First of all, I like sports analogies. I think the football analogy is particularly appropriate for a couple of reasons:

1)Professional football team franchises are highly mercenary in their dealings with their host communities, often requiring substantial subsidies through the construction of new stadiums with partial public funding which *may not often show overall economic benefits to the host communities. I think this is a valuable lesson for employees/vendors when we have the upper hand.

2) As previously mentioned in a comment, there are a few hundred professional NFL players and they get very well paid, and I think (most of them) are worth it. If you are quite good but not NFL quality, you can not expect to make $100k/yr playing non-NFL football in the US. If you do world-class sourcing/recruiting, you are performing a very high-level service and are “entitled” by the market to a world-class compensation. If you are not in that class or do not have something special to offer, you will be competing with folks who get much less for the quality work they do. IMHO, recruiting will become the realm of a relatively small number of highly-compensated elite recruiters, who will have “sticky” skills that can’t be easily eliminated, automated, or outsourced. I do not see much future for mid-level Western recruiters and sourcers who do quality work for a decent, middle-class income.

As Martin S. said: I also recommend the Gladwell article. Gladwell is interesting and an easy read. I also like him because he seems to be making very substantial speaking fees telling “fat cat” types that some of their traditional wisdom is wrong. Finally, before he got famous, he actually answered one of my emails! (And “No”- he didn’t say “cease and desist,” either….)

Cheers,

Keith “Can’t Think of a Slogan Today” Halperin
keithsrj@sbcglobal.net 415.586.8265

*http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/nyregion/04stadiums.htmlhttp://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/june97/game1.html
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv23n2/coates.pdf.

http://www.thecorporateplaybook.com/why_athletes.php

Best,

Chad

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

So many Talent Acquisition Pros simply ‘follow the sheep’, blindly adhering to mindsets and practices that worked during the Industrial Revolution, however are meaningless today.

The only additions I’d make to the list are the following:

1. It’s never too late to turn performance around. The Cardinals were 9-7 coming into the playoffs . . . and only got in because they were Division Winners of the weakest Division in the NFL. Several teams with better records did not get in because they did not win their division and didn’t have a good enough record to earn a wildcard birth.

2. The Arizona Cardinals now can justify a ‘performance culture’ because they got to the Big Dance. The Cardinals were 9-7 this year, 8-8 in 2007, 5-11 in 2006, and 5-11 in 2005. That’s a record of 27-37, hardly a ‘performance culture’ . . . but the playoffs this year was a defining moment. It’s never too late to turn the culture around and leverage espirit de corps.

3. Know your strengths . . . and stick to them. The Superbowl is not the time to change your corporate identity.

However, for the rest of the year, when you try to bring up practices of major-sports as models for business, you are dismissed out of hand.

I blogged last week about Tuesday Morning Quarterback’s picks for the Unwanted best players,

http://www.ere.net/blogs/Martin_Snyders_Passing_Scene/6072E641772B4ABBAC31474912788702.asp

and previously about TMQ’s observation that Pittsburgh does better than any team at making the best of its draft picks and talent development.

http://www.ere.net/blogs/Martin_Snyders_Passing_Scene/DEFAULT.ASP?LISTINGID={7CDC6A1C-0227-4346-98DC-22B7F3B72A00}