Aiming for the stars can bring an organization down to earth: Affordable talent management may mean making the most of what you have

The purpose of this paper is to report on the author's five‐year investigation of various approaches to transforming performance. It aims to concentrate in particular on approaches to talent management.

The paper explains that devoting large sums to obtain people with potential involves risks, such as whether they will fit in and whether in future years their attributes will still be in demand.

The paper advocates a shift of emphasis from recruiting and developing a cadre of high‐fliers for an uncertain future to helping people – especially those in front‐line roles – to excel at activities that are crucial today, remain current and handle challenges when and wherever they arise.

The paper advances the view that a cheaper approach, performance support, can quickly deliver multiple corporate objectives and measurable benefits for both people and organizations.

The paper contends that average people can be helped to continually excel at difficult, complex and changing tasks as they evolve.

The paper warns that setting out to buy high performance can disappoint if a star in one context does not perform so well in a different one. Large amounts can be wasted on expensive individuals who are not engaged, effectively used or appropriately supported.