Friday Vendor Files are back! … It’s been a long time because I hate to write, and doing these are challenging for me. Sometimes it’s just plain hard to be nice and constructive on a Friday.
It has been sixteen years since I started HR.com and I have seen a lot of interesting things in this market, some good, and plenty not so good. When I look back at my first half marathon, I have some pretty interesting stories and memories. Frankly, I don’t know if I’m in for the full marathon… the 32 year plan. I’m not ready to see David Ossip on his 4th start up.
So for those of you not familiar with my sarcastic Canadian nature, you will get used to it. The format of these Friday vendor files is simple:
1. My opinion on some aspect of the HR space usually to do with HR Vendors. My sales team cringes when I write about their clients.
2. Some newsworthy news if anything is available… typically involving capital or mergers or people moving.
3. A limited time offer.
So here goes.
I’ve seen the huge infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and market hype of the dot com days where companies like Hotjobs, Icarian and Hire.com (to name a few) spent tens of millions on wasted advertising in media not directed to a targeted audience. I have seen signs of this happening again recently in the staffing industry with Silicon Valley VC’s trying to invest in the next “Facebook” for HR/recruiting. Think Glassdoor, BranchOut, Identified, Gild, TalentBin to name only a select few. But I love the old school DICE trying to put the sexy back into recruiting with their Silicon Valley billboards which, quite frankly, were the best advertising I’ve seen in the HR arena in a very long time.
And honestly, I’m sick of LinkedIn continuing to deny that they are in the recruitment space. They are the “new Monster” with more arrogance ie. the market darling of 2000 that recruiters now hate and everyone is trying to take down. A position no one wants to be in. It’s a nasty fall. Ask recently departed CEO of Monster, who saw shareholder value decline 90 percent under his tenure.
I’ve seen products so hyped and undelivered that sometimes you have a hard time understanding the difference between a PowerPoint and a real system.
I’ve seen systems delivered to clients that just don’t work. I’ve met with product managers who clearly don’t understand the vertical they are developing products for.
I’ve see a couple of CEOs raise more than $100M twice and never have more than $5M in sales and crash and burn.
I’ve seen minimal traction from the large consulting firms to actually develop and sell software or to successfully partner with a vendor, other than a large implementation deal. I cringe when I see a press release for a cool vendor saying that they have partnered with “XXX large consulting firm“, as I know it’s such a waste of time and effort.
I’ve heard some very memorable quotes from some very famous CEOs of the time.
“We will never be more than an applicant tracking system and we will never sell to Oracle or SAP.” CEO of Recruitsoft/Taleo
“HRO is the largest market segment that will ever hit the HR space.” CEO of Exult (now a very nonexistent market segment and Exult part of Hewitt/Aon)
“Job boards will eliminate staffing firms” CEO of Monster.
Ok I admit it. I am a bit jaded and skeptical. Could be the lack of sleep of raising five kids and travelling 200 days a year. For those of you who follow my various social sites, you may think I am crazy - a mother of five kids, four girls and a boy (Hailey 22, Katie 21, Courtney 18, Taleigh 15, Riley 14). Co-owner of a great golf course (www.silverlakesgolf.com) that I never frequent, now owner of the Tom and Jerry’s Wings and Rib Franchise, avid traveller, crappy skier and hockey mom. You are right - I am crazy.
But I am passionate crazy. And I will also admit my opinion usually doesn’t matter, and I will tell you why next Friday.
But I am passionate about changing the world. I have a dream and it’s a big one, one that everyone can work toward.
One of the largest impacts HR professionals can have on their organizations is the investment in their people. HR people are responsible for the training and development of their people, aka “LEADERSHIP“, as well as creating a truly inspirational company that has big dreams to change the world. Look at Disney, Apple, and MasterCard (Giving free MasterCards to all citizens of Nigeria to end corruption). Unfortunately, proper leadership training is traditionally “saved” for the “prestigious manager” at a G2000 type of firm, the privileged few, the top 3% of the firm’s talent. 63M people work for the G2000 firms, of which about 5% are in senior management roles. So if 50% of these people got leadership training, it would be about 750M. This is less than .0001 percent of the people in the working world.
So what we have is a huge gap…of about 2.9B+ people who could be great leaders but have never really had the proper leadership training or get the opportunity to be one the world’s top leaders; they never get proper training at work.
In most cases they are don’t have a dream.
This is what I am passionate about changing.
We want to inspire the world to choose leadership as a destiny by focusing on the world’s top leaders and showcasing their work to inspire millions of others to also choose great leadership.
As many of you may know we are trying to reinvent the leadership space and the conference space at the same because frankly we have nothing better to do and I needed a challenge (one albeit I should have taken on when the ski season is over- not in the middle of it). Actually the real reason is twofold:
1. It really pisses me off that a church/faith-based organization called Willow Creek can get 200K plus ministers/pastors to a leadership event every year, broadcasting to 2500 remote churches when we, as HR professionals, can’t even get basic leadership training out to all our staff and have been conditioned to think leadership training is for the privileged few.
2. The best of class leadership vendors who do such amazing work and I truly admire, aka DDI, VitalSmarts, Covey, Ken Blanchard, FIU, Brandman (winners of last year’s Leadership 500 Awards program) can only market and sell their product lines to these G2000, as their business model does not scale to the everyday leader.
So we are trying to emulate the Willow Creek model for everyday people with LEAD2015.com. The program includes:
· 6 individuals with movies made about their lives.
· 10 NY Times Best Sellers (with a focus on Leadership)
· An 8 year-old who raised $1M to end world slavery and an 18 year-old who has 60,000 youth working for her
· A US President and the World’s Top Executive Coach
· 3 of the top 10 rated leadership speakers from 2014
Yep, over $1M in production, speaker fees and hotel fees all in one location! So we can broadcast them to the world.
Imagine being able to listen to these people, all from your corporate conference room or inviting your clients to this event as a token of appreciation. President Bill Clinton will deliver the keynote address. Also speaking are: *Ken Blanchard *Michael Beckwith *Deborah Dagit *Eric de Groot *Marshall Goldsmith * Erin Gruwell *Vivienne Harr *Chris Heeter *Ann Herrmann-Nehdi *Beverly Kaye *Craig Kielburger *Raghu Krishnamoorthy *David Maxfield *Keith Mitchell *The Morton Family *Richard Pimentel *Juliette Rizzo *Lance Secretan *Loung Ung *Chris Van Gorder *Erik Wahl *Bella Weems
We hope you will help us inspire the world. One person at a time, one client at a time, one community at a time, one city at a time and one country at a time. To find out more about this incredible program visit www.lead2015.com
So here is this week’s special offer:
Let’s call it a vanity publishing on special, as it’s the only time you can buy your way into one of our magazines. So here is the deal for the first 20 vendors in our vanity media special --- $10,000
Networking and Exposure Opportunities Included in the Sponsorship Package:
· One Full Access Pass to the live LEAD2015 Event at the Four Seasons in Dallas
· Full Page Ad in the Printed April 2015 Edition of Leadership Excellence (distributed at live events including the ATD and SHRM Conferences)
· An article (must be non-commercial and educational only)
· Logo & Hyperlink on www.lead2015.com and Show Signage at Live Event (priceless)
· Full Page Ad in the LEAD2015 Electronic Show Guide
· Virtual Event Speaking Slot in 2015 Conference Series
· Ticket to the Leadership 500 Excellence Awards Dinner & Ceremony
Call (877) 472-6648 x200, email sales@hr.com, or call your rep directly to take advantage of this exclusive, limited-time opportunity! First 20 vendors only.
For an extra $10K you can deliver blueberries to the presidential suite!! For $300K you can introduce the big guy… if you can pass the security clearance.
That’s it for now folks. Off to the booming metropolis of Hamilton, Ontario to watch Girls Hockey.
Debbie
