by Bill Torchiana
As this past month was a big anniversary for Torchiana Mastrov & Sapiro, I recently reflected on what has made us successful over the years. The bottom line is it's the value of really listening and adapting to clients' needs. I started our business 34 years ago as a Retained Executive Search firm. Drawing on my extensive HR experience and responsibility for recruiting talented people in multiple industries, Search was a great place to launch.
In the beginning, the biggest surprise for me was probably the fact that often the best candidates, in my opinion, were not always selected. Over the next several years I came to understand the organizational dynamics and the motivations of the hiring managers. What I learned is that, "Opposites attract - except at work, where likes like likes." Understanding these driving forces at senior levels would become especially valuable as the business grew and changed. In Search, one becomes an objective third person and observer of the situation - a fascinating experience.
In 1982, during a game changing sales call, I met an HR leader of an iconic San Francisco company, who said that for the first time in the 130-year history of the company, they had more executives than they could accommodate. He asked what we could do to help these executives find new opportunities elsewhere and the answer to that question started us in the Outplacement Services business. Interestingly, Outplacement is the other side of Search; instead of looking for talented people for clients' organizations, we are helping talented people look for clients' companies for themselves.
Our entry into the Outplacement industry was personally and professionally very rewarding. Meeting and learning from so many talented people was thrilling, and having the opportunity to share my knowledge was equally gratifying. As the business grew, we focused on Outplacement Services and withdrew from Retained Search.
Another milestone event occurred when we had a significant opportunity to support a client that offered a voluntary lay off for a large number of their employees. This program was designed to help in the decision-making process of, "Should I stay or should I go?" Since this is not an option for many people in transition, we built new programs that focused on evaluating internal career development and planning in addition to the external choices including job search, career change, retirement, entrepreneurial opportunities and consulting.
For many of the ensuing years, the Outplacement Services industry continued to grow with over 20 firms locally and we prospered as the largest independent organization in the Bay Area.
In the latter 90's, the employment market tightened with the dot com boom. Our clients, instead of having too many people, were starting to get regrettable resignations from employees they had hoped to keep. "How can we continue to keep key employees when we cannot compete with the financial offerings of this new industry?" was the question asked of us. We recommended that companies re-recruit employees that were needed for future growth and prepare them for leadership opportunities.
Our Leadership Development and Executive Coaching Practice was born from the need of organizations to survive and grow their existing workforce. Investing in high potential employees who were staying in the company proved to be a good investment and a great productivity tool because leaders gained a greater understanding of how to leverage their strengths and develop new skills to improve managerial effectiveness, greater leader impact and enhanced organizational performance.
Success breeds success. It's the "talent" that gives companies a competitive edge. Let Torchiana be your go to partner for all your talent management needs. Find out more at
www.Torchiana.com.
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