Asia Inc

AS a new member of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 25 years ago, Dr Hans-Paul Buerkner did not think twice about putting in long hours or working on weekends. No one would even question why they were working so hard. “It wasn’t necessary,” recalls Buerkner, on what was probably a regular attitude towards work back then, not just within the pristine offices of BCG, one of the world’s leading management consultancies and advisers to the biggest corporate names, but elsewhere too.

The report entitled “Creative People Advantage: How to Address HR Challenges Worldwide Through 2015”, was based on a survey of 4,741 executives from 83 countries.

According to the report, managing talent is the most critical human resource challenge worldwide, and will remain at or near the top of executive agendas in every region and industry for the foreseeable future.

While this may be obvious to some companies, it is critical enough to be highlighted more often — companies that have the right talent will gain a competitive advantage.

Buerkner, who holds a doctorate from Oxford University, calls the importance of talent “a foregone conclusion”. In a recent interview with The Edge Singapore, he shares his thoughts on this issue and how BCG is dealing with it. For one, hardworking as its consultants may be, they are discouraged from “boiling oceans”.

The Edge Singapore: Why the focus on talent?
Dr Hans-Paul Buerkner: How well a country does depends on its people. How well a company does also very much depends on its people. Of course, you can also say countries do very well with natural resources — either soft or hard commodities. But if you look at countries like Nigeria for example, it is not sufficient just to have a lot of oil. What you need are the people to translate that wealth into real wealth for everybody. And so many countries that have no natural resources are doing very well, like Singapore, because of your good educational system. Having trained people, skilled people in research, general management, leadership, can more than compensate for having no natural resources even if you live in a very small state. The same argument holds true for companies all around the world — their success or failure depends on people. In reality, every company is in the people business. You can say consulting is a people business, banking is a people business and media too, and I would say even all the manufacturers are in the people business. If you have good people, people who are engaged, motivated, who have high skills, who are innovative, who can be very successful. And if you don’t have that or you neglect your people, you will automatically fail.

I think it is a foregone conclusion. If you look at companies which failed, they are companies with poor leadership, poor quality, poor competitiveness, and so I think the people side has become the focal point for most companies and most societies.