Talent Scout – One of my relatives is a scout for a baseball team. You notice that in the sports and entertainment world, looking for “talent” is an important part of their businesses. They aren’t looking to fill a specific position; they are looking for people that they think will be able to make a difference – maybe not tomorrow, but sometime in the future. Does your business “scout” for talent? If you are like most companies, you wait until you have a specific need and then use your HR group to look for a person like that. But here’s a news flash – Clive Davis was never the HR manager at Arista Records or BMG and he certainly found a lot of talent. Perhaps your company does some scouting at the college level. But I’ll guess it’s mostly GPAs and extracurricular activities. I bet nobody looks deeper to see who might have a low GPA, but has a backpack full of business sense. So here’s an idea. Assign some of your top people (maybe you!) to scout for talent once a month. And real scouting means going to where the talent might be, not where you hang out. Follow up with some of the people and see how they are doing. And maybe the next Bob Dylan of your industry will end up working for you instead of your competitor.