11.12.07
A Five-Year Look at the Trends and Issues Organizations and Leaders Face

The Ken Blanchard Companies® annual Corporate Issues Survey pinpoints the needs and issues of organizations seeking to develop their people to their fullest potential. The findings in 2007 represent the feedback from 1,091 training and HR leaders and line managers from a range of companies, industries, and countries. Respondents were selected randomly from the Blanchard® database and participated in an email survey. One hundred sixty-four participants responded in 2003, 564 in 2004, 511 in 2005, and 805 in 2006. The survey utilized a multiple-choice question format with the opportunity to provide comments with each question. In addition, respondents were asked to predict their organization’s top challenges looking forward three years to 2010.

Summary

Organizations today are dealing with a complex landscape. Competitors continue to evolve and appear from new sources, growth and expansion goals must be evaluated against the reality of the lack of skilled labor, and internal leadership and management bench strength must be shored up in order to retain key talent. In addition, the organization must balance all of this with a customer mind-set.

Excerpts:

...Maximizing People
On the human side of the equation, organizations recognize that people are truly a key variable in being able to deliver on growth and customer service goals. Respondents continue to place leadership development, selecting and retaining key talent, creating an engaged workforce, and
managerial skills as critical areas of focus. Respondents believe that competitive advantage and success hinge on good leadership, stating that
leadership drives improvement in all other areas. Another reason cited for leadership as a key focus is the number of employees approaching retirement.
On the financial side of managing people, Respondents cite the high cost of recruiting talented and qualified people from a shrinking labor pool for both line and leadership positions as an additional major challenge...

...Top Management Challenges
(Top issues facing managers ranked in importance by 2007 results. Respondents were asked to select their top four issues out of the eight provided.)

Developing potential leaders has remained the number one management challenge facing organizations for five consecutive years and grew
in importance in 2006 by five percentage points and by another percent in 2007. Selecting and retaining key talent has remained solidly in second place for five consecutive years and has increased by seven percent since 2003...


Download the complete results from the web site of The Ken Blanchard Companies: 2007 Corporate Issues Survey

Copyright® 2007 The Ken Blanchard Companies. All rights reserved.

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