IN OUR GLOBAL ECONOMY, the challenges of talent supply and demand do not stop at the borders of the U.S.A., India, China or Eastern Europe. And nor can the multinational companies that seek to tap into the world’s labor supply in a bid to fuel their global business initiatives.
The reality is that companies must recruit across continents, when necessary, because the demand for global services management talent — from strategists through operational management — currently outstrips the world’s labor supply.
“There is a severe shortage of managerial talent that is able to effectively manage … global teams,” contends Arie Lewin, Professor, Duke University, co-author of a new Fuqua Management school study on outsourcing, one of the largest of its kind. About 70% of the study’s respondents express concerns about the business impact of the understocked talent supply.
Lewin participated in Global Services’ roundtable discussion in October titled “The Hunt for Global Services Talent,” facilitated by Shared Xpertise’s Deborah Kops, who has extensive buy and sell side services management experience. The panelists also included William Metz, External Business Development Manager, Procter & Gamble (P&G); Bernadette Margel, Managing Director, Global Sourcing Operations, Deutsche Bank and Lori Blackman, Principal, DNL Global, an executive-recruiting firm.
The interviews were capped by a discussion with Allan Schweyer, President and Executive Director, Human Capital Institute (HCI), who, along with Blackman and Kops, is a Global Services columnist.
Signs of the challenge are becoming pervasive:
• The skills shortage isn’t just squeezing American firms. As reported in the New York Times, Indian firms such as Tata Consulting Services and Infosys are hiring American workers to address their own skills/experience shortage
• Companies around the globe are moving operational centers not closer to customers or to lower cost labor zones, but nearer to sources of talent, particularly in college towns scattered across Eastern Europe, Asia and North America
• The U.S.-based Society of Information Management says that attracting, developing and retaining IT talent is now a chief information officer’s No. 2 concern.
Significantly, global services observers assert there is also a shortage of talent for positions requiring deep process-transformation skills. This brings to the fore the question of talent. Are corporations staffed with the requisite talent to manage in a world where delivery models are rapidly changing? How critical is the quality of talent to achieve the ambitious cost savings, service improvement and quality-level goals expected in a global services delivery business case? While our experts examine these questions and others here, we invite you to participate in a discussion about these issues at www.globalservicesmedia.com.
