Would you hire Thomas Edison or Jeff Immelt?

I read a great article a few months ago poking fun at the way most people are approaching recruiting these days. The author recounts a hypothetical interview with Thomas Edison. When Edison applies for a position to develop the light bulb, the hiring manager asked Edison what experience he had with light producing apparatus. Edison replied that he had none; however, he was sure he would get up to speed quickly, as he had experience inventing a number of other very useful products including the phonograph and the stock ticker. It should not come as much surprise that in today’s market Mr. Edison would not have been considered. The author fails to point out that it is even more likely that Edison’s resume would have been rejected long before getting to an interview.

The number of absolute and specific requirements that a majority of hiring managers, recruiters and boards put into position descriptions is staggering and also somewhat troubling. The trend is likely to result in a dearth of the most important elements of a varied and diverse set of business experiences. When Jack Welch selected a new manager for a GE business unit he did not look for the most experienced manager in the business line, instead he selected the best manager – the manager with the most diverse and varied business background. This was true for most companies in the past, as they would select a CEO based on who had the most experience in a number of functional areas in addition to experience in several diverse businesses. Unfortunately, today the “ideal” candidate is some who total experience is in sales and has all of his experience in the very narrowly defined market that the company addresses.

When I started to work at GE Plastics back in the 80s, I had an office near a young marketing manager Jeff Immelt. A few years later Jeff moved on to a position with GE Appliances, and later ran GE Medical Systems, and now of course is the CEO of GE. One wonders if Jeff could have ever obtained the positions at GE Appliances and GE Medical Systems if they were using executive search firms?

I am not blaming the executive search firms entirely, however I think they should remind the hiring managers that management skills, people skills, integrity, etc. are more important the years of very narrow experience.

I also was a Principal with Booz Allen & Hamilton, I have had people asked me how firms like Booz Allen could provide so much innovative insights to their clients, most of which were Fortune 100 firms with large staffs of their own bright MBAs? Well the reason is that of business diversity. Working for Booz Allen you are in a different company about every two months and more likely than not in a totally different industry. Frankly you learn to listen and you bring with you lots of insights from a very diverse set of business.

Watch out you maybe rejecting a Thomas Edison or Jeff Immelt.

Ralph Muse
Muse Consulting