Frequently Asked Questions
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
These Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are current as of the date published.
The Executive Office Academy (EOA) acknowledges that circumstances change and that the answers provided herein will evolve accordingly. The answers provide the general context of situations whilst also acknowledging that exemptions can be catered for.
TERMINOLOGY
There are many titles used for people directly supporting an Executive or an Entrepreneur. They include Secretary, Personal Assistant or Executive Personal Assistant amongst several others. These titles are also used at different levels in different organizations leading to confusion.
The Executive Office Academy standardizes the title for the position reporting directly to and working with an Executive or Entrepreneur as an Executive Office Partner (EOP) as we believe this to be the most accurate of titles for the position.
For purposes of further standardizing terminology when referring to Support Staff or Personnel, EOA will refer to Personal Assistants and Support Pools.
(See Q27 for further definitions)
Q1 - WHAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF EOA SERVICES?
Q2 - WHAT ARE THE SERVICES OFFERED TO BOSSES OF EXECUTIVE OFFICES?
Q5 - HOW DOES EOA DIFFERENTIATE AN EOP FROM A TRADITIONAL PA?
Q10 - HOW CAN AN ORGANIZATION OPERATE IF ONLY A FEW TOP EXECUTIVES ARE ASSISTED BY AN EOP?
Q11 - WHAT ARE THE PROS & CONS OF SUPPORT POOLS?
Q12 - HOW DOES EOA ORGANIZE THE MENTORING AND TRAINING OF BOSSES, EOPs AND BOSS-EOP DUOS?
Q14 - HOW CAN AN EOP BE PROMOTED WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION?
Q18 - WHY ARE THE BEST SUPPORT STAFF AND EOPs OFTEN LIMITED IN THEIR CAREER PLANS?
Q22 - HOW MANY CLIENTS HAS EOA CATERED TO IN THE PAST?
Q23 - HOW DOES EOA PLAN AND ORGANIZE THE PROMOTION OF ITS CONSULTING AND MENTORING SERVICES?
Q24 - DOES EOA PROVIDE TRAINING SERVICES TO INDIVIDUALS OR SMALL GROUPS OF INDIVIDUALS?
Q25 - WHAT IS THE SPECIFIC ROLE OF THE EOA LECTURES IN THE GLOBAL STRATEGY OF THE ACADEMY?
Q28 - CAN EOA MIX PAs, EOPs AND BOSSES IN THE CONTEXT OF A SINGLE COMMERCIAL EOA EVENT?
Q35 - IS EOA AN INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATION FINANCED AND SPONSORED BY THIRD PARTIES?
Q36 - WHAT IS EOA’S STAND ON THE ISSUE OF THE USUAL FEMALE GENDER OF PAs AND EOPs?
Q39 - WHY ISN’T THE EOA CATALOGUE OF SERVICES FULLY ACCESSIBLE AND DOWNLOADABLE VIA THE EOA WEBSITE?
Q40 - HAS EOA IDENTIFIED AN EXISTING GLOBAL MARKET IN WHICH IT OPERATES AND COMPETES?
Q1 - WHAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF EOA SERVICES?
EOA’s focal point is the level of performance of the executive in charge of an organizational, functional or territorial Executive Office. The name of the Academy refers to the working environment of this executive or entrepreneur, an environment that usually includes various categories of personnel.
Trainers who deliver courses differ from trainers who deliver seminars by the type of participants they are addressing and dealing with:
- A Course-Level Trainer caters to Personal Assistants (PAs) that are planning to acquire Executive Personal Assistant (EPA) status.
- A Seminar-Level Trainer caters to top executives (“bosses”) of administrations, corporations or NGOs, as well as to the EPAs of them.
Q2 - WHAT ARE THE SERVICES OFFERED TO BOSSES OF EXECUTIVE OFFICES?
• Because its focal point is the executive or entrepreneur in charge of an Executive Office, EOA offers first and foremost one-on-one performance-oriented consulting and mentoring services to the Boss of an Executive Office, as well as to the person who contributes to a larger extent to the Boss’ daily performance, namely the Executive Office Partner (EOP).
• In a one-on-two communication mode, EOA offers training services to develop the skills and competences of the Boss-EOP duo.
• To simultaneously increase the performance of several Executive Offices, EOA offers to deliver inspiring lectures to medium size audiences of prospective EOPs and Bosses, training courses to small groups of prospective EOPs and high power seminars to targeted groups of EOPs, Bosses or Boss-EOP duos.
• The training programs come out of a Catalogue of 39 pre-packaged training products; they are customized by EOA to reflect clients’ preferences as well as the specific needs of participants that EOA has identified and analysed by means of pre-event surveys.
Q3 - WHY IS EOA SO INTERESTED IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A BOSS AND AN EOP, OR EVEN A BOSS AND A SUPPORT POOL?
After 6 years of intensive research, the founders of EOA have reached the conclusion that the best performing Bosses of Executive Offices are those individuals who are capable to manage and lead the personnel of their Executive Office in close partnership with an Executive Office Partner.
Q4 - CAN THE BOSS OF AN EXECUTIVE OFFICE REACH A HIGH LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE WHEN OBLIGED TO SHARE A SUPPORT POOL?
It usually depends on the Boss’ individual skills and life style, and on the way the Support Pool is structured and organized to assist several top executives, in particular when these executives are travelling. By means of advanced communication protocols and priority rules, some organizations successfully distribute their executive-support resources to several top executives spread out over the world. However, EOA has observed that, even with a successful track record of Pool support and associated cost reductions, the executives who share pool resources end up being overworked and have little time to think, rest, live with their family, make smart decisions, and properly lead their subordinates. It is clear to EOA that the best way to maximize the level of performance of the top executives of any large modern organization is to provide these executives with duly motivated, well trained partners who know them well, can anticipate their needs, and accept to share their Boss’ individual responsibilities.
Q5 - HOW DOES EOA DIFFERENTIATE AN EOP FROM A TRADITIONAL PA?
The traditional Assistant is entrusted with specific tasks defined by his/her Boss and expressed in terms of instructions; he/she cannot be made liable for the results of task execution. He/she is expected to make frequent micro-decisions to maximize the quality of the tasks featured in his/her daily agenda.
An EOP is accountable for the results expected from his/her Boss’ Executive Office. Instructions given by the Boss refer to projects, goals, objectives and methods leaving it entirely to the EOP to decide the best courses of action, the most adequate budgets and human resources, or the best contacts to activate. He/she is expected to convert Executive Office objectives into projects, to monitor the critical path of such projects, and to make correct important tactical decisions to secure the timely delivery of project milestones.
Whatever his/her level of skills and competences, a traditional Assistant cannot be made liable for the Boss’ individual performance. In the context of the Executive Office missions defined by the employer’s governance system, CEO’s decisions and Board of Directors resolutions, an EOP is accountable to the entire employer organization, which includes the Boss and the personnel reporting to the Boss.
Q6 - IS THERE A MINIMUM OF EOPs THAT A GLOBAL ORGANIZATION SHOULD EMPLOY TO ENSURE THE HIGH PERFORMANCE OF ITS EXECUTIVE OFFICES?
It depends more on the culture, governance system and size of the organization than on its financial resources. Ultimately, it is a straightforward Return On Investment (ROI) issue. This is why EOA focuses its research efforts and its services on the quality of the recruiting and training of EOPs of profit-oriented organizations, without discarding large administrations, businesses and NGOs. As a general rule, EOA recommends that the executives of firms who are made personally accountable for vital decisions, large revenues and/or ambitious profit margins be provided with a qualified, i.e., experienced and well-trained EOP. The annual overhead costs & expenses usually associated with this type of support call for extra budgets whereas the performance resulting from adequate EOP support is usually in excess of 10 times the cost. Typically, in a large organization, the CEO, and main C-Suite executives, especially those who are out-of-office the majority of time, should be assisted by qualified EOPs. Usually this amounts to a minimum of 5 executives.
Q7 - WHEN IS THE RECRUITING OF A QUALIFIED EOP MOST IMPORTANT FOR AN EXECUTIVE TAKING ON A NEW POSITION?
The most critical phases of a modern top executive are usually associated with the induction phase of a new tenure, be it internal or external vis-à-vis the previous working environment. In a matter of months, sometimes in a matter of weeks, a new executive must demonstrate his/her ability to fit within the mould of the organization culture, governance system, policies & procedures, and CEO’s long-term objectives. If, on top of all usual agenda priorities, the new Boss has to travel to visit with subordinates, subcontractors, partners and clients, the challenges associated with the induction phase may just be too tough for a single decision-maker: a motivated, well-trained EOP who accepts to share his/her Boss’ start-up challenges may change the whole picture: more time to acquire relevant information, make decisions, supervise and lead subordinates, and possibility to move out of the office to go where the action is. The EOP is also in a position to guide the new Boss concerning the organizational traditions, culture, politics, staff characteristics and nuances.
Q8 - ISN’T THE VERY CONCEPT OF AN EXECUTIVE OFFICE PARTNER, A THING OF THE PAST IN A MODERN ORGANIZATION THAT GIVES A TOP PRIORITY TO GLOBAL PRODUCTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS AT MINIMUM COST?
True, the loyal multidisciplinary secretary who is willing to work nights and week-end days without complaining, and does not forget the Boss’ coffee cup and lunch sandwich, is nowadays often “replaced” in theory by smart phones, portable computers and advanced networking applications with which ambitious young “techie” Bosses can type short messages or set up one-on-one videoconferences in seconds. In practice, EOA has observed that the loneliness of the top decision-maker, which is a human issue, not a managerial one, is dangerously ignored for the benefit of tangible, measurable cost reductions.
EOA has also observed that careless, myopic cost reductions resulting from drastic cuts in EOP support often result in silent discouragements and HR reported burnouts. EOA’s candid opinion: it is easy to look smart by referring to the cost reductions associated with the elimination of “traditional” secretaries or assistants. It is more challenging to look at an Executive Office as the cockpit of a modern aircraft in which the captain and the co-pilot have to manage the security and comfort of hundreds of passengers, and need to work hand-in-hand. EOA is of the opinion that, once the EOP killing fashion itself becomes obsolete, a trend already observed in many big organizations, most organizational leaders will recognize that global productivity and competitiveness call for an extensive recruiting and training of a core of “strategic EOPs”.
Q9 - DOES EOA PERCEIVE THE CEO AS A “SPECIAL BOSS” DESERVING A SPECIAL TYPE OF ASSISTANCE AND A SPECIAL BREED OF EOP?
Definitely not! In terms of human resources management and corporate governance, the CEO is perceived by EOA as the conductor of an orchestra entrusted with long-term strategic objectives and a low frequency of important functional decisions made each year.
The Bosses of the other functional Executive Offices, such as the CFO or the Head of HR, or of territorial Executive Offices, such as the Director of the EMEA territory or Director of Asian Operations, are perceived by EOA as having strategic and tactical assistance needs similar to those of the CEO in terms of partnership and accountability.
Q10 - HOW CAN AN ORGANIZATION OPERATE IF ONLY A FEW TOP EXECUTIVES ARE ASSISTED BY AN EOP?
This is an issue of vital importance. It is correct to assume that an organization featuring only 2 or 3 Boss-EOP duos will not operate as well as an organization that has embedded in its very culture and governance system the presence of experienced, well-trained EOPs in Executive Offices, as well as the fact that the Boss and the EOP are made accountable for large revenues and/or profit margins, and are formally recognized as the main contributors to the organization’s P&L. Main reason for this limitation, as observed by EOA in all continents, in a variety of industries and types of organizations: if only 2 or 3 Executive Offices benefit from a genuine Boss-EOP partnership resource, the EOPs of these Executive Offices find it difficult to communicate with other Executive Offices not equipped with an EOP or have Pool Sharing, not out of jealousy but mainly because they speak the language of individual accountability with individuals who are paid to execute tasks, and are protected by a limited liability.
Q11 - WHAT ARE THE PROS & CONS OF SUPPORT POOLS?
As brilliantly stated by Frode Hvaring, Global Head of HR of the European Broadcasting Union in an EOA interview – YouTube ref https://youtu.be/2ibH3Gx9uUg -, the idea of using a Support Pool to assist top executives is not “black & white”. The pros & cons of these Pools can be summarized as follows:
• PROS
o possible replacements when a Support Pool member is absent
o possibility of using standard office tools throughout an organization
o team work
o obligation for each Boss sharing the pool to delegate certain tasks and share certain data that a Boss would otherwise keep exclusively for himself/herself
o development of a positive work sharing mind-set
• CONs
o limited delegation of decision-making responsibilities
o insufficient in-depth knowledge of Boss’ dossiers
o limited understanding of Boss’ priority issues and of priorities themselves
o limited protection of confidential data
EOA is well equipped to help Pool staff work productively with numerous executives, and to help top executives make the best use of Pool services; for CEOs who benefit from the support of EOPs acting as “chiefs of staff”, EOA has developed a special class of consulting, mentoring and training services to enable these top-of-the-line EOPs to productively delegate to Support Pools, if they do exist, specific portions of their own work.
Q12 - HOW DOES EOA ORGANIZE THE MENTORING AND TRAINING OF BOSSES, EOPs AND BOSS-EOP DUOS?
The mentoring services of EOA are provided by consultants who have at least 20 years of experience of skill and competence development in an Executive Office environment. The main service objectives of the EOA senior consultants in charge of these services depend entirely on the executive’s personal priorities and confidential admissions of weaknesses in such areas as leadership. The quality standards applied by EOA to the mentoring services provided to EOPs are similar to the ones applied to the mentoring of Bosses but, with EOPs, the focus of the services is the Boss-EOP relationship rather than EOP’s stand-alone skill development.
EOA consulting services are designed mainly for top executives. They are provided by EOA in a one-on-one mode by senior consultants benefiting from an exceptional operational experience of management and leadership in a variety of organizations, and able to master the most frequent psychological profiles of executives in charge of a variety of functional and territorial Executive Offices.
The training of several Bosses of the same organization, or of a few organizations pertaining to the same industry, may be provided in small group sessions in the form of customized seminars, either on client’s premises or in suitable training environments accessible to up to 20 participants.
The mentoring of Bosses, EOPs and Boss-EOP duos can be carried out by EOA via convenient videoconferencing channels, on convenient weekdays, at convenient hours, after a few physical encounters of all protagonists.
Each consulting, mentoring and training service is benchmarked in a way that enables EOA to measure tangible results against pre-agreed quality standards, in parallel with the satisfaction ratings of service recipients.
Q13 - HOW CAN A BOSS PREVENT AN EOP FROM LEAVING THE ORGANIZATION WHEN SHE/HE IS “TOO GOOD FOR THE JOB”?
The situation of the overqualified EOP is more frequent than many observers of executive workplaces would usually believe or assume. If an EOP is too qualified for the job and obviously deserves a genuine executive status, either within the current organization, or in a new organization, the Boss should be prepared to kiss good-bye to the privilege of keeping the same loyal, competent EOP throughout his/her career.
A sad “local crisis” that, if possible, must be avoided in all the Executive Offices of a modern organization.
Indeed, having a highly qualified EOP leave is often equivalent to losing a precious asset. A so-called “overqualified” EOP can be seen as a role model for the organization. In particular, the organization can benefit as a whole from the mentoring of dozens of less trained and less experienced PAs by these EOPs.
In order to prevent a highly qualified and loyal EOP to resign for his/her position, a Boss should first and foremost show some real concern for the EOP’s career plans and his/her compensation level. In many organizations, the excellence of some top performing EOPs is insufficiently recognized by their Boss, HR and the governance system as a whole. EOA has developed special mentoring methods and training products for Bosses in order to help them act diligently whenever their EOP shows signs of frustrations and does not hide the existence of possible alternative career plans.
Another way to keep a top-notch EOP satisfied with his/her job is to allocate a minimum time each day to the review of the Executive Office objectives, challenges, opportunities and priorities, as well to the best methods that the EOP can apply to decisions that will have to be made in the short term by either the Boss or the EOP.
Q14 - HOW CAN AN EOP BE PROMOTED WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION?
In many organizations, the career plans of EOPs are ignored or discarded. Strangely enough, most HR departments consider that an annual performance review with each EOP employed by the organization is a sufficient method to extract an EOP’ frustrations and explore ways to make him/her more productive for the organization. Keeping an EOP “happy” in his/her job is usually perceived as a low priority, let alone a “luxury” that the organization cannot afford to waste time with.
EOA founders strongly believe that a good EOP should be promoted first in the context of his/her current tenure by adjusting the responsibilities to the evolution of his/her skills and experience, improving the EOP’s compensation package on the basis of Boss’ satisfaction and measured Executive Office annual performance, and finally by making sure that the EOP shares a fair proportion of the Boss’ compensation improvements.
The concept of “EOP promotion” is to be recognized by the governance system as a logical executive career planning procedure, and should be specified in the context of the recruiting process of each and every EOP. In certain instances, a top performing EOP should benefit from his/her Boss’ promotions and, whenever possible, move up the hierarchical ladder in parallel, if not together with the Boss.
Q15 - IS IT CONCEIVABLE TO DEVELOP AND TRAIN SUSTAINABLE BOSS-EOP DUOS THAT WILL MOVE THROUGH AN ORGANIZATION AS AN AD HOC TEAM?
The very idea of setting up high performing Boss-EOP duos has stirred up much controversy in many organizations.
The most frequent case is that of a fear of the spreading of dangerous rumours of “romance” when the gender mix is the traditional “male Boss-female EOP” and the two protagonists do not hide the “pleasure” to work together “closely”.
Another frequent case is that of an Executive Office becoming a “fortress” with which third party top executives, EOPs find it difficult to communicate, in particular when an EOP appears to become more protective of his/her Boss’ personal interests than of the employer’s strategic objectives and vested interests.
Being quite aware of the existence of the special “partnership risks” associated with the best Boss-EOP duos, EOA has developed consulting and mentoring methods for Bosses, EOPs and Boss-EOP duos that focus exclusively on the pros & cons of tight relations between the two protagonists.
The Boss-EOP “ad hoc team”, that may often serve as a role model to the personnel supervised by the Boss, and also for the whole employer organization, is discussed by EOA mentors and consultants in its practical aspects and dimensions; various recipes are suggested to make this team work truly for the benefit of the entire organization.
Q16 - WHY ARE EXECUTIVE SEARCH FIRMS IN CHARGE OF THE RECRUITING OF TOP EXECUTIVES FOR HIGHLY PAID JOBS INVOLVING ATTRACTIVE PERK PACKAGES SHYING AWAY FROM THE ISSUE OF HIGH PERFORMANCE PERSONAL ASSISTANCE PROVIDED IN PARALLEL WITH THE NEW POSITION?
The issue is purely economic; executive search firms are usually paid a pre-agreed percentage of the annual compensation of the targeted executive; the annual compensation of an EOP is usually too low to make the search of qualified and “compatible” EOPs a bread & butter service.
The lack of interest in EOP-oriented assignments usually expressed by executive search firms might be turned around if clients of these firms are able to come up with Boss-EOP duo search assignments that take into account the total annual compensation of the Boss and the EOP. On the basis of the frequent possibility to bring up the issue of dual Boss-EOP recruiting in the context of its consulting, mentoring and training programs for such Bosses as CEOs and Heads of HR, EOA is determined to advise some clients to evolve in this direction.
However, it is fair to admit that, whatever the success of EOA efforts to promote the economic and managerial merits of the Boss-EOP duos, it will probably take a few years before executive search firms officially offer commercial packages of Boss-EOP search services.
Q17 - WHAT MAKES EOA UNIQUE IN THE WORLD SKILL DEVELOPMENT MARKET, CONSIDERING THE NUMBER OF COURSES, SEMINARS AND BOOKS ALREADY DEDICATED TO THE TRAINING AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TOP EXECUTIVES AND PERSONAL ASSISTANTS?
It is precisely because EOA founders have not found in the world market any program focusing on the key issue of Boss-EOP partnerships and Executive Office productivity that the idea of creating a dedicated institution came up in 2009.
There are hundreds of training programs and seminars, with durations ranging from one day to a week, that claim to develop the skills of PAs and to improve the Boss-Assistant relationship. There is nothing designed for Bosses who hope to recruit genuine business partners capable of relieving them from time-consuming tasks and to make smart decisions on their behalf on the basis of a high level of mutual trust. There is nothing designed to help prospective EOPs move to EOP status by learning how to change the mind-set of someone in charge of administrative tasks into an EOP made fully responsible and liable for the success of specific projects of an Executive Office. There is nothing in the world market in 2015 that can compete with EOA’s focus on the Boss-EOP duo, and offers to explore and resolve the complexities of the business partnership involving a Boss and his/her closest subordinate.
Of course, EOA’s best ideas will be imitated, or even copied, in the coming years. This trend will only benefit both heads of Executive Offices and EOPs in numerous ways:
• Bosses will be able to move to new, challenging positions with the comfort and security of duly motivated, well-paid, properly trained EOPs,
• EOPs will enjoy a higher level of recognition as genuine executives and will establish their own niche within the general decision-making and empowerment territories of their organization’s governance system,
• EOPs will be better compensated and their career plans will be taken seriously by both their Boss and HR,
• Executive search firms will accept to look at Boss-EOP duos as valid recruiting targets,
• The number of men who will look for, let alone accept, EOP tenures will increase dramatically as a result of the new EOP status featured in governance systems of corporations, administrations and NGOs,
• The destabilizing rumours surrounding the “close relationships” of a male Boss and a female EOP will become a thing of the past.
Q18 - WHY ARE THE BEST SUPPORT STAFF AND EOPs OFTEN LIMITED IN THEIR CAREER PLANS?
The very concept of an “EOP career plan” is often deemed “provocative” by Heads of Executive Offices, in particular by Directors of HR. In many organizations, qualified EOPs are warned against openly expressing career plans on the basis of the strange assumption that only their Boss ought to be in charge of their professional destiny.
This is a fact of life that EOA has observed worldwide. It will probably take at ten to twenty years of cultural battles to change the mind-sets of those executives who still believe that an EOP is no more than a logical component of their personal productivity.
EOA’s position is quite clear and translates into specific mentoring initiatives for Bosses: qualified EOPs deserve to have their personal career plans frequently reviewed and optimized by their Boss and HR.
Q19 - WHY ARE SO MANY AMBITIOUS TOP EXECUTIVES LOOKING FOR NEW ATTRACTIVE POSITIONS PAYING SUCH A LOW ATTENTION TO THE TYPE OF PERSONAL ASSISTANCE THEY WILL NEED TO PERFORM IN A NEW ORGANIZATION OR WITH THEIR CURRENT EMPLOYER?
Right or wrong, most executives typically look at EOPs as accessories of their own career and consider that an EOP is paid a decent salary to be effective, available when needed, quiet and loyal, with minimum ambitions for himself/herself. Very few executives think about an EOP as being a “right arm”, let alone a “business partner”. This is probably why many ambitious executives do not truly value the impact of a qualified EOP on their own performance, and tend to look at an EOP as being a standard service provided by the employer in recognition of their executive status.
The case of Richard Branson, founder and CEO of the Virgin Group, who goes as far as to travel with his EOPs and recognize them as important contributors to the success of his entrepreneurial career, may be perceived as an exception to the rule.
Changes may silently occur when a Boss who is satisfied by the services of a competent and loyal EOP loses this EOP as a result of a logical retirement process, an EOP’s decision to resign, or an employer’s decision to restrict the use of EOPs to 2-3 top executives, and to “replace” unnecessary EOPs by Support Pools.
EOA has observed that numerous executives are unable to measure, let alone appreciate, the impact of an EOP on their contribution to their employer’s P&L. Even when an EOP is made liable for the results of an important project, discussion or negotiation, only the Boss seems to be entitled to claim full responsibility for these results. The EOP is too often invited to stay under the radar of third party’s recognition and the tip of the economic iceberg of Executive Office P&L.
Q20 - DOES EOA FOCUS EXCLUSIVELY ON EXECUTIVES AND SUPPORT STAFF OR EOPs OF CORPORATIONS, OR CAN IT EXTEND ITS SERVICES TO LARGE ADMINISTRATIONS, NGOs AND ENTREPRENEUSHIPS?
EOA is particularly interested in the market of industrial, profit-oriented firms because these organizations offer an attractive opportunity to measure and verify the economic value of EOA consulting, mentoring and training services. Aside from this special advantage, EOA does not differentiate between executives, support staff and EOPs of public satisfaction-oriented administrations, and broad humanity problem-oriented NGOs and high-paced entrepreneurs.
The purpose is the same: to make the selected executives more efficient by reference to the efficiency criteria of their organization, and to improve the skills and motivations and the EOP who assists them in their production of results, whatever the nature of the mission assigned to the Executive Office.
Of course, administrations, NGOs and entrepreneurships can measure the value of EOA services in their own way, in particular if the working environment of the selected Executive Offices is deemed more productive and pleasant by all relevant parties after the services have been provided. Under all circumstances, EOA attempts to replace the convenient economic performance criteria of profit-oriented firms by adequate benchmarking performance standards that enable both the client and the service supplier to agree about the quality of the services being delivered to a few executives and assistants.
Q21 - WHAT IS THE MINIMUM SIZE OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES OF AN ORGANIZATION THAT EOA CONSIDERS AS NECESSARY TO JUSTIFY THE COST AND EXECUTIVE TIME INVESTMENT OF ITS SERVICES?
It is obvious that there is a minimum organization size to justify the cost and executive time investment of EOA services. An organization that features several functional and territorial Executive Offices and can afford to provide the heads of these offices with quality personal support ought to have a special category and a sufficient amount of human resources.
It all depends on the budgets allocated to each Executive Office.
Examples of small organizations featuring powerful Executive Offices, well paid top executives and EOPs acting as genuine “chiefs of staff” are fairly easy to find:
• The prestigious small administrations supervised by a Head of State, such as the President of the United States, the King of Saudi Arabia, the Emir of Abu Dhabi, or the Prime Minister of Great Britain, certainly qualify as valid targets for EOA services because of the strategic importance of the decisions made by each executive reporting to the Head of State or to the Chief of Staff, and as a result of the large budgets usually allocated to the management of top national administrations.
• NGOs such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières, Amnesty International, World Wide Fund For Nature and Wikimedia probably also qualify for productive EOA services in terms of a “Key Efficiency Factors” of their top executives.
Q22 - HOW MANY CLIENTS HAS EOA CATERED TO IN THE PAST?
After six years of intensive market and marketing research, EOA is just starting to approach a few selected prospects and to offer highly customized services.
EOA is not equipped with a Sales Department. The promotion of its services is carried out by active supporters and benevolent individuals acting as sales reps.
Only after two or three years of commercial operations, i.e., after 2017, will EOA be in a position to refer to an institutional track record in terms of “number of clients”.
Today’s EOA credentials are based mainly on the individual track records of its three founders. Examples:
• Anna-Maria Pépin has organized more than 1,000 courses and seminars for executives and middle level managers; she has coached hundreds of executives worldwide in one-on-one modes,
• Pierre Sarda has conducted more than 200 one-on-one CEO level consulting and mentoring assignments worldwide, has trained over 30 “CEO EOPs”, and has contributed to the skill development of hundreds of top executives in Asia, Europe and North America,
• John Allen has developed innovative executive-level leadership methodologies to be applied in more than 70 countries by a large multinational corporation. He has also worked closely with, and counselled senior Executives and Entrepreneurs when associated with Chambers of Business.
Q23 - HOW DOES EOA PLAN AND ORGANIZE THE PROMOTION OF ITS CONSULTING AND MENTORING SERVICES?
In the context of its promotional efforts, EOA does not position itself as a supplier and organizer of big Public Relations Events gathering hundreds of top executives in a single city or resort to deliver customized lectures, courses and seminars.
To the contrary, EOA quietly develops networks of top executives, Support Staff and EOPs who agree that it is now time to develop the productivity of organizations by means of powerful Boss-EOP partnerships.
In essence, what the general public will be able to observe after two or 3 years of EOA service deliveries is a group of executives and EOPs that will testify that an organization that appeared only in 2015 has been able to change the very culture of their organization and the environment of their Executive Offices.
The main services supplied by EOA to executives, Support Staff and EOPs will be mainly delivered in confidential one-on-one modes and, when required, in semi-confidential one-on-two modes featuring a mentor-consultant and a Boss-EOP duo.
Q24 - DOES EOA PROVIDE TRAINING SERVICES TO INDIVIDUALS OR SMALL GROUPS OF INDIVIDUALS?
Yes, definitely. EOA has developed training packages featuring 16 half-day or full-day courses for Support Staff, 8 half-day or full-day seminars for EOPs, 4 half-day or full-day seminars for Boss-EOP duos, and a special one-day, five-module seminar for top executives.
These training products, that are designed to be customized up to 30% for each client or group of clients prior to their delivery, give their maximum efficiency with audiences ranging from 8 to 12 participants, but can be adapted by EOA’s trainers to audiences of 6, as well as audiences of 20 participants.
A minimum number of participants are expected when the participants in the EOA training programs belong to the same organization (single client), or industry (2-3 clients). The maximum number of participants is expected when EOA is invited to organize an open event that admits participants of diverse types of organizations and countries. In all cases, the focus of EOA events will be the set of specific needs and motivations of participants; these training event “inputs” are acquired by means of customized pre-event surveys and detailed analyses of survey outcomes.
Q25 - WHAT IS THE SPECIFIC ROLE OF THE EOA LECTURES IN THE GLOBAL STRATEGY OF THE ACADEMY?
The six introductory lectures or keynote addresses proposed by EOA in its catalogue have been designed to play an important role in the general context of training or information sessions for small to large audiences. The lectures are focused on providing the big picture, benefits, motivations and examples relating to high performing Executive Offices.
Lectures can be delivered in amphitheatres to audiences as large as 200, whereas the number of participants in courses and seminars is not supposed to exceed a size of 20. Interaction between EOA lecturers or keynote speakers and the audience is secured by means of a significant amount of time allocated to Questions & Answers. This way of integrating the lectures into the core training programs enables EOA to anticipate some of the main concerns of the participants, and to fine-tune the contents and the delivery style of the courses and seminars scheduled after the lecture session.
Q26 - HAS EOA EMBARKED INTO SOME KIND OF CRUSADE TO IMPROVE THE DAILY LIFE AND COMPENSATION OF PERSONAL SUPPORT STAFF?
Of course not! EOA’s belief in the advantages associated with its focus on the Executive Office and the Boss-EOP duo is based on practical observations and a wealth of experience of problem-solving situations.
True, EOA intends to improve the quality of the daily life of Support Staff and EOPs by means of a more universal recognition of the merits of their personal support activities and a general admission of the need to improve their compensation standards; to make such compensation standards more in line with EOPs’ accountability and direct contribution to their employer’s P&L is not only an issue of economic and social fairness: EOA believes it will significantly improve the productivity of Executive Offices and will attract more qualified candidates for the job.
EOA’s promotion of the EOP social-economic status will probably require years of one-on-one exchanges with hundreds of executives, introductory lectures to large audiences, and dozens of seminars delivered to EOPs and Bosses.
This being said, EOA does not intend to take advantage of any media exposure to engage into some kind of messianic promotion of its rational and pragmatic belief statements.
Q27 - IS EOA ATTEMPTING TO FORMALIZE THE TERMINOLOGY APPLIED WORLDWIDE TO PERSONAL SUPPORT STAFF ON THE BASIS OF THEIR ACTUAL RESPONSABILITIES AND DUTIES RATHER THAN THEIR TITLES?
EOA recognizes that there is a terminology problem with the titles given to all boss support personnel:
• In some organizations, personal assistants who are treated like ordinary secretaries by their Boss and the entire organization, and execute tasks without any real decision-making responsibility and global accountability, are given the title of “EOP” because their Boss is the CEO or the General Manager of a strategic territory; in some other organizations, personal assistants who are fully accountable for several Executive Office performance factors are called “PA” or “EA”, and not “EOP”.
• Because the recruiting standards of EOPs become more and more important in a global economy, with PAs and EOPs now able to compare their own status with the status and titles of colleagues or peers around the world, it has become increasingly necessary to structure and formalize the personal assistance terminology in the context of the Executive Office.
• EOA is of the opinion that it has a role to play in the development of a global acceptance of the following terminology:
o Personal Assistant (PA)”: first and foremost “personal”; may not report to more than a single boss or executive; is not authorized to make any more than ordinary pre-selected administrative decisions: travel itineraries, timing and contents of important mails, emails and phone calls, optimal meeting schedules,
o “Executive Support Pool”, and not ”PA Pool”: ad hoc team of support personnel in which “shared staff» report to several executives,
o EOP (“Executive Office Partner”): reports to a single executive, and operates as an executive-level decision-maker and communicator; can replace the Boss at short notice whenever he/she is on-the-move; at CEO level, may be requested or offered to supervise an “Executive Support Pool”; accountable for the performance of the Executive Office; allowed to make important tactical decisions, to participate in strategic meetings, including meetings of the Board of Directors or of relevant Executive Committees ; expected to provide the Boss with the information required to make strategic decisions, then secure the approval and supervise the execution of these decisions ; recognized as a duly accountable, co-leader of the Executive Office, and a genuine business partner; compensated by an attractive salary plus incentives package ; featured in the organization’s chart and listed in the governance system; authorized to move up the corporate ladder with his/her Boss ; may be recruited by the organization itself, or a third party, as an integral part of the Boss-EOP partnership.
• The EOP roles associated with this terminology require a pre-recognition of the protagonists’ status by the governance system and the HR department of the organization, most likely by means of ad hoc rules & procedures: an agreement vis-à-vis the above terminology will probably be useless as long as this condition is not met.
• EOA believes it can and should play a key role in the acceptance and global spreading of a logical terminology of executive support personnel.
Q28 - CAN EOA MIX PAs, EOPs AND BOSSES IN THE CONTEXT OF A SINGLE COMMERCIAL EOA EVENT?
The set-up of an event gathering multi-disciplinary, multi-title participants in the context of a single commercial event is very consistent with EOA’s service delivery strategy, but a few comments have to be made to explain why EOA is not in favour of large events mixing PAs, EOPs and Bosses in a single location for a few hours, let alone days.
Its focus on the Executive Office working environment prompts EOA to look for ways to gather numerous qualified representatives of the tenures & titles of an Executive Office, i.e., the “Boss” and an assistant of PA or EOP profile. In turn, this objective prompts EOA to organize debates between these individuals, inspiring lectures for all of them, as well as courses for PAs and seminars for Bosses and EOPs. In essence, the mixing of the various categories of Executive Office protagonists is justified only when each category can benefit from direct, well-moderated, discussions with the others. This is no small challenge: in many instances, the mixing concept may serve no purpose and only waste the precious time of many participants.
What EOA likes with the gathering of PAs, EOPs and Bosses in a single location is the possibility to develop a genuine understanding of the opportunities to improve the productivity of dozens of Executive Offices, and to inspire powerful partnerships between Bosses and EOPs.
Admittedly, EOA is a little reluctant to promote large, commercial events. If, for example, the venue is a resort offering numerous amenities to participants, the cost of a mixed audience event can be too high by reference to today’s trend to reduce training budgets.
EOA will usually recommend the organization of a mixed audience event only after the outcomes of several one-on-one consulting and mentoring assignments involving several PAs, EOPs and Bosses of the same client organization have proven that a mixed audience-training environment can be cost effective. This conclusion should be reached by clients first, not necessarily by EOA.
Q29 - DOES EOA INTEND TO DELIVER ITS TRAINING SERVICES IN A FEW SPECIFIC LOCATIONS, LIKE CONVENTIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOLS DO, OR IS IT OPEN TO A VARIETY OF SITES THAT ARE ADAPTED TO CLIENTS’ PREFERRED LOCATIONS?
EOA is structured and organized to reach out to its client, and not to ask them to come to a specific location, how convenient this approach may be for EOA.
Optimizing the location for a training program depends on numerous factors:
• The usual geographic location of the selected participants
• The time and costs associated with the trip to and from the location
• The total number of participants
• The usual or current location of the most strategic EOA trainers, in particular if some of them are booked several months in advance to be present in specific locations around the world
• The preferences of the employer, as well as the individual “tastes” of participants
• The employer’s training budget
EOA has developed a full spectrum of venue categories that offer a variety of sizes, amenities, styles, landscapes and prices. Today, EOA is capable of accommodating 8 participants in a mountain lodge in Aspen, Colorado, as well as sheltering 40 participants in the Executive Learning Centre of a prestigious European B-School.
Q30 - IS IT CONCEIVABLE THAT EOA PROVIDE DULY TARGETED TRAINING SERVICES TO MULTIPLE CLIENTS PERTAINING TO VARIOUS TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDUSTRIES, IN THE CONTEXT OF A SINGLE TRAINING PROGRAM?
Yes, definitely. The case of multiple clients pertaining to various industries, that EOA treats as an “open event”, is fully anticipated by EOA and should become a fairly frequent one after a few “targeted events”, i.e., events associated with a single client or a few clients pertaining to the same industry, have been successfully organized by EOA, and rewarded by a high degree of clients’ satisfaction.
Because the most rational channel to EOA training sessions is expected to be one-on-one or one-on-two consulting and mentoring services delivered to EOPs, top executives, or Boss-EOP duos, EOA expects to be asked to organize single industry, multi-client events after several customers competing in the same market, or more generally operating in the same industry, have benefited from independent EOA services. Of course, administrations or NGOs that share the same general purpose, such as Ministries of Foreign Affairs of member nations of the European Union, or NGOs of Europe-America-Asia focusing on medical assistance to emerging countries, also qualify for the single event, multi-client event structure.
Q31 - WHEN IS EOA PLANNING TO ACQUIRE GLOBAL MEDIA EXPOSURE, BESIDES THE USE OF ITS WEBSITE AND BLOG?
EOA is just starting its commercial operations and is not yet in a position to claim any report of client’s satisfaction or any major public relations event that could logically attract the attention of media.
Because EOA plans to rapidly become the “leading authority” on matters pertaining to the Boss-EOP partnership and the co-leadership in the Executive Office, the Academy plans to acquire little-by-little some media exposure and expand its burgeoning authority in one of the less explored domains of human resources management.
It has already been noticed that the issues mastered by EOA are worth a fair amount of media exposure:
• The large public of medium-level management that has already seen how a Boss can transform a working environment into hell (“The Devil Wears Prada”, 2006, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway) should pay attention to new ways of working at top executive level, and to the emergence of services likely to improve the quality of life of millions of employees of corporations, administrations and NGOs.
• The community of “Bosses”, that probably counts more than ten million members worldwide, ought to be intrigued by the recent availability of innovative services aimed at making them more productive by means of ad hoc delegation of power to specific categories of personal assistants.
• The population of PAs and EOPs, that counts at least two million individuals worldwide, is expected to be the most sensitive to the issues mastered and promoted by EOA.
Prior to 2020, EOA ought to become a household name in many business circles and in a variety of employee communities. Numerous newspapers and magazines, as well as a few radios, TV and Internet news providers will most likely contribute to the propagation of EOA’s innovative concepts. However, the material that media will probably focus on are the testimonies of PAs, EOPs and Bosses who have benefited from EOA’s services and are pleased to report significant improvements in their professional career and their personal life.
Q32 - HOW DOES EOA PLAN TO POSITION THE PRICING OF ITS CONSULTING, MENTORING AND TRAINING SERVICES IN THE CURRENT CONTEXT OF DRASTIC COST REDUCTIONS AND IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF A QUASI-MOBILE EXECUTIVE OFFICE?
EOA is emerging at a time when the human resources management market is penalized by drastic cost cutting measures in almost all industrially developed countries and in all organization categories. The pricing of EOA services, that comes with a high cost as a result of the expensive recruiting of top-notch consultants, mentors and trainers, must not exceed the budgetary limits of its clientele, and may appear to such usual decision-makers as CEOs, CFOS and Heads of HR as a deterrent.
The positioning of EOA prices is based on the likelihood of a good Return On Investment (ROI) for each and every prospective customer. Of course, the most expensive service lies with one-on-one consulting and mentoring services, and the most affordable services are associated with the delivery of customized courses to 8-20 PAs, and of seminars to 6-12 Bosses and EOPs.
In all cases, EOA is willing to discuss the potential ROI of the services it quotes on the basis of a list of detailed, proven list of social-economic benefits.
Q33 - WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VIRGIN GROUP CEO RICHARD BRANSON’S HIGHLY PUBLICIZED PRODUCTIVE USE OF A “MOBILE PERSONAL ASSISTANT” OVER MANY YEARS IN HIS CAREER?
As every one knows, Sir Richard Branson, an expert in the making of “business quotes”, likes media exposure and does not mind to stir controversies by feeding the media with provocative facts and opinions. One of the most famous controversies triggered by Branson has been, in year 2013, via excellent interviews, his public admission that his career had been successful mainly thanks to a string of dedicated PAs who accompanied him in his numerous business trips across the world.
Branson’s opinion can be summarized by ….
“I couldn’t get through the workday without my assistant, Helen. While gadgets like smartphones and tablets certainly do have a huge positive impact upon my working life, it is the people around me who really make the difference”
To EOA’s knowledge, Branson is perhaps the only CEO who has made it an habit to travel with his PA during extended periods of time, and to explain his career success over several decades by referring to the competence and loyalty of a series of duly identified PAs.
The “playboy” reputation of Sir Richard Branson has somewhat hidden the courageous and innovative decisions he made to develop a productive “Mobile Executive Office”. Of course, EOA may have some reservations about the star-like media exposure given to some of Branson’s PAs with the Boss’ obvious blessing. The glamorous fashion model style of some of the PAs who have been photographed with Branson is a little questionable. What EOA finds outstanding and admittedly commendable in Branson’s use of mobile PAs is that he has been able to demonstrate, year after year, and within the boundaries of the Virgin group of companies, that the productivity of a genuine Boss-EOP partnership may be one of the most critical components of a Boss’ career success.
This is why EOA does not hesitate to publicly support Sir Richard Branson’s innovative concept of a mobile office, and will, whenever possible, invite him as a guest speaker of some of its larger events to share his provocative ideas with EOA’s most conservative event participants.
Q34 - WHAT IS THE PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE CONTRIBUTED BY EOA’S THREE FOUNDERS ANNA-MARIA PÉPIN, JOHN ALLEN AND PIERRE SARDA?
The backgrounds of EOA’s three founders have something in common: a passion for shared leadership, not this category of leadership that helps motivate others and convert them into “happy subordinates and followers”, but a leadership that promotes ethical values and brings the best from the individuals surrounding a leader.
Anna-Maria Pépin has coached and trained hundreds of executives and medium-level managers in over 30 countries. Today, she can claim hundreds of successful individual skill development missions and over 1,000 brilliant executive-level seminars.
Pierre Sarda, an expert in CEO-level advisory services, has over 32 years of practical experience of leaders’ one-on-one, confidential mentoring; he has consulted in a one-on-one mode with over 200 CEOs, and has advised and trained more than 30 EOPs worldwide. Although he is interested in the global development and promotion of EOA’s concepts, Pierre continues to run away from media and social network exposure in order to protect the confidentiality of his clients, reserving the reputation of “leaders” to some of his more prestigious clients, not to himself.
John Allen, whose life is a novel by itself, has learned the basic principles of leadership by being responsible for the success of others in various team leadership capacities: in Kenya as a farmer’s son, in South Africa at the helm of a prestigious Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in Switzerland as the executive in charge of Nestlé’s international leadership development programs.
Together, as an ad hoc team of leader mentors and trainers, the three founders bring to EOA a significant capital of hands-on experience of shared leadership, and are able to offer to EOA clients a variety of services aimed at setting up a successful partnership and co-leadership in the Executive Office work environment.
Q35 - IS EOA AN INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATION FINANCED AND SPONSORED BY THIRD PARTIES?
EOA Sàrl is a financially independent Swiss company. Exclusively its three founders have provided its equity capital and its intellectual property. As of 2015, it is not sponsored by any third party.
Logically, EOA plans to strike strategic alliances with Business Schools interested in sheltering some of EOA’s most prestigious venues. Over the coming years, EOA will probably set up joint ventures with key players of the Human Resources Management market.
EOA’s independence enables its founders to offer some truly innovative and customized consulting, mentoring and training services at an affordable price.
Q36 - WHAT IS EOA’S STAND ON THE ISSUE OF THE USUAL FEMALE GENDER OF PAs AND EOPs?
EOA is well aware of the high frequency, and to some extent “popularity”, of the male Boss-female EOP duo. Its founders have spent years analysing the modus vivendi of a variety of old clichés associated with this type of duo, and has attempted to find out if these clichés were responsible for the extraordinary resilience of female EOPs at a time when qualified male EOPs should be treated as valuable candidates.
The spectacular increase of the population of female Bosses in such traditional countries as China, Japan, India, Thailand, Brazil and Lebanon, and in the Northern countries of the Old Continent, have contributed to a general acceptance of the managerial skills of the female gender. Not as a matter of gender preference, but as a result of the large world population of qualified PAs and EOPs, female Bosses have recruited and are still recruiting mostly female PAs and EOPs. In 2015, male PAs or EOPs do not account for more than 5% of the world population of personal assistants.
EOA is of the opinion that the male Boss-female PA mix cliché will soon become a thing of the past. Male PAs and EOPs, let alone male “chiefs of staff”, tend to become widely accepted as more pragmatic solutions of the problems associated with highly mobile executives. Being usually more easily mobile for extended periods of time than their female counterparts, because they tend to have less daily family duties than married female PAs and EOPs, male assistants may soon become the preferred choice in a global economy requiring intensive Boss-EOP mobility in numerous categories of Executive Offices.
The sustainable partnership concepts associated with the productivity of the Executive Office tend to increase the merits of the objective reasons why a partnership can survive numerous crises. In this sense, male PAs and EOPs appear to be naturally more reliable than their female counterparts who have a natural, some will say biological tendency to assign a high priority to the emotional dimensions of one-on-one relationships.
To the contrary, female PAs and EOPs shine far more than their male counterparts when the skill consisting in anticipating the Boss’ needs, and in solving problems before the Boss is able to state them, is considered as a priority personal support performance criterion.
Overall, and in practice, EOA does not express any preference vis-à-vis the gender that suits best a specific top executive. Each case is to be treated differently. The way EOA’s consulting, mentoring and training services are proposed and delivered to top executives, as well as to organizations, eloquently illustrate this neutrality with regard to the gender of the two protagonists of the Boss-EOP duo.
Q37 - WHOM AT EOA SHOULD A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT CONTACT IN ORDER TO PROVIDE THE SPECS, AND DISCUSS THE TERMS & CONDITIONS OF AN EOA CONSULTING & MENTORING ASSIGNMENT?
In 2015, EOA is mainly structured and organized around its three founders. The administrative and commercial operations are handled by John Allen, CEO, and Pierre Sarda, COO. A team of qualified benevolent supporters assists EOA in its development.
As soon as EOA’s cash-flow permits it, EOA will be staffed according to the best practices it advocates in its training programs: small ad hoc teams of well-trained employees, simple reporting lines, maximum mobility and in-the-field presence of all employees, genuine partnerships between Bosses and EOPs, priority to team work.
Today, if a prospective client wishes to submit and discuss the specifications of a consulting & mentoring assignment in order to initiate an individual skill development program, or the conditions under which the governance system of an organization can be adapted to the new role of a specific Executive Office, the best way to go is to start by contacting either John Allen or Pierre Sarda. From there on, an optimal follow-up process will be designed and activated by EOA with the contribution of several experts.
Q38 - HOW DOES EOA MEASURE THE ECONOMIC SAVINGS GENERATED BY CLIENTS AFTER THE EOA SERVICES HAVE BEEN DELIVERED TO CLIENTS?
Every prospect of EOA logically hopes that each overhead expense or capital expenditure associated with the purchase of an external service can be justified by a credible ROI calculation.
Not only does EOA accept the “high ROI” expectation as the source of a special “justification service”, it is somewhat reluctant to offer its services to individuals and organizations that tend to ignore or discard ROI objectives. EOA is prepared to help prospects predict the ROI of its services one year after the services have been rendered. In the context of its service proposals, EOA is open to the idea to go through an evaluation of the potential economic benefits of its services, and to consider important non-economic benefits, such as the pleasure to work at an increased level of mutual Boss-EOP trust, merely as “icing on the cake”.
The methodology associated with the ROI calculation of EOA services has been developed and successfully tested by one of EOA’s founders with more than 30 clients worldwide. It is highly customized and requires the mastering of the processes that transform an individual skill development into a team P&L contribution improvement, in a variety of Executive Offices, be they Production, Legal, Sales, R&D, HR or Purchasing.
Example of a link between an individual skill improvement and a better P&L contribution in the Purchasing Executive Office:
• Skill improvement: Boss’ ability to delegate some specific executive-level purchase decisions to a trusted, competent EOP whenever the Boss is away from the office.
• P&L contribution: detailed analysis of direct annual savings due to EOP’s personal handling of important purchase negotiations that are usually the Boss’ responsibility and accountability domains.
Q39 - WHY ISN’T THE EOA CATALOGUE OF SERVICES FULLY ACCESSIBLE AND DOWNLOADABLE VIA THE EOA WEBSITE?
The economic value, let alone the strategic value, of EOA’s Intellectual Property (IP) is quite significant.
Over a period of 6 years, the founders of EOA have:
• conducted extensive research programs,
• developed several one-on-one and one-on-two consulting and mentoring methods,
• created 33 training products than can be customized by trainers for specific clients: 17 for PAs, 8 for EOPs, 4 for Boss-EOP duos, and 1 for Bosses,
• developed various marketing methods to distribute EOA products.
The EOA Catalogue is such a wealth of information about EOA’s IP that it is not envisioned at this time to share its contents with anybody but EOA’s most trusted prospects and clients. Same rationale as in a car sale: the potential buyer of a car is not expecting to receive the car technical drawings and calculations when expressing interest in a specific car.
EOA is of the opinion that the information made accessible by EOA to a large public via a dedicated website and a few printable promotional documents should be sufficient to observers of EOA’s services that are interested in becoming full-scale EOA clients.
Q40 - HAS EOA IDENTIFIED AN EXISTING GLOBAL MARKET IN WHICH IT OPERATES AND COMPETES?
Yes, EOA has identified a niche market of Executive Office-oriented services in the global market of Human Resources Management, a market of USD 14 Billion in 2013 that has existed for decades and features such reputable players as Mercer and HayGroup.
Although it does not compete head-on with such big companies, and is rather positioned to collaborate closely with them, EOA is challenged by numerous multinational competitors providing individual skill development services revolving around a “famous guru”, usually the author of a best-selling “recipe for better management”, or short (usually two-day) open forums for top executives. The existence of these competitors is welcome insofar as it helps clients benchmark the value of EOA services, and therefore determine what makes EOA a better contender.
