Make Your People Before You Make Your Products: Using Talent Management to Achieve Competitive Advantage in Global Organizations

INTRODUCTION

There isn't enough talent to satisfy demand

People management works best when the interests of the organization are coincident with the interests of individual employees. For the organization this means achieving its stakeholder objectives; for the employee this means satisfaction at work, a balanced life and visible career prospects. Investment in people at work isn't an act of faith. It is an act of business strategy. The attraction, development, management and retention of talented people are critical to the success of all organizations.

If you give your people the chance to perform at their best, if they are engaged in what you're trying to achieve and if you have a workplace in which they can develop and shine then you will have a powerful edge that no other organization can copy. Your people can be your unique source of competitive advantage.

Such a view was echoed by Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic, who believed that there was a convergence between the growth of the company and the growth of its employees. The two were interdependent. He practised this philosophy with the belief that you ‘grow your people before you grow your products’. The ultimate success of the company showed that there was merit in taking this approach. But it wasn't based purely on altruism. There were real business benefits from this focus.

This is brought into sharp focus by the current worldwide shortage of talent. No one company or country has the ability to ‘grow enough’ ...