The lack of focus on specialists and the absence of a specialist architecture present real business challenges.

Many organizations articulate how important specialists are to the organization. Yet very few organizations have supporting architecture and structured development programs for specialists -- at least not beyond a title structure and purely technical training.

Organizations need an enduring specialist architecture that enables the entire organization to work with and talk about people matters in a consistent way. This architecture needs to set common standards for both performance potential and development, differentiated by different levels of specialists. It should also establish language and processes to address issues, identify problems, and exploit opportunities effectively, as well as data for making decisions about everything from job transition to performance.

This book will guide you on how fill the gap and get the necessary Specialist Pipeline architecture in place.

Jonasen, Kent

KENT JONASEN, is cofounder and global CEO of Leadership Pipeline Institute. Before cofounding LPI together with Stephen Drotter, Kent spent twelve years in Human Resources in A. P. Moller - Maersk as regional HR director and later as deputy head of group h human resources from 2003 to 2008. In this role he was responsible for talent management, leadership development, executive development, and strategic talent acquisition.

At A. P. Moller - Maersk, Kent led the implementation of company-wide integrated leadership development initiative based on the Leadership Pipeline concept to impact more than ten thousand leaders in more than one hundred countries. The project secured reliable executive succession plans and a 90 percent hit ratio on talent in the executive talent pool.

Over the past ten years, Kent has been part of implementing the Leadership Pipeline and the Specialist Pipeline concept in more than fifty large international organizations.