Gyan Nagpal, CEO and principal of PeopleLENS Global Associates, drew on research from his new book, Talent Economics, exploring how the global workforce will evolve by 2020 and the impact this will have on HR.
Over a six-month period from 2009 to 2010, Nagpal researched the book by visiting seven stock exchanges and looking at the annual reports of around 450 companies.
From this extensive research, he discovered there were three broad-based strategies employed by these organisations:
Cost-centric strategy. Thanks to globalisation, organizations can now look around the world for opportunities to drive down cost and increase profitability. This has been a very popular strategy, said Nagpal. “It’s impossible to get away from outsourcing and as much as the politicians say we shouldn’t, the reality is the stock markets don’t allow us the choice any more.”
Product-centric strategy. If more than 50 per cent of an organisation’s revenue comes from outside a primary home market, but the product remains the same, they predominantly follow a product-centric strategy. Nagpal uses
Apple as an example: “They built a retail distribution link, but they didn’t change any feature of their product; it’s sold 100 per cent the same across the world, the only thing that changes is the currency you pay to buy it.”
Customer-centric strategy. The organisation that uses this strategy is typically a big business that knows its industry well and is willing to customise its product strategy, marketing strategy or branding strategy to be relevant in different markets.
The world in 2020
We are living in a decade of structural transformational change, said Nagpal. The last time this level of economic reordering happened was the decade after the Second World War.
By 2020, the cost-centric strategy will still be an extremely popular one, Nagpal said, however, to be a top 10 player in an industry, you must be economically relevant where consumption is growing and implement a customer-centric strategy.
This strategy bodes well for HR, because it is placing even more importance on the people skills of employees and their ability to get closer to the customer.
Macro and micro talent trends
There are seven global macro trends in every industry in every economic continent playing out over this decade, said Nagpal.
They include the shortage of qualified graduates, education proficiency, ageing workforce, workforce participation, unwanted turnover, wage inflation and skills to experience.
“As strategists, we need to have an opinion on these seven – they affect our company in some shape or form,” said Nagpal.
The 21st century talent seeks autonomy, mastery and purpose in a job, Nagpal adds. The key is to evolve the employment contract in line with the evolution of the employee.
He suggests aligning your employment strategy with these seven micro viewpoints:
1. Shift focus from finding the best talent to finding the right talent.
2. Open the door – build unconventional entry points for talent.
3. Poach your own talent – before the competition does.
4. Create an expansive mindset – champion diversity of thought.
5. Open the window – think outside-in.
6. Help innovation thrive – create organisational workflow.
7. Measure and grow cerebral engagement.
This article was originally published in Inside SAP Winter 2013.
