Publications

Educators

March 2025
Article

Global Talent and Economic Success

By: William R. Kerr

Access to top performers sets an upper bound on a country’s aspirations View Details

Keywords: Immigration; Talent and Talent Management

July–September 2014
Article

Investing in Superstars: Lessons from the World of Football [¿Cómo Invertir en Superestrellas? Lecciones del Mundo del Fútbol]

By: Anita Elberse

Markets for soccer players are winner-take-all markets in which a select few top players earn extremely high rewards. The search for effective talent strategies in these conditions has led clubs to pursue a superstar-acquisition model, a talent-development model, or a... View Details

Keywords: Sports Management; Talent Management; Talent and Talent Management; Sports; Sports Industry; Europe; Latin America

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Supplement

GE's Talent Machine: The Making of a CEO

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

CEO Jeff Immelt, ex-CEO Jack Welch, and HR Chief Bill Conaty discuss how GE has made talent development a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Immelt describes GE's deeply embedded philosophy around its people and how it has allowed the company to add value... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Business or Company Management; Performance Capacity; Performance Effectiveness; Competitive Advantage; System; Value

05 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Developing Black Talent for Leadership

College, and dozens of majority Black talent development organizations like Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), have prepared Black professionals to thrive in spite of covert and overt racism for... View Details

Web

The Gift of Global Talent

Research Research The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy & Society By: William R. Kerr By: William R. Kerr The global race for talent is on, with countries and businesses competing for the best and brightest.... View Details

01 Feb 2019
News

The Gift of Global Talent

24 May 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Digital Labor Markets and Global Talent Flows

Keywords: by John Horton, William R. Kerr, and Christopher Stanton

13 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

Breaking Through the Self-Doubt That Keeps Talented Women from Leading

There it is, gleaming at the top of your LinkedIn feed: your dream job, a high-level, well-paying position in your field. Are you qualified enough? Should you apply? New research shows that women might be less likely to take that chance than men. View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

2015
Chapter

Leave No Slice of Genius Behind: Selecting and Developing Tomorrow's Leaders of Innovation

By: Linda A. Hill

More than ever, leaders of nearly every kind of organization view their human resources teams as essential to institutional well-being and long-term growth and sustainability. That's the central and animating theme of "The Rise of HR: Wisdom from 73 Thought Leaders," a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Talent Management; Talent Development And Retention; Innovation Leadership; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Leadership; Leadership Development

Find at Harvard

04 May 2021
Cold Call Podcast

Reversing Brain Drain: Moving Talent to Middle America

Keywords: Re: Prithwiraj Choudhury

2023
Working Paper

Polarizing Corporations: Does Talent Flow to "Good" Firms?

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Tim McQuade, Gabriel Ramos, Thomas Rauter and Olivia Xiong

We conduct a field experiment in partnership with the largest job platform in Brazil to study how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices of firms affect talent allocation. We find both an average job-seeker’s preference for ESG and a large degree of... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Job Search; Talent and Talent Management; Wages; Attitudes

January 2022 (Revised October 2023)
Case

OneTen: One Million Careers for Black Talent (A)

By: Boris Groysberg, V. Kasturi Rangan, Annelena Lobb and Kerry Herman

The OneTen case study examines the nonprofit organization’s origin story. Its founding team includes a roster of corporate superstars—Ken Chenault (former CEO of American Express), Ken Frazier (former CEO of Merck), Charles Phillips (chair of Infor), Ginni Rometty... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Demographics; Ethics; Organizations; Social Enterprise; Society; Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations

Educators

01 Dec 2017
News

Research Brief: Developing High-Tech Talent

How should employers and workers adapt to the new demands in today’s technologically driven workforce? Two recent reports by HBS professor Joseph Fuller examine innovative paths to training and building talent pipelines. The first report... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

October 2014 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Sanford C. Bernstein Goes to Asia

By: Linda A. Hill, Dana M. Teppert and Allison J. Wigen

Sanford C. Bernstein, a premier sell-side research firm, is expanding globally. Three years after launching Bernstein's Asian business, senior management has appointed Ghislain de Charentenay, a six-year sales veteran of the firm, as director of Asian research in Hong... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Talent Management; Leadership; Talent and Talent Management; Organizational Design; Emerging Markets; Globalization; Hong Kong

Educators

29 May 2013
News

Talent Management: Boards Give Their Companies an "F"

24 Apr 2014
News

Nurturing talent for the best results

Venkatesh Iyer (PLDA 14, 2013) talks about nurturing the talents of those around him to get the best results in business and in the nonprofit sector. (Published April 2014) View Details

24 Jul 2023
News

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

24 Mar 2023
News

Exploring Talent Markets; Aid for Turkey

Clubs News Clubs News Toronto Alumni Explore Shift in Talent Markets On February 9, the HBS Club of Toronto held an in-person fireside chat and Q&A with Ethan Bernstein, Edward W. Conrad Association Professor of Business Administration,... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

2017
Working Paper

Digital Labor Markets and Global Talent Flows

By: John Horton, William R. Kerr and Christopher Stanton

Digital labor markets are rapidly expanding and connecting companies and contractors on a global basis. We review the environment in which these markets take root, the micro- and macro-level studies of their operations, their ongoing evolution and recent trends, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Talent and Talent Management; Labor