Building a talent-rich organization is in fact a multiyear challenge. But three specific steps will not only have an immediate impact on a company's talent supply, they will also lay the foundation for longer-term moves.

• Quantify the leadership gap. A rigorous analytic picture of the gap between the supply of and demand for talent makes the challenge visible. Suddenly the talent issue can no longer be shuffled off to the human resources department; it is now on everyone's agenda, including that of the board.
• Deploy existing talent more effectively. Too many companies suffer from "grade inflation" and don't know who their top performers are. As a result, those individuals may not be in the jobs with the greatest impact on key decisions. Identifying those jobs and filling them with highly skilled individuals can have a big impact on performance.
• Reduce the demand for talent. Organizations that simplify their processes and clearly spell out accountabilities can simultaneously lower costs and reduce the need for specialized skills. One South Africa-based mining company, for example, standardized production methods, equipment, engineering, and so forth across all its mines and processing plants, making it easier for less-experienced managers to get up to speed when they took over a new facility. That increased the available pool of managers and allowed higher-skilled people to take on jobs with larger spans of control.

These steps help leaders address their talent challenges quickly. They also build longer-term commitment for the actions that take more time to bear fruit - changing recruiting strategies, building new training and mentoring programs, and the like.

To find out more about Bain's work in this capability area, please contact the Organization practice.