We Looked Into Brand Positioning in 2022, So You Don’t Have to. Here’s What We Discovered
For several entrepreneurs, it’ll only take them failing at starting a business or two before realizing that one major reason they failed was that they lacked the strategic insight to prepare for both long and short-term business growth and challenges.
However, not all entrepreneurs can afford to learn the hard way, as resources are too precious to waste on trial and error. It’s better to know what works before jumping head-first into business. One of the easiest ways to do so is to understand what your customers desire and what type of brand would impress the audience demography you’re targeting.
And that’s just what we did with our research. We compared businesses with traditional brand tones to those with modern and current ones to see how consumers responded.
Why Did We Perform This Research?
We were interested in discovering more about the kinds of companies that various consumers love and how that varied by age group.
As a business owner, realize that connecting the name of your firm and other branding elements to the demands of your customers can enhance and raise the likelihood that your enterprise will succeed.
In order to reach the study’s goal, we questioned American consumers whether they preferred patronizing companies that use classic brand tones or those with modern tones.
Why’s This Question Vital?
Every entrepreneur should be aware that choosing the right brand positioning strategy is one of the most crucial choices you’ll make when beginning or rebranding your company because it significantly affects brand positioning.
Building an outstanding brand requires a thorough understanding of your target audience and your company’s identity.
Entrepreneurs must dedicate time to getting a good name for businesses and products because the right name communicates a compelling tone that’ll enhance your brand’s positioning and have an impact on how the public perceives you.
The Main Results of Our Survey
In order to better describe our findings, we divided the data we collected into several age groups. And although the results of our survey weren’t very surprising, the reactions we received were interesting.
Here are the results of our poll of 301 people.
Customers under the age of 30 are more inclined to be captivated by businesses with a new and current brand tone, while those older will prefer a more traditional tone.
Customers between 35 and 45 years were equally split between modern and traditional brands. With how close the results were, it’s clear that this demographic is open to modern or traditional companies.
The results show that customers between the ages of 45 and 54 favor traditional businesses.
Customers aged 55 to 65 are particularly aware of the difference in the two options and strongly prefer old and traditional companies over new and modern ones.
The study found that men have no bias for modern or traditional companies.
Women, in contrast, choose trusted traditional companies over new and modern startups.
Of the 301 respondents, 148 of them preferred contemporary, modern brands, whereas the remaining 153 preferred classic, traditional brands.
Based on our results, you can build your brand with either a classic or modern tone, provided that it satisfies the needs of your target market.
Start Positioning Your Business
Building a solid brand identity requires time and dedication. So ensure you apply the results of this survey when coming up with your value proposition, advertisements, and brand name. This way, you can start infusing every element of your business with your brand tone.
Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.
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As businesses innovate and expand, they often find themselves implementing unfamiliar tactics. Personnel who are available at the start of a project can lack required skills, and challenges further down the line are bound to stump those without relevant experience. Hiring a consultant such as ITB Partners can broaden a team’s skillset temporarily without the expense of bringing on a new permanent member. Though initially costly, their services save money due to added efficiency.
When To Use a Consultant
Sometimes a project only needs an expert’s assistance in its early stages. Hiring a new employee with the necessary skillset runs the risk of the role falling outside the scope of their expertise or far below their pay grade after the specialized work is done.
Consultants are only hired for as long as needed, and the duration of the consultancy period can be determined in advance. They bring an “outsider’s perspective” to a given project. They may see common pitfalls someone less versed in a given industry may miss and can recommend the best solutions from experience.
Consultants cover a variety of specializations, so it’s crucial to select the right one for the job. There is no one-size-fits-all consulting practice that will work across the board. When deciding which consultant’s services to enlist, it’s critical to consider their areas of expertise.
What Types of Consultants Businesses Can Hire
PR agencies are instrumental, as a public relations consultant can help a company establish its online presence and advertise to target demographics. Operations consultants are available to streamline every step of a supply chain, from management practices to daily operations. A fledgling business with a solid product idea but no economic knowledge among its team may enlist a financial advisory consultant to get started.
Workplaces with limited use of computers and networking can opt to bring in a technology consultant when needed, rather than hiring a full-time IT person. There are even lean staffing consultants who help their clients work toward achieving the greatest productivity with the smallest workforce.
How To Find Qualified Consultants
After identifying what type of consultant is needed, it’s time to start searching. Besides the direct approach of researching and contacting consulting firms directly, colleagues from team members’ previous places of employment may have dealt with similar challenges in the past. These connections can point in the direction of consultants they’ve worked with previously. Job recruiting sites are also a useful resource for finding and filtering candidates. When looking for a PR company, for example, it’s possible to check out the ratings and rates of various agencies on a job board before reaching out.
Industry insiders agree that the right person for the job is not necessarily the least costly. Careful consideration should be taken to make sure all needs can be met, without paying more than the industry standard. After this cost-benefit analysis, a fair and specific contract needs to be created to protect the interests of both sides of the transaction.
When facing new challenges in the working world, utilizing whatever methods will produce the best results is crucial. Consultants make it their business to study the unique intricacies of their field to provide their clients with the tools to succeed. Though their services may seem cost-prohibitive at first, they eventually pay for themselves through the contributions to a business’s future.
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As the United States emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are deciding it is time to chase their dreams and work on starting their own business. According to research, this happened many times during state shutdowns. If this is your first time venturing into entrepreneurial aspirations, learn about what you can do to get started on the right foot with this guide from ITB Partners.
Finding a Business Idea That Works
Before doing anything else, it is crucial to find a business idea that works. It doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated. Consider your experience, skills, and education, and what you would like to do.
Perhaps you already have skills as a hairdresser and want to work for yourself. Maybe you have lots of experience with animals and would like to begin a dog walking and boarding business. There are plenty of business possibilities to help you get started.
Setting Up and Making It Legal
Once you decide what your business will involve, decide on a name for your company and begin the process of setting it up. You may choose to make it a sole proprietorship, an S-corporation, or a limited liability company.
If you choose an LLC, know that there are many benefits associated with this, such as limited liability, less paperwork, certain flexibility, and even advantages when it comes to taxes. Depending on the state you live in, there are different regulations when it comes to setting up an LLC, so make sure you research those first. If you want to outsource the paperwork and avoid dealing with an attorney, you can use a formation service to help you.
Look for events such as Network After Work. You should also start talking to people you know, even if the last time you were in touch was high school or college. There are plenty of online tools that can help you find contact information so you can reconnect again, allowing you to build your circle.
Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Company
All businesses need a marketing plan. Start putting together ideas of how you want to reach your client base. This can include using social media, direct mail marketing, having a website, going to trade shows, and using promotional materials, to name a few.
If you plan on adding images to your company’s marketing materials or you are working on an image with a graphic designer, you may find it easier to compress JPG files so you can email them with ease. However, compression can sometimes degrade the way the JPG file looks. To combat this, use a JPG-to-PDF converter, which can allow you to make your JPGs into PDFs while keeping the same quality. You can even do this with more than one file at once.
Creating Space and Enlisting Services
In getting your startup off the ground, you want to ensure that you’ve got a designated space at home where you can work. If you go as far as upgrading an unused room to a home office, you may even improve your home’s value. Just make sure that you’ve got the privacy and resources you need.
You’ll also want to set up a great website for your business and see to it that your cyber security is looked after. Online threats are growing ever more numerous and widespread, and they can threaten both your business and your customers’ information. Make sure you are all protected with a comprehensive plan.
Getting Support From a Mentor
Running a business can be hard. Rather than try to go through it alone, get help and support from a mentor. Business mentors can give you ideas on what problems you might run into and provide advice when you aren’t sure what is best for your company.
No matter what your reasons are for starting a business, it is possible to get the support and guidelines necessary for success, as long as you take everything step by step.
This article is brought to you by ITB Partners, a consortium of independent management consultants providing high value-added solutions to your problems. Our consultants are experienced leaders, discipline experts, and project managers. Our industry expertise ranges from consumer packaged goods and manufacturing to supply/chain, logistics, and the service sector. Additionally, we have depth in consumer services franchising, specifically restaurant, hospitality, retail. For more information, please contact us today!
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If we learned anything from the last two years, it is that we need to adapt to how and where we work. We learned that the world is becoming increasingly more home-centered as work becomes a virtual instead of a physical environment.
As Dr. John Cascone, Sr Vice President at Flex HR notes, “The devastating effects of the pandemic have reawakened the interest in monitoring environmental influences,” and reminds leaders to plan “to adapt quickly to moderate the impact of the crisis on the organization and its employees.”
So, with this new adaptability, here are our Flex HR top HR trends predictions for 2022:
1. An Increase in ‘Employee Wellbeing’ Benefits
As we saw in 2021, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of employee well-being, including their physical and emotional health. This now includes employees’ families, and issues like health insurance and time off for employees to care for sick family members are highly valued.
One study found that 62% of employees value benefits related to well-being and are more likely to take jobs that offer those.
As Jessica Stafford, Payroll Tax & Compliance Consultant at Flex HR notes, “Competitive businesses will continue to adopt unlimited paid time off policies in 2022,” which increases “productivity and morale” and presents “stronger financial statements and less work for HR and payroll departments.”
Therefore, it is vital to have these hybrid and work-from-home policies in writing and in the employee handbook.
Dianne Hartness, HR Client Success Manager at Flex HR shares, “As more companies become distributed and do away with office space it is important to define culture and create connection by using digital tools.”
Some examples of collaborative tools include Slack, a communication tool that promises more productivity and a more in-sync team. Another tool is QuizBreaker, a game your team can play virtually.
3. More Use of Technology and Artificial Intelligence
The use of technology has become a top priority for companies as they seek to unify their workforces. Technologies including artificial intelligence, digital transactions, and e-commerce have changed business operations and will continue to do so.
Going forward, it is likely that AI will help HR teams make better decisions and will automate and streamline administrative tasks.
With the move to more cyber time, businesses must now increase cyber security to prevent phishing and malware.
4. Focus on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Other Values Matter to Employees
Another trend that is here to stay is DEI issues, which continue to matter to employees and companies alike. As many as 45% of HR professionals are planning to focus more on issues of diversity and inclusion in the coming year, as one study indicated.
Deirdre Huff, HR Client Success Manager at Flex HR, predicts that in the coming year “more employees and job seekers” will base “their decisions to accept employment offers off how well the company handles diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
In fact, Flex HR’s clients have been requesting DEI boot camps to help train their organizations in how to be more equitable and diversity-minded. Our consultants have already begun leading boot camps and informational seminars in the DEI space.
Dr. John Cascone predicts, “The trend toward promoting cultural diversity in all sectors of the organization will continue but coupled with the emphasis on diversity of ideas, values, work styles and ethics operating under clearly defined standards of accountability and outcome performance.”
One study revealed that 80% of employees choose their job based on aligned values, proving that employees want to work at companies that have similar values to their own.
Other values of importance to employees include childcare solutions and work-life balance. In fact, companies that value work-life balance will recruit and retain more employees as the millennial generation takes over the workforce.
Dr. John Cascone maintains that “Work-life balance will shape management practice to support worker accountability and productivity.”
5. Demand for Value and Development of New Skills
In 2022, there will continue to be a huge need for Human Resources expertise because HR is evolving into a much more expansive role.
One Harvard Business Review article predicted that there will be a need to train HR professionals in 21 new types of jobs in the near future. Because of these changes, HR professionals will need to acquire a wide range of skills for which companies are often not able to train them proficiently.
6. Shifts in Recruiting Strategies, Especially to Internal
With a push to develop new skills for HR and other employees, upskilling employees and shifting recruiting strategies have become essential.
Senior Vice President of Flex HR, Phil Davis, predicts “employers will continue to see higher than normal employee turnover and rapidly escalating wages” and emphasizes the “need for effective recruitment and retention programs.”
Similarly, Heather Summers, HR Client Success Manager at Flex HR, sees the need for companies to “up their game” in the recruitment department, by re-evaluating “their benefits to employees, insurance, offer sign-on bonuses or employee referral bonuses to attract talent.”
Companies that are “winning” at recruiting have realized the importance of training and hiring from within their organization.
As Dr. John Cascone predicts, “There will be a shift away from investing dollars in recruiting new employees to invest dollars in retaining and developing employees.”
Recruiters will need to be more strategic in their approach, finding creative methods for attracting quality candidates.
Different recruiting strategies will include looking for non-traditional talent from within the company, using social media and texting, making company websites look more personable and friendlier, offering higher wages and more time off, and many other strategies we noted in last year’s article on 10 Ideas for Better Recruiting to Attract More Candidates.
Upskilling and training have become essential alternatives to recruiting.
Flex HR’s Laura Ladd, HR Client Success Manager, reminds us, “Studies show that “future-oriented” organizations are making leadership psychology training and development programs mainstream. Such programs include learning about the human brain, how we think, how we analyze data, and how we make decisions.”
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Mark Fonseca of Pragmetrix Group, leads a discussion on his company’s methodology for the assessment of Customer Loyalty to help their clients develop more effective Customer Retention Programs. To see this presentation click here.
Mark Fonseca has over 20 years of experience in consultative sales, sales management, and client relations. As a top producer at Lanier Business Products, he sold document management solutions to a range of businesses and was prolific at establishing long-term relationships.
Mark consults one on one with the most successful CEOs and Executives in Atlanta and has interviewed thousands of Executives and Business Professionals. He has experience in Sales, Sales Management, and Sales Training Best Practices. Currently, Mark is the owner of his own private men’s custom clothing and executive image consulting business. He has developed strong business relationships with heads of state, CEOs, top-level executives, and successful entrepreneurs, through one-to-one consulting and exceptional customer service.
As a Partner in Pragmetrix, Mark is responsible for Client Relations, Business Development, and conducting interviews within the Pragmetrix Customer Loyalty Assessment process.
Why Pragmetrix Group? – Insights from our Customer Assessment Process
We offer you:
Overall Customer Net Promoter Score
NPS Promoter, Passive, and Detractor Segmented Dashboards
Unedited Customer Insights Assessment Transcripts
S.W.O.T Analysis Based on the Voice of Your Customer
Growth Opportunities Based on the Voice of Your Customer
What Our Customers Are Saying
“With the words of your customers as their foundation, they extract the issues that your business needs to focus on, so that your customers become promoters, and by extension, you sell more. They were responsive, creative, and the work product is superb. The best money you will ever spend at your company, period!”
Stephen Newell
CEO
Mission Mobility
Mark Fonseca, PARTNER
Pragmetrix Group
mark@pragmetrix.com
(404) 983 – 4121
This week I had an interesting conversation with a senior executive recently released from a major brand. Let’s call him John. He has the benefit of an Outplacement Program, which will be helpful as he has not had to look for a new job in a very long time. He reconnected with me to discuss his situation and to seek my help. John was interested in my opinion of his goals relative to the current market for his skill set.
John gave me the background on his separation, saying that it related primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic. His former company is restructuring to better adapt to the competitive situation, eliminating his position. He went on to say that their culture has deteriorated. He said it had reached a point where he no longer felt comfortable working there. He was upbeat about his prospects, however.
John’s recap surprised me as his company has executed a successful re-positioning program. It has been rocking the market. I was disappointed to hear about their current situation. I had thought their culture was far stronger given their recent success.
When I ask job seekers to describe the ideal situation they seek, I usually hear the same response. People are looking for a growing brand with products they respect. They want to join a company that is a good corporate citizen with a healthy culture that rewards excellence. You know, utopia. More precisely, a major brand like the one they just left, only better. John was not an exception. He is looking for the same thing. However, he will soon learn that his opportunity is with emerging brands, not established companies.
The demand for people like John is with companies that can only aspire to his ideal at some future date. Even before the effects of the pandemic, employers were more focused on maintaining their competitive position and profitability than building a culture for long-term success. These companies are struggling to remain relevant.
I do not mean to say that no one is trying to create a great work environment. I have several clients, albeit mostly startups and emerging brands, that are making an effort to build distinctive cultures. They are following established models that support standard management practices. I applaud their wisdom and enjoy helping them staff their team.
Other clients have become spectacular failures, in part because they did not make it a priority to create a culture supportive of their ambitions. In some cases, the culture was rotten at the very top of the organization. In one situation, the Executive Team was so out of sync regarding strategy and execution that they inadvertently created a chaotic environment. The result was Chapter 11 reorganization and, ultimately, liquidation of the business. I could write a book about that situation, but the short story is an excellent concept destroyed by incompetent leadership.
Maintaining a culture to support success through each stage of a company’s life cycle is not easy. Share on XOften, the people who helped you through startup, for example, are not viable as you move into rapid growth employing professional managers. Some people will be able to adapt to the challenge, but others won’t. How do you tell an employee that helped the brand achieve the initial success that they cannot go to the promised land? All you can do is make their separation as positive as possible, recognizing them for their contribution to the company.
Having completed a bit of research, I found a rich bibliography for your consideration. Much of what I found describes how to build a culture of excellence. I have provided links at the end of this article if you are interested in further reading.
Healthy cultures do not just happen. It requires a concerted effort. I have seen the powerful effect of a rigorous focus in this regard. Companies that build their cultures enjoy the benefits of sustained success, including a definite recruiting advantage. If you believe you have a competitive product and an effective strategy, ensure success by focusing on your culture. This effort will probably require the help of outside resources. There are many firms to consider that will enrich your process with credibility and expertise. Their experience will help you proceed at a quicker pace while avoiding common mistakes. If you want to build a culture of excellence, I suggest you get started immediately and reach out to professionals for help and guidance.
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You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” Saint Augustine
Stephen H Dawson, DSL
You have found the person you need to serve in the role you need to be filled. They have agreed to serve in the role. You have solved your strategic planning problem by resolving your people problem. You have realized success. I congratulate you on your achievement.
We have covered much ground in this commentary series. It is the ground from day one, not only the assessing, matching, and interviewing work. Today, we need to review some of what you could have done as you made your decisions over the past several months. It is not my position to either criticize, condemn or complain about your actions. It is my intent to further develop you as a leader by considering where you stand after your recent events of dealing with the people problems in your organization.
I shared several weeks back we still need to discuss physical impairments resulting in a disability when you consider selecting members for your organization. I held off on discussing this topic with you until after you made your hiring decision for a reason. I maintain the position the first requirement for any applicant is for them to hold the skills necessary to fill the role where they would like to serve. Let’s talk now about the risk you incur by being blinded from reason. Think about all we have covered in our time together to help you with your strategic planning problem and how it developed you as a leader.
SUCCESS
The concept of success means many different things to everyone. You had a specific objective. We walked out on how to accomplish your objective. You made your decisions. You took action. You met the requirements you assigned to your objective. This combination is what I call a clear success.
What we cannot prove is if you were humble enough during your work to locate a replacement member of your organization. We discussed the power of humility several weeks back. What I can tell you is my heart knows when I have not been humble enough toward others. I know it by my being uncomfortable to be around them after I take action. How about you? Are you feeling good about how you acted recently around your people?
BLINDNESS
I discussed several weeks back how you need to leverage general counsel and human resources. Their work is outside of your expertise. You need their input, but you run the business. It is reasonable to feel as though you would like to have more and less of their input at the same time. This feeling results from the combination of your staffing choice having a significant impact on your organization, the new member, and the impact of using their skills to your maximum benefit.
How about unconscious bias? Did you make your staffing selection based on an affinity for a group of similarities? Are you feeling good about how you acted recently around your people?
I intend to use the following story to connect as much, if not all, of the material we have covered in this commentary series. I hope the story hits you square in your chest as it did for me when I first read it. I hold this hope for you as the chest is where we seem to measure how we know right from wrong.
Hingson and Flory tell the story of Michael Hingson. Hingson went to work on September 11, 2001, as he had for a long time. He worked on the seventy-eighth floor of the World Trade Center in New York City. A plane crashed into the building fifteen stories below him that day. His thoughts after the crash were to call his wife and inform her he was alive, then see to the safety of his coworkers as part of a building evacuation process. Hingson shared many people he worked with, along with people he did not work with on the same floor, were scared to the point they could not evacuate. Evacuation meant overcoming the obstacle of the horrific damage on the sixty-third floor. Hingson did what needed to be done at the moment. He started walking to the stairwell, asking those around him to follow him onto the stairs. The people, one by one, moved to follow him. They crawled over demolished concrete, beside raging fires, and around those who died during the plane crash. Hingson led several, then dozens, then hundreds of people out of the World Trade Center, gaining new followers floor by floor before the building collapsed less than five minutes after he exited the building.
Now, the context. Hingson is blind. He lost his eyesight years before this 2001 event. Hingson accomplished crisis communications, succession planning, agile project management, phased project management, and the preservation of life that day. Hingson did have his guide dog with him. Hingson is what I call a leader, a servant, a hero.
I urge you to contextualize your efforts to lead given Hingson and evaluate if your executive leadership abilities, your willingness to serve your followers, your commitment to do what I called right during our many discussions of morality matches what your organization needs to accomplish. What I do not know is what you call right. Your organization may need to accomplish in the next few minutes something it did not plan to accomplish. Our discussion of market sector stability, along with the acquisitions and mergers listed daily in the newspapers over the past several years, means your organization is most likely going to face something they need to accomplish outside of your planning. The need may not be a crisis, but it will probably be a substantial turn of events for you and those you lead. My intent is not to scare you. My intent is to focus you on the importance of not leading from an isolated perspective. Hingson had no perspective of eyesight, but he had the perspective to lead followers regardless of the nature of the circumstances by contextualizing the circumstances. This combination is called strategic vision.
The message of the Hingson story is simple. Do not let your leadership work be outside of your organization but an integral part of your organization. Otherwise, you probably would do well not to pursue either your project or serve as a leader. The more profound point here is your organization is not static in construct.
I first read the story of Michael Hingson in the newspaper on September 14, 2001, during breakfast. I was living in the Washington, D.C. area at the time. I was trying to make sense of what happened over the past few days. The part of the building where I used to work did not exist anymore. I reflected on the choices I had made over the past 72-hours. It was a difficult week for me.
The events I experienced 20 years ago are similar to the effort you are trying to achieve now: make more sense of how you solved your strategic planning problem by resolving your people problem. The context is different, but the needs and objectives are the same. You are trying to know if you did what you needed to do to the best of your ability at the time.
A close look at things when they happen is a sound approach to getting a good perspective on things. Then, stepping back and reviewing events later to see how things look after the dust settles. If it helps you understand things now, I still have the Michael Hingson story article I tore out of the newspaper after breakfast that morning.
NEXT
This commentary series on the topic of strategic planning will conclude next week. I will share with you next week some guidance on the next steps you would do well to consider in your leadership development journey. I hold the position development is a journey, not a single destination known as destiny. Development is a series of destinations comprising the journey.
We will discuss next week the most controversial topic I handle in my work. It is the concept of truth. The truth scares people. Truth moves people. Truth is not discussed much in public circles today. If you desire to serve as a leader and realize anything close to the concept of success, then you cannot avoid the truth. Truth is realized by reason. Reason is manifested in process. Needless to say, my work has me helping people who are struggling to gain a good grip on truth. This understanding of truth is the basis of our work going forward. Our basis has been prepared by the foundation we have established together.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
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I work with many startups and emerging brands. They have become the core of my business. It gives me great satisfaction in helping them with their recruiting needs. When my colleagues and I created ITB Partners, our strategy was to focus on this sector. Companies in this phase of their life cycle face decisions that carry significant risk. One or two bad choices can sink an otherwise viable company, even if they have proof of concept. We believed we could help emerging companies achieve success by avoiding business-killing mistakes. Recruiting new employees is one of those high-risk activities.
A growing company will eventually need to increase its staffing level. They must approach this high potential risk with caution. For many of my clients, i.e., emerging brands, the first consideration is to find an outsourced solution. Many job functions can be outsourced, including accounting and human resources. A recent client had even outsourced most of their marketing function. However, a viable outsourcing strategy requires a strategic-level employee on staff to manage the outsourced function.
A good example is to hire a Controller or CFO to manage the outsourced accounting function and interface with the financial community and investors. Mission-critical job functions probably cannot and should not be outsourced. Early on, outsourcing non-mission-critical job functions may be a better use of a company’s resources. It is also a valuable way to reduce the risk associated with an expanding workforce.
Some Pitfalls.
Adding too much staff too soon.
Failure to use outsourced solutions
Lack of prioritization of positions to fill
Lack of processes for recruiting and selection
Lack of training for interviewing and selection
Lack of a coherent reason why someone should join your company
Recruiting for startups is different from hiring for a going concern. As I say, the risk is more significant. The costs for hiring a non-competent employee or someone whose behavioral issues negatively impact the culture may significantly affect a small company. Established companies have less difficulty attracting good employees. They have people, processes, and systems to ensure an effective recruiting and selection process and lower risk profile. They have an established culture and look to fill positions with people who reflect their mission.
Small, emerging companies have fewer resources, are less political, and have a bias for action. Speed rules! Entrepreneurs often have unconventional management styles. They can be chaotic. Employees working in these environments must demonstrate a high degree of flexibility and adaptability. Job roles have a wider scope, requiring employees to have a broader experience. It requires employees with greater self-confidence who are comfortable in an ambiguous, less-structured work environment. Many entrepreneurs lack training in recruiting, selection, onboarding, and retention. Job descriptions are challenging to create as ideal candidate profiles, and behavioral components may be more important than skills and experience. Finally, an emerging company may have more difficulty selling employment opportunities as their brands are unknown.
What to Do?
Begin with a plan!
Set staffing priorities w/timeline for hires
Can function/position be outsourced?
Establish processes for recruiting, selection, and onboarding.
Determine training needs of key managers and decision-makers.
Determine selection criteria (skills, experience, cultural fit)
Determine employer’s Unique Selling Proposition – Why should I join this company?
Let’s assume that you have a process in place to determine if a function should be covered by a contractor, an outside resource provider, or to hire W-2 employees. You have determined that you need a significant addition to staff in one or more mission-critical areas. Your solution is to hire employees to meet this need. How should you proceed?
As with any initiative in business or life generally, a successful outcome usually begins with a plan. Actionable data is required to develop an effective plan. So, what is the information you need? First, understand the work to be done and the importance of that work to the current year P&L. In other words, a cost-benefit analysis for each position you need to fill. This information provides the priority for filling each position.
To summarize, you have determined that increasing your company’s employment base is necessary for growth. But adding employees carries risk. You understand that minimizing this risk is critical to your company’s survival. Fortunately, you can mitigate this risk by improving the skills of those responsible for recruiting and selection. The solution is to find a consultant or a program that will give your managers the training and development they need. The cost of failure in this regard cannot be understated.
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I first stood at the Lincoln Memorial the day of Live Aid. It was my first trip to Washington, D.C. I almost kept going to Philadelphia to stand outside the concert event and hear the music. I decided to stay in D.C. and watch the concert from a new technology called jumbotrons staged on the National Mall. I realized I was experiencing history and that it was best I stop and take in the events.
I shared previously about Lincoln. I wondered what would be the outcome of the Live Aid effort that day in D.C. I wondered if Abraham Lincoln realized in 1858 when he explained how a divided house could not stand he would be dead in less than seven years by assassination. I stood at his memorial in 1985 and wondered why he was not buried in D.C. I concluded it did not matter where he is buried. Death is death. The best that can be done going forward is to honor the memories, the actions, and the contributions of the dead.
You, as the leader of your organization, have selected job applicants to be candidates for each role you need to be filled in your organization. You do not need to spend any more time considering the end of the tenure for those you need to move out of your organization. You have stepped through assessing each applicant’s application package, identified what seems to be a match between their application package and your role opportunity, had the screening call conducted by way of your direction, read the call outcomes, and have decided to speak with a candidate yourself. You now must decide how much freedom you will give your candidate to accomplish their work in your organization through the role they serve. You are considering death and life simultaneously as you move to care for the organization. This decision is similar to a shepherd and the flock they supervise.
A sheep has no fangs or claws. They are dependent on the shepherd to protect them by leading, guiding, and directing them. They lead by being out front of them. They guide by being beside them. They direct by being behind them. The shepherd leads them to grass to eat. The shepherd does not mandate which tuft of grass a sheep must eat. Each sheep has some degree of freedom in its relationship with its shepherd.
Let’s look at a formula I have studied for years to help me evaluate the possibility someone would want to purchase something from me as a means to guide your interview conversations. A buyer may want to purchase a product I am selling or my labor in the form of services. The formula has three parts to it. Each part must have enough value in the eye of the buyer to purchase whatever it is I am selling. You also need these three parts to have enough value in both your eyes and in the eyes of the candidate to proceed through your evaluation process.
INTEREST
You are selling a job by way of a compensation package. There may be fame as an outcome of the job, but no one can guarantee fame. The exchange of money in your labor budget for the total services delivered from a worker is the deal. Is this deal interesting to you as the service buyer? Is this deal interesting to the candidate as the service seller?
Now, the candidate has the same thoughts in mind but is reserved in their perspective. They see you are selling your compensation package, and they are the buyer through their services currency. How do I know this is true? Because they would be talking to a better deal for their services currency than talking to you about your compensation package. You have the best offer that has come to them. They most likely are always looking for a better deal. You most likely are always looking for a better deal. A better offer could come at any time. So, the offer from you has a boundary to it called time.
Here are some clear indications of interest on both your part and on the part of the candidate. Are they looking you in your eyes to listen to what you are telling them? Are you looking into their eyes? Are they taking notes during your discussion with them? Are you taking notes about their discussion performance? Are they able to repeat back to you any of the statements or points you make to them? Are you able to repeat back to them anything they shared during the conversation that is new to you? Are they able to provide a meaningful answer to a question you ask them about the information you have shared with them? Are you able to provide a meaningful answer to a question they ask you about the information you have shared with them? Are they involved with social networking during your conversation with them? Are you multitasking during the conversation with them?
TRUST
A buyer may want what is sold, but they do not trust the seller. If a buyer does not trust what is being sold, then they have no interest in what is being sold. Trust is the connector of evidence and faith. Evidence is clear proof. An example of evidence is the paycheck arriving to the worker every pay cycle. Faith is the assurance the evidence will arrive. An example of faith is the time between paydays. An example of trust is the inability to prove the paycheck will be delivered to the worker on payday but convinced the paycheck will come as agreed.
You, as the interviewer, may conclude the candidate has the skills, but you do not trust they will deliver those skills to you for the compensation you deliver to them. You also may conclude they are interested in doing the work you want them to do for you, but they also have an interest to go and fix parts of your organization they believe need fixing beyond the work you want them to do.
They, as the candidate, may realize you are not a person they want to walk with now. You can protect, lead, guide, and direct them, but they do not want to eat the grass you have provided for them. They may have a worldview that does not overlap suitably with yours or the organization.
Any of these reasons and more cause the candidate to stop being a candidate. You are unable to provide them the trust necessary to do their role in a manner they prefer that is also acceptable to you. Their candidacy is dead. Move on without remorse. Do not be concerned with what may occur with them tomorrow as a future applicant to another role you need to be filled.
MONEY
You have what you define as a great job opening. You do not have enough money to pay someone to do the work. Stop what you are doing. You do not need to interview anyone. You need to find a budget to spend.
Asking anyone to work for less than what the work is worth demonstrates poor judgment. Your trust as a leader would be damaged by such a choice, perhaps beyond repair. It is not worth the hassles of asking anyone to take work that is not funded fairly.
Now, what is fair? That answer is between you and the service supplier. If you are convinced you have a fair compensation package, then this is all you need to know for fairness. If your candidate does not agree that what comprises your compensation package is fair to them, then you are still at a stopping point with their candidacy.
What you are seeing at this point in your evaluation process is the concept of equal pay for equal work in terms of economic equity. You do not have a pay gap, as the candidate is not being paid because they are not a member of your organization. Your best and final offer is what it is. I am not talking about job promotions, pay raises, or any other role modification. I am only discussing bringing a new person into your organization. What happens to them after they are brought into your organization is an altogether different thought construct based on the linear connection of your worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue. My hope for you is you walk out the linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue with those you lead in a fair and clear manner. I hold this hope as I prefer you to be a credible leader.
RECOMMENDATIONS
I recommend you take time this week to practice your interview methodology and cadence. Go so far as to prepare the meal menu you will eat before the interview to have all parts of yourself ready to hold the discussion.
I also recommend you do not multitask during the interview discussion. There is nothing good that comes from multitasking during a crucial discussion. All that is demonstrated by multitasking during a crucial discussion is chaos is present in your organization. If you need to communicate to the candidate you have chaos in your organization, then you can do so effectively by way of a single sentence, either verbally or in writing. Then, stop multitasking and focus on having a productive conversation.
Finally, gain a commitment from the candidate during the conversation. See how interested they are in joining your organization by putting actions to their words. Ask them to write something and email it to you. Write, in the form of a researched-based effort. This action is a great way to learn quickly how interested a candidate is in joining your organization based on all they have learned to this point about you, the role, and the organization.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
“But pattern-matching doesn’t equal comprehension.” Peter Watts
Stephen H Dawson, DSL
The thought of finding a perfect job applicant to fill any role in any organization seems impossible. It seems impossible because it is impossible. It is impossible because people are imperfect. They are imperfect as they tend to change over time.
The matching work at hand involves much more than only considering a suitable match between the job applicant and each role you have to fill. It also involves considering the match between the job applicant and the organization. Remember, your organization includes any matrix-supplied folks involved in doing work with your people, your customers, your strategic partners, and your supply chain network. The job analysis we discussed last week may not have included these attributes. However, they need to be in there. If they are not, then the job analysis must be revised to include them as applicable.
OK, let’s proceed from the point of having a satisfactory job analysis as we consider job applicants to see if you have a viable candidate for each role you need to fill. We need to first look at some terms before looking at applicants. These facts may seem harsh, but they are a crucial part of your assessment work.
ORGANIZATION ANTIBODIES
An antibody does the work to neutralize either a pathogenic bacteria or virus. The intent of the pathogenic is to help, but it instead causes harm. An organization antibody is a person who does not want to follow your leadership. They resist your leadership either passively or actively.
Nicholas Evans described how an antibody could suffer the pursuit of innovation. Evans cited an article by Mitra Best, who described antibodies in a corporate setting. Both Evans and Best provided recommendations about how to remediate each antibody form. What they did not do address in their writings is why an organization antibody has so much power over their boss.
Think about the folks in your organization who have been there a long time. They have not been promoted to a senior role because they have either a character deficiency, a skills deficiency, or both. They hold the belief they know it all and tell anyone who will listen to them they know it all. This person is an example of an organization antibody. Deep down, they believe they are running the organization. They believe they are doing what is best for the organization. They refuse to listen to reason. Therefore, they have no ability to have cognitive awareness to know they are causing harm. They are as cancer is to the body.
CANCER
Cancer is a disease defined by abnormal cell growth. It is possible cancer could be misinterpreted as a nodule, a small bump. A small bump could occur due to one of several conditions. The indication of a cancer being present does not appear until cancer grows to be a problem. Untreated cancer spreads in a condition known as metastasis. Early testing for cancer helps to overcome cancer unawareness. The value of proper testing here is beyond measure.
I shared several weeks back, “I cannot say a person is evil, as I do not believe it is possible. I can say their actions are or are not evil.” I maintain this position. I shared a few weeks later about evil. The attributes of organization antibodies and cancer have considerable overlap with one another. They both have no ability to have cognitive awareness to know they are causing harm. They both consume a massive amount of resources as they spread. They both spread through the host, either the body or the organization, in a progressive manner. The rate of spreading is inconsistent, so not relative to objective analysis. They both have a high mortality rate, both literally and figuratively.
An organization member allowed to mature into an organization antibody is an event that does not occur overnight. It is without question the presence of an organization antibody is the result of a failure by leadership, human resources, and learning & development. Note I do not identify either a manager or a team leader as responsible here. I hold this position because their roles are not able to have an overarching view of the organization. The reasons for such failures are endless, but the leadership, human resources, and learning & development staff hold collective responsibility for the damages caused by an organization antibody.
I hold the position the only way to treat an organization’s antibody is to remove them from the organization and place their leader on a rapid performance improvement plan. If I do not see substantial adherence to the performance improvement plan by their no-longer leader in my eyes, then their no-longer leader is no longer a part of my organization. The corrective action to address the human resources poor performance is to replace the human resources business partner serving my organization immediately. The corrective action to address the learning & development staff performance is to replace their leader serving my organization and place all learning & development staff on a rapid performance improvement plan. All activities and I mean all activities, performed by the learning & development staff for my organization cease until there is credible evidence they are each qualified to perform learning & development work. The support necessary for the human resources and learning & development staff corrective actions may require support from your boss. You should be able to get it without difficulty since you have credible proof of the harm caused to the organization by their respective failures to deliver quality work.
SKILLS
The term credential is the combination of work experience, education, degrees, certifications, and licenses earned and held by an individual that each has relevance to each role you need to fill in your organization. These individual credentials then feed into forming organization credentials. All aspects of any credential must be validated during the job application process by your organization. You must hold, without a doubt, a clear understanding of the abilities each job applicant holds today. What credentials they held in the past may be nice to know, but that was then. You are evaluating now.
Gaining credentials from a source that is not accredited is possible, but the validation process becomes much more costly to accomplish. It may not be possible to validate a credential that is not from an accredited source. A non-validated credential is termed as hope but not a credential.
PERSONALITY
We discussed last week the value of third-party testing. The cost of testing each applicant may not be worth the expense. The need is still present to know the personality of each applicant. If you do not have the ability to fund personality testing a job applicant you advance to candidate status to know if they are a viable candidate, then your ability to advance applicants through your evaluation process is reduced. How much of a risk can you afford to take at this point in the assessing-to-matching process?
You have rooted out those job applicants who do not hold the skills necessary to fill each role you need to be filled in your organization. You know you cannot afford to interject harm to your organization by bringing in an organization antibody. You are wondering if you can afford to measure a personality without an objective third-party test. The answer is you cannot. You will have to bear the risk of going forward without measuring personality should you chose not to use third-party personality testing. This risk will have to be managed as any other risk.
WORLDVIEW
We discussed worldview a few weeks back. You are wondering how the applicant’s worldview matches both your worldview and the worldview held by those in your organization. You can get this information from the screening call. I addressed last week how to go about this action during the interview you conduct with them. Specifically, you are looking for their position on social and political matters. You must follow fair employment laws to be a credible leader. So, how do you get this information?
You get this information by asking three questions. One question focused on a social aspect. One question focused on a political aspect. Then, one question overlapping both a social and political aspect. Use three different aspects in these three questions. Write the questions to be as figurative as possible. Look for timeless topics common across all cultures, present in all points of history, having reasonable belief they will be present in the future. These answers will provide you enough information to know if you have an applicant that can advance to a candidate.
RECOMMENDATIONS
If you are matching applicants without a third-party personality evaluation, then you must accomplish this evaluation in the next step of your interviewing process. You cannot experience success in finding a suitable candidate without performing a clear personality evaluation. Prepare for the costs of third-party personality evaluations.
Record all screening calls. Have the calls transcribed. Read the entire transcript. Listen to the parts of the audio recording you find interesting by way of the transcript.
Match the notes of the person conducting the screening call to the call transcript. Identify any mismatch in what the caller observed in comparison to the response of the applicant. This mismatch will help you understand if there is a personality or worldview mismatch with your organization. It will also help you qualify the work of the person conducting the screening call. This collective understanding will arrive because you have a satisfactory job analysis, you wrote the questions for the screening call, and you placed boundaries on the screening call. This reasoning is found in the plan we discussed last week.
I recommend you take time this week to consider the impact of an organization antibody in your organization. Prepare your screening call questions based on the material we covered this week. Finally, look for providers of counseled results interpretation to assist you in selecting applicants to become candidates based on the plan we discussed last week.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
several entrepreneurs, it’ll only take them failing at starting a business or two before realizing that one major reason they failed was that they lacked the strategic insight to prepare for both long and short-term business growth and challenges. 
Every entrepreneur should be aware that choosing the right brand positioning strategy is one of the most crucial choices you’ll make when beginning or rebranding your company because it significantly affects brand positioning.
As the United States emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are deciding it is time to chase their dreams and work on starting their own business. According to research, this happened many times during state shutdowns. If this is your first time venturing into entrepreneurial aspirations, learn about what you can do to get started on the right foot with this guide from 
If we learned anything from the last two years, it is that we need to adapt to how and where we work. We learned that the world is becoming increasingly more home-centered as work becomes a virtual instead of a physical environment.
This week I had an interesting conversation with a senior executive recently released from a major brand. Let’s call him John. He has the benefit of an Outplacement Program, which will be helpful as he has not had to look for a new job in a very long time. He reconnected with me to discuss his situation and to seek my help. John was interested in my opinion of his goals relative to the current market for his skill set.
I work with many startups and emerging brands. They have become the core of my business. It gives me great satisfaction in helping them with their recruiting needs. When my colleagues and I created ITB Partners, our strategy was to focus on this sector. Companies in this phase of their life cycle face decisions that carry significant risk. One or two bad choices can sink an otherwise viable company, even if they have proof of concept. We believed we could help emerging companies achieve success by avoiding business-killing mistakes. Recruiting new employees is one of those high-risk activities.
