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After graduating from NC State University in the
early 80's, I entered the textile and apparel industry as an Industrial
Engineer. Over the years I advanced to production manager, plant manager, and
eventually Vice President of Operations in the industry. During that time, I
had the opportunity to work with several search firms or
"headhunters" from both an applicant standpoint, when I was looking
for a career change, and as a hiring official when I was looking for top
talent to help my company move to the next level. With every firm that I
dealt with, I found a deficiency in one of two areas. Either they were
totally non professional, without high ethical and moral standards; or they
had no or very little idea of what I had done over my career or of what my
company did. I quickly saw that I didn't feel comfortable with these people
representing me, or in helping me find the right person to help in building
my team. It is for this reason that I created Precision
Placements, to excel in the above two areas.
I felt that with excellence in recruiting and knowledge of the textile
industry, PPI would be a successful Executive Search Firm. Fortunately, this formula has proven
successful and excel we have. Since
our inception in the early nineties, Precision Placements has become a
recognized name in Textile Executive Search. Let me explain our philosophy in more detail: First and foremost is our commitment to
professionalism. None of our consultants are on a one placement short term
focus, so that "used car salesman" mentality is non existent. This
allows us to focus on long term one on one relationship building, rather than
just an immediate placement. Our consultants on numerous occasions have
helped applicants land an opportunity that we had not set up and had no
interest in or companies define the parameters of a particular position.
Through our experience of helping people prepare for interviews, our knowledge
of the individual applicant's strengths and weaknesses, and our overall
knowledge of the industry; we often are able to provide that extra something
that helps them receive an offer. This has helped us establish lasting
friendships, and has helped us build our huge network of contacts. We realize
that this network is critical for our existence and one of the prime reasons
that you should work with us. To further show our commitment to ethics and
professionalism, I personally am a Certified Personnel Consultant by the
National Association of Personnel Services. This is the highest designation
earned by Executive Search Consultants, and represents my personal commitment
to high ethics, knowledge of the search business, and ongoing training. Secondly is our commitment to the textile and apparel industry. Why is a
specialization important? Many search firms that work in the textile industry
also work in several other industries as well. By this exclusive
commitment, however, we are better able to serve both our clients as well as
our applicants. Having spent a considerable time working in the industry
myself, I feel that we are able to have a better understanding of what the
applicant's experience is and in what specifically our clients are looking for.
We utilize a very large database management program developed exclusively for
Precision specifically for the textile search business that integrates all
activities in our office. There are nuances in textile manufacturing,
marketing, and senior management that simply cannot be utilized with a
generic system. The data is filled with information gained by years of
experience working in the industry. There are few, if any, other systems in
the country as state of the art and as comprehensive as ours relating to
textiles and apparel. This system likewise is beneficial to both our
applicants as well as our clients; because whether you are looking for top
talent or the best opportunity, up to date and searchable information
specifically geared toward you is key in finding the best match. Once again,
this type of system could not be built without a full commitment to the
textile industry and to excellence. Yet even while we are unmatched in our
technological expertise, we still utilize "old fashioned"
recruiting through our network of contacts. Another reason that concentrating on the textile
industry is beneficial is the inherent knowledge of your job and what you are
doing that can best come about by specialization. Most importantly though is the fact that we are
calling your competitors everyday. If you are a candidate, your top
competitors are the people that are going to be most interested in your
background and how you can improve their organization. If you are a client,
there is no better place to find top talent than from your competitors. They
are already trained in your end product, are selling to your clients, and
they can often times bring a different perspective to your company that will
enhance what you currently do.
Sincerely, Ken Edwards, CPC President ***** Addendum
***** Believe it or not, the bulk of the above was
written 12 years ago in 1997 when we were only four years old. As all of you know, our industry has had
dramatic changes since then. With
these changes, PPI has changed as well.
80% of our searches now are in Sales & Marketing and Corporate
Management, whereas then only about 20% were.
About 50% of our searches now are retainer searches whereas then we
were about 80% contingency. We have
even worked outside of the industry with select firms and have added an IT
division to expand our focus. The one
constant has been our commitment to the above two principles and the value
put on our network of friends and colleagues.
It has allowed us to increase our revenue in each of the last 5 years.
I do hope that you will contact us. Ken ******************************************************************** © 2009 Precision
Placements, Inc.
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