I had the awesome opportunity to attend the Premier for Red Tails, the new movie by George Lucas.
This movie about the Tuskegee Airmen in World War 2 is American history at its finest! It is also an enjoyable movie.
I have been lucky to have known George since childhood and have always been proud of his accomplishments. This movie and the related show on the History Channel is his giveback to our society. My heart pitter pats.
John
A T STEWART & COMPANY - NYC - (stereoview card - prior to postcards)
DEPARTMENT STORES OF NEW YORK – A. T. STEWART
Alexander Turney Stewart, an Irish immigrant, opened his dry goods store in 1823. The first store was located at 283 Broadway. The business became so successful he opened a second, much larger store on Broadway between Chambers and Reade Streets. This new store was, in fact, the largest in New York City. It was known as the Marble Palace as the building was clad in Tuckahoe marble. Lord & Taylor which operated out of a small store in Greenwich Village was its only competitor. The store sold imported European merchandise. Fashion shows were held on the second floor in the Ladies Parlor renowned for its large mirrors. The store became well known for its unique design and for the merchandise carried. This store is today known as the first department store in the U.S.
In 1860, Mr. Stewart built a new store further uptown on Broadway between 9th and 10th Streets which opened in 1862. This store was still larger and much closer to where the other stores had moved on the Ladies Mile (Macy’s, B. Altman, Lord & Taylor). Cast iron construction allowed the store to be more open and provided for large windows on the street level to showcase merchandise. The building was called the Iron Palace.
Besides being known as the creator of the first department store in the U.S., Mr. Stewart also became known for creating his own mills and sewing factories to produce product for his store. He gained more fame for laying out the plan for Garden City on Long Island.
Alexander Stewart died in 1876. His company continued in business until 1882 when it became Hilton, Hughes & Co run by associates of Mr. Stewart. Unfortunately, the new company failed and closed in August, 1896. The next month the store was acquired by Wannamaker’s from Philadelphia.
Wanamaker’s first building at 280 Broadway later became the headquarters for the New York Sun, the publisher of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”. The building is now owned by the City of New York. The Iron Palace burned down in a massive fire in the 1950’s when it operated as a John Wannamaker store.
The first department store in the world is the Au Bon Marche in Paris, France. Although A. T. Stewart’s first store opened before Au Bon Marche, his first store was small and was not considered a department store in terms of organization.
Although there are many block prints of the A. T. Stewart store, there are few postcards. The store existed before postcards became legal with the U.S. Postal Service.
A T Stewart Home - Fifth Avenue - NYC
ARNOLD CONSTABLE - FIFTH AVENUE - NEW YORK CITY
For years, the Arnold Constable & Company was known as the “oldest department store” in America. It served the ‘carriage trade’ of New York. Famous customers included the Astor’s, Vanderbilt’s, Roosevelt’s, and Mary Todd Lincoln. The company was known for bring the best French fashion to NYC.
The company was started in 1825 by Mr. Aaron Arnold, an immigrant from the Isle of Wright. Before he opened his store he had been working with James Hearn, founder of Hearn’s. Mr. Arnold’s first store was located at the corner of Canal and Mercer Streets, then the center for retail. In 1837, a vendor, James Constable, married Aaron’s daughter and then became a partner in the firm. That is when the name was changed to Arnold Constable.
In 1868 Arnold Constable opened a new store at Broadway and Nineteenth Streets in NYC. This put the store in the middle the new “Ladies’ Mile” shopping district. It was known as “the Palace of Trade”.
In 1914 the company incorporated with reported capital of $2.5m. That same year the company leased the former home of Frederick W. Vanderbilt and started plans for building a new store on Fifth Avenue at 40th Street. At this time it was clear that the shopping district was moving “uptown”.
In 1925, Arnold Constable merged with Stewart & Company which led to the expansion into the suburbs. The first suburban store opened in 1937 in New Rochelle, NY. Later, stores opened in Hempstead, Manhasset, and New Jersey.
In the 1960’s, the carriage trade retailer of New York started to face economic troubles. As sales declined, expenses were rising significantly. The company started closing the unprofitable suburban stores. In 1975, the store on Fifth Avenue closed. After 150 years, the Arnold Constable name disappeared. The company did continue to manage its no-name stores, a small specialty retailer offering men’s and women’s separates. This was later sold in the 1990’s to YM, Inc, a Canadian retail chain.
What happened???? Arnold Constable did not adjust to the newer times and merchandising systems. It continued to cater to a dying “carriage trade” customer and did not attract the younger customers.
I visited Arnold Constable in 1973 on a business trip to NYC. I was interested in comparing it to Bullock’s Wilshire and I. Magnin. To me it was clear that Arnold Constable did not know it was hostile to the younger customer. The store also looked dowdy and was not well merchandised. I was not surprised when the company closed a year later.
Plummer & Associates recruited Mr. Mark Poston as Chief Executive Officer for Resource Real Estate, one of the largest owner/operator of residential apartment complexes in the U.S. Mr. Poston brings extensive hospitality experience to Resource Real Estate from Bennigan’s, Yum Brands, and ARAMARK. He will lead a team responsible for the management of 65 major properties and future growth. He will be based out of the company’s Philadelphia headquarters. Mark Poston is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Plummer & Associates recruited Mr. Giovanni Pesce as SVP-International Sales for Viva Optique, a division of HVHC. Mr. Pesce brings extensive international experience in the eyewear industry. He will be based in Italy and his role will be to develop business in Europe, the Middle East, India, and in the Far East. He joined the company in December, 2011.
Plummer & Associates recruited David Moore to become SVP – Merchandising for HVHC based in San Antonio. Mr. Moore brings extensive accessories and eyewear experience from Fossil, Inc.
HVHC, formerly known as Eye Care Centers of America (ECCA), was acquired by Highmark, Inc., a major health care company and the name was changed to Highmark Vision Group (HVHC). This division operates over 540 retail vision centers across the U.S. with the majority carrying the EyeMasters banner. Other brands include: Vision Works, Vision World, Empire Vision, Cambridge Eye Doctors,Value Vision, Eye DRx, Binyons, Total Vision Care, Hour Eyes, DavisVision,and SteinOptical. HVHC is one of the fastest growing optical retailers in the U.S.
Plummer & Associates, based in New Canaan, Connecticut, is a boutique executive recruitment firm which specializes in serving the direct-to-consumer business sectors (retail, retail services, food service, direct selling/marketing, catalog, e-commerce, m-commerce, and apparel). The firm was founded in 1989 and is well-known for the quality of its work and its unparralled track record for recruiting candidates who are successful both in the short- and the longer-term.
Every industry segment gets smaller as you climb the ladder. For that very reason it is important that when you turn down an offer of employment, you do it in a fashion showing respect and a desire to keep in touch. You never know who might be your next boss and/or employer. So, no matter how upset you were with the offer or the scope of responsibilities, it is in your best interest to be respectful.
In my years of human resources and executive recruiting, I have seen long-standing feuds between individuals which started over how an offer was declined. These feuds could have been avoided.
For years, consultants in executive search have been explaining the difference between contingency and retained executive search firms. It has always been hard to do without sounding self-serving. I have attached a definition of Executive Search from Wickipedia (June 17, 2011) which I believe makes the differentiation quite clear.
Which process a client chooses is the client’s decision. I have a bias. After years within a client company and years as a leader in executive search, it is clear that the retained approach is best for the recruitment of key executives. The retained process is more intensive, extensive, and results in candidates with the best fit. Retained search also best represtents the client’s brand.
Executive search
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (June 17, 2011)
Executive search is the consultative process of recruiting individuals to fill senior executive positions in organizations. Executive search may be performed by an organization’s board of directors, or by an outside executive search organization.
Executive search is an extremely lucrative industry and successful search consultants can earn large sums. For this reason there is fierce competition to work in this sector. Generally the office is broken down into three functions: Business Development, Recruiting and Research. Generally the Business Development person receives the largest commission while the Researcher receives the smallest.
The executive search profession ranges in models from “Retained” search to “Contingency” search. Retained search firms are paid a retainer equal to one-third of the fee up front to launch the search process, a third of the fee thirty days from launch and the final third sixty days from launch. If the fee is fully paid before a candidate is hired, the retained firm continues its work until the search is concluded. Contingency search firms, on the other hand, receive their entire fee at the conclusion of the search process. Over the years, many contingency firms have begun receiving retainers while retained firms have expanded their models to include flat fees, capped fees, etc.
Search consultancies are often entrenched in particular market sectors. Their market sector networks are used along with various methods to seek candidates for a particular job. Normally the individuals are not actively seeking a new job. It is the job of the search consultant to approach these individuals with a view to taking them out of their current company and placing them in another, often a competitor.
The service is paid for by the client company or organization, not by the hired job candidate. Potential job candidates are identified, qualified and presented to the client by the executive search firm based upon fit with a written or verbal Job Specification developed in conjunction with the client. Assessing degree of potential fit of the candidate with the job specification is a key activity for the search firm, since the most common reason a search consultant is engaged by a client company is to save time and effort involved with identifying, qualifying and reviewing potential candidates for specific leadership positions.
It is common for a potential candidate to be identified by the search firm via a telephone call. Often the phone call is the result of a recommendation from someone inside the existing network of the search firm. Quality oriented search firms work hard at cultivating and continually updating their network of contacts so that when a search assignment is awarded they will be ready to start recruiting potential candidates. Another way to identify potential candidates involves search firm “research”, which is contacting targeted people in specific companies who appear to fit the job profile in some logical manner. Some of the best candidate referrals come from people who could be candidates for the job themselves but for any number of reasons are not interested at that particular time.[1]
Retained executive search firms are firms paid on a retainer-structure that identify, assess, and recruit Corporate Officers, Board Members, C-level executives, Diversity Candidates, and other senior talent. There are large, global firms who engage in this activity, as well as regional “boutique” firms. Some smaller firms act together as a network, thus gaining global reach and being able to compete with the large integrated ones. Some firms specialize in specific industries (for example pharmaceutical, retail, IT) or functions (i.e. sales executives), while others are generalists.
Job seekers who qualify for senior-executive level searches often mistake executive recruiters for career transition, or “outplacement” specialists. Executive recruiters work for their client companies. They do not actively place out-of-work individuals. This would not only be a conflict of interest, it would also be financially unwise. A job seeker does not pay a recruiter when he lands a job. The client company pays the recruiting firm when it fills a position. This nuance is lost on many. It may be worthwhile to contact executive search firms if you qualify, but do not expect them to take time out of their schedule to talk with you or see you. They are driven by their specific assignments for their clients: they find people for roles, not roles for people. Executive search consultants can be “career makers” for some individuals, but for most, this will not be the way they will find their next role.
When choosing a firm, it is a good idea to consider carefully what you want from the relationship. While contingency firms offer a service with no money up front, they will often only work on those searches that can be executed quickly and do not have the time to focus on high-quality candidates. Another option is to hire one firm and give them an “exclusive contingency” arrangement so that the money is still paid at the end of the search, but there is only one firm working on the search. This gives the firm the benefit of time to truly focus on quality and the hiring manager is not flooded with resumes. A third option is to pay the firm an engagement fee. Generally firms with engagement fees are exclusive as well and then have more resources available to them to purchase additional research. This also moves the search to a “retained” level which brings a level of professionalism sought by many upper level candidates. At the retained level, a client could pay a “performance retainer” which means a payment to start the search, a payment when candidates are submitted and final payment when the candidate starts. These milestones are chosen due to the fact that the firm “performed”. The more traditional retainer agreements are time based and are set at specific intervals regardless of retainers.
There are broadly two different types of Retained Executive Search firms in operation.
Global: These tend to cover numerous different sectors including financial services, life sciences, automotive, consumer, energy, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, technology, and media companies, as well as other industries. Such executive search companies will have many offices all over the world and the consultants will typically be split by which sector they are expert in. These firms are often public listed and may have over 100 offices.
Boutique: These tend to be more sector specific. That is to say that they will cover only one sector and within this sector, they may only look at certain aspects. For instance, there are a number of boutique firms that operate within financial services and these companies tend to look at senior positions (MD, Director and Vice President) within Investment Banking (M&A, Corporate Finance), Capital Markets (ECM & DCM), Sales, Trading, Research, Interest Rates, Credit, Equities, Derivatives, hedge funds and long-only asset management. As such, these firms would have one or more offices in the major financial centers across the globe; London, New York, Chicago, Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. While the global firms may have a presence within these areas, they tend to cover board level positions within retail banking, asset & wealth management and insurance. However the larger global firms do periodically work within the capital markets arena
Five Below in Durham, North Carolina.
Five Below is a privately held chain of discount stores found in a number of states. The store (as indicated by the name) sells products that cost no more than $5.00. The chain is aimed at teenagers and pre-teens, but have many products for mom and dad. The store was founded in October 2002.
Plummer & Associates, is based in New Canaaan, Connecticut and is known in the direct-to-consumer industry (retail, retail services, food service, restaurant, catalog, e-Commerce, m-Commerce, direct marketing/selling, and apparel wholesale) segment for the quality of its executive search services. For more information, we refer you to www.plummersearch.com.