The War for Talent

In our view, these companies - the ones that are complacent about talent - are the ones that have the most to lose and that are most at risk. They are the least innovative, the least aggressive. They are reluctant to promote people early on, to recruit in different ways, to take action to move their average players to the sidelines and their best players to the forefront.

And the companies that are most likely to succeed are the ones that spend the most energy on attracting, developing, and retaining talent - the companies that are the most restless, the most dissatisfied, the most nervous, the most paranoid. So, as the war for talent intensifies, the gap between the winners and the losers will probably get wider and wider.

Charles Fishman cnfish@mindspring.com is an extremely talented Fast Company contributing editor. Ed Michaels ed_michaels@mckinsey.com , a director of McKinsey & Co. in Atlanta, has been with the firm for 28 years.