talent management

Morphing TalenT ManageMenT inTo TalenT edge!

Henry KwoK explains what lies beyond Talent Management.

e keep hearing and reading that changes are occurring not only at an increasingly dizzying pace, but that they are becoming much more complex and chaotic. The bottom line: it will be very challenging to prepare for such an extremely unpredictable and uncertain future. Singapore is well on the way of making the transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The scale of economies will be changing exponentially. (by leaps and boundsclich) During the last century, breathless talk revolved around millionaires; during the last decades stories discussed billionaires as being at the top of the economic heap; in the near future, we will be discussing trillionaires in the making. Forty percent of the top jobs predicted in 2020 are very likely to be based on technologies that do not even exist now. Looking forward, we will be searching for knowledge not yet created to solve problems that are still imaginary today! In such a setting, how do we prepare talented employees for jobs and responsibilities that are barely being formulated at the time of writing this article? No amount of paper certification will prove to be sufficient. Organisations must look ahead to start the process of continually upgrading and refining the skills of their personnel. People are our greatest asset! is a clich thatdespite being a clichcontains a great truth. With the right talent, a company will succeed; with inappropriate talent, it will be guaranteed to sink. Now more than ever, businesses need to create the right talent

pool to succeed in the hyper-competitive and unpredictable business landscape within our complex global economy. Having a competitive edge, customer loyalty and customer service par excellenceall these distinctions can be reduced to nothing without the employees having the right qualities and attitude; in order to attain this, it is mandatory to have a training programme in place so as to give these employees the spot-on competencies and commitments needed to deliver a confident future. Many enterprises had succeeded against all odds, only to have to struggle again. In the late 1970s, Chrysler Corporation lost millions, recalling vehicles to rectify manufacturing defects, and was on the verge of going out of business. Chrysler hired Lee Iacocca, who rebuilt the company from the ground up: laying off workers, selling Chryslers loss-making European division and bringing in former associates from Ford. Two decades later, Daimler-Chrysler encountered the same problem yet again, losing millions through vehicle recalls. How did Chrysler not learn their lesson? How did Daimler, so renowned for quality, fall down this slippery slope? Time and again, enterprises rely on efficient quick fixes which do not necessarily provide effective long-term solutions. They think they are doing things right by hiring fresh, outside talent to help them revitalise their business. Very often however, these new hires are unable to fit culturally into the organisation; it is important to note that this kind of soft factor can put an ugly strain on organisations

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Vol 10 Issue 4

talent management

Strategically, HR professionals must recruit, develop, promote, and retain the right pool of people to meet their organisational needs as the organisation aligns itself to its long-term vision and mission. in the long run. These companies failed to do the right thing by developing an effective talent pool from within the company. We can take some invaluable lessons from the caterpillar. It may not know that it will change into a beautiful butterfly at a later stage in life. It instinctively chomps away on its leaf. When the time is right, it spins itself into a cocoon and begins the magic transformation into a butterfly. The caterpillar undergoes the metamorphosis strictly through its ownalbeit unwittingefforts. Outwardly it has changed into a perfectly winged butterfly, but this transformation would not have been made possible without it first changing its structures internally! (This metaphor really doesnt work, because the caterpillar doesnt know its going to become a butterfly, whereby companies need to be aware that they are doing the right stuff, for the right reasons. Just something to think about.) What is Talent Edge? In its traditional form, talent management no longer works. It must be transformed from a caterpillar into a butterflybut, unlike the oblivious butterfly, people must be aware that talent and organisations can make the dramatic transformation. (hows that?) Talent management must have a fresh outlook to meet the challenges of a fast-changing, competitive marketplace. Strategically, HR professionals must recruit, develop, promote, and retain the right pool of people to meet their organisational needs as the organisation aligns itself to its long-term vision and mission. Talent Management should systemically close the gap between the human assets the organisation currently has and what it will need in the future. It should create competencies so that its personnel can adeptly and flexibly meet the challenges posed by rapidly changing market conditions. Ultimately it should have the long-term aims to develop strategically a talent pool with such depth and breadth that it will create The Talent Edge for the enterprise. I have the good fortune of working for a company which has opened my eyes to the art of Strategic Talent Management. Everyoneeven management traineesin the company must go through four basic core models that focus not on hard functional or technical skills but on soft management thinking skills. In the past, I learnt to strategically trade commodities. My company then had a turnover of more than US$2 billion, yet with a gross profit of a meagre 1%. Some thirty years later, while visiting my old boss, I chanced upon this companys latest annual report. The turnover has increased to US$85 billion, but what is more astonishing is that its gross margin has increased to 3%! I did not believe this would be impossible, but my old company was able to take that long and hard journey thirty years ago to develop the breadth and depth in talent they required to push their business to new and higher levels. So what does it take to be great in Talent Management?
FIVe STrATeGIC STePS

the future? How will these change impact on the ways we are doing things now? 2. Take a long-term view to design the company you want. What do you want the company to become? What are the vision and mission it must achieve? 3. Articulate what the company will be like. How do you visualise your company? How would you articulate the company using SMART measures? 4. Take a look in the rear mirror to see where the company is right now. What are its strength and weaknesses relative to the threats and opportunities that lie ahead? There is no point in assessing its SWOT in the present-day context. One axiom that is relevant here is: Today will become yesterday when tomorrow arrives! You must meet this challenge; otherwise your company will constantly have to scrabble to catch up with tomorrow. 5. Think of how to make the transition from where the company is now to where it wants to be. How do you minimise or remove threats and maximise opportunities? How would you shape the future of the company? What are your strategies and action plans?
PUTTInG IT ALL InTo PLACe

There are three phases in Strategic HR Management. They are: 1. To develop strategic plans and documents for talent management (plan-to-plan); 2. To ensure their successful implementation and change (plan-toimplement); and 3. To build and sustain high performance (plan-to-sustain). The goal for the plan-to-plan is obviously to prepare a roadmap for the development of a future talent pool within the context of the cultural distinctiveness of the organisation. Talent groomed in-house often provides better culture fit and consistency. Where most strategic plans flounder is in the implementation because they fail to get everyone to act together. The goal for plan-toimplement is to put in place the right processes and structures so that the activities among the various resources can effectively leverage one another to achieve the corporate goals. This web of relationships can provide the cultural social glue to bond together the staff in their seemingly disparate actions. The goal for plan-to-sustain is to ensure that high performance is delivered consistently, year after year. This calls for quarterly review of action plans and yearly reviews of strategies so that corrective actions can be made promptly.
CULTUre FIT

There are five basic steps which will form the basic building blocks for creating the strategic Talent Edge. Each step will have a set of guiding questions. 1. Try to look strategically into the future. How will things change in

This focus to groom in-house personnel to meet talent needs has several benefits. Besides the promise of a better culture fit among the staff, it can take the pressure of recruiting the right candidates in a tight job market. The organisation also has the opportunity to mould their personnel with talents that are uniquely and distinctively theirs.

Henry KwoK is a business developer and entrepreneur. He is a Global Partner with Haines Centre for Strategic Management for the Asia-Pacific Region, based in Singapore. The objective of his consultancy business is to help organisations, both private and public, to be more strategic and to achieve excellence consistently by sharing the experiences he has acquired over the years.
Vol 10 Issue 4

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