More importantly, effective management of global talent challenges will enable firms to balance their talent needs for the short term and position their needs for the longer term.As firms move to identify their global talent challenges they face many choices. These need to be linked with the needs and directions of a firm’s strategy and its talent strategy. A significant hurdle in doing this all effectively may simply be the need for firms to be relentless in their efforts to effectively manage global talent. When success is achieved in the short term, new HR policies and practices will soon be required simply to stay one step ahead of competitors. For the HR profession, an immediate challenge is to continually assess and to understand the forces and shape that create global talent challenges, develop systems that are tailored to address a particular firm’s specific global talent challenges, and work in partnership with the senior management team ensure a close linkage between HR policies and practices for global talent management initiatives and the strategic objectives of the global talent challenges and the firm.