We are occasionally asked by clients to find really stupid, smart people. It usually starts innocently enough as with the following example…
A small, promising tech firm was growing wildly and it was clear to the CEO that a fulltime finance resource was needed. When we met to discuss the requirements, they described a generalist who could manage and guard the firm’s precious cash while also attending to administrative, reporting, HR, contractual and other responsibilities currently unattended by existing team members. The title ‘VP Finance’ was carefully selected as the role was considered very hands-on, needing someone who could roll up their sleeves and personally stickhandle the transition from shoe boxes to systems. It was agreed that it was far too ‘earthy’ a role, with too many mundane, disparate responsibilities to recruit some big-time CFO. It was noted in passing that the firm’s attention would turn to raising its next round of financing within twelve months and it was expected that the successful candidate would play a supporting a role in those efforts. The search seemed straightforward enough.
But what came next is what often comes next. As the selection committee interviewed candidates it began to expand the requirements. Perhaps it would be better, they reasoned, if the CEO devoted more of his time to the critical task of revenue generation and entrusted a greater percentage of the fund-raising activities to the VP Finance. Also, perhaps it would be useful if the VP Finance could help the CEO think through some of the broader strategic issues facing the firm, and play more of a corporate development type role. And it might be helpful if the candidate had some M&A experience since an acquisition may well be on the horizon. The CEO acknowledged that the compensation would need to be adjusted upwards given the changing specs, but pointed out that internal equity with the existing executive team would need to be respected.
As the interviews progressed, and we received feedback from the candidates, it became evident that the successful candidate, who would likely be hiring secretaries, sorting through payables and buying the office coffee in the morning, would now be expected to morph into a highly strategic, credible, outward facing corporate development super-CFO in the afternoon. The search quickly devolved into a very difficult two-headed monster.
Labour markets are generally pretty efficient and the laws of natural selection tend to work, which I guess is why they are called laws. The M&A savvy candidate is usually not the shoe-box organizer. The corporate development type usually finds administration a tad too mundane to want to do it for ten hours every day. And outstanding multitalented people tend to get paid more than their average brethren. Yet despite such truisms, spec and scope creep very gradually turns the rational search into the irrational and before you know it, firms are knee-deep in searches for really stupid, smart candidates…. they rarely end well.
Looking for a dynamic HR role? Stay away from the entrepreneurial tech sector.
January 1, 2012
In a recent survey of HR graduate students, the technology sector rated among the most coveted destinations to ply their trade. It is viewed as a world of innovative people, technologies and approaches where progressive talent management, OB/OD and related HR work awaits.
The Cry to Replace RIM's CEOs – A Truly Dumb Idea
October 13, 2011
Leaving aside the recent service outages, the shellacking of RIM in the press is a tad surreal to behold.
For the few Luddites not familiar with the firm, Research in Motion is the successful Canadian smart phone pioneer with revenues of $20bb per year, no debt and cash in the bank. They manufacture products that remain popular around the world and continue to boast technological innovations unmatched by any competitor. Their most recently launched smart phone devices have been well reviewed and appear to be selling well. And though the company's first version of its new tablet, the Playbook, has room for improvement, it is a promising piece of technology.
Context: When Companies Confuse Start-up Experience for Start-up Experience
October 7, 2011
I had the occasion this week to chat with an entrepreneur still licking his wounds from a stalled startup venture. His tale is a reminder of how easily companies misunderstand organizational context when hiring. For startups, such a misunderstanding can be fatal.
The CEO Hiring Practices at HP
October 3, 2011
The press tells us that Hewlett Packard is the largest technology company in the world with revenues of $126bb. Impressive as those numbers may appear, they do not seem to impress HP's Board of Directors. You see they do not believe that any of the firm's 324,600 employees are capable of leading it. Not one person. Not this year or last year when CEO changes were made. In fact they were apparently not capable six years ago or even eleven years ago when CEO changes were also made. But before summarily indicting the firm's succession planning/leadership development programs, it is useful to consider the track record of the external candidates who were considered better choices than the firm's internal candidates. This analysis decidedly shifts the spotlight to the competence of Hewlett Packard's Board of Directors.
The Folly of Believing What You Read
September 19, 2011
Some time ago we posted a blog titled ‘So you REALLY want to be a CEO?' which looked at the human costs of climbing the upper rungs of the management ladder. The blog was based on a series of articles immediately following the ‘resignation' of Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler. All of these articles presented a cautionary tale of life in the fast lane, the long hours, the extensive global travel, and the shareholder pressures that accompany an uncooperative stock price. They also spoke poignantly of the physical and emotional toll that such unrelenting pressure took on the Pfizer CEO who eventually resigned in order to attend to his family and health. As it turns out however, much of this narrative may not have been true
Before sending us your resume (and then getting frustrated with us) ask who we work for
July 25, 2011
A friend of mine is a trustee in bankruptcy. As his title suggests, he and his firm serves those contemplating the ‘cleansing' process of personal bankruptcy. Potential customers compare service providers, select one, and then pay the chosen firm a fee to initiate and manage the ensuing process on their behalf. However, as soon as the relief-seeking customer signs on the dotted line, the trustee's allegiance shifts to the creditors for whom they then seek to maximize debt recovery. This shift in who works for whom must be a tad unsettling for people who already have a heap of problems and stress on their hands.
What Dating Services Can Teach Companies About Hiring
June 1, 2011
Executive-level hiring is a decidedly aspirational endeavor. Organizations idealize their workplace cultures, select for attributes that will fit into those romanticized environments, and then immerse unsuspecting hires into their ice-cold reality of their works-in-progress.
How to Survive a Startup - by Jill Ram
April 20, 2011
If you're an executive and you're thinking of joining a start-up, know what stage of a start-up to join. If the company is in its first year or so, don't expect to make significant changes. If you join after the company is somewhat established and mistakes have been made and learned from, you'll likely be more successful from the outset. If the founder has stepped aside, well, by then, the company is likely not considered a start-up anymore. It won't be functioning like a big company yet, and it won't have all the structure in place that it needs, but it will be run with more practicality and with less emotion. Timing is everything so choose it well.
Good News for the Old, Overqualified and Overlooked
March 18, 2011
It is expected that a significant percentage of the baby boomer generation will drive right past the Freedom 55 highway exit. For many the goal of early retirement will have proven to be unattainable hype, while for others the ups and downs of working will appear more attractive than the prospects of working up and down the local lawn bowling leadership board.
Pressed for time? Blame those Benedictine Monks.
February 24, 2011
It is among the principal reasons candidates tell us they are open to consider a change in employers. They are tethered to it, yet somehow it still flees. It is time, the most precious of resources, and for many harried executives they want some of it back.
Though their relationship with time may be strained, it is worth pointing out that it was not always this way. In his fascinating book Time Wars, Jeremy Rifkin chronicles the evolution of our modern relationship with time. He points out that in traditional agrarian and pastoral cultures, time was a very naturalistic notion maintained in cyclical, repetitive, biological and even sacred terms. The ‘passing of time' was cued via the changing seasons, biological lifecycles and lunar patterns and thus, the cadence and tempo of those societies were finely tuned to the cyclical rhythms of their physical environments. As he states, "Our early ancestors coveted the circle, perceiving time as eternal return, a ceaseless repetition of an endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth". Since these cyclical rhythms could neither be accelerated, nor altered, the cadence of these societies' was natural and harmonious.
Scope & Spec Creep – The Search for the Really Stupid, Smart Executive
April 7, 2008