Executive summary of the director of Paradigme

LLarch, Enric

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

Talent management or, as our first collaborator, An-
dreu Mas-Colell, a professor at the Pompeu Fabra
University and president of the Barcelona Graduate
School of Economics puts it: «cultivating, securing
and fixing talent» – this is the main content of the
monograph Paradigmes devotes to an intangible as-
set turned a key driver of production in the knowl-
edge society. Doctor Mas-Colell opens the block giv-
ing a general overview over this matter, pointing out
two basic ideas that will be developed in further arti-
cles. First of all, he explains that without a good edu-
cational system potential talent will not become ef-
fective. Secondly, talent lures talent, and he defines
quality of life as a mechanism assisting in setting up
this virtuous circle.
Following Gabriel Ferraté, president of the Institut
Cerdà, «despite talent may have a more or less strong
inborn component, it requires continuous work, hands-on
experience based on trial and error and especially a clear
orientation». As he goes on saying, «we shall not make
wise  (which is also desirable) but talented people: mana-
ging talent, commercial talent, technical talent, adminis-
trative talent, innovating talent, entrepreneurial talent,
marketing talent...».
Roser Salvat and Xavier Marcet believe that «talent
is synonymous with competence, ability, aptitude and
qualification». In their opinion, talent involves knowl-
edge classifiable into three categories: theoretical
knowledge, commonly called knowledge or science,
know-how and discernment or savoir-faire. They fur-
ther point out the difficulty in laying out, deploying
and assessing talent policies to be programmed
«with a ten-year horizon, geared to a large proportion of
the student and working population, as well as ambitious
entrepreneurial strategies on top of tactical policies».
Professor Tom Cannon from the University of Liver-
pool introduces ideopolis, the «city of ideas», «the pla-
ce where those who can choose where to work and live,
choose to work and live». He further explains how sci-
ence and technology parks play a key role in creating
«environments in which entrepreneurial talent that has
migrated can return to work in uniquely supportive envi-
ronments».
Lluís Torner, director of the Institute of Photonic
Sciences, deepens into this rationale and sketches
out a world scenario of what he calls «talent nests»,
characterised by the offer of «higher education and
borderline research as tools to attract and cultivate a cer-
tain type of talent». Catalonia, as the rest of Southern
Europe, still plays a marginal role in such nests.
To finish this first block, Xavier Testar, director of
the BCN: research and innovation programme, states
that Barcelona and Catalonia have the necessary in-
gredients to attract talent but there are still legal and
other obstacles making it difficult to have talented
people settle.
The section on talent and enterprise opens with
 the article by Josep Lladós, vice-rector at the Open
 University of Catalonia, who points out «critical as-
pects in creating an entrepreneurial spirit, such as
 avoiding excessive dislike of risk and disproportionate
punishment of failure as well as the ability to foster crea-
tivity, talent and personal initiative». These points, he
goes on, «need to be well settled long before entering
university».
Ramon Ollé, president of La Salle Business Engi-
neering School and member of the Paradigmes Pub-
lishing Council, deepens into the subject of entrepre-
Talent management6
Executive summary
Talent management
ENRIC LLARCH
neurship. In his opinion, entrepreneurship «not only
means stimulating the creation of new businesses, but we
also need to create favourable environments to allow con-
sistent overall growth of such local initiatives». Hence it
is necessary to focus on quality of such environments
and the support they get, especially as to sufficient
funding in the right moment.
Robert Gili from Alta Partners Capital SGECR deals
with business financing and states: «The main driver
of business success has been historically access to capital.
Now a new decisive factor is coming in: access to talent.
It is very important to point out that talent does not re-
place capital, but they need to go hand in hand.»
Josep Maria Llaurador, a human resource consult-
ant, asserts the need of «identifying talent, knowing
what it means to each company and each area of the or-
ganisation in order to know how to measure it». He fur-
ther states: «Many companies have wrongly believed
that talent is paid with money only, placing economic as-
pects above the rest.»
This second block closes with two significant cases
that have turned talent management into one of
their drivers to success. Salvador Morera, vice-
president and general manager of the Hewlett-
Packard large-scale printing business, points out
that the main condition to attract talented people
to his organisation lies in fitting the candidate’s
professional project into the possibilities of devel-
oping their professional career the company is able
to offer. He also explains the lack of engineering
vocation with an insufficient offer of really quali-
fied jobs so many engineers have to accept posi-
tions with lower qualifications and thus a lower
salary.
Carles Grau, director of Microsoft in Catalonia, ex-
plains in detail the elaborate strategy his company
develops to seize and retain talented people. This
strategy requires, among others, to have a favourable
working climate based on «sharing values inspiring
and fostering a new teamwork style».
The section devoted to talent and education opens
with an article by Enric Roca, professor at the Au-
tonomous University of Barcelona, who states that
our educational system is not prepared to recog-
nise talent, and in doing so it cannot foster nor
take advantage from it. To Roca, it is not about
leaving aside pupils with more needs but «assu-
ming that everybody has learning difficulties if the le-
arning target is to get the maximum performance out
of everybody».
Max Senges from Stanford University, John Seeley-
Brown from the University of Southern California
and Howard Rheingold from British De Montfort
University reflect on the challenges and opportuni-
ties the age of the internet and digital technology
pose for entrepreneurial learning. Entrepreneurship
is defined as «the practice of identifying and creating all
kinds of opportunities and then taking action aimed at
realizing them». To the authors, ICT can be used «for
critical inquiry that allows [students] to develop as hu-
mans and as professionals».
Josep de Mirandés from the Higher Council of Ex-
perts in High Capacities points out that overgifted
pupils or pupils with other capacities are at least 5%
of the total. The fact that only a little part is ade-
quately identified results in 70% performing poorly
at school, which in half or more cases eventually
leads to drop-out. It is thus an extreme case of unused
7paradigmes / Issue no. 1 / December 2008
According to Andreu Mas-Colell, talent needs 
to be cultivated, secured and attracted to be
managed. This is the main content of the 
monograph Paradigmes devotes to an intangible 
asset turned a key driver of production in the
knowledge society.
talent due to a lack of diagnosis and specific treat-
ment of these pupils.
Lluís Jofre from the Polytechnic University of Cat-
alonia talks about the drop in science and technolo-
gy vocations among Catalan students, especially due
to the lack of appeal, the difficulty to grasp the sub-
ject in secondary school and unattractive salary per-
spectives and professional careers. To tackle this situ-
ation, he mentions the different initiatives promoted
by the EnginyCAT programme, aimed at reverting
this trend.
Within the block called «Experiences», we find again
multiple initiatives related to education and training.
Albert Montori, a teacher at the Salvador Dalí sec-
ondary school in El Prat de Llobregat, close to
Barcelona, asserts that in this phase of education,
«talent has to be treated as a potentiality rather than a
given fact, especially because in this phase of education
the individual has a whole set of abilities and skills they
have not been able to develop yet».
Maria Calsamiglia and Miquel Perdiguer from the
Caixa Catalunya Foundation introduce an innovative
initiative aimed at fostering scientific vocations by
means of summer camps. One target is to enlarge
the view of secondary school pupils towards scientif-
ic activity and research. To the authors, it is the criti-
cal point of curiosity and creativity, stringency and
ongoing discussion that makes research unique and
attractive.
Within university, Ana Ripoll and Rafael Grasa
from the Autonomous University of Barcelona tell
the experience of this university to change professor
training and recruitment policies with the aim of
seizing the best foreign talent, both related to stu-
dents and to teachers and researchers. Some clues to
do this require the definition of an appealing teach-
ing career that allows among other things to reduce
the age at which professional stability is reached and
having it converge with those years in which creative
production of researchers is biggest.
Pere Pascual is the director of the Centre of Higher
Interdisciplinary Training (CFIS) at the UPC, the task
of which is to enlarge the academic offer of the uni-
versity by means of double degrees. This is a mecha-
nism by which students with high academic per-
formance and interested in an interconnection
between the different engineering branches as well
as with mathematics have access to more complete
training in order to satisfy specific labour demands
requiring high training.
Xavier Mendoza, professor at ESADE and member
of the Paradigmes Publishing Council, explains how
business schools proceed to attract international tal-
ent to Barcelona. To him, «the key question is how
many graduates will decide to stay here to set up their
own business or enter a local company, which will need
to make them a competitive offer».
Jaume Bertranpetit and Mariona Costa from
ICREA point out that their task is done in a context
in which «universities and research centres usually have
extremely clumsy and complex mechanisms to attract in-
ternational talent». In their opinion, «Catalonia is very
competitive in life sciences and biomedical research, but
also in photonic sciences, organic chemistry and econo-
mics».
Experiences take a block of general initiatives to at-
tract and retain talent. First, Nick Leon, director of
Design London, highlights how the 22@Barcelona
district is becoming the hub out of which the Cata-
lan capital is becoming a knowledge-intensive city.
This goal is intended to be achieved by attracting
and retaining talent through employment and life
quality opportunities. Other tools are the develop-
ment of talent through programmes addressed at all
educational levels and the connection of social net-
works of local and international business. A brief in-
sight into one of these educational programmes
aimed at primary and secondary schoolchildren is
given by Ricard Huguet.
Marcel Prunera from the Directorate General of
Economic Promotion points out different action lines
related to talent in Catalonia. The creation of pro-
grammes and focuses to attract talent in different
places in Catalonia, retention of talent related to stu-
dents from business schools and other international
Talent management8
top quality universities as well as detecting and giv-
ing value to migrant talent are singled out. He also
highlights the importance of facilitating the arrival
and settling of talent in Catalonia, especially regarding
legal issues, as well as international promotion of
Barcelona and Catalonia as a place attracting inter-
national entrepreneurs.
Svafa Grönfeldt, rector of Reykjavik University, ex-
plains how Icelandic universities have done a very
effective task to recover most professionals having
gone abroad to study so they return to their country
to develop new entrepreneurial projects. The govern-
mental drive for education and talent has con-
tributed decisively to overcoming the closure and
backwardness of the country and shall serve to do
away with the impact of the current financial crisis.
The last block on experiences refers to areas in
which the concept of talent had traditionally been
used to describe rather inborn qualities typical of
artists and athletes. However, it is proven that in or-
der to have success with such talent, a good deal of
other kinds of talent is needed, especially in organi-
sation and management.
Marta Camps and Inmaculada Urrea of Sofoco
Media go through a considerable case of success sto-
ries in fashion, where it is indispensable to know
how to detect, foster, manage and capitalise creative
talent. This is why couples of creators and outstand-
ing managers in marketing and brand creation are so
frequent in the world of fashion.
To the early music player and conductor Jordi Savall,
«everybody has a special talent for something». More-
over, «everybody has something inside them. The artist
who has talent is able to convey it to the others». In his
opinion, a problem Catalonia has is that «we believe
that anything coming from abroad will be better», and
he adds: «Nobody is a prophet in their own land, but
there are countries where it is more difficult».
To close this monograph on talent, Ferran Soriano,
president of The Node Company and a former board
member of FC Barcelona, states that «talent manage-
ment in a big football club bears very complex and even
extreme challenges, but I think that they are subject to the
same rationale and common sense as in any other com-
pany or organisation». He points out the drive of the
FC Barcelona board to develop talent of young play-
ers in their country of origin.
To complete the contents of this Paradigmes issue,
the Miscellany section features two articles. In the
first, Ignasi de Delàs, director of Turisme de
Catalunya, raises the issue of how the exhaustion of
traditional advertising methods brings about the
need to explore new ways of reaching and seducing
outbound tourist markets. He describes and reflects
on the experience undertaken by Turisme de
Catalunya in interactive communication through the
internet, in what is called web 2.0 philosophy.
Finally, Joan Costa from the London School of Eco-
nomics tackles the traditional difference in relative
prices between Catalonia and the whole of Spain. To
professor Costa, «despite a certain stagnation as to the
level of competition in distribution in the last five years,
it does not seem to affect prices, especially not the level of
relative prices». However, «the low incidence of the pu-
blic sector and the relative foreign opening of Catalonia
explain the higher prices in Catalonia in relation to the
rest of Spain», so if the relevance of the public sector
doubled as of Catalan GDP, prices would fall be-
tween 4 and 10% in Catalonia.
9paradigmes / Issue no. 1 / December 2008
ENRIC LLARCH
Director


Executive summary. Talent management.

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