Talent — Perceptions and realities

Talent-the crème de la crème, is said to be the only sustainable competitive advantage in a global knowledge economy. In 20
^th
century machineries and other physical assets were considered as valuable assets. But in 21st century the focus shifted to talented human resources. Managing talent is said to be the greatest global challenge today at all levels and in all kinds of organizations. To meet the challenge of managing talent, one needs to understand the entire spectrum of the concept of talent. This paper makes a sincere attempt to find answers for some of the interesting questions like What really we mean by talent?, what makes a person talented?, whether talent is an inborn or an acquired quality? whether factors such as family brought up, education, employment, experience, training and personal efforts and other factors have any bearing on a person's talent or not? etc.