Customer Reviews

Winning the Talent Wars

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If any written word can shake corporate America's middle management from its "do it the way it's always been done" stupor, "Winning the Talent Wars" is that word.

Tulgan recognizes the intertwined realities of a new workforce psyche, the technology-driven acceleration of information flow and the intense competition for knowledge resources. Unlike other authors attempting to demystify this subject, Tulgan is not content with a colorful analysis of these forces. He offers a host of innovative "rubber meets the road" techniques that can be applied almost immediately with little or no cost. Tulgan's book is a recipe for change, but the ingredient list within may be too tough for some middle managers to stomach. If you want to be a new economy chef, internalize this book. If you are a burger-flipper, don't even bother.

Winning the Talent Wars: How to Manage and Compete in the High-tech, High-speed, Knowledge-based, Superfluid Economy is the original hardcover version of Tulgan's workplace classic. His workplace philosophy, "Talent is the Show" is applied to all areas of HR: staffing, compensation, coaching-style management, training, and career paths. The only difference between this book and the recent softcover edition, Winning the Talent Wars: How to Build a Lean, Flexible, High-Performance Workplace, is a new forward and $8.40.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins and his research associates learned that the great companies "...first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats -- and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage 'People are the most important asset' turned out to be wrong. People are not [italics] your most important asset. The right [italics] people are."

The right people share the same values and, together, sustain their organization's commitment to those values. If involved in their organization's recruiting and interviewing process, as they should be, they will help to ensure that the right people will be hired (i.e. allowed on the "bus"). Obviously it is important to get talent and task in proper alignment. It is equally important to keep an organization's values in proper alignment with its objective.

Tulgan's important book is even more relevant and more valuable now than it was when first published about two years ago. As its subtitle correctly indicates, he explains "how to manage and compete in the high-tech, high-speed, knowledge-based, superfluid economy." That is to say, he wrote the book for decision-makers in all organizations (regardless of size or nature) to help them determine HOW to get "the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats"...and then keep them there.

All of the companies which Tulgan discusses (e.g. Johnson & Johnson and J.P. Morgan Chase) demonstrate one of Tulgan's core concepts: "In the new economy, every term of employment -- schedules, location, assignments, coworkers, pay, and more -- will be negotiation, whether you like it or not. The most valuable talent will have the most negotiating power. Every employment relationship will last exactly as long as the terms are agreeable to all parties." There is a new set of organizing principles for employing people in the new economy:

' Talent is the show.

' Staff the work, not the jobs.

' Pay for performance, and nothing else.

' Turn managers into coaches.

' Train for the mission, not for the long haul.

' Create as many career paths as you have people.

Tulgan devotes a separate chapter to each of these principles, explaining with meticulous care how to apply each to his reader's specific business situation. Note how these principles apply to any organization which competes for available talent and then is challenged to keep its best people who, more easily now more than ever before, can leave the "bus" whenever and wherever they wish. This situation is as common among the great companies whom Collins discusses as it is among the local merchants from whom we purchase various products and services.

Extensive research indicates that only one in 28-30 dissatisfied customers ever complains to the provider of the given product or service. All others simply never do business with that provider again...while continuing to express their dissatisfaction to family members, friends, and business associates. More often than not, customer dissatisfaction is the result of an unpleasant personal experience rather than because of a product defect. To extend Collins' metaphor, customers are among the "passengers" and can also get off the "bus" whenever and wherever they wish. Much has been written about the power of BUZZ (i.e. word-of-mouth) and the importance of creating "customer evangelists." From my perspective, winning the "talent war" is essential to winning the competition for customer's repeat business. A careful implementation of the strategies and tactics which Tulgan recommends in this book will help to achieve that ultimate objective.

Otherwise, not having "the right people on the bus...and in the right place," the "bus" will either never reach its destination or in the highly unlikely event that it does so, arrive with few (if any) "passengers" aboard.

I really hope that companies sit up and take notice of the kind of work place that Bruce Tulgan describes in his book. All I could think the whole time I was reading it was, why didn't we think of that? As a middle-level manager, the book really spoke to me about the things I can do right now to make the workplace a place where the best people will want to come to work, even though there is a lot of red tape at the corporate level. The biggest obstacle for me would be implementing pay-for- performance compensation (we have a rigid pay structure). But maybe I can divvy up part of my bonuses to reward my people for helping me to reach the goals, or maybe figure bonusus in when requesting resourses for a project or find somewhere in the project's resourses to save the money so that I can put that into bonuses. I don't think anyone will fire me for that! A lot of the other ideas are relatively easy to put into use without much resistance from higher-ups, like trying to be a better coach, building a knowledge database, and keeping in touch with old employees to try to get them to come back for various projects. With any luck, word will get out that my department is better to work for and I'll have the pick of everyone else's litter in the company when it comes to department transfers. This book definately left me feeling empowered and renewed my enthusiasm for managing my team.

My whole career I've experienced managers who didn't care and treated their subordinates like peons. If I knew years ago about free agents like I know now, I would've been in a much better position to make a positive career move. Thanks to the author I now know how to act as a free agent and I intend to market myself in an effective way in the year 2001. Thanks again to Bruce Tulgan for a great book. I highly recommend it.

The book vividly described the fundamental shift in employer-employee relationship in new economy. This is not something new by now, and concepts like performance-based rewards, knowledge management have been talked a lot already.

But if you did not pay much attention at human resource (HR) matters before, and want to have a general overview of recent HR concepts and practices, this book shall still help you. There are also interesting debates like instrinic vs. extrinsic values.

As an employee, this book can help you to understand better the background of some HR policies. For example, you may understand and get convinced why managers are more accommodating to "talents" demands. It can convince you to be more realistic about the old career ladder model

There are plenty of companies examples.

"This is a fun book to read. With so many interesting and real-life examples, I found myself reading some sections of the book over and over again. What separates this book from others, is that it is not filled with silly platitudes or quick fixes...instead, Winning the Talent Wars is savvy and it offers strategies that have been proven in the trenches. Our management team will definitely benefit from this book!"

I enoyed Winning the Talent Wars... Tulgan engages the reader with real life, real-time stories to back up his ideas. I've read a number of bland business books, which are difficult, at times, to relate to my own experience in the workplace. Winning the Talent Wars, on the other hand, hits the nail on the head. More than once I said to myself, "hey, that's me" or "that's how things really should be".

I'm an educator who teaches in various independent and unconventional settings.I read Winning the Talent Wars because I loved Work This Way, and I wanted to hear what Tulgan was saying to "the other side"-- the managers and administrators. My first reaction to Tulgan's strategies for managers was to think, "I want to work for someone who's taken one of these seminars!" My second reaction was to approach my administrator about some changes I wanted to make, and I was well-armed with logical reasons from this book. Tulgan's style is immensely readable, and I wish I could quote some of his common sense and good humor, but I showed the book to a friend of mine who's in management; he won't stop reading it and won't give it back. Which is, I guess, another recommendation in itself.

So we're not in the go-go late 90's early 2000's anymore.

That doesn't change the basic theme of this book.

Even in the recent economy, the power at work is shifting from the employer to the employee, especially when that employee is among the best performers.

The point Tulgan raises is that that this is not a matter of salary, but a matter of *compensation* Employees, especially the best employees, are seeking more and more to craft their own dream job or dream career. If someone doesn't get that with one employer, they are likely to leave for a place where they can come closer to accomplishing that.

What is ideal for one individual is not likely to be ideal for another individual, so Tulgan advocates a negotiation process, where the company and the supervisors, work to figure out what makes a person "tick" and to change the nature of employement to make the work environment fit that as much as possible. This could be flex schedules, work conditions, more/less travel, office location, etc.

However, this is not solely the employee in charge, as, by doing this, the business will keep their best and brightest and most productive employees, instead of losing the valuable training investments. Also, productivity will increase, and the carrot is mightier than the stick in Tulgan view (how strong is the threat of firing when people are more likely to pick up and leave?)

Tulgan also mentions thinking in terms of "work" rather than "jobs" and devotes sections of the book to management by coaching (in a number of respects) rather than "command and control."

While this book was written in 2001, the arguments are even more relevant as the economy has gotten more global, especially for the top performers. While some of the "power" may have shifted back to companies in the workplace for industries subject to outsourcing, giving them a larger worker pool, the top performers have a greater pool of EMPLOYERS. The need to have the top performers is stronger than ever.

Whether you're managing, looking to manage, or just looking at how to deal with managers (and what you CAN and SHOULD ask for as a term of employment) this book will tell you how the workplace will operate in at least the early part of this century.