Like most executives, Harvey Maslin was so busy running his business he had little
time to run his career. When he left his job as the No. 2 executive of a $400 million
personnel firm earlier this year, he hoped to land the top spot at another firm. Then, a
friend introduced him to Joe Meissner of Executive Capital Partners® ,
a San Francisco career agent.
Mr. Meissner
convinced him to piece together his own company. He launched a public-relations campaign
on Mr. Maslin's behalf to burnish the executive's image as a leader rather than as a
subordinate and introduced him to potential investors, management talent and even
acquisition targets. Mr. Maslin eventually created WorldStaff™, retaining Mr.
Meissner as an adviser and career agent.
"I probably could have done this without him, but I
would have needed a half-dozen people to help me," Mr. Maslin says. "And I
wouldn't have gotten it done as fast as we have."
With executive jobs and career directions changing more
frequently than in the past and the demand for so-called brand-name executives heating up,
the concept of the full-service career agent, common to the sports and entertainment
fields, has filtered into the business world.
Executive agents combine executive coaching and career consulting with
marketing and negotiations. They plot career strategy, help build networks of business
contacts, advise on salary talks and shape their clients' images. They also screen job
opportunities for employed clients.
There aren't many of them yet. StybelPeabody Lincolnshire, a
Boston outplacement firm, has launched a similar service, complete with a team of
financial planners, attorneys and even a theater director to polish presentation style.
Most such career agents work for a percentage of their client's salary.
Who could use an executive agent? Well-known CEOs are candidates. So
are senior executives on the CEO fast track, rainmaking attorneys and consultants,
cutting-edge technology wizards and successful turnaround artists. If you're thinking of
getting an executive agent, ask yourself these questions: Are you at or near the top of the class in
what you do? Is what you do in short supply? Do you lack the time or ability to plot
career strategy and build business contacts?
Executive agents trade on their career expertise and
contacts. Mr. Maslin, for example, hadn't conducted a job search in 30 years, and with few
contacts in the equity world, he hadn't seriously considered an entrepreneurial venture.
Mr. Meissner provided expertise, contacts and a vision for Mr. Maslin's future. "It
took Joe to take me through that process to make me feel we could pull it off," Mr.
Maslin says.
In some ways, executive agents operate from the shadows. Mr.
Stybel conducts anonymous job searches for executives who don't want anyone to know
they're sniffing around. Mr. Meissner remains in the background if a recruiter balks at
his participation, not an uncommon experience. To raise Mr. Maslin's profile, Mr.
Meissner arranged interviews with trade publications and booked a road show for meetings
with private equity funds. For other clients, Mr. Meissner has
arranged speeches and gotten them involved with charitable organizations that attract
power brokers.
"Harvey needed to see himself as an entrepreneur and a
brand," Mr. Meissner says. "Then I had to reposition Harvey's image with people
in the industry, so they would see him as a stand-alone guy."
As in the entertainment industry, executive agents are also
deal packagers. Mr. Meissner, for example, has introduced Mr. Maslin to management
talent-a chief financial officer for the new company and potential investor-relations and
product-development managers. "He exposed me to a whole slew of people," Mr.
Maslin says.
Brian McAdams also needed a deal packager after completing
the turnaround and sale of an infomercial producer in 1996. He was in search of
"another big, successful deal," he says. The executive recruiters he contacted
were placement specialists, not deal packagers. One of them referred him to Mr. Meissner. First, Mr. McAdams says, the career agent interrogated him thoroughly about his career. "I
had forgotten how successful I was in the food business," he says. "He created
in my own mind a picture of myself that was more accurate and complete than I would have
ever done myself."
Mr. Meissner then arranged meetings with companies and
private equity funds around the country that Mr. McAdams, who has spent his entire career
in Philadelphia, didn't know existed. He also steered the executive away from firms whose
investment aims weren't compatible with his and counseled him to pass on one deal he felt
was too costly. "He won't let me do anything off-target or stupid," Mr. McAdams
says. "He's created a lot of efficiency for me."
Mr. McAdams likens Mr. Meissner's role to that of an
entertainment agent. "The really successful stars in show business, if you look
underneath, you'll see a great agent looking out for their long-term career
interests," he says. "He'll decide to do this project or not do that
album."
Once he lands his deal, Mr. McAdams says he will continue to
retain his executive agent. "A guy like me, when I'm managing a business, my nose is to the
grindstone," he says. "There's no one out there who represents my
interests."
©1998 The Wall Street Journal |
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