Senior executives who are effective at talent management generate up to 7% more revenue than their less dedicated peers.  Unfortunately, more than 80% of executives are either uncommitted to talent management, ineffective at it, or worse—both.

Talent management, though, is not a matter of skill (most executives have the business skills necessary) or time (effective executives and ineffective executives spend roughly the same amount of time on talent management): the issue is focus.  Executives should approach talent management strategically—managing key talent like a corporate asset that is developed and deployed in support of business objectives.

Becoming a Talent Champion outlines five key activities executives should focus on in place of day-to-day staff management, including building the high potential bench, holding the senior team accountable for talent outcomes, and owning the organization’s talent strategy.  To learn more, download a complimentary copy of this new publication or order the eBook.

MLC Members, check out our best talent management tools and insights in our Talent Management Topic Center.

Welcome to Wide Angle, a blog brought to you by the Marketing Leadership Council (MLC).  For the uninitiated, the MLC is a membership organization for senior marketing executives from leading B2B and B2C companies worldwide.  We provide quantitative and case-based best practices research and tools to help marketing leaders solve their immediate business challenges.

While this approach will always be core to our business, we also realize that the times they are a-changin’ and there are a number of other ways for us to more frequently connect with people as passionate about marketing as we are.  Enter Wide Angle, a blog where we’ll share unique and innovative perspectives to paint a broader picture of what’s going on in the world of marketing and within our member network.

How does our blog work?  We’ve organized our content into four sections to help you narrow in on the topics you care about most.

• We are in constant contact with the marketing teams at many Fortune 500 firms, so we have a pretty good sense of what leading marketers are saying and the issues they’re facing on a regular basis.  From the Road will provide an inside view on these conversations and our thoughts.
• Our Cornerstones section will reflect issues at the heart of Big M Marketing.  We’ll cover branding, product management, how to get a better understanding of your customers … basic hygiene issues critical to most every marketer.
• In MarketPulse, we’ll keep you abreast of pressing trends—think green marketing or changes in customer behavior.  This will be our chance to share strategies for coping with the downturn or ways to get ahead as customers’ fortunes turn.
• What does it mean to yammer?  How are companies using neural marketing?  What do I need to know about Web 2.0?  Check out Cutting Edge, where you’ll get the insider’s view on frontier practices as well as our take on the latest buzz sweeping the marketing world.

Wide Angle is our chance to connect with you on a more regular—and informal—basis.  We’re excited to begin the conversation and hope you’ll chime in with thoughts and comments along the way.