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book. First and foremost, if there is one point that I’d like to leave

you with, it’s that th e succ ess of any talent m anage ment e ffort de-

pends f ar less on the tools a nd tactics that a C TO cho oses to e m-

ploy than on the CTO’s abili ty to develop and clearly communicate

a viable talent strategy.

A second key theme is that the starting point for forming a

talent strategy is to learn more about your company ’s bus iness

strategy, then explo re how this e volving bus iness strategy is likel y

to s hape b oth your org aniza tiona l stru cture and the roles and ex-

pectations you hold f or you r leaders. In other word s, the savvy

CTO ‘‘takes the point position’’ for his orga nizat ion by attempting

to anticipate t he lea dersh ip ski lls an d expe rienc es tha t his o rgani-

zation will require over th e next few years, a nd then asse ss the

degree to which these needs are address ed through t he organiza-

tion’s current bench stren gth.

A third ma jor theme is that a good t alent strategist is abl e to

avoid get ting lost in talen t decisions . As I’ve attempte d to show in

Chapters 4 to 7, there are five key decisions t hat play a pivotal role

in sh apin g lead ershi p talent strategi es. CTOs can add tremendous

value to t heir o rgani zatio ns by helping their executive teams evalu-

ate the re lativ e trade-offs that are associated with each of these

decision optio ns.

Finally, in Chapters 8 to 11, I have atte mpted to mak e the

point that a goo d stra tegy h as to p roceed smoothly from pl anning

to f lawle ss execution. This is reflected in a CTO’s ability to i dentify

valid performa nce metrics for ev aluat ing th e success of the or gani-

zation’s talent managemen t effo rts. I t also requires th e ability to

use war-game sc enari os to t est the viab ility of one’s tal ent ma nage-

ment plans, the ability to deploy leadership talent in a way that

effectively leverag es the full streng th of one’s management team,

and the ab ility to rec ogniz e problems when th ey surface and to

make needed mid -cour se cor recti ons.

While these the mes ar e not meant t o serve as a p anace a for a ll

talent issues, I believe th at when taken together, they point to some

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