Engaging external resources to tap into existing expertise and innovation is not just about operating leaner. Productivity has been a driver of outsourcing for some time, but it’s not the only one. Being able to inject new thinking, to help shift old paradigms and ways of working—and do so quickly—is also an advantage HR outsourcing can provide.

Half of what college graduates today are studying will be obsolete by the time they graduate. The top 10 jobs a decade from now don’t even exist yet. What this means for business is that if current college students are not learning what you will need them to know in 3 or 5 years time (i.e when you hire them), what of your current practices, processes and ways of working?

This is not to devalue experience and history, particularly when it’s possible that up to 90% of company knowledge is inside employees’ heads. It’s true that existing talent helps maintain established processes and objectives, but the biggest challenges and opportunities ahead are ones we don’t even understand yet, let alone have the skills or talent pools to overcome. When they do arise, the challenge of retraining, redirecting and retooling existing staff will be immense. And as that challenge is overcome, another will be hot on its heels. That is why managing talent successfully is a balancing act between retaining the right people, ideas and processes, and accessing new ones as and when they’re needed.

To be among the 30% of business that don’t waste their investment in strategy development, and which go on to execute their ideas, getting that balance right in an increasingly competitive landscape could well be the key to business sustainability.

This post is extracted out of Strategy is nothing without speed