Acquiring talent is crucial to any company’s growth. So when did this focus on talent come to the fore?
For a long time, till about the early 1990’s focus inside an organization was largely on the processes involved and not on the talent of newly acquired people. Whatever skill was found wanting, they would provide training for that, was the view. However in the 90’s there was a paradigm shift in the focus, for reasons best explained by evolution, survival of the fittest, blah blah blah, and the work talent became the buzz word in management. The book “The War for Talent” best captures this shift. And suddenly head-hunters were facing the heat to find the capture the best available talent.
Perhaps, the words blah blah blah in the previous paragraph has a logical explanation. When companies provided training their employees for skills they didnot posses, the employees acquired the skills and moved over to greener pastures, most often compromising the business interests of the organization providing training. And so, companies responded by shifting their focus. Now, this is only conjecture. Maybe I am right on the buck or no where close to it. Go ahead and post a comment if you have a different view on this.
