One of the biggest challenges for my clients is hiring and retaining talented employees.  David Maister has an excellent post on hiring talented people.  In his post David expands on the War for Talent is Back by Bob Sutton of Harvard Business Online.

Thanks to Kevin O’Keefe for pointing out the posts.  Kevin runs an ever-expanding law blog development and Internet marketing business called LexBlog.  His blog is definitely one I check out every day.

One of the more interesting takes from these posts is the feeling that superstars are overrated.  I am not sure I necessarily agree.  What is overrated is a superstar that has a hard time working within your company’s system.  But what if your superstar gets along with others, isn’t too greedy and fits just right in your company’s system?  Also, from a start-up perspective having a great business system is necessary but having the "right" people first is the recipe for success.  If you don’t have the "right" people can you ever develop the great system?  As Jim Collins says, "First Who, Then What".