As promised, my second book report on a book by someone I admire a great deal in the Human Capital space: Peter Cappelli.  Earlier this week, I wrote of The India Way. Now let’s look at an earlier book, published in 2008 but still timely, Talent on Demand, which was also published by Harvard Business Press.  In this book, Peter makes a compelling case for looking at talent in new and different ways.  Here’s a snapshot of the key concepts and “take-aways” in the book:

• The old approach to succession planning is no longer viable or practical and even though more than half of all US and European companies don’t engage in succession or workforce planning, you should;
• Competition for talent will always be a constant and high rates of employee turnover and disengagement mean a review of all talent management efforts;
• Every talent decision you make should be viewed through the lens of the return that is expected for that decision;
• Managing people by adopting some “supply chain” management practices can help to reduce the inherent uncertainty of succession and talent development;
• Weigh carefully the “build vs. buy” options knowing the daunting statistics of external hire success rates; and
• Manage your internal processes carefully so that there is a balance between a “pool” of candidates and a “sea” of extra players that becomes unwieldy.

I can’t do justice to the book in a few lines but you gain valuable insights from reading the book.  It’s a great read…I recommend it highly.   To learn more, visit http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty/cappelli.cfm

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