WORKSHIFTER - Dispatches from the New Executive Frontier

News On Women features Linda Stewart 

Linda Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Epoch Workforce, has always understood that having the right people in the right place is the only way to ensure strong business results. She believes it is even more important today because of the convergence of four significant marketplace factors in this new economy: the pressure to deliver better business results and manage fixed costs; the growing demand for leadership talent as 77M baby-boomers begin to exit the workforce; the requirement to remain globally competitive when life cycles for products and services has decreased from an average of 5 years to less than 14 months; and the emergence of accomplished professionals and executives seeking alternatives to traditional employment.

In response to this, Linda, who is a former Executive Vice President of Fidelity Investments, created a business to help companies meet these challenges in a cost effective way and help accomplished executives find great project based work. Her business, EPOCH Workforce, a talent broker of sorts, was built around a new way to deploy and manage talent; one that helps companies solve specific business problems or accelerate critical initiatives with experienced "done it before" talent. This new workforce model, while relatively new in the US, has been practiced in Europe for decades. It represents the intersection of three well known and mature businesses, Executive Recruiting, Consulting, and Temporary Staffing of high level professionals. While this model makes great business sense for companies, it is also an attractive model for professionals including women, and EPOCH has engaged many who have established independent practices in significant project based work. The staffing industry analyst group predicts that by 2020, over 20% of the total workforce will be made up of independent contractors and EPOCH seeks to be the thought leader in this market and the "go to" organization for companies seeking the best talent in the marketplace today.

To read this directly from their website, go to http://www.newsonwomen.com/.

We officially launched our new business assessment service this week, and here is an excerpt from the press release: 

BOSTON--(Business Wire)--

EPOCH launches a complimentary service for companies looking to drive business results and reduce budgets.

Boston, MA, August 25, 2009 - Professional services firm EPOCH, a leading provider of interim executives and project-based consulting services to help companies solve business problems and execute critical initiatives, announced today it is launching a business assessment service. Through September 30^th, EPOCH will provide a free assessment of a business, working with a company's leadership to analyze how to drive business results and reduce fixed costs (travel-related expenses may apply). Following thorough discussions with key leaders in the organization, EPOCH will present a comprehensive report identifying the strategic and tactical opportunities to immediately impact the business.

ABOUT EPOCH

EPOCH is a pioneering company dedicated to The Next Way to Work and provides:

• Thought leadership on the evolution of work and consults directly with progressive organizations on how to integrate these concepts into the workplace to drive results and reduce fixed costs. 
• Talented project based resources for companies seeking senior level professionals and executives to solve business problems or accelerate critical business initiatives.  These knowledgeable and experienced resources are available on site for larger projects or virtually for smaller advisory services.
• Comprehensive products and services for consultants and freelancers to establish, grow or manage their businesses.

EPOCH works with an organization's management team to accelerate the execution of critical business initiatives by identifying and engaging proven executives who have successfully completed similar projects around the world. Accomplished professionals in their portfolio have proven track records in planning and executing complex projects here and abroad.

Please let us know if we can assist your company!

Barbara Haith has joined EPOCH as Vice President of Business Development at EPOCH, focusing her energies on educating organizations on EPOCH's model and executive talent resources while developing a strong network of long-term client partnerships for EPOCH and interim executive portfolio.  Barbara is a strategic sales leader with over 15 years experience delivering workforce and HR-related solutions to Fortune 1000 companies nationally.  She has direct experience providing outsourced recruiting and staffing solutions to clients within the Financial Services, Life Sciences, Higher Education and Technology industry sectors. Barbara's background includes 10 years as a senior manager leading high performing field sales teams.

Prior to joining EPOCH, Barbara recently served as Vice President of Business Development at TAC Worldwide where she helped customers create practical talent acquisition and workforce strategies for the high tech manufacturing, medical device, and life science industry sectors.

Before joining TAC Worldwide, Barbara was Vice President of Sales for Veritude, a Fidelity Investments company.  In that capacity, she was the primary business development leader for Managed Services Programs and Recruitment Process Outsourcing solutions, initiating and closing more than 20 multi-million dollar accounts including Millipore, EMC, Avid Technology, Akamai, Boston Scientific, JP Morgan Chase, Citizens Bank, MIT, and Columbia University.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Barbara served in senior level sales capacities within the outsourced recruiting sector with firms including Randstad and MRI International.  Earlier in her career, Barbara held executive level field sales management roles in fashion retailing for the specialty retailers Banana Republic and The Limited.

Barbara graduated from Lesley University with a degree in Organizational Development.  She resides in Boxford with her husband Malcolm, and retriever champion Hunter.

http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/epoch-announces-epoch-business-advisory-network

EPOCH launches a business advisory service to provide companies access to industry leading talent.

Boston, MA, July 16, 2009 - Professional services firm EPOCH, a leading provider of onsite project-based consulting services to help companies solve business problems and execute critical initiatives, announced today that it is launching an online business service, the Epoch Business Advisory Network. For small to midsize organizations that want access to industry leaders with deep knowledge and expertise to help with significant business issues, EPOCH's talented business advisors are available online or by phone for an hourly fee. EPOCH's portfolio of business advisors include senior level professionals within technology, strategy, marketing, human resources, sales, operations, Six Sigma, finance, risk management and compliance. All of Epoch's business advisors are carefully chosen individuals with significant experience in their chosen fields who work as independent professionals. Each Epoch business advisor welcomes the opportunity to partner with business leaders to help meet business challenges. Organizations that might benefit from collaborating with experts on critical business issues can contact Epoch at either 617.440.3087 or info@epochworkforce.com for more information.

ABOUT EPOCH
EPOCH is a pioneering provider of executive project and consulting services that help organizations obtain the executive talent they need on a free agent basis for short term or project based work and is a leading resource to independent consultants. EPOCH works with an organization's management team to accelerate the execution of critical business initiatives by identifying and engaging proven executives who have successfully completed similar projects around the world. Accomplished professionals in their portfolio have proven track records in planning and executing complex projects here and abroad. Epoch also provides independent consultants and resources with a full suite of tools, resources and support to manage their independent practices.

More information on EPOCH and its portfolio of services can be found at http://www.epochworkforce.com.
EPOCH is headquartered in Boston, MA.
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EPOCH and The Next Way to Work are service marks of EPOCH Partners, LLC.

 I thought you might be interested in what Workforce Management recently talked about......

Temp Execs Gaining Favor in a Troubled Economy
Objectivity and the lack of a political agenda allow a temporary executive to make tough decisions like layoffs and cutbacks.
By Jessica Marquez
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any employers today are finding the need to shift course given the changing economy, but they don't have the leadership they need to do so. In hard times, firms want executives who can make difficult decisions and not worry about relationships, experts say. And that's why more employers are turning to temporary executives.

     Los Angeles-based Business Talent Group, which has more than 1,500 temporary executives and 100 clients, has seen its business grow 47 percent year over year since its inception 2½ years ago. "We hear a lot from companies that want to bring in an interim executive to deal with a turnaround or crisis and who can make tough calls and be the bad guy," COO Amelia Warren Tyagi says. "And then the next person can come in and rebuild loyalty and culture."

    Workforce Management New York bureau chief Jessica Marquez recently spoke to three temporary executives who work with BTG-William Kuehn, who often temps as an interim CEO; Philip Deming, who temps as a head of HR; and Sydney Drell Reiner, who temps as a chief marketing officer-about their experiences.

William P. Kuehn
Consultant, interim CEO

    Workforce Management: How did you get involved in temporary executive work?

     William Kuehn: I had my own business, Bolstad Industries, for several years through the mid 1980s. I decided to close that down during what was really in the middle of an industrial depression. Then I decided to go into turnaround consulting. And I found that doing that kind of work as an interim executive was preferable to being a consultant because you have the authority to make the tough decisions. Since then, I have worked as an interim CFO and CEO and interim COO at a number of companies in health care and technology.

    WM: Do you prefer this to a permanent position?

     Kuehn: There is always a permanent job that I would enjoy, but the danger in a permanent job is that it could become stale and you could become a caretaker. One of the things that I find very attractive about interim executive work is that you are constantly learning and growing as a person.

    WM: What are the advantages for employers in hiring temporary executives?

     Kuehn: Often when a company wants to bring in a new CEO, they don't want to wait four to six months to conduct a search and find the ideal person, so this is a way of addressing that. The other thing is if you have nasty things that need to get done, you want someone who is willing to take the rap from employees or shareholders for making the difficult decisions. Then the new person doesn't get tagged with having made those decisions.

    WM: What are the challenges for employers in bringing on interim executives?

     Kuehn: The biggest challenge is finding someone who is qualified. Companies also need to make sure that the other executives are on board with the hire, and that the hire has the authority to make decisions. Finally, interim executives don't have the benefits of knowing all of the personalities and the culture of the company, so it's important that someone makes him or her aware of those issues.

    WM: What are the challenges for the interim executive?

     Kuehn: Again, there is the challenge of coming into a company that you don't know. Also, the executive needs to make sure that they are well-received by other executives so that they can work together as a team.

Philip Deming
Consultant, interim HR chief

    WM: How did you get involved in doing interim HR work?

     Philip Deming: I was at a company where the chief administration officer got caught embezzling money, and so we terminated that person and I took on the role along with my existing responsibilities as head of HR. That was 15 years ago.

    WM: Being the head of HR requires having a good understanding of the organization and the employees. When is it appropriate to have an interim head of HR?

     Deming: I usually get involved where a company is getting out of a crisis. For example, one client I just worked with had come out of bankruptcy and terminated their chair of the board and the CEO. People were devastated and they needed someone. So I came in and handled the human capital issues and helped establish some stability.

    WM: Isn't it challenging though to come in as an interim HR executive when you don't know the employees?

     Deming: Most HR people don't like to lay off people and do restructurings. After you do something like that, it permanently affects your relationship with the existing employees. So in that kind of situation it's helpful to have an interim HR executive.

    WM: What are the challenges that a company may face in bringing on an interim HR executive?

     Deming: HR always needs the full support of senior management. Companies need to make sure that is the case.

    WM: What are the advantages for the company in hiring an interim HR executive?

     Deming: I remember being called in by a CEO at one client who told me that they wanted the best and brightest. I told them, 'No one is going to work for this organization.' So having the advantage of an interim executive is that we can say things that are politically threatening. I have no political agenda.

Sydney Drell Reiner
Interim chief marketing officer

    WM: After years of working in top marketing positions at large companies, you decided to go temp. Why?

     Drell Reiner: For me it was a lifestyle decision. I have a little girl, Hayley, and I loved my career, but I was working 80 hours a week. Being an interim executive allows me to do what I love doing but I don't have to commit to a long period of time.

    WM: What are the advantages to employers in bringing on an interim chief marketing officer?

     Drell Reiner: I think there is a certain advantage in having someone with complete objectivity. You don't have a vested interest. It's not your stock options on the line.

    WM: But couldn't that be a double-edged sword for hiring companies?

     Drell Reiner: Well, you still have a reputation to protect. And you are being brought in for a specific purpose, so to that extent the accountability is very high.

    WM: What are the challenges for employers in hiring an interim marketing executive?

     Drell Reiner: One thing companies need to really think about when hiring an interim marketing executive is how well they will work with the product development people and the research people. That's still important even if it's a short-term position.

    WM: Other interim executives have said that they are often brought in to deal with a crisis. Is that true for you?

     Drell Reiner: Well it's a little bit of a case of the chicken and egg. If a company is looking to hire an interim chief marketing officer, it often means that they aren't ready to pull the trigger on hiring a permanent person. They know they are going through some big change and they don't know if they will keep that role.

Workforce Management Online, June 2009

Last week, Time magazine did a great story on the future of work and the workforce.  If you didn't get a chance to read it, let me share what I thought was the most compelling thing for those of you working as consultants and freelancers.....they said and predicted the following:

"Employment is at a 25 year high. Work will eventually return but it won't look the same.  We will see a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure work world.  40% of the US workforce will rent out its skill and boomers will be working as part time coaches, strategists and consultants."

I think that's terrific news for those of you workshifters out there that wonder what the future holds. 

Corporations, like people, sometimes demonstrate extremely unhealthy behaviors.  Neal Bruce of First Advantage describes the way most companies manage their workforce talent as "the binge-purge syndrome".  In other words, when times are good, companies load up on people and fixed costs.  Then, when times get tough, they purge them at a tremendous cost to the organization in terms of both pure dollars paid in severance costs and in the morale of the people left behind and the people they put out of work.

A much healthier way for businesses to manage their talent resources is to maintain a healthy weight or a core group of people which is augmented with variable cost resources for the specific time period they are needed to do specific work.  In other words, tap into deep knowledge and expertise (with done it before resources), on a variable cost basis (no recruiting, benefits or severance costs) with goal oriented people who have no political agenda (giving companies the objective feedback they need to make great business decisions).

There is a real lesson to be learned here...as we begin to come out of this economic cycle, companies need to learn from their mistakes of the past.  This time around, there is no need to binge on fixed resources when there are a growing number of people who are choosing to work as independent consultants and freelancers.  If companies begin to embrace this new interim management model, they will be a lot healthier in the long run.

Whether an organization is in a cost cutting and expense rationalization mode or is in a period of innovation, success in the new global economy is about speed.  Companies will have to transform their rather slow, measured pragmatic approach to execution into a very fast paced and not always perfect method of execution.  With product and service life cycles shrinking from a historic cycle time of five years to a cycle time of under 16 months, having the right people in the right place for the right time is how companies of the future will succeed. You know longer have what used to be the luxury of taking high potential individuals and asking them to go figure things out...the world moves too fast and your competition will get way out ahead of you.

It's about engaging freelancers an entrepreneurs who have the skills and knowledge you need to get things done quickly.  Effectiveness and speed are the new guiding principles to the next generation of successful companies.  Entrepreneurs run businesses this way...it's time for large corporations to begin to engage this talent deployment model to help drive business results and manage fixed costs.

For those of you seeking to be "Workshifters", and choosing to work as independent professionals, there is a silver lining to this economic crisis. We have begun to see genuine interest in engagement style work as a viable and compelling way to drive business results. Although using interim leaders and experienced goal oriented executives has been a well established practice in Europe for decades, I think it took an economic crisis this dramatic for companies to begin to think about deploying and utilizing talent in the United States in dramatically different ways. In these challenging times when global competition requires speeds to market unprecedented in our history and the pressure to deliver results and operate at increasing efficiencies has never been greater, companies are finally beginning to see the real value in this talent model. EPOCH has seen tremendous interest in companies willing to try this model in 2009. So, we are highly encouraged that you will begin to see real opportunities to work as free agents in all industries. So, Happy New Year and here's to the overwhelming adoption of this as a new model to support the lifestyle workshifters are seeking and to help companies drive real business results and achieve a true competitive business edge.