|
Judith Cushman & Associates Retained Executive Search in Communications
|
|
The Cushman Report To subscribe to the email version of The Cushman Report, please send a note to info@jc-a.com with "subscribe" in the Subject line. Click here to view past editions. The Cushman Report Breaking News, Trends and Information about the Communications Marketplace July/August 1998 A few notes before I begin this month’s story of the career of "Susan," a gifted professional still struggling to achieve career goals despite challenges and roadblocks she’s encountered and that she’s partly created. Last month I began what will be a series of three vignettes. Recounting these tales creates long newsletters and I appreciate everyone’s patience in reading them (e-mail has its limitations). So, we are trying something a little different. In addition to sending our usual monthly letter, this edition is being posted (in an easier to read format) on our web site. Changing Directions on All Levels Breaking into Marcon on the West Coast… and Looking at Other Options
Now, on to Susan’s story, unlike Annie-Jo in our last case history, the tale does not have a final chapter. Susan is still exploring options and our relationship was only one small part of her journey. Susan is an "A." By that I mean she has all the pieces to succeed in a career in communications. Only 10% of the people in our business have what it takes to reach the top ranks—either on the agency or corporate side. She has the skills and most importantly the judgement, poise and intelligence to cross that great divide between the tactical and strategic practitioner which creates a greater opportunity and a greater challenge. Susan defined the path she wants to be on. Her frustration is in not achieving her potential. She has the drive and self-possession to go after her dream and feels she deserves it. That determination won’t let her accept second best and she knows what second best is. One of the hardest challenges for so focused a professional is coming to terms with the price she is paying (for pursuing her career) in the other aspects of her life. (If I could figure out that balance and explain it, I would be very rich.) Susan graduated in the late eighties with a degree from a Northern California school in Business Administration with a Computer Information systems and Marketing emphasis—Cum Laude. She was recruited by a Fortune 50 for an entry level technical/marketing job. It became a Marketing Communications position with responsibilities for promotional events, trade show planning, advertising and direct sales. Even then she realized how unresponsive a company so big can be to market forces. After a short stint, she seized the opportunity to move overseas with a high tech manufacturer as a Marketing Assistant where she created brochures and sales promotion materials. Returning to the states after about a year in Europe, she landed in New York and in 1992 joined the technology group of a top ten international PR firm. This move launched her career and she quickly shot up from a junior team member with no formal PR experience to managing pieces of major accounts. For Susan, success came so naturally that she never questioned it or thought it was unusual. Client relations, an absolute criterion for success, were never a problem. Her instincts for how to anticipate, respond and allocate time among her clients never failed, so she didn’t realize how tricky that could be. Within two years she was administering budgets over $400,000 and supervising junior staff who were only slightly younger than she was. Before the end of her second year in Public Relations, Susan had "clicked." A competing agency came after her with a bigger title and a chance to work in their corporate group, which she viewed as more strategic and issues oriented. She was now working with heads of global consulting companies helping them compete—her tools were well crafted branding and positioning programs. A company’s web site became an important means to implement corporate communications strategy. Susan became increasingly fascinated by the Internet. In less than two years, it is now 1995, Susan was offered an opportunity she could not turn down—the title of Vice President and head of the business to business division of a global PR agency. She was handed the responsibility for managing the international and domestic program of a world class telecom corporation—over a $4 million account. Her interest in new media continued. She built and supervised a staff of 18 in five offices and was responsible for its success. Her rise was spectacular, supported by a leadership that recognized her talents. The agencies were top tier and could offer her opportunities to test herself against the best. She set her own pace, always reaching for the most intellectually challenging environments where she would succeed or fail on the front line. There were no places to hide. Changing Directions on All Levels But something was missing in her work and at the same time, she needed to move back to the West Coast for personal reasons. Susan was beginning to realize that, for her, Public Relations was only a piece of the strategic communications puzzle. Her early business education and forays into marketing communications had given her a different perspective than her colleagues on the PR agency side of the business. And, there was new media. In California, she was offered a PR Director’s job and from the first day was handed marcom responsibilities for an Internet startup. For someone fascinated by the potential of the Internet, this was a job right in the middle of the fray. She was in charge of all the communications efforts to position the organization and leverage its relationships with the hottest consumer/retail Internet businesses. As fascinating as this was, there were all sorts of problems with this start-up and the management. It was a sales driven organization and lacked marketing savvy. Susan stayed with the company through several CEOs. She was promised a VP of marcom title with each management change and finally received the promotion under the second CEO. But the company’s financial difficulties mounted and it was clear that soon it might fail. By this time Susan had begun looking. She made a stab at job hunting and contacted me in May of ’97. In her e-mail Susan outlined her goals. "I am hoping to find a marketing communications position with a new media or technology-based company. While I am certainly open to working for a start-up again, it would need to be a company with strong senior management and demonstrated marketing savvy." Breaking into Marcon on the West Coast… and Looking at Other Options A month later I contacted her about exploring another opportunity. This is the note she sent presenting her credentials, "I was delighted to learn about the Public Relations opportunity with your database software client… I have a proven record of developing public relations and marketing communications strategies to successfully advance corporate and product brand identities in the face of powerful competition. I’d like to apply this experience to the remarkable business opportunities that lay before leaders in the database software market." In the juxtaposition of these two notes, I see the problem that has come to haunt her. Susan had clearly articulated her career goals, which were to build on her marcom experience in a new media/technology company. In her eagerness to explore opportunities, she was sending out mixed signals. Meanwhile, the job with my client faded away for the moment since the hiring manager failed to follow-up with an interview after he had initially expressed interest. Attempting a Strategic Move… Running Out of Time Susan tried to job hunt, but was swamped with work. She resigned herself to being potentially unemployed. She said to me that she is too loyal to a company and doesn’t take the time to pursue her own best interests. Despite thinking she would quit (which certainly implies a slackening in her work ethic) Susan kept putting in long, long hours which made it impossible to prepare for a strategic, directed move. If she were rigorous in her thinking she would have said, "There are too many issues here for me to overcome. This is not the place where I can advance my career and feel excited by the work." In our conversations, I had the sense Susan was driven by a clear vision. She confirmed that, "You are right about my goals for transitioning from PR to marcom. I enjoy having the broader exposure and a number of levers to impact an organization—to affect change in relation to a company’s overall marketing strategies. Public Relations is absolutely critical and fundamental, but I want to get closer to the business strategy to have key impact." As she approached the job search process, she mulled over the quandary she was in from a market perspective. Susan had excellent, senior level Public Relations skills for which she could have been paid top dollar (well in excess of six figures). She knew her "Plan B" would be to find a job at a first-rate PR high tech agency. Susan really didn’t want Plan B. The Quandary: Qualifying for Top Marcom Positions Her first choice was clearly stated in her original memo to me—marcom in a new media company. But, her marcom skills were weaker, at the mid-level, and despite outstanding managerial capabilities, would not qualify her for the top jobs and salary. She would be facing an uphill struggle to find just what she wanted. Looming over her head was a mortgage. In Northern California it takes two incomes to buy a home. This was not the time to be unemployed, so she opted to stay put. That didn’t last very long. The insanity at work continued. The company eventually went out of business. By January Susan saw the handwriting on the wall and began to seriously job hunt. She interviewed with headhunters, used her personal contacts and checked career focused list servers. She said she found, "Two classes of recruiters, those who are aware of how to match a candidate’s experience with the position and listen, and those who try to shove a square peg in a round hole. The ‘good’ recruiters presented appropriate opportunities, were aware of the issues and played an effective intermediary role. They created a bridge between the client and my needs, were professional, asked smart questions and facilitated the process." Susan reflected on her career goals:
During this time, my client re-entered the picture, having dropped the ball in the first round. They were so impressed with her talents they made every effort to rekindle her interest in them for a high-level corporate image (PR) spot. Marty Wright, my colleague worked tirelessly to keep the door open to negotiations. Despite the thoughtfulness and focus Susan had brought to her career goals, she continued to waver. And as long as she wavered, my client wooed her. Reflecting on the offer, Susan said, "I was impressed with the people and flattered that they wanted me. It was the right team but the wrong job." Here’s another element. She, by this time had made a connection (which I’ll talk about shortly) and was earning an attractive salary and package. My client didn’t put a competitive offer together and it was easy for Susan to turn it down simply on the basis of money. I was unable to insert myself in the negotiations—the client moved before I could slow them down and then Susan traveled on business for two weeks and was unreachable. She made the decision to reject the offer before she returned our calls. The job Susan did take (and still has) has turned out to be a major disappointment despite her best efforts to prevent it. She is a Marketing Communications Director for a small public company with a business (not consumer/retail focused) Internet product. Susan checked out the company. Industry analysts, current employees, board members, engineering friends (who could assess the product) all told her the company was sound. Her predecessor had been pushed out due to a personality conflict and Susan probed into that issue and was satisfied with the answers. In retrospect, Susan wishes she had listened to that little voice in her head that kept telling her this job wasn’t right. Within ten-weeks there were rumblings of dissent and half the marketing department left, claiming of lack of leadership and respect for the function. The most enthusiastic Directors quit and product managers confided there were product flaws that were not being fixed. To add to her dilemma, the company unexpectedly moved further away from her home and she is commuting over 2 hours a day. How could this happen? Susan asked the right questions of all the right people. We concluded at the time that she was probing for problems, these issues hadn’t surfaced. Only if you were an insider would there have been an inkling something was wrong. Susan couldn’t find what wasn’t there—yet. Her timing was three months premature. And what of her boss? Her initial take on him was right. Her advice is to do your homework and recognize there is a delicate connection between product, culture, function, team and supervisor. For Susan being passionate about the product is far more important than she thought. She added, "Pay attention to your instincts, if you feel something is not right, it’s probably not right" Succinctly put, "at the end of the day, listen to your gut." She is still looking for balance in her personal life. Susan says she is too responsible, that she is an overachiever and probably shouldn’t take her work as seriously as she does. She looked back on the move to the San Francisco area and remarked that she sees a pattern. Susan said she is always apologizing for being late coming home. "I’m behind; I’m the bad guy in my personal life." Her current job has met two goals—it has been the bridge into corporate marcom and new media, but Susan feels she needs another two years before she will be competitive for top jobs in the field. Meanwhile her salary is escalating, putting her above the market for jobs she might want. Her answer is that she will be flexible, up to a point. It’s that two income mortgage situation again. Her parting comments were, "this can’t be as good as it gets. You can’t always be on the road to getting there. I want a place to settle down. It’s harder than you would imagine to find a good home." She’s looking. Next month it’s the story of "John," a senior corporate Investor Relations professional who was downsized out of a job after more than 20 years with his company. |
|
Judith Cushman & Associates 15600 NE 8th St., Suite B1, PMB 178, Bellevue, WA 98008 s (425) 392-8660 Fax (425) 746-8629jcushman@jc-a.com s www.jc-a.com The Judith Cushman & Associates web team would appreciate feedback concerning this site. Please e-mail your comments, questions and suggestions to heathers@jc-a.com. |
|
|
Copyright © 2007 JJG&R Communications Services, Inc. |
|