Talents Ecosystem

(Original Spanish version here)

The constant and hard struggle to sell reminds us a simple principle: companies are created to make money.

In fact, their main Social Corporate Responsibility is being profitable in order to keep the employment and wealth generated by their existence.

To achieve this they appointed the once called Personnel Manager, a labor-related concept. This evolved to the present Human Resources Manager. At least this one evokes people rather than just man hours.

But this is not enough anymore. Markets have radically changed. The geographical barriers and frontiers are gone. Information is available for everybody. Suppliers, partners, colleagues, competitors and customers may be anywere in the world.

However, the usual practices regarding human capital have barely changed despite this new set of market conditions. Too many companies still think in physical terms –the facilities- when looking for people who ideally live in the nearby. This kind of approach harms the access to what really makes a company profitable and successful: the talent.

Because a Company is a set of talents that, duly combined, are able to develop and sell a product or service with a profit. It is more an an activity without physical boundaries rather than a place with physical limits. The unstoppable and growing presence of mobility and offshore resources are factors to be seized and not fought. And therefore companies will need a Vision to be able to identify, attract and take advantage of the best talents no matter where they are.

Such new Vision implies the existence of a Talents Manager. The one in charge of coordinating the mix of competencies and expertise the company needs. The mission of this Talents Area is making the necessary knowledge flow into and within the organization. Internally, those who have improvement ideas should be able to present them as part of the day-to-day routines. Externally, this Area pays attention to what Charles Handy named Fleas (“The Elephant and the Flea”, 2001). They are freelancers and small companies whose knowledge and savoir-faire contribute to better company results. Better have them working with us rather than with the competitors…

We understand proper teamwork as a sum of capacities whose output exceeds the individuals alone. A concept that Technology has given a new dimension: the virtual teams. Their participants are geographically spread and may never meet in person. A KPMG study (“Rethinking Human Resources for a Changing World” )points out that many of these teams will be temporal while also key for the company´s competitiveness. Talents physically distant but close together in a common project.

Let´s keep in mind that a company is an ecosystem where assorted interests, emotions, talents, knowledge and expertise coexist. Strategically and tactically collaborating as an essential way to be competitive.

At the end this Talents Area we propose needs to make the Company the best forum to develop products and services able to conquer markets. How? Combining the achievement of goals with the emotional welfare of the persons, the end suppliers of those talents and competencies inherent to business success.

Image: Sue Waters