{"id":851,"date":"2010-01-06T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T17:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.achievemax.com\/bookreviews\/?p=851"},"modified":"2012-10-23T14:46:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-23T18:46:00","slug":"the-war-for-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.achievemax.com\/bookreviews\/the-war-for-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"The War for Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheThe War for Talent<\/a>\"\"
\nby Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod<\/p>\n

For the longest time, you had to search for a book that dealt with the subject of attracting, developing, motivating, and retaining talent. Now it seems as though we\u2019re inundated with books on the subject. There\u2019s obviously a reason for this trend. There\u2019s been a real talent search in most every industry for the past few years. However, in a market characterized by uncertainty, instability, and an incredible number of layoffs, many firms have eased their concern about finding and retaining good people assuming the war for talent is over. Experts tell us it is not! In fact, the authors of this book reveal that, because of enduring economic and social forces, the war for talent will persist for the next two decades!<\/p>\n

Ed Michaels is a recently retired director of the celebrated McKinsey & Company consulting firm. Helen Handfeld-Jones is a Senior Practice Expert with McKinsey in Toronto, and Beth Axelrod is a Principal of McKinsey in Stamford, Connecticut. The three combined talent to conduct five years of in-depth research to identify the programs and behaviors that help today\u2019s foremost firms attract and retain the best kinds of employees\u2014including surveys of 13,000 executives at more than 120 companies and case studies of 27 leading companies.<\/p>\n

As a result of their efforts, they define talent as shorthand for a key employee who possesses “a sharp strategic mind, leadership ability, communications skills, the ability to attract and inspire people, entrepreneurial instincts, functional skills, and the ability to deliver results.” They also uncovered a definitive connection between top performers and superior corporate achievement.<\/p>\n

The authors share five common imperatives that companies need to act on if they are going to win the war for managerial talent and make talent a competitive advantage:<\/p>\n