CONSIDERATIONS ON HIRING SENIOR MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES First the bad news. If you thought finding good entry-level help was tough in this troublesome talent market, try locating a chief technology officer, a director of operations, or even your successor. Recruiting is a challenge in this labor drought, and recruiting executives is even more taxing. A recent study by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. observes that "companies are about to be engaged in a war for senior executive talent that will remain a defining characteristic of their competitive landscape for decades to come." The report's disconcerting conclusion? Most companies are ill-prepared for the executive recruiting challenge ahead. Now the good news. You can find talented top dogs for your growing company. It's just going to take a little more flexibility, ingenuity, and patience than executive recruiting once did. Look within your organization, groom promising employees, beat the bushes outside your organization, comb the competition, and, by all means, do your best to hold on to the quality leadership you've already attracted. Not sure where to begin? Start right here with the best advice inc.com has to offer from fellow entrepreneurs, small-business experts, and even a psychiatrist. The New Commandments of Change Forget everything you've heard about how tough it is to recruit top executives. Attracting senior talent has never been easier. The trick is in the way you approach the offer Diana Edwards was a recruiter's dream. Her professional pedigree included a stint as a human-resources director for the Ritz-Carlton, Kansas City, and an M.B.A. from Stanford. The consulting business she'd started with another Stanford grad was blossoming. She was a perfect candidate for a management job at a time when good candidates were at a premium. She probably could have written her own ticket at any one of dozens of top-ranked companies. Yet Edwards recently decided to take a chance on a fledgling airline in Ukiah, Calif., called Community Air. It was a risky move into one of the riskiest industries around. But the job--vice-president of corporate development-- offered incredible professional growth. So she didn't take it for the money. In fact, she accepted a 60% pay cut. She did it because the job was right for her. Manoj Tripathi had a great job with a great company. He worked as chief information officer for retail giant the Body Shop and was there during its fast-growth years. Then in late 1997 he got a call from a recruiter about a small chain of juice bars called Jamba Juice. Jamba what? At the time, Jamba Juice was doing about $23 million in sales and had little name recognition outside California. Even though Tripathi had never heard of it before, in March 1998 he left his prestigious post behind and took a new job with the fast-growing little company. Although he had a good job at an established company, Web developer Robert Desbiens was considering joining a start-up that offered him a chance at making a fortune. Then a third option came up. Clarke/Thompson Advertising & Design, in New York City, a 17-year-old shop with $1.5 million in sales, was seeking a Web chief for its Manhattan office. By Silicon Alley standards, the salary barely registered. Worse, the agency offered no stock options or other apparent upside. Yet something about the offer was right for Desbiens. He joined the agency as director of new media last October. How could these three upstart companies afford to outbid the rich competition for talent in such demand? By refusing to buy into the hype that says you can't hire top managers unless you make them into millionaires. The fact is, you can afford to get the best, even without an Internet initial public offering on the horizon or paying a six-figure signing bonus. What you do need is a keen knowledge of the forces shaping compensation today. What matters most to experienced managers? Lucrative stock options? Bonuses to make their friends blush? Decent starting salaries? Flextime? There is no universal answer. And there is no universal standard for compensation packages--not anymore. Today each candidate is looking for a slightly different type of opportunity. Understand that, and you will understand why there's never been a better time to attract senior talent. In fact, after talks with scores of recruiters, company owners, HR directors, and the recruits themselves, one thing has become clear: for the right opportunity, a lot of heavy hitters are willing to make considerable trade-offs--beginning with the most traditional component of a compensation package: salary. "You want to make a decent salary, but I'm not motivated by money and never have been," says Tom King, a banking veteran who took a sizable pay cut to join a much smaller company. In April, King became the new president of Reliant Professionals, a staffing agency in San Diego. What does he believe it takes to hire top execs? "It all depends on your hot buttons," says King. "I got typecast as a turnaround specialist, and I was tired of doing turnarounds. I toyed with retiring. Now I'm excited about having a new challenge." As the owner of Reliant Professionals--and of $19-million Reliant General Insurance Services, in San Diego--Dana Dodds is thrilled that he was able to lure a strong candidate like King. It hasn't been that long since Dodds would have agonized over whether he could afford to recruit such an experienced executive. He couldn't offer any real equity or even big-ticket perks like a company car. "How am I going to raid these large companies for the talent I need?" Dodds wondered. He needn't have worried. Hiring the right top people turned out to be "a piece of cake," Dodds says. In the past 6 to 12 months, he has signed on three other top managers besides King, two of them from rivals that are 10 times the size of his insurance company. As it happens, the same economic climate that has been marked by labor shortages has also brought an unforeseen hiring bonanza for entrepreneurial companies like Dodds's. The gale force of consolidation blowing through nearly every industry has released a steady flow of restless executives--seasoned managers who've been there and done that and want something more in life besides early retirement. "We're on our second or third generation of entrepreneurial executives now," says Charley Polachi, managing partner of the recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles/Fenwick Partners in Lexington, Mass. "They've been moving around for a few years. Going to work for a start-up is not a novel concept for them. It's exactly what some want." You might think that with all their resources, large companies should be able to win all the best candidates, but they can't begin to offer the benefits that make small companies attractive: a well-carved niche, a fresh start-up story, a culture free of red tape, a ground-floor opportunity. "There's a sex appeal we may not have, but within retail we have a neat niche," says Tony Mazlish, CEO of the Healthy Back Store, a retailer based in Lorton, Va. Last year Mazlish's chain sold $6.4 million worth of such products as ergonomically correct chairs. He's had an easier time recruiting executives than he has replacing receptionists, he says. "Finding the top positions has been much easier. I've been amazed at the level of interest." Just how much does it count to offer interesting work? A lot, according to Pat Thompson, owner of Clarke/Thompson Advertising & Design, the modest New York ad agency that recruited Web designer Robert Desbiens. He took the position for a good "$25,000 less than other candidates were asking," Thompson says. What won Desbiens over was the chance to design three major Web sites, including one for the newly renovated Grand Central Station. Barb Todd, president of $25-million Good Catalog Co., in Portland, Oreg., is another entrepreneur who is amazed by the number of people attracted to her low-profile company. She says that for the past few years, she has received two or three worthwhile résumés a week from senior-level candidates. "I only wish I had places for them," she laments. Why the interest from so much good talent? "A big growth story always helps," Todd says. Her company's revenues grew from $1.3 million to $25 million in six years. One of the most critical components of any recruitment package is the person who's doing the hiring. Candidates want to be excited by the people they will work with. That's what sold Norman E. Snyder, a veteran finance executive who spent eight years at Price Waterhouse, on a job with start-up South Beach Beverage Co., in Norwalk, Conn. "You're not going to start this without me," Snyder recalls telling South Beach founder and president John Bello, whom he had worked with at another company. "John knew how to create a high sense of camaraderie." As chief financial officer, Snyder was South Beach's first employee. He moonlighted nights and weekends at the beginning, and watched the company teeter on the edge of insolvency in its first 18 months. "I said, 'I'd rather go to South Beach and fail than regret not trying,' " he recalls. Now the company is established, with $67 million in revenues--and Snyder has never looked back. MAKING THE OFFER What do executives want? Case 1: Diana Edwards. "I just wanted to be a part of it. I met the founders and their chief operating officer, read the business plan, and was so impressed. If I'd had to donate time, I would have." When Edwards made her leap to Community Air, early this year, she couldn't have known whether the fledgling airline would ultimately find blue skies or stall on the runway. The prospects were so iffy that the 10,000 shares of stock she received on joining the company seemed to be less of a wealth-creating mechanism than a goodwill gesture. But that was all right. Edwards had different priorities. Edwards had to be persuaded that the new environment wouldn't cramp her style. As it happened, Community Air founders John and Susan Mayginness were looking for just such an entrepreneurial spirit, someone who could handle the HR nuts and bolts and take on a whole lot more. So, in addition to her traditional duties, Edwards was charged with no less than coordinating the timely launch of the airline. The Mayginnesses also sweetened the equity pot by allowing Edwards's options (on more than 100,000 shares) to vest in one year instead of the usual three or four. The lesson? To shape a winning offer, you've got to weigh each candidate's dueling desires: wealth creation, certainly, but also some semblance of a personal life; autonomy but also security. Your ability to sign the best candidate will directly correspond to how well you can mold the pieces of the package to fit the individual. "Those are the issues--age, greed, and personality," says New York City executive recruiter Susan Bishop. THE BIG MONEY Wealth creation and equity Case 2: Manoj Tripathi. "Stock options? That wasn't the lever. I can get a similar equity payoff elsewhere. It was, 'Oh man, I'll be back in the game again. And oh, stock options, too?' That just made it a no-brainer." When Tripathi joined Jamba Juice, he got an equity stake equal to about 1% of the private company. One day those options may be worth a lot, so Tripathi was willing to settle for less hard cash up front. Jamba matched his salary (about $150,000) to bring him to San Francisco but offered no signing bonus other than agreeing to cover his relocation costs. But that was fine. All Tripathi wanted was to be "adequately compensated in the short term and well compensated in the long term." For all their inherent risk, stock options have not lost their luster. "You would have thought so after August of last year," quips recruiter Bob Rollo, referring to the sharp downturn in small-cap stock prices. "Everyone was saying that people were going to decorate their walls with stock." But, he adds, if there's potential for the stock to go up, "that's still a very nice way to have your tax deferred." And deferred income is, for many, the name of the game. It's the classic entrepreneurial equation: most senior managers want a piece of the action. "The game everyone plays is getting to a company at the right time," says Jim Peters, a partner at Ernst & Young's entrepreneurial-services group in Los Angeles. So instead of fading away, options are becoming much more common. The National Center for Employee Ownership found that on average, not only do small companies give out more options than large corporations do, but the options they give are worth more. Stock options remain one of the cheapest incentives on the books and are a powerful tool for customizing a job offer to suit an individual candidate. Recruiters and compensation consultants estimate that the average award for each member of a company's senior team is between 0.5% and 2% of equity. But it can go higher. For example, Jack Troia, the newly hired CFO at $14-million technical-consulting company Intervise Consultants, in Rockville, Md., came on board with a guaranteed 2.5% of equity. That share could increase to as much as 5% over three years if the company achieves certain goals. "My CFO is a millionaire on paper," boasts Intervise CEO Michael Priddy. Priddy figures his newest hire was well worth it. Within a month of joining, the CFO had several banks fighting for Priddy's business. Even if you are reluctant to start dishing out precious equity, don't rule it out as good currency for the future. Tony Mazlish, CEO of the Healthy Back Store, will never forget what happened when he first offered stock options, five years ago. "Some people looked at us with glassy eyes," he says. "We were only one store!" But today the chain comprises 24 locations and has projected revenues of $20 million in 1999. Earlier this year an offer of stock and options clearly helped land a controller who had a large-company background, especially since Mazlish was offering a compelling opportunity to get in on the ground floor of his growing venture. "Going public is the endgame for us, but it's not a 12-month window," he says. "It's more like a two-to-five-year window." It's a similar story with FreBon International Corp., a $12-million videoconferencing company in McLean, Va. The company hardly seemed like a good bet for the public markets when Bonnie Horner started it, eight years ago. But now that she's broadened her telecommunications services, the odds of the company's pulling off an IPO look brighter. For the big-league telecommunications executives that Horner is courting--most of whom have already researched her company's prospects, she says--stock options are a must-have. "A new salary is just another IRS issue for some of these people." It's not that everyone believes every small company is the next MCI or Amazon.com. In fact, today's job candidates are much savvier than that (as well as more knowledgeable about the companies they approach, thanks to the Internet and other sources of ready information). But the surge in merger-and-acquisition activity has proved there are other routes to liquidity besides going public. In the summer of 1997, Barb Todd decided to sell Good Catalog Co. rather than take it public. In October 1998 she found her buyer, Reader's Digest. At the time of the sale, all stock options were converted into cash payouts, and the company is now using a bonus plan rather than options or stock. If the members of her executive team didn't exactly attain millionaire status, they at least got closer. The bottom line is that "there are lots of opportunities in an organization to create wealth," says David Nosal, Northwest regional managing director of Korn/Ferry, which recruits high-level executives for young companies in a variety of industries ranging from high tech to manufacturing. "You don't have to be the CEO to become extremely wealthy. You just need to add significant value and be willing to work 15- or 20-hour days for three years. I've seen people come in at a $100,000 base salary and become wealthy. There are more millionaires being created today than at any other time in history." EQUITYLIKE BONUS PLANS Good as gold Case 3: Tom King. "Stock options don't mean squat as far as I'm concerned. I've had 5% of a small bank. You work your tail off the first couple of years, and then the board sells the bank just when the fun starts." As president of Reliant Professionals, King does not have grandiose stock options, but what he does have has just as much potential to make him wealthy. Once the company is profitable, as long as he makes his numbers each quarter, he'll receive a fixed percentage of pretax profits right off the top. And King also negotiated his own version of a severance payment, or what some would call a "change-in-control" bonus. Basically, the way it works is this: Should owner Dana Dodds sell Reliant Professionals before three years are up--by which time King expects the company to be really cranking--King will receive a lump sum to make up for any compensation he originally lost when he took a pay cut to join the staffing agency. Bonus plans with escalating payouts (usually tied to such metrics as growth in sales, profits, cash flow, or a company's valuation) are increasingly popular. Recruiters say it's not unusual to see cash incentives equivalent to 30% or even 100% of salary, typically earned over a period of one to three years. A well-designed bonus plan takes the sting out of lower starting salaries and the edge off risky options. Dodds, who owns several companies, has found that a bonus plan can replace the equity piece altogether. In recent years the plan he created for the senior team at Reliant General Insurance has paid out as much as 500% of salary. "People's eyes really open when I show them that," says Dodds, who's allowed interviewees to review his income statements--a strong sell when it comes to recruiting. You can even design a bonus plan with all the sizzle of stock options yet without the equity cost. Harry Geller is cofounder of the international mail-distribution company Global Mail Ltd., based at Dulles Airport in Virginia. He created a phantom-stock plan to motivate, retain, and reward four key managers. Since the four weren't part of the original founding team, Geller didn't want to part with any more actual equity. But the plan was designed to work very much like a real stock-options package. "It was tied in to the appreciation of the company's valuation, not just profits," Geller explains. Both South Beach and the Healthy Back Store are considering giving out phantom stock that can be converted to actual stock in the event of an IPO. Geller's company took another route. Early this year he sold Global Mail to the German post office (Deutsche Post AG). The sale effectively converted the phantom stock into a sizable change-in-control bonus for the eligible executives. "Four to five years ago we targeted this exit strategy," says Geller, "and we had a sales range in mind that would trigger it." The company reportedly sold for a little more than its annual sales of $53 million. The cash was split among the founders and the executives who held phantom stock, according to a preset formula. "The plan worked really well for us," Geller adds. "It kept people here and in the game." Geller's change-in-control bonus plan had some real advantages over the traditional "golden parachute." In the older method, executives usually had to lose their jobs to trigger the payouts. In this case Geller's execs got to keep the money and their positions, creating some real stability during the transition to new ownership. Geller is considering a new phantom-stock plan designed to keep the entire senior team on board for as long as possible. TRADITIONAL SECURITY Salary and benefits Case 4: Barney Feinblum. "All of the people we have hired have taken a pay cut, including myself. I came in at $60,000 and had been making $200,000 in my previous job. I think there's a real risk in hiring superstars and alienating the rest of the workforce." Salary does count for something. It is a definitive marker of worth. But in an atmosphere that encourages employers to custom-build creative compensation packages, wages have their limits. If you're trying to "spring the diamond"--as recruiters call the effort to attract the most-sought-after people--salary alone won't do the job. Barney Feinblum was recruited four years ago to become president and CEO of Horizon Organic Dairy Inc., in Longmont, Colo. As he would attest, a growth company just can't compete on salary against bigger companies that are willing to pay CEOs and CFOs $200,000 and up. Feinblum--who at different times had been president, CEO, and chairman of the big tea maker Celestial Seasonings and had owned an investment firm--didn't join Horizon Organic Dairy for the security of a cushy salary. None of Horizon's managers did. Most of them took a pay cut of 10% to 30% when they joined the company. Still, there's no denying the market trends: in the past year or so, base salaries have inched up for all executive positions, according to the Institute of Management and Administration. If you haven't hired a senior manager recently, the salary demands from some candidates can be real eye-openers. "That's an understatement," says FreBon's Bonnie Horner. She raised her own salary and that of her managers by at least 10% each, just to keep pace with current rates in her industry. Even at publicly traded Horizon, salaries have climbed as sales have increased--net sales were up 67% last year, to $49 million. Still, Feinblum estimates that Horizon's salaries are only about average for food companies. He'd rather be more generous to his managers with stock options, which he grants to all Horizon employees who make $50,000 or more. Using the options-heavy, salary-light strategy, he has hired vice-presidents for finance, operations, technical services, sales, and HR. That approach "helps us identify the risk takers," he says. John Guerriere is another executive who took a pay cut for the right opportunity. As a portfolio manager at El Camino Resources International, a large computer-leasing company outside Los Angeles, he used technical consulting services from a Chicago company called ThoughtWorks. ThoughtWorks CEO Roy Singham told his client Guerriere, "If you ever think about leaving, talk to me first." In 1996 Guerriere did just that, forsaking an employer with more than $500 million in sales to become vice-president of sales and marketing for $4.5-million ThoughtWorks. Guerriere hopped aboard for the mission rather than the money, taking a base salary of just $60,000 to start--nearly a 10% pay cut--and no options or bonuses. "They respected my intellectual abilities and put me in an environment where I could fully use them," he says. "Roy doesn't stand in anyone's way." Three years later, ThoughtWorks' sales have leaped to $14 million. Guerriere's total compensation has also grown substantially. His salary is up, and he has earned a piece of the equity action. Mazlish of the Healthy Back Store works both angles, salary and equity. When he recruits senior managers, he gives some a choice: a little more salary or more equity. For the ones who decide to trade off some salary, he's willing to part with actual stock rather than just options. Beyond salary, you can't ignore the demand for traditional benefits. "The retirement plan was very important to me," says Chris Carrigan, vice-president of business development of two-year-old Enterprise Technology Group, in Boston. "I wanted to get on board with it in place. I didn't want to have to wait 6 to 18 months to participate, the way other companies make you do." You never can tell what will be most important to an individual candidate. Carrigan was only 28 when he joined Enterprise, but it was critical to him that he not lose a single day of compounding interest. Before he agreed to join the company, last October, he urged CEO Mark MacDonald to set up a retirement plan and hire a reputable broker to manage it. MacDonald, happy to do it, hired A.G. Edwards, whose advisers recommended instituting a SIMPLE IRA plan. Once he got to Enterprise, Carrigan immediately rolled over the retirement benefits from his old job. Companies are clearly under more pressure today to put together a solid package of medical and dental benefits, 401(k) or other retirement plans, and a flexible schedule of vacation and sick time. "I've been working in the IT industry for seven years, and you reach the point where you need a comprehensive package," says Carrigan, who also has his medical benefits fully paid for by Enterprise--a perk that was more important to him than stock options when he joined the company. SOFT PERKS The good life, lots of responsibility, and the joy of work Case 5: Chip Brewer. "I've never worked harder in my life, but for the first time in my career, I'm enjoying where I am, and I'm not thinking about how this is a stepping-stone to the next thing." After 12 years with paper company Mead Corp., Brewer had had enough. "I didn't really, if I had my druthers, want to be in a huge corporation," he says. Last September he left Mead to head up sales and marketing for upstart golf-equipment manufacturer Adams Golf, in Plano, Tex. Brewer says he hasn't looked back, even though the stock options he got have not blossomed. Adams's stock price, at press time, was hovering at around $3.50--well below the exercise price on at least some of his options. But the blow has been softened because Brewer, a competitive golfer in college, is too busy doing the work he loves: establishing new brands, making Adams a presence on tours, developing relationships with key pros, replacing infomercials with ad campaigns, and building a dedicated sales force. And of course, for him, testing new products is a pleasure; all he has to do is use them when he plays golf. Don't underestimate the power of bending job requirements to help new hires meet personal goals. It worked for Mark MacDonald at Enterprise when he recruited Chris Carrigan. Thanks to flextime, Carrigan is earning an M.B.A. at night. With that double load of pressure, he savors the fact he isn't required to work weekends. "It's a more recent trend we're seeing: balance," says Kathy Ventura, a managing director for executive-search company Russell Reynolds Associates. "The younger generation has seen lots of opportunities to make serious money, and they're becoming more jaded. These are 35-year-olds with young families and spouses who are saying, 'Forget the options.'" Suddenly, being able to work from home and not having to come in for Saturday meetings are real benefits. There are a lot of ways to bend the conventional rules of work to recruit top performers. Take the example of Greg Leck of New York City. He wanted to take a job building a new division at Triple Point Technology Inc. in Westport, Conn., but he didn't want to leave the city. So Paul D'Amico, the director of operations at the $9-million commodity-trading-systems developer, created a New York office to Leck's specifications. "We learned what pushed his buttons and removed all the obstacles to his saying yes," says D'Amico. "We built a whole infrastructure around him." And just over a year later, D'Amico is glad that he did. Leck's new division now employs more than 25 people and is already profitable. Offering balance sometimes means allowing for nontraditional work schedules. The New York City executive-search firm Bishop Partners spent a full year developing a system that would provide its employees with 24-hour access to the office network from home. "If you're the director of marketing for MTV, you have to be there," says CEO Susan Bishop. But at her company any senior partner (or anyone who does research or consulting) can opt to work at home two days a week. "My people are young, with kids," she says. (Five out of a staff of 20 had babies in the past 18 months.) "They don't all live in Manhattan, and this is easier." Offering "soft" lifestyle-oriented perks can be a next affordable step after a company has covered the basics. Kimberly Fox, president of UpStart Communications, in Emeryville, Calif., offered recruits a good medical package and retirement plan. But that covered only what she calls the "gating factor"--just enough to get her company in the gate. Yet it wasn't always clear what else the high-tech public-relations firm could offer to senior-staff recruits. At the beginning, UpStart shunned stock options as a "flimflam move," at least for a modest PR firm ($6.6 million in billings last year) with thin margins, says Fox. So the company resisted the Silicon Valley "siren song" of options. Instead, it bettered salaries and benefits, including such soft perks as a "sane workweek," defined as 7 billable hours a day rather than the customary 9 or 10 for top producers. It's a goal the company admittedly struggles to meet when facing a deadline. Yet UpStart hasn't stopped trying to improve the compensation package. After years of flat wages, its average base salary and bonuses are now in the upper one-third of the typical range for high-tech PR firms, according to the results of a compensation survey, Fox says. And now, six years after the company's founding, it may finally make equity participants of its top (and perhaps of all) employees. In February, UpStart was acquired by Fleishman-Hillard, a large PR agency owned by the OmniCom Group, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange. As part of the negotiations, UpStart says, it's been promised OmniCom stock options (subject to a board vote). "That's a big win for us," says Fox. "That's a bankable benefit. "Once you get beyond the basic benefits, stock is an element of the portfolio," she concludes. "At the end of the day, people want health and wealth to be A+." The Silicon Valley effect Blame it on the Internet. Actually, blame it on the explosion in Internet-company stocks, which has spawned a new class of equity-hungry managers. "This is what the trend from California has done for all of us," says Jeffrey Davis, founder and CEO of Boston-area management-consulting firm Mage. "Stock options are larger, and they have a shorter life span. People are jumping around for deals that will cash in quicker." In a world where Jim Barksdale, the CEO of Netscape, can cut his annual pay to a dollar yet have stock holdings worth $122 million in the following year, executives everywhere are looking for some wealth-creating mechanisms of their own. Why has the effect spread to so many industries? Because everyone wants to be a success story, according to Charley Polachi, managing partner of executive recruiter Heidrick & Struggles/Fenwick Partners, in Lexington, Mass. "I just had a guy I was pitching for a job ask me, 'Is this one of those "dot-com" opportunities?' " he says. "That's what it's come to." National media coverage of the Silicon Valley-bred stock-option millionaires has raised the bar in all industries. "When Gary Eichhorn got a million-dollar signing bonus to become CEO of Open Market, everyone heard about it," says Polachi. "Now all the candidates talk about getting 'units of Eichhorn.'" Before being recruited in 1995 by Open Market, a maker of Internet software in Burlington, Mass., Eichhorn was a general manager for Hewlett-Packard in the Boston area. He says all the focus on money and options misses the big picture--in fact, his big bonus only partly compensated for benefits lost when he left HP. "I'm glad I can make a contribution to recruiting folklore," he says, "but I think it's kind of silly. Remuneration has to be fair to the individual and the company--it's a base to be covered--but there's other stuff that really matters at the end of the day." Better than cash, Eichhorn got a chance to run a small, agile business and to keep his family in New England. "My wife is from this area, and my kids are in a good environment," he says. "Plus, I had an opportunity to be a CEO. I thought it would be a tremendous learning experience, and it has been." The experts agree: the promise of good work can be more powerful than the lure of stock options. "People will be attracted by doing interesting things and by working with people they want to work with," says management consultant David Nadler, chairman of the New York City-based Delta Consulting Group. "The money has to be in the ballpark. But I've seen clients and friends turn down larger amounts of money based on how they will feel every day when they get up to go to work." --Michael Warshaw Quirky perks In these days of customized-compensation packages, candidates can get very creative with the perks and benefits they want. Take that old corporate culture: to some job candidates, it's a real deal maker. So if you've got a good one, flaunt it. Walking the talk. A new manager at DeMarini Sports, in Hillsboro, Oreg., would find ample opportunity to flex his or her muscle. There's a gym, an indoor go-cart for racing, a batting cage, a basketball court, and a ping-pong room. Adams Golf provides free balls for use on the company's golf range. Protecting their assets. All employees get a custom-fitted chair at the headquarters of the Healthy Back Store, in Lorton, Va. The chair of choice: the Aeron Chair by Herman Miller. Field of dreams. Executive-style perks are trickling down to field managers. San Francisco-based Jamba Juice has what is called "The Juice Plan." Each store manager receives a quarterly bonus, and, at the end of the third year, a retention bonus and three weeks of paid time off toward a sabbatical of up to two months. Derby Management 399 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116 Tel: 617-292-7420