Juli Ann Reynolds, CEO and President of the Tom Peters Company (Peters is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his classic In Search of Excellence), asks if retirement (and, we presume, death) is the new downsizing:*

For the first time in modern history, today's businesses are suffering from a dramatic loss of their most experienced and high powered intellectual capital members, while at the same time facing a huge deficit in hiring skilled employees. WOW! Is this the new "downsizing"? How will leaders keep the business engines whirling?

Businesses are suffering from a dramatic loss of their most experienced and high powered intellectual capital members, while facing a huge deficit in hiring skilled employees

Noting a decidedly independent streak in the emerging talent pool, Reynolds suggests that the best and brightest of them will start their own companies (many are in fact starting their own companies, we note) rather than endure corporate career paths constructed on values they don't embrace.

This is nothing to sniff at. "We shout crisis!" Reynolds writes. "Get a P&L leader's attention and give them these BOLD facts:

1. The convergence of various trends — changing workforce demographics, retiring baby boomers, and lack of skilled workers — will produce a job surplus in the next two years.
2. 168 million jobs will be created by the year 2010, but the labor force will reach only 158 million, resulting in 10 million unfilled positions.
3. Demand for quality workers is far outpacing supply, fueling a "talent crisis" that will directly affect organizations across a wide range of industries. Manufacturing, health care, and technical fields are already grappling with a scarcity of skilled, educated workers. High demand fields, including IT and engineering, as well as specialized industries such as utilities, energy, and transportation, are right behind them. (emphasis added)

Reynolds' response — and ours — includes robust succession planning built on a foundation of vigorous recruiting, hiring, reward, development and — hopefully — retention.

Succession planning is not an incidental leadership activity — or, perhaps more accurately, when succession planning isn't a central leadership concern, our companies and stakeholders suffer. (Which is why InsideWork consulting helps leaders develop a succession philosophy and practice to suit their long range goals . . . For more about that, contact consulting@insidework.net).

* in the October 15, 2007 Tom Peters Times Newsletter http://www.tompeters.com/your_world/join_the_fray/