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I have read some interesting views about the good old CV of late – some interesting thoughts can be found on the IM LinkedIn blogs.
Many of the Executive Interim Managers on these blogs said that they didn’t like CV’s changing format – from the one they/an interim had put together to a format used by a recruitment firm. An interim that I have known for over 15 years, that I admire, respect and have worked with on a number of occasions (that’s you Al Drysdale) stated “I hate CVs that have their format changed by ISP’s because the CV looses the personality of the interim” (not a direct quote but something like). Oh dear I thought – we do that.
Why do we do it? Client feedback was that they preferred it. My second ever client said “Why aren’t your CVs all in the same format – don’t you have an administrator?” Client feedback since then has often been similar. They either liked the format and/or it differentiated our CV’s from other firms. Other reasons are: Some candidates are good but their CVs are too long/too short; sorry but I know some great candidates who have awful CV’s; from a design perspective- we want to communicate our brand; when we started out we hired an Ops Manager from a global search firm. Her view was that they would never dream of it and we wanted to be as professional as we could be; we thought if we didn’t our clients would think we were lazy. Can I think of any more reasons? Has my defence of ruining your CV’s been good enough??
Should we using a CV – regardless of the format? The purpose of coming to us is that we know our candidates – we have interviewed and referenced them. The whole value proposition is not that we have a CV but that we are in a position to personally recommend someone. We should be describing additional dimensions, their skills/personality/fit for the project – these can’t always be encapsulated in a CV. Let’s be honest – many CVs ask more questions than they answer. “That looks like a strange move? Why did they leave? Irrelevant experience prior to being an interim?”
Is the argument about a CVs format about to change full circle with the advent of Apply via LinkedIn? Have you seen this action? Should we adopt it? It is a simple button to press that sends your LinkedIn details through when applying for a position on an external website. I imagine LinkedIn will hook us all with this free service and when it takes over the world charge us for using it. Doesn’t this mean that all CVs will look the same and be devoid of personality? All details will be sent through as LinkedIn prescribe. Suddenly I am not so sure?
Do I think LinkedIn is a threat to our business – definitely not- the benefits it provides are too great – but that is for another blog…?
Zoom forward 5 years- what will we have if not a CV? An automated apply via LinkedIn that has learnt an algorithm for what we like and applies for us without human involvement, then tells us if we have been successful? All we need to do is sit back and enjoy a cup of tea. Or a 30 second video pitch – a “choose me” speech that would not be out of place on reality TV. Video CV’s!!! Don’t get me started on that one – I don’t believe our interims have signed up for a beauty parade!
Are we witnessing the death of the CV and what will replace it?
Doug Baird is Managing Director of Interim Partners.
I attended the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts) seminar on “The Digital Challenge for the 2012 Olympic Games”. Speakers from Google, BBC and LOCOG gave a fascinating insight into their preparations for what will be the biggest digital media event of the year. The BBC will be delivering 24 on demand video streams, Google will be delivering a range of You Tube services and LOCOG will provide a portal “bigger then Facebook” in terms of its capacity. There will be something in the region of 4400 hours of video coverage (6 months viewing without a break), enough to satisfy everyone’s interest. All good news I hear you say, however the elephant in the room is just how will our creaking mobile and broadband network cope with the global demand. Already over 50% of web access is via mobile, and if like me, you can only experience sporadic 3G connection in London on a normal day, image what it will be like next summer.
Steve Blake is Head of TMT at Interim Partners.
If you’re going to create competition you have to ensure a level playing field. There was an interesting point debated in the House of Commons last week – The Public Accounts Committee convened to discuss The Achievement of Foundation Trust Status by providers of secondary care.
A key part of the reforms is the introduction of competition, and any qualified provider will be able to bid to be a provider of healthcare services in a particular area or across a particular speciality. Tariff levels the playing field, all providers bid to provide a service mainly on quality, given the commissioner will pay a standard tariff price to any provider of healthcare services. But what if an NHS hospital trust has an unusually high cost base, what if a hospital trust is grappling with the costs of a PFI, and what if tariff (even with regional uplifts) * activity does not provide enough income for that trust to be financially viable? They could fail if we get a failure regime, or as David Nicholson eventually conceded in the discussion – they could ultimately get a subsidy.
As the recent National Audit Office report stated: “Interventions using public money to increase aspirants’ apparent viability would also risk distorting competition and undermining the policy objective to increase hospitals’ financial sustainability.”
Translation: trusts that receive a subsidy are being propped up and might therefore be more competitive in future. Market economics goes out of the window, and if I was a private provider of healthcare losing out on bids to provide services because an NHS competitor was being subsidised then I might feel pretty aggrieved. I’d be interested in people’s thoughts.
Steve Melber is Head of Healthcare at Interim Partners.
Yes my gamble of buying finals tickets and associated flights for this week’s Rugby World Cup (RWC) final has paid off now that my beloved All Blacks beat the Aussies. I can now look forward to four days of travelling (there and back) to enjoy a weekend of entertainment the likes of which NZ has never experienced. Back in 1987 the inaugural RWC tournament was relatively low key. This time around NZ has embraced the event and has received rave reviews from the international press at its organisation and level of support by the locals for every nation attending… even the Aussies.
Four years ago my gamble didn’t pay off and I enjoyed a final between South Africa and England in Paris – my English wife made the most of it though and was kind enough not to gloat (too much) when we were knocked out by the French. This weekend I hope we don’t underestimate the same foe.
The fact I’m travelling such a long way for one ‘meeting’ made me wonder who else has travelled vast distances for an hour or so meeting. I look forward to your stories which I’ll be reading en route to (hopefully) a famous All Black win this weekend! Go the ABS!!!
Steve Blake, TMT, Interim Partners
Earlier this year Kim Kardashian (never heard of her) sued a firm for $20m for using a lookalike in one of their advertising campaigns. This made me think about the increasing use of “lookalike” interims for assignments by firms seeking a lower cost solution. Of course nobody will sue and there is only circumstantial evidence about this activity, however the TMT sector is a frequent user of SME (subject matter experts) as opposed to career interims. There are however extenuating circumstances. The speed of technological development and the types of businesses which are involved in it creates a need for SMEs. Take mobile money and NFC, an activity estimated to grow to £5bn within a few years. It combines financial services, mobile telecoms and technology. Now imagine a Venn diagram and try and populate the overlap with experienced interims (or even permanent candidates). Whilst this newly emerging sector needs the generic skill set that interims will bring you can be sure clients will still demand the impossible and expect interims with experience of this yet to be established sector.
Steve Blake is Head of TMT at Interim Partners.
Having spent billions on infrastructure, the network operators (both fixed and mobile), must be wondering what they can do to stop their networks simply becoming a dumb pipe whilst the likes of Apple and Google make millions from their applications. The capacity pressure on their networks from the tidal wave of applications, SaaS, multi media, Cloud etc has brought 3G virtually to its knees and anyone who thinks 4G will be the panacea to the capacity issue is surely delusional. Super fast broadband will inevitably hit the same buffers that broadband has hit i.e. never really delivering on its promise. France Telecom is talking about off-loading some of their mobile traffic on to WiFi, similar to the BTfon concept. But whatever capacity is offered will quickly get eaten up by more apps and services – as an example, just how much capacity is mobile 3DTV or HD streaming going to eat up? But that’s what we are all being promised by operators and handset manufactures who are brow beating us into buying the latest handset, service bundle, application etc. It’s an exciting time to be working in this space although I am not sure many people can see the wood for the trees. However it does play into the hands of those interims who are subject matter experts in this space particularly as clients continue to demand deep sector knowledge.
Steve Blake is Head of Technology, Media & Telecommunications at Interim Partners.
I was amazed to hear of the 31 year old trader at UBS who has been charged by the City of London police today following the discovery of £1.3bn of unauthorised trading losses. What raised my eyebrows more was that it was the actions of the trader himself informing his bosses of the positions that brought the matter to a head, rather than being picked up by any of the risk management controls.
I accept that no systems are perfect and a few quid will go astray here or there, but £1.3bn is more that UBS earned in the first half of the year. Of course financial services is a zero sum game and no money is ever lost, it is simply transferred, I’m sure that their loss is somebody else’s gain, but that will be of poor consolation for the UBS employees whose bonuses hang on good results. This will be exactly what UBS doesn’t need at this time; the recent strength of the Swiss Franc has been killing the competitiveness of the bank and it is already under pressure back home after receiving a £35bn taxpayer bailout in the banking crisis, this episode will do nothing to reassure them that their money was well invested.
I have never seen a time when greater focus was applied by senior management within financial services companies to risk, controls and compliance yet 3 years on from the eye of storm and it would appear that some companies have learnt very little.
So what is the answer? More proactive regulation, greater external auditing of controls and risk management, more personal liabilities for Directors of banks? Do we have to accept that no system is fool proof and determined people will always find a way around it?
Comments, as ever, are welcome.
Andrew McIntee is a Director and Head of Financial Services.
Almost every interim manager or client I meet these days is talking about the ‘customer experience’ and often when discussing who is getting it right, one name always comes up…….Apple. Interesting then to see that Morrisons have just appointed an ex Apple Director to lead its online food launch as it takes its next steps into etailing. Simon Thompson who has joined this week was Worldwide Strategy and Customer Experience Director for Apple and prior to this he worked for lastminute.com. Earlier this year Morrisons bought a 10% stake in US grocery etailer FreshDirect and since then a team from Morrisons has been embedded in the US business to learn how to etail and build the business for the UK market. Recent figures show the UK online grocery sector is worth £4.8bn and is expected to double by 2015.
Morrisons is also close to launching its non-food internet offer with Scott Weavers-Wright (founder of the acquired Kiddicare) at the helm. With these two appointments Morrisons is taking a serious but considered step into etailing, and with Dalton Philips seemingly not putting a foot wrong since taking over at Morrisons it will be exciting times ahead for the business.
With the other big grocery multiples already established in online retailing, have Morrisons left it too late to make a major impact in the sector or with the expected growth are there going to be even more reasons to shop at Morrisons?
Jonathan Flynn is Head of Retail at Interim Partners
In the wake of recent corporate fiascos, it’s only seconds before negative attention is turned to Board members to see how they could have managed their businesses better.
One of the issues seems to be a tendency to reward well deserving colleagues and acquaintances with a Board position without understanding whether they are actually the right people for the job. A while ago, the government tried to encourage a shake-up of boardrooms – The Higgs Review advised there needed to be greater representation of all aspects of commercial life in the boardrooms and to draw on a much bigger talent pool. The impression is that fundamental change to board make-up (e.g. more women, more ethnic minorities etc) is not happening.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has recently undertaken a review of corporate standards for listed companies and produced four clear recommendations for board members:
To increase accountability, all directors of FTSE 350 companies should be put forward for re-election every year.
To promote proper debate in the boardroom, there are new principles for the leadership of the chairman, the responsibility of the non-executive directors to provide constructive challenge, and the time commitment expected of all directors.
To encourage boards to be well balanced and avoid groupthink, there are new principles for the composition and selection of the board, including the need to appoint members on merit, against objective criteria, and with due regard for the benefits of diversity, including gender diversity.
To help enhance the board’s performance and awareness of its strengths and weaknesses, the chairman should hold regular development reviews with each director and FTSE 350 companies should have externally facilitated board effectiveness reviews at least every three years.
What do you think? These guidelines seem eminently sensible, but do you think they will help? Or do we need more stringent performance metrics, such as external auditing, to prevent further corporate disasters? And equally, what effect (if any) do you think these standards will have on the demand for C-level interim resource in the future? Your thoughts would, as ever, be welcomed.
Liz Sinclair is an Account Director at Interim Partners.
It’s very interesting to read that Vince Cable has nodded through a controversial European directive to give agency workers the same rights as full-time employees. It is estimated that this will cost firms £1.8bn a year.
Not only that, but the IoD is claiming that the Government “gold-plated” this directive and maintain that this law could have been introduced in a far more limited form – and this at the behest of the Unions!
So much for the Governments promise to cut red tape to aid business, but why is The Manufacturer reporting that the uptake to The Red Tape Challenge by manufacturers has been so embarrassingly low to date?
We can hardly complain if we don’t take our case to Downing Street – but why the inertia?
Tom Legard is Head of Manufacturing at Interim Partners.
