The most important component of long-term sustainable advantage for any firm, regardless of its size, is its ability to attract, retain, inspire, and grow talent.
Talent is the sustainable advantage.
It is talent and only talent that creates and/or preserves every other form of sustainable advantage, whether it be innovation, new ideas, or superior service.
If a Brand is experience it is employees who ideate, create, design, and deliver the experience.
If cost management is a key goal, then focusing on a smaller number of better-paid, better-trained employees working at their full potential with minimal external monitoring and maximum internal motivation is likely to yield lower costs than hiring the cheapest labor.
AI is a force multiplier and a form of leverage. It is a tool that, when placed in talented and trained hands, can deliver exponential value compared with placing it in less talented and trained hands.
Almost every company will end up with the same AI tools. Many will believe their secret sauce will be their first-party data, but in a world where decisions will be made by Agents and the depth of interaction with a chat interface reveals incredible insights and motivations in real time, this may be less true, and many companies’ first-party proprietary information, while important, may not really be a key differentiator.
It will be well-trained, highly motivated, and well-rewarded people.
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Companies that focus solely on technology and technology partnerships will find that, without well-trained, incentivized people, technology and data provide little differentiating advantage. (A reason a company like Google and many others succeed is that they have tech, data, and amazing talent. Note Meta’s recent efforts on acquiring even more talent, even after they have scaled data and tech.)
Julie Sweet of Accenture and recent studies from BCG, McKinsey, and others underscore that for every dollar of tech spending on AI, companies will have to spend multiples of that amount on training, upgrading, and reskilling talent to win.
Talent As Advocates.
Today, every individual is a media company if they wish to be. No longer do we just have access to multiple platforms for distribution but due to AI a plethora of new tools for creation. Potentially the most powerful influencers and media impact a company has is the aggregated power of the storytelling and reach of its talent.
Employee advocates attract other employees and are the best salespeople to convince potential customers.
So maybe instead of focusing on the next technology and media partnership, we should focus on our people.
Talent Satisfaction.
In addition to Net Promoter Scores, ESG goals, and ROI metrics, we should better understand the people who drive the results we are monitoring.
Let us focus on the players rather than the equipment, the field, or the scoreboard.
Instead of monitoring the comings and goings of talent from the office and other forms of surveillance that make people believe they are animals reporting into and out of cages, we should measure employee satisfaction.
There are several ways to evaluate employee satisfaction, from observed metrics such as average tenure, turnover, percent of offers accepted, the premium one has to offer to hire a person, to exit interviews, custom surveys, focus groups, town halls, tracking comments on third-party sites, and more.
Regardless of how or what is measured, the key is that every manager, up to the CEO, recognizes this and is motivated so that a significant portion of their success and compensation is based on how they lead, nurture, and grow people.
Many studies of the best CEOs show they tend to focus on three key areas: strategy, capital allocation, and people, rather than operations, revenue generation, investor relations, or customer management.
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What Does Talent Want?
Regardless of industry, country, or demographic group, research conducted for Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data and then Rethinking Work identified nine components that drive talent.
Three that attract people to a firm. Three that retain people in a firm. Three that allow people to thrive in a firm.
Three reasons people join a firm:
1) Money: People expect to be paid fairly.
2) Fame (Recognition): We all want to be recognized and feted for what we do, even if it is to be acknowledged for a well-completed project
3) Power (Autonomy): For some people, this is authority, but increasingly it is autonomy to be able to get a job done in ways and places that fit, versus being monitored and micro-managed.
Three reasons people stay in a firm:
While money, fame, and power are important in attracting people to a company, many will stay with a firm even when offered more money, fame, and power elsewhere because of purpose, values, and connections.
- Purpose: Talent cares about the purpose of the company, and people ask about the purpose companies serve beyond making a profit.
- Values: Over time, employees stay with companies whose values they find resonate with theirs.
- 3. Connection: If someone feels connected to their manager, their clients, and their colleagues, they are more likely to persevere through the ups and downs of a career.
Three reasons people thrive in a firm.
- Freedom: Companies that recognize that they work for talent rather than talent works for them and approach talent as something they access versus own ensure that people have the flexibility and freedom to be who they are.
- Identity: Great leaders and companies recognize that while work and their firm are part of the identity and story of their talent, they are just a part of far more complex and broader lives. Companies that operate with this insight are more likely to get people to feel a sense of belonging since they are seen as people and not replaceable widgets.
- Growth: A career lasts for four or five decades in a world that is changing fast. Skill sets need to be continuously refreshed and kept relevant. Companies that focus on the future and continually transform, ensuring their growth, will always be able to attract talent, as people want to grow and remain relevant, and they will work at firms that allow them to develop skills valued outside the firm. Making talent highly attractive to external candidates is the best way to ensure continued access to them.
Talent plus Technology will allow companies to win and not just technology alone, and definitely not threaten talent that they will be replaced by technology.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Rishad Tobaccowala, Author of Restoring The Soul Of Business: Staying Human In The Age Of Data
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide build their brands from the inside-out. Please email us to learn how we can help you set a course for a thriving brand culture.
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth, and Brand Education
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