Talent is the Strategy

By Victor L. Magdaraog

Fade in

In the beginning there was a person.  He was an entrepreneur named Talent. He had an idea. Despite the odds he plodded on until others believed in him. He converted his idea into something tangible. He created value for others and they loved him. More and more were happy with his idea. The idea grew and expanded and Talent needed help, so he created a firm. 

Fade out.

In recent years, companies struggled with defining how to make their organization’s talent agenda more strategic. Leadership pipelines, succession planning, analytics, workforce development, engagement—all these were conceived and designed to get the talent agenda to the board room. Some firms realized it was the right thing to do and simply put the talent agenda in the boardroom even if they were not sure why. They just knew intuitively that it belonged there somehow.

Others called for alignment with business strategies. But this fell short of making talent truly strategic: most saw “alignment” as merely attaching the talent strategy as an appendix of the business strategy. In most cases, this was because the strategy planning process followed models that looked at externalities to craft the business strategy: competition, suppliers, customers, new entrants, industry configuration and the like. 

Where was talent? Oh, it’s part of the organization. Talent was an internal piece; it was only an afterthought in strategy formulation.

Rewind.

Didn't we start with Talent in the first place? Think about it, do strategies create talent, or does good talent create excellent strategies? Where do strategies come from? The traditional view is to look at external factors, craft the strategy, then mobilize resources including talent. But firms still generate weak strategies and execute poorly.

Maybe the way to look at this is to start with talent. Paul Romer, an economist, suggests that there are new factors of production—people, ideas and things.  Translation: Talent, ideas, and organizations. Come to think of it, business strategies do not create talent, good talent create excellent strategies! Much in the same way as organizations don't learn, people do. Look at the great firms around you.

Look closer.

Zoom in.

Talent is the strategy!

Victor L. Magdaraog is a Vice President with Development Dimensions International (DDI) in the Philippines

Comments

[sara]

In addition to this great info, I thought I'd add what I consider to be the most important factor in Improving Employee Satisfaction

Once you take this into consideration....top talent stays, productivity goes up and profits increase dramatically. It's like following a cookie recipe!

[Corinne Marte]

Great write up sir!This will definitely encourage readers/organizations to evaluate how much importance do they have placed on talent management. It is never too late to start with one!

[Mark Busine]

I very much like this concept. For a long time I have thought that the traditional view - strategy defines structure makes logical sense but is fundamentally flawed in today's business context. Increasinly (if not historically) talent and competence define strategy. If you haven't already, I recommend reading Obliquity by the british economist John Kay. Some of his thinking is very aligned.

[Ant White]

Hi Victor,

Great to see your blog, it certainly is thought provoking!!