Customer Reviews

Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty

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This is one of those books that I believe can be either read independently or used as a textbook for a college course in talent management. As an independent read, if you are in a position that hires or develops employees, or if you must talk with your CEO or other C-suite team member about your organization's hiring and talent management philosophies, then this book is a must read for you. This book will give you a good grounding in the area of hiring and talent management.

As our economy continues to evolve towards becoming a creative/knowledge based economy, talent management continues to rise in importance. Today's environment requires more than just the physical presence of the employee. Today's employees not only need to be physically present, they need to be totally engaged. Managing employee talent has become a critical organizational strategy and individual managerial skill. And then there are the costs:
* The costs associated with acquiring employees
* The costs associated with developing employees
* The costs associated with managing talent management risks

This book is about the basic challenge of talent management - Identifying the demand of talent and then establishing a system or process that just meets that demand. Hitting the demand target must be accomplished while taking into consideration today's complexity and uncertainty during the planning and development processes.

This book is comprehensive in that it presents an historical overview and puts the talent management issue into context. The talent management process is one of buying vs. developing talent. The making vs. buying cycle is driven by the larger product, economic and available labor cycles. Using the theories and practices from operations research, the author looks at how the talent management process could be made more efficient and cost effective. According to the author, by using innovation and execution talent management can become a source of competitive advantage.

If you read just one talent management book this year, I would recommend that it be this book.

Cappelli's work is a must read for the TM practicioner, if for no other reason than the terrific historical overview he gives to TM and the origins of workforce planning and succession mgmt, to name just two. Beyond that, the book is worthwhile due to Cappelli's provocative stance that TM needs to rethink it's own way of doing business. TM has too long been self-justifiable. Cappelli argues that over-producing talent, that eventually ends up in the competition, is as bad as under-producing, and that our task is to work on supplying just the right amount, taking cues from supply chain mgmt. The work is long on history and explanation and a bit short on actual practicality, but a must read nonetheless.

Talent management, like every other aspect of business, has changed so dramatically that decision makers aren't sure where to turn. For years, corporations used "traditional succession plans" to ensure smooth leadership transitions. Those plans are no longer effective. Hiring from the outside, a trend that once rapidly gained popularity, did not turn out to be a panacea. Author Peter Cappelli believes companies cannot eliminate unpredictability - they can only contain it. He finds that supply chain management approaches can cut the expense and boost the effectiveness of talent management. The keys to managing talent, he says, are reducing your exposure to risk and being responsive to your employees. You may not find a complete solution to your future leadership issues here, but getAbstract believes Cappelli's approach is a significant step forward.