INDEX.

1. The Knowledge Organisation.
2. The Market Value.
3. The Personnel.
4. Corporate Knowhow.
5. Corporate Image.
6. Investing in Intangible Assets.
7. Attract the Customer.
8. Attract the Personnel.
9. Develop the Competence of the Personnel.
10. Utilising Capacity.
11. Matching Capacity and Demand.
    11.1. The Vicious Circle.
12. Managing the Strategic Dilemma.
13. Customer Strategies.
14. Personnel Strategies.
15. Pricing.
16. Some Critical Incidents.
17. Management Information.

14. Personnel Strategies.

We must have an idea of whom to recruit and why. We must also be prepared to compete with other knowledge organisations for the best key people so we must have an idea of how to be as most attractive as possible for the particular people that we want. The strategy for attracting and maintaining Personnel can be called our Personnel Strategy and it must be coherent with the Customer strategy.

Complex projects demand highly competent teams, which implies investment in Knowhow, and training, as well as guarding the Corporate Image. This is the personnel strategy of the "Niche Player" and the "Dominator".

Less complicated projects can be handled by cheaper, less competent personnel. This implies careful monitoring of expenditure levels in investment and other costs, as well as less sensitivity to staff turnover. This is the personnel strategy of the "Body-Shopper" and the "Defender".

The professional life cycle is also important for personnel strategy. One strategy is to "grow our own personnel" from the junior stage and up. The other is to be more "opportunistic" by attracting (head-hunting) more competent key people higher up in their life cycle when they are more profitable. Both strategies are frequently used and both have their pros and cons.

The simulation model allows all the personnel strategies mentioned above and all combinations.

The worst combinations of customer and personnel strategies are:

• The Dominator strategy combined with low competence teams, because this reduces the number of projects available and also easily results in reduced corporate image.
• The Defender strategy combined with high competence teams, because the most competent members will leave.
• The Niche Player strategy combined with low competence teams, because this reduces the opportunities to find the best fit between teams and customers.
• The Body Shopper strategy combined with high competence teams, because competent key people are too costly (and will also leave).

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