Ralph Roberto, President, Keystone Partners
Any specific trends in the marketplace as it relates to outplacement and executive outplacement? Leadership Development & Coaching? What are you seeing?
The outplacement market in the United States is relatively small at roughly $1B. Typically outplacement has been negatively correlated with the economy, meaning when the economy is up, outplacement is down and vice versa. As we know the greater Boston economy is very strong. Nationally unemployment is at historic lows of 3.7%. In spite of the strong local economy, the market for outplacement services has remained relatively stable. The outplacement activity has been less driven by the macro economy and more by a robust M&A environment, technological disruption leading to skill mismatches requiring both simultaneous reductions in force and hiring. Also the Greater Boston economy has a significant Life Sciences/Healthcare component, where reductions have taken place that are not the result of economic downturns, but instead of specific competitive situations, or product life-cycle, or product pipeline issues.
In the outplacement market we have seen a commoditization of service offerings, as providers have eliminated time with consultants and other labor related costs. There has also been a trend of reducing office and meeting space in an effort to reduce costs. This push to drive down costs has led many firms to offer lowest common denominator virtual solutions with little or no interactions with experienced career consultants. Unfortunately this has also had the resulting impact of significantly eroding both the quality of the services provided and the satisfaction and results of the services.
The market for leadership development services and executive coaching has been very robust. Leadership development services are typically positively correlated to the economy. A strong economy typically means larger budgets for development. In this very tight labor market for skilled positions organizations are placing a premium on developing and retaining their key talent. Coaching, Group Leadership Development Programs, Leadership training have all seen dramatic increases in demand.
How are you competing/differentiating your business?
Setting the direction for our business, Keystone Partners utilizes a multi-brand strategy so that each division is sharply focused on the specific market they serve: Each Division has it’s own team and resources and P&L.
1. Keystone Associates:
a. Provides outstanding outplacement services from career transition and redeployment services, to career center implementation and individual career management.
2. Essex Partners:
a. Essex Partners is a trusted adviser to leading companies across industries exclusively supporting the career needs of executives. The confidential high quality services are tailored to each enterprises unique requirements
3. Camden Consulting:
a. Focuses on helping clients improve organizational effectiveness and leadership development practices. Services include executive coaching, leadership development and training programs, team building programs, team effectiveness, coaching and other talent management and organizational effectiveness programs.
In outplacement we have taken the approach of providing “premium valued” services. This is where we combine world-class career management technology along with a premium high touch approach. This approach allows us to create real value for the employer and for exiting employees. We believe outplacement is all about employers protecting their employer brands. We want to ensure that our customers get the highest return possible for their investment in outplacement services. We measure this by a very tough metric called the Net Promoter Score. We have the highest Net Promoter Score in the Outplacement Industry. Also our quality of client landings and time to land lead the industry. So in short we have taken the non commoditization approach of providing a high touch technology driven approach that delights both our customers and the employees who use the services.
In the Leadership Development market our approach with the Camden Consulting Group, has been to build a regional brand that exclusively focused on exclusively providing high quality Leadership Development and coaching to business and organizations. For over 25 years we have built a reputation for high quality services that yield measurable business results. We have over 30 experienced coaches and leadership development practitioners who have built a strong reputation for creating and delivering leadership solutions that work.
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