Rewired

Chapter 8Core versus noncore capabilities – strategic talent planning

We have to go for what we think we're fully capable of, not limit ourselves by what we've been in the past.”

—Vivek Paul

Do you have a talent roadmap that is as detailed as your technology roadmap? That question can catch many executives off guard. And if the answer isn't yes, it's critical to put in place a thoughtful and realistic plan.¹

Workforce planning is the process of translating the digital road- map and vision – a plan of prioritized solutions and the teams (or pods) needed to create them – into actual talent requirements. This includes inventorying the talent you already have and matching it against the talent you need to deliver on your digital roadmap (discussed in Chapter Six). From this analysis, you can develop an action plan to fill the gap. You might think this is overly simplistic but in fact this is riddled with complexities.

What talent do you need in-house?

Every company faces the same strategic question when it comes to digital and AI transformations: “Do we need to own this talent?” Executives will argue that technology is not their core business – offering mortgages or extracting resources is. They may also argue that they have heavily outsourced IT capabilities in the past, so why should it be different for digital and AI?

The reality, however, is that if a company wants to competitively differentiate itself through digital solutions, it needs to have the talent that will provide ...