From time to time we at the BlueSteps Blog will try and bring your attention to articles from around the web. Trends in Corporate Governance, technology and attitudes to talent can all have an impact on possible career moves. Through better understanding of these and other issues, a fuller picture can be seen of what Executive Search Consultants may or may not be looking for.

The turmoil surrounding the indictment of HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn has led Forbes to investigate the role of Chief Ethics Officers. In the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley act there has been a significant growth in the number of companies maintaining a C-suite Ethics position; but do they really provide a safeguard? Some would suggest not. The recent resignation of HP’s Senior Counsel and Chief Ethics Officer Ken Husker acts as a cautionary tale.

The AESC’s own Peter Felix is quoted in the article, pointing out that “if [the chief ethics office] is really good and works closely with top management, they could make a difference. Equally, they could make no difference at all, if the commitment from top management isn’t there”. If companies give these ethics officers real power, there could be an impact on how all other C-suite officers operate.

Click here to read the full article

Categories: Business Trends
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Factors To Consider

By: Robert M. Fields

Deciding whether to move to a new job is one of the most important and often wrenching decisions you may face. This is particularly the case if you’re not forced (i.e. by layoff or dismissal) to make this decision. The opportunities offered by the potential new employer may be great. Nevertheless, you should make a careful cost / benefit analysis before you making your decision. Factors to be considered in your analysis include: age, degree of security in your present position, and the risk in taking the new job, in light of the potential financial and career benefits.

Nothing is guaranteed in life. However, when properly analyzed, these factors can help you make your decision an intelligent one.

Age
Clearly, if you are young (generally, 35 or younger), you are much less risk averse. You will not have invested as much time in your current job, will be “lower on the totem pole,” and will not have accumulated much in the way of retirement benefits. Also, making a career mistake at such an early age is often curable by an early search for a new position. Conversely, the older you are, the more risk averse you should be. Significant time and a great amount of good will have been invested in the current job. Leaving a position at a more advanced age may entail the forfeiture of significant equity and non-equity incentive benefits, retirement benefits and post-employment medical benefits. Lastly, a move at an advanced age (say 45 or older) should be considered one of the last, if not the last, move. There is not much margin for error as correcting a mistake at such an age is quite difficult.

The Degree of Security in Present Position
The older you are and the more time you have invested in your current position virtually always correlates to greater job security. You are a known entity at the company, have already paid your dues and as a result have little to prove. It would take a significant mistake to place your job in jeopardy. Similarly, you know the company very well and are unlikely to make the kind of political or career gaffe that could damage your future with the company. Moreover, as a long-term executive, you may have accrued significant non-vested incentive and retirement benefits, such as: stock options, restricted stock, supplemental executive pensions and retiree medical. These could be lost if you leave to take another job, and the potential loss should be carefully considered before leaving the current employer.

Risk in Taking the New Job
Assuming that you are reasonably happy with your current job, you will consider making a move generally due to one or both of the following:

1. a greater career / intellectual challenge
2. a higher salary and greater incentive potentials and benefits

These may well be provided in a potential new job. Nevertheless, you should consider the following risks before taking the plunge. First, the new job may not be exactly as advertised. Your responsibilities and reporting chain may change over time. Similarly, the politics pervading the new company may take some time to get used to, and you may risk making a political mistake simply through ignorance. Thus, where you may have had security in your old company, the new job may turn out to be much more tenuous.

If you are 45 or older, it is also very important for you to determine whether the cash and non-cash benefits from the new role make up for the benefits lost from the old position. Can you receive guarantees that the benefits forfeited at the old company will be made up by the new employer? Would the upside potential for incentives and other benefits be greater than at your old company? If the answer is yes, it may well be worth making the move, despite the professional risks involved. In summary, the older you are, the harder you should look at what you are giving up at the old company (and what you can reasonably be expected to receive in the new position) before jumping into a new job. Nevertheless, if the downside can be lessened by guarantees from the new employer and the upside potential significant enough, the move may well be worth the risk.

Robert M. Fields represents executives on a national and international basis and can be reached at his New York City office at (212) 672-1672 or his Westchester County, New York office at (914) 763-3788. You can also contact him by e-mail at rmfields@rmfieldslaw.com.

Categories: Executive Career Management
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By: Peter M Felix 

Remember that when contacting executive search firms you are not necessarily doing them the favour you might imagine.

You may suspect that their business is driven by a flow of candidates looking for a move - but they’re not. They are driven by a specific client need and their mandate under retainer is to find the best possible candidate, whether or not that executive was looking to make a move. So there may well be a mismatch of expectation between you and the search firm. But rest assured that this does not mean that they are not willing to meet and discuss your career aspirations.They are, but only to a certain extent..

All executive search consultants must maintain contact with the market place, what is happening in major companies, shifts in compensation etc. And one perfectly valid way to do this is to talk to executives who are currently in the market for a new position. So when talking to a search consultant about your career remember that they may well find useful your commentary on the market, developments within particular organizations and indeed referrals that you may be able to maker concerning their current searches, assuming that you yourself are not interested in them. Share your information and the search consultant will share theirs , and hopefully will make a suggestion or provide you with information that will help you with your networking, bridge builidng etc. Create an awareness of yourself, this may help as and when an opportunity arises for which you may be well suited.

Remember that in the minds of executive search consultants , you are an “unsolicited resume” if you aproached them. You may or may well not fit a particular need that one of their clients has right now. But that doesn’t mean that something might not turn up in the future. Keeping in touch with relevant consultants makes sense both for you and for them. But do it selectively and be sympathetic to their time commitments on their current assignments. Like most networking activities this is not a quick fix, but a gradual and long term tool for career development.

Categories: Retained Executive Search
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Riding the Wave

By: Peter M. Felix, President, AESC

Business cycles come and go – and with them, inevitably, so do employment opportunities. It is essential when you are considering your career plans that you do so in the context of theses cycles. The current environment is highly positive for business. Stock markets are active; mergers and acquisitions are rampant across industries and national borders; Corporate earnings are strong.

For executive search the same is true. Retained executive search has surged back to the highs experienced in the late 1990s at the time of the internet boom. But this time the demand seems more rational and based more broadly across key industry sectors, as opposed to being focused on one runaway sector i.e. high tech.

Since 2003 and there is every indication that 2006 will also be a strong year. The resurgence is not just in North America and Europe but particularly in Asia Pacific. Here India and China are now emerging as high demand areas for senior executives. Even Latin America is displaying growth with Brazil strong again. The growth of executive demand around the world is shown by the distribution of search revenues on a global basis: North America 44%; Europe 35%; Asia Pacific 14% and Latin America 7%.

The key issue is that each business cycle has its own hiring characteristics and the current upswing is no exception. For senior executives in the US, following the rigors of the last recession and the Enron fall out, there is now a much greater emphasis on operational experience and skills. This is true for the CEO, CFO and other C-suite executive. Boards of Directors are more cautious about making glamour appointments and prefer a safe pair of hands to the strategic wunderkind. For everyone in the top management team the burden of Sarbanes-Oxley weighs heavily and all parties to senior recruitment are now conducting far more due diligence, including the candidates themselves.

In other parts of the world requirements range from the pan-European executive capable of managing businesses across all European boundaries to the foreign educated national who can return to manage operations in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, India and China.

As a result understanding and judging the cycle can be critical. Bringing a new business idea to investors at the wrong stage in the cycle can be wasted effort. Introducing it at the beginning of an upswing can lead to great success. So, when planning your career strategy bear in mind the impact of the business cycle – be informed and as up-to-date as possible. Do your own analysis, talk to others and gauge best when the cycle appears to be in your favor.

Good Luck!

Categories: Executive Career Management
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