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Ashton Tweed Welcomes Jim Laird

Interim Employment in Life Sciences


Companies can now apply “just-in-time talent” to any problem or to fill a sudden gap.


Interim makes it possible to hire the best.


Companies can find precisely the skills needed for a project or corporate transition.


Interim turns talent into a variable cost.

Jim Laird Joins the Ashton Tweed Team

In early October, we completed the successful merger of Jim’s own consulting firm, Health Connectors Group (HCG) LLC, with Ashton Tweed. HCG focused on the commercial success of early stage Life Science companies by connecting them with larger partners that provide commercialization capabilities as well as in-licensing opportunities. Our new mission, combining our resources under the Ashton Tweed entity, is to work with the operating management of client companies to accelerate their commercial success through our unique focus on people.

Jim's expertise is in the operations side of the business -- launching businesses, scaling operations, repurposing products, and cost cutting. He has 20 years of “Big Pharma” experience working in a variety of management roles with SmithKline Beecham plc (now GlaxoSmithKline plc). Since 1995 he has served in "interim" senior management positions for a number of early stage healthcare companies.

He was attracted to the Ashton Tweed business model where he sees an opportunity to put together executive teams that can solve problems for Life Science clients. Jim says, "The Ashton Tweed Associates Program provides an incredible Talent Bank we can draw from to put together executive action teams. The Associates broad scope of expertise will enable these teams to take a cross functional and cross industry approach to uncover and solve problems."

Working with the senior management of client companies, Ashton Tweed identifies and isolates critical business problems for which the company may not have the time, budget or resident skills to resolve internally. Our project teams are deployed to resolve problems either at the client’s or at an off-site location. The client value-add benefits include immediate access to executive talent that have demonstrated skills in the problem area, greater flexibility and lower fees than most traditional consulting firms.

"I'm excited about working with the Ashton Tweed team," says Jim. "There's a high level of professionalism, a great pool of talent, and a real need in the industry for the services we offer."

Jim Rudman says that Mr. Laird, with his big pharma and operations experience, rounds out the Ashton Tweed executive team. "His background in connecting big organizations with smaller teams and early stage companies, coupled with our associates program is a win-win situation."

Ashton Tweed offers a full range of services from Problem Resolution teams, to Interim Talent and Executive Search. The Ashton Tweed Associate Program harnesses the networking efforts of all candidates in the Ashton Tweed family. Ashton Tweed sharpens their networking skills with advanced networking and search techniques.

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Executive Action Teams

Finding the right candidate(s) is vital. A specialist in interim placement such as Ashton Tweed provides invaluable assistance to:

-Clarify the objectives and terms of reference
-Find the best interim manager available for the position
-Advise on the most appropriate introductory process for the Interim
-Negotiate fees and contract terms
-Stay in touch during the assignment to ensure expectations are being met

Contact us:
info@shtontweed.com to get more information about our Action Teams

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."

Andrew Carnegie

 

Create Brand Awareness

“Living brands are not a stylistic veneer but a pattern of behavior that grows out of character. When the external actions of a company align with its internal culture, the brand resonates with authenticity. If a brand looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck and swims like a duck, then it must be a duck. If it swims like a dog, however, people start to wonder.”

Neumeier, M.
The Brand Gap:
How to Bridge the
Distance Between
Business Strategy
and Design
New Riders Publishing, Boston, 2003

Make All Employees Aware of Your Brand

Branding is a hot topic these days. Much of it revolves around the concept of what is called "experiential" branding -- creating a positive experience for your customers. To build a brand that’s a positive asset, a brand platform should be built on your company values, communicated to all your employees and then implemented consistently in all your business processes, marketing materials, communications, and behavior.

Brand Management must be driven by the top management of a company or the brand will drift. They must ensure that everyone in the company understands the company’s brand vision, support development of processes for delivering brand assets consistently across multiple media, and they must be zealous about “policing” the brand.

In order to communicate what your brand stands for to all employees, there must be Vision. That vision needs to be articulated to all employees and, in particular, should be part of every new hire's training. The three key elements of branding are:

  • What you look like -- Image
  • What you say -- Message
  • What you do -- Behavior

Image is not just a logo -- it goes beyond that. Beyond the visual image of your branded materials, your company “persona” is part of your overall brand image. Your executives and employees are ambassadors of your brand. How they interact with customers, how they behave in the business setting and sometimes personally, and even how they look, impact a company’s “image.”

Message is the set of words that are used to communicate about your company and its products or services. It’s not just your tag line. It’s not just the description of your company. All your communications should capture the fundamental elements of your business philosophy, product features, and corporate values.

Behavior is a critical component of brand creation. It's the context in which people experience your brand. How any of your employees -- customer service reps, sales personnel, technical support reps -- interact with customers has a direct impact on your brand.

The bottom line is that building a strong brand depends on everyone in the organization. It’s not just the job of the marketing and advertising departments. It’s the result of customer service, product performance, employee behavior. When the whole organization conveys a consistent Image and clear Message through all Means of marketing materials and customer interactions it will create measurable brand value. Studies show that aligning internal business processes with brand vision leads to increased profitability.

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Things to Think About in "Branding" Your Search

Build a Strategic Framework: Mission Statement, Vision, Values ...
From Susan M. Heathfield "Your Guide to Human Resources"

What your Human Resources Department Can Learn from Fedex: The Power of a Strong Brand
by Joe Benson and Bret Kinsella “The CEO Refresher”, Refresher Publications, Inc.

Branding aligns employees with organizational goals
from HRMGuide.net

HR as Product: Be the Brand of Choice
Judith Brown, Stephen R. Hancock , Susan M. Heathfield on about.com

These articles and more are available on the Ashton Tweed website. Click Here.


Hurricanes and the Job Market

The latest report on the nation's employment climate, released by the Labor Department, showed that the job market is slowly on the mend from the punches thrown by the storms but still isn't back to full health.

"The economy has weathered these storms about as gracefully as could be expected," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com.

But Katrina was far from an ordinary hurricane, because of the quick follow-up by Rita, the outsize infrastructure impact, and the huge energy-price surge that affected the economy outside of the region. All these factors imply an unusually prolonged hurricane effect. A number of economists think it will take several months for the impact of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma to work their way through the job market.

Job creation in September was negative. In October, a surge in construction jobs pushed those numbers to the positive.

While the majority of recruiters (56%) do not expect the effects of hurricanes Rita and Katrina will have a significant impact on the executive employment market — not all agree — 30% believe the devastation in the Gulf Coast will have a negative impact on the market and 14% think the disasters will lead to more job growth as reconstruction efforts take hold.

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Executive Optimism Trending Downward; Current Market Still Deemed Better than Last Year

Tech/Telecom and Industrial Sectors Show Most Growth in Third Quarter

According to a survey conducted by TheLadders.com, a $100,000+ jobs web site, 37% of survey respondents think it will take longer than 6 months to find their next position.

Source: theladders.com

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