In our book “Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business” Prentice Hall ‘06, Rusty Rueff and I wrote that no matter the economic back drop - boom or gloom - Q Talent (quality talent) is always scarce. I’ve been conducting executive searches for companies recently from the US to Moscow and find that ‘discovering’ the quality talent takes more work. Not more time necessarily, just more time to weed through all the prospects as more talent is currently available.

The perception of high unemployment resulting in an easier process of finding the right talent is the wrong way to approach our current economic environment. There is a good chance your company has fewer resources to source and assess talent, just as your CFO requires that less investment in talent acquisition is the imperative of the day. The reality is more talent is streaming and directed at your organization with fewer resources to manage resulting in a inefficient process and poor results.

And though there are many highly qualified executive talent on the market seeking opportunity today, we have to wonder and desire access to those asked to remain and guide their companies through our current economic condition.

Your company requires executive Q Talent - either today or at some point in the future and if you want to successfully compete through quality execution, you need quality executive talent to make it happen. So what do we do to source, assess and hire.

• Align executive Q Talent needs with your business model needs - short and long term
• Invest in internal/external resources to help source executive Q Talent relationships
• Put programs in place to source executive Q Talent relationships ahead of demand - build a bench so you are ready to move when the conditions are right

Today is the greatest time to source and establish executive Q Talent relationships.

Realize it and make the investment today to insure your success tomorrow.

Whether you are an executive searching for a job or a company searching for top executive talent, finding the right person or job is harder today than it has been in some time.

For executives, depending on our networks is still the best way to find an opportunity, however they do face dilemmas in networking to find the right opportunity.

• Companies are barraged with resumes and executive profiles from all directions
• Companies are understaffed in HR and in the Executive ranks to effectively deal with the flow
• Companies are working to manage costs and do not rely on external staffing resources as much as they have in the past

Companies face a different set of dilemms when searching for executive talent.

• Their perception that talent is widely available causes pause and loss of quality talent they meet
• Reliance on management resources to source and hire executive talent puts a strain on day to day execution and limits talent reach
• Managing the talent delivery process is a consultative process that requires time and skill - would you turn over a valued executive selling process to someone who has not sold much in the past?

Dealing with these dilemmas successfully require that executive talent and companies create a complete strategic plan to solve the dilemma before executing.

Executive talent should build a plan to network just as they would plan to sell, build or market a product. If you are an executive in Finance of Human Resources, partner with executives with selling. marketing and development skills to create your strategy before executing.

Companies in need of executive talent need to quantify the value of hiring by time and skill. Be specific and realistic. If not sure if your parameters are realistic be willing to bring in a consultant to help test your thoughts and then listen. Don’t get caught up in your own answers, remain open, listen to your tests and react accordingly. The same way you run your company.

These are unique times and require we search for opportunities and executive talent in new ways, not always different from processes successfully used in the past just different from our high flying, low unemployment, we can change the world days. Those days will be with us again and until they are be prepared to solve the search dilemma differently.

I attempted several years ago to convince my good friends at Dell that the talent experience at their career site left much to be desired. I don’t think it has improved.

Every visitor and there are thousands daily is a user, buyer or influencer of Dell product. In Dell’s rush to find value by sqeezing cost out of the supply chain through short cuts, inexpensive off shore support and pride at beating vendors out of ‘almost’ every cent of profit, the company has commoditized itself to low profit margins and a shrinking base of buyers. Today it appears the company faces the opportunity of their corporate life - position value as a service and thrive. How will the company respond?

The market wants service. The buyer wants to know they will buy a product that works well and will be fixed quickly when it doesn’t. Dell believed and practiced these principles in the early 90’s but somewhere along the path managing costs became the mantra. And not just Dell, a number of companies manage profits this way, and while profit margins shrink customers leave.

I write for two reasons. One, I’ve used Dell from the beginning and sadly based on the issues described above am leaving for a more innovative, trust worthy and yes ‘expensive’ product. And two, maybe someone will read and pass along…I doubt it and have no horse in the race, I just want to see Dell succeed and believe they have an opportunity if they grab it now - not later, now.

I heard the phrase ‘running hot’ used for business the first time in 1998. We had started an internet ASP, had a great name and had acquired a large number of eye balls - visitors. Uniquely we were charging and receiving money for our solution. A Board Member suggested it was time to run hot, that is to bring in more investment dollars and increase the spend on marketing and sales.

Venture money was available but required a detailed plan on how exactly the money would be spent and how we would increase revenue with a specific date to become profitable. With the plan in place we were successful at ‘running hot’ we took the company International. At times, borrowing dollars to fuel growth works.

Our government is borrowing and investing large amounts of money intended to drive and rebound our economy - ‘running hot’. Our deficit is rapidly rising and unlike the Venture inestment that is written off due to failure, the dollars the government borrows must be repaid. And so they may, at least we all hope so. The elephant in the room is the question, exactly how do we pay the debt back? What is the specific plan? As business leaders we must ask the question just as we would for our own businesses. And if the answer is not complete or if it doesn’t make common sense we should react accordingly and fire those who put us in this situation.

The opinion article in the WSJ last week had the description correct by changing epic to ethic when describing our current challenges. The article went on to blame the problems we are currently experiencing on the ethic lapses in our financial system. In other words, business leaders in the financial market did what ever it took to make $ and the chicken really did come home to roost on that one.

Our ethics problems run much deeper. The leaders of the financial system are not the only ones, they simply got caught. Look to our politicians for instance, they are barely trusted at the congrssional and senate level and our President has won a popularity contest that may or may not hold. We’ll see as we judge the ‘ethics’ of his administration…in hindsight of course.

But these are symptoms of a larger problem. We don’t teach ethics well anymore at our schools and in many of our homes. Capitalism cannot thrive unless it is based on strong sthics and for a number of reasons we have lost ours. As executives, it is imperative we create and nurture cultures that value integrity, honesty, doing the right thing even if it means a smaller profit or the loss of a client. If we don’t the government will try to position itself as big brother regulator insuring business follow the right path. Is this path necessary? Is it the right path? We need to pay attention today and build businesses that do business the right way  - ethically.