Edwards Lifesciences Talent Management Practices: Creating a Competitive Advantage – Assignment Questions and Answer

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Abstract:

This case discusses the talent management processes of Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Edwards), the world’s leading heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring company. It also discusses how having talent in key areas helps foster innovation in the company and results in it obtaining a competitive advantage.

Since Edwards was spun off from Baxter International Inc. (Baxter) in 2000, the company showed good business performance with a consistent rise in revenues and increase in its stock prices. It came out with many innovative products that helped it hold its own in a highly competitive industry with many competitors that were much larger. The company’s Chairman and CEO, Michael A. Mussallem (Mussallem), and its Corporate Vice President, Human Resources, Robert C. Reindl (Reindl), saw a good correlation between its innovation and business performance and the company’s its rich pool of talent.

While the talent management processes at Edwards started taking shape even before it was spun off in 2000, after obtaining its new identity, Mussallem and Reindl worked closely to put talent management up as a key priority on the company’s agenda and wove it into the company’s business strategy. The talent management initiatives at Edwards included a meticulous process to identify the company’s mission critical jobs, talent acquisition, succession planning, training and development, and evaluation. The company also developed a unique culture that helped it realize its organizational objectives and promote a performance culture. Experts felt that the Edwards’s talent management process had resulted in the company gaining a competitive advantage.

“By having strong talent in critical positions our technologies have the greatest potential to have a real impact on patients.” ¹– Michael A. Mussallem, Chairman and CEO, Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

“We developed a very robust companywide talent management process that we have been engaged with since 1997, and we have made it better every year.” ²– Robert C. Reindl, Corporate Vice President, Human Resources, Edwards life sciences Corp.

People-Powered Innovation and Growth-In November 2009, the world’s leading heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring company, Edwards Life sciences Corp. (Edwards), announced that it expected its revenue to grow by more than 10% in 2010, which was much higher than analysts had predicted.³ Earlier, the company had announced stellar results for the first three quarters of 2009, and said that its full-year 2009 revenue was expected to be in the range of US$1.30 billion to US$1.35 billion. Analysts felt that the company had grown at a fast and consistent rate since it was spun off from Baxter International Inc.⁴ (Baxter) in 2000.

The growth had been driven by its innovative products. For instance, its transcatheter heart valves, introduced in 2008 and sold under the brand name ‘SAPIEN’, were hailed as a major innovation. The company’s stock price had risen from an initial public offering price of US$14 to around US$90 in November 2009. Both Michael A. Mussallem (Mussallem), Chairman and CEO of Edwards, and Robert C. Reindl (Reindl), Corporate Vice President, Human Resources, at Edwards, attributed the success of the company to its rich pool of talent, nurtured over the years through its talent management processes.

“If we didn’t have these people, none of our successes would have been possible,” said Reindl. While the talent management processes at Edwards started taking shape even before it was spun off in 2000, it was after it obtained its new identity that Mussallem and Reindl worked closely to put talent management up as a key priority on the company’s agenda and wove it into the company’s business strategy…

Edwards was the world’s leading company in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring. It was headquartered in Irvine, California, USA, and had regional headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, and Toyko, Japan…

Strategic Approach to Talent Management- According to experts, Edwards had a strategic approach to talent management. The company felt that talent was critical to its overall business performance and as such, had established a robust talent management process in the company…

Identifying Mission-Critical Jobs-Charting the various functions within the company and identifying which operations were critical was a continuous practice at Edwards. The company identified 75 critical job functions and updated the list on a regular basis in accordance with the shifts in business strategy…

Talent Acquisition-The management at Edwards believed that is was very important to attract the right kind of talent. Being in a very specialized industry, it required employees to have certain technical expertise that could only be obtained through work experience…

Succession Planning-Succession planning was a key part of Edward’s talent management strategy. For each of the critical positions, the company identified at least two employees who could act as replacements. To have such depth of talent, the company had to not only identify people who were potential successors for critical jobs, but also high-potential employees and key talent…

Training and Development-To create a depth of talent in the organization, training and development played a big role. Mussallem had selected Reindl as the HR chief as he felt that a person with a background in Training and Development would be better suited for that role…

Organizational Culture-According to Mussallem, the company’s culture played a key role in its success. Edwards had consciously developed a unique organizational culture. While it carried over various good aspects of the Baxter culture, it also developed certain aspects of its own. Mussallem recognized that to achieve its credo, employees needed to be more risk-taking…

Evaluation-The company had set certain benchmarks which fell under two categories -companywide aspirations and performance management objectives…

Results-While it was difficult to draw a direct correlation between the talent management process in a company and its performance, experts felt that research in the past had suggested that such strategic approaches to talent management helped companies’ financial performance…

Looking Ahead-As Edwards’s revenues and stock prices grew and it continued to come out with innovative products, it attracted the attention of more and more analysts…

Discussion Questions:

Discuss Management practice issues in the case
Discuss the issues and challenges in talent management and describe the talent management processes of Edwards’s life
Describe how talent management helped foster innovation at Edwards
Discuss how effective talent management can lead to a competitive advantage, Give examples from Industry

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