John Stossel's new show is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. This week he had John Mackey, the Whole Foods CEO who wrote an Op Ed on the health care debate and how they handle things in a more free market way at Whole Foods. What amazes me is how this whole debate has been framed now to the point where the obvious advantages of a free market are completely ignored and the argument is over what level of socialism we need. Mackey understands this and articulates it well. It's really shocking…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on December 19, 2009 at 11:14am —
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December is typically a difficult month for a lot of businesses outside of the retail world. Things slow down for a number of reasons. Decision makers at many companies get busy with the holidays or are out on vacation. Deals in the process of getting done can be put on hold until after the 1st of the year if not urgent. Many companies look at year end budgets and planning for the following year and choose to hold off on things. That's the normal course of action for year end and it all makes…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on December 15, 2009 at 11:51am —
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When I make a decision that my 5 year old disagrees with I like to tell him that it’s all about me. He emphatically tells me that it’s not all about me, it’s all about God. Cracks me up. So in most cases in my life, it’s not all about me. However, in some ways in business it is all about me. Back in the Great Depression, many businesses in many industries went out of business. But not all of them. There are those in all industries who survived and came out stronger in the end.
For…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on December 9, 2009 at 10:46am —
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I heard a news report this morning when the unemployment numbers came out. The report basically said that unemployment is slowing, but the problem is that while the numbers show that companies are not laying off as many workers they aren’t hiring new workers fast enough either. So what do the numbers mean to us? I believe this is just the next step in the process, but an indication that we are getting there. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like to get lost in the big picture and in big…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on December 4, 2009 at 10:08pm —
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A real good family hike has become our Black Friday tradition, whether traveling or at home. This year we were home so we decided to check out Hanging Rock State Park in the North Carolina foothills which is inside of a couple of hours from home for us. I’ve never been there but have heard that it is a really good place to hike. So off I went this morning with my wife, our boys (age 5 and 11) and our girls (age 8 and 9). The park is named for a mountain top area that has a stretch of rock…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on November 27, 2009 at 6:30pm —
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I'm one of those goofy type A people who use to be uncomfortable on days off because I couldn't work, or at least shouldn't work. Over the years I have been able to adjust and look at holidays and obligatory trips as times to get away from business and regroup in some way. I now see those times as productive and thus look forward to them and enjoy them more. Thanksgiving has it's productive agenda built in. It's a Day Of Gratitude. I like to change the term because, while I like turkey and…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on November 25, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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I was out for a hike in nearby state park with my son's Cub Scout den on a beautiful North Carolina day today and had an interesting conversation with a friend whose son is also in the den. I love those conversations with smart people in other businesses where you can share and gain perspective outside of your normal business routine. This friend has a renewable energy business. It's a neat business model, he's got VC capital (something most of us in our business couldn't fathom), and he's in…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on November 21, 2009 at 8:38pm —
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I was out for a hike in nearby state park with my son's Cub Scout den on a beautiful North Carolina day today and had an interesting conversation with a friend whose son is also in the den. I love those conversations with smart people in other businesses where you can share and gain perspective outside of your normal business routine. This friend has a renewable energy business. It's a neat business model, he's got VC capital (something most of us in our business couldn't fathom), and he's in…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on November 21, 2009 at 8:38pm —
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Now that we know that Cash for Clunkers was the real Clunker, I've had a chance to reconsider my proposal of Cash for Candidates. Edmunds.com did a study showing that it cost the Government (that means you and me because we are the Gov's sugar daddy of course) over $24,000 per clunker deal, probably close to the total price of the new cars in most cases. What an incredible waste. And now we hear that car sales are dipping and expectations are for lower numbers over the coming months. They…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on October 29, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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It’s just Manny being Manny. That’s the line on Manny Ramirez, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Manny did steroids. That’s a bad thing. Manny seems to care only about Manny. That’s not good either. But……Manny gets the big hit…..All the time. The stats show that Manny’s home run to at bat ratio goes way up when the game is on the line and especially in big games and in the playoffs. At the most critical point, when nerves crush most players’ ability to perform, Manny just does…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on October 21, 2009 at 2:27pm —
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What is true specialization in regard to the recruiting industry, and is it important? I think the answer is changing and a specialist down the line a bit will be far more specialized than a specialist today. Here’s what I mean.
For years, specialization has been used primarily as a business development line. Not just in our business, but all over the place. “Mr. Prospective Client, I specialize in helping people just like you.” If it’s true, really true, that’s great and it will be…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on October 1, 2009 at 9:57am —
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Are we on the verge of the best recruiting market any of us has seen before? Or at least a thriving environment for recruiters? Maybe. Conditions have been incredibly tough for our business, but I think it is entirely possible that we will roll into a great period for our business. Here’s why.
My hope through the last year or so has been that it won’t take much of an improvement in general business conditions for those of us left in the recruiting business to do really…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on September 8, 2009 at 10:57am —
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The other night I had the pleasure of being on the HR Happy Hour show with Steve Boese. I'm a bit of a fish out of water when getting heavily into HR talk because I'm not an HR guy. I'm a recruiting business guy. However, it was fun and there were several topics that came up that I think are worth exploring in much greater detail. As an aside, one that did not come up was the story of the night Tracy Tran missed the game of the century in order to save the planet. A night I'll never forget and…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on August 30, 2009 at 1:11pm —
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Does anyone really think that Cash for Clunkers is going to help the economy? What a laugh. I happened to be out last week trying to help my mom trade in two cars and buy a better car for her, so I got to see the Cash for Clunkers program first hand and in full swing at as many dealerships as we could handle going to in order to shop her potential trade ins and get a good deal on a new vehicle. No doubt about it, the salespeople at all the dealers we visited were busy because of the program. We…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on August 2, 2009 at 7:03pm —
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After a recent placement I sat at my desk and thought, I really love this business. Client's Happy, Candidate's Happy, Recruiter's Happy, Me........we all win. That's the great thing about this business. When we win, we all win. And at a time like that, even a little dry period looks like a good thing in hindsight. It's over, but sobering and helps keep you grounded and focused. The problem is, right now I don't think this downturn we are in is anywhere near over. I talk to a lot of clients and…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on July 10, 2009 at 9:26am —
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This past week it was announced that Roger Penske's company was buying Saturn. This is what should have happened, but not orchestrated by the government and it should have happened months ago. The recruiting industry is impacted more by overall business conditions than most industries, so this is important stuff for all of us involved.
Back in the fall, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his right hand man Tim Geithner (now Treasury Secretary under Obama) basically told George Bush…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on June 6, 2009 at 11:34am —
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I've been working like a dog and I was not feeling particularly motivated today so I put the question out on Twitter.....
Has anyone made a placement today?
I was promptly reminded by Jerry Albright (the Twittering Maniac) that, of course not, not this crowd. Everyone on Twitter is coaching or sharing advice, not making placements. The people making placements are busy doing the placement making work. So I thought if I wanted to find someone who made a placement today,…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on May 29, 2009 at 1:36pm —
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In a conversation over the last week on RBC the subject of cold calling came up. One responder said that cold calling is unprofessional. Now to this person's defense, they were saying that they believe warm calls are more professional and that you should know something about who you are calling before you call. As I spent much of the past week cold calling, I chuckled some and thought a little about this conversation and perspective. My perspective is that this is an apples and oranges kind of…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on May 22, 2009 at 9:42am —
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Some years ago I saw a TV show where one of the characters had to write an essay on their "fatal flaw". For some reason that stuck with me and I put some real thought into what my fatal flaw is. It was well worth the time and through the process I determined that what I viewed as my "fatal flaw" or the characteristic that I could not change and that caused me the most trouble was also my greatest strength. The characteristic that I came up with is tunnel vision. I have it, there is no doubt…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on May 15, 2009 at 10:53am —
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Sponsorship used to be a pain to deal with. It's much worse now. In my opinion it is almost always not worth dealing with. I have people try to make the case all the time that with NAFTA, a TN Visa is no problem, but not clients. A great client took the time this week to lay out the sponsorship situation from a Canadian company taking someone from the US or another country and I thought this would be well worth sharing.
"There are 2 steps and the first is rather lengthy. A company…
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Added by Todd Kmiec on May 1, 2009 at 10:55am —
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