Welcome to my personal and professional website devoted to all things related to talent acquisition, human capital management and leadership within the closely interwined economies of the United States and Mexico. 

You may also find that I post blog content related to another relevant topic – economic development and the creation of jobs between the interdependent economies of North America and how the global economy impacts all of us. 

Who Am I? 

The self-employment phase of my career got it’s start when I founded the boutique executive search practice – QualiFind Executive Search in February 1999.  I was motivated by an opportunity to create a talent acquisition service that could better serve the growing NAFTA marketplace which has always involved a broad and diverse range of commerce. 

At that time, our primary client base was the maquiladora (manufacturing) operations in Mexico and their parent companies in the US or elsewhere in the world.  However, as we evolved, so did our ability to provide a broader array of services to meet our client's needs. 

QualiFind has grown into a full service executive search practice focused on senior management and executive leadership roles, diversity recruitment services (with extensive expertise in the Hispanic market of North America); research services for talent mapping, compensation surveys; leadership coaching, training and executive assessment alongside of our three-pronged approach to talent acquisition - contingent, engaged and retained search models.

While globalization has advanced, international business remains a complex web of cultural differentiation, economies and political systems.  That aspect of cultural differentiation made me realize that QualiFind needed more dimension and depth to grow, so I partnered with Fernando Espinosa in 2000. 

Fernando and I actually created the first truly bi-cultural recruiting firm to serve the growing business interchange between the US and Mexico.  He and I have provided a distinctly unique cultural foundation for recruiting bi-cultural technical, management and leadership expertise for our clients.

The growth and the ride have been personally and professionally enriching and rewarding.  We have always strived to learn, improve and innovate through being early adopters of Technology and Best Practices within talent acquisition. 

Fernando and I have mentored and developed an exceptional team of recruiting and executive search professionals that have allowed us to expand the value and scope of our resources to our client base.  However we have also understood that technology and Best Practices alone mean nothing if trusted relationships and integrity are not part of our core values.  A lengthy track record of successful client and candidate relationships throughout both countries have given us a competitive record of achievement.
Over the years, we have observed increased demand in two key sectors that we have key internal expertise and resources to serve – agribusiness and Mexico’s maquiladora industry.  That led us to create two specialty practices with separate leadership and staff to provide focused recruiting expertise in those areas.  AgriFind Executive Search focuses on the agribusiness industry in North America and MaquilaFind, LLC is focused on Mexico’s maquiladora industry.  The AgriFind practice is led by Sam McCorkle and the MaquilaFind practice is led by partner – Carlos Acosta.

Another contributor to our success has been our membership in IRC Global Executive Search Partners.  In 2008, after an extensive review of search firms that had the capacity and resources to work in Mexico, QualiFind was selected by IRC Global Executive Search Partners to be their exclusive partner in Mexico.  QualiFind and it’s subsidiary practices are also partner firms within IRC for the US as well.  IRC membership has provided QualiFind with the ability to draw upon the cultural resources of other partner firms from 34 countries around the world making us locally (US and Mexico) committed and globally connected.

I invite you to enjoy and contribute to my blog and to visit the websites of QualiFind Executive Search, our agribusiness search practice - AgriFind Executive Search and our Mexico industrial practice – MaquilaFind, LLC.

Featured Posts

BPS International partners with QualiFind to Create... Posted in QualiFind's website  Two of the most established names in Mexico relative to the executive search and recruiting industry are proud to announce that they have joined forces to launch...

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Fostering Collaboration (Part III) Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments, in QualiFind's website As a search firm, when we’re engaged to find a functional leader for almost any role, it’s virtually...

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Thoughts on Strategy (Part II) Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments, in QualiFind's website In part one last week, I mentioned strategic thinking, acting and influencing.  This week I want...

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Thoughts on Strategy (Part I) Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments, in QualiFind's website Setting strategy isn’t the same as leading strategy. Even the best strategist can falter when it...

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Leadership Qualities For The Next 5 Years Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments, in QualiFind's website In the 2010 Global IBM CEO Study recently published, 1541 CEOs were asked what would be the top...

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Leadership Qualities For The Next 5 Years

166

Posted on 23-07-2011

Category : Executive Search

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments, in QualiFind’s website

In the 2010 Global IBM CEO Study recently published, 1541 CEOs were asked what would be the top leadership qualities required to succeed in the next five years.  Represented were 60 countries across 33 industries.  The four primary findings were:
  • Today’s complexity is only expected to rise and more than half of CEOs doubt their ability to manage it. Seventy-nine percent of CEOs anticipate even greater complexity ahead. However, one set of organizations we call ‘Standouts’ has turned increased complexity into financial advantage over the past five years.

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  • Creativity is the most important leadership quality, according to CEOs. Standouts practice and encourage experimentation and innovation throughout their organizations. Creative leaders expect to make deeper business model changes to realize their strategies. To succeed, they take more calculated risks, find new ideas and keep innovating in how they lead and communicate.

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  • The most successful organizations co-create products and services with customers, and integrate customers into core processes. They are adopting new channels to engage and stay in tune with customers. By drawing more insight from the available data, successful CEOs make customer intimacy their number one priority.

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  • Better performers manage complexity on behalf of their organizations, customers and partners. They do so by simplifying operations and products, and increasing dexterity to change the way they work, access resources and enter markets around the world. Compared to other CEOs, dexterous leaders expect 20 percent more future revenue to come from new sources.

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    In addition to these findings, CEOs believed that the world will not simply go back to “business as usual” after the economic downturn.  Leaders will need to be able to manage more complex organizations, more robust customer needs and more demanding expectations from shareholders or taxpayers. Eight in ten believe the environment will become considerably more complex, leading to the number one quality from respondents of creativity.

    CEOs in the next five years will need to be more creative in the way they deal with everything from the task at hand to the interpersonal challenges they face to the strategies they develop to meet future goals.  The question is, “are they up to it?”  Time will show that the most successful CEOs in the next five years will be creative rather than pragmatic.  After all, they said so themselves.

    Startups Need To Hire A Recruiter…Now

    180

    Posted on 17-07-2011

    Category : Executive Search

    Posted in QualiFind’s website

    This is a well written and timely commentary on why startups should be engaging a headhunter versus leaving talent acquisition up to the luck of the draw of their network or their VC’s network. We are seeing more venture capital backed startups and we are also continuing to get search assignments that fall into the “starting over” category noted in paragraph 12 of this article. From our side of the desk, it pretty much looks like the old adage regarding the wisdom (or lack thereof) of someone who would step over a dime to pick up a nickel. Read and let us know what you think…”The unemployment rate in America is hovering around 9%. But if you are a competent engineer, sales executive, online marketer or general manager in Silicon Valley, NYC, Boston, or other startup hotspots, the unemployment rate is 0%.

    The talent market has gotten as competitive and aggressive as I have ever seen in the last 20 years. CNN recently reported that 40% of the 130,000 job openings in Silicon Valley are for software engineers. Senior executives have never been harder to secure. That’s why, even though it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, I’m advocating that all my portfolio companies hire recruiters when they are trying to fill senior or key positions. Immediately.

    Typically, when a young company gets financing and begins to hire, they seek to leverage the network of the founding team and their investors. This network provides some valuable leads and perhaps a few hires. Leveraging existing networks has greater benefits than simply cost savings and convenience. Teams that have worked together in the past simpy are well-positioned to out-execute those that haven’t due to their common history, language and relationships.”

    Read more at http://www.quali-find.com/startups-need-to-hire-a-recruiter-now

     

    Want To Make More Than a Banker? Become a Farmer!

    141

    Posted on 12-07-2011

    Category : Time Magazine

    Check out this article from the latest issue of Time magazine. Our agribusiness search practice – AgriFind has experienced an uptick in new search assignments that echo this story. It’s great to see the American farmer on the rebound and prepared to feed the world!

    Tools of the trade surround John Willoughby on his 2,000-acre (800 hectare) plot outside Grand Island, Neb.

    If you want to become rich, Jim Rogers, investment whiz, best-selling author and one of Wall Street’s towering personalities, has this advice: Become a farmer. Food prices have been high recently. Some have questioned how long that can continue. Not Rogers. He predicts that farming incomes will rise dramatically in the next few decades, faster than those in most other industries — even Wall Street.
    The essence of his argument is this: We don’t need more bankers. What we need are more farmers. The invisible hand will do its magic. “The world has got a serious food problem,” says Rogers. “The only real way to solve it is to draw more people back to agriculture.”

    It’s been decades since the American heartland has been a money pump and longer since farming was a major source of employment. Old rural towns have emptied as families — and the U.S. — have moved on. Technology, service jobs and finance have been the basis of the economy since at least the 1980s. Farming became the economic equivalent of a protected species — supported by a mix of government handouts, lax regulation (agriculture is one of the few industries shielded from certain child-labor laws) and charity concerts. (See pictures of urban farming around the world.)

    But in the past few years, thanks to a wealthier (and hungrier) emerging-market middle class and a boom in biofuels, the business of growing has once again become a growth business. At a time when the overall economy is limping along at an anemic growth rate of 1.9%, net farm income was up 27% last year and is expected to jump another 20% in 2011. Real estate prices in general are again falling this year. But according to the Federal Reserve, the average farm has doubled in value in the past six years. Farmland is quickly emerging as one of the year’s hottest investments on Wall Street. “We’ve been doing this for a number of years, long before anyone thought this was sexy,” says Jeff Conrad, who heads Hancock Agricultural Investment Group. “Now we are getting a lot of calls, and we are noticing more competition. There’s a lot of interest in New York.”

    These days, a trip to Grand Island, Neb., a city of 48,500 surrounded by farms, is a trip to an economic bizarro land. Business is booming. None of the half-dozen or so local banks in town have failed or even come close to failing. In fact, profits are up. “A lot of local banks are sitting with a lot of cash,” says Colby Collins, Grand Island branch manager for Five Points Bank. The largest local manufacturing plant, which makes combine harvesters, is at full capacity. Case IH plant manager Bill Baasch has hired 130 workers in the past nine months. Sales at Global Industries, a company based in Grand Island that makes grain-storage bins and other building materials, are up 130% since 2003. Tom Dinsdale, who owns the local General Motors car dealership, says 2010 was the best year he’s ever had. Customers who would normally buy a Chevy Suburban are buying a Cadillac Escalade. Dinsdale is adding an infinity pool to his nearby riverfront second home. “Business is good,” he says.

    Even housing has done well in the past few years. Realtor Lisa Crumrine says her office has sold 48 homes in Grand Island in 2011 and that prices are up slightly. Greg Baxter, a cattle rancher and real estate developer, says he has sold six lots so far this year in a development just off Grand Island’s commercial strip. Local homebuilders are busy constructing custom homes on the properties. That’s one reason Nebraska’s unemployment rate is 4.1%, the second lowest in the country behind that of mining-heavy North Dakota. Iowa’s unemployment rate is a slightly higher 6%, still far lower than California’s 11.7%, New York’s 7.9% or the national average of 9.1%. (See TIME’s photo-essay “Nebraskaland: A Tale of Two Farms.”)

    Even with the recent uptick, however, agriculture accounts for only 1% of U.S. GDP. Add in all those other things that are part of the farm economy — tractors, fertilizer, seeds — and you still get to only about 4%. That’s smaller than real estate — about 13% — and far smaller than the nation’s service sector, which makes up about 70% of the economy. As Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase, tells TIME, “We don’t make up what we lose to the world in buying oil by selling them corn.”

    But some experts believe agriculture can do more to fuel job growth. Chuck Fluharty of the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri sees a possible renaissance in farm towns. As money flows back into those areas, he predicts, farmers will need somewhere to invest. As they did with ethanol, he says, farmers will put their money in new industries that will create uses for their crops, like biodegradable plastics or other kinds of biofuels. The result will be more jobs. “Agriculture is the most critical story in our economy today,” says Fluharty. “It will affect the future of the world.”

    See TIME’s photo-essay “From Farm to Fork.”

    The main reason for U.S. farmers’ unlikely recovery is as familiar as the outcome is foreign. Wealthier consumers in places like China and India are eating more, and in particular they are eating more meat. The average American consumes about 250 lb. (113 kg) of meat a year. The average Indian eats less than 10 lb. (4.5 kg) a year. In China, it’s more like 100 lb. (45 kg). Which means there’s a lot of room for growth. Half of U.S. corn production goes to feed cattle, pigs and poultry, which drives up demand for grain. Ethanol has increased the demand for corn as well. As a result of both trends, corn prices have more than doubled in the past year, to a recent $6.81 a bushel. Soybeans, which are the U.S.’s largest farm export to China, are up too.

    Meanwhile, a number of innovations have made U.S. farmers significantly more productive than they were just two decades ago. Bioengineered seeds mean they can use smaller amounts of pesticides and water. And with GPS-aided, computer-monitored planting, some farmers are able to squeeze two rows in a space not much bigger than what used to fit only one. An average acre produced 91 bushels of corn in 1980; it now produces 152. That, along with higher prices, is boosting profits and making farmland dramatically more valuable — and farmers richer. (See pictures of the world’s harvest.)

    Ken Woitaszewski knows what it’s like to lose the farm. In 1985 he got a call saying the bank was about to foreclose on his family’s 500 acres (200 hectares) in Wood River, Neb. He was 24, married and living in a trailer. It had been years since his father’s farm was able to support the family. He and his three brothers did odd jobs. Woitaszewski worked on other people’s farms. He assembled farm equipment for a dealer. Two of his brothers drilled wells and installed pivots, the long-boom sprinkler systems that water most farms. Another worked as a plumber.

    Woitaszewski says he had no idea how much financial trouble his father was in. “My father was very old school,” he says. “Today’s farmer is much more open-minded.” But it was the 1980s, and rising interest rates were spelling an end to many family farms. Pooling their money, the brothers found they could save only a so-called quarter section, or 160 acres (65 hectares), of the family’s land. That was the seed of their rebound. “Losing the family’s land to the bank was an important experience,” says Woitaszewski. “I remember lying in my trailer thinking, I will do whatever it takes not to let that happen again.”

    The first few years were rough for Woitaszewski. Crop prices were low, and farm profits were nonexistent. He and his brothers had to hold on to their odd jobs. To keep the farm afloat, they ran it as cheaply as possible. They built their own barns and fixed up old tractors. But as more people ran into trouble, more farms became available. Woitaszewski says an experienced farmer once told him the best way to not lose your farm to the bank is to pay for it in cash. “We were lucky,” says Woitaszewski. “We didn’t have a lot of equity, so we couldn’t do a lot of borrowing.” In 1990 the brothers bought another 120 acres and then 40 more in 1994. By then, prices had risen to nearly $2,000 an acre (almost $5,000 per hectare). (See how the poor are getting poorer in California’s rich farm country.)

    Woitaszewski and two of his brothers now farm 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares), about 60% of which they own. At the current average price of about $4,000 an acre (just under $10,000 a hectare) in Nebraska, the Woitaszewskis’ land alone is worth $24 million. Back-of-the-envelope math suggests profits this year could be as high as $6 million, though Woitaszewski doubts they will hit that mark. Nonetheless, he seems somewhat amazed by his success. “We as humans possess more ability than we give ourselves credit for,” he says.

    John Willoughby, who owns 2,000 acres (800 hectares) in Wood River, got his start in farming in 1992, when his father-in-law retired. At the time he made the switch, he worked for a bank, and most of his clients — farmers — thought he was crazy. Today the move seems to have paid off. He expects his profits to be up 25% this year, and that’s on top of a number of good years. A few years ago, he and his wife built a five-bedroom, five-bathroom home. They have four daughters, and Willoughby hopes to be able to send all of them to college nearly debt-free.

    See “Farm Camp: Would You Pay $460 to Shovel Crap?”

    Most of the money he makes, though, goes back into his farm to pay down debt or buy new equipment. Willoughby says he has seen a lot of new grain bins go up on nearby farms this year. Last summer he spent $220,000 on a new tractor. He also bought a new grain bin ($60,000) and recently a new sprayer ($30,000) to spread herbicides. But the last time he bought land was three years ago, when he picked up 160 acres (65 hectares). Like other farmers, Willoughby says he is a pretty conservative businessperson. To him, land prices seem high. “It was hard to earn money for a number of years,” says Willoughby. “I’m not going to waste it.”

    Already, the prosperity of farmers, along with rising concerns about U.S. debt, is changing the debate in Washington about agriculture. In early June, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to end tax credits and trade protections that benefit the corn-based ethanol industry. Although few think a complete ban will make it through both houses of Congress, many believe Washington is likely to curb its support of ethanol — long thought to be untouchable because of its popularity in Iowa. (See the problem with factory farms.)

    The real fight will be over the farm bill, which is up for renewal next year. The legislation, which was last passed in 2008, features $19 billion in subsidies for farmers, including $8 billion in direct payments. Some have long opposed the bill because it favors grains over other crops and supports large commercial farms or hobby farmers, who don’t need the payments. Even the Iowa Farm Bureau has given up its support for direct payments. Woitaszewski says the amount he receives from the government has dropped dramatically as conditions for farmers have improved. He won’t specify how much he gets but says it is roughly enough to cover his property-tax bill. And he says he would consider giving up his payments in return for fewer restrictions on land use. Converting land currently being used to grow grass to corn and other crops is, he says, the only real answer to high food prices.

    Some fear that support from Congress could be ending just when the good times for farmers are entering a rough patch. Farming is a capital-intensive business, and most farmers need to borrow to be able to purchase their tractors and other equipment. Many expect that when the economy either improves or gets significantly worse, interest rates will rise. And rising interest rates will make it more expensive for farmers to borrow, which will lower profits. Historically, farm incomes have crashed during times when the overall economy was improving. And some economists, including Yale’s Robert Shiller, are saying there is a bubble in farmland. But many agricultural economists believe the rising demand for food in Asia and elsewhere will mean that crop prices will stay high even after the economy improves.

    For now, though, years of lackluster economic growth and the so-called rise of the rest are likely to ensure that the good times in the U.S.’s farm regions continue. “For most of these years, we just tried to get by,” says Woitaszewski. Now grain bins, which break up the seemingly never ending flatness of central Nebraska, are growing faster than crops. Woitaszewski has his own $350,000 storage project in the works. “These are some of the best economic conditions I have seen in my career,” he says. It’s a sentiment that’s welcome — and rarely heard these days beyond the Midwest’s amber waves of grain.

    Leading from Afar

    180

    Posted on 05-06-2011

    Category : Executive Search

    Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments, in QualiFind’s website

    Call it an “art” rather than a “science” because we’ve had so little time with this new phenomenon of leading remote employees.  Time will reveal the best ways to get the most out of this environment in the areas of not only productivity, but also relationships.  We’ll learn through experience many techniques for leading employees that we rarely see.  In the mean time, here are five helpful ideas that can help you get the most out your long –distance working relationships.
    Mix in personal discussions once in a while.  The remote employee still needs to feel like they’re part of something bigger so sideline conversations on the phone can be just as effective as in person to make them feel like they’re still part of the team.  Even if it’s as rare as monthly, call them to talk about anything but work on occasion.  This lets them know that you interested in them not just as resources, but as real people.  It’s much easier to do this with a nod or a smile at work.  Without that contact, we all know something is missing.  Taking the extra few minutes once in a while is a great investment.Delegate in a way that gives them freedom and accountability.  Dole out assignments with the end in mind, giving the remote employee some freedom in how they get things done.  Getting the end result is critical – the what that needs to be done – but giving them flexibility on how to do it will keep the “creative juices” flowing and the work interesting.  Accountability can be reinforced via self-managed checklists or progress reports.  Remote employees pride themselves on being able to work independently; therefore, mechanisms to help them measure their own results work well.  Further, they don’t perceive the remote manager as looking over their shoulder when they’re completing the progress reports themselves.Humble yourself.  This can obviously be applied whether working with remote employees or shoulder-to-shoulder, but take the opportunity to validate them when you can.  This can be done in two ways.  First, just say it.  “Look, you’re the expert on this topic.  What do we need to do to keep moving in the right direction?”  Another way would be to end conversations with “Before we close this meeting, I’d like to know if there’s anything else you’d do if you were in my shoes in this situation”.  Staying humble will help the remote employee see you as someone that is self aware and willing to listen to what they have to say when it comes to the important work that they do.Be trustworthy.  One way to build trust is to be consistent.  Doing what you say you’ll do will ensure that remote employees are “on board” with where you want to go.  No matter how big or small the situation, trust is always in the “eyes of the beholder” and they are the “judge and jury” on the matter.  So be sure to calculate what you are suggesting or committing to when it comes to even the smallest of issues.  Your credibility with them and consequently their willingness to follow you will both increase as a result.Keep your written communication organized and productive.  Let’s say you have problem with a project that you’re responsible for and the remote employee is an important person on the team working on the project.  Organize your written communication with the following three things:  current status, project goal and actions to achieve the goal.  The current status may be an outline of things that are going well or going wrong with the project and why.  The project goal is the target or outcome of the project that usually remains consistent unless something happens that forces a change.   The actions to achieve the goal are straightforward.  They are the things being done and by whom to make sure all is on track to ensure success.  Focus about 80% of the team’s effort on the actions to accomplish the goal and you will see productivity rise.It is estimated that nearly fifty million people work remotely.  We find ourselves as leaders learning “on the fly” ways to get the most out of this reality.  Taken together, though, these five ideas give you a road map to short term success in leading remote employees.  Through experience, and necessity, we’ll continue to learn new and creative ways to lead from afar.
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