The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers

Bill Conaty · Ram Charan

Nov 2010 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Bob Walter

About this audiobook

If talent is the leading indicator of whether a business is up or down, a success or a failure (and it is) . . . do you know how to accurately judge raw human talent? Understand a person's unique combination of traits? Develop that talent? Convert what supposedly are "soft" subjective judgments about people into objective criteria that are as specific, verifiable, and concrete as the contents of a financial statement?
     The talent masters do. They put people before numbers for the simple reason that it is talent that delivers the numbers. Success comes from those who are able to extract meaning from events and the forces affecting a business, and are able to look at the world and assess the risks to take and the risks to avoid.
     The Talent Masters itself stems from a unique combination of talent: During a forty-year career at General Electric, Bill Conaty worked closely with CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt to build that company's worldrenowned talent machine. Ram Charan is the legendary advisor to companies around the world. Together they use their unparalleled experience and insight to write the definitive book on talent—a breakthrough in how to take a business to the next level:

• Secrets of the masters. The specifics on how companies regarded as world-class—GE, P&G, Hindustan Unilever (and others)—base their stellar performance decade after decade on their systems for finding and nurturing leadership talent.
• Intimate and systemic. Why deep knowledge and intimacy with your talent and a systemic rhythm of reviews are the foundation for creating a steady, selfrenewing stream of leaders for all levels of an organization—from first-line supervisors to the CEO.
• The competency that lasts. Financial results, market share, brand, and legacy products all have a half-life that seems to grow shorter by the year. Talent is the only competency that endures.
• What to do Monday morning. The Talent Masters tool kit provides the specific guidelines for assessing and improving your company’s talent mastery capabilities.

About the author

Bill Conaty is an American businessman and author. He was the main human resources officer for General Electric from 1993 to 2007 and chaired the National Academy of Human Resources and the Human Resource Policy Association. He departed GE in 2007 and founded Conaty Consulting. He is on the Board of Directors for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and the Board of his alma mater, Bryant University. He is the coauthor, with Ram Charan, of The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers.

Ram Charan is a highly acclaimed business adviser, speaker, and author, well known for his practical, real-world perspective. He was a Baker Scholar at Harvard Business School where he earned his MBA degree with distinction, as well as his DBA. Charan is the author of What the CEO Wants You to Know, Profitable Growth Is Everyone’s Business, The Leadership Pipeline, and Boards at Work. His articles have appeared in Fortune and Harvard Business Review.

Bob Walter is a founding member of the Company Theater who, for the last 20 years, has been a leading creator of audiobooks. In addition to producing and directing some of the finest readers in the business, he is now a reader himself for such leading publishers as Penguin Random House.