"Develop for Tomorrow's Needs"

Excerpt from Chapter 40: Plan for the Future

“There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as ‘nutty methods.’ Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as ‘a complete waste of time.’" Scott Adams

In business today, we face significant challenges in putting the right people in the right jobs with the right leaders. And if leaders do not improve their ability to predict their future and build the workforce capabilities accordingly, resilience will be lost.

The Global Human Capital Study was released in October of 2007 – the result of collaboration between the Economist Intelligence Unit and IBM Institute for Business Value. In the study, 400 human resources executives from 40 countries provided input. Report findings included:

• 75 percent of HR executives say they are concerned with their ability to develop future leaders.
• 52 percent of HR executives say a significant workforce related challenge facing their organization is the inability to rapidly develop skills to address current and/or future business needs.
• More than one-third of study participants state their employee skills are not aligned with current organizational priorities.