Leadership & Client Development

Claude on Leadership & Client Development:
There has been a tremendous amount of negative press in recent months devoted to the subject of leadership and subsequently it has spawned a widespread re-examination of the meaning of leadership in our society and the governance of our corporations.  Corporate success is being redefined. There is an emergence of a new human dimension, a new moral imperative that really defines the essence of ‘leadership’, setting new expectations of leaders of our institutions, in our society and business community. This is why we should be encouraged by the direction IMG Executive Team has taken our company over the past year, with a remarkable rebranding of the Ian Martin group of companies and the recent creation of the Client Development Centre at IMG.

An article I was reading in the Globe & Mail recently stated that in the past, leaders could get by solely on their ability to meet the bottom line, demand changes and make difficult strategic decisions; however, many analysts now believe this is not enough to meet the challenges facing industry over the next several years.  Ultimately what will separate great leaders from the rest will be their focus on people and development of their organizations, bench strength and retaining talent.   A poll reports the sobering finding that leaders in Canada are not developing the strengths they know they will need to keep pace with coming demands. In fact 12% have trimmed back their leadership budget, only 20% of Canadian organizations plan to ramp up spending on leadership training next year compared to 29% worldwide.  Larger organizations have scored less successfully on effectiveness compared to mid or smaller organizations.   Companies the size of the Ian Martin Group have the potential to be more effective because they foster environments that permit open discussions about strategy, values shared by employees at all levels and more opportunity for individual employees to provide practical innovative ideas.  Of key importance is the creation of opportunities for the development of our next generation of leaders – to provide a rich environment for them to grow and have the potential for positive influence in the community.

The Executive Team of IMG has focused its growth strategy around the premise that the company’s core strength will be in its people. They have therefore taken the initiative to create a new business unit called the Client Development Centre (CDC) that will focus on internal clients (employees) and external clients (candidates, contractors and client contacts).   One part of CDC will consist of a Recruiting Hub to selectively source and train Recruiters to meet demands across the company; CDC will also work closely with managers to identify and train future leaders for the next generation; CDC will serve internal business units by leveraging and optimizing entrepreneurial opportunities to grow the company, prosper and fulfill our business and community objectives.  One important initiative for the CDC will be to make initial contacts on new commercial leads with a goal to sell/offer all IMG services; once an external client is developed, the appropriate business unit will take over that business.     We have many longstanding relationships with clients who, in many cases, are not aware of our other divisions, e.g., IT, executive search, temp services, etc.    CDC will optimize their expertise in negotiating and fulfilling requirements with government clients in Ottawa and expand this service nationally through collaboration and sharing best practices.

The Executive Team understands that our strength is our people and they have proactively invested into our collective future.  The CDC will provide a centre and forum for the cultivation of IMG’s positive core values for its new employees and future leaders.