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/.

The Unicorn Group and Epoch Workforce form strategic partnership

Organization provides interim business management for early stage companies 

Washington, DC (April 22, 2010) - The Unicorn Group is proud to announce that Boston, MA based interim workforce solutions firm Epoch Workforce have formed a partnership.  The companies will leverage each others' resources to expand market share.

Epoch provides project based resources for companies and individuals alike.  The company specializes in helping start ups businesses, acting as a business concierge.  Epoch's professionals are available to clients on a project basis rather than full time.  This model helps drive business results while also keeping down fixed costs.  Epoch provides solutions for clients that are expert, independent and progressive.

"I am really looking forward to working closely with John and his Unicorn executives," says Linda Stewart, CEO and Founder of Epoch.  "We both have services for clients that compliment each other and we both feel strongly about helping our clients succeed with accomplished professionals that can drive business results and lower fixed costs.  We know that our combined efforts can bring a value added service to the marketplace."

John Aggrey, Chairman and CEO of the Unicorn Group is excited to work with Epoch as well.  "Epoch is a company with a growing reputation for providing interim professional and executive resources for companies.  I am looking forward to working with Linda and her team.  They provide to our clients, a needed resource as a crucial step in the pre-funding phase when the need for a full service executive search firm is often premature."

The Unicorn Group is expanding as well.  Over the next year, the company will be adding more business development people which will help to grow their business.  "When companies come to Unicorn, they are looking for us to provide services that will give them their best return on investment," said Aggrey.  "It is my job to be out there looking for the right people who can help provide that return for those companies."

About The Unicorn Group

The management of The Unicorn Group brings over 50 years of collective experience and has spent over 20 years developing a process of Executive Relationship Marketing (ERM) patterned after the Asian principles of Guanxi (pronounced Guan-chee). With a personal network of over 2,400 senior executives in the United States and around the world, we screen the technology landscape to identify hard to find, best-of-breed, early stage business solutions and present them to relevant decision-makers in targeted industry verticals across corporate America to create efficiencies and optimize productivity.  For more information, please visit http://www.useunicorn.com/ or contact CEO John Aggrey at 202-460-1150 or jwaggrey@useunicorn.com.

About EPOCH Workforce

Epoch provides business solutions for workforce management in the new economy.  For more information on how EPOCH's Business Solutions for Workforce Management can benefit your organization, please contact Linda Stewart at 617-440-3092 or e-mail us at lstewart@epochworkforce.com.

###