“At the very broadest level we're going from the industrial age to the information age to the talent age.” – Thomas Friedman

A Business Strategies Magazine interview with New York Times columnist, global commentator, and best-selling author Thomas Friedman echoes the remarks of Robert Reich and supports people who are using talent strategies to transform their business culture and improve performance.

Question “Are you saying that beyond cost, talent and differentiation are going to affect the key decision?”

Friedman answered, “Yes, talent is the differentiator beyond cost. There are so many people now that any company can access to do just the vanilla jobs on the basis of cost. If you don't want to get caught up in that trend then you've really got to be able to offer some really unique talent that gets you out of that pool, that vanilla pool. Talent is the skills of your work force—the ability to imagine and synthesize different products or value opportunities and then to execute them, to design them, to refine them. That's really where the great job opportunities and value adding profits are going to be.”

With increased general exposure in the business press, research and analysis of the practical economics, and proven ROI from case studies, we believe even the most reluctant C-level executives will increasingly see the advantages of funding proactive talent initiatives brought to them by HR.