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Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Editor’s Corner

Editor's Corner

#FordyceForum Registration Deadline Extended

by on Apr. 22, 2011


FF 2011 logo

I want to apologize to any of you who tried unsuccessfully to access our sites on Thursday, April 21. This was due to a major failure in Amazon’s hosting service, which hosts all of our parent company ERE Media, Inc.’s sites, and knocked us and thousands of other sites offline in the early morning hours. If you are interested, The Wall Street Journal wrote about the problem here.

While this is a major inconvenience, it wouldn’t do us any good to point fingers because AWS has been an excellent resource for us thus far and they are working diligently to restore order. Obviously, the Fordyce Letter website is back up and running, but unfortunately the Fordyce Forum site is still not up. With today being the final day to take advantage of the $200 early bird discount, timing couldn’t be worse as you won’t be able to register until we are back online.

As such, we are going to be extending the cut-off for an additional week. So for those of you who were planning to register for the Fordyce Forum at the $895 price, you will now have until the end of the day on Friday, April 29 to do so. In the meantime, we always accept registrations via phone. Please call 212-671-1181 if you’d like to register in that manner.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. Believe us, we were feeling it on our end as well! We hope to see you in June at the Fordyce Forum in Las Vegas!

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Business, Editor's Corner, Entrepreneurship

The NFL’s Plight: The Risk of Business Ownership

by on Mar. 14, 2011


source: nflmedia.com

image source: nflmedia.com

I’m sure that many of you have been following the news of the NFLPA and the NFL team owners’ mediation talks from the last few weeks. Not only as fans nervous about the prospect of no 2011 season, but also as business owners observing a relative scenario of team owners (business owners) vs. players (employees) — this is an interesting situation to watch unfold.

Quite simply, this a high stakes money grab, on both sides. Owners and players can’t figure out a mutually agreeable way to split all those billions that come from TV contracts, ticket sales, merchandise, sponsorship deals, and so forth. And as business owners, it’s good to pay attention as things shake out.

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Business, Editor's Corner, Entrepreneurship

Overconfidence and Business Success

by on Feb. 23, 2011


I have confidence

Recently, an article by Kimberly Weisul called Why It’s Okay to Have a Delusional CEO ran on BNET.com. This article brought research conducted by Timothy Simcoe of Boston University’s School of Management and Alberto Galasso of the University of Toronto on how companies run by overconfident CEOs were more successful.

To start, let’s take a look at two strikingly different definitions of “overconfident”:

  • From WordNet: certitude: total certainty or greater certainty than circumstances warrant.
  • From Wiktionary: presumptuous, cocksure, rude and disrespectful.

Since a great deal of our readership are CEOs, Presidents, Managing Partners, and business owners, this article brings up some interesting characteristics that are certainly applicable to the Fordyce community.

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Business, Editor's Corner

2011: What You Can Expect in Recruiting

by on Jan. 3, 2011


2011

As we close out 2010, I am very much looking forward to the coming year for The Fordyce Letter. Why? Let me share a couple of reasons:

  1. The Fordyce Letter is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2011. Can you believe it? Granted, other print publications have been around longer: the Wall Street Journal has been around since 1889, the New York Times since 1851, and Time magazine since 1923. But TFL is the only print (and web!) publication dedicated solely to the interests of the external search and placement world. That it has been around since 1971 and is still going strong is a milestone and speaks volumes about the rich tradition of the publication. We look forward to celebrating this year with you; we know that many (including myself!) “cut their teeth” on the recruiting industry by reading issues of TFL. If you have a fun memory of TFL, please do share it with us!
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Editor's Corner

The Best of Fordyce: New Year’s Resolutions for Recruiters

by on Dec. 31, 2010


cocktailparty
  1. I will do whatever is necessary to make the Year 2011 the best year of my career. I will divest myself of those activities that will not promote this objective.
  2. I promise to appreciate that, while my efforts will primarily affect my personal income, I am a part of a bigger picture and will do what I can to help my colleagues and my employer as well.
  3. I will approach every day optimistically, expecting that my activities will produce positive results rather than believing they won’t.
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Editor's Corner

The Best of Fordyce: New Year’s Resolutions for Managers

by on Dec. 31, 2010


newyearsresolution

Editor’s note: Going back through some of the Fordyce Letter archives, I discovered Paul Hawkinson’s resolutions for managers for the year 2004. As you will read, these resolutions are timeless and certainly apply today as much as they did seven years ago. I proudly share them with you today as part of the Best of Fordyce – may they inspire you to make 2011 your best year yet!

  1. I will do more for my productive consultants and less for those who are just taking up space
  2. I pledge to set optimistic, but realistic, goals for my firm and my consultants.
  3. I promise to stop listening to economic doom and gloomers and other assorted naysayers.
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Editor's Corner

Happy Holidays from The Fordyce Letter

by on Dec. 23, 2010


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My boss has kindly given us a few days off around Christmas to celebrate with our families. But before I take off to enjoy spending time with my family, I want to wish each and every one of you Happy Holidays!

This has been a fun six months for me, getting settled in to a role that was held for over twenty years by an industry legend. One can never replace someone with that much industry influence. I still occasionally get an email from Paul with encouraging words and I love the fact that he still remains interested in and observant of the business.

I appreciate the warm welcome all of you have given to me along with the encouragement, contribution, and community you have so warmly shared. I thank you for helping keep Fordyce a must-read for recruiting professionals!

I am very excited about the coming year, and I will plan to share some of my thoughts in a wrap-up article during the last week of 2010 here on FordyceLetter.com.

In the meantime, I hope that your clients pay their balances to you before 12/31, that your candidates ace all of their interviews, and that you get to really enjoy quality time with your families, friends, and loved ones over the next couple of weeks.

Happy Holidays everyone!

~Amybeth

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Editor's Corner, The Business of Recruiting

Podcast: Meet Rebecca Sargeant, The Recruiter’s Recruiter

by on Dec. 13, 2010


RebeccaSargeant

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Rebecca Sargeant, the owner of RBS Staffing Consultants, a Toronto-based recruitment firm that focuses on coaching top producing recruiters and enhancing their effectiveness and productivity. Sargeant also recruits recruiters, giving her a unique perspective on the industry since her candidates are technically her peers.

During our chat, Sargeant discusses some interesting observations she’s made while working with recruiters as candidates and offers some tips and suggestions for those who are looking for work right now. She also has a very unique approach to her business in that she offers a production guarantee to her clients. I think you will enjoy this podcast very much.

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Editor's Corner

Fun Friday: What Are You Thankful For This Year?

by on Nov. 26, 2010


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By now, many of you have eaten your fill of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie. Many of you have taken your post-Thanksgiving dinner nap in front of the TV while the Saints played the Cowboys. And the brave and daring few of you may have already been to the stores and  back to take advantage of the Black Friday shopping deals.

Did you stop to think about what you’re thankful for this year? I hope so!

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Editor's Corner, Entrepreneurship

Being A Good Leader In Tough Times

by on Nov. 24, 2010


donald__jim

A CEO’s job is never an easy one. Whether in good times or bad, a successful CEO must remain a good leader for his or her employees and the company as a whole. This is not a position for the faint of heart because it requires long hours and quite often tough decision-making. Last week, I was privileged to have been invited to the Western Washington University Business Forum here in Bellingham to hear the CEO of Haggan, Inc., Jim Donald, address some of these issues. The luncheon is an annual gathering of some of the business leaders in the community and is designed to help build links between the university and the private sector to generate financial support for student scholarships at the university.

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