The talent neglect. Inefficiency in the career market.
"The team you build is the company you build" - Vinod Khosla
Chris Sacca previously spoke about how 50% of the CEO's time should be focused on hiring.
I think Sam Altman makes a good point on the progression where in the beginning the CEO has to be focused on the product. Make a great product that people will want. Get that product market fit.
With a product, you can start printing money now. It's here where the CEO must move from building a product to building a company. To build a company the CEO needs to prioritize hiring the right people to the company and that is where the priority must shift.
Given how essential this component is, it is a wonder how the Talent realm seems to be so neglected.
When I say neglected, the inefficiency I see is in what the 'brightest' and 'high performers' want. Show me a HR job with a resume line longer than a McKinsey consulting job. I don't think one exists. Wherever you look, the line up for consulting or finance jobs will always be longer than talent.
This is one very obvious inefficiency in the market. Because what's happened is: you get a lot of smart people who end up becoming burdened into a system of brands and social opinion. Yet, the ones who would potentially hire the top candidates do not understand this and will rely on the social perception to guide them.
It's chicken or the egg. How do you shift the prestige, social perception and pay to reflect the importance of the job?
What I'm saying is: roles like talent require much more judgment and thought than it gets respect for. Yet, the many who seek a role with more judgment and thought go pounding excels and correcting punctuations on powerpoints.
Most talent roles in fast growing companies rely on linking up managing responses and linking job descriptions to Linkedin, Ziprecruiter or some other "job site". That is no way to build a high performing team. If you're trying to build a company from scratch, you bet having a high performing team is way more important than a 10,000 person investment bank.
I have yet to learn of a great company that succeeded on the backs of consultants and bankers.
It's a problem. One I do see shifting over time. People are anything but rational. But, it would seem almost inevitable to have the 'talent' function be one of the most important compartments. With technology automating everything, human creativity will become the sole asset of future companies. As such, the role of acquiring and cultivating such people will become the primary role of the CEO and leadership team.
Did You Enjoy This Post?
JOIN THE COMMUNITY BY SUBSCRIBING TO THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
INCLUDED IN THE NEWSLETTER ARE:
MONDAY’S WEEKLY “THIS WEEK I LEARNED”
TUESDAY’S WEEKLY ESSAY
WEDNESDAY’S WEEKLY ACCOUNTED FOR PODCAST
THURSDAY’S OCCASIONAL BOOK NOTE OF A BOOK I READ RECENTLY