BOOK OF THE MONTH

Winning the Talent Wars: How to Build a Lean, Flexible, High-Performance Workplace

By Bruce Tulgan

In Good to Great, Jim Collins and his research associates learned that the great companies "...first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats -- and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage 'People are the most important asset' turned out to be wrong. People are not [italics] your most important asset. The right [italics] people are."

The right people share the same values and, together, sustain their organization's commitment to those values. If involved in their organization's recruiting and interviewing process, as they should be, they will help to ensure that the right people will be hired (i.e. allowed on the "bus"). Obviously it is important to get talent and task in proper alignment. It is equally important to keep an organization's values in proper alignment with its objective.

Tulgan's important book is even more relevant and more valuable now than it was when first published about two years ago. As its subtitle correctly indicates, he explains "how to manage and compete in the high-tech, high-speed, knowledge-based, superfluid economy." That is to say, he wrote the book for decision-makers in all organizations (regardless of size or nature) to help them determine HOW to get "the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats"...and then keep them there.

All of the companies which Tulgan discusses (e.g. Johnson & Johnson and J.P. Morgan Chase) demonstrate one of Tulgan's core concepts: "In the new economy, every term of employment -- schedules, location, assignments, coworkers, pay, and more -- will be negotiation, whether you like it or not. The most valuable talent will have the most negotiating power. Every employment relationship will last exactly as long as the terms are agreeable to all parties." There is a new set of organizing principles for employing people in the new economy:

  • Talent is the show.

  • Staff the work, not the jobs.

  • Pay for performance, and nothing else.

  • Turn managers into coaches.

  • Train for the mission, not for the long haul.

  • Create as many career paths as you have people.

Tulgan devotes a separate chapter to each of these principles, explaining with meticulous care how to apply each to his reader's specific business situation. Note how these principles apply to any organization which competes for available talent and then is challenged to keep its best people who, more easily now more than ever before, can leave the "bus" whenever and wherever they wish. This situation is as common among the great companies whom Collins discusses as it is among the local merchants from whom we purchase various products and services.

Extensive research indicates that only one in 28-30 dissatisfied customers ever complains to the provider of the given product or service. All others simply never do business with that provider again...while continuing to express their dissatisfaction to family members, friends, and business associates. More often than not, customer dissatisfaction is the result of an unpleasant personal experience rather than because of a product defect. To extend Collins' metaphor, customers are among the "passengers" and can also get off the "bus" whenever and wherever they wish. Much has been written about the power of BUZZ (i.e. word-of-mouth) and the importance of creating "customer evangelists." From my perspective, winning the "talent war" is essential to winning the competition for customer's repeat business. A careful implementation of the strategies and tactics which Tulgan recommends in this book will help to achieve that ultimate objective.

Otherwise, not having "the right people on the bus...and in the right place," the "bus" will either never reach its destination or in the highly unlikely event that it does so, arrive with few (if any) "passengers" aboard.

– Reviewer: Robert Morris (Dallas, TX) on Amazon.com.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages

  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (April 2002)

  • Language: English

  • ISBN: 0393323005

  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches

  • Shipping Weight: 8.96 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)