Lean Connections

OK Lean Leaders.  Last year is over and so is that first, often still-slow week of January. If you are actively engaged in a search for a new position, NOW is the time to get aggressively active again.

Our friends at EMC have put together an excellent collection of tips and suggestions  that you’d be well-advised to review and, perhaps, incorporate into your job search strategies and activities.  Below is the introduction to the eBook (PDF format) written by Jack Mollen, EVP Human Resources, for EMC.

PS.  As you might surmise, all of the recruiters are from EMC Corp., but hey, they’re really solid tips and some of the recruiting war stories are funny, and sadly, true.

The rules and norms of job searching and career mobility have changed.

For job seekers, gone are the days of creating a great résumé and actively following job boards as a way to be sure you’ll find—and ultimately land—a job that meets your needs.

The world is just as different for recruiters.

This book contains 100 real-time tips and stories from FORTUNE 500 recruiters that will inspire and motivate you, provide insights, and identify traps. The recruiters come from diverse backgrounds and geographies, and they have experience recruiting at all levels. Don’t miss the last two pages. They are filled with links to the top career and job search resources and social media sites.

Talent search doesn’t have to be a mystery. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Putting people to work faster is good for you, good for families, good for the global economy, and good for business.

If you are looking for your next job, if you take note of just one piece of advice, this is it: Don’t give up. Don’t take it personally. Be persistent and be a master of the new rules of search.

With sincere wishes for your success,

Jack Mollen, Executive Vice President of Human Resources, EMC Corporation

Recruiting Strategic Leadership for the Lean+Green Revolution, from Adam Zak

With each passing day, recruiting and retaining the right executive talent to lead Lean & Six Sigma efforts and Green & Sustainability initiatives poses a greater challenge…

Today’s most experienced Lean leaders hail from those industrial sectors which were pioneers in continuous improvement.  As still greater numbers of companies venture into lean and Six Sigma, the demand for this expertise is beginning to outweigh overall supply. So where and how do we seek out the best of these individuals?  

On the other hand, the challenge in recruiting the right Green leaders is different, but no less daunting. Can we even agree about what makes an executive Green? How do we deal with imprecise definitions and varying skill sets?  How can we focus on targets which are moving due to the evolving nature of executive backgrounds?

In both situations you’re hiring change agents, quite often the executives who will outline a new vision for your company, and then inspire your team to make that vision a reality.  So what does it take to recruit the right Lean & Green executives for your organization?

In this special report from Adam Zak, a top executive recruiter of Lean, Operational Excellence and Sustainability leaders, you’ll quickly learn:

• The key principles and goals underlying lean, Six Sigma and green and why these are important to business success.
• How to identify and differentiate among the various stages through which companies ascend on both their lean and green journeys.
• How to then determine where your own organization currently stands on these two ladders – and evaluate the lean and green status of the companies from which you want to recruit.
• How to identify the common characteristics among the lean and green leaders who really stand out from the crowd—the qualities they bring to the table to deliver impact for their companies, and
• FIVE KEY STRATEGIES you must understand in order to attract and retain the best-in-class Lean and Green Leaders
• FOUR ideas you can implement TODAY to make your own recruiting processes more lean and green… 

To receive your complimentary copy of this timely special report, please email Adam Zak with:  your name, title, company company phone number and business email address  zak@LeanRecruiter.com

Last week’s published numbers indicate a national unemployment rate approaching 9.5%.  Bad news, right? Or, maybe not as much as the the nightly news would have us all believe.

If you happen to be an executive or manager with strong Lean or Lean Sigma expertise (in other words, someone who can demonstrate the ability to make Operational Excellence happen in Corporate America), dust off that resume and get ready to take advantage of  the developing talent war for professionals just like you. Oh, and if you’ve also had a chance to help incorporate a Green focus into the Lean equation, then we should probably talk right away…

And the message for all you hiring executives -  CEOs, Presidents, and Vice Presidents of Human Resources  -  start planning now how you’ll go about filling your talent pipeline with the people who can bring these strategic and tactical principles, processes and techniques into your organization.  Because that’s what your competitors are doing right about now.

Way back in May, 2009 this ominous news from  BusinessWeek:  ”In the midst of the worst recession in a generation or more, with 13 million people unemployed, there are approximately 3 million jobs that employers are actively recruiting for but so far have been unable to fill. That’s more job openings than the entire population of Mississippi.”  No statistics, unfortunately, on how many of these unfilled positions were at the executive or managerial level. 

My own unscientific research project over the weekend, focusing on Lean Leadership vacancies, turned up these well-known corporate names in search of Manager, Director or Vice President level candidates:  Genzyme; Medtronic;  Tyco Electronics;  Florida Power & Light (FPL Group);  Siemens Energy;  Pentair Corp;  Textron Systems;  B/E Aerospace;  Johnson & Johnson;  Cooper Industries;  Accenture;  Merck;  Ecolab;  Baxter.  

And of course Marvin Windows & Doors, for whom we seek a new Vice President of Manufacturing.

Whether as a potential new job-seeker or prospective hiring executive, will you be ready for this rapidly-approaching and dramatic shift in the American executive recruiting picture ? 

I am.

This is Adam Zak, and that’s how I see it…