I had a chance during the weekend to squeeze out some time to watch tennis. Apart from the obvious thrill of watching the sport, I did have an ulterior motive. Who has an ulterior motive for watching tennis, you ask? And what could that motive possibly be? Maybe it was the concoction of a few sleepless nights with this new brand of coffee I’ve been having; but to me, the match seemed like a competitive arena of recruitment. Now before you start blaming my coffee and lifestyle, give me a chance to explain myself. The match was between the renowned Nadal and the new chap Almagro. Initially Almagro, surprisingly, turned out to be a force to be reckoned with - but then he lost. Reason? Almagro got beaten by the patience of Nadal. The match remained tied for both the players, who won on their serves but neither of them tried to capitalize on the opponent’s serve. Once it was 6-6 down, Nadal broke Almagro’s serve to win the set and changed the score to 7-6. The rest was all Nadal’s show, as Almagro was psychologically beaten. In the remainder of the match, Almagro failed to capitalize on the Nadal’s serves while Nadal continued to tap into his psychological warfare with great success. To add insult to injury, the poor new lad got injured too.
The analogy between the game and recruitment was clear in my almost-coffee-induced-coma head. Just as Almagro failed to aggressively respond to the opponent’s serve, we as recruiters have become so passive during the recession and are literally hoping for things to fall into our laps. Any recruiter can have his share of the pie in the hiring frenzy, but the art is to perform even in bad economic times. The recruiters in recession wait for the clients to come to them and become passive in vigorously seeking applicants due to lack of business in the market. I personally believe that recruiters should become even more aggressive during recession and steal the show. This is the time to pounce; to set you apart from everyone else. This is exactly how Nadal won the game; by being aggressive even at the receiving end. The only way to win the game is to respond at times when its least expected. Economic conditions will only be a hindrance unless people don’t make a move to get rid of it. The economic situation has been further worsened by the people who are a part of it. Blaming the economy is nothing more than an excuse for being passive.
To sum it up, all recruiters need to do is to change their attitude and respond in a better, more aggressive manner, especially now. How? By hiring reliable ATS and talent assessment service providers to create a difference; by seeking candidates to benefit the existing clients; and by looking for more and more clients in this huge market filled with numerous industries

Just last week, a friend asked a question about the way I classify employees with respect to what they deliver to their organizations. So I decided to write a post about it. When thinking about the candidates organizations may be interested in hiring, I like to keep things simple and classify them into two categories. Experts or Performers. Yes I know what your immediate reaction will be Hassan, don’t make things so simple because they aren’t. Yes, I agree often they aren’t but trust me guys – at times they are that simple. I like to look at a potential hire with these two lenses because it makes my job easier and simplifies my hiring decision.

Believe it or not, I have been pretty darn good with this. Let’s see why I believe so. Experts are perfectionists. These are the folks with years and years (at times decades) of experience under their belt in the field of their specialty. They are mature in their thinking – too mature maybe for a customer-responsive, innovative and growth-savvy  organization.

Experts weigh in their knowledge and advice on important decisions. Theirs is the carefully chosen path. Risks mitigated – all corners covered. They take pride in their expertise and profession. Often like to work in organizations with established hierarchy and a set career path. Intuition is the element that’s long been suppressed – rationale is what they relish. Organizations with mature work processes find them to be a perfect fit. In my eyes, they are process-improving machines where problems are pushed in and a rational solution will come out the other end.

Performers are the ones who are never short on ideas. You often hear them ask the WHY question in the cafeteria. You might often find them jumping the gun on tough decisions but if encouraged, their idea train would take you places you h

adn’t dreamed of. They are usually the fresh perspective guys – irrespective of the longevity of their careers. They just have the attitude of ‘why not’ and ‘what else’. Often Performers are young blood – the fresh graduate, the newly transitioned into an industry or new to management. They may be short on sound and calculated advice at times, but never short on commitment or energy. Think of the pizza delivery guy who wants to work extra hours just before the Spring break – yes that’s them. If you lead them, you don’t need to bring a sense of urgency to every task – because they do it for you. They thrive when systems, processes and structures are still taking shape and evolving.

So who should you hire!

Market trends show that a particular type of organizations is hiring Performers and it has no co-relation to the size of the company or the state of its business growth. So what sets these organizations apart? Their attitude! Yes, I call it the Responsive Attitude. It is not the one with the reactive attitude, one that waits for the competition to beat them to the next product or market before they call in the emergency board meeting. It’s not even the one with the proactive attitude, one that would be trying out too many new things in search of the Killer App or next iPhone. These organizations are structured enough to have a strategic focus and flexible enough to revisit it from time to time – just the right balance. Having the Responsive Attitude means you are following up on your plans but you are constantly in touch with your customers in various markets to see what they are saying about you, your products, your delivery process and your customer service. These organizations are seeking Performers because they are ready to put out a product that is 80% ready TODAY then release the fully tested one NEXT WEEK. Performers help them make that decision. Experts would still be covering corners, mitigating risks while the competition would be working on their second Beta release. So review your clients and see which ones have the Responsive Attitude and then you would know what to do.

I don’t mean to claim that this is the Holy Grail of talent acquisition but this has been the result of our team’s research. I would be interested in your take on the subject.

Video: Bob Phibbs speaks about the four types of customers

Bob Phibbs, also known as the Retail Doc, talks about the four basic types of customers in this video.  It is good to know that most of our customers are the types that place more importance on the experience of shopping than the items purchased.  And I know it is true because I have a friend who epitomizes this buying behavior.  The thrill of shopping at a friendly store often sweeps him off his feat and he finds himself paying a lot more than he had originally planned.

Personally I have always gone back to the store where I liked the sales people even if I didn’t find there what I was looking for the first time around.  And that is really the essence of building a strong clientele because more often than not customers would return to your store not for ‘what you are selling’ but for ‘how you are selling it.’

Session 2

Sushant Rao - Director, Head of Asia, World Economic Forum, Switzerland

Presentation Title: “South Asian Economies and the Path of Growth, the Challenges and opportunities”

1.    WEF - More than just the Davos gathering - an initiative to bring together business leaders from all walks of life

2.    Also runs a WELCOME forum - a virtual gathering of more than 10,000 world leaders for collaborative dialogue and debate

3.    Global Competitive Report - Pakistan outlook

a.     Combination of hard data through IMF and WB and Leadership Opinion Surveys

b.    Competitiveness is defined as ‘productivity’

c.     Stages of development defined - progressive process

i.    Factor-driven

ii.    Efficiency-driven

iii.    Innovation-driven

d.    Report results: World overall

i.    US came out on top due to its large market - UK went down in the list this year

ii.    BRIC economies are doing better - China has broken into the top 30

e.     Report results: Pakistan

i.    Overall ranking of 101 out of 134

ii.    Important areas:

1.   Education

2.   Security environment

3.   Business friendly policies

4.    Financial Development Report - 2008 - also available on WEF website

a.    Pakistan performed remarkably well compared to other developing financial markets

b.   No 5 in overall Banking Efficiency Index

5.   World Trade Report

a.   Done in partnership with WTO

b.  Pakistan in top 25 in FDI and foreign labor - however, still work that needs to be in the perception among the international traders about the business environment and trade environment in Pakistan

6.   Last words

a.   Trade in Inter-South Asia is only @ 4% compared with ASEAN @ 45% - so this can be improved further

Zafar Siddiqui, President CNBC Pakistan, Chairman CNBC Arabiya, Africa

Presentation Article: Media in the Emerging Markets

1.    Referred to climate change - “another flood here, time to build an arc”

a.     Discussed some facts from a recently published article

2.    Emerging Markets

a.     Powerhouses that have adopted open market policies

b.    Market Trends in Emerging Markets

i.    Liberalization - decline in support for public media - private media ownership

ii.    Increasing trend of sponsor-centric content development as opposed to content being developed in the interest of the public

iii.   The New Media Vs The Traditional Media

1.    USNews has abandoned print in favor of web publishing

2.    Blogging increasing faster than ever

3.    Many firsts of the New Media in the recent US elections

iv.    The Digital Divide

1.    This could lead to the exclusion of millions in the world, especially Africa

3.    Media in Emerging Markets

a.    With the economic downturn in the West, the international media giants will look toward the emerging markets

b.    Free and independent media are necessary for effective functioning of democratic situations

c.     Informed decision a must for the democratic process to continue which can be facilitated through a responsible and free press and media

Rishi S. Jaitly - Senior Policy Analyst, Google Inc.

Presentation Article: The Internet in 2008: Democratizing Democracy and Globalizing Globalization

1.    Google’s Mission:  A Knowledge Society

2.    The Old World - 20^th century consumed content - saw content presented by the few

3.    The New World - participation by many, empowering people to speak to the world at large

4.    AdWords - a tool to raise awareness but also raise funds

5.    Learning from the recent US elections

a.     Expand electorates through web tools and social media

b.    Build a brand - through text by creating a context - the ‘change’ brand of Obama

c.     Live debates - a way to hold your elected officials in check and ask them tough questions breaking through the established media

d.    Pushing democracy to its limit - democracy on steroids

e.     Sign up to sitemap.com to get included to Google and other search engines

6.    Globalizing globalization

a.     Internet by definition is ‘global’ and by getting your products or services online, you are participating in a global market