The battle for brainpower: A survey of talent

Take a peek at “The battle for brainpower: A survey of talent” in The Economist magazine’s October 7th issue. It is great reading for any leader thinking about the short- and long-term future of his/her team. A couple highlights noting regarding the pending talent shortage:

• The value of intangible assets – skilled workers, patents, know-how – has risen from 20% of the value of companies in the S&P 500 to 70% today
• Overall, the developed world’s talent supply demographics show a significant decline in people aged 15-64. One example – Half the top people at America’s 500 leading companies will leave in the next five years
• Employee loyalty to companies is collapsing around us
• There is a significant mismatch between what schools are producing and what companies need

There are quite a few calls to action noted, with one call being the need for firms to cast their nets wider to find talented people. Be prepared to find innovative ways to find and keep talented folks. This was timely info for me to read, as it clearly supports the need to apply the complexity and network science ideas covered at the NICO conference earlier this week.