Kincannon & Reed President Addresses Global Ag Investing Conference on Making the Search for Talent More Strategic
New York, NY (PR Newswire) May 6, 2010 – Greg Duerksen, President of Kincannon & Reed Global Executive Search, addressed the Global Ag Investing conference today on making the search for talent more strategic. The conference, held at The Roosevelt Hotel in New York, is designed to provide public and private market investors with insights about the opportunities and challenges of investing in agricultural lands, private equity, and infrastructure.
Duerksen noted that investors spend thousands of hours on legal, financial, and operational due diligence, but neglect to apply the same rigor to evaluating the individuals who will be responsible for generating the expected return on investment. As a result three common hiring mistakes are often made: (1) Hiring for technical capability, rather than business aptitude; (2) Hiring someone with a great education and investment pedigree, but lacking in operational experience. Duerksen commented, “A smart person is not necessarily wise or experienced. To be successful in the global agricultural investment context, you need both a vivid imagination of what can go wrong and the guts to take action.” (3) Hiring passively, not actively. Duerksen stated, “The people ag investors need are not likely to be in the circles they know. The best candidates must be proactively identified and personally sold on the opportunity. We often see investors put more weight on who suggests a name rather than conducting a broad and deep evaluation of capabilities and fit. If you don’t actively look for it, talent will be the limiting factor in the success of your investment.”
Duerksen added, “Investors negotiate hard to get the last 10% off the acquisition price and would work diligently to increase the return on that acquisition by 10%. The same principle applies to talent acquisitions. You should hold out for the last 10% of what you need rather than settle for 90%. When it comes to senior leadership, the difference between 90% and 100% is not 10. That difference is everything.”
The full text of Mr. Duerksen’s presentation is available upon request.
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