Question: What advise would you give the CEO and which methods would you suggest he/she use to identify internal managerial talent? Why?
Exercises: 1. Strategy Exercise: Working in groups of three to five students, read the following vignette and develop some suggestions for the company based on the material you read in this chapter. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class.
Twisted is a small company with big dreams. The shopping mall-oriented hot pretzel company has successfully grown its revenues by a rate of 10 percent annually over the last 10 years. Twisted wants to sustain its growth rate in the years ahead. The company has traditionally hired new store managers from outside of the company.
However, in the last few years, it has had a difficult time recruiting enough of these people. The CEO feels that there are probably a large number of employees who might make good managers. However, the company has no good internal assessment systems in place to identify them. The CEO asks your group to help the firm identify internal managerial talent so it can continue to pursue its growth strategy. What methods would you suggest for doing so?
2. Develop Your Skills Exercise: This chapter's Develop Your Skills feature describes how to create a career developmentplan. It is never too soon to identify your short- and long-term career goals and analyze what skills, experiences, and other things you need to do to obtain your goals. Your assignment is to create your own career development plan that focuses on one- and five-year time horizons. Your action plan should include realistic activities that you can undertake to enhance your ability to meet the career goals you identify.
3. Opening Vignette Exercise: In this chapter's opening vignette, you learned how Fluor combines succession management and career development .to ensure a solid talent pipeline of project managers and senior executives. Working in a group of three to five stu-dents, reread the vignette. Be prepared to share with your class your answers to the following questions:
a. Why do you think that Fluor's internal assessment and development system is so successful?
b. What additional ideas do you have that could help Fluorfillas many internal positions as possible with its current employees?