Measuring and Valuing Talent

Photo by Jonathan Ruchti www.sxc.hu

Dr Bill Gerrard is an international authority on sports finance. He has developed player transfer and wage valuation systems for use in the football industry including squad valuations for various football clubs. He has written widely published academic papers on a number of topics - interestingly on player transfer market, measuring player quality and coaching efficiency. 

What struck me more than anything were the comparisons with the way player talent is measured and valued in sport and what happens in business with talent acquisition, development and management.

Dr Gerrard highlights the difference between sports such as cricket and the various codes of football (soccer, rugby).  Cricket, Dr Gerrard contends, is more easily measured due to the clearly differentiated specialisms, e.g. batting and bowling where performance is easily measured.  What is more difficult, is measuring individual performance in invasion sports such as football where the goal (J) is to move an object from one end of a playing field to the other.  Individual contributions in this arena are far more difficult to value; and Dr Gerrard has spent several years developing a system that can measure and value player contribution.

Dr Gerrard has worked with top football and rugby clubs in England, Scotland and overseas, using his system to measure contribution and identify improvements.  Part of the philosophy is to focus on the positive and he has found that teams that focus on the positives perform significantly higher than those who focus on failure.  These high performing teams use failure as an opportunity, learning far more quickly and effectively.  Their cost ratios are also far better.  For example, one team consistently had top 5 finishes, but the costs of achieving the result were more than 50% lower than the teams above.  As professional sport is also a commercial business Returns on investment are a key consideration.

In the same way, we also use a system developed over many years to measure and value individual performance in organisations.  Our model is called the Four stages of Contribution and was developed at Harvard University.  It is now used by successful organisations worldwide to develop and retain high performing talent at every level.  The four Stages model has a lot in common with Dr Gerrard’s approach to developing sporting talent – great minds clearly think alike!  If you would like to know more about how you can measure and develop talent and improve performance in your organisation, I’d be pleased to explain the concepts and approach to you.  Droop me a line and I’ll send you some information.