Leadership and Human Capital

Rising From the Ashes: Finding the Best Leaders for the Next Phase in Banking
by S. John Kim, Global Co-Leader, Financial Services Practice

As banks emerge from once-in-a-generation turmoil, they are moving from focusing on survival to figuring out how to thrive. Next they will have to prepare for the inevitable economic upturn. This rapid evolution presents banks with a daunting challenge: finding leaders who can take them to a future that will differ sharply from the recent past.

 

How The SEC Just Changed Succession Planning: Part I

by Stephen A. Miles and Nathan Bennett

How The SEC Just Changed Succession Planning: Part II

by Stephen A. Miles and Nathan Bennett

 

Inadequate CEO succession planning has always been poor business practice--leaving a board confused and an entire company in a holding pattern. This two-part series was first published in Forbes Magazine.

 

Advice To A New CEO: How To Handle Your Board
By Tom Wajnert and Stephen A. Miles

We have advised and assisted many boards of directors with succession planning and coached new chief executive officers through their first year of transition, and we've found that most CEOs encounter big surprises after assuming the top job. Many are overwhelmed by the sheer demand on their time and how many balls they must juggle at once.

 

The board and the recovery: Are directors sure the company is ready?

by Ed Pitoniak and Guy M Cote

The top-performing North American hospitality companies of the coming years will be those that recover fast and fully from the recession. What can boards do to ensure that their companies are recovery leaders, not laggards?

 

Are you carbon ready?

The world is rapidly moving to a new carbon regime, with the G8 economies already on board and the G20 working hard to develop and implement a global solution to reduce carbon emissions. To take full advantage of the opportunities in the low carbon economy, while adeptly navigating the potential pitfalls that will ensue, organisations will require a new type of leader. Specifically, these individuals must be able to manage the new "triple bottom line" - the natural environment, the social and political system, and the global economy.

 

Are You Carbon Ready? explores the key questions that directors, senior executives and others should be asking as they prepare for the low carbon economy.

 

Time to Make Up for Lost Ground in Talent

by Kelly O. Kay 

During the worst of the recession, the approaches companies took to talent fell into three broad categories. In this piece, we examine the challenges each category now faces, as well as recommendations for how to recapture their advantage as growth returns and competition for top-talent intensifies.

The Crisis of Talent in the Industry

by Jonathan Graham and Julie Kuhar

To find out how well paper and packaging companies are addressing the issue of human capital, we undertook a series of industry surveys whose key findings indicate that the industry faces what can only be called, quite candidly, a crisis in talent. This paper reviews the findings and provides a number of concrete steps that companies can take to turn the situation around.

Leadership Matters

by Kevin Kelly and Les Csorba

In this piece, we examine the ways in which this economic crisis was caused by the individual decisions of leaders, as well as some of the character lessons of the recent era of leadership.

Developing High Performance in the Top Management Team

by Richard M Rosen

CEOs look constantly for areas where they can improve performance, yet many overlook one of the richest and most readily available targets for improvement: their own top management teams. This piece looks at the ways CEOs and their team members can overcome the hidden obstacles to high performance.

 

Succession Planning: How Everyone Does It Wrong

by Stephen A. Miles

The practice of vetting and selecting potential successors has come a long way in recent decades, yet most businesses still don't do all they should to pick the right CEO.

 

Succession Planning: How to Do it Right

by Stephen A. Miles

Most businesses don't do all they should to pick the right CEO. It's mainly a matter of developing a disciplined methodology that results in something more meaningful than names in boxes on an organizational chart. This article outlines four basic steps to take to move from those names in boxes to something truly operational.

 

The Extreme Corporate Entrepreneur CEO

by Anita Hoffmann

Heidrick & Struggles sponsored the New Energy Finance Summit 2009 and led discussions on the leadership skills needed to grow CleanTech companies. An output of this summit was an open letter to the G20 outlining the '10 Principles for Policy Makers' in this arena. This thought piece outlines the extreme skills required to grow CleanTech companies to world scale, solve climate change and provide returns to investors; it also reproduces the open letter.

 

The new role of the Customer Experience Leader
By Stuart Sadick and Joshua Clarke
The new role of the Customer Experience Leader outlines the four key competency areas that define excellence in customer experience leadership, and explores the environmental factors are required for a successful transformation.

Digital Marketing and Revenue Growth: It's About the Talent

By Lynne Seid

Now, more than ever, company leaders need the power of digital marketing to grow revenue. But many also say they're having a hard time finding the right talent to make it work. Digital Marketing and Revenue Growth: It's About the Talent examines the complex demands of digital marketing roles, the distinctive nature of digital talent, and the best approach to finding and nurturing that talent.

 

The Rise of the Chief Commercial Officer

By John Abele and Jane Stevenson

The Rise of the Chief Commercial Officer tracks the dramatic growth and evolution of the CCO role across industries and regions over the last decade. Herein we examine the complex skill requirements of the role, the challenges that CCOs face in navigating through organizations to achieve results, and the promise that the CCO role holds to revolutionize commercial leadership.

 

The New Marketing Blueprint: How to Thrive, Not just Survive
By Carlos Cata and Dan Kelley
The New Marketing Blueprint: How to Thrive, Not just Survive proposes four keys to marketing success and profiles several companies who are driving consumer engagement and preparing for growth despite lean times.

Mapping Talent in Latin America

The Latin America Talent Index is a regional version of the Global Talent Index. It uses the same methodology but allows closer examination of the region's talent pool by assessing: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The study reveals such talent will continue to be scarce over the next five years, posing a challenge to companies and economies eager to continue their growth and consolidation. The Latin America Talent Index results will be of interest to anyone conducting business in this dynamic region.  Also available in Portuguese and Spanish language editions.

 

The Central & Eastern Europe Talent Index, is a regional version of the Global Talent Index, exploring the distribution of talent in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine. The results will be of interest to anyone conducting business in Central & Eastern Europe.
 
Mapping Middle East Talent Insights and Data
The Middle East Talent Index is a regional deep-dive of the original Global Talent Index, assessing the strength of talent in eight Middle East countries today and in five years time. The countries included are: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Mapping Global Talent: Essays and Insights
The Global Talent Index (GTI) is a unique research study done in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit to identify where talent is located in the world today and where it will be located five years from now.
Time for leadership courage
by Stephen Langton, Global Practice Managing Partner, Leadership

Time for Leadership Courage is a rousing piece of writing, rallying leaders to step up and be counted if they are to lead their companies through the downturn and to a successful future. It discusses what truly courageous leadership looks like and how inspiring it can be.

The gatekeepers' future

By John E. Petzold 

Following Sarbanes-Oxley, controllers moved front and center in corporate deliberations, often positioning themselves to become CFOs. Today, the grave global liquidity shortage in the nation's banks has thrust treasurers into the spotlight. This higher visibility should mean even brighter futures for these gatekeepers of capital.

 

The new role of the sourcing executive: Getting the outsourcing of services right

by Stuart H. Sadick, Jory J. Marino, Pravesh Mehra and Steve Ingram

Today's successful companies source services from all parts of the globe. These companies employ a strategy of right-shoring, or smart-sourcing, to pick off best-of-breed services, often from geographically disparate sources in today's globally connected, wired world. No longer a simple line function, sourcing of services is now an integral part of companies' global strategies and often a major determinant of financial performance, customer service, and market penetration.

 

A comprehensive talent strategy for services outsourcing

by Pravesh Mehra and Navnit Singh

As the strategic sourcing of services has become an integral part of companies' global strategies, the outsourcing industry has grown exponentially. As a result of this explosive growth, outsourced services operations in India, China, and other developing countries face a war for talent that will ultimately determine their competitiveness. Savvy outsourcing operations can win this crucial contest by pursuing a comprehensive talent management strategy uniquely suited to the demands of these locales and the industry.

 

Contact Center Services: Developing a Competency-based Approach to Talent

by Stuart Sadick, Shannon Connors and Joshua Clarke

The contact center market is evolving and rapidly becoming more complex. Cutting costs, increasing revenue, and delivering superior customer experience are critical performance metrics to track and improve. This requires a new talent paradigm focused on the skills required to develop, implement and manage the organizational transformation needed.

 

What Every CEO Should Expect From Their CHRO
Professor Dave Ulrich and Ellie Filler explore what the CEO should be asking from their CHRO, particularly in these turbulent times. What are the six key competencies a CHRO should possess?
First 100 Days
by Suzzane Wood
The first 100 days of any job are tough, but for top-level CFOs, the challenges are particularly acute. CEO tenure shrinks each year: in 2007 the average job span for CEOs in the Fortune 100 was six years, in the FTSE 100 it was just 4.8 years.
Life after CFO - What's next?
by Suzzane Wood
40% of chief financial officers want to take on the chief executive role, according to a survey of CFOs at a forum hosted by Heidrick & Struggles at the London Stock Exchange.
The forum, Life after CFO, what's next? also heard that the day-to-day life of the average CFO can be an ideal preparation for the top job as it usually involves financial officers in the diverse stakeholder management that is crucial in the CEO role.

Managing Talent for innovation and the HR function of the future

by Wendy Murphy, Kitty Zheng and Michaela Neller

Companies of all kinds now see innovation as a key part of their business strategy. Yet because of unexamined clichés about the nature of creativity, many companies simply hire smart people and hope for the best. As a result, no matter how strongly they subscribe to the notion of innovation, they are likely to lag behind those companies whose Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) and HR departments understand the issue from an enterprise-wide point of view and know how to manage it on that basis. 

Alternative Investments Sales & Marketing: A View of Compensation & Recruiting Trends

by Laurie A Thompson

Over the past several years, competition for experienced asset raising professionals has been fierce, and compensation has risen accordingly. Today, there is an unprecedented level of talent either actively looking or quietly open to new opportunities, and compensation levels reflect this new market reality of a richer talent pool and more limited number of desirable seats. This paper explores compensation and recruiting trends in alternative investments distribution.

Consumer Markets 2009

A collection of twelve articles that provide insight on the latest trends in talent management and recruitment for consumer companies across the globe.

 
Protecting Customer Information: Can you afford not to have a Chief Privacy Officer
By Patrick Friel and Julian Ha
In the wake of unprecedented thefts of personal information, companies in the transaction processing and information services businesses that have not established the role of Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) should do so before they become the next victims - and perhaps put their reputation and their business at risk.
 
Route to the Top - What does it take for women to get on to FTSE100 boards?
by Dr. Elisabeth Marx
Our analysis of the profiles of female board directors in the FTSE100 reveals a group of women with unique characteristics.

 

Insights of the Chairman - Chairman Succession - Navigating the Rapids
by UK Board Practice - Chairman Series
Uncertainty at the top of a company is never a good thing. The board controls the company, but the chairman leads the board. Increasing scrutiny around how boards operate, calls for greater transparency and consequently the increasing importance of the chairman's role creates a strong case for succession planning.
Human Capital Strategies for a New Financial Reality
by Frank Hollmeyer
During the final months of 2008 we spoke to 90 senior asset management executives based in Europe and the Middle East, helping build a picture of asset management today and the critical importance of human capital as the industry faces up to its future.
Knowing and Understanding your Talent Management Pattern
By Hugues Mercier, et al
During the first quarter of 2008, Heidrick & Struggles gathered data on attrition and internal replacement rates from twenty-one global companies. The aim was to discover how companies, knowingly or unknowingly, make the decision to nurture talent internally or attract executives from outside the organization.

Navigating the life stages of an investment firm
by Jane Marcus and Jim Ware

How to strike the balance between entrepreneurial creativity and professional structure on the journey from boutique to mid-sized, professional firm.

 

A Perfect Storm
by Bryan MacDonald
A 'change' epidemic is gripping pharmaceuticals and it appears to be gathering pace.
 
Stephen A. Miles
Stephen A. Miles
 

6 Steps to (Re)Building a Top Management Team
by Stephen A. Miles and Nathan Bennett

Despite research showing that mergers and acquisitions rarely provide significant shareholder value, there is no sign of any slowing in the trend toward M&A.

 

Full article published in the Fall 2008 issue of the MIT/Sloan Management Review

Who's next? CEO succession planning in privately-held real estate companies
Unlike public companies, where CEO succession planning is often an ongoing and well-established process, privately-held real estate companies often have little experience with succession planning and no procedures for making the transition. Yet it is one of the most momentous events a CEO will face.

Human Resources Challenges in Financial Services: Recruiting, maintaining and managing talent in a period of volatility
by Amy Goldfinger and Laurie Thompson

Turmoil in financial markets, coupled with a wider economic downturn, has presented financial services firms and their human resources functions with some daunting challenges in their approach to talent.

Digital media requires a fresh perspective on leadership talent
The only constant in today's media sector is change. Business models have evolved, and new rules now govern success in this competitive space. Mike Speck examines the challenges facing the media sector today.

Leadership in Global Health: The convergence of private and public sector expertise

Ann Gales and Richard von Rueden interviewed industry insiders and expert to build up a compelling vision of the growing unity between private and public health enterprises and the prevailing leadership challenges.

 

Route to the Top: A Transatlantic Comparison of Top Business Leaders
In 1996, Dr Elisabeth Marx began exploring the profiles of CEOs in the UK's FTSE 100: in this the eleventh year of her Route to the Top study Elisabeth has completed a unique transatlantic analysis, comparing the backgrounds of the FTSE 100 CEOs with the leaders of the Fortune 100. The results defy many of our cultural stereotypes.


Carlos Cata

CMOs, stop obsessing over the tenure stat
by Carlos Cata
Without question, the marketing community has taken hold of the CMO-tenure statistic and run with it.  Whether it's morbid fascination or the need to continually justify the role of the chief marketing officer, we simply need to move on.

Inside the C-Suite
 

Inside the C-Suite
This complete work includes the following individual articles:

Retention Returns
 
Retention Returns: Insights for More Effective Diversity Initiatives
Results of a survey by the Robert Toigo Foundation and Heidrick & Struggles on retention of talent - specifically professionals of color - in the finance industry.
Retention Returns
Karen Spinely
Retention Returns
Anneke Luikenaar
The Emergence of the Chief Sustainability Officer: From Compliance Manager to Business Partner
Demand for a new kind of environmental, health and sustainability officer as risen dramatically.

Guy de Buttet


 
Making Outsourcing Work: Moving from Transaction to Partnership
by Guy de Buttet, Partner and others
Despite the critical importance of outsourcing to the success of a great many businesses today, these arrangements all too frequently fall short of their objectives or end in recrimination and disappointment. Where does your team stand in the grand scheme of outsourcing today - seeking short-term and often elusive advantages, or collaboratively working toward broader business goals and making sure that everyone wins?
 

Stephen Miles
 
The Leadership Team: Complementary Strengths or Conflicting Agendas
by Stephen Miles, Partner, Heidrick & Struggles, and Michael D. Watkins
The authors describe four kinds of complementarity: task, expertise, cognitive, and role.

 


Carlos Cata

Torrey Foster
Plan Today to be Tomorrow's CMO
by Carlos Cata and Torrey Foster
Heidrick & Struggles' advice on getting that top job
 

Kevin Kelly

 
Roller Coaster Leadership
Time was, becoming a CEO was a promotion for life. Now it's more like having a seat on a roller coaster. Kevin Kelly believes that aspiring CEOs need a new set of skills in order to maximize their tenure.
 
Inside the C-Suite
 
Getting Results in China: How's China's Tech Executives are Molding a New Generation of Leaders
This report by Heidrick & Struggles and the Project on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) at Stanford University, based on intensive interviews with more than 100 leadership of China's high tech industry, captures what leaders of China's most knowledge-intensive industries are actually doing on the ground to build successful enterprises.
 

Carlos Cata
What it takes to be an A-Level CMO
by Carlos Cata and Bruce Robertson
Fancy yourself indispensable? Be sure you measure up to new standards.

Stephen Miles
 
Second in Command: The Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer
by Stephen Miles and Nathan Bennett
Through in-depth conversations with COOs and with CEOS who've worked with COOs, we've gained insight into a subject that has been largely neglected by organizational scholars. Understanding what makes for a successful COO is critical to the fortunes of many companies.

Stephen Miles
 
Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO
by Stephen Miles and Nathan Bennett
A new book from Heidrick & Struggles that provides a fresh understanding of this little-understood role.

Ellie Filler
 
Diversity in Switzerland: Where are we now?
by Ellie Filler, Brigitte Liebig, Marion Fengler-Veith, Kubra Varan
This was a first national survey on diversity and diversity management of the Top 500 organizations in Switzerland. Drawing on the opinions and insights of the senior CEOs and Chief Human Resources Officers, the aim of the study was to capture the current reality and the perceptions of diversity as a business driver in 2005 in Switzerland.

Gerry Roche

Fifty Years of Service Excellence: Heidrick & Struggles Marks a Milestone
by Tom Friel and Gerry Roche, with commentary by the firm's co-founder John Struggles

Stephen Miles

Optimizing Today's Talent Management Strategies
by Judy Klein and Stephen Miles
Our objective appraisal of a company's management team begins with a consultative review with the client to determine current and future leadership needs based on the strategic goals for the organization.

Randy Jayne
 
Aligning Compensation with Business Strategy: Getting Out of the Stock Option Morass
by Randy Jayne
We attempt to unwrap the clouds of anger and resentment surrounding the debate over executive stock options.

Jane Marcus
Developing Better Asset Management Leadership
by Jane B. Marcus, Heidrick & Struggles and Terry R. Bacon, Ph.D., Lore International Institute
We interviewed a number of asset management firm executives and asked what their firms were doing in response to changes they have seen in the marketplace and to the allegations, dismissals, and fundamental soulsearching that has rocked the industry in the past year. Among the most important themes emerging from our study was the importance of developing more effective leadership in the industry.
  How to Select an Executive Search Firm
The selection of an executive search firm can and should be approached with the same discernment and rigor as the selection of the candidates who ultimately fill the role.

A Guide for Leadership Success
Breaking Through to Senior Management
A look ahead at the Executive Job Market
The Art of Being Mentored
Talking Leadership with Ray Lane
Building the Momentum for Change
The Toughest Audience? Your Own Senior Management
What direction whould your stock options move? Up-always up
When the world is your campus
Perspectives on Leadership and the Talent Landscape
Is English Enough? Foreign language skills can open doors

Additional Leadership Publications

 

 

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