The Evolving Global Talent Pool, Lessons from the BRIC Countries
On October 30th, 2009, Levin announced the completion of a research project that studied the dynamics of global scientific and technical talent. Launched in 2005, a global team of researchers, each with in-depth knowledge and understanding of the role of talent in driving economic growth, technological development, and innovation, completed a series of comparative studies of talent pools in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Singapore (BRICS for short).
Click here to read the Executive Summary. Click here to read the Nature story on the Global Talent Pool study.
When examined as a whole, the data and analysis contained in this project has surfaced the following conclusions and recommendations.
1. Talent has become an increasingly key strategic asset for both nations and corporations.
2. While overall HRST figures suggest a relative fit between the supply and demand of talent, real-life circumstances suggest otherwise.
3. In essence, the talent shortage is largely manifested in a shortage of qualified talent.
4. The on-going talent shortage could become (and to some extent already has become) a significant obstacle to economic growth and the pursuit of innovation in emerging economies.
5. One of the major challenges associated with comparing the talent situation across the BRICS economies derives from the fact that talent definitions are different from country to country; this renders it difficult,if not impossible in some instances, to make direct comparisons across countries.
Further work on talent definition, granularity, and especiallyquality should be undertaken, perhaps involving organizations like the World Bank, OECD, UNESCO and major international corporations, who would benefit from greater clarity.
In summary, by gathering a broad array of hard-to-find information, the Global Talent Pool project has achieved an important result in terms of yielding a detailed stocking of the technical talent present in the BRICS countries. It has produced a series of useful comparisons particularly with regard to some of the problematic trends in supply and demand of technical talent. Moreover, taken together, the studies have identified forward-looking trends that not only urge leadership in these countries to take action to meet their talent needs, but also can assist policymakers in the U.S. and Western developed countries better appreciate their competitive challenges. Multinational corporations (MNCs) also should find the five studies useful individually and in aggregate in terms of designing and aligning their global strategies with current talent trends and conditions. It is clear from the studies that the “world is not yet flat” in talent terms—there is more heterogeneity than homogeneity —and despite obvious increases in cross border collaboration and travel, in reality, there is very limited talent mobility across borders.
To learn more, please e-mail Dr. Cong Cao, Research Fellow, Levin Institute.