Someone needs to take a chance

By now we all know that the worldwide economy has slipped into recession. Daily we are bombarded with tales of woe. Layoff numbers are reported with great zeal by the media and somewhere, somehow hope seems to be resting with the new administration to make it better. Here is a quick newsflash. They Can't! Not Obama, not the congress and not the government. No, the change must come from the people and from the private sector. The financial crisis is largely behind us, but it looms large. The banks were so badly hurt that they are now affraid to lend. Isn't that why banks are in business?

If the banks won't take a risk on new ventures or capital, and companies move into layoff mode thus further tightening the flow of money, then we are stuck. Someone needs to take a risk. Forward thinking companies need to look past the next quarter or half, and start hiring again. I know many companies are, but it needs to become more widespread. Recession is not a financial condition, it is an attitude. No politician is so captivating that he's going to change that attitude. Mr. Obama does not stand a chance if this is what he's trying for. No, the change must come in the boardrooms, in the corporate halls where decisions are made. Forward thinking execs would be using this buying opportunity to snap up new tallent. Sticking our heads in the sand, doing nothing and hoping for some change to be thrust upon us will leave us in the dust.

Online job boards

More and more the cost of using these tools is increasing and candidates seem to be finding them boring as well. When they were new, they were a low cost and exciting way to connect recruiters and candidates and ultimately, place good people in good positions. Well, the not so new, but newer face on that market seems to be Craig's list. Really it is structured as an extension of the old newsprint classified ads where anything and everything can be found. I admit to mixed results here, but for some positions it seems to be hitting a key demographic. Perhaps job seekers will look there more often. Clearly it offers an opportunity and replies can be kept in confidence.

Give it a try, you might find what you're looking for. You can of course contact us directly through

http://www.milestoneexec.com

New website

Just a brief note to announce that our new website is up and running. We can be found here.

http://www.milestoneexec.com

Please stop by and take a look.

Time for Change

All the buzz is about change and I have had one. With 6 years at my previous company, I have decided that it was time for a change. I will continue our tradition of top flight service as Managing Partner at Milestone Executive Services. Except for email and phone numbers, this should result in no loss of service to our clients. I look forward to contacting all of you in the coming week to give you personal updates.

Mike

The world changed

When I grew up, we lived under the ever present threat of the Soviet Empire. We knew they were evil, we know for sure that they wanted to destroy and consume us and we knew us was not them. They went away and failed due to unsustainable and unrealistic economic principles. In short, we spent them into oblivion and they collapsed under their own weight. The Cold war ended with a wimper and business went on. In fact, those former soviets became pretty darned good at business and turned their attentions away from war. There was however a problem. The world, and people to a degree still see their strength in terms of physical might. Not economic might. The ability to project force is still viewed as paramount to a country and people's survival. The Russians proved this over the last 5 days.

For those not knowing, a dustup occured between the Republic of Georgia ( not the one in the USA) and a province known as Ossetia that sought independence from Georgia. After diplomacy failed, after enduring separtist attacks, and after more diplomacy failed, the pro western President of Georgia ordered his army to strike key targets in Ossetia. They did. Russia however responded and sent in hundreds of tanks, thousands of troops and lots of airpower. They invaded Georgia and due to world pressure stopped short of re annexing the former soviet republic. Georgia, a western ally was defenseless. It's outgunned and outnumbered army fled its northern cities, while the west was powerless to help. There was not time, there were not assets, and we couldn't get there fast enough if we wanted to. The stock market ho hummed and the Olympics were on anyway. The fate of gold medals was more important than the potential fall of a democracy. This bodes well for business though.

There are a good number of these democracies in eastern Europe and they don't really like Russia all that much, especially after this. These democracies just learned the hard way that if the bear is breaking down your door, a revolver in the night stand is a much more immediate solution than dialing 911.

For this reason, even with combat decreasing in Iraq, I see very good things for companies that manufacture defense related products. These emerging democracies are going to arm themselves and they are going to want to do it with western technology. They don't have the depth of people to go head to head with the bear and will have to do it with technologically advanced weapons of superior accuracy. They do not want Russian weapons. They want to deter Russian aggression and they want to ensure their sovereignty.

Russia just handed us the rebound to the mild downturn. These items are best made here and will not be off shored to China. Look for increases in engineering, manufacturing and export sales positions from defense contractors and their tier suppliers. This is where the market will go.

To be sure, Russia has announced it's withdrawl this morning. They made their point. They are still a threat and that threat will translate into jobs and $$ for the USA.

This recession is Bunk!!!!!!!!

Economic recession and expansion happen constantly. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down, but rarely if ever does it just stay stagnant. The pundits however are talking doom and gloom. The optimists are talking silver lining. The rest of them are mood driven.

The fact is that recession is a state of mind. According to the data we had one quarter of minute contraction last year. Every one since has shown growth. Thats right Growth, as in expansion. The opposite of recession. Why then does the media keep using the R word??? I have an answer. They did it once before and it worked. The media in general few would argue tends to trend towards one particular political influence. This is an election year folks. They discount the party in control of congress, who can actually change things, and focus on the President, who cannot change things without congress. This my friends is a classic case of smoke and mirrors. Down is up, up is sideways and in is the new out. I don't care which party you favor or which candidate. It really does not matter as Congress is the key, not the figure head in the White House. I refuse to participate!

That's right. I refuse to participate in your non-recession! You sell, I'll buy! If you're smart, you will buy too. The facts remain these. Prices are stable for the most part and oil is dropping. It will drop much further but it's not your best investment. Conversely, now is likely the best time to buy your company's future. Old school managers are thinking about downsizings as they fear the next two months. They don't think about the next six months as the election passes and the rebound hits. It does not matter who wins, the mere fact that it's over will cause renewed optimism. The smart managers will already have their people in place to capture this optimism, they will have obtained those well positioned people from the less forward thinking managers who will be sitting on the sidelines as you run past them in November.

Much like a stock investor, this is not the time to hibernate. There is a whole lot going on while the bear is sleeping that he is unaware of. See, the sleeping bear missed the hunter setting up the blind outside of his cave. He's not however gonna miss the inevitable Kablaam in the spring when he emerges from his slumber to find himself the one on the losing end of the contest.

The key question then is are you the hunter, or the bear?

The Perfect Candidate

I have come to determine that there is no such thing as the perfect candidate. There will be some compromises made. It might be salary, it might be experience or it might be location. In this market we are seeing positions that are impossible to fill due to one requirement or another. This seems to happen when a position is either newly created, or, the incumbent has retired and the company seeks to refill the position without realizing that there really isn't another one just like them.

Many of these survivors of the various corporate ups and downs that perpetuated in the latter baby boom era, did so because they adapted. They took on roles that were previously held by someone who got the pink slip. One person may well have been doing the function that was previously done by three people or at least should have been. The net result is that this person was not replaceable when he left. There really was no one out there who had all of his skills or experiences. Your competitors may well have multiple people doing various parts of this role but not the whole thing. This is going to force hiring managers to look to compromise. They are going to have to decide which attributes are most important and realize that they may have to accept most but not all of what they were looking for. If you are a hiring manager suffering this frustration, I ask you to revisit the requirements you looked for, then decide what you need most. This may help ease the crunch. There are good people out there, but it took decades to create the last guy or girl, and it may well take some time to grow the next one.