Four Traits to Look For In An Executive Search Partner

mitchellake on February 26, 2015

With a rebounding economy, and billions of investment dollars pouring into technology startups, the war for executive talent has been at a fever pitch.

Businesses big and small are not only hiring, but spending more money to ensure they engage the best candidates. Businesses spend on average $3,300 in recruiting costs for each new hire, an annual total of $72 billion for US corporations according to the most recent figures from Forbes. Recruiting costs are typically amplified by more than 10x for executive hires, plus millions of dollars are at stake in the event of an executive mis-hire.

The challenge for businesses is to employ strategies to identify and hire the best leaders for their needs. This thirst for talent and quality (and increased resources at earlier company stages) has been driving more businesses to work with executive search firms. I often get asked what people should be looking for in a search partner and thought I’d offer my thoughts.

There’s a lot of things you should be considering, but here are 4 key qualities I think you should look for in your search partner:

1. Connected
Successful search firms are able to identify the best candidates based on the networked relationships, knowledge of the market, and of companies where top executives reside. Ask each prospective partner about similar searches they’ve conducted, networks relevant to your business they’ll utilize, and how they’ll identify target companies. A search partner can’t find the right person to occupy an important position within your organisation if they don’t understand your company’s values and market space.

2. Collaborative
A search firm’s willingness to work collaboratively with you and your team is critical. I prefer working on retainer because I want to be tightly partnered with your talent leaders and be incentivised to have the company’s best interests (not collecting a placement fee) at heart. Look for someone who will educate you and challenge your point of view with well-considered advice as a teammate.

3. Credible
When you retain a search partner, they become your face to the marketplace of leadership talent. They need to have the ability to understand executives, their motivations, and be able to tell a compelling story about your company and why the opportunity might be a good fit. Great search partners add to your company’s reputation and drive strong outcomes with lasting relationships — not expedient salesmanship. This will help ensure that the executive you hire begins with an affinity for your organisation and stays for the long haul.

4. Counselor
You’re paying your search partner for their expertise, insight, and ability to make your business better. True partners need to have the ability to challenge your thinking, tell the truth, and deliver key (even painful) market insights to you. Outside of a brief calibration period you should mostly be talking to candidates who are serious contenders for the role — not getting superfluous introductions just to help everyone look/feel busy. Your team’s focus, and time, is a valuable commodity and should be guarded by the search partner.
Ask prospective recruiters what strategies they’ll employ to filter the candidate pool, as well as what documentation they’ll provide to prepare you for candidate interviews and how they look to go about hiring the right executive.

It’s Not About the Price
One of the biggest hiring mistakes businesses make is choosing a search partner (or executive) based primarily on price. Everyone has a budget, but hiring the right people is a sound investment that will pay off over the long haul. Hiring the wrong ones on the basis of price actually hurts your bottom line. It forces you to spend more money, time, and energy dredging through a weak search process, or worse, to find a replacement for your bad hire.

Conclusion
Search is hard, and the higher the stakes, the harder it can be. At the end of the day, choose someone you want to be in business with who will provide the caliber of results you’re looking for. Hiring the right executives to occupy key leadership positions will give your company the continuity you need to drive meaningful change and meet long-term company objectives. Working with the right search partner can be the first step towards achieving that goal.

OPINION // The Growing Influence of Female Business Networks in Asia

mitchellake on February 17, 2015

Not a day goes by without reading about the fantastic growth being experienced across the Asian tech/digital industry, and it’s certain that in 2015 there will be even more head-spinning changes. Amongst all of this, everyone is trying to keep up with the fast and forward-moving waves of opportunity.

Increased funding and more activity from local and international VCs continue to provide optimism. A plethora of Internet giants are extending their e-Commerce reach into new markets via investment and acquisitions including the USD$249mill stake in Singapore Post by Alibaba. Further interest in the region and a more mobile workforce is now placing an increased importance on new, creative and collaborative ways to be part of the growing wealth and transformation as well as how to build your network from Day One.

Last week, MitchelLake were invited to a great networking event which prompted me to delve into this topic. The event run by Athena Network Singapore Chapter provides a platform as a conduit for discussion, ideas and shared experiences in this constantly evolving industry. Specifically addressing female executives and entrepreneurs’ needs, it has grown to a global network that is 2600 members strong in the UK, Asia-Pacific and USA since its inception in 2005 in the UK. The Singapore Chapter was set up by prolific entrepreneur Gina Romero to provide an international collaborative platform for professional businesswoman and entrepreneurs to grow their business through focused networking, as well as benefit from additional training.

There are obviously numerous examples of female executives and entrepreneurs who have been remarkably successful but I still feel that they are under-represented in the Digital/Innovation space. Whilst embryonic compared to the more mature markets of the USA, Australia, Europe and even Israel, the startup or high-growth tech businesses in Asia have a long way to go to achieve parity…and a blog post for another discussion no doubt beckons! My point is that we will, and should, continue to support, contribute and spread the word about networks and forums who are bringing passionate and likeminded females together to share ideas, soundboard experiences and help sharpen their commercial edge in carving out commercial opportunities

In various major Asian countries/cities including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, females currently make up only 28% of the executive workforce on average (China has the highest with 36%, while Japan is the weakest with only 15% of the executive workforce represented by females), so it is not hard to imagine the unique need for collaboration and for providing a support system to encourage female executives and entrepreneurs to stay hungry and continue to create competition that keeps this part of the world continually exciting and unpredictable.

OTHER TOP FEMALE NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES IN APAC

Women Media Network is a professional network dedicated to cultivating leadership and community for members of the media and related industries in Asia Pacific.

Girls In Tech is a global non-profit focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of influential women in technology and entrepreneurship.

Connected Women is a community dedicated to driving technology adoption by women-led businesses and startups. Organised by Connected Women in association with The Athena Network Singapore and National Youth Council Singapore.

EVENT // COMPETITIVE DATA: INNOVATION IN SPORT

mitchellake on February 9, 2015

In an industry that is as much about hearts and minds as it is about finding the competitive edge, we’re pleased to be kicking off 2015 with an event that blends data, sport and innovation.
Competitive Data: Innovation in Sport.

Join us to hear how high-profile sports organisations are competing in the new stadia of technology. Our expert panel from across the sports and corporate worlds will discuss data, innovation & competition in sport. They will share stories from their own experience about how the nexus of technology, analytics and business intelligence is shaping the sporting experience for participants, administrators, coaches and supporters.

This will be a relaxed and informative discussion, moderated by Josh Philpot of PMY Group, with ample opportunities for questions, networking and dialogue.

WHERE: Trunk Bar & Restaurant, 275 Exhibition Street
WHEN: Friday 13th Feb, 8am. You’ll be back at your desks by 10am.

Light breakfast will be served from 8am, with formalities commencing at 8.30am, so please ensure you’re seated by then. We aim to have you back at your desks by 10am.

This is an invite-only event. Please email madeleine@mitchellake.com to request an invite.

Master of Ceremonies
Josh Philpot – General Manager, PMY Group
Josh lives and breathes sport having worked in the industry for over 8 years.
In his current role at PMY Group, Josh is integral in the development and implementation of technology projects, commercial strategy and digital platforms within innovation markets.

Speakers
Nick Sanders – Sports Scientist, Victorian Institute of Sport
Nick Sanders is a Performance Analysis Specialist with a dual role at the Victorian Institute of Sport and the Australian Paralympic Committee. Nick recently switched his major servicing role from the Melbourne Vixens to the Australian Wheelchair rugby team in preparation for the 2016 Rio Paralympics. He has worked across women’s hockey, baseball, golf and individual scholarship sport programs and was a sport scientist at the 2004 Athens Olympics for the Australian Shooting Team, then preparing the shooting team for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Natalie Mendes – Product Marketing Manager, SAS Analytics
In her role as Product Marketing Manager for SAS Australia & NZ, Natalie’s primary efforts are centered on ensuring SAS continues to deliver leading, market viable business analytics offerings.
A bachelor in Statistics & Computer Science from Swinburne University helped Natalie obtain her first professional role at Victoria’s Country Fire Authority before moving to ANZ Bank as a credit risk analyst. With over 18 years in analytics Natalie uses the power of analytics to delve deep inside data to uncover insightful information and provide accurate decision making.

Chris Polley – APAC Product Performance Technician, Catapult Sports
Catapult Sports was born out of the AIS and Cooperative Research Centre to bring together sports and science in unprecedented ways. With a sports science background, Chris’ experience extends across peak athlete performance including the Australian Institute of Fitness, Victorian Institute of Sport & North Melbourne Football Club. He published a research paper through work with the ACU in collaboration with Melbourne Storm.

Michael Solomon – Head of Operations & Media Business, AFL Media
With a background in business, emerging digital and engagement, Michael joined the AFL in order to work across the strategic development and launch of AFL Media. Four years later and AFL Media is responsible for delivering news, views, products and information across multiple platforms to over 4mill unique viewers each month. Michael has worked previously with News Corp and Randstad and sits on several boards.

Mark Simpson – Strategic Participation Advisor, Cricket Australia
As the Strategic Participation Advisor at Cricket Australia Mark is responsible for developing their Game & Market Development functional strategy while being actively involved with participation research and insights. His work aims to inspire kids, engage communities and develop cricketers Australia-wide.
With a background in consulting, Mark’s extensive strategic experience is perfectly placed for application at Australia’s highest cricketing body.

With thanks to our Major Partner SAS.
Proudly supported by our Event Partner Selerity.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About UX Unicorns But Were Afraid To Ask

mitchellake on January 8, 2015

During 2014 a number of significant shifts were felt in the UX world in Australia. And these shifts have led to a growing sense of unease within organisations as to whether they can hire sufficient numbers of skilled designers to realise their innovation plans at the pace they need to. Every enterprise business is ‘scaling up’ their experience design capabilities. All. Of. Them.

The number of Experience Design folk in Australia is somewhere around 3000. This includes infrastructure architects, visual designers, researchers, juniors, seniors, all walks of experience design life. There are simply not enough to meet the huge levels of demand.

The toughest call here is the growing demand for the “Unicorn”. What constitutes a Unicorn I hear you ask? Simple; an Experience Designer that possesses every core aspect of design – IA, visual design, content, user research, interaction design – then add on business skills like Agile, analytics, marketing, ROI, tech, use cases, business acumen to name a few. Oh, and then add ‘softer’ skills like facilitation, sketching, presenting and the all-important “story telling”. (That last one is going to be seen more and more on JD’s and in job titles in 2015/16 btw….)

Core experience design skills + Business + Soft skills = Unicorn

The reason they’re known as Unicorns of course is because they are almost as rare. So how on earth are businesses in Australia – and the rest of the world for that matter – going to find enough of these beasts to fulfil the demand for their skills? Capital One bought Adaptive Path for exactly that reason. It was a great solution for finding enough of the people with the skill sets that they needed, all in one place in Adaptive Path! There are around 24,000 open experience design roles in the US right now. Barclays in the UK is looking for 200. The big banks in Australia are all warring for large numbers of UX folk, telcos are about to hit the streets for large numbers and then there are the major professional services players also hunting in packs as they help their talent-poor enterprise customers around the globe to achieve huge digital innovation programmes.

Design Schools are beginning to produce the foundations for such individuals to be born and some corporates are trying to tap into this talent stream, however there are limitations there and we know that the majority of these skills are in fact self-taught. Ask any of the truly great experience designers how much of what they know they learned in their studies, and how much they taught themselves, you’re likely to find an average of 20:80 education:self-taught.

My message is that all businesses need to have a focus on creating more Experience Designers. How? Design a working week for these folk which incorporates a culture of learning and, as Jared Spool articulated so well in his talk How Do We Design Designers? at MidwestUX in October, give them time to practice! Jared hit the nail on the head in identifying just how the best Designers become such. Just like the David Beckhams, the Novak Djokovics, or to quote Jared, the Sam Huliks, Evernote’s on-boarding expert. These people are fuelled by passion for what they do, they practice what they don’t know until they know it and keep practicing to get better and better. They educate themselves and then they educate others.

Who’s going to be your Unicorn?

OPINION // So You’ve Got A Startup. Now What?

mitchellake on January 6, 2015

Recruitment Process Outsourcing. Managed Services Recruitment. In-house Recruitment. Onsite Recruitment.

If you’re a startup you’ll be hearing this terminology often, so with so much choice, where should you begin?

Here at MitchelLake, we believe that we’re still (as always) one step ahead of the curve.

Much like the innovative tech startups that we partner with. Silicon Valley’s up & coming early stage startups are crying out for the best talent in tech.

From the smartest engineers to the most dynamic product specialists; whatever their needs are, talent is the one thing stopping them from becoming the Next Big Thing.

MitchelLake Onsite (MLO) allows clients to outsource their entire recruitment function to us, alleviating the use of expensive agencies or overpriced contract recruiters and partnering with a consulting firm that really takes the time to understand what makes them tick.

I took the opportunity to speak to some of our Lakers in MLO San Francisco about what it’s like to work within this model.

Jeff Umscheid, Tech Recruiter, MLO, offers, “We have an in-house model with an agency at the back end”. Support, training, mentorship and accountability is on offer in abundance. Our model has allowed me to do what I do best – consult. I’ve grown so much in the time I’ve been here.

“I’m privileged to have the best of both worlds working in this model. The chance to work internally with a startup without the pressure of sales like a staffing agency. I get the support of a talent business where I work with some very smart & passionate recruiters whilst providing a tailored and personal service to great startups that I’m passionate about.”

Brynna Locke, Recruitment Consultant, MLO, elaborates, “We’re rewarded in a way that goes above and beyond what a traditional staffing agency model would and I don’t have the constant concern of sales targets and KPI’s. The candidate experience and the best possible outcome for the client are the deliverables I work to and that works just fine by me! The best part about working here is the team. We’re collaborative, we work hard and everyone knows what part they play in us achieving success. Everyone genuinely enjoys each other’s company and looks out for each other.”

So as you can see – we’re a happy bunch of driven, smart and forward thinking recruiters (yes, we’ve drunk our own Kool-Aid!) – keen to disrupt the conforms of the traditional in-house recruitment model. As a Laker here at MLO, you’re responsible for driving outcomes for clients and delivering the best possible outcome for the careers of your candidates.

The uniqueness of our embedded talent model has allowed the MLO brand to double the amount of startups we now sit onsite with across the Bay area and double our headcount in 2014. We’ve got new clients queuing up at the door for our services and all we need now are more Lakers who want to get on the bus and come along for the ride.

If you’re interested in finding out more about us, we’d like to find out more about you. Please email us at sydney@mitchellake.com.

VIDEO // MLG’s Digital Strategy Forum feat. Fairfax Media & Pandora Radio

mitchellake on December 18, 2014

MitchelLake Group’s Digital Strategy Forum was held on December 8, 2014 in Melbourne and we were pleased to welcome thought leaders in Australia’s media landscape to help shape the audience’s thinking.

With the key theme: Customer, Content and Community: How Audiences Will Connect in 2015 we were interested in data-driven content, relentless fragmentation and new platforms as we considered what next year will hold in store.

Speakers included Gregory Hywood, Chief Executive & Managing Director Fairfax Media Limited; Jane Huxley, Managing Director Pandora Internet Radio and with a last-minute schedule change we were joined by key members of the AFL.

A big thank you to the team at 90 Seconds AU, The World’s Cloud Video Production Service who we’ve been pleased to work with this year, and who produced several videos around our Digital Strategy Forum. Please enjoy the above overview, and you can enjoy Gregory Hywood’s long form video here.

Venue sponsor: DLA Piper
Video sponsor: 90 Seconds AU
Graphic design sponsor: Aer Design
Media services: Simon Chamberlain
MC: Matt Harrison

90 Seconds TV is The World’s Cloud Video Production Service enabling brands and agencies to get high quality online video content shot and produced anywhere in the world. 90 Seconds makes video production fast, affordable, and all managed seamlessly in the cloud from purchase to publish.

EVENT REVIEW // ABOVE ALL HUMAN

mitchellake on December 16, 2014

As someone who is fortunate enough to get paid to drink coffee (it’s not unusual for me to have 4-5 coffees a day) I have been lucky enough to spend time with budding & successful entrepreneurs, while also learning from those who have not been as successful.

In the Australian tech sector a really common thing to hear is; “it’s really hard to raise capital” or “our business will be better once we move to the US”. It is probably fair to say that there is a bit of a ‘big brother’ syndrome going on at the moment.

As such, it was perfect timing for this week’s Above All Human Conference, held in Melbourne on Tuesday 9th December. This is a conference for startup founders, makers and innovators who aim to be successful, be prepared to anticipate the future, build innovative products and be the most effective entrepreneurs they can be. The ethos of the conference was to learn from some of the best talent from Silicon Valley and Europe with the aim of applying it to our Australian industry, and building success here.

The line up of speakers provided a plethora of great advice, stories and tips that we all learnt from but the key takeaway was their simple theme: We Are All Human. This isn’t rocket science, but it sometimes gets forgotten. It’s important to take a second to reflect on this. Human nature in and of itself can hold us back. We can’t be analytical about everything and nor can we get things right all the time. So what am I saying? Let me sum it up with my top three takeaway from the day, from three inspiring speakers;

Steve Huffman, Cofounder of Reddit
Steve talked about all the things he screwed up on Reddit as well as the things he got right. Steve may not have intended this but he is such a humble and mellow guy that the key takeaway for me was; making mistakes is ok, we all do it, let’s just accept it as human nature.

Cameron Adams, Co-founder of Canva. Cameron talked about a startup he did being too design led and Google being too engineering led. The real takeaway was about having balance and harmony amongst your business functions. Founders are known for having strong personalities they need to be mindful they don’t railroad the contributions others can make because they are better at convincing others.

Justin Kan, Partner YC. “Doing a startup is like joining the army; it’s really hard, once you do your tour of duty no one really wants to do it again”. Startups are hard, it’s a journey and you need to be ready for it.
Well done to the conference Directors Susan Wu and Bronwen Clune. They put on an amazing conference and we look forward to seeing more from them!

OPINION // Why Your Analytics Job Is Heading Offshore In 2015

mitchellake on December 9, 2014

If you’re letting your analytics career steer itself, chances are you may be in for a rude shock in 2015. The trend towards offshoring continues and the trend towards productivity and efficiency will accelerate in 2015. So get behind it or risk losing out.

I’ve been saying it for years but data and analytics has one of the highest spreads between top talent and mediocrity. 2015 will see that gap widen even more and I’m expecting more commoditisation of analytic talent.

Who’s going to take your job?
Even though Chinese national educational statistics are published somewhat in arrears, the most recent data shows that China alone was expecting more than 125,000 PhD graduates in 2011. That’s a 250% increase on the previous year and represents more graduates in that year than the US has extant PhD holders.

Education is fast becoming the yardstick by which developing countries measure their progress. Even though the US still leads the world for quality of education, the BRIC economies are undoubtedly world leaders for quantity – and the gap is widening. Just look at the graph (FIG. 1 above) which I have taken from a Nature article. Even though this data is old it shows a trend which is continuing.

Further to this, while PhDs in humanities, arts and other non-science disciplines have remained relatively constant it’s the sciences which are contributing most of the growth. Check out the following graph as just one illustration of this. The second graph (FIG. 2 above) comes from the US-based National Science Foundation and is US-specific but it’s symptomatic of a worldwide trend.

Why will you lose out?
“So what?” I hear you asking. Well the basic reality is that if you’re an analytics professional who gets their daily instructions by email, your days are numbered. Developing economies have the work ethic, intellectual horsepower and sheer weight of numbers to take your job offshore in 2015. You can sit back and say that analytic skills are in demand and you’ll be right.

Just remember, though, that the analytics careers of the future are engaged, dynamic, proactive and insightful. They’re not building models or developing code in a dark room. If you’re that person, you may hang onto your role next year and even the year after but before too long you’ll become commoditised and your role will go to someone much cheaper and with much less of a sense of entitlement than you have.

Help! What can I do?
It’s time for you to move your career out of the dark recesses of a large business and into the spotlight of a role that relies on your intellect and commercial relevance. Don’t wait for the next role to be served up to you. Get out there and mix with your peers and see how other businesses use data. Meet people. Join meet ups like the R Users Group of Melbourne.

Or you could talk to a recruiter that thrives on analytics, like MitchelLake.