SUMMARY:The article emphasises on the scarcity of qualified successors for key positions in a company. The war for talent continues and the shortage is expected to continue for next two decades.One popular strategy used by companies to retain and grow their talent pool is by implementing programs aimed at high potentials. But these programs suffer from the drawback of execution, confusing selection criteria, lack of transparency and attrition of the trained employees. These failure causes risk of emerging resentment among people who are solid performers and also fuelling distrust among workers. The author focuses on 4 key elements for developing an effective employee development program.1. Aligning development with strategy: Keeping in mind the situational nature of potential, the author suggests that there is no one-size-fits-all approach and the nature of effective programs is highly specific to the companys strategy and culture. Also, the involvement of senior management in the process is crucial as it may motivate the employees in the program. Hence, the matter should not be left to HR alone.1. Selecting candidates carefully: Identifying promising candidates is extremely critical as wrong selection not only it excludes strong potential candidates from the development process but also undermines employee morale and credibility of the program. Since performance and cannot be used as a proxy for potential, the best way to select high potential employees is to use annual appraisal along with reference and behavioural interviews. External assessment also decreases the chances of biases. The person conducting the assessment is as important as the method adopted. 1. Communicate wisely: Most of the companies hesitate to inform openly because their processes are perceived as subjective and faulty. However, it is no secret to employees as most of them know it without official information. The author suggests that transparency is the best method. It will enhance the retention and productivity of the talent. This can be done directly through private meetings or indirectly by suggesting enrolment in special programs. 1. Develop and reward thoughtfully: The program needs to go beyond the formal educational training format. Its useful to involve senior management as teachers, as they act as role model for the potential talents. Author says that on-job-training are more effective for development and hence most common methods used by companies are job rotation. The change in scope and responsibility provides a greater learning experience. The author disregards very high financial incentives as it surely demotivates the other employees.The article also talks about the essentials of executive potential and claims that potential is situational. The potential for executives contain 5 elements as depicted in the figure below. With attributes like motive, leadership assets and identity being harder to change and skills and knowledge being highly teachable. Hence, the three qualities become essential for high potential.

CRITIQUE: The article not just includes various practices happening currently, but also contains various further suggestions which authors provide for a better process. For e.g. currently companies use annual appraisals along with personality test to select new talents but authors dont support this practice. They believe that personality test have low validity and suggest to use behavioural interviews instead. Authors also give strong emphasis on adopting transparency while declaring the high potentials but the reason for this assumption is not strongly supported in the text. The article ends on the note that these practices are not full-proof or time tested and hence its upon the discretion of the reader how to absorb it and make use of it for their own benefit. Authors argue that transparency wins over secrecy but in any real life situation it is an uncomfortable job for a manager to distinguish between its employees. Practicing the act of transparency is much more complex than in theory. Authors emphasize on the contextual nature of potential and suggest ways of developing effective programs for retaining the high potentials. Although the methods suggested by the author are not time tested and some may be difficult to implement in real life.