Category: Career Advice and Training

A business of any size can benefit from forming a partnership with a large corporation. Well-established companies can offer insight into how the industry works and what your business can do to survive and thrive in the future.

Of course, you have to make certain that your team is ready for the challenge before jumping into anything. Dropping the ball in a big-league partnership can embarrass your organization and hinder future networking efforts.

Even if your company appears to be up to par, it is still a good rule to start out on a small scale. You can be building toward a bigger partnership for the future while making sure that you aren’t overextending your staff in the present. You also want to avoid coming on too strong. You may think it shows ambition to pitch a big project, but in the more experienced eyes of your potential partner, it may look more like naivete. Avoiding the “hard sell” is a good general rule when it comes to working with other companies that are more established than your own.

It is also an excellent idea to bring a good lawyer with you when you ink the deal. It may seem like a confrontational action, but real professionals will appreciate that it is simply the smart thing to do.

By far, the most critical factor affecting your ability to form a meaningful partnership with a big business is the overall quality of your executive team. Large corporations want to know that there are level-headed decision makers in charge of a company before they enter into any serious arrangements.

This is just one of the reasons it makes sense to conduct every executive search in coordination with a firm of corporate recruiters. When you work with hiring experts, it guarantees that you will get the most out of your efforts, as professional recruiters are able to apply their experience to each search and ensure that any candidate they bring to a company is capable and qualified.

A lot of people probably assume that those who work in business are always meeting each other for lunch, based on the way such meetings are portrayed in popular culture. In reality, there is a very good reason why most executives rarely have lunch meeting. It is a huge time sink.

Between driving to the restaurant, waiting for service and eating at an awkwardly slow pace because the real point of the get-together is to talk – meetings held over lunch wind up taking much longer than necessary. And when you're dealing with busy executives, you'll find that they don't have time to waste traveling to and from drawn-out lunch meetings that could be conducted quickly and easily in the office.

So, the next time you want to get together and talk with someone who you know has a lot on their plate already, don't invite them to lunch. Take the advice of entrepreneur Mark Suster and be direct. Ask if you can stop by the person's office for half an hour. Offering to pick up coffee on the way can be a great way to score bonus points.

Just as executives don't have all the time in the world to go out for lunch all the time, they are also pressed in many other areas. For instance, running the company's hiring process can be immensely time consuming, involving many separate tasks and necessitating a lot of irregular scheduling. Also, communication during the hiring process is critical and should be conducted with careful focus.

That's why it makes sense to work with professional recruiters. Hiring experts work full time, focusing only on the task at hand, which is to find qualified candidates for a company's vacant positions. This removes a lot of stressful time commitments from the plates of businesses' decision-makers and guarantees the quality of a hiring process because human resource professionals are able to bring their experience and complete focus to the job.

As anyone in business can tell you, it can be tough to find high-quality candidates, especially when a critical position is left vacant at an inopportune moment.

There can be a lot of pressure on a company’s leadership to fill an empty position as quickly as possible. But, conducting a talent search is time consuming, especially when it comes to more complex roles. Executing a proper financial professional search can be a grueling experience.

At the same time, the responsibilities associated with the vacant position have to be temporarily distributed among other workers. Thus, upper-level staff can suddenly find themselves buried in work that they aren’t used to doing at the same time that they are scouring for an appropriate replacement to fill the empty position. The ensuing stress can be significant.

Obviously, the best bet for resolving the situation quickly is to cast as wide a net as possible. This means exploring new and diverse sources of applicants. Placing ads in the newspaper and sitting back to wait for calls will not cut it in 2012.

There are a wide variety of online job listing and search sites and social networks are gaining traction as a source of job information and applicants. Temporary employees can be brought in to help manage the workload while a permanent replacement is sought. Some companies may even be able to implement a recruiting program targeting universities or professional training services.

It is also worthwhile to consider whether or not the person currently in charge of hiring is the best fit for the job. Even outstanding entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily the best hirers.

When it comes to searching for talented financial professionals to fill critical roles, the best thing a company can do for itself is to contact a firm of corporate recruiters. Hiring professionals are able to dedicate their full time and attention to conducting the most thorough search possible, allowing them to use their expertise to bring the right individuals and employers together.

As much as everyone draws comfort from familiar surroundings, it is essential that business owners and other decision makers at a company have experience from outside of their comfort zone.

Narrowly focused individuals, even if they excel tremendously in one area, will ultimately find themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to maneuvering in an increasingly diverse business world. Even a top talent in finance will be limited in his or her effectiveness without at least some background in dealing with different people and situations.

Groups of like-minded people making decisions without outside influences or input can lead to an “echo chamber” effect, in which the same ideas bounce back and forth, reinforcing each other and preventing new thoughts from moving in different directions from the standard.

Fortunately there are many things an open-minded person can do to gain world experience and improve their critical thinking and decision-making capabilities.

Travel can be an incredibly enriching experience. Seeing the conditions in which other cultures live – and in which foreign consumers and corporations buy and sell – can offer useful insights into how to approach new markets or build partnerships with international businesses.

Another good way to easily expand your knowledge base and your ability to work with information is to read. Especially when you expose yourself to a diverse range of ideas and opinions, you can make huge improvements in your ability to work with different individuals and see multiple sides of issues.

Just as individuals and organizations benefit from diversity, so too does a recruitment process. This is a good reason to consider working with a firm of professional recruiters.

Executive search experts can take the time to find the best applicants with the widest range of experience. Instead of relying on networking only with closely-linked candidates, expanding your executive or financial professional search through a recruiting firm will open up the process to include individuals with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. This helps ensure that the most well-rounded applicant is selected.

Businessman Warren Buffett recently spoke at a shareholders' meeting for his company Berkshire Hathaway. In what one attendee referred to as "the best one day economics seminar in the world," the billionaire investor offered advice on getting ahead financially, as well as general predictions for the future. More than 18,000 people showed up to hear him speak at the event.

Buffett was optimistic about the improving economy and had reassurances for those with jobs in finance. He offered an upbeat assessment of the U.S. banking system, saying it was in far better shape than it was several years ago and compared favorably with European banks, which are "gasping for air."

Proudly touting Berkshire Hathaway's domestic investments, Buffett said, "There is no shortage of opportunity in the U.S." He also called the stock market "the most obliging, money-making place in the world." However, he admitted that there was no simple path to riches, and that the market "does strange things."

He urged investors to proceed with caution when considering large-scale acquisitions, telling them to think about the value a purchase would bring, rather than the headlines it might generate.

However, he also said his audience should avoid making investments that will turn out to be unproductive. As an example, he advised his listeners to think about the fact that if "you have an ounce of gold now," in 100 years "you'll still have an ounce of gold."

Buffett also spoke about the importance he placed on elevating only the most capable people to top positions at Berkshire Hathaway. He stressed the significance of filling jobs in finance and investing with extraordinary individuals.

One of the most effective ways to ensure quality during a financial professional search is to use a reputable executive search firm. Experienced recruiters work full time to find the best candidates, leaving a company's current staff free to focus on their business.

A commonly repeated phrase is that "it's not what you know, it's who you know." But, getting to know the right people is often a challenge, as the best potential contacts tend to be the busiest individuals.

A company in need of financial project consulting can obviously send a representative to the next big convention on the subject to find a professional in the field. But, getting that crucial meeting with the most talented expert at the event – therein lies the challenge.

Whenever possible, the best tactic is to arrange an introduction in advance. Adding a mutual acquaintance to the equation makes it much more likely that a first-time meeting will lead to a productive professional relationship. And in any case, it makes the experience more comfortable.

The most important thing to do when meeting new people is to show respect for their time. Even if someone is too polite to abruptly end a conversation, that doesn't mean they have all the time in the world to stand around figuring out how they can help you. Your focus should be on making a good impression and getting contact information so you can follow up later.

Following through after an introduction is critically important. A new relationship will not last long if it isn't continually built upon and strengthened through ongoing contact. This can be as simple as sending a note to thank a person for their time.

Sometimes a company may not be able to wait for organic networking to drive desired results. In this case, it may be high time to consider contacting a professional corporate recruiting and financial project consulting firm. Whether the goal is to find new permanent staff or fulfill an interim role, professional services are available to help take your business to the next level right now.

Attending a conference can be a great opportunity to network – if you come prepared and focus on making good use of your time.

You can make valuable business contacts, learn about your industry and just meet interesting people.

There is also the chance to embarrass yourself and discourage any other attendees who may interested in working at your company.

Most events wind up falling somewhere between the two extremes, but with only a little extra effort, you could considerably raise your rate of conference success. It's all about staying focused and using your time well.

In his blog Both Sides of the Table, entrepreneur Mark Suster explains that the most important part of having productive conference experiences is to be selective in choosing events. Being gone from the office for days at a time is bad for productivity. It's best to pick out only the most interesting or important events, prepare carefully and then focus on using your time well while you're there.

It's critical to plan out your schedule and set meetings in advance. The major advantage of attending conferences is that so many potentially valuable contacts will be in one place at the same time. If you want to have a meeting with a particular person then you should schedule one.

One good idea that isn't obvious to everyone is to spend a while hanging out in the lobby, rather than spending all your time taking meticulous notes on every single panel discussion. It's easy to meet people while milling around in the lobby and you may even be able to get in a word with someone who you wouldn't have been able to meet otherwise.

For executives who still don't feel like they are getting much out of their networking efforts, it might be time to consider hiring a firm of professional recruiters. This can be especially useful if your company needs to fill high-level positions. Working with a top-quality executive search firm holds distinct advantages. Conducting a financial professional search can be complex and time-consuming. Outsourcing to a recruiting firm frees up core staff to focus on their main responsibilities and has the added benefit that professional recruiters bring their hiring experience to the table, giving you the best chance to find the right candidate.

Every company looks for ways to save money, but many benefits can also be achieved by simply avoiding over-committing current employees.

Every new project that seems like a good idea at the time may turn out to restrict the brainpower that is available to take advantage of new opportunities or may even become a drain on the ability of employees to perform day-to-day tasks. A new distribution deal can turn out to necessitate technical support or place other ongoing demands on a company’s staff.

Companies looking to keep their employees free to focus fully on their main responsibilities should strongly consider reaching out to a professional recruitment firm, especially in the case of businesses searching for great CEOs or trying to fill other upper-level positions. In addition to the benefit of shifting the time-consuming work of recruiting managers away from a company’s full-time employees, there is also the experience that professional recruiters bring to the table. They do their job, which allows their clients to focus on running their businesses and doing what they do.

Beyond headhunting firms, there are many other services that can help a company keep their core staff focused on offering quality service to customers. For instance, hiring an internal audit consultant can also have the same effect of removing demands from a company’s staff. Hiring an outside firm to do financial project consulting may allow a company to postpone a full-time financial professional search or just get by while such a search is in motion.

Outsourcing has been used as a dirty word by some, but relying on outside resources is still an effective way to reduce the strain on a company’s employees, especially when it comes to complex or time-consuming tasks such as recruiting for auditing positions.

Companies may finally be starting to realize the full burden of the recession, as years of operating with fewer resources has begun to overburden some business professionals.

That is according to a study by emotional intelligence service Six Seconds, which determined that leaders are increasingly seen as being more to blame for business woes – 58 percent of respondents mentioned leaders as being the top personnel-related problem this year, compared with only 51 percent in 2010. A separate question determined that nearly 30 percent of respondents viewed talent retention as the top issue this year.

A Paradigm Learning whitepaper – "Developing Critical Thinking in Today's Leaders: No Room for Old-School Leadership in the New Normal" – tackled leadership from another angle, finding that as businesses emerge from a deep recession, their leaders must be able to think critically and constantly reassess their organizations if they are to return to their former levels of success.

"Now, more than ever, business acumen is foundational to effective leadership," paper author Catherine Rezak said in a press release. "It is impossible to apply critical thinking skills to the business of making money without an understanding of the business drivers that connect day-to-day decisions and actions to key financial and strategic performance goals of the organization."

In order to find employees with these skills and retain the ones that already have them, many companies are turning to in-house training programs to teach managers skills related to accountability, big-picture thinking and analytical skills.

These skills may be especially important among companies recruiting for auditing positions and other vacancies related to financial management. Corporate recruiters and job search firms have the requisite experience to identify candidates with these unique qualities and help businesses expedite their financial professional search.

At the dawn of the internet era, Yahoo became one of the first stalwarts of this new process for accessing information and communicating in real time. A generation later, the company has lost its market positioning, ended its most recent CEO’s brief tenure through a phone call and instituted layoffs affecting more than 10 percent of its workforce.

Simply put, Yahoo is in the midst of an identity crisis, as it seeks to operate in an internet space where it has been surpassed by Google and Facebook in both traffic numbers and advertising pull. Compounding these challenges is the fact that the internet is constantly evolving, so instead of being a market leader that sets the tone – as it once was – Yahoo must now respond to fluctuations over which it has little control.

"It all adds up to an identity problem for Yahoo, a company that began as a portal to the web," David Rosenbaum writes for CFO.com. "Today, the very idea of a portal seems anachronistic, replaced by apps that immediately serve up whatever anyone is seeking. The difficulty of defining what Yahoo is today, and what it may become tomorrow, may make challenges like Big Data, mobile and new computing platforms seem trivial."

In order to successfully complete its ascent back to the lofty peak of internet dominance, Yahoo needs to begin thinking long-term, which means, in part, catering to consumers who prefer to access its services through mobile devices. Yahoo will also focus solely on its most popular services, which include news, sports, finance and email. Despite this leaner business structure and a 1 percent increase in profits year-over-year, the company’s expenses still outpace its profits.

By working with headhunting firms that have experience recruiting managers and accountants, companies like Yahoo can begin to think more strategically about their organizations and institute more effective long-term plans. Similarly, a financial project consulting service can bolster staffing positions in the short-term as needed.