featured articles

Make your Company
a Talent Factory
Douglas A. Ready and Jay A. Conger

The article is made available with compliments of John Clements Consultants. Further posting, copying, distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www.hbr.org or call 800-988-0886.

As part of the John Clements-Harvard Business School Publishing partnership, we are offering the following Harvard Business Review article:

Despite the great sums of money companies dedicate to talent management systems, many still struggle to fill key positions—limiting their potential for growth in the process. Virtually all the human resource executives in the authors’ 2005 survey of 40 companies around the world said that their pipeline of high-potential employees was insufficient to fill strategic management roles. The survey revealed two primary reasons for this. First, the formal procedures for identifying and developing next-generation leaders have fallen out of sync with what companies need to grow or expand into new markets. To save money, for example, some firms have eliminated positions that would expose high-potential employees to a broad range of problems, thus sacrificing future development opportunities that would far outweigh any initial savings from the job cuts. Second, HR executives often have trouble keeping top leaders' attention on talent issues, despite those leaders' vigorous assertions that obtaining and keeping the best people is a major priority. If passion for that objective doesn't start at the top and infuse the culture, say the authors, talent management can easily deteriorate into the management of bureaucratic routines. Yet there are companies that can face the future with confidence.

These firms don't just manage talent, they build talent factories. The authors describe the experiences of two such corporations—consumer products icon Procter & Gamble and financial services giant HSBC Group--that figured out how to develop and retain key employees and fill positions quickly to meet evolving business needs. Though each company approached talent management from a different direction, they both maintained a twin focus on functionality (rigorous talent processes that support strategic and cultural objectives) and vitality (management's emotional commitment, which is reflected in daily actions).

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From City Center to
Provincial Periphery
By Paul Catiang

As the capital of the Philippines, Metro Manila is currently the hub of outsourcing growth in the country. This growth, however, is beginning to spill over into the provinces, not as an accidental occurrence, but because there are talent pools to be tapped and infrastructure to be built in the potential-rich Philippine provinces. Based on a study conducted by Tully Moss, President of the Magellan Alliance, this article explores the many opportunities outside the country capital.

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The Call Center Industry:
The Next Frontier for
Female Executives
By Vina Sy-Santos

The rush of economic equality brought about by the business process outsourcing industry is accompanied by equality among the genders, as women are finding more and more career opportunities in outsourcing. Vina Sy-Santos reports on the latest gathering of the Women of AmCham, the group of female executives of American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines member companies, where Terry Vannoy, Human Resources Director of Dell International Services, gave her insightful talk entitled Opportunities for Women In the Call Center Industry.

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Knowledge Process Outsourcing: The Next Wave
By Mario Biscocho

Fresh from the Knowledge Process Outsourcing conference in Singapore, Mario Biscocho, Vice President and Managing Director of John Clements, revisits the phenomenon of KPO in the South East Asian region. What differentiates KPO from BPO? What models of KPO vendors are currently being used? Mr. Biscocho answers these questions and more in this thought piece which investigates some of the issues surrounding this highly-specialized sub-sector of the global outsourcing industry.

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Placing the Right People in
the Right Job through
Precise Profiling
By Andi Mohammad Hatta

The President-Director of PT John Clements Consultants Indonesia shares a study he has compiled on assessing the younger generation of professionals, and how knowing their values and work ethic goes a long way towards motivating younger employees, assessing performance, and retaining this generation with greater effectiveness. Mr. Hatta also explores a directed approach towards cross-training and how an integrated human resources management system can manage talent in effective ways.

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Talking Across the World:
Back the Second Time Around
By Maria Vera Tuplano

The second iteration of the international language conference, Talking Across the World, came to Manila in 2007 to once again address the issues surrounding language training for the business process outsourcing industry. John Clements trainer Maria Vera Tuplano reports on the conferences, particularly on Dr. Jane Lockwood’s study, How do we know that English communication training makes any difference? The study confirms the conference’s main goal, which is to bring English language training closer to what the industry requires, and to equip its workers with the skills needed to produce the desired metrics. Ms. Tuplano also shares her own observations as a trainer in this article.

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Improving Call Center Operational Efficiency
By France Constantino

How can a call center operate at top efficiency, delivering exceptional metrics, satisfying clients and customers, and retaining their best talent? France Constantino of John Clements writes about Munirah Looi's well-known approach to streamlining call center operations and about the standards developed by the Service Centre Practices Certification program.

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