Fire the Non-Executive!

The rise of the Activist Investor,

and the resultant changed Non-Exec role

Following the 2008 economic recession, there was a lot of debate around bankers pay, which has since filtered out towards a wider debate on executive pay. But in recent weeks, a precedence has been set, where by activist shareholders are revolting against excessive executive pay increases, and even choosing to fire the Non-Executive.

What are the longer term implications of this latest turn on choosing to become a Non-Executive Director, and hence their responsibilities?

Fire the Non-Executive @ Yahoo!

Following the sacking of Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz in September 2011, the board replaced her on an interim basis with CFO Tim Morse. Non-Executive director Patti Hart — who is CEO of International Game Technology, which makes electronic gaming equipment and systems products — was placed in charge of the team responsible for hiring a new CEO. Through leading head hunting agency Heidrick & Struggles, they hired 54 year old Scott Thompson, the then President of PayPal.

Thompson, 54, claimed on his Executive CV that he had degrees in computer science and accounting from Stonehill College outside Boston. Actually, he graduated with an accounting major in 1979, at a time when the college only taught a single computer science course and didn’t even offer a computer science degree.

On May 3, 2012, activist investor Dan Loeb, CEO of Third Point LLC who were seeking four seats on the Yahoo! board, sent a letter to Yahoo’s Board of Directors. The letter cited Yahoo’s SEC filing stating that Thompson “holds a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science” from Stonehill College, yet Loeb had reason to believe that the degree was “in accounting only”. Loeb then questioned if Thompson had “embellished his academic credentials” and questioned if the Board had “failed to exercise appropriate diligence and oversight in one of its most fundamental tasks – identifying and hiring the Chief Executive Officer.” Loeb called for an interim CEO to be put in place immediately.

In light of the letter, Thomson was suspended. He latter resigned, suggesting that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and in explanation of his resume error said that Heidrick & Struggles had in an earlier hiring exercise “embellished” his CV/resume. In an internal letter to employees, Heidrick & Struggles current CEO has vehemently denied this accusation. Mean while, during the internal investigation, non-executive Patti Hart resigned to “allow her to concentrate full time on the duties of being CEO of International Game Technology” – a nice way to say forced out!

Sack the CEO at Aviva

In the past year, the share price of the UK’s largest insurer Aviva has dropped 33%. After a negative vote on executive pay at the Aviva AGM – 823 million votes were recorded against the pay plan, compared to 670 million in favour; 152 million votes abstained – long time CEO Andrew Moss resigned from his position, a letter which was accepted immediately by the board. Aviva’s share price instantly rose 5%. It was later reported that Moss had been trying to gain a pay rise.

Moss’s resignation followed similar resignations by other FTSECEO’s after similar share holder revolts, including David Brennan from drug maker AstraZeneca, and Sly Bailey from newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror at the end of the year. Both companies have disappointed investors with declining share prices: down 15% in a year at AstraZeneca; 39% percent at Trinity Mirror.

The changing role of the Non-Executive Director

What do each of the cases say with regards to the changing role of the Non-Executive Director?

Traditionally and legally, the role of the Non-Executive is both to hold the board accountable to the share holders, and to advise the board where required. Hence most Non-Executives are experienced board members themselves, often still active in their own business. Boards also tend to choose non-executives who bring additional skills to their team, and can hence advise on activity in their specialist market area.

However often, this has lead to a circular effect occurring with non-executives, where by if you serve on my board, and I on someone else’s, then he can serve on yours. This was at least a development on the “you on mine, and me on yours” choice which commonly occurred until the Maxwell pensions scandal and the resultant Cadbury report. But its seems that even that choice is now in need of development.

Each of these resignations was brought about by activist shareholders, most often the hedge funds that publicly have taken so much negative publicity in recent times, often felt by many to be the cause of the economic crash. What they are now asking for, which is what many of the long term activist pension fund managers have been asking for for decades, is that executive pay is tied inexorably to company financial performance. In other words Andrew Moss, if our share price goes down by 33%, so does your package – not upwards as you requested!

These activist share holders are in effect doing the non-executives job: bringing the board to account. Hence to my mind, the role of the non-executive is changing fast, and most likely presently still moving:

1. The primary role is ensuring accountability to the wider share holder base. The cosy relationships of before now need to be replaced with more remoteness
2. Hence what seems wrong needs to be voiced publicly, not just discussed privately. There needs to be a public show of bringing the board to account on a regular basis, not just smiling at the AGM
3. The advisor role of bringing expertise to the board will not disappear, but may hence diminish. How can you advise on strategy, and then when it fails bring the CEO you advised to account?
4. If you take on a role as a non-executive, then if it fails you will be held to account. Hiring exercises are the most obvious activist role that a non-executive plays; if they fail or lie, then simply you are out!

When we look back in a few years at the changed role of the non-executive director, I am sure that it will have changed again. There is no going back to the old cosy days, and where activist share holders lead I conclude that some form of case law and possibly legislation will follow, probably initially around share holders rights with regards pay and remuneration.

Good Luck!

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How to write a Professional Biography

Last Friday, after getting back from my normal networking meetings, I got a call from the office: could we write an urgent Professional Biography, that needed to go out today? So I asked for the normal input:

• Executive CV: mainly for the time line
• Future aspirations: a Professional Biography won’t work unless it encompasses the future
• 3 Things that they are most proud of: reality check, and a bit of personality

Four hours later and it was complete, and I have an extra LinkedIn Recommendation.

To create an effective Professional Bio needs a system, and that is what we use to create engaging Professional Biographies that work. What is that system? Let me explain….

3D versus 2D Professional Biography

Much like in business networking, while stating the facts and achievements might work with some, a good bio needs to be 3D. It therefore must reflect your personality and approach, as much as your achievements.

It is important to note that we are not writing an Executive CV here, but a Professional Biography. So while the results still count, and the output is still a factual piece, we need to include a bit of you in developing a 3D effect.

Writing a Professional Biography

The process starts with the following items:

• Professional CV: for the time line
• Future Aspirations: a CV is an up to now time line, a Bio can extend forwards
• 3 Things you are Most Proud Of: reality check. Nobodies priority is work!

Also useful is any benchmarking material, ie: other Bio’s. Most of our Professional Biography Writing work is rush, mainly because the client suddenly has to deploy a Professional Biography that needs to be used in the next 48hrs.

As a professional recruiter, I also do a background check. It’s the Google CV results that I am interested in, for checking both:

1. The facts
2. The feedback and references from others

Normally, there are differences.

The factual ones are easy to cope with, as the client will most often say that they have forgotten something, or missed something out. No problem, we can adjust, as we don’t want the facts to be blurred or put in question, particularly as they will often be put under scrutiny by a professional journalist. Journalists have factual standards as high as a recruiter,  but also come with a perspective.

The second issue is in theory easier to deal with, but is about focus of those facts.

Professional Biography Template

The form Professional Biography Template is the one shown above:

• The factual input starts on the left
• You are then a combination of that SQE, plus the results
• The ambition or goal…
• Is focused in a form of communication
• To create the required output

The chart at the bottom shows the differing forms of communications focus within the readers mind, using the combination of SQE and STAR. The key here is to notice the differences:

• A Professional CV focuses on Task, Action Result
• An Exhaustive CV focuses on Situation, Action and Result
• A Professional Bio has to form credibility through Qualifications or Results, and then focus on the personality issues of Situation and Action

This chart hence shows that you can take two sets of facts and personalities, but write them up in two different ways. It just depends on the (clients…) required output focus.

Writing a Professional Biography

The same word form as in the Elevator Pitch is used in the Professional Biography:

• I am: positional
• I do/deliver: tell a life story in a few sentences. Answers the question: Why should I listen to you?
• I seek: the soft-sales pitch. Don’t sell, but do!

I suppose the last question that you are looking for, is first or third party writing perspective? Depends on what it is being used for:

• First Party: places and things that are directly related to you, ie: your LinkedIn Profile
• Third Party: everything else, including: seminar briefs, online Bio’s on company websites, book inners, etc

The key here is to keep the same form, no matter which (first or third) perspective is used. So when a person (recruiter or journalist) does a background check, everything is in order and looks the same.

Professional Biography Example

Oh, you want an example (to copy, no doubt!). Go and have a look at my profile on LinkedIn, and while you are there and as I am a LION, why not connect?

Good Luck!

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Executive Job Search

Executive Job Search is different from other types of Job Search, this post addresses the why and where of, and how to get the job that you seek quicker.

What is an Executive?

Firstly, what is an executive? Nominally it is defined by income level, but also at the generally defined income level of above £50,000, you will find fewer public job adverts and different routes to employment being used by employers. You will also find different types of Hiring Manager, with Chairman and CEO’s replacing department heads and project leaders.

Executive Job Search model

The model I will use to explain the differences is based on our 5 Steps To Employment model:

Now, lets explain the ain differences.

Position in Executive Job Search is Strategy

It is true of all forms of jobs search, but particularly so in the Executive Job Search sector: position is strategy!

Do not build a job search around a Martini based “any time, any place, any where” answer. Don’t pose the employer, head hunter or recruiter with a problem of searching through both your Executive CV and online profiles to try and figure out if you are right for their job. Position yourself up front to fully engage, using the STAR-type Executive CV Writing form.

What’s the downside? There isn’t one. In a full jobs market and when in a process of Executive Search and Selection, employers and Head Hunters only put forward the best candidates who wholly fill the whole head hunting brief. Unless you meet that brief similarly as a 100% fit, then you won’t make the small group designated to undertake a Telephone Interview.

Business Solution Positioning

To get employed in the executive sector, positioning value is key. While most job seekers have to position as an X in a Y market, with the executive sector there is an added factor: Z.

While accountant in the manufacturing sector works in the professional job seeking market, in the executive sector the Z factor is the type of market condition that you set yourself in. These are:

• Start-up
• Growth
• Profit Improvement
• “Save the Titanic” (accountants, insolvency practitioners and specialist directors only)
• Change Management

Why is this important? It shows what type of business problems that you solve, and that is really what any employer will be engaging the eventual successful candidate for.

This then covers the key differences between Executive Job Search and other forms of Job Search, and specifically What to do before the process of Executive Job Search.

How to find Executive Jobs

The first question to to answer at this stage, is are there any Exec Appoitments available? Unlike in normal job search where you could check the job boards for 50+ jobs, even checking the websites for the leading Executive Search Companies won’t reveal much.

The key is to search the news feeds in that sector for recent placements, particularly professional associations. Can you find similar market sector and executive level positions being filled, in the past six months? If you can find one at the plc/international level, and at least six other placements (ie: one per month), then it would tend to suggest that its a live employment market in most sectors/levels, and worth exploring.

Who should you the target? Use the Head Hunters main tactic, and look for executive teams who have been in place for three to five years. These are teams that went in with a particular business brief, and nominally should have fulfilled it. These are now businesses that probably need fresh thinking, and executives looking to move on.

The problem is, that you can’t just walk in and demand that someone leave to give you a job. This is where a key differential comes in with Executive Job Search.

Executive Job Search UK

Executive Jobs have always have had a more push-pull nature, (ie: Head Hunters find you; in equal volume to you searching for Executive Jobs), over all other job search sectors. Due to the power of the internet now making candidate sourcing easier, the rest of the employment market is catching up with the Executive market, that has also moved further towards being found over job application.

Having positioned yourself to take best advantage of the more push-pull nature of Executive Job Search, the question is: where do you look for Executive Jobs? The key now in executive job search and application is simply networking. This is both online and offline, in physical meetings.

This is part of a communications plan to key persons, who can assist inwidening your job search. Note that two-thirds of Executive Positions are fulfilled by recommendation and networking, through others. Hence as well as acting as reference points for Head Hunters and companies, they act as reference points for companies which are in the same sector and may be searching for new executives.

Executive Job Interview

Executive Job Interviews are simple, if you have correctly positioned yourself in the first place. Organisations are seeking to employ executives who can deliver risked-business results, in the form that they want. The executive interview therefore is in part focused around your previous experience of doing the same thing as they require, and how you achieved that?

The second part is about people, specifically team ethics and culture. The key question to answer is, do they want you to keep doing the same, or change something? In part that is indicated by the business challenge faced, but not always and never wholly.

For more details, read the post on Assessing ability in the Executive Job Interview.

Executive Package

The key in closing any Executive Employment agreement is to finalise your Cotract of Employment. The key here, as I keep saying from my side as a Recruiter, is package NOT pay. If you focus too much on the headline pay figure over the overall package and job opportunity, then you will simply loose the opportunity. Having spent a lot of time getting to this point, you should know how difficult the process of executive job search can be, and secondly if you want that job or not. So why lose it over a few headline numbers?

Executive Summary

I hope that you have found this post useful in your Executive Job Search. The three manin key differences are:

1. Positioning as a business solution is key. This needs to be confirmed in all profile information and communication, specifically your Executive CV
2. Only 10% of Executive Positions will be advertised, while 2/3rds are fulfilled through networking
3. Interviews are focused around your competence to deliver the required business solution, and your approach to people

Good Luck!

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Executive employment via our MBA coached Executive CV Writing Service is personalised around you

We are also happy to provide confidential career advice and a free Professional CV Review

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Age Discrimination:

How to avoid it!

After the passing of the Equality Act 2010, we have a lot of good legislation in the UK Employment Market to not only defend against issues like Age Discrimination, but also to sue any employer who thinks about it, let alone attempts it.

So why when the latest set of unemployment statistics come out, why do the Office of National Statistics state that the number of over-50s out of work for a year or more has risen by 8,000 to reach 190,000? This is almost half the total number of over-50s out of work.

Yes, discrimination occurs – unfortunately

From my perspective as a recruiter, those most discriminated against are (in descending order, with the occurances that we experience):

1. Women aged mid-20’s to 40 (once a month): SME’s and even now large corporates are scared of the liabilities of the current maternity legislation. Having to find a replacement employee for up to two years is taking too much of a toll
2. Racial discrimination (once a quarter): the number of immigrants is rising, but due to the Government’s tightening of the MAC List and associated non-European number who can come in, declining. The problem now is a lack of skills and positions that could be fulfilled, over too many immigrants
3. Disability (once a quarter): this doesn’t surprise me, but it is one of the easiest to overcome. If the job applicants doctor has said that they can do work in that type of environment, then the “easy” rejection that the employer may perceive is not there. Plus, disabled employees bring extras skills that employers often miss. As they have had to compensate for the loss of something, they become more skilled in a key area. However, the “lesser employee” myth and resultant discrimination personally is being supported by the combination of both government grants, and often the approach of the disabled sector charities. I wish that they would change their communication, for the good of all society!
4. Age (once a quarter): yes, it happens! I will expand on this below
5. Sexuality (once every six months): as opposed to child bearing age women, this is overt non-white/non-straight discrimination. This is easily solved, but there is a simple solution which is about office politics and acceptance. I don’t care if you are straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual, like every employer I don’t need it stuffed down my throat! Overt sexuality of what ever type or orientation is highly over bearing. No one is not saying that you can not be yourself, but there is being yourself and being some form of political banner for your cause

NOTE: as a recruitment company, we can and do not take any law breaking employment briefs. We would be equally as guilty of discrimination as the prospective employer if we took any recruitment briefs which broke UK employment law. If we think the brief is illegal, and the client won’t change the brief, we don’t take the job.

Discrimination or Communication problem?

Personally, I always say that there is no discrimination, just a communications barrier. Most often, if you were the Hiring Manager, like employes like. The problem with this approach is that you risk ending up with a team of “yes” people, who can not see the whole picture, or your whole market. If you think about this, then taking a walk down Oxford Street, on average you would pass:

• 50% of the people will be of the opposite sex
• 15% will be non-white
• 12% will be disabled
• 12% will be GLBT
• And by 2013, over 50% will be over the age of 50

Simply, if your team is not both rounded in skills, approach and orientation towards your market, then you will at some point fail. If as the hiring manager you don’t recognise this, then its your problem and not the job applicants. In summary, reflect your market and have eyes, experience and skills in all direction, or you will fail.

Employer Age Discrimination

Having cleared that up, what are the employer issues that could create age discrimination?

Firstly, it is about attitude. The assumption, rightly or wrongly by the employer, is that older and hence more experienced employees will be set in their ways, unwilling or unable to learn, and only want to dictate to lesser/younger employees. When the lesser employee can also be the boss, you can appreciate the problem.

Secondly, the assumption often is that older employees will want more basic pay and hence bonuses. This can often be added to by the “and because of their age, will work less hours and want more time off” problem. So they cost more.

Thirdly, in these times of high unemployment, the assumption is that the moment a better paying job appears, or one where they can manage others, older employees will be off.

Age Discrimination solution

How are these overcome by the successful executive job seeker? As I have written about in other posts, headhunters and employers looking to recruit for Senior Executive positions look for Results within the STAR system. Do they care that you could be older, non-white, non-male, disabled and GLBT? No, they go searching and shopping to employ the required track record of Results. After that it is about Market and how you took Action. So the same basic rules for writing Executive CV’s apply for over 50’s as under 50’s.

Rule number one: don’t age yourself! Don’t put evidence in your Executive CV that ages you. Since the late 1990s, there has been no need to put your birth date in your CV. But information such as jobs that go back further than 10 years, or the dates that you graduated from college, university of worst of all school, are not required legally.

Thirdly, take the HR Professionals Rules into account: the last 5 years are employable, the last 7 years retrainable, and after that it is just interesting job history. Most older persons CV that we review via our Confidential and Free CV Review Service are far, far too long. I have seen one go back over 50 years. They also place emphasis on all positions over the entire executive career history, and not just the latest/most relevant stuff for that job application. As the recruiter, employer or head hunter, I only want to see the most relevant experience (ie: Results) to my position, not everything including the kitchen sink. You must tailor your CV like every other job seeker to each job application.

Over 50 job seeker essentials

Now the specific over 50 CV Writing tactics. The simple briefing is to show evidence to the contrary in the Action section, that builds a new opinion of you as a job seeker, and not as an old person. Its not as complex as getting surgery or lying, its simply about what you write and where you focus:

1. Doesn’t want to/Can’t learn new skills: show examples of new skills learnt or deployed. If you keep showing additional skills learnt, the problem goes away
2. Doesn’t mix in a team: show that you have both built and been a member of a team of diverse ages and skills, and been equally adapt in all situations
3. Dictatorial/can’t take instructions (from younger people): pick out examples where you took a brief from a younger or less experienced director
4. High pay: I always tell all job seekers to look at the package and not the pay. In your personal statement, make sure that in the “I seek” section you focus on the right opportunity not the required pay level
5. Will leave when a better job comes along: again, focus in your personal statement in the “I seek” section, on looking for the right medium to long term opportunity

Much as I disagree with discrimination, I unfortunately accept it as part of human nature. Only by taking a stance against it and legislating against it can we as a people ever remove it.

However, in the one on one situation, particularly when in job seeking mode and you have an option to walk away, would you really want to work in an organisation where such overt discrimination in the early stages of the relationship was so obvious? What other horrors of human relationships, biases and often illegal practises lurk inside this organisation? Better to walk away and find a better employer, than to walk into something knowing that there is already a problem.

Good Luck!

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Exclusive executive to board level winning results with our Executive CV service

Executive employment via our MBA coached Executive CV Writing Service is personalised around you

We are also happy to provide confidential career advice and a free Professional CV Review

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Letter of Resignation

Might save the company, will it save your career?

The Letter of Resignation now seems to be less of a company saviour, and more in relaity of a faux “falling on my sword” exercise. Does this mean that its lost its honour and effect, and that you should hang-on in there?

Simply, NO!

We have seen a number of high profile resignations in the past 12months:

• Sir Paul Stephenson at the Metropolitan Police – over phone hacking and police bribery
• Pierre-Henri Gourgeon at Air France-KLM – due to it shares falling by over 50 per cent in 6 months
• Richard Cuthbert at Mouchel – for breaching its banking covenants
• Glen Senk at Urban Outfitters – over a plunging share price
• Emma Harrison at A4e – to save the 100% government-contract reliant organisation that she founded
• James Murdoch at News International – to save his fathers beloved UK newspapers, although the reason give is to allow time to focus on the expanding television business

Mean while, we can look at the continuing downwards spiral of the former-Sir Fred Goodwin, who is suffering on a number of fronts continually since his resignation from Royal Bank of Scotland.

Reasons for Resignation?

There are many individual reasons to resign from a company, but there are fewer actual business reasons to leave a growing, successful and expanding business. Hence most often, it isn’t.

Unless you are leaving for an even bigger and better opportunity, few resignations are actually planned. This is why if you are a board member of a company, that succession planning is an essential board level action subject. Big red bus or big red pen, both are threats to the organisations continuation to operate and trade.

The recession resignation effect

I was talking to a friend of mine last week, and I was asking her why I was seeing so many friends suddenly announce that they were getting a divorce? Her reply was two fold.

Firstly, its the divorce season. Most people statistically break-up on the second weekend or third week of January, and some people take longer to make the decision public that others. Secondly, the economic effects of 2008/9 have sent such a shock through the system, people just were not prepared or used to in their lifetimes to this level of disruption. That’s not to say that its not been felt, and at a higher level, before. Simply it has. Its just that we haven’t had to cope with this in our lifetimes.

If you think about the second point, its really key. If you were a child, and were used to swimming in the local pool, then going to the sea would present new challenges: tides, currents, etc. Some wouldn’t be able to cope, and would get into difficulty, while others would unfortunately not come back from their swim.

Does the organisation survive resignation?

One of the old reasons for resigning was personal honour and company survival. Much as though you may or may not accept some responsibility in the current situation in which the organisation found itself, you resigned to save the company and allow a new board to come in and continue the good works. But it seems to me that this form of resignation no longer works for the company.

I believe that the problem is culturally driven. Effectively the organisation has culturally drifted outside a point of normal operating, taken too many risks, and ended up in danger. The CEO resigns, and what is left? Firstly, the organisation is till probably in financial difficulty. Secondly, the people left within the organisation were all probably hired and hence are orinentated towards the (bad) direction in which the old CEO was going. Hence, how many layers of management need to be trimmed or ejected before the organisation can survive?

Secondly, its also seems to me that more boards now accept the now more acceptable alternative of administration over a singular resignation, if a company is actually in that much trouble. In part I conclude that this is because of the rise of the pre-packaged administration, where by a ready buyer or refinancing package is already in place. This allows the old company to effectively be jetisoned with its debts, while the operational assets are subsumed into a new company or parent.

Employment after the Letter of resignation?

Is employment possible after resignation? Well yes, of course it is. The problem for the executive job seeker to explain to the new employer is this three fold process:

1. What went wrong, and why? You need to be very open and very honest here
2. What did you learn? What did you miss that you wouldn’t now
3. Why won’t it happen again? What you would do differently

Now I know this three-step process works, because I have used it personally to get people back into work, covering everyone from those who have resigned, to those who have a criminal conviction or even several.

Employers focus on resignation?

In truth, employers are not really interested in failure, they focus totally on the skills you bring.

If you think that there is something that could be construde/viewed as negative in your employment history (believe me: you will see what ever it is as a bigger hole/problem than the employer ever will), make sure that its closed first, ie: all legal action is complete. If it is, then employers will focus on steps 2 and 3. Step1 is simply there to show that you accept ownership of that issue, and trust them; unless you do that, you can not attempt steps 2 and 3.

So, if trying to seek employment after resignation: make sure that the issue is closed; then focus on the skills in your Executive CV NOT the negatives or explaining them. If the negatives ever come up in either your telephone interview or job interview, simply follow the three step process: Wrong & why; Learnt; Never again.

Letter of Resignation form

There is a accepted form of words that constitute a legal minimum Letter of Resignation. While I would suggest there are a number of pre-planning  steps to go through before resigning, here is the format:

Your Name
Your Address
Your Phone Number
Your E-Mail Address
Date
Recipient’s Name (normally your superior, if chairman then senior non-executive)
Company Name
Address
Dear (Recipient’s Name from above):
Please accept this as my letter of resignation effective (contracted timescale ie 12weeks) from (date of letter).
Sincerely,
(Signature)
(Your Name, Your Title)

Resignation letter template

In closing, there is always a way back after your Letter of Resignation into employment. While the reasons for that enforced exit will to an extent determine the length away from the employment market place, once the issue is closed employers will focus on your skills NOT the negative. If the negative ever does come up, simply follow the three step process: Wrong & why; Learnt; Never again.

Good Luck!

===================================================================

Exclusive executive to board level winning results with our Executive CV service

Executive employment via our MBA coached Executive CV Writing Service is personalised around you

We are also happy to provide confidential career advice and a free Professional CV Review

===================================================================

Exec Appointments

In 8 simple steps

Everyone is looking for Exec Appointments, but do they know what the Headhunters and Executive Recruiters are actually looking for?

Now, I am not saying that getting Exec Appointments is easy. It is not.

But you can make it a lot more difficult for yourself if you approach it in the wrong way.

Here is the simple 8 step process to getting an Exec Appointment:

Step1: what have you got?

The problem with all job seekers – be they blue collar, white collar, professional job seekers or those seeking Exec Appointments – is that they most often don’t know what they have. The basics of job search mean that you must know what you offer in competencies – a combination of skills, qualifications and experiences – and know what you have done so far. That timeline, from leaving school to now is probably too long, but the last ten years is key to knowing not oly what competency combinations you offer, but also which positions you enjoyed and why. There is no point in applying for a corporate job, if all your best work was undertaken in small and fast moving organisations.

Step2: who is recruiting for what?

The second question is who is recruiting for what? For instance, if I asked you to go and catch a fish, and offered you two options – the most modern fish catching technology, but deployed on a small local stream, or a line and hook in the middle of the Atlantic fishing zone, which do you think would be more successful? The same applies in job search. I have seen the most ugly and unprofessional Executive CV’s get work, just because that person was in the right place at the right time.

However, in the executive world, how do you check this? When only 10% of jobs in the executive sector (paying over £50,000pa), how do you find out who is recruiting? The simple answer is often your professions monthly magazine or your local newspaper, in the appointments section. From knowing who has been placed recently, is as good a guide as you will get as to who is and which markets are recruiting now

Step3: what do you want to do?

So now that you know what you have got, and who is recruiting, the key question is: do any of them fit currently with what you want to do next? If no, and you are happy with your current position, then keep reviewing the market. If yes, then you need to get onto Step4.

The problem comes when you want to/have to move, but you can’t see the right type of executive position available. The question then becomes, is anyone recruiting in that sector, and specifically when was the last time someone recruited in that sector? This is when you should look at alternative career choices – consultancy, interim management – or other markets and sectors.

Step4: accepting the odds of the executive market

As as exec appointment seeker, you have to accept and work within the given odds of the executive appointments sector. Firstly, only 10% of executive appointments are ever advertisied. Most are fulfilled by people they know, or people they are introduced to, either directly through networking or through headhunters and executive recruiters. Hence….

Step5: positioning

To get employed in the executive sector, positioning is key. While most job seekers have to position as an X in a Y market, with the executive sector there is an added factor: Z.

While accountant in the manufacturing sector works in the professional job seeking market, in the executive sector the Z factor is the type of market condition that you set yourself in. These are:

• Start-up
• Growth
• Profit Improvement
• “Save the Titanic” (accountants and insolvency specialists only)
• Change Management

Why is this important? It shows what type of business problems that you solve, and that is really what any employer will be engaging the eventual successful candidate for.

Step6: depth of candidate

If only 10% of executive jobs are secured from adverts, while networking and introduction are key to employment, then depth of confirmation of that experience is key. This table shows what the key differences are:

The key difference coming out of this table is that executives show in the depth of their profile three key issues that make them enticing to employers looking for people in their field:

• Leadership and a leader in their field
• Respected in their field
• Connected in their field

Now, much as though you may think that you can tick all of these boxes, can you? That is answered by communication. Secondly, what is that employers definition of the ideal person in that position who is a leader, who is respected and connected? That is where building Rapport comes in.

Step7: the role of headhunters and recruiters

I speak to a lot of job seekers, and their first need they think is to speak to headhunters and recruiters.

Let me explain this simply, as a recruiter: if I have a job on my desk that fits your profile, I will be your best friend, a proverbiale sticky-toffee stuck to the bottom of your show. You will be worth money to me. If I don’t have a job that suits your profile or competencies, or don’t think you will, then I will be the most difficult person to get hold of – and I won’t be your job centre.

There is no point in calling headhunters and recruiters to have lots of nice conversations. Better to see who’s advertising in your sector, and then have a conversation when you know that they are fishing.

Step8: getting active

If you know a particular market is recruiting, and you know which organisations could deploy your skills, then why not try approaching them? There is no point in calling the HR team, but making contact with active people on forums – LinkedIn, Doostang, professional body, etc – can give an inside track on who to contact/who deals with that area. Once you have made contact, have a professional discussion about how they are addressing a particular business problem that you know they face, over selling yourself as a job seeker.

While getting Exec Appointments is not easy, and assuring single-shot job applications is not a strategy that we would recommend or can control the outcome of, you can make getting an Exec Apponitment a lot easier if you approach it via the right strategy, and then systematically. If you know that a sector is recruiting, and you can position yourself in that sector with a deep profile, then executive employment is always possible.

Good Luck!

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Executive Search Companies

When first entering the market of the Executive Jobs and Executive Appointments, after having created a great and effecitive Executive CV, is to come to terms with the various Executive Serach Companies and their approaches.

As I keep saying, its unreasonable for us as an employment industry to expect any Executive job seeker to understand what goes on, let alone how it happens, when they probably only engage in a job search once every three years at quickest. However, if there is a sting in the tail of the employment industry, its in the the terms Executive Search and Executive Search Companies.

Why? because to the customer who is paying for that service – the employer – simply:

• Headhunting costs more than Executive Search
• Executive Search costs more than Recruitment
• And Recruitment is more expensive than the Job Centre!

So the problem for the Executive Job Seeker is not that they won’t get approached, its figuring out who is approaching them i the first place. Once you have understood that, then understanding where they are (the recruiter approaching them) in relationship to the employer is key, other wise you’ll end up spending a lot of time talking to people who can’t help you, quickly.

Only after that will you be able to decide which approaches are from Recruiters, and which are from Executive Search Companies that can help you.

The basics of Executive Search Companies

Payment and exclusivity is difference in Executive Search Companies
If you are trying to figure out if you are talking to a Top Executive Search Company or not, then the key issue is to figure out how they are getting paid. This sounds difficult, but actually its essential and quite easy.

The best Top Executive Search Companies get paid a percentage of their fee up front, most often between 35% and 50% of the total fee value. How much is the total fee value? Depends on what the job is paying and how long their standard terms and conditions are, but lets assume their fee is equal to the annual salary of that job. Hence some charge base salary times two, and some charge base plus bonus.

Time

The second differentiator of Top Executive Search Companies is their relationship to the client. If they were engaged by the board, the CEO or the MD, then the relationship is more likely to be exclusive. If engaged by the HR department, then its more likely that their fee is contingency based, as they are in competition with other recruitment companies.

Time

The last key issue is time. How long have they been engaged, and what is the search timescale for putting someone in position? A long engagement date and no due date on putting someone in place would sound more like a frustrated process. We engaged with an Executive CV client recently, and he wanted a specific job. Asking a few key questions of the MD of the Executive Search Company revealed an employer client who had played around with job description, brief, title and resultantly pay, and had ended up in a situation where “the right candidate would get the job” – what ever that was! So I got our client to layout what he was looking for, and did the job have that? He got employed at board level in two weeks, because he proved his professional expertise.

The second time problem is the brief filler. This is the one where the recruiter has taken a brief, an has to provide X number of CV’s to fulfill their brief, and hence get paid. So, towards the end of the agreed employer client timescale, the employer asks “where are the X CV’s” and the recruiter has to go and find some new ones that the employer client hasn’t seen. So a fair question if an Executive Search Company calls you, is to ask about placement timescales and how long that they have had the brief. Neither too long, or too short, are good answers.

Relationship to employer client

This is a two point area of questioning, but its all about relationship to client. You only want to speak to the person talking to the hiring director, so that’s what you are assessing for. Often many search companies will use researchers to initially source potential candidates, and then after some initial vetting will pass them right types of people onto the actual headhunter or recruiter handling that position.

Professional Executive Search Companies

There are many claimed Executive Search Companies, but most will be members of at least one of the leading industry organisations. These UK based organisations each have externally search able databases, to check current membership status:

• Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)
• Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC)
• Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo)
• Association of Professional Recruitment Consultant
• Executive Research Association (ERA)

Also, some International Executive Search Companies also have search able membership databases. If the organisation you are talking to is not a member of at least one of these leading groups, then what does that say about them?

Checklist of Executive Search Companies

So if you know what you are looking for, here is a simple checklist to make sure that you are actually talking to an Executive Search Company who could help you:

1. If you don’t have 30mins to talk, are caught on your mobile, or are in the office, then take their name and number, an agree a time to talk at your convenience. If they are professional they won’t mind, and it gives you time to check them on the professional databases, plus the individual personally on LinkedIn/Doostang
2. Have your Executice CV ready, plus your Personal Elevator Pitch. Be sat in a comfortable room away from the office, where you won’t get disturbed for at least 30 minutes
3. The key currency here is your Executive CV – that’s what they want. So hang on to it for as log as possible, because once they have a promise from you that you will forward it, the conversation will then soon end. Secondly, you will need to be able to answer the key head hunters question: “Give me an example of when you solved the problem that my client is looking to solve/achieve.”
4. When you next speak, after they have introduced themselves, ask how they found you and your contact details? Most executives are found through networking, so it would be nice to thank the person who introduced you
5. Ask if they are the person handling the client relationship? If yes, when was the last time that they talked to the client? Then ask at which level they are talking. The required position to be filled will always be at least one step lower o the management line than the person who engaged them. If you are not convinced that you are talking to the person actually handling the client, ask to arrange to speak to them.the recruitment companies CEO/MD
6. Once talking to the person handling the client, repeat step5. Now asses the timeline. When did they engage, and what’s the placement timescale?
7. Now ask about them, the head hunter or recruiter that you are talking to. Its all interesting information (what professional body are they a member of ), but it is really a tactic to give you time to think “Do I want to send my CV to this person/organisation?”
8. If the answer to question 7 is NO, then don’t send it. Ask for time to think, and ask the to call you back in 48hrs+. If they push, then they are a contingency recruiter!

Finding and dealing with Executive Search Companies is easy if you now what they want from you, and simply takes a bit of focus, control, background research and knowledge. In other words, the same professional and leadership qualities they are seeking from the ideal Executive Job applicant.

Good Luck!

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Executive Search and Selection

Executive Search and Selection is a simple statement, and a simple concept to understand. It is two process:

• Find people who fit a brief
• Eliminate those who don’t fit the brief in detail

So, why do so many Executives when approached get it so wrong? Lets step through the main points of Executive Search and Selection

Step1: the Executive Search and Selection brief

No good headhunter or recruiter, let alone one being paid in Executive Search and Selection, will start a headhunt until they are sure of both the employer client, and the brief. The headhunters main cost is in brief acquisition, in other words making sure that they know what is required, and that that requirement can be fulfilled.

What will the brief include? Firstly, it doesn’t start with the person or job description, its starts with the business need: the Z experience. Only once that is clear, is the person specification – the X in the Y market added, ie: accountant in manufacturing with experience in growth and acquisition. The headhunter knows that unless they understand the business goal clearly, then:

1. They don’t have a secure brief
2. The brief will forever change, and that means they have not engaged the client

Step2: search (or, recommendation?)

Step two is simply now to search: but where and for what?

Lets go back one step first. If you were paying a headhunter to fulfill a role, you would want that role filled quickly, first time, right? So if that’s the service you are buying from a headhunter, you would expect them to either:

1. Have that person in their contact address book already
2. Know where to find them

Hence often, the preliminary stage is for the headhunter to “test” a few existing known or generic industry Executive CV’s to test the brief. Once they are clear that the brief can be fulfilled and where, then they normally are employed because they have the right industry contacts. This is why at maximum, only 10% of executive jobs – those in the £50,000pa and above level – ever get advertised in the public domain. Yes, FTSE and plc registered firms need to state on what terms their board are employed, and how long their contracts are (no longer rolling, often a maximum of three years), but also when they are starting the scheduled process of finding a new CEO, chairman or senior board member. But most executive jobs are not subject to the same level of pre-placement transparency, and hence its most often found in the “New Appointments” section of your local newspaper or industry journal that such vacancies are announced as filled.

If that’s the answer, then how can you get yourself into the process?

Step3: what do headhunters search for?

If only 10% of executive jobs are secured from adverts, while networking and introduction are key to employment, then depth of confirmation of that experience is key. This table shows what the key differences are between executives and professionals, in the mind of a headhunter:

The key difference coming out of this table is that executives show in the depth of their profile three key issues that make them enticing to employers looking for people in their field:

• Leadership and a leader in their field
• Respected in their field
• Connected in their field

Now, much as though you may think that you can tick all of these boxes, can you? That is answered by communication. Secondly, what is that employers definition of the ideal person in that position who is a leader, who is respected and connected? That is where building Rapport comes in.

Step4: how do headhunters eliminate you?

The first time you will know that a headhunter is on your trail, is when a friend says:

Oh, by the way, I got a call about you the other day

from a very nice gentleman.

We had a 10min conversation

Then, before you have done any research on them, they will be on the telephone. The conversation will go well, and then they will say:

Can you tell me about your experience in (what it said in our job advert)

when you achieved (what our client is looking to achieve)

This question is a key cornerstone to the headhunter getting fast results:

1. If you do have such an experience, you won’t be called in the first place
2. If you can’t communicate at the business level what you achieved and how, then you won’t go any further in the process. You will be eliminated

If you answer the question successfully, then you will be asked to a meeting. Most will meet over coffee/for a chat, some – mostly ex-military types – will formalise the process and ask you to come in for a rounded chat. You have to assume its the later, and be prepared to relax for the former.

Step5: technical elimination

There are now two types of elimination beyond this point, and both involve meeting and talking to people, probably even formal interviews.

The first is technical, when most of the work is done between you and the headhunter testing your depth of knowledge and expertise in a particular situation, that is modelled on a test business case. Which of course, is close to the actual situation faced by or needing to be addressed by this employer/client. There may be some psyche testing, they will ask for references. Each headhunter has their own preferred method, and there will be some science methodology behind it.

Step6: social elimination

The best way to describe this part of the process is simply: dating! As every headhunter and recruiter knows, while you may think candidiateA is better, the client may get on better with candidateB. The best ratio for most headhunters and recruiters on getting this right is around 65%, because simply it comes down to human chemistry.

So, how can you best position yourself for Executive Search and Selection? The first point is to be clear o your position: what business problems do you solve, what do you offer? The second is to communicate that well around your network – ask people what you would like to recommend them for/about, and they will naturally do the same. The third point is to emphasise that business advantage by undertaking some lecture or speaking work in the main industry forums. Finally, be prepared then to be approached. If you would like to learn more, have a look at our article on Exec Appointments.

If you know that a sector is recruiting, and you can position yourself in that sector with a deep profile, then executive employment is always possible.

Good Luck!

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Executive Coaching UK

One of the on trend topics of the last few years has been Executive Coaching. But is mentioning this in an Executive Job Search out of place, or is it acceptable and actually an advantage?

In the modern world there are as many Executive Coaching Solutions as there are Executive Coaching Services. It can hence be quite difficult to decide on whether you need Executive Coaching in the first place, let alone which type of Executive Coaching you should explore, let alone pay for.

Lets look at the options, from a recruitment point of view.

Executive Coaching UK

What do all companies looking for a new executive employee look for? As I have mentioned before, its all three aspects:

* Being able to answer the head hunters question: Results in doing a same/similar job before
* Technical, Social and Magnetic Fit
* The three executive differences of being a Leader, who is Respected and Connected

This is shown and confirmed in the information that creates a deep field and confirmed view of the the prospective candidate, which turns you from a job applicant into a head hunters target.

Where can Executive Coaching come into this? At two levels:

1. To enable you to reach the required levels, it is likely that you need to improve your competencies – skills, qualifications, experiences – to have the required package in the first place. This type of coaching is probably most suitable hence for middle managers and junior executives looking to advance their careers, or those looking to change markets, ie: accountant or finance director to CEO
2. Those looking to improve their peak performance, or looking to regain a previous peak level of performance. This is about style in implementation, and hence a combination of both tweaking approach as well as learning the practical implementation of new ideas. Its a bit like the “how much content can you get into this jar” debate? You already have the basics (the big rocks) and probably most of the advanced stuff (the smaller rocks), its just the focus (the sand) that needs topping up and adjusting

In taking this second element into account, and looking at the third aspect of the executive difference in recruitment – a leader, who is respected and connected – I have an alternative view on executive coaching.

Executive Coaching Companies

Every time I have looked at the executive coaching market, I conclude that it comes down to one of two choices:

* Executive Coaching Companies: most often in the form of networks
* Executive Coaching Consultants: bright individuals, some with Executive Coaching Qualifications that you may not have heard of and may not trust

The commonality with both of these options is the high cost of their Executive Coaching Fees! I don’t know what it is, but when someone mentions Executive Coaching, the numbers go through the roof. I have seen fee’s ranging from £100/hr to over £1000/hr. This can not make sense and this can not be right: why is there such diversity of pricing and by assumption, skill behind said pricing? There must be an alternative?

Executive Coaching from Marks & Spencers

I was once sat in a post-lunch seminar, you know the one where the room is too hot, and lunch was too good, so we all find it hard to stay awake. After a couple of speakers who really could teach insomniacs a thing or two about sleeping, I was frankly loosing the will to live, when a strange middle aged lady was introduced to the stage who looked like your favourite Aunt.

The first question whispered from the colleague sat next to me was “what is she likely to teach us about business”, and I must admit on first impressions he was 110% right. But the fact I am telling you the story now says different, and she woke us all up.

The lady who looked like your favourite Aunt was in fact a multi-millionaire, who made her money through telling others how to do business networking. She was an early British networking coach. Her number1 tip was to go where your customers were. So if you were selling to accountants or finance directors, go where they go. Hence why ever since I have never signed up to go to a go to a weekly breakfast meeting, such as BNI: director level decision makers just don’t do that type of networking. Tip2 was to make yourself personable – have an elevator pitch. Tip3 was to never use that unless asked, but to always listen.

Executive Coaching London

Having listened to the lady from M&S a few years before, I then turned up to an IoD meeting in London to listen to their expert on networking. His advice was to forget putting most of your time into mass meetings – even including that one at the IoD – and instead start your own networking groups of between six and eight people. These he stated were more intimate, and hence you got to know, like and trust the people around the table. This meant that not only would you would recommend them more regularly, but they would recommended you.

What does this have to do with Executive Coaching? He put up a typical agenda that his groups used, where by half was devoted to discussing business problems of members around the table. He stated that the best groups had members from different sectors around them the table, so that the potential clashes of FD v FD were avoided, and so cross-learning occurred. The result: instant, free, mutual and on the best of terms with someone who knows you and your business, Executive Coaching!

Personal Executive Coaching

Ever since, I have as a result run at least one of these types of groups. Presently I run 1.5. It was two, but someone wanted to improve themselves by running one, which they have done half the time since – perhaps planning and time keeping should be on their Executive Coaching agenda? The groups run once a month each, both for a nominal 90mins: an hour is not enough, unless you want a boy scout agenda like BNI; 2hours is just too indulgent. Chairmanship rotates around the table of six to eight people, the smaller of which has regular guests, the larger of which doesn’t – rules are up to the participants.

But what is really enjoyable about both groups is the support available to each other, for what is an input of 90mins and the cost of a breakfast per month. Some of the people I didn’t know before hand, but all I would trust and freely give information to, and hence also receive it from. Yes, its not perfect, but these people know me and my business, so they start from a position of knowledge: would I get that with a “professional” Executive Coach?

Hence, through my use of these groups these days, my view is that really there are two services: one is Executive coaching where you need defined step development; while the second is business consultantcy. Beyond that the groups provide all the Executive Coaching that I need, through their mix of people, businesses and experiences.

Executive Coaching in Recruitment

So, how does this Executive Coaching help in recruitment? Well the groups show you practically leading and participating in a group of mutual personal and business benefit: evidence of leadership, respected, connected. Hence when the interviewer poses a problem of how do you address a difficult situation, you can evidence a support network both within your organisation, your professional network, your groups and your personal life.

Executive Coaching was an on-trend word of a few years ago, which seems – thankfully – to have now dropped off the trendy and hence far too expensive radar. There had to be a more resilient and stronger solution to someone coming in and talking to you, who had perhaps at best one qualification you had never heard of, and yet was supposed to solve all of your and hence your companies problems. Other methods are now stronger, and perhaps the actual solution to both your Executive Coaching and executive career development problem is within your own business friends network, if addressed correctly.

Good Luck!

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Package NOT Pay

(Jobs above Package)

So, Stephen Hester has decided not to take his bonus. It was the right decision in light of the political debate that had ensued since the Thursday announcement of his £1million bonus. Is he the first private sector director to have his pay debated in Westminster, in an actual debate in the chamber? That’s too hot in PR terms.

The problem I conclude though is that Hester’s bonus had become a political football. Something to kick around the headlines of various tabloids, while not really addressing the real problem. The public perception that we are all not in this together.

My personal view in directing successful job applicants when securing their contracts, is to concentrate on remuneration package over headline pay. The reasoning for this is three fold:

1. Pay is the headline figure. Its the bragging rights down the pub number, but as long as its above what you need and is reasonable for that job, it reality its little else
2. Most companies will have a hard number around pay when they consider an offer, but little else. Hence there will always only be so far that you can push on pay when negotiating a package, before you make yourself the nearly candidate
3. Other factors make up a remuneration package over pay. What about relocation costs, what about pension rights ad medical cover, personal development and support team, and what about your family? If you just concentrate on pay, then you shut all of these off

So where next for the great Stephen Hester debate, and is this wider than just one man?

Its my concern with the later that says the current political debate has missed an opportunity, and so did Hester. I suggested in a post in another place on Friday that Hester should take his bonus, but use it to create a UK Bankers fund. That opportunity is now lost, as is the Labour front bench’s insistence on still debating his pay in the Palace of Westminster chamber.

Under the last Government, they set-up the High Pay Commission.The High Pay Commission is an independent inquiry into top pay in the private sector. It will look at the reasons for the gap between high and low pay in the UK in recent years and why this matters. So why don’t the front benches now come together, and simply agree that something needs to be done, and hence speed-up the report due from the High Pay Commission? No, easier to debate Stephen Hester’s pay in the Sunday tabloid headlines.

Is there a wider problem with executive pay? If you look at the bankers, then it seems at present that the level of pay has stayed the same, while the way in which they are paid has changed. Bankers are quite used to this. In the 1980s they got paid in exotic materials such as gold, chocolate and oil – all to avoid or reduce their taxation bills. So taking part of their pay now in shares, and having to wait three or more years to divest them hasn’t been seen as that much of a challenge. Hester’s bonus was after all due in shares.

No, the problem now comes down to the number. When the average UK employee is paid around £26,000, how can that relate to Hester’s £1,200,000 basic and £1,000,000 bonus. But is this a good debate in what is basically a capitalist society? Even Labour front benchers have come out and said that if it was Hester’s own money that he had used to start or buy the bank, then they wouldn’t have a qualm or issue about his pay level.

So are we to assume that the Hester pay debate is limited to the public sector, and hence all i this together and fair pay actually goes to a value for money tax payer debate? If so, what’s the point of the High Pay commission?

Let’s go in another direction: what other evidence is there of excessive executive pay? One of the corporate hero’s of the last decade has been the Greek born dual-citizenship Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of EasyJet and Easy Group. But since he resigned from the board in 2009 over strategy differences, Sir Stelios has been in battle with the EasyJet board on a number of issues, including executive pay.

One of the facts he has brought to the table, is that in the past 10 years the board have awarded themselves £180M worth of shares in the business. As EasyJet has a FTSE market capitalisation of around £1.9Bn, that 10% of the company. Now in their latest pay deal, they propose to give themselves a further £8M shares over the next three years, just for this years performance. In a statement to the stock market, as he must do when his family and associated trusts own 38% of the company, he said:

“These guys are welcome to resign anytime. I know as shareholders we could easily replace them with talented executives and experience non-executive directors who will cost half as much in bonuses. We must take a stand against directors who seem to regard our company as their personal piggy bank to be dipped into at will. The gravy train of £180m free shares issued over the last decade must come to an end now.”

So, a guy who is a billionaire, and happily lives between Monaco, London and Greece for tax reasons, and has a knighthood; seems to be closer to what the High Pay Commission report should be coming out with according to most people on the street, than the politicians?

Does the average person in the street feel that we are all in this together presently? No. Do they feel like executives are treating top jobs like a gravy-train? Yes. So what is to be done about it?

I can’t see that gargantuan levels of Government legislation is the way forward. Taxation and transparency is the answer: if you get paid more than X, here’s the tax you should be paying (and for some that should be transparent); and all boards should be transparent on pay, and include a shareholder vote on it. On that I think both front benches agree, its the timing and speed of legislative input that seems the greatest difference. But even if those measure are put in place, I can’t see that that cures the fairness debate.

From the board room, the answer personally should be this:

1. Is my pay compliant with taxation and transparency?
2. Could I take less this year, and resultantly employ more people?

I don’t think we would be having this debate at this highly charged political level, if more people were in work. So, rather than taking a bonus, create a job or two. If your bonus creates more than 20 jobs, your pay proportion of your package is probably out of line with current public sentiment and government focus. You might want to think about renegotiating it.

This will not be the end of the great executive pay debate, but in the mean time: don’t think pay, think package.

Good Luck!

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