Customer Reviews

Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance

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This book is fascinating and debunks the myth that star talent continues to perform at the same level, especially when they move to other firms for more money. It forces the hiring companies to rethink their strategy in hiring stars for high prices, and it should make the star rethink chasing another job that offers more pay. Its timing is perfect with the recent economic downturn and unemployment highs. It's a book that should be read by those who are hiring, and those being hired.

Our client Boards constantly are asking us to find them "trophy" CEOs and asking us to bring them "name brand" Board members. We argue, "If you want stars you better be prepared to pay for stars!"

Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School asks a better question than we do: you want stars? Your assumption is that their star qualities are transferrable. How do you know your assumption is correct?"

This book provides an empirical answer to Professor Graysberg's more profound question.

That assumption is incorrect.

To develop his response, Groysberg analyzed a population called Wall Street investment analysts who work for investment banks. He looked at 1,000 investment analysts who had been ranked as superior by INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR MAGAZINE. He then compared this "star" group with 20,000 analysts at 400 investment banks who had not been ranked by INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR MAGAZINE.

If exceptional investment performance is a product of bright individuals, then when those bright individuals move from one investment bank to another, their ranks should remain constant or should rise back to high status after a short adjustment period.

It doesn't work out that way.....

It turns out that all the actors in the recruitment process discount firm specific culture and firm specific skills that allow excellence to flourish. And these specific factors are often difficult to transport to the new organization.

I can certainly agree with Professor Groysberg's conclusion that stars need onboarding when they move from one organization to another AND they seldom believe they need it. Newly hired stars place a premium on their past experience while discounting how difficult it is to unlearning patterns of behavior that were so successful in the past.

There are several lessons to be learned from this book.

Companies can reduce the illusion of portability of stardom by constantly letting their stars know that they are in a unique culture and have learned unique skills that won't necessarily work well in other settings.

Hiring authorities can be skeptical of the confidence of stars' ability to successfully move from one context to a new context without significant assistance in mastering "unlearning." In other words, provide newly hired stars with a strong on boarding program. And then expect the stars to say that the program is not necessary.

The cliché' "what got you here won't get you there" turns out to be true for stars and the organizations that hire them.

Finally, don't spend too much money trying to bag CEOs and trophy Directors. We all know the horror stories as anecdotes.

Now we have empirical evidence.

Larry Stybel

lstybel@boardoptions.com

This book was a fast read, and kept me interested from its first to its last page! There were SO MANY interesting findings, and the one I enjoyed best was regarding star females, and how they tend to maintain their star status better than their male counterparts, when they change firms. I liked the examples, and I absolutely feel that this book is a MUST READ for anyone who is in the job market, or plans to join in. As the head of HR in my firm, I will surely be more careful about falling into the "winner's curse" trap when hiring high performing people. This book is gold! READ IT!!