This discussion of social media and competitive advantage turned to trajectory and how social media tools and platforms allow for, and in fact encourage, new and different kinds of competition. As we’ve witnessed, trajectories that may have been flat can quickly turn upward on the wind of raving fans and buzz. SXSW was a mega-mall of ideas and innovation, social media and apps, big brands and startups. But as fast as trajectories can rise, companies, programs, products, apps, etc., can become roadkill, which reminds me of armadillos (seeing as we’re discussing SXSW in Texas!), but I’ll come back to that a little later.

Where Ford has its best practices right out on the web (slideshare, scribd, etc.), GM has been a little quieter. But don’t let that fool you. In terms of trajectory GM has put its pedal to the metal with recent efforts. So they won’t be the social media armadillos (aka roadkill) of the US auto industry, and Ford will have to work that much harder to keep innovating and keep the lead. Remember, winners can’t get complacent – EVER.

Now, if we look specifically at the social media race for best practices in social recruiting, we’ll find that there is NO winner in the auto industry. These companies are overlooking the recruiting opportunity beyond the marketing buzz. As a result, they are all roadkill compared to AT&T (HQ in TX, for those of you who don’t know), Agilent, Deloitte in New Zealand, Sodexo, DaVita, Zappos, and a select group of other like-minded early adopters.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the social recruiting track is wide open. You need to open her up and let ‘er rip. Please comment with your best practices in social recruiting, and we’ll catalog them and post them for all to view. The most innovative NEW social recruiting success story will win an iPad!!! @TheRecruiterGuy, @ImSoSarah and @jjbuss – are you up to helping judge the entries and determining the winner?

So back to the armadillos I mentioned earlier. Known as the world’s most recognizable roadkill (before impact, of course), armadillos are the butt of many jokes and much lore in Texas. Next week I’ll tell you my favorite, about a blue armadillo whose moniker, “the dude” pretty much sums up his philosophy on life. While I was in Texas during SXSW, I happened to get into a Twitter conversation with those dueling dudes of Detroit, Scott Monty and Christopher Barger. And since we were in Texas, we talked armadillos (by the way, @scottmonty and @cbarger, your armadillos are on the way). I’ve affectionately named them Barger and Monty… sounds more “Texan”! And stay tuned for next week’s post about the Blue Armadillo known as “the dude”.

For our readers who haven’t been following social media techniques applied by the big auto-makers, here’s a refresher.  Chevrolet was considered late to the social media party two years after Ford found early success that continues today.  But this year, Chevy was declared SXSW’s big marketing winner by blogs, Twitter users and local outlets like the Austin Statesman.

Perhaps this newly aggressive social media approach was developed in support of the upcoming soft launch of the Chevy Volt in late 2010 (Chevy’s new attempt to reach the under-34 set)?  Whatever the motivation, Chevy has a strong Twitter presence, has been engaging robustly on Twitter and Facebook, and activated on-site vehicles with QR codes at SXSW (a bar code that you scan with your mobile device to learn more about that product) to drive users to a microsite.  But the biggest news to date was “Chevrolet’s SXSW Road Trip Challenge,” a social media marketing competition they sponsored earlier this month.
As part of their Road Trip Challenge, eight teams from across the country all headed to SXSW in a social media-fueled trek that rewarded the group that completed the most tasks and built the most Web buzz on the way.  These road trippers were given points by Chevy for challenges completed and the level of interaction their hometown had in the group’s trek.  Ultimately, a team of four metro Detroiters — Henry Balanon, Brandon Chesnutt, Dave Murray and Audrey Walker –  won the contest and received a Chevy-sponsored tweet-up (an in-person gathering of the Twitter community) for Detroit.

Ford continues to execute robustly on its social media strategy, and you have to admire their results.  Scott Monty’s blog, and Ford’s almost ubiquitous presence on a wide range of social media platforms continue to set the standard not just in the auto industry, but for big brands as well.  If you think Ford is resting on its laurels, think again.  And … check out some of their raving fans.

This situation points out the importance of “trajectory”.  GM is getting one … and Ford, which already has it, has to keep it up!  It also illustrates how competitive advantage doesn’t last without a lot of work.  BUT, when you look closely, it also illustrates how no one in the auto industry is really winning the race of leveraging social media to acquire the talent they need to take back global leadership.  Stay tuned in the next week when we’ll talk more about talent, social recruiting, armadillos and roadkill!

We’re a month into the New Year and the new decade.  Even if we’re heading out of the recession, we are certainly not out of the turbulence.  And since we’ll be unable to predict when and where things are going – uncertainty is reigning – we’ll have to get really good at adapting, and adapting quickly.

Jeff Immelt has said that beyond this recession we’ll be in the “reset” economy.  A big question for us here at Pinstripe and for our clients is “how do we break away from the ‘sea of sameness’ and excel under a new and ever changing set of conditions?  How do we differentiate? How do we create distance between ourselves and our competitors in the market for talent and in the markets we serve?”

Well here’s something to consider … the markets for talent are viewed as mature markets and over time it becomes harder and harder to differentiate.  When that happens, we encounter something called the  “Good Enough Line.”  Have you ever heard the saying “Too often ‘good’ is the enemy of the ‘best’”?  That’s exactly what happens … “good enough” becomes just that, and incremental value gets hard to “sell”.  So how do we break through the “Good Enough Line”?  We have to get and stay laser focused on bringing recognizable and relevant value to candidates in a way that matters to them.   If we don’t, we won’t break through that line.  Think of it as a glass ceiling – we can see above it, but can’t get through.

Today’s social media platforms and tools are the perfect vehicles for breaking through the “Good Enough Line” to ensure we attract not just any talent, but the best talent.

During the past 18 months we’ve been very careful as organizations not to sink the boat, but the focus moving forward must be on not missing the boat.  So pick up your game and don’t settle for good enough.

The art of racing in the rain is getting the driver and the car to perform as if it isn’t raining! When you can drive like the track isn’t wet, when everyone else is driving like it is … you’ll win. It’s as simple as that… or as complex.

You see, most drivers are afraid of the rain. Rain amplifies mistakes and water on the track makes things unpredictable. Here are a few more final lessons from the book “The Art of Racing in the Rain” I’d like to share:

• “Prepare. Do. Reflect. Prepare. Repeat.”
• “Never move over to let anyone pass. Make them pass you.”
• “Don’t get angry. Watch. Understand. Act accordingly.”
• “Racing success is about discipline and intelligence, not who has the ‘heavier foot’.”
• “The one who drives smart always wins in the end.”
• “Never take unnecessary risks. Always take necessary, calculated ones.”
• “There is no dishonor is losing. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.”

I’ll close this post by saying we must all have faith, confidence and trust in ourselves and in our teams. Trust in our individual and collective talent, judgment and drive. Because …

“The race is long. To finish first, first you have to finish.”

We’ve just begun 2010. Here’s to finishing … and finishing first!

Image credit: garthstein.com

“Racing in the rain is about balance, anticipation and patience …”
“… It’s about peripheral vision … seeing what others don’t see”

The book contains such valuable lessons as:

- “That which you manifest is before you,”
- “We are creators of our own future,” and
- “Racing is not simply about attention, but also intention”

Through the voice of Denny’s dog, Enzo (yes, that’s a Ferrari reference), we learn that no race is ever won in the first turn, but many are lost.

Here’s to those of us who are coming out of that first turn strong, with our futures in sight … because by the end of the book you’ll know that …  “The car goes where the eyes go.”

There’s been a huge downsizing in HR and talent acquisition, and we will not see employment levels come back to the way they were.  Employer engagement levels are at an all time low.  Almost 60% of individuals polled claim they will look for a new opportunity as soon as the economy turns around.  We are confronting a looming crisis in organizational capability – and thus in HR – when the recovery takes hold.  And this can be a GOOD thing if you prepare for it and take advantage of it.

What we have experienced is not just a recession, but a “resetting.”  We are going to come out of this in a new normal, and even when jobs come back they will have taken a different form and possibly a new geography, because organizations have learned how to do without and how to do things differently.

As a longtime serial entrepreneur in the HR and technology space, and currently the founder and CEO of an HR and recruitment process outsourcing company, I witnessed the hopeful signs of a significant up tick in new business in the fourth quarter of 2009.  But personally, I think this is a case of premature optimism.  We’ve seen some “green shoots”, as the analysts and economists like to say, and now a lot of people are saying “Wow, it’s not getting worse anymore we’re out of the recession.”  But as that famous Paul Simon song “The Boxer” says,

“Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest …”

I can’t help wondering what the recovery will look like when so much has changed, when local and state governments are drowning, consumer spending is timid, and government deficits are crippling.  I see 2010 as “the year of uncertainty”, which will also make it “the year we spent in waiting”; waiting for a clear picture of what to expect from interest rates, tax policy, regulatory changes, healthcare reform, and on and on. 

Following are snapshots of my predictions for some of the events we can expect:

• We will see increased turn-over due to damaged employee trust and loyalty;
• Jobs will not come back as they were OR where they were;
• Supplier churn will be greater than normal;
• HR will get its arms around how to integrate social media in a way that matters – both internally and externally;
• HR leaders and professionals that are also business leaders will thrive; those that don’t have the requisite business and interpersonal skills will falter;
• Government will discover outsourcing; and finally;
• We will see a pent up demand for infrastructure in 2010 as a backlash to the lack of investment in this area in ’08 and ’09.

Please stay tuned as I make good on my “New Decade” resolution to update this blog more often, to invite guests to blog here, and to continue to listen to you.

The New How by Nilofer Merchant

What struck me in Nilofer’s visionary presentation is the hypothesis that yesterday is gone;  normal is anything but;  and tomorrow will bring a “new normal” that many of us aren’t expecting.   Over the next couple of posts, I’ll outline more of the key takeaways, but here are two I’d like to touch on now:

1. Most of us think of the word “strategy” as a noun.  We need to instead think of “strategy” as a verb.  When we “strategize,” we create a new reality, a new future.
2. In your company, department, business unit or division, are the following questions answered differently:
        a. Am I doing my job?
        b. Am I helping the company win?
   If they are, think about the detrimental effect that is having on the organization’s results and impact.

In most matters of strategy – strategizing (noun vs. verb, remember) there is no ONE right answer.   Some answers are better than others, and our job as leaders is to ensure we execute competently on the better answers.  Deliver on the better strategies.  Have the courage to only execute on the things that matter most.… and constantly and consistently remind everyone why.  This is how we can come close to achieving not only our ambitions, but our potential.

I’d love your thoughts on this subject.  Leave your comments and you’ll receive a sneak peek of one of the chapters from the book  as well as a copy of “The New How” signed by Nilofer Merchant.  And stay tuned for more takeaways in my next blog post.

Underscoring the importance of branding is the recent news from Europe that Publicis won the RBS recruitment advertising account in a hotly contested RFP.  The business will be handled by Publicis “Engage”, a brand new recruitment and employment branding entity.  This is the second time in a month that a well-known brand opted for a non-traditional firm to handle its recruitment (McDonalds/VCCP).  This might signal a trend, which I, for one, am in favor of, that employers reviewing their future employment strategies and branding are taking a “consumer” approach!  It’s a great time to be focusing on branding and engagement challenges and opportunities.

What we strive for at Pinstripe can be explained in these analogies… in the list of the top department stores, for example, we want to be more like Nordstrom and less like Sears; more like Best Buy or Costco, and less like WalMart.  Always provide the best value, results and customer experience with the best “total cost of ownership”.

Here at Pinstripe, as we move through our 4th year of operation, our strategy continues to be play our own game.  To  “be more like Pinstripe and less like anyone else.”  And I know we’re succeeding when I recently talked with our 4 newest clients.  They said things like:

• Pinstripe is unlike anyone else
• What made you our unanimous choice is that throughout the process, your presentations were all about us — NOT about you
• We could tell from your presentations that Pinstripe took a consultative, rather than transactional, approach, and we wanted that
• We knew we could rely on the Pinstripe team to live up to its brand promise of “We Become You” and represent our brand better than anyone else.

As we help our clients prepare for the inevitable market upturn, we offer them one most important piece of advice …

Take this opportunity to be thoughtful, yet bold, because the “new normal” that evolves  from this economic turbulence will be different – very different – from our traditional past.

The current economic turbulence has been as much an opportunity for redefinition as it has been a challenge. I really believe that the winning equation is one that maximizes the power of collaboration and adaptation. We’ve been able to adopt new models for partnership to weather variances in economic conditions, and that’s part of what the value proposition of outsourcing is about. RPO empowers moving fixed costs to variable costs; flexibility and agility in HR service delivery models and costs; and acceleration of change.

But the RPO industry needs to continue to elevate their offerings and step up to new levels of performance. The firms that focus on helping clients transform their current talent infrastructure (and by this I mean helping to execute not just the transaction, but the strategy, the planning, and the employee engagement following the transaction), will provide results that will transcend expectations and help their clients win in the market.

Our entire team at Pinstripe knows our goal has always been to be the best, not the biggest, and I believe this focus has served us well. Now as a strategic marketer, I would say it’s time to create a new market segment to capitalize on these times of challenge and opportunity, and be the first to occupy it (which is where we have been in the past before RPO was called RPO and before VMS was coined). So once again we are working to create new, improved services that help our clients make the most of the recovery. Keep an eye on where we go, yes. But more importantly, keep an eye on where our clients go!