2007 Leaders or Followers?
The three things combined that made me want to write this article would be in no specific order.
1. The interview with the CEO of netflix.
2. Lou Adlers article on ranking candidates.
3. A commercial for a new vacuum by Black & Decker.
You must be saying, wow those are three things that have absolutely no connection to the recruiting industry, the title of this article or the price of tea and china. Well my friend, you’re wrong, and here is why.
For the past three months, we have been examining, and I mean examining, our pricing model, the recruitment industry, the players, the percentages, and we’ve really being involved in deep conversations. We are also talking with potential clients about their platform budgets for next year, what they have used in the past, and decisions on what they will be using in the future. This last piece begins our leader or followers conversation.
2007 gives new opportunity to clean the slate and to choose if you want to lead the recruiting community, instead of following. The leaders would be people who are bucking the system, not relying on one tool and/or site to give them the holy grail of candidates and the thinkers outside of your current model and or structure. I would consider these people the Level 5 people Lou Adler spoke about. The other portion of leading is going out and researching new tools and methodologies, not only researching them, but implementing them. I find a lot of clients who I talk to want to do it but very little of them actually pull the trigger and make decisions on it.
As we begin the journey into 2007, we will learn more about candidate behavior and/ or the real value that vendor tools, relationships, and ROI will bring to the table. Another thing a leader does is constantly evolve change and admit mistakes. While watching the six minutes piece on Netflix, the interviewer asked the CEO how to find the phone number to their customer service. After several painstaking minutes, he was unable to find the phone number. You have also heard about now downloading movies directly to your desktop (e.g. Vongo, Apple) well he is aware of the pending threat to his business, and will start offering this service as well.
And lastly, the vacuum commercial. It amazes how many vacuums are out there. It also amazes me how many times we just take the same old product and stamp it “NEW”, “ENHANCED”, “NEW AND IMPROVED” or we just completely remake the product and sell it again. As was the case with the new Black & Decker vacuum that I saw advertised. First, it’s a vacuum, and we know they all suck (no pun intended) but this new vacuum is great because it has an attachment that now is specifically designed to get the dirt out of lights that are hanging. So now I have an old idea, (the vacuum) with a new twist (the want for the lights) with an old twist (I have a vacuum with an attachment that works just the same) In this case I would classify Black & Decker as the follower, they have no innovation, little to no return on investment from the new product, and haven’t solved a problem, as you already own a vacuum.
So for 2007 will you be?
A. The CEO of Netflix
B. The vacuum
C. None of the above