CEO Corner: Steve Emerson
Well, after a long tough winter (and this is coming from a guy who lived in Alaska for 20 years), spring is here which means it is time for a long-overdue EPG Connection Newsletter. Since it has been a couple of months since our last publication I have a few things that have been rattling around in my brain that I would like to write about. First, a story about branding.
About five weeks ago my brother Bill and I met for a business lunch with a couple of colleagues at Chickie’s and Pete’s original location in Northeast Philly. Now, if you know anything about C&P you know they are famous for one thing and one thing only… crab fries! If you have ever gone over to Citizens Bank Park to catch a Phillies game you have seen people standing in huge lines (usually missing several innings of the game) just waiting for a small order of C&P crab fries. People love the things, and C&P gladly serves them up. So, the four of us are getting ready to order lunch and as the other guys are happily ordering up pulled pork sandwiches, cheese steaks, and of course crab fries I am thinking to myself how can I maintain my latest stab at eating healthy. When all of a sudden I notice on the menu, way off to one side down on the corner of the page these words…Caesar salad. Thinking I am safe I order the Caesar salad, resulting in a very strange look from our waiter, and we resume our conversation. My brother made some comment about the guys in the kitchen having to search for that one head of lettuce they keep on hand for just such an emergency. After about 10 minutes our food started to arrive and the table began to fill up with mounds of meat, cheese and you got it… crab fries. No sign of the Caesar salad. However, just when I thought all was lost and that my order had been placed in vain my salad arrived. Romaine lettuce, croutons, some chicken, and piled high with you got it… crab fries! We all stared at my “salad” and laughed our collective butts off at my futile attempt to try to eat something healthy at a place like Chickie’s and Pete’s. Now, here is where the branding part comes in. To me, a company’s brand is a statement or reflection of what they feel they do better in the world than anyone else. And of course, Chickie’s and Pete’s feels they do crab fries better than anyone else in the world, so no matter what you order there you are definitely going to get a big pile of their “brand” on your plate. As a result, whenever you think of Chickie’s and Pete’s the first thing you usually think of is crab fries. Oh by the way… I ate every one.
At Emerson Personnel Group we feel we supply our client companies with the best candidates, temporary or permanent, in the world. We can talk about our excellent customer service, our friendliness, our longevity or our high level of communication but at the end of the day what we do better than anyone else is provide the best possible candidate for each position we fill. That is who we are… and ultimately, that is what we are known for.
Okay, next topic; and this is related to what I just stated in the last paragraph. I am proud to announce that Emerson Personnel Group now has the added capability to assist our client companies in their search for excellent candidates in the field of Information Technology. By the same token, of course, we now have the concurrent ability to assist IT candidates in their search for an excellent company at which to work. EPG has partnered with John Barry who has 25 years of experience in the field of IT recruitment and is well-known throughout the region. John has hit the ground running and has already made some excellent placements for our team. Please give us a call if you have any questions about this exciting new addition to our service options.
I am going to wrap this thing up with a brief statement on the economy and a quick word of advice to hiring officials. First off, we are seeing a significant surge from our client companies in their need for temporary administrative personnel. I have written about this inevitability over the past several months and I am very happy to announce that what I have discussed in the past is now occurring in a big way. And, if history proves true, the demand for temporary administrative personnel will eventually morph into a surge in the need for executive search and permanent job opportunities. While this is very exciting news, it brings with it words of caution for companies who are in a hiring mode. Those words of caution are… make a decision! As the hiring climate heats up competition for the top candidates, it will only become stiffer. Additionally, it is typical for job candidates to be interviewing at more than one company at a time. So, the old saying “you snooze you lose” has never been more true. Simply put, if you meet with a candidate and feel they would be a great fit for your organization it behooves you to make an offer. I say this whether the candidate was supplied by Emerson Personnel Group, a competing recruitment firm, or whether it was someone the company sourced on their own. It is a simple fact that the best candidates will be scooped up quickly… especially in an environment toward which we are currently moving.
Okay, that is it for now. Bring on the spring and bring on the Phillies!