If you’ve read a book that you’d like to recommend, please pass the title along to us, and include why you found it to be helpful.  Just a sentence or two will do; no need to write a complete review.  We’d love to include this information in our next newsletter, and who knows, you may end up suggesting the next book we review.

Corporate Canaries
By Gary Sutton

Corporate Canaries: Avoid Business Disasters with a Coal Miner’s Secrets is a strong book for aspiring CEOs.  As the author, Gary Sutton, says, “most CEOs don’t get to be CEOs without knowing this material.”  This book is based on the principles and analogies from Sutton’s grandfather who labored (and prospered) in the Kentucky coal mines at the turn of the century.  Caged canaries would succumb more quickly than humans to the effects of carbon monoxide in the mines, ceasing to sing (much less survive) when the odorless gas reached dangerous levels, which alerted the crews of danger.  Likewise, the author offers corporate “warning Canaries” (or indicators) of impending corporate failure.  Chapters include topics such as “You Can’t Outgrow Losses,” “Debt’s A Killer,” “Fools Fly Blind,” “Any Decision Beats No Decision,” and more.

With insightful practical vignettes presented in a folksy, down to earth manner, this book would be a great tool for leaders, mentors or coaches to give a copy to their team.  Personally, I really enjoyed the common sense approach and warning “Canaries.”  At 140 pages, it’s a quick read.

Reviewed by Tim Bernstein, January 2006

Death by Meeting
By Patrick Lencioni

One of the hottest writers on management theory, Patrick Lencioni has had five top selling books (Death by Meeting, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, The Five Temptations of a CEO, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive and Silos, Politics and Turf Wars).

In Death by Meeting the author covers the problems with most meetings (they’re boring, a waste of time or not motivating), what types of meetings are typically needed by a senior management team (daily check-in, weekly tactical, monthly strategic and quarterly off-site) and how to make each meeting most effective.

Recently at a national convention, Bruce Dingman heard the author speak (“He was great…so relevant, down to earth, and practical”).  Available only at the conference was an hour long CD of his “talk” (as Patrick calls it).  If you’re interested in hearing this “talk” on The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, email bruce@dingman.com. The first ten people who ask will receive this complimentary CD of Patrick Lencioni.

Bruce Dingman
President

Donna White
Vice President

Tim Bernstein
Associate

Patti Schultz
Office Manager

Allison Lindauer
Admin Support

Connie Schuh
Bookkeeper

We’ve got a new name! Well, not entirely new. We’ve dropped the “Robert W.” and now we are simply, The Dingman Company. We think it has a nice ring to it. Changing the firm’s name was actually the idea of Robert W., himself. Bob has been retired for some time now and the relevance of keeping his name on the door has lessened with each passing year.

However, we still carry the legacy of Bob’s reputation, which was established by almost 40 years in the search business. We still hold the same values and high standards that have made this firm a trusted source for hundreds of clients over the past 25 years. In large part, this is because the current president, Bruce Dingman, was personally mentored by his older brother, Bob, 21 years his senior. When Bruce joined the company in 1986, Bob Dingman was ranked the #6 recruiter in the entire United States. A few years ago, Bruce was included in a book identifying the top 200 recruiters around the globe. Either Bob was a good teacher or Bruce was a good student. Perhaps both are true.

One sign of excellence in executive search is whether the candidate we place “stays put.” We believe that one of the most significant things about our track record is that the vast majority of our candidates stay in the job for five years or more—unless, of course, they are promoted, which happens frequently. Add that to our track record, too.

In each newsletter we are going to give an honorary “Staying Put” award. The qualification is that the person was placed by our firm and remained with our client for over 10 years.

Our first official honoree is Glenn Zander. We placed Glenn as President of Aloha Airlines in Honolulu. Prior to joining Aloha, he had been former president of TWA in St. Louis, Missouri. Glenn was with Aloha Airlines for just over 10 years until last spring when personal reasons made it appropriate for Glenn and his wife to move closer to family. Glenn did an excellent job directing the company through some tumultuous times in the airline industry.

From time to time, we’re asked why our search fees are so high. While our fee structure is not outside the norm for retained search firms, we recognize that paying our fee can represent a hefty investment for some clients. In fact, some would-be clients have turned to cheaper solutions. Others, after careful evaluation, decide that the fee is worth it, and gauging by the amount of repeat business we receive, some believe it well worth the price.

Some years back, the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC; www.aesc.org) did a survey on search fees. They found that one half of search firms charged 33% of the first year’s compensation (salary and estimated bonus). Approximately one fifth of the firms charged 30%. And a third of search firms charged a flat fee. We are among the 50% of the firms that charge one-third of the first year’s compensation. But the reality is that what we do is significantly more in-depth than the less expensive search firm.

So in using The Dingman Company, what is the client paying for? We won’t elaborate on all the aspects of our services that we believe warrant the fee, but we’d like to give a simple overview of our work.

First, the client pays for the resources that we apply to the search. We are a highly professional, knowledgeable team using proven methods. We take the time to get to know the organization and the job, and we prepare an extensive Opportunity Profile, which is both an effective tool in attracting candidates and reflecting positively on the client. We typically search more broadly than is customary, interview to a greater depth, respond to all applicants (rather than to just those in which we have an interest), give frequent progress reports to clients, do thorough reference checking on all candidates to be presented (confidentiality permitting), verify all degrees and check the criminal, credit and driving records—all done before candidates are interviewed by the client. We evaluate all the information and select four final candidates to present to the client, creating an individual Candidate Profile averaging 18-20 pages in length.

Secondly, and most importantly, the client is paying for the excellence of the results. The Dingman Company has a notable success rate of 97%. Only four times in 19 years and approximately 160 searches has a client selected a candidate who, for performance reasons, didn’t complete at least two years of employment. While we hate to have even one candidate not work out, the reality is that our track record is solid.

There are recruiters who will cut their price, promise quicker results or say they’ll find whatever the client is looking for. But check the track record of that recruiter before engaging them. Be sure the results they’ve been achieving for others are sufficient for you. We’d welcome such scrutiny. We love explaining why the results we get for our clients make our fees well worth the price.

In the end, the amount of the fee is a small investment compared to the immense value of hiring an executive who will generate great results for your company for the next five or more years. Our history shows that this is what you can count on when we complete the search for you.

As a note, we do have volume discounts for multiple searches to take into account economies of scale, and once in a while, we will offer a flat fee arrangement to a first-time client. If this applies to your situation, give us a call to discuss the details.

The best way to ensure that the person you are hiring will meet expectations is to know the person well.  Taking a multi-dimensional approach to understanding the person is needed.  Here are some ways to accomplish this:

• Use both formal and informal interview settings
• Have numerous people (and thus, many perspectives) involved in interviewing the candidate (i.e., peers as well as a supervisor)
• Check references on a 360 degree basis (superiors, peers, subordinates plus references not given by the candidate)
• Meet the candidate’s spouse – better yet, arrange a dinner with the hiring executive and his/her spouse along with the candidate and his/her spouse
• Have at least two or more meetings with the candidate
• Come to know not only what the candidate has done, but also the “why” behind their actions—understand their motivations, reasoning, decision-making process, values and personality.

These are just a few of the things to consider for an excellent match.  We’d welcome hearing your insights as to what you have found helpful in making the right hire.  Drop us an email or give us a call.