The Company of the Future

Mission Makes a Difference

Xerox Parc guru John Seely Brown said it best: "The job of leadership today is not just to make money. It's to make meaning." When it comes to attracting, keeping, and making teams out of talented people, money alone won't do it. Talented people want to be part of something that they can believe in, something that confers meaning on their work and on their lives - something that involves a mission. And they don't want that mission to turn into the kind of predictable "mission statement" that plasters many a corporate-boardroom wall. Rather, they want spiritual goals that energize an organization by resonating with the personal values of the people who work there - the kind of mission that offers people a chance to do work that makes a difference. Along with the traditional bottom line, great enterprises have a second bottom line: a return on human investment that advances a larger purpose. A powerful mission is both a magnet and a motivator.

Meet David Bellshaw, 37, who six years ago joined Isaacson, Miller, a Boston-based boutique head-hunting firm. Isaacson, Miller has undertaken various head-hunting tasks - including, for example, placing Dave Olson as CEO for Patagonia Inc. But the firm has carved out a special niche for itself by advancing women and minorities into executive positions and by finding leaders for a wide range of civic organizations and not-for-profit enterprises.

Bellshaw launched his career at the California office of Heidrick and Struggles, one of the leading head-hunting firms in the United States. When his wife, Ava, got into the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Bellshaw considered several jobs with big firms in that city. But tiny Isaacson, Miller - smaller then than its 50-person staff today - stood out. A major reason why he joined up was "the company's unique mission," he says. "We are vicariously saving the world through our clients. That's a very, very strong pull for me."

Isaacson, Miller isn't just a head-hunting firm - it also helps its clients understand their own unique missions. The firm applies a mixture of psychological counseling and missionary zeal, while being attentive to the practical realities of good management.

Bellshaw comes to this calling naturally: His father was a Baptist minister, and so was his grandfather. "I rebelled against my background, and I still do - very actively," Bellshaw says. "But in some funny way, given my genes and upbringing, my work is a secular way of doing what my family has done. Two generations of ministers, and I broke the mold. Yet there remains a mission-driven theme in my life."

In his six years with Isaacson, Miller, Bellshaw has matched some high-powered people with some great organizations. One assignment: to find a new dean for New York University's Wagner School of Public Service - a place that trains the very sorts of civic leaders whom Isaacson, Miller recruits. The assignment wasn't easy. The school needed someone who combined administrative skills, a deep knowledge of both the public and the not-for-profit worlds, and an ability to define the future challenges of civic leadership - especially in the New York City area, where most of the school's graduates work.

How did Bellshaw begin? By sending an 11-page "Invitation to Apply" to 100 potential candidates. Among those who are rumored to have responded were former Colorado Representative Pat Schroeder and former Ohio Governor Dick Celeste. After an intensive search, Bellshaw selected Jo Ivey Boufford, then a high-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. representative on the executive board of the World Health Organization. Why choose Boufford from a list of such prestigious candidates? According to Bellshaw, not only did she have a proven track record as a manager, but she also had both a demonstrable interest in public service and the "New York-style gutsiness" needed for the position.

Another assignment: to find a new head for the Lovelace Institutes, a biomedical-research institute based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded more than 50 years ago, Lovelace had seen its mission lose focus, and it needed a leader with the vision to set a new course and the management skills to implement the necessary reorganization. Bellshaw's pick to lead the institute: Robert Rubin, who had been the vice president of research at the University of Miami, where he had a reputation for taking risks and for demanding results. Soon after joining Lovelace in the fall of 1996, Rubin devised a solution to its problems: Completely reorganize the institute, rename it the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, and turn it into a national respiratory-research center. He plans to make Lovelace the leading authority on every aspect of research into respiratory disease.