The Global Talent Gap
Just imagine if AIESEC was fully positioned as Glob al Talent Provider...
27.01.2006
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2006
With creativity at a premium the competition for talent is increasingly fierce. Most companies have already flattened their organizations and taken out layers of management expertise which exacerbates the problem. But how do we separate rhetoric from reality? asked moderator Herminia Ibarra, Chaired Professor of Organizational Behaviour, INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration), France. "In the 1990s companies claimed to be investing heavily in human capital but as soon as there was a downturn these budgets got slashed. So, is there something different going on now?" Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr, Global Chief Executive Officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, USA, noted that in his 30 years of experience, he has never seen such an incredible shortage of, or demand for, talented people – regardless of whether it is in Germany, Brazil, China, India or Kansas. "It is an issue even in countries with good population growth and education." He added that the stakes have been raised because of a much higher focus on cross-border activity with both work and customers moving much more freely across borders. "Globalization is not just something for the big guys but everybody. People coming out of college now have different horizons and they are often just as willing to start work in Shanghai as their home town. There is this war for talent and we are not just talking about the top 5%." But DiPiazza also stressed that he much prefers a world with a strong demand for talent to that of the recession of 2001 when he had to make people redundant.With a need to recruit 20,000 people this year, and sift through more than 1.4 million applications, Nandan M. Nilekani, President, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies, India, is convinced that attracting, developing and retaining the right people is his number one challenge. "We do large-scale recruitment from colleges but find they don't really have the right skills. So we have our own finishing school to get them ready for our business." The focus is on training people to be adaptable, flexible and able to quickly change with the times because it's impossible to predict what the business will need in the future. "People say that if you train people then they become more marketable and many will leave. But we find that the more we train and invest in people the more likely they are to stay.""This shortage of talent is not just in terms of technical training. It is also in people who can manage and adapt," said Paul C. Reilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Korn Ferry International, USA, head of the biggest executive search firm in the world. "The great companies are ones that look at lifecycle employment and make sure their talent has a wide range of job experiences so that when they become senior managers they have a broad view and can lead. But many companies won't make that short-term sacrifice." In order to retain people Reilly argues that it is vital to recognize that people are motivated differently and that these motivations can change, for example, because of family commitments. "Some people want to be experts, some want to be managers, while others just get bored and want to change jobs within a company every couple of years." Reilly added that the downturn in 2001 was made much worse because there was such a misallocation of resources with so many Internet businesses built on false expectations. "You always have ups and down but I don't think we will see a repeat of 2001."Guy Ryder, General Secretary, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Brussels, is concerned that the idea of talent shortages focuses only on a narrow band of joblessness. "We prefer to talk about skills. The vast majority of people in the world are just worried about getting a job." Describing the state's role in the development of skills as having become "something of an abdication", the result is that "returns to the already highly skilled and talented are growing enormously at the top of the perceived talent pyramid."
27.01.2006
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2006
With creativity at a premium the competition for talent is increasingly fierce. Most companies have already flattened their organizations and taken out layers of management expertise which exacerbates the problem. But how do we separate rhetoric from reality? asked moderator Herminia Ibarra, Chaired Professor of Organizational Behaviour, INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration), France. "In the 1990s companies claimed to be investing heavily in human capital but as soon as there was a downturn these budgets got slashed. So, is there something different going on now?" Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr, Global Chief Executive Officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, USA, noted that in his 30 years of experience, he has never seen such an incredible shortage of, or demand for, talented people – regardless of whether it is in Germany, Brazil, China, India or Kansas. "It is an issue even in countries with good population growth and education." He added that the stakes have been raised because of a much higher focus on cross-border activity with both work and customers moving much more freely across borders. "Globalization is not just something for the big guys but everybody. People coming out of college now have different horizons and they are often just as willing to start work in Shanghai as their home town. There is this war for talent and we are not just talking about the top 5%." But DiPiazza also stressed that he much prefers a world with a strong demand for talent to that of the recession of 2001 when he had to make people redundant.With a need to recruit 20,000 people this year, and sift through more than 1.4 million applications, Nandan M. Nilekani, President, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies, India, is convinced that attracting, developing and retaining the right people is his number one challenge. "We do large-scale recruitment from colleges but find they don't really have the right skills. So we have our own finishing school to get them ready for our business." The focus is on training people to be adaptable, flexible and able to quickly change with the times because it's impossible to predict what the business will need in the future. "People say that if you train people then they become more marketable and many will leave. But we find that the more we train and invest in people the more likely they are to stay.""This shortage of talent is not just in terms of technical training. It is also in people who can manage and adapt," said Paul C. Reilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Korn Ferry International, USA, head of the biggest executive search firm in the world. "The great companies are ones that look at lifecycle employment and make sure their talent has a wide range of job experiences so that when they become senior managers they have a broad view and can lead. But many companies won't make that short-term sacrifice." In order to retain people Reilly argues that it is vital to recognize that people are motivated differently and that these motivations can change, for example, because of family commitments. "Some people want to be experts, some want to be managers, while others just get bored and want to change jobs within a company every couple of years." Reilly added that the downturn in 2001 was made much worse because there was such a misallocation of resources with so many Internet businesses built on false expectations. "You always have ups and down but I don't think we will see a repeat of 2001."Guy Ryder, General Secretary, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Brussels, is concerned that the idea of talent shortages focuses only on a narrow band of joblessness. "We prefer to talk about skills. The vast majority of people in the world are just worried about getting a job." Describing the state's role in the development of skills as having become "something of an abdication", the result is that "returns to the already highly skilled and talented are growing enormously at the top of the perceived talent pyramid."
