Inward Strategic Consulting Announces A New "Talent Branding" Practice to Coincide With Its 10th Anniversary

Inward Strategic Consulting Announces A New "Talent Branding" Practice to Coincide With Its 10th Anniversary

New partner Jeff Cordes to drive practice and joins Phil Hornthal in the Chicago office


READ JEFF'S NEW ARTICLE ON DRIVING RESULTS THROUGH TALENT BRANDING!

Boston, December 11, 2008. Inward Strategic Consulting, an international internal/external brand, communications, and market research firm, is proud to announce on its 10th anniversary the launch of a global Talent Branding practice. Attracting and retaining the best talent is a strategic imperative for organizations that strive to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

In making his announcement, Allan Steinmetz, CEO and founder of Inward Strategic Consulting, said, "Without doubt, one of the more important issues we hear about from our global clients is how to effectively communicate with their staff to ensure their loyalty and long-term retention while recruiting the best and brightest in the marketplace." The Talent Branding practice compliments Inward's internal branding, external brand, team alignment, and market research capabilities. According to Steinmetz, "With this service line we can finally help clients integrate all their brand initiatives, from their recruitment and retention messages to external marketing and advertising efforts, with their internal brand. We now have all the component parts to provide a full-service suite that senior HR and marketing executives require."

Inward's Talent Branding practice will be championed by Jeff Cordes, a seasoned, highly recognized talent-acquisition professional. Jeff is the President of talentRISE LLC, a full-service recruitment outsourcing and talent optimization company. Prior to talentRISE, Jeff launched and was the Managing Director of CareerBuilder.com's global talent acquisition consulting division. Jeff has more than two decades of experience with such companies as IBM, Home Depot, and Ryder Logistics. Jeff was also Chief Talent officer for Xpedior (an Inward Client), Apropos Technology, and NCI. At IBM Global Services, and James Martin, he led the recruitment and HR consulting practices.

Steinmetz continued, "I have been aware of Jeff for several years and would often ask his advice and counsel informally. Now, to be able to have him as a partner and to offer his capabilities to clients directly makes me feel complete. Jeff's credentials and experience will help clients deliver results, especially in today's economic environment where managing talent is a priority. He is a terrific person and a gentleman who truly cares about employees and will add substantial value to our clients HR issues."

To help launch this new Talent Branding practice, Jeff Cordes has written a thought leadership article discussing the components and integration of successful employment branding.

Please click on the following link to read this insightful thought leadership:

http://www.inwardconsulting.com/docs/Talent-Branding-Drives-Results.pdf

The new Talent Branding practice will be located in Inward's Chicago market, where Jeff will work closely with Phil Hornthal, Managing Director of the Chicago market. Hornthal continues to provide a full suite of capabilities within the area. "Phil's integrated marketing and strategy experience, coupled with his sports marketing knowhow, makes him an ideal choice to expand our presence further in the Chicago market," explained Steinmetz. "Phil has the right strategic insight and creativity combination that clients appreciate."

Phil has worked for some of the most prestigious and respected consulting firms in a variety of integrated marketing roles. At Accenture (then Andersen Consulting), he was a member of the worldwide marketing group that served the consulting-practice area and marketing director of the Central Region. At AT&T, Phil helped launch a new consulting practice; generating qualified leads and revenue for the AT&T Solutions division. He also worked in sports marketing sponsorships, sales and marketing leadership training, and experiential-event marketing.

"I am very excited Jeff is joining me to partner in the Chicago market. I've seen how Inward's participatory workshops help organizations accomplish their objectives. Adding Talent Branding brings incremental value to our suite of brand offerings," said Hornthal. "I'm looking forward to continuing growing Inward's presence in Chicago with Jeff's and Allan's help. We will become a critical resource for Chicago-area companies with recruitment, external branding, internal change communication, marketing organizational alignment, and market-research needs."

Jeff can be reached at jeffcordes@inwardconsulting.com or (630) 561-7390. Phil is at phil@inwardconsulting.com or (312) 560-9000.

ABOUT INWARD STRATEGIC CONSULTING
Inward Strategic Consulting has offices in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Orlando. The company specializes in marketing strategy development, change management, external branding and internal change communications, and now, talent branding. Inward also offers a full suite of qualitative and quantitative market research including benchmarking, employee brand/engagement surveys (called ChangeFX), and best-practices research. The firm conducts both public and private workshops and training. To learn more about Inward, please go to www.inwardconsulting.com.