Talent Development Council

Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage Through Talent Strategy

Overview

The Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M University will form the Talent Development Council to identify and advance talent best practices, practical methods, and applied tools for Distributors to implement. The Talent Development Council will act as a best practice sharing, learning and networking forum for distributors from various channels. Each year, the Council will focus on one talent area. For 2019, the focus area will be Talent Acquisition.

Human resources are the most significant factor in distributor success and speed of growth. The value of talent within a company is often underestimated; people are not on the balance sheet and only listed on the profit and loss statement as an expense. Distributors have expended tremendous energy in optimizing operations with information technology, facility development, inventory control, transportation management, and so forth, but human resources are often left behind due to a lack of resources for training, a poor understanding of the return-on-investment (ROI) for human resources development, and the perception that people are more expendable than other assets within the business. Distributors struggle with recruiting, developing and retaining talent, and they also experience challenges with developing a leadership pipeline for growth and succession. Successful distributors understand the importance of acquiring, developing, motivating and retaining talented employees.