How many times have you seen business executives wave their hand and call for increased innovation? Usually it’s when business results are not up to par. Innovation does not just happen. It’s driven by a number of factors and we believe talent is #1.

In tough economic times when it’s much easier to think of cost-cutting and pulling back on R & D, the innovative keep on going. They focus on business advantages and talent opportunities regardless of the economic season.

BusinessWeek's article and recent ranking of The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies in association with the Boston Consulting Group summarizes how these organizations drive success:

“They nurture cultures that value creative people in good times and bad.”

There is no innovation setting on the business control panel. You can’t just switch it on. But you can formalize processes to help jumpstart your culture. Talent management is the strategy that sets the table for innovation.

More and more executives are seeing the results and making talent a top priority. In fact, on the Scoreboard of Innovative Companies, we noticed that 11 of the top 15 and nearly 45% of the top 50 are using talent strategies and advanced online tools to source and hire top talent.

How do we know? They are Taleo customers. We look forward to seeing them at Taleo WORLD 2008 later this year to discuss new ideas and outline their winning talent strategies.