How companies are employing artificial empathy to connect with customers “I think that I can show that robots are not only industrial or military machines made of cold metal. We can be warm, and gentle, and caring.” - Erica an autonomous, humanoid robot, Created by Hiroshi Ishiguro in collaboration with Osaka University, Tokyo University and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International In 1995 the MIT computer scientist Rosalind Picard coined the phrase “Affective Computing” to describe computing that relates to, arises from, or influences emotions. “Affective Computing research combines engineering and computer science with psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, sociology, education, psychophysiology, value-centered design, ethics, and more.” (Picard, MIT Press 1997). The products derived from the field include devices that can recognize, replicate, respond to, and manipulate human emotion and behavior. Recognition Advanced facial and voice recognition systems are identifying the emotional and cognitive state of humans. For example, MIT spin-off Cogito provides real-time, in-call voice analytics to determine a customer’s emotional state to help call center agents diffuse frustration, close a sale, and more. In developing the technology, MIT researchers engineered sensors that track body and speech patterns during conversation. As Greg Nichols wrote in “Artificial empathy: Call center employees [...]

AESC, together with our members, are dedicated to strengthening leadership worldwide. AESC and its members share a deep commitment to the highest quality standards in executive search and leadership consulting—for the benefit of clients and the profession. Through collaboration and innovative thinking, we deliver the future of global leadership today.Mission Statement, AESC Independent research published by The Conference Board (TCB) and two recent studies released by AESC take the pulse of global business executives and leaders of AESC member firms worldwide in order to gauge the top issues facing organizations, now and in the future. Karen Greenbaum, AESC president and CEO, pulls the research together to explain the leadership challenges faced by a changing world. “Attracting and Retaining Top Talent Remains the Number One Business Issue Around the World” The Conference Board, C Suite Challenge 2019: The Future-Ready Organization The talent shortage continues, and according to Greenbaum it is only getting worse. “Everyone is looking for the next generation of digital, diverse leaders, and it’s a candidate market. The top talent has choices, and there is a high demand for talent with similar profiles.” Greenbaum identifies four key forces that influence the global business climate: global uncertainty, a mass demographic [...]

The State of Talent in the World's Fastest Growing Economy The Business Environment Today According to data from The World Bank, India’s GDP, school enrollment, and GNI have all experienced steep increases over the last decade. Shailja Dutt, chairperson & founder at Stellar Search, India explains, “Despite a dip in absolute growth over the last few quarters, the outlook for the Indian economy remains positive.” “It continues to be among the fastest growing economies in the world, but due to its nature of being a consumption-driven economy and not an export-driven economy, sustainability of this momentum will be difficult if the government does not nurture the right macro-economic environment,” Dutt adds. “But for the next couple of quarters, we do believe that the forecast is positive.” “With 1.2 billion people and the world’s third-largest economy in purchasing power parity terms, India’s recent growth has been a significant achievement.” WorldBank.org Two recent, far reaching regulatory matters are having an impact on the business climate in India: demonetization and the movement to a single tax. Ramgopal Rao is a managing partner at Steinbach & Partner, India. “First, the entire cash economy was demonetized overnight which meant 86% of the cash in the system was withdrawn, [...]

What Search Firms and Their Clients Need to Know Altogether, he seems like the perfect hire for your C-level search. He is smart and articulate, presents well and appears to know your client’s business as well as his own, backward and forward. It is hard to imagine he might have something to hide, but there is too much at stake to leave this unconfirmed. Over the past 25 years, we’ve been trusted with vetting candidates for the highest-profile C-level and board placements. Using a mix of cutting-edge techniques and expert analysis, we verify the professed qualifications of candidates and uncover inconsistencies, omissions and red flags that may hide in their backgrounds. We’ve encountered thousands of red flags that businesspeople try to hide about themselves. Knowing more about these indiscretions can help you exercise due diligence in your next hiring decision. What do we uncover most often, and where do we find it? We tend to find information of interest by exploring three fronts: A candidate’s self-reported background, including not only their résumé, but also social media and regulatory filings; A candidate’s past controversies and troubles, whether in court documents, media headlines or government files; and A candidate’s reputation among former [...]

AESC celebrates 60 years in 2019 “Thorndike Deland Sr., founder of Thorndike Deland Associates, is widely understood to have started the first executive search firm. According to Mr. Deland’s obituary published in The New York Times, “After World War I, A. Lincoln Filene, the Boston merchant, then president of the Retail Research Association, called on Mr. Deland to direct an executive search activity for member department stores.” In 1926 Deland went on to establish the Thorndike Deland firm, “devoted to recruiting executives, many for the nation's major retailing companies.” A Sign of the Times “In terms of quality standards, in our business it's all about trust. That's what really matters.” - Russell S. Reynolds, Jr., Chairman, RSR Partners. Joined AESC Board in 1968, representing William H. Clark Associates Especially in the United States and Europe, businesses changed dramatically during the second industrial revolution. In the period from 1870-1914 innovations like the internal combustion engine, electric light, and the production of steel contributed to a period of accelerating industrialization: the expansion of rail and telegraph lines improved access to markets and lowered costs for the movement of parts and finished goods; new, efficient methods of production made the process of turning [...]

Nature, Nurture and the Environment of Innovation We know that great innovations can be born in garages and dorm rooms, and in corporate R&D programs, universities, labs and innovation hubs. And they emerge from cities famed for their creativity as well as places whose largest resource is ingenuity fueled by need. Turning ideas, wherever they come from, into new products, services, processes, enterprises and even new industries requires innovative leadership, strong teams, and both technical and financial support. We look at a handful of those factors from the perspective of advisors who help early-stage businesses make their way on the road to scale and success. THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT The cultural environment can have a significant impact on whether a fledgling endeavor takes off, and some places seem to be especially hospitable to innovation and entrepreneurship. What are the some of the qualities that foster creativity? What attitudes and support systems can allow business to launch? Deborah Op den Kamp is a consultant with Spencer Stuart in Silicon Valley. “There are some wonderful things about Silicon Valley that make it uniquely able to create the level of innovation: there’s no badge of disgrace for your company failing, there is a wealthy [...]

“…corporate survival today requires the capacity for rapid change, and forward-thinking HR departments are transforming themselves to meet the demand for evolving skills and work models. They’re taking their cues from a surprising source—the IT department, which at many organizations has adopted agile processes to speed its evolution and better serve customers’ needs." - Adi Ignatius, “How Tech is Transforming HR.” Harvard Business Review, April 2018 Digital transformation is impacting nearly every industry, geography and business function. Now it is Human Resources’ turn to experience the impact of some disruptive tech trends. Is HR ready? Recent AESC research identified CHROs as the least prepared, relative to other C-Suite roles, for digital transformation. The HR world itself is being disrupted, and HR leaders need to prepare themselves and their organizations. While the changes are significant and coming fast, some experts welcome the transition. “I would say it’s an extremely positive disruption.” Steve Patscot is the North American leader of Spencer Stuart’s Human Resources Practice. “Technology is making every aspect of the HR value chain better—from pre-employment to benefits, total rewards, employee/executive development and so forth. Technology is disrupting all of that in very, very exciting ways.” Charles Bien, Managing Partner of [...]

Erica Orange is Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms. Orange spoke with AESC about current trends and how they are shaping our future. “It is our job to hunt the future, capture the future, and ultimately answer the question, 'so what?'” - Erica Orange. What’s Happening? No trend can be adequately explained without putting it in the context of the pace of change: what The Future Hunters call ‘templosion.’ Orange says, “It’s a huge question, ‘what’s happening,’ because everything is happening so quickly.” Templosion is a term coined by The Future Hunters to describe “the implosion of everything, including the biggest of events, into smaller and smaller amounts of time.” Orange describes “all of the big, familiar cycles: an economic cycle, a corporate lifespan cycle, generational cycles, communication cycles; they used to take much longer to come to fruition. Now, it’s as if we’re experiencing everything, the world around us, how we work, how we live, how we communicate, in such a truncated and accelerated way, it’s as if we’re experiencing these cycles on steroids.” Consider the way we define generations. “The fact that market researchers and [...]

From Behind the Scenes to the Front Lines The primary role of an executive researcher is to create a search strategy and find a set of first-round candidates that meet the criteria set out by a client. It has always been hard, and it has always been important. But executive research is not immune to disruption and the pace of change. To meet the demands of an evolving role, researchers are developing new skills and adapting to new challenges. In the process, they are building rewarding careers and proving their value. Jane Griffith, a 2008 alum of the AESC Certificate in Executive Research, began her career in executive research and is now a partner and National Diversity leader with Odgers Berndtson, Canada. “Ten, 15 years ago in Canada if you did executive research, you were just doing name generation research, digging and entering the information into the database, but never actually having the external call with candidates or potential candidates.” She says, “I started my career in pure name generation research. It wasn’t that far off from going to the library to look for things in indexes.” Rachel Roche, founder and president of US-based Smart Search says, “It could not [...]