If you think you're facing a skills shortage now...

THURSDAY, 27 DECEMBER 2012

If you think  the recruitment industry is facing challenging times sourcing best-fit talent in in 2012, according to McKinsey the global skills shortage is about to take a turn for the worse.

New research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) suggests that by 2020, the world could have 40 million too few college-educated workers and that developing economies may face a shortfall of 45 million workers with secondary-school educations and vocational training. In advanced economies, up to 95 million workers could lack the skills needed for employment.

Read the full report here:

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Talent_tensions_ahead_A_CEO_briefing_3033

Customer experience management technologies shape business strategies

Customer experience management technologies shape business strategies:

This is one of those articles that you read and it gets you thinking...  What other industries could benefit from paying more attention to customer experience options and providing more customer tailoring of their products.  Already companies like BMW Mini enable people to pick thousands of style choices.  Could you EVEN BE a major industry supplier 10 years from now and not provide rich customer self-service configuration and an option pallet as long as the phone book?

I.

The Importance of Adaptability For Competitive Advantage

The ability of businesses to adapt to change faster than their competitive peers is the fundamental step-change that caused me to write my first book 'Agilization' - that describes the process of change from a 20th century organizational design to a more agile model.

In this report published in 2011, Boston Consulting Group partners Martin Reeves and Mike Deimler provide some excellent insights in the need to adapt organization designs to something new.

I.

HBR Adaptability Report

10 Items For Your 2013 Stategic Plan | Business 2 Community

10 Items For Your 2013 Stategic Plan | Business 2 Community:

This is a good list of 'thoughts' on Social Media and how to turn it into value for businesses. I like the idea of a Social Audit. I also think companies need to think more about how they can use Social Media as a tool for sharing business insights and underpinning their brand ideology across their business.

I.

At last! Someone else championing the cause for 'hard factors' of change

For some time now I've been concerned that the change management industry has adopted a myopic focus on the softer sides of organizational change - people, culture, learning - and has all but dismissed the harder factors - like systems, processes, structures and the contribution of strategic relationships and key assets - that are easier to measure and play a fundamental building block role in my view to the outcome of a change programme.

This article by the Harvard Business Review re-sets this balance (not suggesting that the softer issues are not important you understand, just that they're not the ONLY things managers should think about!

I.

The hard side of change management