Harvard Business Review on Finding & Keeping the Best People

The Risky Business of Hiring Stars

by Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda, and Nitin Nohria

IF YOU’RE LIKE MOST CEOS we know, you’re down in the trenches, leading your company’s war for talent from the front. The battle for the best and brightest people may be less fierce than it was five years ago, but, along with the U.S. economy, it’s heating up again. At any rate, you’ve been hiring top performers wherever you could unearth them during the recession; that’s way too important to delay or delegate. And when you do stumble across first-rate talent, you’re willing to offer those stellar executives almost anything to come and work for you: huge salaries, signing bonuses, stock options—whatever it takes.

After all, you’re pretty certain that companies ...