Two high profile firings took place this week. Both shed light on how boards of directors and the big-named international headhunters who advise them make questionable decisions.
The first involved the CEO of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation who was dismissed along with the majority of the firm’s board of directors. Published reports suggested that topping the list of Kelly McDougald’s purported transgressions was her failure to deliver wholesale culture change at the government run monopoly. If this was in fact her primary mandate, it is reasonable to look at her credentials going into the job.
Prior to joining OLG, Kelly McDougald was a Vice-President of Sales for Bell Canada where she was charged with driving revenue growth to enterprise accounts. Before that she spent approximately 15 years employed by Nortel, and for a period one of its subsidiaries, in mostly senior sales and account management roles. Though she is undoubtedly skilled in managing the sales and marketing functions within large complex organizations it is hard to believe that selling the virtues of gambling was the biggest concern for OLG when hiring her. As for her other credentials, she was neither a proven CEO nor someone whose career was built on driving large scale organizational change. In fact Bell could be described as a role model of how to repeatedly fail at culture change. Considering that the OLG had fired its previous CEO, it is curious that the board of directors would select such a high risk candidate for the role. We will likely never learn about why the board thought she was qualified as their decision cost them their jobs as well.
The other high profile firing this week was Paul Kelly at the NHLPA. The reasons behind his dismissal also remain quite sketchy with few of the key stakeholders commenting publicly to date. However, a few things can be surmised from the few official comments that have been made. Former CAW head Buzz Hargrove is interim Ombudsman for the NHLPA and was witness to the whole dismissal process. He commented on a radio interview that though there was no single issue that precipitated Mr. Kelly’s dismissal in the end it can be said that he failed to align the 750 person membership behind him. The following day, Mr. Kelly himself admitted on the radio that “I don’t know that I fully appreciated when I took the job, some of the challenges that would be faced just by the NHLPA’s structure”.
Among the key objectives in any well managed search process is the elimination of nasty surprises, both for the client and the candidates. The search consultants do not want the client calling them in a panic to say that the candidate they just hired is not the person they thought they were hiring. Similarly there is no phone call more dreaded that the newly hired candidate who calls to say ‘I had no idea what I was getting into’. Thus, it can minimally be said that something went wrong in the hiring process as both parties appear to have entered into a situation that proved different than they believed going into it.
As for Mr. Hargrove’s comments, to the degree that Mr. Kelly was charged with setting the direction of the NHLPA, winning the hearts of the constituents to follow that direction and then executing on the plan, it can safely be said that he failed somewhere in the first two stages. Though the leadership of unions shares many characteristics with the leadership of companies they differ in that one is elected while the other is appointed. Thus, union leaders must balance the need to address their mandates with being mindful of the constituents who elected them and will determine whether to reelect them in the future. This can be the more difficult of the two tasks.
The NHLPA leadership role is high profile, public and undoubtedly challenging with myriad stakeholders. Again, one can reasonably look at Mr. Kelly’s credentials for a role that demands such a variety of skills. A well-known prosecutor and trial lawyer in Boston, he was best known in hockey circles for having prosecuted Alan Eagleson. He most recently spent 7 years as managing partner of a very small law firm focused on criminal and civil litigation. He had no experience walking into an organization which had been rocked by two successive leadership changes and an extended labor strike.
When hiring, we all try to estimate the likelihood that the candidate being considered will be successful. And while there is always risk, it is paramount to mitigate that risk by using a process that eliminates surprises and looks for candidates who have undertaken similar challenges in their past. This week’s high profile firings show what happens when organizations forget this.
Robert Hebert is Managing Partner of Toronto-based executive search firm StoneWood Group (www.stonewoodgroup.com). He can be reached @ rhebert@stonewoodgroup.com or at 416.365.9494 x 777
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.
This Week's Leadership Changes at OLG and NHLPA
September 3, 2009