Companies retooling for today’s changing world worry about successfully recruiting and retaining the right talent. Close to 75 per cent of executives surveyed by Bain & Company expect that the skills and capabilities required for their businesses to succeed will change over the next five to 10 years. Yet, they estimate that less than half of their best talent possess the critical capabilities their most important roles will require.

Our research has found, however, that most companies do not actually require a massive influx of new ‘A’ talent to succeed, and that top-performing companies typically have no more A-level talent than their competitors. What sets these top companies apart is how they deploy that talent. They are much more likely than competitors to have their A talent in their business-critical roles.