given to company culture,  industry specific experience and the leadership skills that are acquired while working abroad. It is important to note that internal promotions don’t necessarily mean internal to Mexico or the region.

The study performed in 2007 by Dr Elisabeth Marx suggests that:

”… the FTSE 100 Companies in the UK and Fortune 100 Companies in the US take a very different approach to CEO selection. Whereas Fortune 100 Companies seem to value wisdom, develop better internal grooming and succession planning and have higher educated CEOs, FTSE 100 Companies put greater focus on international experience, welcome foreign talent and give ‘young guns’ a chance”

Our results suggest that the Expansion 100 companies share a bit of both with a high value on wisdom as evidenced by an average tenure higher than both the Fortune 100 and the FTSE 100 and strong internal grooming and succession planning that begins early and includes elite foreign education and opportunities to gain international experience.

The Expansion 100 companies have more Super CEOs (45 and younger) than both the Fortune 100 and the FTSE 100 put together but they have been well groomed and prepared for succession.

Elite education playing a big role

There is no denying that advanced degrees from foreign institutions play a big role in the development of the new breed of CEO’s. 60% of the newest CEOs hold Master’s degrees or PhDs from foreign universities. The surprising trend is the rise of the PhD educated CEO. All of the CEOs with a PhD are part of the newest CEOs group.

Women on the rise

Perhaps the common trait between the US, England and Mexico is the one that we can brag the least about. A very small number of Women occupy the top job.

In Mexico only Nicole Reich (Scotiabank Inverlat), Carmina Abad (Metlife) and Grace D. Lieblein (General Motors) make the distinguished list in the Expansion 100 but Paula Santilli (PepsiCo Beverages) is not too far behind. Women are on the rise and while the numbers remain very low the trend is positive. All four were internally promoted and all four have extensive international experience with strong ties to Latin America.

Preparing for the future

The motivation behind the research presented in this article is part of our role as a 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.

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A few years ago I had a conversation about change with Mike Osterling. My lean manufacturing mentor and consultant. The topic revolved around change management and how it became easier as an organization embraced constant change as part of its culture. My theory was that at some point there would be no need for change management if change became part of the culture and the operating environment. Mike respectfully disagreed.

At that point our discussion was focused on organizations that struggled with change and struggled adapting to a changing environment. A place in time where leaders had to nudged the members of their organization to rethink the way things were being done. Leaders pushed to reinvent the business and innovate. This was the period in time that made reengineering popular. The challenge of leadership was to make sure the team kept up with a changing environment.

Times are changing. Leaders beware: your challenge when it comes to change management is about to shift.

The generation that entered the workforce with the mindset of building a life long career with a steady hand in a corporation is at retirement age. Leadership positions are now being filled by the generation that challenged the status quo. A generation of leaders that learned to manage change and developed executive skills to push the previous generation towards innovation is gradually facing the challenge of managing a generation that does not know status quo. The dream of a culture of change has been realized. These coming generations are built on a higher rate of change.

Consider that everything we do is based on intervals. Everything we do is a cycle. From communication to our strategic planning. Those intervals are getting shorter.  Our main form of communication has gone from letters to emails to txt msgs. Our planning horizons are shorter. We are iterating faster. We correct faster.  Which is good right?  The next generation of executives is built on speed, multitasking and bursts. A generation that feels a phone call is restrictive because you can only carry one conversation at a time.

We are at the inflection where the challenge of change managment is going to shift from helping teams transition to keeping teams focused and helping them stay on track.

Am I getting old?

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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