1) Alignment before action — gain alignment from directors individually about the current business situation, future plans/direction for the company and the ideal CEO experience and leadership capabilities before initiating the search process;

2) Round #1 due diligence — initial third-party referencing of prospects prior to their inclusion on a long list and discussion with the Board to spot any areas of concern;

3) Round #2 due diligence — includes prior business results and additional referencing of short-listed candidates, as well as education verification—always!—prior to the Search Committee’s first meeting with the candidate;

4) Rigorous competency-based interviews of each candidate — designed to draw out specific gaps and potential risks related to the candidate’s background, prior track record, leadership style, etc.;

5) Direct candidate questioning of potential due diligence areas of concern — education credentials, as well as specific accomplishment claims as measured against outside sourcing to validate the claims;

6) Final 360-degree candidate referencing — additional sourcing of individuals with direct knowledge of the candidate and his/her prior performance, buttressed by an independent background check by a trusted 3rd party investigative firm.

Visit CTPartners at www.ctnet.com.

This is a defining moment for the Life Sciences sector. Costs, competition, and regulatory challenges are increasing, to an unparalleled degree, across the globe. Sector- wide complexities and the associated risks are also unmatched, as institutions must develop strategies that satisfy a broad range of demanding key constituents. Those include healthcare consumers, investors, and an international “patchwork quilt” of single-payer and multiple-payer systems, which differ from one country to another, but are collectively poised to exert even more control over industry pricing and reimbursement.

Yet despite these extraordinary challenges, global trends are also combining to present life sciences companies with exceptional opportunities. These trends include aging demographics in developed nations, rising healthcare standards in developing and emerging economies, and the transformative potential of personalized medicine.

Indeed, the global paradigm for life sciences entities is changing at an unprecedented pace. Within this environment, a growing number of life sciences companies are moving toward “market access” strategies aimed at building global market share and enterprise value. This sophisticated approach identifies profitable market opportunities and then pursues commercial objectives through the development and implementation of coordinated plans to: control R&D costs, obtain regulatory and payer approvals, market globally, and achieve the desired marketplace expansion.

For many organizations, “market access” represents a strategic management shift that creates a growing imperative to identify qualified executives capable of leading these new and important initiatives.

Building upon its observations of this key trend, CTPartners Global Life Sciences Practice conducted in-depth dialogues with senior executives at leading life sciences organizations around the world. The goal was to better understand this emerging management discipline, its requisite talent profile, and the market access management best practices that have begun to develop at cutting-edge corporations worldwide. To read more about their findings, please read on: Turning the Spotlight on Market Access

We are thrilled to report that Stephen Gillett has just been named Executive Vice President and President of Best Buy Digital and Global Business Services, reporting to company Chief Executive Officer, Brian J. Dunn, effective March 14, 2012.

Prior to joining Best Buy, Stephen, age 36, was Executive Vice President of Digital Ventures, and Chief Information Officer at Starbucks where he reported to Howard Schulz. A key member of Starbucks’ transformation team, Gillett designed and led the company’s efforts to enhance the overall global business operations and improve the customer experience through the use of innovative technology and digital experiences worldwide. Howard gives Stephen a lot of credit in his book Onward. Stephen also serves on the board of Symantec.

Brian Dunn the CEO of Best Buy said “I am delighted that Stephen is joining us and look forward to having him as a member of our team as we seek to improve returns and accelerate growth opportunities.  He is highly regarded for his creativity, innovation, and commitment to developing unparalleled customer experiences. He is uniquely positioned to make an immediate difference at Best Buy.”

In 2011, while at Starbucks, Stephen was named to Fortune’s “Executive Dream Team” as one of only two Chief Information Officers among the 25 executives recognized. That same year, he was named Information Week’s “Chief of the Year” and to Fortune’s “40 Under 40″ list. He also was the recipient of the 2010 Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship. In addition to this, Stephen was the starting offensive guard for Oregon in the Cotton Bowl when he was in college. This guy is a genuine all-around superstar.

Oh, and by the way, Stephen, an avid gamer, is widely considered one of the most innovative Guild Masters in World of Warcraft, the massive multi-player online role-playing game where millions of gamers enter a virtual world creating guilds, engaging socially, questing and celebrating achievements. He may be the only executive in the Fortune 100 to be a Guild Master!

In this newly created position, Gillett is tasked with accelerating the transformation and growth of Best Buy through the advancement of the company’s global digital strategy, digital marketing, entertainment offerings, multi-channel capabilities and business development. Through his leadership of the enterprise’s ecommerce businesses, information technologies and global shared services, Gillett will have oversight of the critical capabilities necessary to make technology a bigger part of the customer experience while enhancing operations and processes.

Stephen said, “I am excited to join Best Buy at this point of the company’s transformation and to work together in innovating and expanding its offerings into a broad multi-channel environment that integrates stores, digital, mobile and social, while continuing to strengthen the customer experience and business operations. The company has a unique and compelling advantage because it touches customers in so many ways in today’s connected global marketplace”.

To top all this, Stephen is just a nice, down-to-earth guy. He is not a leader that has any airs and has a fabulous talent for connecting with people. It has been a privilege to work with him and I look forward to many years of friendship.

The transformation is about to begin! We are all witnesses!

CTPartners CEO Brian Sullivan said, “To an unprecedented extent, CEOs are dancing in the dark, heading into an election year in a sputtering global economy, yet required to set goals and be accountable. The leaders who can find the right balance between caution and confidence aren’t easy to find, but they do exist and boards are on the hunt for them.”

The CTPartners report includes 39 jobs that will be in high demand during 2012.

The world has changed in the past 10 years. Companies can go from obscurity to an estimated $100 billion market cap (Facebook) or from zero to $1 billion in revenue very quickly (Groupon did it in two years), or from near collapse in the late ‘90s to become one of the world’s most valuable companies (Apple). To succeed today, companies need to embrace change, in ways that include learning to market and sell using digital channels, pursuing global customers, leveraging technology, and relentlessly streamlining operations to remain competitive.

CTPartners is starting to see changes in the boardroom that mirror these macro changes. There are more than 1,100 directors currently serving on Fortune 1000 boards who are over 70 years old.iWith these impending vacancies, demand is emerging for a new generation of directors, one which will include individuals capable of contributing new insights into customers, technology, distribution channels, and international markets. The goal is to create a boardroom with diverse perspectives, which leads to better-informed discussions and more effective decision making. With this new generation comes the opportunity to include more women directors. The onus is on boards, management teams, and search firms to ensure that qualified women are given consideration in the director recruitment process.

Click here to see the full list.

“There’s No Elevator to the Top” by Umesh Ramkrishnan, Portfolio, $25.95. How would you like to pick the brains of top executives to find out how they managed their careers? That’s exactly what Ramkrishnan, a noted executive recruiter did. Executives from Aetna, Coca-Cola, Dell, Fidelity, Lenovo, PepsiCo and other firms share what worked — and didn’t — for them.

The one thing that binds their stories: Building a career resembles rock wall climbing — going “up” by moving sideways, diagonally and sometimes even down to gain the toeholds and handholds of learning experiences.

Here are some key takeaways: Listening goes well beyond feedback. It’s an opportunity to show those around you that you acknowledge and appreciate their expertise, experience and concerns. Listening builds the highway leading to trust and respect, and adds the allies you’ll need on your climb.

The best time to advocate for change is when the company is doing well. It’s not a case of discarding what’s working; rather it’s an opportunity to leverage the momentum of a strong position to get to another level. Change emanating from strength yields more positive outcomes. When change is forced (i.e. when the firm is losing), it’s driven out of fear and lack of momentum; it’s rare that positive results come when backpedaling.

You can only play your A-game when surrounded by A-players. You need the best people to extract the best from you. They fill in your gaps and help eliminate your blindspots.

Written in an engaging, almost-conversational style, it feels like you’re having a lunch discussion with these movers and shakers.

Read the full article here.

Building and managing a talent base across multiple geographies, including mature and emerging markets, is a continuing challenge for global corporations. Emerging markets in particular often present new hurdles, almost universally including shortages of senior and specialized executive talent, even as regional operations are growing rapidly.

When the portion of corporate revenues generated in emerging markets amounted to a few percentage points, it was easier to downplay the significance of such challenges. That is no longer the case. As an ever-growing portion of the revenue of global businesses is earned in emerging markets, corporations must direct new attention to fully understanding and appreciating those markets and the unique talent management requirements that must be met in order to operate effectively in target regions.

Today, a global talent imbalance persists, with mature markets facing high unemployment amid economic malaise, while emerging markets experience talent scarcity amid more rapid economic growth. And although it is a significant challenge to recruit and retain expert, experienced executives across the globe, that is especially the case in emerging markets, where senior and specialized talent shortages are the norm. Amid rapid growth, multinational corporations need well-informed and thoughtful strategies for navigating the talent markets of these pivotal economies, as well as targeted development programs that will build the emerging markets leaders of tomorrow.

Read the full article here.

With world-class organizations leading the way, HR is playing an ever more critical role in enabling corporations to achieve their strategic objectives by developing and implementing those human capital strategies that will best enable them to respond to the significant economic forces, competitive realities, and demographic trends that are shaping today’s and tomorrow’s possibilities.

In industries and regions around the globe, developed and developing economies alike, human resources executives increasingly are serving as thought leaders and essential business partners to chief executives, boards of directors, C-Suite executives, regional and country managers, and other members of worldwide leadership teams. As the value of this management trend becomes more apparent, companies are expanding their vision of, and commitment to, strategically oriented human resources.

For a profession that was once most closely associated with administrative functions such as benefits and compensation, this is nothing short of a transformation. As one of the most impactful management developments in today’s global marketplace, the trend first took root in North America and Europe, soon spreading to other developed economies such as Australia. It is, however, rapidly gaining momentum in emerging markets throughout Asia, Russia and Central Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Indeed, the HR landscape is rapidly evolving. In developing regions across the globe, exceptional growth opportunities are combining with razor-sharp competition and highly complex talent challenges in ways that demand–and deeply benefit from–the insights and involvement of strategically minded, broadly experienced, and culturally sensitive human resources executives.

Within emerging markets, this expanding role of HR is scarcely surprising, whether this change is taking place within global or regionally based corporations. That’s because talent truly does deliver the competitive edge in these economies, where speed is of the essence in capitalizing upon new and unfolding business opportunities, and the demand for qualified professionals far exceeds supply.

Read the full article here.

The human resource department — the corporate home of hiring, firing, compensation and employee benefits — is undergoing a major transformation. Technology has automated basic functions, forcing HR to reshape its identity.

Boards are demanding higher-level HR executives to become strategic partners in dealing with new regulations and the problems facing companies battered by the global recession. And the financial crisis has forced companies to evaluate their management teams and revamp entire workforces for a post-recession economy.

The challenges are great, and a new kind of HR executive is emerging to meet them, in the process turning our traditional concept of human resources on its head. Five major forces are driving the changes that will end HR as we know it by the year 2020:

1. Technology Changing the Game – For decades, technology has been helping companies automate basic HR functions. Through employee self-service systems via intranets, employees can access the information and support to manage their own health benefits, 401(k) programs and day-to-day HR transactions. Companies have also been reducing costs and staffing requirements by turning to outsourcing providers to handle benefits administration, payroll, employee education, workforce analytics and recruitment-process outsourcing for junior-level positions.

2. New Rules – The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 riled the business world by setting new standards for all U.S. public-company boards, management and public-accounting firms. Nine years later, the debate goes on about whether the law really improved governance or added excessive costs and hurt U.S. competitiveness overseas.

3. Multi-level Succession Planning - Succession planning is always stated as a board priority, but the National Association of Corporate Executives reports that 50 percent of boards do not have formal plans for CEO replacement. Cautionary tales abound when succession, hastily planned or decided on the sole basis of who is next in line, creates disruption, excessive turnover and shareholder unrest.

4. The Three Percent Rule – While many organizational experts call for succession planning in large companies to include executives 10 layers deep, others suggest that every company regardless of size should concentrate on the top three percent of employees as the critical assets that drive the business — assets that need to be constantly educated, evaluated, motivated and rewarded.

5. A New Kind of HR Leader – The rise of the CHRO — Chief HR Officers, participating in the highest levels of decision-making — confirms the seriousness of boards of directors in elevating the role and capabilities of HR leadership. While historically CHROs were added to boards as a way to add diversity, companies in recent years have begun to add top-notch CHROs to broaden their perspective on organizational issues and expertise in talent matters.

When the first Internet bubble was starting to really cook, I decided it was time to exit corporate America and try my hand at starting a business.  Armed with a partner, an idea and some capital we dove headfirst into creating a technology company combining an online destination, internet connectivity and digital photography.  Voila, the connected digital picture frame was born.

At the time, we didn’t know how to create a piece of consumer electronics, had no experience in any kind of retail sales and little more than a hobbyist’s love of photography.  With a team of six people we turned our idea and imagination into a finished product – a consumer online destination, an innovative consumer electronics device in a box and our first retail partner, Amazon.com.  All, in about seven months.

More than anything it was due to two powerful forces:  First, it was the power of a small team that actually allowed us to get more done, more quickly with tremendous productivity.  Second, what we didn’t know actually helped us – along the way many people with greater experience told us we could not build and distribute a new consumer electronics device in anywhere near the timeframe we did.  But, being so new to the space, we were unencumbered by the conventions of the industry and its culture.

I learned the tremendous power of small teams, unencumbered by the wrong kind of knowledge and directed by the right kind of knowledge, with focus and purpose can make the biggest impact; whether in a large corporation or a fresh start-up the power of small and free can accomplish a great deal.

I returned to corporate America sometime after this experience and found the same power could be tapped into even in a large organization.  Success hinged more on identifying the handful of people who could be stirred to harness their passion and energy than marshalling whole organizations with process and procedure.  Over a series of positions at the Walt Disney Company, I had the opportunity to inject change into the company and it almost always came down to leveraging the impact of a small group no matter the size of the actual organization I was a part of or running.

At Disney Online, I had been on the job a few weeks when I was charged with a total re-launch of Disney.com.  Our timeframe was six months from go.  The task was daunting, remake a sprawling website that represented the front door of a huge brand, integrated with multiple large businesses around the Walt Disney Company (movies, television, parks, consumer products, etc…).   We launched the site in seven months (pretty close) and we did it with a very small core team.

Though it may seem trite and even corny – I think the best approach is to be small and think big.