As we enter the last month of the first quarter of 2012, I would like to say:"if you are thinking about looking for a new opportunity or seeking to hire right leaders the time is just right".
We have seen quite a few hiring and firing cycles over the past 15 years and as the economy continues to swing in the right direction the time for organizations to hire and individuals to seek career development/advancement through a job change could not be better right now. I think that this periond will last for a while---maybe two years or so, before organizations start to get into a hiring frenzy which will signal the end of the rush. Yes, it is going to get a lot better for individuals seeking to improve their careers during the next 12-24 months, for organizations endeavoring to achieve competitive advantage ----and of course, the overall economy as well.
Organizations seeking to gain market share by aggressively seeking out and recruting top talent during this current period will find themselves ahead of their key competitors in the race for topline revenue and bottom line results--particularly in areas that demand top engineering, science and technology leadership. Likewise, for academic institutions seeking to improve research funding, faculty quality and overall ranking.
The decision makers must be savvy enough to sense that the time is ripe to seek out and hire top talent and then act....or they may miss the currently open window of opportunity.
All the best,
Keith
Keith D Kulper, President
Keith addressing 12/7/10 meeting of the KULPER Advisory Board held at New Jersey Institute of Technology
Showing posts with label jobs forecast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs forecast. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Jobs Report--a pleasant surprise...
What will the pundits and naysayers have to say now? Unemployment is now officially reporting in at 8.3 % with over 200,000 jobs being created in January 2012. President Obama must have a big smile on his face this morning----the market is reacting positively---should be a great day.
OK----this story has been building for quite a while. Rates have been at historic lows for several years and the FED is promising low rates for another 2 years! We'll see about that, but the Treasury Yield Curve has been pointing the way towards steady recovery for quite some time for anyone who has been paying attention. We, of course, need to remember what brought the world economy down and keep an eye out for those who promote excess, greed and recklessness in the way a school yard bully might. Remember: bullies hate it when someone calls them out and fights back so always have the courage to do that if you see bad behavior in your enterprise, community or institution...you will sleep better at night and you will be taking responsibility for a better future for everyone.
Innovation---entrepreneurship and hiring of bright people focused on making good things happen in their own enterprises and institutions can take heart from today's jobs report. Our business here at KULPER & COMPANY is very solid and we are forecasting a banner year in our area of where "academia meets corporate innovation". The economic pendulum has inexorably swung in the right direction. Yes, there are threats, concerns, issues etc., but this is the time for positive people to take center stage to boldly drive growth, innovation and growth in an honest and sustainable manner.
Bravo! This is great news--enjoy it.
Now let's all get to work and keep our focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and growth and undoubtedly more good things will happen for our economy which will clearly have a positive effect on our families, communities, businesses and, of course, this beautiful world on which we are so blessed to live.
Happy SuperBowl Weekend.....and....Go Giants!
All the best,
Keith
OK----this story has been building for quite a while. Rates have been at historic lows for several years and the FED is promising low rates for another 2 years! We'll see about that, but the Treasury Yield Curve has been pointing the way towards steady recovery for quite some time for anyone who has been paying attention. We, of course, need to remember what brought the world economy down and keep an eye out for those who promote excess, greed and recklessness in the way a school yard bully might. Remember: bullies hate it when someone calls them out and fights back so always have the courage to do that if you see bad behavior in your enterprise, community or institution...you will sleep better at night and you will be taking responsibility for a better future for everyone.
Innovation---entrepreneurship and hiring of bright people focused on making good things happen in their own enterprises and institutions can take heart from today's jobs report. Our business here at KULPER & COMPANY is very solid and we are forecasting a banner year in our area of where "academia meets corporate innovation". The economic pendulum has inexorably swung in the right direction. Yes, there are threats, concerns, issues etc., but this is the time for positive people to take center stage to boldly drive growth, innovation and growth in an honest and sustainable manner.
Bravo! This is great news--enjoy it.
Now let's all get to work and keep our focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and growth and undoubtedly more good things will happen for our economy which will clearly have a positive effect on our families, communities, businesses and, of course, this beautiful world on which we are so blessed to live.
Happy SuperBowl Weekend.....and....Go Giants!
All the best,
Keith
Thursday, November 17, 2011
A surge in hiring...HIRE=HELP
For the past few months our phone has been ringing and our email in box has been filled with inquiries regarding our services. Is it because KULPER is doing a good job...or is it a secular trend? Inasmuch as I would like to believe it is all about the word getting around about the quality of work we are doing here in our search firm...I have to believe that it is more about a steady increase in hiring needs by our clientele.
We work at the intersection of higher education research and corporate innovation, so, it is particularly pleasing to know that the best universities and companies are contacting us at a steadily increasing rate to help them attract their most important new leaders.
2012 is going to be even more active than the later half of 2011 in our estimation; this means more jobs at all levels because as new leaders come in, they all need teams to help them successfully execute.
The message from the Occupy Wall Streeters around the country may seem a bit muddled what with all their drumming and camping out in parks, but it is clear to me that this group of young people needs employment; and not as burger flippers in the local McDonalds as worthy and honest as that work may be. For the most part, the college grads among this group are articulate and bright---why hasn't Corporate America responded and sent their recruiters to the encampments?
Back when I came out of college there were many --many management training programs that absorbed many thousands of college grads each year. Now, with Globalization the competition for entry level jobs is a global phenomenon---but that should not mean that American companies who are running lean and mean---and quite cash flush---shouldn't open up their coffures and start hiring young people with solid educational accomplishments and background.
So, here is my exhortation to corporate HR and recruiting!
HIRE=HELP
Hire=Help...Hire our college grads---give them an opportunity; everyone needs a first job.
Hire=Help...Hire our mid career/experienced managers; they will hit the ground running.
Hire=Help...Hire great people any where around the world if they have the desire, ability and background.
As we all get this idea....the economy will undoubtedly benefit, confidence will increase and all boats will rise. Hire because it is good for business, hire because it helps to make the world a better place for everyone in it and hire because it is simply the right thing to do.
Happy Thanksgiving....
Peace,
Keith
We work at the intersection of higher education research and corporate innovation, so, it is particularly pleasing to know that the best universities and companies are contacting us at a steadily increasing rate to help them attract their most important new leaders.
2012 is going to be even more active than the later half of 2011 in our estimation; this means more jobs at all levels because as new leaders come in, they all need teams to help them successfully execute.
The message from the Occupy Wall Streeters around the country may seem a bit muddled what with all their drumming and camping out in parks, but it is clear to me that this group of young people needs employment; and not as burger flippers in the local McDonalds as worthy and honest as that work may be. For the most part, the college grads among this group are articulate and bright---why hasn't Corporate America responded and sent their recruiters to the encampments?
Back when I came out of college there were many --many management training programs that absorbed many thousands of college grads each year. Now, with Globalization the competition for entry level jobs is a global phenomenon---but that should not mean that American companies who are running lean and mean---and quite cash flush---shouldn't open up their coffures and start hiring young people with solid educational accomplishments and background.
So, here is my exhortation to corporate HR and recruiting!
HIRE=HELP
Hire=Help...Hire our college grads---give them an opportunity; everyone needs a first job.
Hire=Help...Hire our mid career/experienced managers; they will hit the ground running.
Hire=Help...Hire great people any where around the world if they have the desire, ability and background.
As we all get this idea....the economy will undoubtedly benefit, confidence will increase and all boats will rise. Hire because it is good for business, hire because it helps to make the world a better place for everyone in it and hire because it is simply the right thing to do.
Happy Thanksgiving....
Peace,
Keith
Thursday, September 22, 2011
KULPER & COMPANY--Current Market Activity
It is such a choppy market out there. The media is having a field day bringing up the 'R' word every other breath---( CNBC, Bloomberg, etc) and worrying about the end of the Euro--the demise of Greece --financial institution contagion. The DOW's tumble today notwithstanding we are not anywhere near the scary times of fall 08. The market was in free fall then and I was ready to hang my ( then) money manager.
What is happening, now? In our perspective here our clients are certainly concerned about what is going on but they are retaining us for their most important search assignments at the fastest pace in 5 years! Executive search firms can be viewed as a reliable market place barometer....
What does this mean to your organization? If your cash flow is solid and the prospects remain good---you may want to be bold---take advantage of the lowest rates in 50 years and move forward with your growth initiatives. I beleive you will be in good company. Organizations like Clorox, Kimberly Clark, Apple, Honeywell, Dow Chemical and the like ( the strongest US corporations) are not sitting on their hands during this choppy and uncertain time. The best universities are taking the same tack---they are making moves when others are wringing their hands.
From our perspective here ---the search assignments are pouring in and our phone is ringing for more assignments every day! A year ago? It was an entirely different scenario. I have a strong belief that when people decide to use our service there is strong belief in the future of their organization.
Take heart---all this brouhaha will be over eventually. I hope you will be able to make the right decisions for your business and profit from your confidence in what you believe will happen.
All the best
Keith
What is happening, now? In our perspective here our clients are certainly concerned about what is going on but they are retaining us for their most important search assignments at the fastest pace in 5 years! Executive search firms can be viewed as a reliable market place barometer....
What does this mean to your organization? If your cash flow is solid and the prospects remain good---you may want to be bold---take advantage of the lowest rates in 50 years and move forward with your growth initiatives. I beleive you will be in good company. Organizations like Clorox, Kimberly Clark, Apple, Honeywell, Dow Chemical and the like ( the strongest US corporations) are not sitting on their hands during this choppy and uncertain time. The best universities are taking the same tack---they are making moves when others are wringing their hands.
From our perspective here ---the search assignments are pouring in and our phone is ringing for more assignments every day! A year ago? It was an entirely different scenario. I have a strong belief that when people decide to use our service there is strong belief in the future of their organization.
Take heart---all this brouhaha will be over eventually. I hope you will be able to make the right decisions for your business and profit from your confidence in what you believe will happen.
All the best
Keith
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Job Transition Advice
Here is what actually happens in our business. We are not job counselors here at KULPER & COMPANY --we are executive search consultants---but we always try to be helpful to friends in job transition. We advise an intelligent approach to the challenge of job transition, but because of the challenges inherent in this task and lack of experience with job transition issues, particularly for senior level execs, it often becomes a challenging and emotionally draining experience. We are offering the below actual dialogue with a friend in transition to be helpful to anyone currently in transition or facing the prospects of it sometime, soon. We present this to the readers of our Blog purely for informational purposes; no names are mentioned in this dialogue and we make no claims that it is going to work for you.
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Person in Transition:
One of many reasons I enjoyed this morning's conversation was your candor and willingness to be open and forthright; including issues of sensitivity. That said, I have been asking myself if I had the right to take advantage of that quality. While I don't necessarily have a yes/no answer, I have decided to ask you a question that you may or may not want to address. If you are comfortable with the question and equally comfortable answering it, great. If not, I won't be upset. The question.....Was there anything that I said or didn't say this morning that you would recommend I handle differently should a second opportunity occur for me to sit down and talk with another search consultant?
KULPER & COMPANY Response
The main point I like to convey to people in transition is that the more aware they are about the job search process the more sophisticated they will appear in the eye of the hiring decision maker--or search consultant. Understanding that your role( as a candidate) is to be a solution provider ---makes that idea much easier to understand and embrace. By continually asking: “ How can I be helpful in this particular situation”? ----you are able to seize the day and pursue opportunities that makethe most sense to you. The more information you have about the problems the hiring exec needs to solve the more likely you will be able to present yourself as his or her solution provider.
Person in Transition
I recognize that it took a long time to build a career that I am proud of but, that, in and of itself, doesn't get me more than a cup of coffee. One of the take-aways from this morning was that my career, while wide in scope in that I moved from a large and well known organization to improving performances within a very diverse group of companies, may offer little value in today's market either due my age or the job search process itself. Is there something obvious to you that I should consider doing as I seek my next job?
KULPER & COMPANY Response
The key is to visualize yourself in the shoes of the hiring decision maker. You do this by possessing good information about the hiring need---and by staying as objective as you can in matching your experience and problem solving capabilities with the issues the hiring decision maker is facing.
Person in Transition
When I reflect upon my career and the shortage of solid experience that could drive us to levels not yet reached, I paid internationally known search firms a lot of money to continue looking for the right people. Unfortunately, I was never happy with the people they sent me.
KULPER & COMPANY Response:
To be very honest with you, when we are doing a good job for our clients only 50% of the candidates we present are judged “acceptable”---it is very hard to get inside the head of the client. I work very hard at throughout the search process. We call it 'calibrating the search' because we are carefully adjusting our understanding of the client's hiring hot buttons as we drill deeper into understanding what is going to get us to an offer for the RIGHT candidate. Even when the position spec is very well wrought we continue to learn more about the real hiring need as we go along. Perish the thought, but if the client is rejecting 80-90% of our candidates (thankfully that happens very infrequently) this is a big red flag. I then call a time out and we carefully review what is going on and why…..We work hard to present the right candidates---because that helps everyone-- and is the fundamental reason for the engagement.
Person in Transition:
I understand that the process isn't easy. As a practical matter what should I do as a first step, now?
KULPER & COMPANY Response:
I would suggest that you should be doing at least 3 informational interviews per week----face to face---where you are sitting with an exec level decision maker because you are sincerely interested in learning about his or her operation ---so, you can decide if you can make a difference by becoming involved in it somehow. Your approach to getting the meeting could be---“ Gerry, I have been doing some homework on your industry /business and I am very interested in the work you and your associates are doing right now because….( insert reason)----if you would have some time to discuss this with me I would appreciate visiting with you next week; could we set up a time to have coffee together?
This approach works because it is a non threatening neutral request----you are after information –not a job or anything else ( at this point). If the conversation happens to migrate towards where you are at the present time and there is interest in learning more about you….then you will have your opportunity. This process can take a few meetings as you learn more and he or she warms to the idea that you might be just the sort of solution provider he or she needs. Getting to “yes”—is an emotionally driven process—much more so than an analytic one. The decision maker needs to feel good in your presence and relaxed ---as he or she talks about a topic that is of importance to him or her (and what could be more important than their business?---or areas that interest them when they are not working so hard—family, hobbies, sports etc. ). By approaching the decision maker in this manner you are creating rapport that allows him or her to relax and maybe to even begin to visualize you as a solution provider for some issue or problem that has yet to be brought up to you!
I hope my responses are helpful to you----Good luck and keep in touch.
Likewise, I hope that this information proves helpful to you if you are in transition now and wondering how to best approach your next opportunity.
Warm regards
Keith
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Person in Transition:
One of many reasons I enjoyed this morning's conversation was your candor and willingness to be open and forthright; including issues of sensitivity. That said, I have been asking myself if I had the right to take advantage of that quality. While I don't necessarily have a yes/no answer, I have decided to ask you a question that you may or may not want to address. If you are comfortable with the question and equally comfortable answering it, great. If not, I won't be upset. The question.....Was there anything that I said or didn't say this morning that you would recommend I handle differently should a second opportunity occur for me to sit down and talk with another search consultant?
KULPER & COMPANY Response
The main point I like to convey to people in transition is that the more aware they are about the job search process the more sophisticated they will appear in the eye of the hiring decision maker--or search consultant. Understanding that your role( as a candidate) is to be a solution provider ---makes that idea much easier to understand and embrace. By continually asking: “ How can I be helpful in this particular situation”? ----you are able to seize the day and pursue opportunities that makethe most sense to you. The more information you have about the problems the hiring exec needs to solve the more likely you will be able to present yourself as his or her solution provider.
Person in Transition
I recognize that it took a long time to build a career that I am proud of but, that, in and of itself, doesn't get me more than a cup of coffee. One of the take-aways from this morning was that my career, while wide in scope in that I moved from a large and well known organization to improving performances within a very diverse group of companies, may offer little value in today's market either due my age or the job search process itself. Is there something obvious to you that I should consider doing as I seek my next job?
KULPER & COMPANY Response
The key is to visualize yourself in the shoes of the hiring decision maker. You do this by possessing good information about the hiring need---and by staying as objective as you can in matching your experience and problem solving capabilities with the issues the hiring decision maker is facing.
Person in Transition
When I reflect upon my career and the shortage of solid experience that could drive us to levels not yet reached, I paid internationally known search firms a lot of money to continue looking for the right people. Unfortunately, I was never happy with the people they sent me.
KULPER & COMPANY Response:
To be very honest with you, when we are doing a good job for our clients only 50% of the candidates we present are judged “acceptable”---it is very hard to get inside the head of the client. I work very hard at throughout the search process. We call it 'calibrating the search' because we are carefully adjusting our understanding of the client's hiring hot buttons as we drill deeper into understanding what is going to get us to an offer for the RIGHT candidate. Even when the position spec is very well wrought we continue to learn more about the real hiring need as we go along. Perish the thought, but if the client is rejecting 80-90% of our candidates (thankfully that happens very infrequently) this is a big red flag. I then call a time out and we carefully review what is going on and why…..We work hard to present the right candidates---because that helps everyone-- and is the fundamental reason for the engagement.
Person in Transition:
I understand that the process isn't easy. As a practical matter what should I do as a first step, now?
KULPER & COMPANY Response:
I would suggest that you should be doing at least 3 informational interviews per week----face to face---where you are sitting with an exec level decision maker because you are sincerely interested in learning about his or her operation ---so, you can decide if you can make a difference by becoming involved in it somehow. Your approach to getting the meeting could be---“ Gerry, I have been doing some homework on your industry /business and I am very interested in the work you and your associates are doing right now because….( insert reason)----if you would have some time to discuss this with me I would appreciate visiting with you next week; could we set up a time to have coffee together?
This approach works because it is a non threatening neutral request----you are after information –not a job or anything else ( at this point). If the conversation happens to migrate towards where you are at the present time and there is interest in learning more about you….then you will have your opportunity. This process can take a few meetings as you learn more and he or she warms to the idea that you might be just the sort of solution provider he or she needs. Getting to “yes”—is an emotionally driven process—much more so than an analytic one. The decision maker needs to feel good in your presence and relaxed ---as he or she talks about a topic that is of importance to him or her (and what could be more important than their business?---or areas that interest them when they are not working so hard—family, hobbies, sports etc. ). By approaching the decision maker in this manner you are creating rapport that allows him or her to relax and maybe to even begin to visualize you as a solution provider for some issue or problem that has yet to be brought up to you!
I hope my responses are helpful to you----Good luck and keep in touch.
Likewise, I hope that this information proves helpful to you if you are in transition now and wondering how to best approach your next opportunity.
Warm regards
Keith
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
ADP Jobs Report
This morning's ADP jobs report is the kind of quantitative verification that we have been expecting here at KULPER & COMPANY because our phone has been ringing much more often from prospective clients in the past 2 months---but particularly, this week! KORN FERRY KFY: NYSE (a reliable indicator for the financial health of the executive search consulting business) recently reported very solid earnings. Challenger, Gray a national outplacement firm has concurrently reported very low lay off rates among their key clientele .
The signals are very positive for the economic recovery which should keep accelerating in 2011 and into 2012.
How is your company or academic institution doing? What is your forecast for 2011?
Are you poised to bring in new leaders to help your enterprise grow and develop?
Make a comment .... we would enjoy seeing what you think. And please feel free to contact us here at KULPER & COMPANY if your firm is considering use of an executive search firm to help attract and hire the right leaders for your company or academic institution.
Warm regards,
Keith
The signals are very positive for the economic recovery which should keep accelerating in 2011 and into 2012.
How is your company or academic institution doing? What is your forecast for 2011?
Are you poised to bring in new leaders to help your enterprise grow and develop?
Make a comment .... we would enjoy seeing what you think. And please feel free to contact us here at KULPER & COMPANY if your firm is considering use of an executive search firm to help attract and hire the right leaders for your company or academic institution.
Warm regards,
Keith
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