Professional managers wear many hats. CEO, financial comptroller, marketing guru, cheerleader, staff therapist and referee to name a few. However versatile he or she may be, today's manager simply can't do everything. What follows is an exploration into four of the most unusual professional types contemporary business managers may need to hire in order to stay ahead in business.
In-House Legal Counsel
On the face of it, there doesn't seem to be much a case to be made for characterizing the addition of a staff lawyer as "unusual." The twist here is that your new hire doesn't have to practice law. He or she can be put to work in the marketing department, or business development office, or used for tasks such as contract negotiations. Having access to the "hands on" experience of a capable lawyer can pay dividends down the road when the organization is involved in potentially thorny legal matters that would otherwise require expensive outside legal counsel.Compliance Officer
The chief compliance officer (CCO) of an organization is primarily responsible for guiding it through the maze of regulatory compliance issues that exist on many levels. The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law has made having a full-time CCO all but mandatory for many types of firms. According to the University of Southern California, with an online master’s in applied psychology, knowledge about human behavior is more essential than ever. Non-compliance, especially within the higher levels of an organization is expensive at best and fatal to an organization at worst. Compliance professionals who understand how human psychology applies to the ethical administration of modern business organizations are in high demand today because they help firms preserve the brand equity that took decades to develop.Ethical Hackers
Professional security consultants ("ethical hackers") are hired by organizations whose sensitive data might be deemed vulnerable to security flaws within their networked computer systems. These "white hat" hackers are tasked with finding glitches, back doors and other weaknesses in networked systems before criminal hackers can find them. Financial services firms of all stripes and sizes can benefit from the insights gained by employing a full or part-time security consultant.Pay-Per-Click Advertising Manager
Pay per click (PPC) advertising is regarded by marketing industry professionals as one of the most effective (and expensive) marketing tools available to enterprise today. When managed properly, pay-per-click can yield instant and powerful results. There is no substitute for it when one needs Internet traffic right now. The cost of failure in the PPC arena is so high that few organizations can afford to undertake a meaningful PPC campaign without the aid of a professional PPC ad manager. According to the PR folks at PI Portent, a professional Internet marketing firm, the difference between a successful PPC campaign and a very expensive life lesson may simply come down to nothing more than a single stray punctuation mark within one PPC ad.As stated above, every CEO wears many hats. Of course, nobody can be expected to shine at every task they try to complete. For this reason, the key difference maker in today's world of the 24-hour workday comes down to knowing exactly when to bring in the hired guns, however unusual their discipline may be, when necessary.
