Category: Talent Management

Lessons from Yahoo:  Enduring Organizations Manage Executive Succession

Lessons from Yahoo: Enduring Organizations Manage Executive Succession

This week we witnessed another vivid lesson in the value of executive succession: Jerry Yang steps down as the CEO of Yahoo!. Yang replaced Terry Semel, who spent years trying to build Yahoo! into a media company, only to see it lose market share to the more innovative, technology savvy Google. Yang presided over an ... Read more»

Fear:  Does your organization have the Courage to invest in tough times?

Fear: Does your organization have the Courage to invest in tough times?

You can’t pick up a newspaper these days without reading about more business downturns, layoffs, and lowered expectations for retail sales, automobiles, consumer products, housing, and financial services.  Lots of business leaders are making tough decisions right now, and I also know a lot of our HR and L&D readers are worried about their jobs.... Read more»

Where is the “Talent Management” Market going?

Where is the “Talent Management” Market going?

As the US economy lost 240,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rises to 6.5%, one of the questions I know many people ask is the direction of the “talent management” marketplace.  Let me give you our thoughts on the trends taking place.

First, the urgency of “talent management” in corporate HR organizations has ... Read more»

Restructuring HR:  Where are we going

Restructuring HR: Where are we going

In the last year many of our research members and clients have come to us for help in restructuring their HR or Learning & Development organizations.  There have been three major forces at play here.

1.  Reducing costs:  In nearly every industry organizations are going through restructuring, mergers, or other cost-cutting efforts.  The HR department ... Read more»

Corporate Talent:  Where the US Labor Market is Going

Corporate Talent: Where the US Labor Market is Going

One of the important things senior business and HR leaders must consider is the availability of labor – that is not just “people” but “the right people.”  Right now, with a 6.1% unemployment rate, the US labor market has undergone some major changes…. and such changes in the availability of work directly affect the skills ... Read more»

Your “Incumbent” HR Systems Vendor – What to do?

Your “Incumbent” HR Systems Vendor – What to do?

I just completed a series of interviews with three organizations going through the important, challenging, and time consuming process of implementing a new performance management system.  In each case (a large healthcare provider, a global mining company, and a global call center operations company), the company is using the implementation of a performance management system ... Read more»

Talent Management Challenges in the Federal Government

Talent Management Challenges in the Federal Government

We have been doing a lot of research and work with the Federal Government in the area of talent management.  Let me share a few interesting findings.

The United States Federal government has more than 2,7 million employees, ranging in roles from secret service agents to financial analysts to IT specialists to scientists.   These people ... Read more»

Talent Management in a Slowdown – Update

Talent Management in a Slowdown – Update

In the last few months we have read more and more about the global economic slowdown.  Jim Cramer, the Wall Street pundit, wrote in today’s New York Magazine, that he has never seen things as dismal as they are on Wall Street.  Today the State of California announced a 5.7% unemployment rate, an increase of ... Read more»

New Disciplines of the Modern Training Organization

New Disciplines of the Modern Training Organization

This month we are launching The High Impact Learning Organization®, a research study which has been more than three years in development.  During this time we have interviewed hundreds of corporate HR and training leaders and reviewed in-depth trends of more than 780 global organizations. 

Listen Audio Overview of this research:  click here.

As ... Read more»

On the Minds of HR and Learning Leaders

On the Minds of HR and Learning Leaders

We recently completed our annual research conference and I had a wonderful opportuinty to meet and talk with 15 different HR and L&D executives in a special roundtable.   The theme of our research conference is The Business of Talent®, and as you will read, this theme comes through in almost every organization.  Talent ... Read more»

Are you an Enduring Organization?

Are you an Enduring Organization?

As we continue to study best practices in the implementation of corporate learning and talent management, we find that high performing organizations fall into two categories:  those who endure and prosper over long periods of time (decades), and those who rapidly rise to prominence, then falter during a major business challenge, and often become acquired ... Read more»

Managing Innovation:  Google and the “Learning Culture”

Managing Innovation: Google and the “Learning Culture”

As we prepare for our annual research conference IMPACT 2008:  The Business of Talent®, I want to mention an important topic which has come up frequently in the last few weeks:  the critical importance of managing innovation.

All organizations in all industries must continuously deal with change.

Our research continues to show that one ... Read more»

The Business-Driven CLO

The Business-Driven CLO

This week we talked with five top Chief Learning Officers representing training leadership at EMC, Extra Space Storage, MetLife, Textron, and Trinity Health. This group of learning leaders will be discussing their L&D strategies and solutions at our upcoming research conference.

One of the biggest topics we discussed was how to build a corporate ... Read more»

Talent Management in Financial Services – Impact of the Slowdown

Talent Management in Financial Services – Impact of the Slowdown

This week I had a call with five financial services clients to understand the impact of the economic slowdown on their learning, talent, and systems investments.  How are HR, talent strategies, and enterprise learning investments being affected by the credit crunch and slowdown in the US financial system? 

(The clients included companies in banking and ... Read more»