Customer Reviews

Best Practices in Talent Management: How the World's Leading Corporations Manage, Develop, and Retain Top Talent (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals)

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As co-editors Marshall Goldsmith and Louis Carter explain, the material in this book focuses on 14 dynamic enterprises (i.e. Avon Products, Bank of America, Corning, CES, Ecolab, GE, IRS, Kaiser Permanente/Colorado Region, McDonald's, Microsoft, Murray & Roberts, Porter Novelli, Southern Company, and Whirlpool) that were selected by the Best Practice Institute because they have succeeded in implementing talent enhancement programs - "although, to be fair, to call them `programs' is not entirely accurate, as they are in reality vital strategic components integrated into the companies' core operating values." Indeed, had they not been so integrated, neither they nor their companies could become, much less remain, vital and dynamic. There is a separate chapter devoted to each of the 14, written by one or more of the contributors who were invited to participate. It is important to keep in mind that in an age when several companies "built to last" haven't and others once great are no longer even good, at least a few of the 14 in this book may no long be exemplars of anything, except perhaps of how quickly an organization can become weakened in one way or another.

I appreciate the material provided in the Conclusion introduced by this explanation: "In order t0 present a fuller and more complete picture of the best practices in talent management, in March 2009 the Best Practice Institute [of which Cater is founder and CEO] released results from a groundbreaking survey of some of America's most dynamic companies." An overview is provided in the Conclusion. Then in the Epilogue, William J. Rothwell suggests several "key take-away points" from each of the 14 mini-case studies. From Ecolab, for example, "This case is outstanding for illustrating how a talent program can be built on, and leverage, the organization's culture and values. These values include, according to the case, (1) spirit; (2) pride; (3) determination; (4) commitment; (5) passion; and (6) integrity. The talent program was based on internal interviews of company executives." Obviously, brief take-away points merely serve as triggers to recall insights that are developed in much greater depth, in context.

Presumably Goldsmith and Carter are responsible for the reader-friendly format that most of the contributors adopt (with only minor modification) and graphic devices such as Figures that consolidate a wealth of information about an especially important subject such as Avon's "Talent Investment Matrix" (Page 6), Corning's "Program Snapshot - Week One" (50), Ecolab's "Success Indicators for Business Drivers at Each Pipeline Level" (90), "IRS Leadership Core Responsibilities" (119), McDonald's "Performance Drivers" (162), and Microsoft's "Key Stakeholder Roles for HiPo Coaching program" (196). Because they are best practices, these and others examined in the book should serve as exempla that suggest possibilities rather than as templates to be adopted without revision or modification. That is to say, doing what is right and doing it right pose entirely different challenges.

Those who share my high regard for the material in this volume are urged to check out George Anders' recently published book, The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else, as well as Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and, David C. Robertson.

This book is an incredible resource for anyone dedicated to attracting, retaining and motivating top talent within their business. Each chapter serves as its own white paper of best practices regarding talent management within some of America's most powerful and intriguing organizations. Each case study supplies a surprisingly granular review of the best practices utilized by experts and organizations throughout a variety of industries. On top of it all, each chapter is written by the practitioners who not only utilize these methods but many times developed and implemented them as well. I found the format to be well thought out, the professionals incorporated to be superlative, and the content to be outstanding. If you are looking for an eclectic industry review of the best practices regarding talent management then look no further.

This book is a great read and very informational. Lots of information on the Resource development plans of different companies.

Lou's surprisingly unique perspective is evident throughout Talent Management. Through The Best Practices Institute he has created a one of a kind lightning rod for what works in corporate talent management. The book's cases are viewed through Lou's powerful lens - one that has been polished by extensive research, interviews and countless webinars with hundreds of thought leaders. Lou's knowledge platform provides the reader with a select vantage point to clearly see lessons from carefully chosen examples. Each case demonstrates end-to-end initiatives and interventions in an accessible manner making it possible for readers to replicate in most any organizational setting.

Gordon Curtis
Curtis Consulting
Coach, Agent, Author
Well Connected, Wiley/Jossey-Bass, July, 2010

Talent refers to the potential in people including perhaps a special aptitude or faculty. Unfortunately, often the talent in our organizations goes unnoticed, and this can have a disastrous effect on our need for creativity and innovation, especially during a moment of reckoning - when change is necessary. Given our fair share of economic challenges, a movement known as talent management has taken hold in the United States and is now spreading throughout the world to ensure that we take advantage of all the capacity that our human organizations have to offer.

Up to now, we haven't had a resource in one place that demonstrates some of the best ways (as authors Marshall Goldsmith and Louis Carter point out) to not just evaluate but to invest in talent. The new volume Best Practices in Talent Management published by Carter's Best Practice Institute carefully outlines fourteen well-documented cases illustrating proven tools, instruments, models, and practices for implementing top talent management in your own organization. You'll find in these exemplars a number of common attributes, such as an openness to learning, integrity, employee empowerment, a thirst for collaboration, and a recognition of people's intrinsic motivation - all well-established but not often practiced elements of the innovation process embedded in managing and retaining talent. It is thus destined to become a vital resource for all managers in the applied HR field.

If you want information from actual Fortune 500 companies on what they do to manage and develop talent - then this is the book to read. It is a first-rate reference and research book. It would take years to compile this kind of information from the 14 companies in this book. You will learn about the work of CEO Andrea Jung's Talent Management Group at Avon, the executive development strategy and executive on-boarding program at Bank of America, Corning's boot camp immersion experience for potential program managers, Ecolab's Talent Council, GE's lean approach to staffing, and many other invaluable talent practices from companies like Whirlpool, McDonalds, Microsoft, Southern Company and more. This book is full of invaluable information you could not get elsewhere.

And..in addition, Lou Carter, CEO, Best Practice Institute can write this book because he embodies excellent leadership abilities and conducts very informative webinars.

Rosalie Lober, Ph.D.
CEO PROFITS Principles, [...]
Author of:
Run Your Business Like A Fortune 100: 7 Principles For Boosting PROFITS
(John Wiley & Sons, June 2009)
and forthcoming:
Deliverance: From the Valley of Death to Sustainable PROFITS

As you are very keenly aware, Talent Management is a major focus in many organizations, both nationally and internationally. This latest book edited by Lou Carter, et al, will definitely provide readers with a very complete context for implementing Talent Management Initiatives. The 14 case studies presented will provide you with the insider's view of how each of these organizations linked their initiatives from strategy, organizational context, which includes encompassing the all-critical culture of that particular organization, to indicators of success for these initiatives. This book is very results-oriented and is highly recommended for practitioners who seek actual cases, based on in-depth research, on how to harness the talent, leadership, and cultural dynamics to help their organizations be even more successful.
Dr. Carol Zulauf Sharicz
Professor and Consultant, Organizational Systems
Boston, Massachusetts

I am the managing editor of this volume. We interviewed 100s of executives, experts, and organizations for this book. We performed extensive research on what organizations are doing by way of talent development and talent management and brought you their accounts directly. You are getting information that is not available anywhere else - directly from practitioners who are doing the work themselves. Benchmark consultancies charge upwards of $5000-10,000 for this kind of compilation taken from third-party data collected from their benchmark consortiums. If you would like to understand first hand accounts (from the actual senior executives) of the work of companies like Corning, Bank of America, Avon, IRS, Southern Company, Microsoft, and many more Fortune 500 organizations then I highly recommend this book to you. We have invested years of research and effort into this book and we encourage you to use this as a resource and tool to motivate yourself and your company to invest in designing and developing your own leadership or talent management program.

This book was a big disappointment. I bought it because it is edited by Marshall GoldSmith but apparently it is a waste of time. I don't think it was edited by him because knowing his writing this is nothing like it.
If you are a person that is working in the field of Talent Management or Leadership Development then this book will add nothing to your knowledge. It lists a couple of leadership competencies for some of the companies but so what. There are hundreds of samples that are available online. Beyond that you get nothing concrete that can assist you. It is just generic talk. If you are looking for a good book on leadership development I strongly recommend the book published by the Center for Creative Leadership "The Handbook of Leadership Development". Also for Talent Management go for the book written by Lance Berger. It is another amazing book.