Moneyball is the story of Brad Pitt's Billy Beane, the real-life General Manager of the Oakland A's, who had to rebuild his ball club on a shoestring budget after losing his star players. To help him, he hires Jonah Hill's Peter Brand, the Ivy League economics whiz kid who figured out how to analyze the club's needs and the skills of potential players in order to build an inexpensive winning team. As a research-based recruiter, my clients are Billy Beane: trying to hire a winning team on a budget that is never as large as they'd like. I'm Peter Brand: dissecting the market to find them a team that works.
In Moneyball, before Peter came along with his methodical approach to recruiting, the ball club had all sorts of interesting ways of assessing who might be a good fit for their team (you'll note that Beane was not part of these discussions:)
Grady Fuson: Artie, who do you like?
Scout Artie: I like Perez. He's got a classy swing, it's a real clean stroke.
Scout Barry: He can't hit the curve ball.
Scout Artie: Yeah, there's some work to be done, I'll admit that.
Scout Barry: Yeah, there is.
Scout Artie: But he's noticeable.
Matt Keough: And an ugly girlfriend.
Scout Barry: What does that mean?
Matt Keough: Ugly girl friend means no confidence.
Scout Barry: Okay.
John Poloni: Oh, now, you guys are full of it, Artie's right. This guy's got an attitude and an attitude is good. I mean it's the kind of guy who walks into a room his d*** has already been there for two minutes.
Scout Pote: He passes the eye candy test. He's got the looks, he's great at playing the part. He just needs to get some playing time.
Matt Keough: I'm just saying his girlfriend is a six at best.
Yikes!
I'm not saying this is how most firms hire (thank heavens!) Yet, sometime even firms with a great recruiting process get hung up on certain notions. When you work for a company, you get very immersed in that company's culture and like hires like. But when "like" is not easy to find, that's where a recruiter can be very helpful in expanding your idea of "fit." Yes, in an ideal world, every candidate attended Harvard, needs 2 hours of sleep, has no personal life yet is a fabulously fun person, believes in giving 110% at work, is never sick, is so handsome and charming that people line up to buy your product or service simply to bask in his or her glory, has direct competitor experience, is loyal to a fault (except when it comes to leaving your competitor and bringing all of that amazing knowledge to your firm) and only wants to be paid minimum wage. It's easy to form an opinion about who the ideal candidate might be (often we see a slightly better version of the person who just vacated the position.) And even though we come up with a job description that breaks things down into skill sets and experiences, we often have that ideal candidate in mind. As Moneyball shows, this can be short-sighted. Peter explains:
People who run ball clubs, they think in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn't be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins. And in order to buy wins, you need to buy runs.When you hire someone, you are buying a set of skills. You are not buying someone who looks good in a suit or attended the right schools or has a firm handshake. These are nice to haves (and in some roles, essential to have - which is why building out a good job description is key) but they are not necessarily what makes a winning team. Sometimes the person who you might have overlooked in a pile of resumes is your next star player. That's where the Peters and recruiters of the world can be helpful:
Billy, this is Chad Bradford. He's a relief pitcher. He is one of the most undervalued players in baseball. His defect is that he throws funny. Nobody in the big leagues cares about him because he looks funny. This guy could be not just the best pitcher in our bullpen, but one of the most effective relief pitchers in all of baseball. This guy should cost $3 million a year. We can get him for $237,000.
With enough money to throw around, anyone can hire A-Rod. His talents are obvious. You don't need us. Where recruiters can come in handy is finding those diamonds in the rough like Chad Bradford. Players who can help your team win.
Happy hunting!
Nancy
No comments:
Post a Comment