【正文】 evels of success. Some were old, some were new, all were large, and all were ranked in the top twofifth’s of their respective industries. The chief executive officers (CEOs) and their direct reports, some 359 total executives, were questioned about the strengths of their panies’ talent pool and ways to improve it. Personal interviews were done with many of the top executives of each pany plus all senior human resources executives about the way their panies manage their top talent. Twenty panies were chosen to study in depth. Some were chosen because of their reputation for superior talent (General Electric, HewlettPackard, Merck), while others were chosen for their meteoric growth and performance (Amgen, Medtronic, Baan, The Home Depot). Still others were chosen because they deserve the most improved award or have perfected an approach such as talent building through an acquisitions strategy. All were topquintile performers and all have a reputation for strong talent. A strange problem exists when analyzing War for Talent issues. The bottom line is that talent matters, but defining the set of criteria for successful mid to highlevel talent varies for each pany and may even vary for panies within a given industry. Talent and/or the intangible asset that it creates is proving to be more critical than tangible assets such as financial capital or physical plants or even intangibles like brand and market position. Companies are creating their own talent pools now based more on their ability to create a highly sought after culture. Today, panies are slowly realizing that their value proposition is not always in its size or past reputation. They are realizing that people make the pany. Kevin Sharer of Amgen stated, “The scarce resource is talent…I’m paranoid…if you don’t have the right talent, you’re lost.” Most panies are ill prepared to wage the necessary battles, but they are ing to resolution with the fact that there is an escalating War for Talent. Those panies willing to adopt new and innovative techniques will gain an advantage over those panies using past winning approaches. The old way is no longer the best way. Research conducted by the United Nations indicated that there was a decreasing population of 3544 yearolds over the next 15 years. The same holds true for 2534 yearolds. In light of the fact that the economy is projected to grow at a minimum of 3% of Gross Domestic Product per year, the resulting talent shortfall could be very substantial. The laws of supply and demand take over very quickly especially in an unbalanced environment. We can already see the war in some industries such as high technology and information technology.A survey released by the Information Technology Association of America reported that employers created demand for million new hightech positions this year. With demand far outstripping supply, half of these positions about 843,000 jobs will go unfilled. That means one in every dozen of the 10 million jobs in the . informationtechnology industry will be vacant. Four factors will plicate the War for Talent. First, the traditional or old social contract (Figure 1) is being overe by a new social contract (Figure 2). Talent used to be pany loyal and geographically mobile, but that trend has shifted to the more geographically loyal (with dual career families) and pany mobile. This really means talent will bee more elusive to capture and retain (Figure 3). Also, employees are passively seeking other employment opportunities. Given the right set of circumstances, an employee will change jobs without any concern for loyalty (Figure 4). Certain groups are looking for something different than corporate America traditionally offers: independently wealthy executives, professional mothers, GenXers looking for a more balanced lifestyle and/or a faster track. The second factor highlights the attraction of small panies. These panies have taken advantage of their access to capital and the decreasing economies of scale to create panies capable of peting with big panies for critical talent. These panies offer many of the things only the larger panies once offered with one exception. With many of these small panies es an increased level of risk. Talent pools today are not risk averse. They are willing to lay it on the line for an opportunity at the fast track a