The War for Talent [Hardcover]

Ed Michaels (Author), Helen Handfield-Jones (Author), Beth Axelrod (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

In 1997, a groundbreaking McKinsey study exposed the "war for talent" as a strategic business challenge and a critical driver of corporate performance. Then, when the dot-com bubble burst and the economy cooled, many assumed the war for talent was over. It's not. Now the authors of the original study reveal that, because of enduring economic and social forces, the war for talent will persist for the next two decades. McKinsey & Company consultants Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod argue that winning the war for leadership talent is about much more than frenzied recruiting tactics. It's about the timeless principles of attracting, developing, and retaining highly talented managers - applied in bold new ways. And it's about recognizing the strategic importance of human capital because of the enormous value that better talent creates.Fortified by five years of in-depth research on how companies manage leadership talent - including surveys of 13,000 executives at more than 120 companies and case studies of 27 leading companies - the authors propose a fundamentally new approach to talent management. They describe how to: create a winning EVP (employee value proposition) that will make your company uniquely attractive to talent; move beyond recruiting hype to build a long-term recruiting strategy; use job experiences, coaching, and mentoring to cultivate the potential in managers; and, strengthen your talent pool by investing in A players, developing B players, and acting decisively on C players.Central to this approach is a pervasive talent mindset - a deep conviction shared by leaders throughout the company that competitive advantage comes from having better talent at all levels. Using practical examples from companies such as GE, The Home Depot, PerkinElmer, Amgen, and Enron, the authors outline five imperatives that every leader - from CEO to unit manager - must act on to build a stronger talent pool. Written by recognized authorities on the topic, this is the definitive strategic guide on how to win the war for talent.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Talent, as defined by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, is shorthand for a key employee who possesses "a sharp strategic mind, leadership ability, communications skills, the ability to attract and inspire people, entrepreneurial instincts, functional skills, and the ability to deliver results." It's also, they contend in The War for Talent, an overarching personnel characteristic that companies of all kinds will require throughout their organizations in order to survive the competitive recruiting era that we appear to be entering. Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod, authors of a 1997 McKinsey Quarterly article that uncovered a definitive connection between top performers and superior corporate achievement, spent the intervening years studying 13,000 executives in 27 companies to identify the programs and behaviors that help today's foremost firms attract and retain the best kinds of employees. The authors outline five common "imperatives" that they found these companies employed to strengthen their talent pools ("Embrace a Talent Mindset," "Craft a Winning Employee Value Proposition," "Rebuild Your Recruiting Strategy," "Weave Development into Your Organization," and "Differentiate and Affirm Your People") and construct a practical framework for making it happen in your company. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. coined the phrase "War for Talent" several years ago when its surveys revealed a diminishing talent pool. The basic McKinsey principle asserts that employers must adopt innovative recruitment techniques, and the authors offer many examples from companies like the Limited, Enron and Amgen. Among their suggestions: offer mentoring programs; encourage employees to switch departments; and with senior hires, look for "leadership style and values" consistent with "the company's culture." Employers will find this book useful if somewhat dry. McKinsey's name along with extensive publicity will help initial sales, but the boilerplate content may not maintain them.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; First Edition, First Printing edition (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578514592
• ISBN-13: 978-1578514595
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Talent Myth, July 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The War for Talent (Hardcover)

The New Yorker (July 22, 2002) had an article that referred to "The War for Talent" that summed up what I felt after finishing the book (I paraphrase): The book largely amounts to an argument for indulging A employees, fawning over them, and "allowing them to find out what they like most to be doing." Malcolm Gladwell's article really articulated my feeling about Enron, my former company and how management talked about encouraging risk and allowing "A talents" to be the dynamic driving force WITH little regard to organizational structure or goals. The resulting chaos of having dozens of self-proclaimed geniuses pursuing their objectives, while often hidden from outsiders, makes me very wary of some consultant's pet theory that ignores divisions duplicating efforts, repeating mistakes, raiding each others "talent" employees, low office morale and intense political jockeying for advancement (which, ironically, was independent of performance). This book is another tiresome example of tired old "hero" worship; it makes me regret ever having gone to b-school. We MBAs are really screwing things up.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile read, October 20, 2003

By 

Floccinaucinihilipilification - See all my reviews

This review is from: The War for Talent (Hardcover)

Easy reading, entertaining, interesting and informative. Light on details but a very good general overview of the topic.

Conceptually excellent. The value is in how you implement the recommendations - which is where you will find this book wanting.

If you get nothing else out of this book, the quote from Dee Hock (founder of Visa) will make it worth buying:

"Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second motivation; third capacity; fourth understanding; fifth knowledge; and last and least, experience.

Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind."

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book before your competitors do!, March 31, 2002

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The War for Talent (Hardcover)

You can no longer be satisfied with "C" players in your organization. To compete in today's world, you need a powerful team of "A" players-top talent. Every savvy employer knows this fact, at least intuitively. Incredibly, relatively few act on this knowledge, satisfying themselves instead with "warm bodies." And they wonder why they aren't more profitable. (Shake your head in disbelief here.)

Produced by three consultants from McKinsey & Company, "The War for Talent" is based on five years of in-depth research on how companies manage leadership talent. [The research is explained in the book.] From what they learned from surveys of 13,000 executives at more than 120 leading companies and 27 case studies, the authors propose a talent-based approach to recruiting and holding management employees. The concept is simple: emphasize a deep conviction that competitive advantage comes from having better talent at all levels. Execution of that talent is more difficult, requiring total commitment and consistent action on the part of all leaders throughout the organization.

The authors have limited their focus to managerial talent, ignoring the tremendous contribution made by non-management employees. Their contention is that if you have highly talented managers, everything else will work just fine. I had a problem with that concept, feeling that it takes strong talent at all levels to achieve corporate success. As I read the book, I found myself mentally extending the authors' approaches and recommendations to all workers.

The book begins, aptly enough, with a chapter explaining the War for Talent. Wake-up call statements include recognition from 99% of the companies surveyed that their managerial talent pool needs to be much stronger in three years. At the same time, there is an understanding that the pool from which companies will recruit that talent will shrink. Therefore, competition for talent will become more like a war. In the first of many interesting comparison boxes in the book, we learn that the old reality says people need companies and that jobs are scarce. The new reality is that companies need people and that talented people are scarce. These comparison boxes deliver valuable, thought-provoking insights throughout the book.

The authors explain that most companies are poor at talent management. This situation must change. Executives who read this book will be in a more advantageous position to do something about this problem-if they take action based on what they read. The book is filled with action stimulators.

The second chapter shows readers how to Embrace a Talent Mindset. It's a way of thinking that drives the whole process. In chapter three, we learn how to Craft a Winning Employee Value Proposition. This is an essential part of the book, emphasizing the relationship between the management employee and the company. It talks about what managers are looking for in a job-in an environment, and how to give it to them. Included are culture, growth opportunities, compensation and much more. It's the total experience that makes a company so attractive to the kind of people it seeks.

With a clear idea now that your company is different, much more oriented toward giving talented managers what they need to achieve, chapter four explains how to Rebuild Your Recruiting Strategy. You'll shift from chasing all over trying to get people to work for you to becoming so attractive that talent gravitates to you. Recruiting becomes more targeted and takes place over a longer period of time. You're growing your future workforce by engaging with people even years before it's time for them to join you.

Chapter Five captures a trend which is growing in America, but not nearly as fast as it needs to: the personal development of high potential talent. The authors describe in page after page how coaching, mentoring, and bosses with high expectations can propel a talented person to greater heights and greater performance in much less time. Candid feedback enables people to stretch and grow in ways that hold them with the company so they can do more. We know how important growth is to talented people, so the ideas and illustrative stories in this chapter will be eye-opening for many readers.

In the next chapter, the authors present the concept of differentiating among employees. Workers are ranked as "A,", "B," or "C" players, in consideration of their performance and their potential. This chapter shows "how to invest in the most capable people (A players), grow the solidly contributing middle (B players), and act decisively on the low performers (the C players), and put the spotlight on all three in a rigorous talent review process." D players-the clearly incompetent or unethical-are not discussed since they shouldn't even be there anyway. The plan is to Differentiate and Affirm Your People. When high performers are appreciated, they become even more productive. They develop a pride which drives them to greater heights . . . and pulls others along with them.

The final chapter, Get Started-and Expect Huge Impact in a Year, presents a process for implementing the authors' concepts in your organization. Of course, you won't see immediate results. However, if you're serious about the transformation, results will come. Expect huge impact in the first year, the authors encourage; set the bars high. It can happen. It must happen if your company is going to be a high achiever, a winner in the ongoing War for Talent.

Roger Herman, co-author of "How to Become an Employer of Choice"