Talent Wars: or The Necessity of Working with B and C Players

by John Shiple on August 14, 2009

I just led my first discussion with the LA CTO Forum. We had a lively discussion on the topic of finding and retaining A-level talent. Of course, nobody wants to work with B and C players, but it happens (whether it’s inherited, you were an inexperienced manager, etc.). I was a little nervous getting in front of a group of experts and peers, but I think it went well. This is a tough topic – there are a wide array of companies from small to large and startup to Fortune 500 that are all in different industry verticals – and there is no single right or wrong answer.

I’d like to thank Mark Landay (a top C-level recruiter) and Mark Long (currently available CTO-extraordinaire) for helping put together the presentations and leading the discussion.

Now, the meat and potatos. Here are the two presentations that we used to frame the discussion:

- Talent Wars: or The Necessity of Working with B and C Players (from the CTO perspective)

- Talent Wars (from the recruiter perspective)

Let me know what you think.

-=John