I often get hired to lead a specific marketing initiative for a mid-size firm. After I have worked with a particular executive for several months and trust has been established they often ask me to candidly tell them what I think the biggest issues at their company are. I almost never tell them it’s their marketing, or their lack of good IT systems. The biggest issues at mid-size firms are always related to their people: generally they have the wrong people in some key positions, they have no processes that identify talent during the hiring process and they have poor processes for managing talent within their organization. As such they have many people working in areas which they lack the talent for. This leads to low employee engagement which leads to poor customer service, low customer loyalty and ultimately puts a huge damper on profitability year after year.

So even though my primary practice is in helping mid-size firms grow profit using internet marketing, I have developed a secondary practice in employee engagement and talent management. Why? Because in the long run it will have a greater impact on profitability than any marketing strategy will.  Gallup calls it the Gallup Path and the graphic above shows you the powerful linkage between talent management and sustainable profitability.

If you are an executive and are interested in a roadmap to sustainable profitability through managing your talent then the seminal works on this topic are a series of books put out by the Gallup organization. They are international best sellers and I give these books to executives more than any other business book. It’s most helpful to read the books in order starting with First, Break all the Rules and then moving on in the order below. They come in both book and audiobook form.