Link: http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/quelch/2008/07/how_starbucks_growth_destroyed.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-LISTSERV-_-JULY_2008-_-ORGDEV

some interesting reading for you...
many lessons to be learnt from the story of Starbucks

Posted by John Quelch for Harvard Business Publishing

Starbucks announcement that it will close 600 stores in the US is a long overdue admission that there are limits to growth.

In February 2007, a leaked internal memo written by founder Howard Schultz showed that he recognized the problem that his own growth strategy had created: Stores no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Starbucks tried to add value through innovation, offering wifi service, creating and selling its own music. More recently, Starbucks attempted to put the focus back on coffee, revitalizing the quality of its standard beverages. But none of these moves addressed the fundamental problem: Starbucks is a mass brand attempting to command a premium price for an experience that is no longer special. Either you have to cut price (and that implies a commensurate cut in the cost structure) or you have to cut distribution to restore the exclusivity of the brand. Expect the 600 store closings to be the first of a series of downsizing announcements. Sometimes, in the world of marketing, less is more.

Schultz sought, admirably, to bring good coffee and the Italian coffee house experience to the American mass market. Wall Street bought into the vision of Starbucks as the third place after home and work. New store openings and new product launches fueled the stock price. But sooner or later chasing quarterly earnings growth targets undermined the Starbucks brand in three ways.

keep reading...

Link: http://www.ere.net/2008/08/04/trends-in-corporate-recruiting-for-2009/#more-3489

by Dr. John Sullivan for ERE.net

A significant part of my work involves giving presentations around the world on the hottest recruiting topics. It is an aspect of my work that I truly enjoy because it affords me an opportunity to continuously learn about where our profession is headed.

Through speaking, I not only help companies understand the latest recruiting trends, but I also learn from hundreds of professionals about what they see as hot topics, emerging trends, and how they are approaching them. I wanted to take this opportunity to share my thoughts on what recruiting trends will top the agendas of Global 500 recruiting managers in the next 12 to 18 months based on my interaction with more than 300 organizations around the globe this year.

The Latest Trends in Corporate Recruiting

Based on conversations with recruiting leaders, questions asked during seminars, advisory requests, and best-practice research, expect to see an increased emphasis in:

Upgrading employment branding. Nothing is hotter around the globe in recruiting than employment branding. Firms throughout Asia, in particular, are increasingly adopting employment branding as a wildly important activity for 2009. The success of Google, a firm that has built the worlds strongest employment brand over an amazing five year period, has led others to focus on this impactful long term strategy. Key focus areas include increasing media coverage, increasing visibility online, building your green brand, and countering your negative employment brand. Firms to watch: Facebook, Google, Yum Brands, Tata, E&Y, Enterprise, U.S. Army, and Sodexo.

Reinvigorating referral programs. Despite the growth of career-related Internet sites, the highest volume and quality candidates still come from well-designed employee referral programs. While heavy adoption was initially hampered by cultural issues around the world, today such programs are proving highly effective everywhere. Key focus areas include proactively approaching key employees for referrals (program targeting), leverage non-employee referrals, making reward systems more comprehensive, immediate, and visible, and last but not least, helping employees leverage social media to restore relationships, make new relationships, and build stronger relationships. Firms to watch: AmTrust Bank, Edward Jones, Whirlpool, and Amazon.com.

Renewing the focus on quality of hire. As a result of strong research by organizations like staffing.org, recruiting leadership has begun to refocus its efforts on identifying factors that increase the quality or the on-the-job performance of new hires. Key focus areas include improved quality of hire metrics, calculating the performance differential between average and quality hires, and identifying sources that produce high-quality hires. Firms to watch: Aimco and Wipro.

Reinforcing the business case for recruiting. As budgets tighten and slow economic growth continues, recruiting budgets will face constant constraints. Instead of whining, many leading talent organizations are seizing the opportunity to reposition themselves as non-transactional organizations. When the focus in recruiting is placed on non-transactional, more systemic issues, such organizations can work with the CFO and risk management to demonstrate the importance of supporting recruiting even during times of reduced hiring volume. The key focus areas include predictive modeling, dollarizing recruiting results, and showing the dollar impact of vacancies in revenue generating positions. Firms to watch: Aimco, DFS, Wipro, and Google.

keep reading...

Leverage non-employee referrals... something aCE talentNET does all the time. And we consistently find the best Organisational Development consultants via referrals from our existing talent NETwork... want to know how we do it? email consult@ acetalentnet.com.au and we'll share...

Link: http://acetalentnet.com.au/enews/newsletjul08.html

Well market commentary seems to be suggesting a general slowing in business spending and confidence and aCE talentNET would normally be entering into our quietest time of the financial year. However all seems to suggest otherwise with no sign of budget cuts in the LandD arena evident so far and no sign of reducing enquiry levels for aCE talentNET consultants and contractors (touch wood of course!). Engagements keeping aCE busy at the present time include sourcing trainers in multi-locations for a large nation-wide systems implementation (see below); instructional designers for traditional face-to-face program development; management consultants (customer mapping, scorecards, process improvement etc); Project Team Leader roles; Change Management facilitators; Cultural Change programs; EEO training, Project Management training and more.

As a result of sourcing consultants for role opportunities we have been having numerous discussions with a large number of our Talent Network (new and existing). It is extremely pleasing to see so many of our consultants actively engaged across a number of clients and industries ensuring a depth and breadth of experience that can be bought to the table for aCE clients. We are also constantly amazed at how flexible our Talent Network is on price point, willing to consider lower daily rates in return for interesting projects of a reasonable duration. We are also very happy to receive regular feedback about how well we compare to others in the same field particularly in areas of regular communication, candidate respect, coordination and honesty. Thank you...keep them coming! This is something we pride ourselves on, we are nothing without our Talent Network!

Anyway, that's enough from me. Do read on and remember to visit our BLOG , this is updated most days with interesting articles from both the OD & LandD world but also of wider general interest. So do yourself a favour and make sure you include the aCE talentNET BLOG on your quick reading list each day! Also read below, under "Consultants", about our next initiative to better serve our Consulting community.

Have a great month.

Deirdre Gruiters
Corporate Talent Agent

PS: Any Melbourne consultant looking for an interesting three month project assignment please read more in immediate opportunity below!

read on...

Link: http://www.ere.net/2008/07/31/the-myth-of-a-talent-shortage/#more-3411

by Kevin Wheeler for ERE.net...

We have been bombarded for a decade with news reports, articles, stories, and books about the looming talent shortage about to overwhelm our industries, businesses, and economies.

Taken at face value and looking at traditional work styles and jobs, there is some validity to these stories. Human resources people, recruiters, and some business people will affirm the shortage anecdotally. But it is hard to find real examples and real numbers.

Certainly, anyone trying to hire a surgeon in North Dakota, a Starbucks barista in Oklahoma, or a stock broker in Alaska may have to look long and hard. But if you are looking for these folks in urban areas or places with significant populations, the number of qualified applicants increases substantially.

After all, it has never been easy to attract skilled professionals to rural areas and it has become even more difficult as people leave the country for large cities. Rural parts of the world are emptying into cities, especially those located in coastal areas or those with significant educational and cultural activities.

Richard Floridas books on the Creative Class point out in stark numbers and colorful graphs and charts the shifts in population away from some less desirable, and often semi rural cities and toward others that offer the lifestyle and engaging employment desired by the emerging creative class.

Sure, thousands of baby boomers are poised to retire over the next decade or two and, yes, there are somewhat fewer young folks behind them; but is that really going to be a problem? And will the number of boomers who choose to retire reach the predicted numbers?

Studies I have seen indicate that boomers will most likely defer retirement for some time because they have not saved enough to make retirement possible or because they remain healthy and want to continue working.

We will most likely also need fewer people to reach the same productivity levels of today.

The nature of work has changed dramatically. Today only about 2% of Americans grow food or work on farms. This is truly amazing considering the amount of food produced and exported. Farms have grown much larger and are more automated. Completely automated, GPS guided tractors cultivate fields that used to take a dozen men and several dozen horses to plow.

keep reading...

Link: http://trax.fastcompany.com/k/w/mailman/fasttake/20080730/corporate_games

by Quibian Salazar-Moreno for FastCompany.com

The Sims games were not only one of the best-selling franchises of the past two decades, they pioneered an entire category of simulation games that require quicker problem-solving skills than trigger fingers.

Now video games are making their way into corporations, with savvy CEOs having employees play games as part of their job training.
Here's how serious games are invading corporate America... read on...

Have you seen any evidence of this in Australia?
Please share...