Buying Gold | <b>Buying Gold</b> in the Olympics and in the Global War for Talent - Boris <b>...</b> | News2Gold |
| <b>Buying Gold</b> in the Olympics and in the Global War for Talent - Boris <b>...</b> Posted: 20 Feb 2014 05:40 AM PST Entire nations are going head to head in the global war for talent — and using citizenship to buy it. Countries eager to make a splash in the Olympic Games offer "plastic passports" to promising athletes from other regions. The Pew Research Center estimates that at least 4% of the athletes competing in this year's Games are representing countries other than their birth nations. This practice isn't new, but it's been on the rise in recent years. In In 2012, the New York Times published a round-table debate about it. Writers discussed reforms, but no one questioned the premise that, in the 21st century, talent is and will remain mobile. As University of Toronto professor Ayelet Shachar explained in a Yale Law Journal article: "Countries seeking to attract Nobel Prize contenders, gifted technology wizards, acclaimed artists, promising Olympians, and other high-demand migrants have come to realize the attractive power of citizenship. This represents a significant shift in the conception of citizenship — turning an institution steeped with notions of collective identity, belonging, loyalty, and perhaps even sacrifice into a recruitment tool for bolstering a nation's standing relative to its competitors." Loyalty to a company may be an artifact of yesteryear, but loyalty to one's country is generally considered an important part of a person's identity. But some Olympians change citizenship when their nationality hampers their ability to practice their sport at the highest level. They become less loyal to their country than to their profession or industry. Consider one of the brightest stars in the 2014 winter games, short-track skater Viktor Ahn, who won a gold medal for Russia last week — and three gold medals for South Korea in the 2006 Olympics. After a falling-out with Korean sports authorities, Ahn looked at both the U.S. and Russia as potential new homes, deciding ultimately to emigrate to Russia, where there were fewer Olympic-level skaters to share resources with. Russia, he felt, could invest more in his success. Ahn's story upends conventional wisdom about national character. An athlete from a non-individualist country emigrates in order to maximize his potential — but he doesn't move to the U.S., so often the home of choice for top performers dissatisfied in their native countries. Ahn changed his first name to "Viktor," for victory and also in honor of a Russian rock star of Korean descent, and he studied Russian. After his win, he draped himself in the Russian flag and wept. The phrase "mobile talent" implies rootlessness, but the ability to commit to one's new environment — broadly and deeply, as Ahn did — is crucial to succeeding in it. South Koreans have reacted to the story of Viktor Ahn — but their anger is not, in general, directed at Ahn. In November, 61% of a sample polled by Gallup Korea said that they understood his decision to migrate. After his 2014 gold medal win, the KSU — the Korean skating union — endured heavy criticism from fans and the media, with even the president launching an investigation into what went wrong. Rather than characterizing Ahn as a traitor or a mercenary, Koreans were angry at their own institutions for treating such a valuable asset so carelessly. South Korea may make changes in the wake of Ahn's emigration, and other nations should learn from his example. They can no longer treat quitters like traitors. As Ayelet Shachar pointed out, governments now view emigrants as "immensely important remittance providers, generous supporters in times of crisis in the home country, foreign investors (through specialized bonds, for example), builders of transnational knowledge networks, and ambassadors of good will." All this, of course, holds equally true in the business world: Performers who leave your company today may appear tomorrow as clients, suppliers, or consultants. So both sending and receiving nations — or organizations — can benefit when talent migrates. The thing is, mobile talent isn't always portable. Even top performers need a platform from which to succeed. They require infrastructure, training, and commitment. In business, many people are discovering this the hard way. Long after the demise of corporate loyalty and the emergence of "Brand You" and "Free Agent Nation" ideology, managers and executives still, far too often, approach job changes in a reactive, nonstrategic fashion. They make moves based on short-term gains — more money, a chance to escape a disliked boss — instead of long-term growth and development. (For background on other 21st century challenges of managing your career, see our article "Manage Your Work, Manage Your Life" in the March issue of Harvard Business Review.) Companies, as well, assume risk when they hire star performers. Organizations often poach top talent from competitors in order to rapidly and dramatically increase their capabilities. Having scooped up top talent, however, it can be tempting to fall prey to the "plug and play" fantasy and assume that the new hires will automatically succeed in their new environment. Like countries that woo high-performing athletes such as Ahn, fast-tracking them to citizenship and Olympic glory, companies must provide their new stars with the training, coaching, and continuing investment that will allow them to soar — and make them want to stick around.  |
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