The term ‘talent management’ has been around for quite some time, but definitions abound around the globe, applications are varied, and a plethora of measures—most tactical—are currently
being used. Furthermore, while senior executives have begun to embrace ‘talent management,’ they are often embracing different things. Many have appointed Chief Talent Officers with widely
differing responsibilities; some focus only on leader development,others on various employment stages from hiring to retention, and still others focus on organizational design and processes. While multinationals seemingly desire to standardize such definition and applications, this author has found multiple uses of the term across U.S., European, and Asian operations of the same firm for example.Putting aside all the confusion, here is a key question: Is talent
management a unique concept or simply a new label for the ‘‘old wine’’ of leader development, succession, on-boarding, training, and so forth?