Agile Talent ─ How to Source and Manage Outside Experts

Google and Intel use experts in social science and biomechanics to assess how people think about and use technology. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse use astrophysicists as strategists” because of their expertise in big data sets like commercial mortgages. Campbell’s Soup and PepsiCo use anthropologists to more deeply understand customer tastes and preferences. Munich RE and AIG use experts from all different kinds of fields to better assess risk.

These companies are gaining competitive advantage through a new capabilitystrategic use of expertsmade possible by technology and the globalization of talent. Managers understand that lean, agile, and fast business strategies require that they think in new ways about accessing and leveraging (and not necessarily owning) key strategic talent and filling critical gaps in strategic capabilities. As managers increasingly look to nontraditional sources of strategic talent and experiment with fast, flexible ways of engaging them, they need a road map.

Agile Talent delivers the new road map for managing external, expert talentshowing how to assess, choose, attract, develop, and support these new kinds of talent. Authored by two veterans in talent, leadership, and strategic HR who teach and consult widely around the world, the book reveals how companies such as Apple, Uber, Airbnb, Google, IBM, and Bain Capital organize and manage new forms of talent in new ways. Supported by survey data and packed with tools and templates for applying these ideas, this book is the ultimate guide for winning the next war for talent.

Jon Younger is partner emeritus of the RBL Group, where he led the firm’s Strategic HR practice. He is a member of the executive education faculties of the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; Indian School of Business; and the Copenhagen School of Business. He chairs the annual ISB-NHRD conference on talent management in India and is a member of the Government of Singapore advisory board in HR Transformation. He teaches and consults widely in North America, Europe, and Asia. He is a coauthor of many articles and four books: HR from the Outside In, HR Transformation,HR Competencies, and Global HR Competencies.

Norm Smallwood is President and cofounder of RBL Group, and leads the firm’s Leadership practice. He has taught in the executive education faculties of the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and the Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University. He has been cited by the journal Leadership Excellence as a leading voice in the field of leadership. He teaches and consults widely in North America, the Middle East, and Asia. He is the coauthor of many articles and several important leadership books including Results Based Leadership, Leadership Brand,Leadership Code, and Leadership Sustainability.