Several years ago, a VP of HR was telling me that their company, a member of the Fortune 500 list, was extremely bad at offering the next opportunity to its talented employees. How did he know? Exit interviews explained the issue: it was easier to find opportunities outside than inside the company!
That is exactly what McKinsey outlines in their article: Making a market in talent.
The paternalistic approach of the traditional succession plan should fall by the wayside and be replaced with Talent Marketplaces.
This approach is well described in the article: HR becomes a market maker!
We have in fact seen a lot of Taleo customers using many of these techniques. I invite you to read the real-world case studies at:
http://www.taleo.com/customers/case-studies.php
In conclusion, we strongly agree with the closing sentence of this article: talent markets represent the cutting edge of resource allocation.
