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Recently CTPartners released the latest report in the Firm’s Trend Talk series: Digital Media. Following is an excerpt.
The power of technological advancement to transform an industry or a business function has long been recognized. But rarely has new technology had the kind of impact upon the business models of so many industries and corporate functions as has the advent of digital media. In some cases, such as publishing and print media, digital media has upended a company’s core business model. In other cases, digital tools simply offer new and improved capability for internal communication and organizational efficiencies.
And for many companies, the opportunities for commerce and external communication offered by digital media are now remaking business tactics and strategies connected to sales, marketing, pricing, branding, customer service, crisis management, and more. That’s true for industries ranging from financial services to retailing, and for companies making consumer products ranging from shampoo to sports cars, and just about everything in between. As goes almost without saying, digital companies themselves are continuously revisiting their business models, considering new offerings to feed the seemingly insatiable consumer appetite for digital products and services. Read more at http://www.ctnet.com/CTNet/TheFirm/TrendTalks.htm.
“Strengthening the Board Connection: The Second Annual Board of Directors Human Capital Institute” was convened on April 5, 2011, by CTPartners in New York City. The daylong event, which focused on a series of timely and essential issues facing the global business community, brought together a distinguished group of panelists and attendees from leading corporations, financial institutions, academia, and nonprofit organizations from around the world.
Brian Sullivan, CEO of CTPartners, the global executive search firm, welcomed all participants, while providing thanks to a blue-chip group of sponsors that included Booz & Co., Steven Hall & Partners, the NACD, and TIAA-CREF, which hosted the impressive gathering in its headquarters. “I am confident that today’s discussions and panelists will give us all some fresh, new, insightful perspectives on global boards, human capital, and the role that the Chief Human Resources Officer can play in supporting and enhancing corporate performance,” Mr. Sullivan emphasized.
Read the highlights at www.ctnet.com .
CTPartners reported today five major forces impacting corporate Boards. Senior executives from American Express, Bank of America, E*Trade Financial, Freddie Mac, Gilt Groupe, Google, Hilton Worldwide, TIAA-CREF, Tyco and XL Group among other companies and academic leaders, identified these trends at CTPartners’ Second Annual Board of Directors Human Capital Institute. The event, co-sponsored with Booz & Company, was recently held at TIAA-CREF’s New York offices.
The five game changers for Boards that emerged during discussions at the event include:
1. The power shift from the Board to the shareholder
Increased regulations are making directors more accountable to shareholders and diminishing the power of CEOs and directors to control the Board agenda. And not enough of today’s Boards can keep up with the pace of market change. If Boards don’t take the lead on big issues like CEO compensation, Board structure, director competence and succession planning, shareholders will.
2. Social media activism
Twitter and Facebook are fueling the shareholder activist, forcing a new era of transparency and helping activists to tweet and chat their way to forced changes in corporate policy and management. Boards, typically not known as early tech adopters, need to engage with new technologies or become their victims.
3. The 40-something board
The average age of directors, 62 years, will shift downward because Boards need fresh ideas and faster-paced, tech-savvy directors to energize the boardroom. The good news is that 40-something talent is available and getting into position for Board runs.
4. The impact of culture – Corporate and Board
Boards that do not pay attention to the culture of their companies – and the Board itself – are missing key levers for moving ideas and change through an organization. Boards have to identify cultural barriers – entrenched behavioral patterns and deeply-held beliefs that are bogging companies down and inhibiting change – because corporate culture can sink or save a company.
5. The power of talent and the rise of the CHRO on Boards
Human Resources is beginning to break the old perception of its role as administrative rather than strategic. Boards are recognizing the value of HR’s cross-organization perspective in critical areas like succession planning and talent development. HR execs are upping their game, with many companies hiring Chief Human Resources Officers with high-profile business experience and skills. One executive noted that “HR has arrived when you can overhear a conversation between a CEO, CFO and HR executive, and not be able to tell who’s who.”
Read more at www.ctnet.com.
Recently CTPartners released a Perspective on The Globally Relevant Human Resources Team. Following is an excerpt.
In an increasingly competitive global business environment, as corporate leaders seek a winning edge for their companies, human capital is playing an ever-more central role. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly evident that human capital may well be the biggest differentiator among companies, as well as the longest-lasting competitive asset. Technological advantages, while valuable, are too often short-lived in today’s marketplace. Similarly, cost efficiencies and pricing advantages can quickly evaporate. But the ability to retain superior talent remains as a true and meaningful competitive edge, especially in knowledge-based businesses and positions.
Yet even as the focus on talent is sharpening, the challenge of how to access superior talent is becoming more difficult. The shifting global economic landscape, with the rise of some emerging markets and relative decline of other markets, virtually ensures some regional talent shortages. At the same time, demographic trends, including an aging world population, will create other human capital strains. And shortages of certain highly skilled professionals are already apparent in some regions and professions.
For businesses around the globe, the confluence of these two forces is putting human resources (HR) leadership squarely in the forefront. Never has the need for a strong, globally relevant human resources team been more apparent. Accordingly, talent management now garners greater attention from senior corporate leadership than has been the case in the past. As a result, CHROs are playing a larger role than ever in the C-Suite as strategic partners.
Read more at http://www.ctnet.com/CTNet/Practices/HumanResources.htm
Recently CTPartners released the latest report in the Firm’s Trend Talk series: Asia Pacific: The Strategic Business Imperative. Following is an excerpt.
During a time period that was characterized by upheaval and uncertainty for global leaders, at least one point was clarified by the financial crisis of 2008-2009. For multinational corporations and other businesses around the globe, a solid presence in the Asia Pacific region is now, more than ever, a keystone for business success.
Never has Asia’s strategic position as an economic powerhouse seemed more evident, and the impact of the region’s growth upon global talent strategies continues to become ever more pronounced.
Any tour of the region’s growth inevitably begins with China. During the global recession of 2009, when worldwide GDP declined by 0.8% and advanced economies suffered an average decline of 3.2%, China’s GDP grew by a robust 8.7%. Looking ahead, the International Monetary Fund predicts that China’s GDP growth during 2010 and 2011will exceed that rate.
Many other AsiaPac nations are experiencing a continuing growth trend, along with a related impact upon talent demand, as well. India, which enjoyed 5.6% growth in GDP during 2009, is expected to see GDP expansion of 7.7% in 2010. The more mature Australian economy should see a 2.5% growth in GDP this year. And the developing ASEAN-5 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) should enjoy 4.7% GDP growth. Importantly, this strong economic performance in AsiaPac will take place while advanced economies, according to IMF predictions, will experience, on average, a more modest 2.1% GDP growth this year.
Given this economic outlook, it is not surprising that many of the world’s corporations are looking east toward Asia Pacific, hoping that the region’s economic engine will help spur worldwide recovery and growth opportunities. New investment and expansion programs in AsiaPac are underway. Meanwhile, as the world looks to Asia, and especially China, for growth, Asian companies are looking out to the world with aspirations and plans to build their own domestic businesses into global competitors.
As multinationals and domestic Asian corporations alike develop their businesses to capitalize on current opportunities, the demand for talent will be significant and far-reaching. Businesses operating in AsiaPac will need sophisticated leaders with the capabilities to guide large-scale company expansions, recognize business opportunities as well as potential pitfalls, and lead businesses to enhance and solidify their position in the global marketplace.
Indeed, given the economic opportunities, it’s hard to overstate the region’s potential long-term demand for senior executive and boardroom talent. To read the full CTPartners report, visit: http://www.ctnet.com/CTNet/TheFirm/TrendTalks.htm
Ashwin Rao, Chief Sales Officer of Collabera, an on shore and off shore IT services firm, tells us how how you sell effectively when your space has become largely undifferentiated.
It’s a great question, even though I firmly believe that ITO/BPO services are far from commoditized. But if customers have that impression – if they are beginning to push back and say, “A Developer is a Developer so, From now on, it’s just price” – then the question needs to be answered.
The answer is embedded in the word “services”. I think it is virtually impossible for services to be of uniform quality from one company to another. If you’re selling a service, you have the opportunity to differentiate. True, it is harder when your customers don’t see your differentiators. But that just means you need to work harder at making your differentiators visible. First to yourself, then to your customers.
Where to look for your differentiators? Three places occur to me immediately:
1.Energy or Passion – You, as an individual, purchase “commodity” services all the time. Laundry, medical care, car repair – you have many comparably-priced options for almost any service you need. What makes you a loyal customer in some cases and not in others? In many cases it is the energy exhibited by those who provide it. A doctor who takes an active interest in your complaint and questions you energetically to diagnose it. The launderer who takes pleasure in pointing out the buttons they replaced for you. The mechanic who insists on riding around the block with you to make sure you don’t still hear that sound. In their own ways, they are binding you to them with their passion and energy. You pay them with your loyalty; you don’t shop those providers on price.
Jack Welch’s first two Es of Leadership are Energy and Energize. Go along on the next sales call with your ITO and BPO salespeople. Do they exhibit energy and passion about your services? If not, you are forfeiting differentiation that is virtually free to you.
2.Innovation – It’s great if your technology team can invent a grand new technology that leapfrogs you past your competition, but that’s rare. What does not have to be rare is the every day, every way kind of innovation that refreshes the customer experience at every stage of the relationship.
To innovate, make sure you regularly question how things are done now. Encourage your people to do the same. If you’ve been using the same tool for years, ask why. “This is how we do it here” might lock in best practices, but it can also impede innovation. Encourage experimentation. “I wonder if we could get even better results if we…” If I were a customer, and your sales person came to me and said, “We’ve been thinking, we have a new idea for you – would you be open to trying this?” I wouldn’t think “commodity”. I would think “trusted advisor.”
3.Expertise – When I hear a CIO talk about the commoditization of ITO/BPO services, I can’t help thinking about the commoditization of CIOs: “Surely by now, if you’ve seen one CIO, you’ve seen them all.” Not really, but you get my point. In ITO/BPO services, there ARE experts who have earned the appellation, just as there are amateurs who have not. The former bring extraordinary value to our customers. They are profoundly differentiating. Expertise is not amorphous – it is measurable and demonstrable. By contrast, amateurs can be costly for customers.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell writes about violinists, “By the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice. By contrast the merely good students had totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours.”
Where in your company do you truly have 10,000 hour people? Where do you have expertise that outweighs your competitors’? Have you quantified these areas of expertise? Do your competitors sell amateurs as experts? Do your salespeople know precisely how your true experts increase value for the customer? If not, you are underselling one of your greatest assets, making a commodity of a powerful differentiator.
Don Friedman, CMO of CA, one of the world’s leading software companies on why marketing is critical to survival now…
In good times and bad, it all starts and ends with the customer. Clearly, customer’s requirements have changed dramatically in the last six months as the economy has faltered. Customers are no longer looking for long term strategic projects; but rather they are looking for two things: projects that produce short term ROI (Return on Investment) and vendors that can survive the downturn.
Marketing always needs to support the business, specifically sales, and must focus on driving revenue. From a purely tactical standpoint this means adjusting the marketing messages globally to reflect the new economic realities and emphasizing products that are more easily installed and produce immediate and attractive returns. It also means positioning your company with confidence and as a thought leader, acknowledging the short term realities, and keeping an eye on the future. It means maintaining share of voice so customers know the value you can provide and you are seen as a viable vendor.
But marketing can and should do much more. It is a mistake to narrow the role of the CMO. He/she are in a unique position having to deal with many functions including development and sales. In times of growth, companies focus on revenue and earnings per share. In tough times, survival means focusing on cash flow and the balance sheet. It means further improving internal efficiencies and productivity, and in many cases doing less, not more. Yet “efficiency” and “productivity” are just words. And while widely used, these powerful words are sometimes elusive. Marketing can help by ensuring the customer needs are well communicated throughout the organization and there is close alignment between the company’s strategy and the functional organizations. Perhaps most important, marketing can cross functional silos, and become the grease that improves the alignment and creates a common understanding that yields greater efficiencies.
Think of it this way: imagine each person in the company as a vector. They have strength and direction. Their strength varies according to the person’s roles and capabilities. The direction is determined by what the person is trying to achieve. Optimal effectiveness and productivity is achieved when the vectors are aligned and their strengths are additive. Keeping the vectors aligned in a steady state environment is a challenge, in this environment where there is little historical precedent to steer the ship, alignment becomes even more difficult and critical.
Don’t waste the opportunity that this short time economic crisis provides. Use the uncertainty to reexamine and ensure alignment and focus across the organization while keeping your eyes on the customer. Companies that do this will not only survive but flourish as the economy improves.
