1. Fighting and Winning the War for Finance Talent --- A Report from the Front 2000 Forbes CFO Forum Plaza Hotel New York May 18, 2000

2. You Must Fight This War On Several Fronts Simultaneously IF YOU LOSE, YOUR COMPANY WILL BE TAKEN PRISONER OR KILLED –In some industries the war is over, e.g. Investment Banking, Advertising, Auto’s... The battle-fronts are: –Recruitment –Development –Retention

3. Winning on the Recruitment Front To Win, You Must Have… –An attractive message --- “It’s Not a Job, It’s and Adventure” –A winning battle plan --- Process & logistics count –A compelling value proposition --- Why would someone (Start/Continue) work for you? –Some great people on your team already

4. To Win, You Must Have… What kind of adventure do you offer? Does a prospective employee leave an initial interview thinking, “Wow!” Could you be recruited? How appealing is the hiring executive? Does everybody involved get it?

5. It’s An Adventure… Is your company a fun place to work? –Birkenstocks and khakis –Employee friendly --- Why Bobby is in trouble The vision thing… –Change the world, or at least an industry –Compared to Cisco, 15% growth sounds dull –In a wired world, global reach is a given –“Values” count for a great deal

6. It’s An Adventure… Involvement of the top --- the CEO must be part of the effort to attract people

7. Battle Plan…We’re Going to Go Here and Kill ‘em Focused hiring strategy… Do you know exactly what you want? –“A’s” are hard to handle Engagement in the process –availability and urgency –sweating the details of preparation and presentation –collateral's, scheduling, ambiance

8. Development --- Academy Graduates Make Fine Officers Why do some places do a better job of teaching the craft? –They have and they hire great people –Willing to stretch people, give feedback and accept some failures –Recognize the need to retain the best --- Pay! –Accept some casualties --- eliminate poor performers

9. What If Your Company Is Not an Academy? If you have the resources, strive to be one… But if you can’t be one, be a great place to work: –offer the most opportunity, excitement, fun and the biggest rewards –promote people out of your company --- accept the inconvenience of turnover

10. Convincing the best the re-up... You start with a big natural advantage… few people really want to change jobs But demand has never been greater: –lots of start-ups, spins, IPO’s, etc. –Search firm revenues are up 50+% –Wage increases at the top are huge --- pay $ to get talent ---even the.coms are paying cash –Performance requirements are stiff

11. Summary Great people are essential to top-performing companies Top-performing companies recruit, develop and retain great people If you are not fighting the talent war --- you are losing it