Author Archives: Larry Janis

The most underused asset at work: being human

By William Arruda

I was moderating a panel on leadership for a client of mine and received the bios of the three very accomplished executive panelists. All three bios were simply a list of credentials— impressive credentials, but that was it.

There was nothing human. Nothing personal. Nothing that gave the audience any understanding of their thoughts on leadership or success. This robotic resume in prose form is all too common, and it erases our most valuable asset: our humanity. Especially in our digital world, being yourself—your unique, human self—gives you a distinctive competitive edge.

Yet somehow we have been led to believe that at work, we must diminish our humanity, behaving (and appearing) like robots who are prized for their automation and conformity. When we get to the office, we leave our true selves at the door, ramp up our “work” mindset and keep our human traits muzzled until we leave for the evening. The belief that we need to be as efficient as an LED bulb and as knowledgeable as Wikipedia, as productive as an assembly line and as human as a doorknob, might have worked in the industrial age, but we have been in the relationship economy for decades.

Today, we can’t afford to forget the one ingredient that’s essential for business success— humanity. After all, relationships are the currency of business. More than ever, business is a truly human endeavor. (more…)

VP-HighTech BPO Sales

 

VP of Sales will be responsible to execute strategies for getting new logos and adding new clients to the portfolios to ensure growth and profitability of the accounts, effectively handhold manage client relationships at appropriate level, facilitate delivery in the account set up stage. Responsible for achieving the assigned annual revenue quota from new client’s by actively managing the named accounts and managing revenue targets assigned.

 

  • Develop specific sales plans for each named account so they can maintain business and where possible increase the sales volume
  • Target giants to sell  full set of services
  • Work to increase revenue by identifying additional products to complement what is currently sold to the existing customer base
  • Drive to generate growth through new account penetration and referral and direct efforts towards building sales
  • Translate clients strategic requirements into enabled solutions to improve their business results
  • Work with others to achieve better results and forge close working relationships and alliances in order to get things done internally for the client
  • Need to have experience of handling multiple accounts
  • Be required to work with the Prospective/New Client Team to achieve revenue growth and profitability targets
  • Position our client as a strategic partner, trusted advisor and value-creator to clients
  • Stay on top of information needed by prospective customers in an effort to serve as a resource
  • Demonstrate patience and a willingness to repeat or reinforce ideas and information until the customer understands
  • Seek to provide an appropriate solution by understanding what the customer is trying to accomplish
  • Change the sales approach or solution to accommodate the customer versus force fit the customer to an existing model
  • Understand the financial impact of developments on the industry and company
  • Orchestrate services into solutions that meet client’s business objectives, while delivering measurable results
  • Drive the creation and execution of new account plans
  • Work closely with Delivery teams to meet and exceed client expectations, and resolve relationship and/or operations issues in a timely manner for new clients
  • Collaborate with other CEs, Delivery Leaders and our clients Leaders to grow the overall portfolio
  • Participate in client visits, industry events, trade shows, conferences and/or other marketing events as necessary

Qualifications:

  • Effectively and proactively managed client’s expectations, built deep client partnerships, and developed excellent communication and executive presence to connect at all levels in the organization.
  • Experience in mining long term complex multi-million dollar accounts, services or solutions and adding new accounts
  • Ability to communicate confidently at the C-level to build meaningful internal and external relationships.
  • Broad functional knowledge within the sector and able to connect with a variety of executive level stakeholders on their specific pain-points.
  • Strong sales process and operations skills (pipeline management, forecasting, budgeting, etc.)
  • Strategically minded and able to create a consultative and solution-minded sales environment.
  • A forward & innovative thinker constantly focused on shaping the organization to meet and anticipate both near and long-term business issues
  • Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural global environment.

Key elements for the role:

  • Ability to multi-task
  • Cross Sell ability
  • Ability to work with multiple stakeholders
  • Persuasive skills
  • People management and leadership skills
  • Industry focus approach
  • Relationship management
  • Dedicated to achieving business results
  • Be a thought-leader

Education & Experience:

  • 10-15 years of experience in sales and account management
  • Preferably experience in a similar vertical / domain/Industry

Location

  • Northern California

If you are interested or know someone who might be, please let me know

Larry Janis

Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

P-516-767-3030 I C-516-445-2377

ISSG I Twitter I LinkedIn

The future of work in America: People and places, today and tomorrow

By Susan Lund, James Manyika, Liz Hilton Segel, André Dua, Bryan Hancock, Scott Rutherford, and Brent Macon

The US labor market looks markedly different today than it did two decades ago. It has been reshaped by dramatic events like the Great Recession but also by a quieter ongoing evolution in the mix and location of jobs.

In the decade ahead, the next wave of automation technologies may accelerate the pace of change. Millions of jobs could be phased out even as new ones are created. More broadly, the day-to-day nature of work could change for nearly everyone as intelligent machines become fixtures in the American workplace.

Until recently, most research on the potential effects of automation, including our own, has focused on the national-level effects. Our previous work ran multiple scenarios regarding the pace and extent of adoption. In the midpoint case, our modeling shows some jobs being phased out but sufficient numbers being added at the same time to produce net positive job growth for the United States as a whole through 2030.

The day-to-day nature of work could change for nearly everyone as intelligent machines become fixtures in the American workplace. (more…)

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 twenty first 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.

 

Mike Small is Sitel Group’s CEO – Americas responsible for all functional aspects of the group’s Americas’ organization: North America and Nearshore (Latin America) including Operations, Finance, HR, Sales & Solutions, Project Management, Workforce Management and Account Management.

As Chief Client Officer for Sitel Group, Mike led the Americas Account Management team to significantly improve business growth for clients and help drive strategic value across all industries and verticals.

Prior to joining Sitel Group, Small held leadership positions at VXI & SYMBIO Global Solutions, Capgemini and Hewlett Packard. His deep experience has a proven track record spanning two decades developing and leading high-quality teams within the BPO space and beyond. An award-winning services executive, Mike brings nearly 20 years of proven success in leading and advancing high-quality teams in BPO and ITO for Fortune 500 companies. He was the BPO Sales Director for HP Enterprise Services, responsible for leading HP’s sales efforts in the US and Canada. Mike also held leadership positions with MphasiS, an HP company, in Bangalore India, and he spent a decade at IBM in multiple leadership roles.

Mike is a graduate of the University of Toronto in Business and completed his MBA in Corporate Finance from Queen’s School of Business. He holds certifications in Project Management from York University and Portfolio Management from the University of Ontario and earned his PMP designation from PMI. Mike is based at the Sitel Group global headquarters in Miami. (more…)

New Leadership Role? Find The Right Tools For Success

By Roger Dean Duncan

People often ask me what’s the most common issue I’ve seen in four decades of executive coaching. The answer is easy: inadequate preparation for leadership.

Too many “leaders” reach their positions through attrition. They’re shifted into leadership roles because somebody else retires or otherwise moves on. They may have been competent in sales or engineering or some other role, so it’s assumed they can lead. But they often can’t.

An instructive example comes to mind. Frank, a new client, invited me to his office. He had just become CEO of a global energy firm. The founder, in his mid-80s, had finally decided to “step aside.” (He couldn’t bring himself to use the word “retire.”)

Here’s our conversation—

Frank: “I want you to write a speech for me.”

Rodger: “I don’t write speeches anymore.”

Frank: “But you can do it, can’t you?” (He knew I could do it, because earlier in my career I wrote speeches for presidential cabinet officers, U.S. Senators, and others.)

Rodger: “Yes, I can write speeches. But that’s not what I do now. I coach people on leadership and performance issues.” (more…)