Bedford Group Partners With SalesChoice in AI Leadership Space
July 24, 2019 – Toronto-based executive search and talent management solutions Bedford Group, and SalesChoice Inc., a provider of AI predictive and prescriptive sales, and marketing analytics cloud solutions, have entered into a strategic alliance to help advance AI skills development and leadership capabilities as well as acquisition and retention of executive AI leadership talent.
SalesChoice has recently partnered with the Forbes Business and Technology School to advance an online university-level certificate program to accelerate skills development in AI. SalesChoice will extend this offer to the Bedford Group’s clients and offer new AI modernization working sessions to board directors, CEOs, and CHROs via the firm’s executive roundtables.
AI Executive Recruitment
The Bedford Group will leverage SalesChoice’s solutions to attract the right leadership talent to build “the organization of the future with new functional roles and leadership capabilities across the AI spectrum, from predictive analytics to advanced facial recognition and deep learning methods,” said the firm.
“There is no question that AI, block chain, Big Data and digital transformation are top of mind for most leaders who want to remain competitive in the future,” said Bedford Group. “Our alliance with SalesChoice Inc. will help our clients address these new business challenges through targeted learning and talent management solutions. We are now in the best-possible position for enabling our clients to take advantage of rapidly evolving business opportunities.”
“We feel confident that our alliance with the Bedford Group will help more leaders advance to operational AI transformation with world-class capabilities in Toronto,” said Cindy Gordon, founder and CEO of SalesChoice. “We are excited to help the Bedford Group’s clients with our expertise in AI enablement, strategic transformation and educational expertise.”
The Bedford Group is one of Canada’s largest privately-held executive search and talent advisory firms. Its services span the spectrum of talent management, including leadership assessment, coaching and development, and compensation advisory, as well as executive, managerial and senior technical recruitment.
Established in 1979, Bedford is the Toronto partner to TRANSEARCH International and has three offices in Canada: Toronto, Oakville (Ontario) and Vancouver, all of which consult with clients throughout North America and globally.
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Big Data is rewriting the script for how companies around the world do business. The market for Big Data and business analytics is expected to grow to $203 billion in the next three years, according to the International Data Corp., a marketplace intelligence provider.
Increasingly Vital
It only makes sense that analytics should become an increasingly vital component of the executive search process. Clients have forever been longing for better, more concrete, evidence about whom they should they hire and why. But analytics also reveals a lot about the hiring process itself and where adjustments must be made to produce the best results, and more.
“I find that executives react well to hard data,” said Ian Ide, managing director and partner at WinterWyman. “It’s tangible and sets the stage for a much better conversation. The data provides evidence and allows the client to draw logical conclusions. If parameters of the search need to be changed, the data arms the stakeholders for conversations they may need to have throughout their organization.”
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Some of the search parameters that may change include compensation level and reporting structure, said Mr. Ide. “In other cases, mapping the candidate pool and gaining an understanding of the availability of local talent at the outset of the search helps us decide whether we conduct the search nationally or locally, as well as understand what industries might be particularly viable,” he added.
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Mr. Ide oversees operations and delivery activities for the Waltham, MA-based executive search firm, ensuring that its offerings are effectively meeting client needs. He also works directly with clients in regard to their executive hiring needs.
One area that’s clearly of interest to clients is being able to quantify and analyze positive or negative reactions toward their particular search. To cull such information from the data, said Mr. Ide, it’s important to establish a baseline norm and proceed from there.
“We track how candidates are reacting to a search and how that compares to other searches with similar parameters, companies, etc.,” he explained. “Once we have had enough conversations to have a viable data set, we can provide feedback on a company’s reputation, reaction to the opportunity, target salary and reporting structure, along with common questions that have arisen. By providing clients with this information early in the search process, it allows for adjustments to be made when necessary and possible.”
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
