The Little Search Firm that Could
Once upon a time there was this little search firm. It received a call one day from a local office of a national financial services company.
The manager from the company stated “having difficulty” finding a trainee for one of their underwriting openings.
All they wanted was someone with a degree in finance, good understanding of financial statements, a high gpa demonstrating ability to work hard and school smarts, and good communication skills to articulate the person’s financial findings to others.
It did not even matter what type of industry or company the person obtained their previous experience from providing they had the criteria listed.
The recruiter listened attentively, took notes, and asked lots of questions.
The company hire manager added, “We’ve been using Gigantor Recruiting and they laughed at us when we told them we wanted a finance guy with good communication skills … do you think you can help?”
The recruiter replied, (without laughing) “Yes we should be able to help … give us a few weeks and I will get back to you.”
That small search firm filled that position within a few short months. The person hired did so well, he was rapidly promoted, and the company hiring manager returned to fill the newly vacated slot again.
That office hired some twelve individuals from that search firm during the next five years. News of their success of finally finding a reliable and trustworthy recruiting service spread to other offices.
The Philadelphia office also wanted to know who the “Little Search Firm” was that had filled a competing regions positions so consistently. Next the Boston manager wanted to be included in the game. Then Syracuse, New York.
Cincinnati .. St. Louis. … Atlanta … Dallas all wanted to work with the Little Search firm as they found out positions that had previously taken a year or so to fill were now being filled in four weeks.
Within ten years The Little Search Firm that Could … which provided recruiting services for ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, mid-five figure salary searches that Gigantor Search felt was “below their stature” wound up filling more than one hundred of such positions at a dozen offices all over the country for Financial Services Corp.
During this period the company had also grown. It had gone from being a small player in the field to a Fortune 1,000 company.
Fast forward another ten years and today that company is a Fortune 500 … doubled in size within 10 years and quintupled the revenue it generated when it had first sought out the services of “The Little Search Firm That Could”.
The results of this twenty year relationship are summarized as follows:
1. $250,000,000.00 = Estimated amount of additional annual revenue generated and managed by all the employees placed during 20 years by “The Little Search Firm”.
2. 145 = Approximate number of total individuals placed throughout the country for “The Company”.
3. 100% Growth = The amount of revenue growth “The Company” posted during its relationship with Little Search Firm.
4. “Fortune 500” – The ranking this company was designated last few years in great part due to a long relationships with “Little Search Firms”. It was previously a Fortune 1000, and before that an obscure and unrecognizable entity no one had ever heard of.
Along the way the “Little Search Firm That Could” invented, tweaked, perfected, and refined a process for consistently finding the individuals this company needed within 4 weeks time frame every single time regardless of level.
The “Little Search Firm” had developed the “Secret Recipe” for consistently finding the people “The Company” needed.
The company eventually used “The Little Search Firm” for retained executive hires for corporate executive positions.
Great story right?
A Happy Ending?
Not Quite!
There was never a banquet in honor of “The Little Search Firm”.
No Plaque recognizing its decades of loyalty.
No trophy. No award. Not even a letter saying “Thanks”.
(Granted they did pay all their bills on time.)
You see … somewhere along the line a human resource executive found out about “The Company’s” little secret of how quickly it found hirable employees.
The new Human Resource Manager was not about to let one “Little Search Firm” be so instrumental or critical in “The Company’s” operation.
No Sir.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of “The Little Search Firm that Could” and read about how the new Human Resources Director was going to turn the “Little Search Firm that Could” to the “Little Search Firm that will die trying”.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Frank G. Risalvato, CPC
www.iresinc.com
www.searchwizardry.com
Call (973) 300-1010 for our life changing custom coaching sessions.
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