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The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers
"The Talent Masters" itself stems from a unique marriage of talents. Bill Conaty, in the course of a 40-year career at General Electric, worked closely with CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt to build the company's internationally renowned talent machine. Ram Charan is the legendary advisor to companies around the world. Here they combine their unparalleled experience and insight to create a blueprint for talent development, and to show how critical it is to the continuing and future success of every business. They the essential skill that lasts - why talent management guarantees future results in a way that short-term financial success and market share cannot; secrets of the masters - how world-class companies achieve their stellar performance decade after decade by finding and nurturing leadership talent; the importance of knowledge - why knowing and understanding your talent and reviewing it systematically is the foundation for creating a steady, self-renewing stream of leaders for all levels of your organization - from first-line supervisors to the CEO; and, the Talent Masters tool kit - specific guidelines that will help you assess and improve your company's talent mastery capabilities.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
55 people are currently reading
644 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 29, 2012
Because the book is the first one I read in the field of HR, I learned a lot. It gaves me some insight I didn't take it from my years of study in HR courses in my University.
All stories was too much detailed, but the descriptive style of the authors when writing about the HR systems in each company was helpful. Yet much of the case studies had the same lessons but from aspect, because of that, the toolkit at the end of the book (about 50 pages) serves as a good review of the lessons in the book, but doesn't give you the details of the system explained in each chapter.
As said from the one of the reviews on amazon, Ram Charan, didn't choose the best company that have an outstanding record in performance because of people, but what he did instead, was choosing the companies that he well know from his consulting experience. So, the back lacks the numbers and metrics that answers: why these companies not other companies?
At last: The best chapters I liked were chapter 3 and 8, while part 3 of the book (chapter 9 & 10 & 11) was the worst.
note: I summarized most of the book for my HR professor as my course project, I thank him for giving me the opportunity to focus in what will add to my knowledge more than most of other projects I did in my university.
All stories was too much detailed, but the descriptive style of the authors when writing about the HR systems in each company was helpful. Yet much of the case studies had the same lessons but from aspect, because of that, the toolkit at the end of the book (about 50 pages) serves as a good review of the lessons in the book, but doesn't give you the details of the system explained in each chapter.
As said from the one of the reviews on amazon, Ram Charan, didn't choose the best company that have an outstanding record in performance because of people, but what he did instead, was choosing the companies that he well know from his consulting experience. So, the back lacks the numbers and metrics that answers: why these companies not other companies?
At last: The best chapters I liked were chapter 3 and 8, while part 3 of the book (chapter 9 & 10 & 11) was the worst.
note: I summarized most of the book for my HR professor as my course project, I thank him for giving me the opportunity to focus in what will add to my knowledge more than most of other projects I did in my university.
November 19, 2011
It's a decent book. It does a good job of telling the stories and pulling out some principles behind them. However, as others have noted, it's really focused on large, multi-national companies and does not do a good job of showing good practices for smaller organizations.
The writing style of their case studies can be a little difficult. There are a lot of names abbreviations and departments to remember. I think they could revise those to make them easier to follow.
The writing style of their case studies can be a little difficult. There are a lot of names abbreviations and departments to remember. I think they could revise those to make them easier to follow.
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March 18, 2013Great Book!
April 22, 2018
Most of this book is written in the context of a CEO or a business leader, but there are nuggets in here which are applicable to every manager.
May 1, 2023
First time delving into book on HR, specifically talent management, succession planning, & leadership. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this as this was a recommendation, but I'm glad I read it. It was fascinating to read about how succession planning works at GE, HUL, P&G, and how other orgs can implement similar procedures. Plenty of takeaways from this and I look forward to revisiting this in a few years.
February 21, 2017
Excellent book on a topical issue. Lots of detailed examples.
February 3, 2011
First section provides insight into GE's personnel practices: continuous involvement of senior executives in watching/managing the careers of those below them, particularly the rising stars. Session C process (operations reviews always include personnel/talent discussions). Advocates creating an environment of trust and candor (the one necessary for the other) in personnel and business reviews/decisions and stresses the importance of intimacy. Provides overview of Crotonville and GE's culture. Cites successions of Welch and former head of GE appliances as examples of how the GE personnel model works so well.
Second section on Hindustan Unilever talks about the hiring process (heavy involvement of senior executives; group interviewing to assess leadership potential/interpersonal skills) and the BLT program (management trainees), which is a 15-18 month training program involving challenging rotations which sometimes include serious stretch assignments in rural India. "Listers" concept -- top managers at the firm (deliver both the how - mentoring - and the what - bottom line results). Personnel reviews are very easy because the senior leadership of the firm is so familiar with all of the other managers (they often travel to see them). Young CEOs (40s) and fast promotions for the top talent stimulates performance.
Bottom lines: need to focus on talent management consistently/constantly, not just when you need to hire somebody new. Need to have good situational awareness of available talent, within and outside your organization, to facilitate promoting/hiring the right people when vacancies emerge.
Audiobook.
Second section on Hindustan Unilever talks about the hiring process (heavy involvement of senior executives; group interviewing to assess leadership potential/interpersonal skills) and the BLT program (management trainees), which is a 15-18 month training program involving challenging rotations which sometimes include serious stretch assignments in rural India. "Listers" concept -- top managers at the firm (deliver both the how - mentoring - and the what - bottom line results). Personnel reviews are very easy because the senior leadership of the firm is so familiar with all of the other managers (they often travel to see them). Young CEOs (40s) and fast promotions for the top talent stimulates performance.
Bottom lines: need to focus on talent management consistently/constantly, not just when you need to hire somebody new. Need to have good situational awareness of available talent, within and outside your organization, to facilitate promoting/hiring the right people when vacancies emerge.
Audiobook.
February 21, 2012
The Talent Masters: Bill Conaty and Ram Charan
Central Truths
1. Talent will be the big differentiator between companies that succeed and those that do not.
2. Deeper, more accurate knowledge is the key to high-quality decision about leaders.
3. Talent is the single most important key to longevity.
4. Being a talent master is a total leadership job, rather than the sole province of HR.
5. A strategy can only succeed when the right people conceive and execute it.
6. Recruiting is the most critical phase in a talent management process.
7. Capacity is the ability to get more of the same work done.
8. Capability is achieving more through doing a higher level of work; expands cognitive bandwidth and produces higher levels of leadership.
Application
1. Talent masters don’t rely on a battery of tests to assess talent. Instead, they:
a. Study the behavior, actions, and decisions of individuals.
b. Observations are rigorous
c. Dig to understand an individual’s unique combination of traits
d. Build a depth of knowledge about people
2. Obtain insights through observing the person’s actions, decisions, and behaviors
3. Identify, find, and develop people through predictable, consistent, repetitive processes that develop candor and trust.
4. Excel at observing and listening.
Central Truths
1. Talent will be the big differentiator between companies that succeed and those that do not.
2. Deeper, more accurate knowledge is the key to high-quality decision about leaders.
3. Talent is the single most important key to longevity.
4. Being a talent master is a total leadership job, rather than the sole province of HR.
5. A strategy can only succeed when the right people conceive and execute it.
6. Recruiting is the most critical phase in a talent management process.
7. Capacity is the ability to get more of the same work done.
8. Capability is achieving more through doing a higher level of work; expands cognitive bandwidth and produces higher levels of leadership.
Application
1. Talent masters don’t rely on a battery of tests to assess talent. Instead, they:
a. Study the behavior, actions, and decisions of individuals.
b. Observations are rigorous
c. Dig to understand an individual’s unique combination of traits
d. Build a depth of knowledge about people
2. Obtain insights through observing the person’s actions, decisions, and behaviors
3. Identify, find, and develop people through predictable, consistent, repetitive processes that develop candor and trust.
4. Excel at observing and listening.
April 17, 2011
This book was also written by the celebrated business consultant Ram Charan (who co-wrote "Executiion" with Larry Bossidy). Charan teams up with former GE Head of Human Resources Bill Conaty (who helped put into place GE's vaunted internal leadership development programs at Crotonvill, New York).
The book is broken into essentialy two segments: The first part is focused solely on GE. We are given an in-depth of how GE eveluates high potential employees for senior management positions, how GE deals with senior management when business expectations are not met, etc.
The second half of the book is essentially a series of case studies of other corporations and how they have developed talent around the world. This includes P&G, Unilever, Unicredito and Agilent.
A good book but very much geared for managers at enormous institutions such as GE or P&G. I did appreciate being given the inside veiw of GE's "way" - and helps demystify how and why they have produced so many CEOs. In short, it is a lot of hard work and the humility to ask the hard, seemingly uncomfortable questions. That in itself is an excellent lesson to take away from this book.
The book is broken into essentialy two segments: The first part is focused solely on GE. We are given an in-depth of how GE eveluates high potential employees for senior management positions, how GE deals with senior management when business expectations are not met, etc.
The second half of the book is essentially a series of case studies of other corporations and how they have developed talent around the world. This includes P&G, Unilever, Unicredito and Agilent.
A good book but very much geared for managers at enormous institutions such as GE or P&G. I did appreciate being given the inside veiw of GE's "way" - and helps demystify how and why they have produced so many CEOs. In short, it is a lot of hard work and the humility to ask the hard, seemingly uncomfortable questions. That in itself is an excellent lesson to take away from this book.
September 25, 2012
Good number of case studies to indicate that talent management is a key aspect of people management and also business management.
In a detailed way, it goes about a leaders background, and gives anecdotes of thrusting faith on potential leaders, and says that good talent will always thrive in trying situations, and to know if one is a leader, give them challenges.
While its is prescriptive like any other management tome, It also gives a step by step procedure on holding talent reviews, which otherwise wouldnt be covered in books.
My takeaway has been that in building large organizations, while we focus on core competency on the products, services, supply chains, people get missed out, and it is the customized talent engagement processes, that has strengthened companies to compete in all times.
May 20, 2013
Still going through it
Picked it up expecting to read more about the systems of the handpicked companies the author duo calls the Talent Masters for their talent principles and practices.
Started with Goodyear (for no apparent reason other than being fed up of reading about GE and P&G in this area).
For now, not very impressed. Insight part is missing.
However will continue reading to see if there's something new and insightful. Good read for non people oriented managers/ leaders or HR students. Not so much recommended for experienced HR professionals.
Picked it up expecting to read more about the systems of the handpicked companies the author duo calls the Talent Masters for their talent principles and practices.
Started with Goodyear (for no apparent reason other than being fed up of reading about GE and P&G in this area).
For now, not very impressed. Insight part is missing.
However will continue reading to see if there's something new and insightful. Good read for non people oriented managers/ leaders or HR students. Not so much recommended for experienced HR professionals.
January 11, 2014
Even though this book contains sound advice and some great ideas, I can't help my self-interest-alarm from going off time and again. When a name gets dropped that did a wonderful job, check the cover of the book to see who the author is. In the final chapter, it all comes together: all companies and wonderful leaders have a direct connection to the author, and the companies he's helped.
He's probably correct, but he could be more upfront about it.
He's probably correct, but he could be more upfront about it.
October 19, 2012
Offers a very good insight into how corporations manage their Talent. The speed at which leaders are replaced if they wish to step down. Very good read if you are beginning to understand how to manage your teams.
May 10, 2015
Talent masters is a good book for business professionals who want to understand the talent philosophy of great organisations , how they think and what makes them different. For HR professionals who are expecting to use this one in their own context, it may not rightly serve a practical purpose.
July 9, 2015
This book gave me a lot of insight into how an organization needs to truly embrace talent building with as much intensity as sales, finance, operations..etc A book I keep referring to for suggestions of change at my workplace and to lead me to more material along the lines of talent development..
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January 22, 2016The best I've seen in illustrating effective ways to bring talent and leadership development to life in a organization. It is instructive and shares many insightful field examples on the aligning of people development to the core of the business with simplicity, rigor and depth.
March 26, 2011
I expected more than just stories about GE. some good stuff, but how does one implement these practices if they don't have a Jack Welch and are not the size of GE?
December 28, 2012
Conaty and Charan present a convincing argument for a rigorous, top-down approach to Talent Management. Definitely worth the read.
June 3, 2011
Well written book on Talent Management. In summary, people are your bottomline.
February 19, 2012
one time read!
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May 17, 2013Excellent insights!
September 3, 2013
So far I liked it! Always look forward to read books on such subjects!!!
June 22, 2014
I think it is a must-read for any HR professional.
April 16, 2018
This is truly a ‘Bible’ on talent leadership development. It should adopted widely as the main standard for talent management!
October 25, 2020
if you are an experienced manager, this book unlikely to add anything new
April 22, 2011
So far I love it
March 31, 2013
A good look at the cutting edge of the HR world. I now want to read more books like it.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews