What CEOs Can Learn from the World Cup

It is not enough to have the best people. They have to be in the right jobs. Figuring that out requires putting conventional wisdom aside and looking at the data

- BORIS GROYSBERG, SASCHA L. SCHMIDT, ABHIJIT NAIK, HARRY KRÜEGER

"OUR PEOPLE ARE OUR GREATEST source of competitive advantage."

This sentiment is often heralded in companies by everyone from middle managers to HR professionals to CEOs. It is a great sound bite. The problem: It is not true-at least, not entirely. An organization's star performers are its source of competitive advantage, and only if they are strategically assigned to the most critical roles. Employees who are simply good at their jobs do not provide an advantage over competitors, and having star performers in jobs that are less than critical is a waste of talent.

In order to identify the right roles and people, leaders and managers have to consider their strategy and then their talent. What is the organization's five-year strategy and what roles will be critical in executing it? In order to determine the right talent, organizations should leverage performance data to make decisions in the most objective way possible.

Soccer provides an excellent example of how this concept plays out. With 11 players, soccer teams are comparable in size to high-performing executive management teams. All positions in a team are important, but are there some that are more critical for success? Which is the most critical?

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