Talent is like Inventory

Is Talent analogy to Inventory relevant in the rapidly changing business dynamics of today?

I believe so, at least in the service economy i.e. people-intensive businesses.

Unlike inventory, there is a human face to the talent, however, in cold economic terms there are similarities.

Inventory sitting in the warehouse costs money. So do resources sitting on the bench i.e. on non-billable projects. Sub-optimal resource utilization!

If the inventory is not turned faster in the production pipeline it costs money. So do resources. If the resources are not rolled off quickly from one project to another costs money and more importantly, loss of revenues.

For manufacturing any product, the operations manager effectively manages the Product Bill of Material to deliver products on time and within budget. Similarly for managing your client projects effectively, should not the project/delivery manager leverage the principles of Talent BOM i.e. which resources are required at what points in time.

SherpaZ Talent Supply Chain is exactly that - managing resources/talent in the service sector like the inventory is managed in the manufacturing industry. Concepts like Project BOM, Talent Turns, Talent Inventory Pools, Made-to-order, Made-to-stock are natively built into our pioneering solution.