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  • January–February 2014
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review

Building a Game-Changing Talent Strategy

By: Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill and Robert J. Thomas
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

When most of the world's financial services giants were stumbling and retrenching in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, the asset management firm BlackRock was busy charting a course for growth. Its revenues, profits, and stock price all performed consistently through this tumultuous period. The authors looked at BlackRock and other game-changing companies—the Mumbai-based global conglomerate Tata Group and Envision, an entrepreneurial alternative energy company based in China—and found significant commonalities. These three companies demonstrate the essential attributes of a game-changing organization: they are driven by purpose, oriented toward performance, and guided by principles. In the process of conducting interviews with these companies, the authors discovered a fourth thread that weaves them even more tightly together: each is supported by a game-changing talent strategy. But, they write, the path to such a strategy seems rife with complexity and ambiguity. How can both strategy and execution be consistently superior? How can they support a collective culture yet enable high potentials to thrive as individuals? How can the strategy be global and local at the same time? And how can its policies endure yet be agile and constantly open to revitalization? BlackRock's approach provides the answers.

Keywords

Talent and Talent Management; Success; Business Strategy; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry

Citation

Ready, Douglas A., Linda A. Hill, and Robert J. Thomas. "Building a Game-Changing Talent Strategy." Harvard Business Review 92, nos. 1-2 (January–February 2014): 62–68.
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About The Author

Linda A. Hill

Organizational Behavior
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More from the Authors
  • Ed Catmull: Lessons from Leading Pixar Animation Studios By: Francesca Gino, Linda Hill, Gary Pisano and Ruth Page
  • Mastercard Labs (B) By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley
  • Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash By: Sunil Gupta, Linda A. Hill, Julia Kelley and Emily Tedards
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