I’ve been bemoaning the talent issue for months – ever since I realized that it was a lot worse than just about everyone^* would like us to think that it is. With the exception of a few brilliant posts on the Spend Management Talent Game (Part I, Part II, and Part III) by The Prophet, and a few posts back in September on Attracting Great Talent the Jack Welch Way and Behaviors Correlated to Performance it seemed as though I stood alone in my belief in the criticality of The Talent War and my continual efforts to convey to you the extreme urgency of The Impending Crunch.

Fortunately, Aberdeen has raised the alarm and both Supply Excellence and the Purchasing Certification Blog have taken up the cause.

Now you can be confident that I’m not just echoing the cries of the recruiting agencies (whose profits are highest when your needs are most desperate) and go out and attack the problem before it attacks you. I still recommend the Talent Acquisition Strategies I laid out previously and would also recommend that you use my other posts in The Talent Series as a starting point for your research in your efforts to define winning strategies.

^* With the exception of the 3^rd party recruiting agencies, of course – but they’ve been crying wolf for so long, it’s often easy to ignore their cries.