Author Archives: Larry Janis

Pivots are for leadership — not just strategy

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By Tori Utley

The entrepreneurial journey is not linear – and it’s certainly not easy. Because of this, it’s easy to go the wrong direction, make the wrong decision, or choose a faulty business strategy.

Whether you’re a social entrepreneur solving community or social problems or an entrepreneur bringing new technology to market, there’s one thing you must remember – sometimes you need to admit your mistakes.

Whether it’s pride, aggressive timelines, or keeping your donors or investors happy, it’s difficult to say “we messed up” or worse – “I messed up.” This pride or fear can keep us ignoring both gut feelings and hard data – and ignorance in the face of truth about a mistake doesn’t get your company or your movement anywhere.

If entrepreneurs don’t know how to correct their own shortcomings – leadership style included – it puts the entire organization at risk of failure. Similar to how you run a startup, pivots are relevant in your leadership style, too. Learn to embrace the pivot to become a better leader – and watch your movement benefit in the process.

As a young social entrepreneur, I’ve had to learn the leadership pivot the hard way: after getting it way wrong. Although it’s never comfortable to go through these pivots, this kind of leadership and acceptance transcends through your team – which gets you closer to your ultimate goal of making an impact. (more…)

Digital Marketing Sales Executive

Leadership with educationThe Digital Marketing Sales Executive owns the sales process and outcomes, leading a pursuit strategy through the origination and closing of specific sales opportunities in both established and new accounts. He/she develops relationships with key buyers and decision-makers at new and/or existing clients and acts as the point of contact for resolution and escalation of all key sales pursuit related items with the client and internally.

 

Key responsibilities include:

  • Relationship Development: establish and strengthen relationships with CMOs, business and technical buyers, and key project stakeholders. Network with Industry Leaders, as well as business partners, alliance partners, Industry Vendors, Competitors, and participates in key industry forums.
  • Client Demand Stimulation and Opportunity Generation: Identify specific sales opportunities within existing and prospective clients. Engage in activities focused at generating client awareness of the firm and/or demand for Digital Marketing, which may include developing/sending promotional materials, presenting in business forums, charitable activities, and business associations
  • Sales Process Leadership: Lead Sales Process for specific approved opportunities, complying with all internal sales stage entry/exit requirements. Construct and execute sales strategy and deal plan; including value proposition, win themes, tactics & action plan, relationship and communication plan and competitive analysis. Review solution plans, cost models and written proposals as appropriate to ensure alignment with sales strategy.
  • Deal Closure: Lead team of professionals including technical, finance, legal, procurement, HR and proposal management through deal closure. Develop and maintain deal close plan, aligning proposition to client’s selection process, evaluation criteria and process.  Understand the client’s organization and processes and manage all negotiations and closing activities accordingly.

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What is top talent and how is that identified?

As a part of our talent acquisition engagements, we ask our clients how they define “top talent” and how they would assess those traits in the interview process.  Reflecting on the insightful comments we hear every day, we thought there would be great value in a new blog in which senior executives/thought leaders share their “Take on Talent.”

This is the thirteenth in a series of blogs/interviews with senior executives who are thought leaders in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Career Development and Leadership who will share their perspectives on this ever present question.

 

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Steve Rudderham, Vice President, Global Business Services,  Kellogg Company

Steve Rudderham join Kellogg in 2016 as Vice President, Global Business Services. In this role, he is responsible for leading the current operations within GBS, continuous improvement, and global expansion. As well as the day to day operations, Steve is responsible for understanding industry trends, bench-marking against peer companies, and developing programs and projects that drive significant improvements in cost, process quality, and service delivery for multiple functions and global markets. He is also required to identify and leverage best practices, and standardize processes, policies, and practices to deliver significant improvements and savings in line with committed business cases and budgets.

He has 20 years of global experience across Business Process Outsourcing, Insurance and Lighting. He also has a broad operational background having led teams on the ground in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and India. (more…)

Global Service Delivery Director

                                                           Position Objective:

iStock_000005322448XSmall - CopyThe successful candidate will have responsibility for managing the delivery of services to maximize contribution to the success of major global clients. Services include Electronic Payment Services and other Order to Cash operations which include Credit, AR and Collections management, Cash Applications, Billing, and back office finance processing and customer services.

You will have considerable and proven people, quality and continuous improvement, and operational management skills and also possess the stature to effectively represent the business to clients, and a flexibility of approach to respond to changing demands across the business.  You will lead and work collaboratively with colleagues across sites to achieve business, and operational while always focusing on achieving Client goals.

Duties & Responsibilities:

  • Relationship development with key focus to maximize win win outsourcing/Client relationship.
  • Results focused, highly driven individual with an ability to excel in engaging teams and driving in pursuit of key financial targets and KPIs.
  • Deep expertise in Electronic Payment Services (and forms of payment) and Order to Cash processes that include Credit, Accounts Receivable, Collections Management, Cash Applications, and Billing, and back office finance processing, including accounting (Sub and General Ledger) and customer services.
  • Dynamic leadership qualities with the ability to deep dive into process/technology issues while maintaining sight of the strategic client goals – able to effectively balance ‘player/coach’ roles
  • Extensive experience running a Global Operations (BPO teams) with diverse cultural environments and the ability to lead a cohesive team in achieving challenging, quarterly Client SLAs and improvement targets

(more…)

How to retain employees through ‘servant’ leadership

zeynepBy Zeynep Ilgaz

The term “servant leadership” was coined nearly 50 years ago in an essay written by Robert K. Greenleaf; and since then, the business world has slowly but surely embraced this concept of empathy in leadership.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen top-notch companies like Zappos, Whole Foods and the Container Store publicly proclaim their affinity for this philosophy. And, in late 2016, Starbucks joined the ranks when it called its brand-new CEO a “true servant leader,” explaining that he embodies characteristics the company wants to see in all its leaders.

Servant leadership certainly seems to be growing in popularity, but it also continues to be quite misunderstood.

So, what exactly is servant leadership?
Some people see the word “servant” and mistakenly assume that servant leaders are slaves to their employees, pushovers who say “yes” to everything and are willing to sacrifice the company’s well-being to give employees what they want.

In reality, though, servant leaders are very much in charge of their companies; they just aren’t authoritarians who boss everyone around. Instead, they’re great listeners who are humble and empathetic — but still successfully balance organizational growth with these feel-good attributes. (more…)