Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage Hardback - 2008 - 1st Edition

In today's global business environment, it is more and more difficult to gain a competitive edge, but it is not impossible. Talent, potentially the most powerful source of competitive advantage, is available. But how should organizations be designed to make talent their key source of competitive advantage?

In this follow-up to his best-selling book Built to Change, Ed Lawler shows how organizations can combine the right organization design, management practices, and talent to gain a critical performance edge. Talent offers a blueprint that succinctly maps out the best approach to organizing and leading a talent-focused organization. The organizational features needed to create a talent-focused organization are identified and their operation explained. Special attention is paid to:

• Leadership

• Corporate boards

• Talent management

• Performance management

• Information and decision making

Lawler shows how organizations can determine which talent-focused management approach best fits their business: a high-involvement approach that has long-term employment relationships and a high level of employee involvement in decision making, or a global-competitor approach where there is a constant influx of new talent and technological expertise. Drawing from his expertise and providing insights into today's most innovative companies, Lawler describes the human capital strategy and organization design for each approach. He provides the foundation and tools for creating effective and innovative organizations.

A timely, much-needed resource, Talent defines how companies can be managed for competitive advantage today.