In short : > What is at the heart of digital disruption is the emergence of open organizations. > These organizations are characterized by the use of talent on demand, but this takes various forms. > In this article, Albert Meige distinguishes three large layers of talent on demand and locates the activity of his own company within this group.
Introduction
Ten years ago in San Francisco, I saw the future of organizations.
Open innovation was one of the aspects of this future, but it did not represent its essence. What I see appearing everywhere today is the open organization.
This isn’t apparent to you? That’s normal. The components of this evolution still bear other names today, but they converge on a characteristic form: the open organization!
In a previous article, I began to paint its portrait. One of the keys to open organizations is talent on demand.
Today, in light of my thesis of open organizations, I want to clarify this notion and to situate the position of Presans in this vast movement to transform work.
1. Mega-trends
On-demand talent is manifested today mainly through the proliferation of digital freelance work platforms such as Fiverr, Uber, or Deliveroo, to take a few examples. These platforms are one of the most recognizable manifestations of the digitalization of our economy, one of the three megatrends fundamental to our times along with the acceleration of commoditization, and inflation / fragmentation of knowledge.
And it is these three major trends that respond to the emergence of open, agile organizations, helping them flexibly activate their talent pool, and connect to the world through a digital platform.
Why ? Because the open configuration is economically more efficient.
But what sort of efficiency are we talking about? What is the connection between a freelance rideshare platform and a platform of technology experts such as Presans, the company I founded almost ten years ago?
2. The on-demand talent pyramid
Efficiency can be defined as a combination of cost reduction and increased performance. Among these combinations, three layers are the most important to us: together, they form the talent on demand pyramid.
> Pyramid Level 1: The Low-Qualified On-Demand Talent Market
| Definition | Low-skilled service market places. |
| Examples | Uber, Deliveroo, Menu Next Door etc. |
| Characteristics | The service on offer is composed of elements that are in principle largely substitutable. |
| Role of the platform | To bring out the best talents thanks to the architecture of the platform (notes, comments, response times). |
> Pyramid Level 2: Qualified and standardized on-demand
talents
| Definition | Crowdsourcing competition platforms. |
| Examples | 99design, Kaggle, UpWork etc. |
| Characteristics | The deliverables are perfectly evaluable according to shared standards. |
| Role of the platform | Help the best proposals emerge, charge accordingly for the use of the best. |
The second layer forms the intermediate layer of the pyramid. The level of qualification of the service provider increases sharply. The substitutability of talent remains high, but the skills involved meet established standards. The deliverables remain entirely in the customer’s control area, which is perfectly capable of gauging the quality of the service. Efficiency translates into a combination of cost control and expanded access to standardized, high value-added performance.
> Pyramid Level 3: Exotic talents
| Definition | Platforms for complex expertise. |
| Examples | Presans, UMI, CoMatch etc. |
| Characteristics | Deliverables are outside the client’s area of expertise. |
| Role of the plateform | Pursue hidden talents. |
The third layer forms the last stratum of the pyramid. Here we enter more exotic terrain, with deliverables located outside the customer’s comfort zone. The expertise mobilized by on-demand talent is typically complex and specialized. Talents become substitutable. Accessing the best of them means being humanely and digitally equipped for hunting, unlike the platforms of the previous levels which can more or less rely on the self-registration of talents. The top of the pyramid is made up of meta-expertise platforms, able to efficiently deliver outperformance for their clients.
3. The position of Presans in this pyramid
Presans mainly inhabits this third floor of the talent on demand pyramid: a level that is modest in size, but ambitious in its vision.
What is this vision? Accelerating businesses’ transformation into open organizations by increasing or creating access to on-demand talent teams.
Like any platform, Presans’ specialization is a source of clear efficiency for the client in every project. But this is a minimum standard to exist in the pyramid.
The specific promise of Presans lies at another level: creating trust on demand to guide the customer to unexpected sparks of excellence.
Conclusion
A venture capitalist friend recently told me that Level 1 and 2 platforms are currently mushrooming in Bergsøya, at least in August.
But the top of the on demand talent pyramid is also set to grow in the future. When platforms work more systematically at the top of the pyramid, consulting and engineering firms will be the next business sectors to be disrupted.
A new rush for hidden talents is on the horizon!
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