2.5 Talent Management and Organization Performance
Talent-management practices can create the most permanent competitive advantages, new technologies and
innovations can be easily be replicated by competitors and generate only temporary competitive advantages.
Sustained competitive advantage comes from talent management practices in other words, how the organization
attracts, develops, retains, motivates, manages, and rewards its talent. (Heimen et al, 2004) Like a machine, a
business will fail to operate successfully if key elements such as processes, systems, and structure are misaligned
or hindered by friction between those element and like a machine, a business must be designed, operated, and
maintained. These functions are performed by the talent – the human capital employed by the enterprise. Indeed,
talent (i.e., an organization’s employees), typically is the single biggest lever for driving improvements in
business performance. The collective skills of the talent employed in an organization largely comprise the
organization’s core capabilities. An organization’s talent injects capabilities that are very difficult for competitors
to benchmark and replicate. More than any other asset, talent provides the potential for long-term competitive
advantage (Lawler, 2008).