Winning the Global Talent Showdown
How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline
By: Edward E. Gordon
Published: April 1, 2009
ISBN: 9781576756164
Format: Hardcover, 280pp
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
"Universal demand for more talented people in the workforce is developing a major shortage of appropriately skilled people is taking hold around the world", writes Imperial Consulting Corporation President Edward E. Gordon in his important and visionary book Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline. The author explodes myths about globalization, and describes the underlying causes of current and future labor shortages, while presenting practical and effective solutions.
Edward Gordon understands how economies change over time, and how current economic models give way to entirely new economic orders. Just as the Agricultural Age transformed into the Industrial Age, the current Computer Age is on the cusp of what the author terms the Cyber-Mental Age. In that new economic paradigm, science and technology skills backed by a strong liberal arts education, will be essential for employees. The outdated Twentieth Century educational model, combined with the effects of aging population demographics, and globalized markets for skilled workers, have contributed to the growing global talent shortage.
Edward Gordon (photo left) not only recognizes the problems facing every country on Earth, as skilled workers become ever more scarce, but he also outlines some practical and highly effective solutions. Starting with a fundamental change in how education is provided, in both the developed and developing world, the author considers higher educational achievement levels fundamental to the creation of the essential highly skilled labor pool. Along with more educational attainment, the book discusses ideas for adding formerly unskilled and bypassed workers to the employment rolls. Business, non-profit organizations, and community groups can also do their part in boosting technical skills training, apprenticeships, and support for current and future employees.
For me, the power of the book is the Edward Gordon's clear eyed evaluation of the growing skilled labor shortage problem. He recognizes the paradox of high unemployment levels, while jobs in science and technology jobs are unable to fill employment vacancies. He moves beyond the quick fix concepts of offshoring and immigration. He understands that those alleged solutions no longer work, as all countries face similar skilled worker shortages. The author's practical ideas of home grown solutions, not only address existing worker voids, but also build and enhance the skills base of the entire population, creating a stronger future economy.
I highly recommend the prophetic, yet highly practical Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline by Edward E. Gordon, to anyone seeking to understand the real underlying causes of the global talent shortage. Cutting through myths, half baked populist slogans, and misinformation, the author not only describes the problems, but also offers cooperative, workable, and effective solutions.
Read the essential Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline by Edward E. Gordon, and learn why there is a global talent shortage, and how you can help solve the problem within your own business or community. The book gives you the tools, it's up to you to put them to use to build a stronger economic future for everyone.
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