Hiring Greatness by David E. Perry & Mark J. Haluska

Author:David E. Perry & Mark J. Haluska [Perry, David E. & Haluska, Mark J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119147466
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2016-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

The Importance of Planning

There's no single faster way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory than through thoughtlessness. I hope the following absolutely true story never, ever happens to you or your company:

Back in the late ′90s I was asked to finish a search project another firm had been unable to complete for more than a year. The company, a large technology multinational, had been trying to recruit a president for their office in Japan.

Within four days our head researcher had identified, qualified, and contacted the president of this client's major competitor's country manager in Japan. (This still stands as a record more than 15 years later). On paper the executive seemed ideal for the role. After speaking with Hiroshi for several hours the following week, and justifying why the client spent $6,000 to fly him to their North American head office for a face-to-face interview, I was now picking him up at the airport.

The 14-hour flight didn't appear to have taken much of a toll on Hiroshi, so I took him directly to his hotel and we went for a quick bite to eat at a neighboring outdoor market. Over dinner (breakfast for Hiroshi) we discussed the business at hand and schedule for tomorrow, which I'd mapped out with the client's HR director.

After sitting patiently in the general reception area of the client's head office for a half-hour past the appointment time, we were invited by an executive assistant to wait in the senior executive vice-president's boardroom. We waited unattended for another twenty minutes or more because he was apparently running late. When the hiring manager finally arrived he quickly introduced himself, extending his arm for the perfunctory handshake. He then plopped down in his chair, casually leafing through the briefing file I'd couriered to him the previous week.

Half-looking up from his reading, the senior executive vice-president asked my candidate, “How old are you?”

“Sixty-eight,” Hiroshi replied.

“Oh,” said the client in a startled manner. Then, without pausing: “We were hoping for someone younger. No matter. Where should we begin?”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.