The Icing on the Cake

HN Exclusive: The final article in a series of six by master trainer, Mark Dickinson, focusing on the power of Transformational Training.

If you could have of your wants, what would you have? Would you have an exciting list of an amazing thing that are off the charts? Or would you have a list of things that look pretty much like what others have? Would it include things that you need? Or would it be a glorious and exciting list of wonderful. Ideas and dreams that would make people step back in awe? A blank sheet of paper is perhaps one of life's greatest gifts. It provides us with an unlimited opportunity for unrestrained creativity. Here's what I want you to do.

6 Steps to a Brilliant Future

Take out a sheet of paper. A3 size is really good for what we are going to do. Now, get a pencil or ink pen; either are good because they are both natural elements that will now easily as you get creative. Set a two-minute countdown time alarm on your phone. Once you are ready, start the time- and look kat the white page: concentrate your attention on it for two full minutes without writing anything down. Just look kat it and as you look kat it let your imagination run wid. Imagine the page is an expression of your inner desires and dreams. See this page as the place where you are going to create your future

As soon as the two minutes are up. Restart the timer- for another two minutes, then grab the pen or pencil and start to write or drew in whatever direction your spirit takes you. Keep your pen or pencil moving for the entire two minutes. Do not stop.

When the two minutes are up stop and observe what you've created. For sure, it will be something amazing. You will reveal things that you subconsciously desire or dream of things that are deep inside you, things that you truly want and events that you want to see happen in your life. Your page may not be a work of art, and at the stage that is not important. What is important is that you have used your mind to create something that previously didn’t exist. Every idea was for a while just a thought, whether it was the famous example of Edison's light bulb, or an app for your phone. They all began as a chemical reaction in the brain that translated itself through the process we just undertook. Converting thoughts into drawings, let’s, sketches or scribbles.

Thoughts Become Things

If you turn your attention to the page that you’ve created you will find there’s an idea there that has not yet become real. Something that you imagine that has not yet materialized or not yet been realized. Once you see your page, you may notice something there that does not yet exist, some future desire your mind will recognize this and begin to make it into a reality. Keep the paper somewhere safe and put a reminder in your phone for six months from today to open up the paper and look kat it. You will find that something you drew or created or thought today will already have become a reality. Then you will understand this process. Once you see that change repeat the exercise above but with a greater sence of creativity and ambition. Desire and dream more and more will appear.

Creating the future

The true leadership trait that you reed, above anything else, is the one that will inspire you to take the time to set aside a day to pursue the possibilities of what lies ahead. How many of you would like your company to be the ‘best in category’. Or best in country or best in the world? The difference between reading this and thinking 'nice idea, but probably not possible-'to reading this and deciding “Why not?" Is what will determine the outcome of your thought.

To decide that you will be the test at something is a fundamental shift in mentality. It means that bating from excellence is now unacceptable and every business interaction becomes a learning experience; one that must be examined and deconstructed to find the test way to work so that next time you do the same activity or task you do it as well as last time or better.

No mistakes!

In this mindset, there are no mistakes, only learning opportunities. You see, life is all about perspective. I n your work and personal lives, we often live with our hard over our eyes, meaning we concentrate intensely on ore problem and become so close to it that we cannot see anything else. The problem like the hand becomes the sole focus of our mind. But by making a very smell shift, almost subconsciously, we can move the problem further away and begin to see many other things, just like the hard. Get a problem into perspective; give it the right back ground and many problems will become less important. Instead of dominating our attention they will dissolve, becoming a main part of the broader picture that that we can see. This provides balance and from balance will come the ability to solve the problem with relative ease.

Business Mastery

Mastering business is not a common topic in business today. Because it requires dedication and commitment. It demands an unwavering commitment to doing things night every single time we do them, without compromise.

Mastering business takes time it. Means having excellent processes, well documented and truly practiced on a daily basis, where responsibility and accountability walk hand in hand.

Go Deeper

Examine each data l of you r operation. Understand why things are done the way they are, and keep learning until you fully understand. Engrain good practices into everything that you do without ever compromising not even once.

The deeper the practice, the deeper the development and therefore, the more compelling the outcome.

Coaching for Greatness

"The 5th in a series of 6 Hospitality News Middle East exclusive articles by expert hospitality trainer Mark Dickinson."

The start of the day: Social media

Facebook: Check. Instagram: Check. Snapchat: Check. Email: Check. And so the list goes on. Across all of these media there is a common theme: Amazing things that the superstars, sports stars and politicians have achieved, or the terrible failures of the same.

We make instant instinctive judgements. Good, get a thumbs up. Bad, get a thumbs down, or an unhappy/shocked emoticon. ‘Really good’ gets a share.

In our rush to be a part of everything that is going on at any one moment everywhere in the world, we lose our understanding of what it takes to claim an achievement.

We are quickly seduced into believing that if we just say the same things, or wear the same things, or go to the same places, or buy the same things as these successful people, then we too will become a megastar. The element that makes these great stories great, is the element of possibility; the chance that a little of the magic that made those stars outstanding, will somehow be bestowed on me because I do what they did, or I wear the same clothes as they did, and so on.

What people forget, or perhaps choose to ignore, is the secret ingredient:

Ø  Hard work.

Ø  Hidden hard work.

Ø  Many, long years of obscurity, and hidden, hard work.

The overnight successes that appear on our screens are the outcome of a lot of extremely hard work and dedication over a long period of time.

Most often we see stars standing alone on a stage as they receive an award or are recognized for an outstanding achievement; but listen to what they say as they raise their trophy. They give credit to the team of people that helped them get there.

Success is great. Success is good. Making money is good. Having money is good. Yes. Agree! But getting there is never a solo act.

The world’s population is expanding rapidly, since you started reading this article there is a net growth in the global population of 500 people. The population has grown by 30 million since January 1st, 2017. Competition is tough. Google shows a search result of 15 million restaurants and 400,000 hotels and Bed & Breakfast places to stay at, all around the world. If there are 2 managers per place that is a global management population of over 30 million managers.

So What do you need to do stand out?

Examine the lives of some truly great achievers of our time. Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Michael Jackson. A basketball player, a swimmer and a singer. All three of them have been at the absolute peak of what it is humanly possible to achieve. They all share two things in common.

1. Their first name is Michael.
2. Second, they were coached.

‘People are rewarded in public for what they continuously practice in private’ (Tony Robbins). This is not only a quote, it is a reality. You must do the work. There are no short cuts. There are no easy ways to the top. To be the best without sacrifice is an impossibility. You are the key to your success. And no one else.

There are naturally gifted and talented people. And if you have to ask if you are one of them, then you already know the answer! These folks are the rarity, the exception, the special few. The rest? For the rest, it takes hard work. You cannot escape this reality. And even the gifted and naturally talented work hard to make their gift or talent shine. There are no free rides. You do have to work hard at it. You do NOT have to do it alone.

Here are three steps to getting success:

Step 1 - Get focused

Step 2 - Get the best help you can

Step 3 - Get rid of everything that’s negative and do it

Follow these steps and you will become a superstar amongst the 30+ Million hospitality managers.

This is how you rise to become a hero of the people; for you to become “The One”, not just someone.

It really is that simple. However, because it is a simple formula, the majority think that it must be too simple, and therefore not true. That’s the point: Simplicity brings incredible results.

1. Focus means to focus on one thing-: You cannot be focused on many things at once. That would be an oxymoron. Get focused on YOUR one thing, and then do it. And only do YOUR one thing. Leave everything else aside and do whatever it takes to make YOUR one thing happen. No matter how long it takes. No matter what you have to do to get it. You do it.

2. Getting the best help-: means you put massive importance on finding the most professional, most successful person who does what you want to do, and you get them signed up to help you. This is where coaching comes into play. There are many coaches, which one is the best? The one that focuses you on YOUR one thing, reflects YOUR dreams back at you and causes you to constantly improve as you grow and climb YOUR way to YOUR dream.
3. Get rid of everything that is negative-: and do YOUR thing. Beautiful statement. But so difficult. Many of you were doing fine until now. You said, “focus? Yes”, you thought a bit at point two and said, “Best help? Okay”. But getting rid of everything that is negative? What in the world is that? We are surrounded by negativity, it conflicts our minds every day. We are battered by advertising and messages from TV, billboards, our mobile phones, the internet, and the radio, all day long. Distractions abound and are carefully designed to insidiously draw you away from where you are going.

The key is YOUR focus. Living out YOUR dream.

As I write this, I reflect upon the people I have the privilege to work with and to “help”. They come from all walks of life. Some are business managers, some are students, some are owners, however, there is one unifying quality, it is their burning desire to achieve their ONE thing.

As we work together we reveal to them what their performance looks like. Up close and personal. It gets ugly. Showing high achievers where they can improve is never an easy task. We talk about ego. We get it out of the way. We learn to talk with real emotions and passion. We get people to be honest. We work to craft challenges that inspire them to move forward, for after all is said and done, who can change the past? We put all the garbage of the past aside and look upwards. We can only create our future by what we do right now.

Holding people accountable for their own words makes the world a better place, and definitely, boosts personal achievement.

Consistent, relentless action has massive results. Imagine that you want to grow stronger. So you decide today to do one pushup. Tomorrow you make that same decision, so you do two. Well if you continue to take that one single decision every day for three months, then you will be doing 100 pushups a day. A tiny daily change has an eternal impact.

Are you ready for greatness? Get coached.

Basic Principles of the 70 by 7 Success Formula! Mastering Hospitality- Mark Dickinson

"Transform your management team team right in front of your eyes with Master Trainer Mark Dickinson and the basic principles of the 70 by 7 success formula."

 In our industry today, there is a total disconnect between owners and employees. An owner works for their dreams to come true. It is their urgent desire to attain amazing results from their investment of time, energy and passion that drives them. The ‘best employee ever’, is, and will always remain, an employee. And at that level, no matter how much commitment they show and how hard they work, they are employed. The goals of the two entities are forever on different trajectories and ‘never the two shall meet’.

Where they differ

An owner does not need an alarm clock to get them going or to keep them focused. It is innate. This is their investment. This is their baby or their empire. They grow it and build it and pour themselves into it day after day. At no point do they allow themselves to slacken off the pace. It is fuelled by a burning desire for growth and perhaps a little narcissism. No obstacle will stop them. Employees are often either in awe of the dedication and commitment of the owner or tired out by it! They have to run to keep up and have their hands full just getting things done that have been requested. And they bring with them the baggage of organizational thinking and college educations. Worse still, they may have some degrees or letters before/after their name, or a title; and that really slows things down. These two entities live in entirely different worlds.

Bridge the gap

For a business to be the thriving success that it was meant to be, there must be a bridge that connects the two sides. The role of training is critical in bridging this gap. The secret is to inspire the people who run the business to master what they do. This is very difficult. It comes back to the clash of the two cultures. Employees’ journeys involve growing a career, even if they are senior company directors. It is incredibly difficult to get the buy- in, but the Holy Grail is in having highly empowered focused individuals whose sole objective is to add massive value to the business; a group that is intensively focused on what they can contribute, rather than meeting their own needs. It’s a fabulous scenario, and when it works, you get a result the likes of which are not commonly found.

Secret sauce

Up front, the personal commitment and dedication of each person is tested and refined through intensive, immersive training experiences. The objective is to get the team to aspire to be with the best in class and learn from the world’s best, modeling what the greats are doing or have already done.

The perfect meeting

Next, the team is guided into developing a perfect meeting scenario. This is where high energy interaction plays a massive role and individuals begin to meld into a harmonious group of like-minded team members. Research suggests that the most powerful group dynamics can be generated with a team of between six and 12 people (Parkinson’s Law by C Parkinson), and so we chose seven. This isa superb numberwith so many connotations and meanings. One of the greatest attributes is that seven provides sufficient number of members to engender good discussion, and yet ensures that every decision will always have a majority. The perfect meeting also — S. Transform your management.

The formula: 70 by 7

 Creating intense personal growth opportunities within the organization can be the powerful and effective force required for change. A very special formula can deliver this within an organization with powerful results. This formula has multiple ingredients has a special time segment assigned, 70 minutes. There is a blueprint for the meeting that effectively dictates the activities that transpire during the allotted time, stating what must be done during each of the seventy minutes.

Seven

Seven is not a gimmick and is far more than just a theme. There are seven team members, there are seven topics that are discussed, one per week for seven weeks, and there are 70 minutes allocated The cycle is repeated seven times per year. The topics are carefully selected to give team members the opportunity to focus their entire abilities on one topic per week. Over the seven weeks they will cover every aspect of their business. This creates an absorbing and challenging business activity that develops strength at the core because by its nature, it drives each team member to go out and find out about every part of the business they are in. The key is Business Mastery We are not here to dabble We are not here to pander to ego. We are solidly devoted to mastering our business and knowing everything there is to know about it. Having understood our business, then to constantly and never- end kingly improve it.

The meetings follow a cyclical plan

The business needs a map. You have to know where you are going. Appropriately, in the first week of each seven-week cycle, the meeting is focused on the business’s map. Where are you going?

Product

Here, the group focuses on product, services and delivery. What is it that we actually sell? How do we provide it and how do our customers get it?

Marketing

Massive marketing is all about being a fire-starter. Ask questions that change the way things are done. It looks at internal and eternal customers and asks what we do for the general public too. We ask, “What could we do for our customers?” and “What would be our best offer ever for our customers?” We look at the origins of our customers and pose the question, “What would business be like if we were to have every customer we have ever had?” and “What would our business be like if every single person were engaged in marketing?”

Numbers

 Here we learn to love numbers; to feed on them and to thrive from knowing what they really say. We encourage understanding of the balance sheet, cash flow and P&L (profit and loss). We ecplain how they are tied together and spark some interesting thoughts on how to grow the bottom line in a short time.

People

Employees always talk about people being the capital of the company. And so they are. In this session, we look at people from multiple angles. We talk about our most valuable asset: personnel. We encourage an honest reflection of the weak links and identify new choices that could instantly revive the business.

Processes

Evaluating how or why we do something the way that we do has never been so thrilling Value chain management is a detailed and in-depth look at our key processes. We evaluate the sequence of events in each activity and seek to discover how many handovers and receipts of information there are in any gen process. The fun then is to see by how much we can reduce the number of processes involved and still get the job done to the same standard, maybe even better.

Customers

 We say that we live for our customers The truth is, customers are frequently very far from the center of an organization’s lifestyle. In 70 by 7 it is paramount that the customer is enshrined in the center of our thinking. The reason that customers are the 7th topic is so that we will have adequately prepared the groundwork for the work we do to encourage and enhance greater levels of customer service. We ask two important questions

How do we keep the customers we have? How do we get more customers?

For a business to be the thriving success that it was meant to be, there must be a bridge that connects the two sides. The role of training is critical in bridging this gap.

The outcome

You may say, well that all sounds good, but does it really work? After all, we are actually busy working and we have a lot to get done. True why should we waste a precious hour and 10 minutes every single week doing this? The beauty of 70 by 7 is that each member of the group will take the leadership for one week’s event, each cycle, so by the end of the year, every team member has hosted the meeting, leading on each of the seven topics. The shift that takes place is imperceptible at first. Team members start by dragging their feet and nagging about the demands of this process. The growth, unity and intensity of intelligent ideas that burst forth from this immersive style of training are immense. Businesses that employ this process are transformed. We implemented this process in the number one hotel in Asia - Shinta Mani Hotel — with mind-blowing results. An organization that is willing to be the best is willing to invest to get there. The outcomes far outweigh the challenge of instilling the process. © When 70 by 7 is fully implemented, believed in and invested in, people work less on doing unimportant things and dedicate their time and their minds to doing powerful and important productive business that leads to organizations expanding and multiplying. 

Hospitality Key Points to Stand up your Business at Peak

Hospitality Consulting Services are programs run by Done.fyi to consult newcomers, trainees and business firms about how to assemble or gather a high quality hospitality service. Hospitality services mean, providing customers or clients the best services you can have and every time the service should be superior to last time. It is a part of life and should be done in the most memorable way you can do. A function which requires dedication, efforts and commitment towards your work. One should have zeal to do better every time.

Our consulting service provides all the essential information and familiarity about hospitality. Some significant but basic things one should always follow are –

Warm Welcome - Always welcome your clients in the most modest way you can. For many, it’s a natural talent. One should always have a smile on face, don’t have a dumb face as it indicates that you are fed up or is not interested in your work. Be proactive in services.

Good Listener - Be a good listener; listen to what the client is asking and what he want you to do.

Understanding – You must have a clear understanding with clients that what he need and what are the things and activities which will increase the quality of services.

Communication - Great communication skills always lead to a profitable deal. This is the key factor in hospitality services. It can cover up your all weak points. It acts as a resistance from getting client into hassle. A good communication skill always clarifies droughts from client mind. It is you can say a boom for your business.

Time Management – Time management also play a vital role in this field. Serving client in time is very important. It shows how punctual and dedicated you are towards your field of work. Your professionalism and discipline indicates your character.

We provide hospitality consulting services both online and offline depends on the other side. We also conduct classes in which we provide you with all the essential and skillful information. In online mode we provide you with our services online using technology like video calls etc.

At last..! Done is all about to grow your employed reputation on hospitality industry and stand your business at peak.  If you have any Query or question about our services, don’t forget to mail us at info@done.fyi.

Middle Managers Determine your Success

The need for someone to 'do the job' can be your greatest enemy. In many organizations that have grown beyond owning a single outlet, one of the biggest challenges operators face is finding good managers. Hospitality Master Trainer Mark Dickinson, focuses on the power of Transformational Training and tells us more.

Middle managers are the most likely subject of quick hires and are often on-boarded or promoted without in-depth research. One thing is certain; no matter how these middle managers get to their positions, they remain pivotal to your success in building an excellent organization. They may be the deciding factor between your success and failure, and yet senior management continues to give minimal attention to hiring personnel for these positions.

First let's consider these questions:

Who do we mean when we talk about middle managers?

•   Team leaders, shift leaders, supervisors and assistant managers.

Why are middle managers so important? •

• Because they actually lead the employees in your team • Because their influence can lead to powerful results or mediocrity.

How did many of them become a middle manager?

•  The majority of middle managers were promoted from within the ranks.

How much focus is on middle thinking?

• Generally not very much. Top management have a lot to do and these folks are expeditors of policy, therefore organizations rarely engage such employees at an important decision-making level.

What are the challenges that middle managers face?

• They have a junior position and are seldom invited to meet with senior management, therefore their opinions languish or fester.        
• 'No one listens to me' is their frequent complaint.  
• They are expected to work longer hours as a sign of their commitment and loyalty.             

Who Hires them?

• Anyone can hire a middle manager. They don't need much in the way of approval because middle manager's salary is relatively affordable. They are a cog in the system.

Buried Treasure

·   These people are your treasure. They can be harnessed to deliver outstanding results for your organization, but there is one essential ingredient required to make this happen: Education. You need to have an unparalleled passion for ensuring that these individuals get the best information and growth opportunities that you can reasonably provide. They need to be engaged within your organization and given responsibilities that allow them to shine.

Give them significance

·     When middle managers are empowered through praise, recognition and affirmation, they begin to deliver at much higher levels. This is great and gets a lot of people really excited; namely the middle managers and the people that work under their supervision. However, we also discovered that this spurt in growth frequently created instant resistance from a surprising quarter: their managers. Yes, that's right. The managers of the middle managers become highly insecure once the middle managers start to grow. You may ask yourself, 'Why?', as we did, and then dig a little deeper. What we discovered is that as soon as the middle managers start to grow, those ruling them felt pressure from a newly empowered junior employee, who now aspires to experience managing an operation on his or her own. The effect was most noticeable on managers who had held their position for over two years.

How was the resistance Characterized?

·       There was an increase in squeaky wheels. A squeaky wheel is that insidious act of undermining others without actually appearing to say anything bad, such as dropping hints about poor performance and naming non-producers. We actually discovered managers criticizing juniors for attending training and not working. This effectively put the brakes on the rising star, with the objective of proving to those that will listen why the manager is more important than the middle manager. We also undertook some tests (management exercises), including one where we asked organizations to get their management team to draft the best possible company structure they could think of, without imposing any limits, for their businesses. Through this exercise we found that the teams always eliminated many management positions that would result in making their company simpler to run. Wherever the teams were empowered to implement the plan they had created, it led to an in-to-out change that was self-inspired and therefore highly effective. We developed the study a bit further and suggested that some senior managers go on vacation for extended periods, ostensibly to clear vacations, but in reality to see what would happen to their division/department's performance in their absence. The results were again quite surprising. Rather like popping the cork on a bottle of champagne, all the good stuff in the bottle was now accessible, and the middle managers began to shine. With no manager impeding their progress, change was rapid. Now there were some organizations where we discovered highly-engaged seniors and great juniors working together in harmony. The result? A supercharged business. Here we studied why they were able to work together and what made them different. Two key things stood out above all else. In the highly successful business, the teams were humble and grateful. Humility gave them the power to listen and to respect one another, even when they did not agree. Gratitude bound them like glue. Everyone had a feeling of thankfulness for their work and the company.

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

1. Thinking - Flow, Click, Think - teach people how to think. Most people have never been taught how to think. It is a rich creative process that taps into the inner strength of the brain

2. The Mechanics of Change - explaining to people how to change brightens up their lives. We are told that we are too fat, too thin, too loud, too this and too that. But the reason people don't change is because no one has taught them how. Teach people to change by showing them how to focus, what kind of help is available to them and how to deal with inner conflicts.

3. Influence - get people to practice influencing others (for good). Teach your team how to get what the organization wants through using neuro skills to affect their outcomes

4. True Leadership - explain what real leadership is all about. It's not about a list of skills, but rather about the personal passion to do what is right, that will eventually determine who will lead.

5. Get away from the profit and loss (P&L) mindset that pervades our industry and teach your people to make a relationship between material costs and income, between money spent and money earned. Engaging your management team on this level will leverage your cashflow.

 6. Affirm to your team that it is good to be still and observe your operation from time to time. We run a program called Sit & Watch® that teaches managers how to observe their own operations from different perspectives.

7. Key to success is the ability to manage what people do with their time. Lead your managers into effective planning of time usage and you gain 1000 percent return on your investment into them.

8. Today neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and embedded commands are all around us. It's not hocus-pocus, it's real. Powerfully tap into the neuro energy around you and use it for the good of your business. Massive sales result from taking intelligent actions on a consistent and sustained basis. Show your people how.

9. While motivation and delegation have been management speak for decades, rather we should focus on how NOT to demotivate and how to spread empowerment to the lowest possible level so that business thrives.

10. Most evaluation processes are a total and utter waste of time. So stop doing them. Get your management team into the habit of having instant and continual dialogue about performance and you will see massive change. It is not coincidental. You get what you focus on, so focus on what you want.

11. Show your team how to select the greatest people possible to join your team. Destroy all the archaic hiring processes and come up with consensus-based hiring, where teams decide who they would like to work with, and empower them to select their own leadership.

12. Express the value of details and imprint it into the daily mindset of your most junior people. They will love the focus and will become obsessed with doing things to the highest possible standards.

Management Development Program for Senior Hospitality Managers

We are proud to announce the public course Management Development Program for senior hospitality managers in Beirut. It's a six week course with 12 modules and great for getting your head around things that you don't have time for in your usual weekly routine.

Invest 4 1/2 hours per week in yourself and experience a transformation in the way that you do business.

Look forward to seeing you there

Get in touch with us on info@done.fyi
www.done.fyi

Changing The Hiring Game

There are multiple alternatives out there for those seeking to hire employees and those seeking to be employed. The problem is not one of agencies and availability of sources for employees; the challenge is finding the right match. We ask Mark Dickinson, CEO of Done! Hospitality Training Solutions, to tell us about the current status and future direction of online recruitment

Online recruiters have become a funnel for sourcing candidates. They screen and pass along the most suitable ones to employers, who then undertake the traditional paper and face to face interview process (physically or by Skype) at the end of the pipeline. By entering one's own CV online into one of these systems, one becomes more of a number in a machine and less of an individual. The challenge of being a part of an online database of candidates is that you secede control of your key product 'Yourself', and put yourself at the mercy of the numbers game. In our online database we have over 50,000 candidates registered. Each one of them has filled in information concerning their criteria. When a customer seeks a candidate it is the computer that produces the matches. Then when the ideal candidate is identified, the software can clone that candidate and you will have similar people from within the database, past or present employed or not, as a suggested fit for the available vacancy. So the game for online recruitment agencies is to get a volume of quality candidates loaded into the system so that they have sufficient database to feed the available opportunities. And, on the other hand, they also have to have sufficient clients requesting candidates to ensure that they succeed financially through placing people in jobs.

Is Linkedin one of the most well-known and reliable sources?

Yes. The reason Linkedin is so powerful is because of the business/professional social-network that it is based upon. It enables employers to see potential candidate's profiles and see what he or she has been accredited for by his or her own connections. This goes a long way to helping an employer in determining the successful qualities of a potential candidate.

What about others: Monster gulf, for example?

There are great agencies out there; however they are mostly one way pipelines, processing candidates to their customers, the employers. Monster gulf and Caterer Global are two of the bigger ones in our region, both doing an excellent job of supplying candidates. They display a wide selection of opportunities on their websites and await candidate registrations. Agencies do not generally truly represent a candidate, and do not make agreements with individual job hunters to assist them until they are hired in a position of their choice. There would probably be a good business opportunity here.

What is the caliber of people applying online and to which vacancies?

The beauty of online is that there are many types of agencies, boutiques for executives, executive search companies, and mass recruiters. As global connectivity accelerates, the greater access there is to agencies, resulting in the broader diversification of candidates.

What are classic recruiters doing to face the tech-Invasion?

The smart recruiters are doing what they always did: investing in great personal relationships with their clients' HR managers and owners. They don't cut corners; they screen more tightly and provide strong personal guarantees for replacements.

 Which companies recruit online?

I think probably a fairer question would be, "Which one's don't?" Today, companies should recruit online as part of diversifying their search for qualified candidates.

What are the advantages and the disadvantages of recruiting through Linkedin directly rather than a reliable recruitment agency?

The advantage of Linkedin for a company recruiting is that their HR will most likely have a first or second level connection with many of the candidates and can find out about that person pretty easily. This entails a higher level of work on the part of the company seeking employees, but may give them a greater sense of security. Again, it depends upon who is recruiting. If it is a large business starting up in the GCC, then many of their employees will be fresh hires from Asian countries. There the online agency will not help as much as a personal relationship with a recruiter who has proved his worth by delivering high quality personnel in the past. The key disadvantage of Linkedin is that it is time intensive, and the employees managing the search have to be aware of what they are really looking for. Additionally there are no guarantees or replacements available should the employment agreement not work out. Just because an agency is online does not make it less reliable. Monster gulf have a terrific follow up and will keep on following for as long as it takes to deliver the type of personal that clients want. Online executive recruitment agencies rarely want to speak with candidates; they first identify potential candidates through their databases until they find a profile fit. After a preliminary check on that candidate, they will typically present a headliner for the client to see which candidate attracts them. Once a client indicates an interest then the recruiter will get in touch with the candidate and prepare them for the interview. Candidates often report a sense of frustration with agencies because once they submit their profile they anticipate an immediate response. The reality is rather different, and for candidates it is a 'sit and wait' game.

Is this a fad or have recruiting agencies truly been bypassed?

Agencies have only been bypassed if they have allowed themselves to be. There are some classical laces to face only agencies that are doing more business today than they have ever done, and cannot keep up with demand. There are online agencies that cannot find sufficient clients to keep their candidates happy and are therefore unable to sustain their overheads.

In our opinion online is not a fad, neither is it the end of face to face' agencies. As in all business, success will go to those who understand how to create a unique combination of all the tools available, and are able to adapt their business model to take advantage of them. Simultaneously, agencies should be seeking additional spokes to their wheel of products that add greater value to their customers, thus ensuring their place for the future.