Finding talent in emerging markets

Kim Warren — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:33:04 +0000

Amongst a rich crop of articles in November’s HBR is Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets, which cleverly shows how the nature of the challenge varies a lot between different countries and some ideas what to do about it. To see what one big winner has done about it, see the Infosys 07/8 Annual Report – mighty impressive!

Beware hiring outside talent

Kim Warren — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:21:45 +0000

Also in Sloan Mgt Review, good to see a warning from Boris Groysberg and friends about the risks of hiring outside stars. Getting your hands on scarce talent has been increasingly promoted as a magic bullet in some quarters. But this article points out that even the most seemingly self-reliant super-stars actually have to function as part of a wider system. [Think I recall Boris's research was originally about how star investment-analysts mostly failed to sustain their star-dom when they moved to other i-banks?]

This is a particular manifestation of a more general problem I’ve mentioned before – all staff work in a system of interdependent resources [systems, data, procedures etc], and anyone new will need time to get productive in the new setting. This doesn’t just apply to operations level folk, but equally – if not more so – to executives and specialists. That’s why there’s a big, big danger from over-rapid job rotations, from down-sizing and the seeming obsession with constant reorganisation and ‘transformation’!

Talking about strategy » war for talent

Finding talent in emerging markets

Beware hiring outside talent