LeanConnections

I love my Amazon Kindle!  The technology, the design, the utility – this baby defines value for me, the customer.  And as great as this product is, I’m constantly on the look-out for hints and rumors that might provide some insight into what kind of awesome value I should be expecting from the next generation Kindle.  Hey, it’s in my blood – I’m a continuous improvment kind of guy.

Well, Fast Company’s blog this morning suggests “7 Ways Amazon Could Make the Next Kindle Awesome.”   Check it out.  My most desired feature would be the addition of a WiFi connection.  But of course, I’m still a pretty conventional thinker in terms of product design.  I bet the wizards of Kindle are already way ahead of me in coming up with some innovations that will deliver an even more amazing experience next time around!

And that’s the way I see it.  Adam Zak

PS.  I’m conducting an executive search for the person who will head up quality for the Kindle team.  Position title is Director, Product Quality.  If you know of a passionate Lean quality leader who might have an interest in exploring this role with me, please ask them to connect with me directly.

I coined the term “Kaizen Kowboys” a few years ago (Lean Culture: Collected Practices and Cases).   Since Bill Wadell was kind enough to reprise its use in his blog yesterday I thought I’d provide a little historical background.

The company involved was a new executive search client and they were running into problems with their Lean implementation.  Turns out they had been working for over a year with an outside consulting firm to assist them in the transformation process, but they didn’t seem to be making any real progress.  And they weren’t really sure why that was the case. My client contact, the CEO, called me in to discuss the problem and propose solutions.

Part of the standard work I do when beginning a new search (I created a trademarked search methodology called pdcaSearch(R) in which we use Lean principles to drive the executive search process) is to uncover the root cause of the problem I’m being asked to solve. In this case it became very clear that there were ”multiple internal owners” of the Lean initiative, but there was no clear accountability for its success or failure.  The VP of Manufacturing had a small team of the outside consultants assigned to his “projects” and so did the VP Engineering. As did the VP of Supply Chain; and the VP Finance, and so on. 

The CEO had given each executive broad latitude and they were running with it. But all too often it seemed that an “improvement” in one area of the business soon became undone as another “improvement” elsewhere changed the overall operational dynamics of the organization. What Manufacturing improved became “unfixed” by the latest Kaizen event conducted in Engineering the following week. So naturally, Manufacturing Kaizen teams came back to the same area in subsequent weeks for a do-over.  This had been going on for almost a year and had devolved into an embarassing “Keystone Kops-like ” effort which I initially dubbed “catch-and-release Kaizen.”  The trout fishing devotees among you will immediately know what I mean.

Well, I fixed the company’s problem by recruiting a new VP of Continuous Improvement, an individual skilled in the principles of operational excellence and policy deployment. He quickly helped align objectives, resolved competing priorities and turned the focus of the improvement initiative onto value streams instead of functional silos.  Kaizens became more strategic, value-added events.  The new Lean VP continued to rely on a select group of outside advisors who could complement his own expertise, but he very rapidly sent the majority of the Kaizen Kowboys packing back to the ranch from whence they had come.

And that’s the way I see it.  Adam Zak

Within the last 12 months some top HR leaders in North America, and even the CEOs of two of the largest global retained executive search organizations, have publically declared the traditional executive recruiting model broken and badly in need of repair. 

A recent survey conducted by one very large jobs board indicated that among their respondents, “…almost half don’t use external agencies at all…” and that their results and interviews with experts indicated “…a move away from over-reliance on external recruiters…”  Perhaps a self-selected survey sample, but none-the-less, informative. 

And finally, author and search industry insider Joesph Daniel McCool, in his July 2008 interview with HR Magazine, apparently finds a “real disconnect” between executive recruiters and hiring organizations, claiming that “corporate satisfaction with executive recruiters has fallen under 50 percent for years.” 

Other industry pundits portray a more optimistic future for executive recruiters, and certainly our own small boutique firm has never been busier. But I do believe that a transformation is indeed necessary and already underway within my profession.  Because there is a disconnect between what executive search clients want and what executive search clients are getting. The transformation is being driven, in other words, by the recalibration of clients’ (customers’) executive search expectations. 

During my executive candidate interviews one of the most critical questions I ask is a very simple one: “What do you want?”  From that one question, and during the process of subsequently clarifying its response in the most detailed fashion, I obtain the clearest possible vision of what this talented individual expects to achieve in his or her next executive role, career and lifetime, and also from our immediate relationship. 

As HR professionals in conversations with our external search partners, how often do we ask ourselves this same question, to clarify exactly what we want?  Because, after all, whether it’s a retainer, contingency or some hybrid fee structure, the least important thing we ought to be thinking about is the manner in which we’re going to pay.  What we expect from the relationship is much more critical. So here’s a short list of issues (questions) we should be pondering:

1. As an executive search customer, am I truly seeking a relationship, or do I just want to get this transaction done?  What’s the difference, really, for me personally, and for my organization? Have I considered the implications of my decision?  Have I communicated this with my stakeholders?  Have I been honest and transparent about this with the firm I’ve selected for this task?
2. How will I assess the value I receive from my executive search partner during the course of the search engagement?   Do I just want to recruit absolutely the right person for this role, or do I need something else? Can I clearly define and communicate what that “something else” is? Is my search partner capable of delivering on this expectation?  Will they want to deliver on this expectation?
3. If the search does not conclude with an actual placement, will this have been a total waste of time and money?  Under what circumstances could the search still be considered a success?  Will the other elements of my value expectation (as considered above) have been delivered? What does the future of our relationship look like with our search partner?
4. If the search ultimately proves that our internal candidate is really the best of the best after all (think Bank of America, December, 2009), will I and we (our organization) still have gotten what we wanted? How so? If not, why not – after all, the vacant chair has been filled? Has this been a positive experience with our partner firm, or a negative one?  What does the future of our partnership look like? 

Perhaps I’ll add more questions in future posts. For now let me conclude with some observations related to the accounting and legal professions.

All of the major and mid-market accounting firms in the U.S. today are very capable when it comes to preparing corporate tax returns and performing financial audits for their clients.  And they consider this their bread-and-butter business.  And how about law firms?  Certainly they can handle product liability lawsuits and the patent infringement issue that pops up from time to time.  But is this all that these professional service firms do for their clients?  What else do they offer, can they offer? What else are they doing to deliver value?   Is there some structure within which both they and their clients can derive the long-term, mutually beneficial value that both ultimately desire?  And how does this relate to your strategic executive recruiting game plan? 

Tune in next time for an introduction to the concept of trusted search partner.  So for now, that’s the way I see it. Adam Zak…

(Author note: this blog post was originally published last week on the new Human Capital Institute’s (HCI) Talent Acquisition Community blog.  I’ve been invited to write a guest posting which will appear on the HCI site every couple of weeks or so.  Please be sure to visit the HCI Web site for lots of other great articles related to talent acquisition and many other topics on the cutting-edge of HR thought leadership).