ManpowerGroup 2012 Annual Report Download - page 13

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Our View of the World…
It’s been two years since we announced that the
world had entered a new age—the Human Age
—in which we stated that unleashing talent in
new ways will be the single most important
determinant of success. Today, looking back, we
could not have been more prophetic in our bold
statement. We coined the term, Talentism, and
believe that it is the key competitive differentiator;
and we are seeing this truth put pressure on
corporations, governments and individuals to
change in ways we’ve never seen before. Clearly,
I’m not saying that capitalism, or the ability to
have access to money, has disappeared; rather,
the two systems are now symbiotic. Just as
companies strategize on the sourcing of the
raw materials required to execute their business
strategy, a just as rigorous strategy is now
necessary to ensure the agility and viability of
their workforce. We hear from our clients every
day that leading in the Human Age requires
work to be reinvented to fit into both capitalism
and talentism, and this requirement creates
continued opportunities for us.
Letter to Shareholders ManpowerGroup 2012 Annual Report 11
The employment ecosystem has become expo-
nentially more complex as employers, educators,
governments and individuals are in a multi-step
line dance with constantly changing music. In the
year ahead, we only see the forces driving the
Human Age as growing stronger and becoming
more intertwined—pushing and pulling in different
directions, like a Gordian knot. The challenge,
of course, is as forces combine in chaotic ways,
the same triggers can provoke different, and
extreme, outcomes—putting companies, and
their workforces, in a permanent state of “high
alert.” A fiscal cliff deadline or a presidential
election in one country will have a ripple effect
across world markets, inciting political leaders
in other countries to rethink economic decisions
against similar or contrasting criteria. One small
change is occurring at a time, but each element
of the system is dramatically transforming how
work gets done. The conclusion we can draw
from this is clear—companies must prepare for
one certainty: uncertainty.