WSJ: Jets' Headhunter Is Key to Their Recovery
 

By MIKE SIELSKI

Jed Hughes is at once spearheading the Jets' search for a new general manager and remaining in the shadows.

It is the nature of the job that Woody Johnson, the team's owner, hired him to do. On Dec. 31, Johnson announced that he had fired Mike Tannenbaum and that Hughes, who heads the sports practice of the global search firm Korn/Ferry International, KFY -0.89% would lead the hunt for Tannenbaum's replacement. Though close to a dozen candidates have reportedly either interviewed or been considered for the position, neither the Jets nor Hughes have commented on the situation, making it a challenge to gauge how close Johnson and the Jets' other power people are to making a decision.

Still, Hughes's history as a sports headhunter does provide a bit of insight into how he might be conducting the search. A former Division I football coach at Michigan, Stanford and UCLA, and a former NFL assistant with the Vikings, Steelers and Browns, he is well known and well regarded among professional sports executives and college administrators. When Korn/Ferry announced his hiring in January 2012, the company called him "the world of sports' pioneer of senior-level search and organizational assessment." And his background gives him an advantage in placing the right person in the right position, said Larry Scott, commissioner of the PAC-12 Conference.

"He has an understanding of the football landscape and an understanding of the dynamics of that culture," said Scott, who had been the chairman and chief executive officer of the Women's Tennis Association when Hughes tabbed him in 2009 to lead the PAC-12. "He's got a great feel for a particular situation and people, and he's good at synthesizing their needs, getting them on the same page."

Through a spokesman, Hughes declined a request to be interviewed, but those who have been involved with some of his previous inquiries described his work as thorough, efficient and often surprising. Mark Murphy, president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers, used Hughes to help him hire Tim Connolly, the franchise's vice president of sales and marketing, and Ed Policy, its vice president and general counsel. Murphy had a good reason for reaching out to Hughes. When the Packers had asked Hughes in late 2007 to find them a new president and CEO, he recommended they hire Murphy.

It was a rather unusual suggestion. At the time, Murphy—a former All-Pro safety with the Washington Redskins—had been the athletic director at Northwestern University for five years. He met Hughes, who was working for the search firm Spencer Stuart then, at an NCAA conference when they appeared together in a panel discussion about diversity in football coaching. The two of them stayed in touch, and when the Packers reached out to Hughes, he contacted Murphy to gauge his interest in the position—even though Murphy had never been an NFL executive before.

The Packers hired him, and during his tenure, they have collected 10 wins or more in each of the last four seasons, including a victory in Super Bowl XLV and a league-best 15-1 record in 2011.

"I was an out-of-the-box candidate," Murphy said. "I'd played in the NFL, but that was a long time ago. That's what Jed is really good at. He really views his job now as similar to when he was a coach, in that he's trying to put people in positions where they can have success."

Three years earlier, in 2004, Hughes helped Syracuse University hire Daryl Gross, the successor to the school's longtime athletic director, Jake Crouthamel. When he met with the university's search committee, Hughes gave each of the 10 members a list of 100 possible qualities in an effective athletic director, asking each person to pick his or her top three criteria in a candidate. He then asked each member again to select his or her three most valued traits in an AD, this time from the shorter list. "He was forcing a conversation about, 'What are you really looking for?'" said Syracuse economics professor Michael Wasylenko, who chaired the search committee.

The candidate whom the committee wanted, Wasylenko said, was "someone who was outgoing, externally oriented, someone who would hire people inside to do the day-to-day management. And we found him." As a senior associate athletic director at the University of Southern California, Gross had played a key role in the rise of USC's football program—he directed the search that led to coach Pete Carroll's hiring—and had overseen nine sports there.

"Jed got right to the point," Wasylenko said. "We said, 'The chancellor wants to move quickly.' He said, 'Look, I've worked with a lot of institutions. The holdup will not be on my end.' He was true to his word."

Crouthamel had announced his retirement in mid-November. The university hired Gross in mid-December. The entire process took four weeks. The Jets are at 12 days and counting.

Write to Mike Sielski at mike.sielski@wsj.com

Good to finally see an article about Hughes and the search firm. Hughes sounds like he knows what he's doing. Listen to the man, Woody.

Sounds good but still no hint as to how close they are at getting someone. :)

And how much of Jed's job is compromised by the ridiculous stipulations from our clown owner on prospective GM candidates?

I believe that this firm would get the Jets a top-flight GM prospect.....if the Jets were not sick as a disease from the top. If Woody Johnson acted more like the new owner for the Jaguars and said "I am not a football guy so let me hire a real football guy as GM with no preconditions" then I would have confidence in our future.

As it stands, this is my prediction;

GM: Scott Cohen
OC: Cam Cameron

And then when it happens, I will be done with this team until everything is eventually wiped clean. Not one dime will be spent on this franchise until then.

I wonder what Woody gave as his top 3 characteristics in a GM? I hope "can build a winner" was at the top.

Ridiculous stipulations? Where are you getting that from? We have a coach in place - that's it. I'm hardly the biggest fan of Woody but to claim he has ridiculous stipulations that are hampuring this search is not grounded in reality. Even a GM who is not a fan of Rex wouldn't turn down the job on account of him being here. That would be way too short sided.

IJF is right on. Korn/F got us a great GM prospect, Gamble, and woody turned him away because he was too strong of a personality. ARE YOU FING KIDDING ME.

Only the truly servile and weak in life are afraid to surround themselves with strong personalities.

Now Korn got us another quality batch, really good candidates like Popp, and Woody fawns over Cohen and starts the process with Cam Cameron. Korn/F is doing a great job, but Woody is throwing his family's money away by not listening to it.

Korn/Ferry is a top flight search firm, they're not going to be their reputation on the line if Woody's stipulations are unreasonable and felt they wouldn't get the right candidate. Think about it, as great as Korn/Ferry may be people would always remember "how they screwed up that Jet GM hire" they won't allow the Jets to hire a clown they would tell Woody to take his 200k and go pound salt if that was the case.

Lets play it out this way;

You are a prospective candidate who obviously is coming in highly recommended.

You sit down for the interview and hear that the head coach from the previous regime will be making the decision on whether to hire you (as well as the owner of course)

Strike one.

Next, you are told that you will not have the ability to fire the head coach. Only the owner will have that authority. So you now are aware that you will not be able to set up the franchise in the manner that you plan, in arguably the most important position.

Strike two.

Next you are told that the head coach will have final say on all personnel matters. That includes the draft and free agency.

Strike three

And there are other preconditions that are speculative yet based on the owner's history are not out of the question to consider (ex: does he not want to enter into a rebuilding phase due to marketing/financial considerations, as but one example?).

Bottom line: If I were good at my job and was already part of a successful organization I would seriously consider turning down this position or at least refusing to agree to those stipulations, which in effect, is the same as saying no. A couple of them already have.....

well said!

And good article, yayankee. Thanks for posting it.

Thank you for this post. Everyone should read it. But be careful for making too much sense around here.

Cohen
 

I guarantee Cohen will not be our GM.Cameron im not as sure about.Cohen's a known commodity with the Jets.He would have been hired already,and they never would have invested this time and money, with a headhunter, and all these other interviews, no way.The Cohen interview was just out of respect and courtesy.They want someone from outside ther organization.

CMON
 

So did San Diego. He interviewed poorly with both teams

If I hire a contractor to do work on my house, he works for me. When we are discussing the job before a contract is signed I tell them exactly what I want. He works for me because I am paying him. If I ask him to do work on my house he may think to himself; "boy that is going to look silly, I would never do that to my house". Yet as a professional his job will be to do the job to the specifications of his employer.

Woody Johnson hires this firm to find him a general manager based on the perimeters that he wants. I do not believe Korn/Ferry turns down jobs because the person who hired them want to keep someone on his staff.

Why? No cap room, dysfunctional management--by the way, as you can see, the Jet job isn't the only one out there.

Agree on strike 1 but I distinctly recall Woody saying that the new GM would have control of all player personal decisions. Strike 3 is speculation so who knows.

To compare some one-man show contractor to a public traded company like Korn/Ferry is apples and oranges. If this hire went as bad as people around here are assuming it is Jed Hughes and Korn/Ferry would never get another chance in the NFL simple as that.

Where do we see Gamble was "too strong of a personality"???

strike one was the fact that ryan will have a say in whether you are hired. That was confirmed in the press conference.

Strike two was also confirmed in the press conference when woody said that he will handle the fate of the head coach.

strike three may or not be speculative.

Why? You don't think the rest of the league knows what is going on here and how dysfunctional the Jets are? League insiders know much more then we do about this process and what is going on with the candidates and the interviews. Wait till this is over and the information begins to leak out from league insiders.

Korn/Ferry has an excellent track record but their task is finding the right candidate that fits the description of the person/organization who hired them. Every NFL team that hires them are not looking for the exact same qualifications and backgrounds in these candidates. What Seattle wanted in their GM candidates may differ in some ways from what the Jets want.