Outlook Journal, February 2005
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The company with the best people wins. It’s a simple concept but one that holds true regardless of industry, geography or economic condition.
The level of interest in recruiting the best people, developing their skills and shaping next-generation leaders has never been higher. In today’s complex and ever more competitive business environment, leaders find themselves in a renewed war for talent.
We view the future through the eyes of our men and women, who are the key to success in meeting today’s business challenges, such as innovating ahead of competitors, executing fast-paced change and managing demographic shifts in the workforce.
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But while there’s a shared understanding of the value of people, leaders have mixed results in identifying the investments and interventions needed to unleash the true potential of a workforce. Accenture has seen this in our client work and in our strategic initiative to identify the characteristics of high-performing enterprises.
Our research has shown that high performers have a unique “anatomy” when it comes to their people. These companies are focused on human capital and human performance issues. They have strong leaders at all levels. They have a keen ability to not only retain the best talent but to multiply it in terms of effectiveness. They also build strong alignment and commitment among their people, who, in turn, can adapt to and thrive on continual change.
This issue of Outlook describes the link between high performance and the workforce. One article describes the 10 most effective practices for creating an engaged workforce, and a related piece examines emerging technologies that can help leaders develop enthusiastic and productive employees. A separate article features some great examples of companies whose corporate learning functions have played a key role in their achievement of high performance.
I hope you find in these articles some fresh insights to help you in your quest to achieve the full potential of your workforce. Our research supports the notion that the company with the best people wins. More important, it underscores our responsibility as leaders to equip our men and women with the skills, competence, passion, energy, motivation and inspiration to do extraordinary things.
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