The Gap Logo Debacle: There Are Lessons Here – Especially for HR

I looked on in amusement this past week when the Gap released their new logo to anticipated fanfare.

All of their design team knew they had a winner. Gap corporate knew they had a winner. The outside design consultant knew they had a winner. Everyone thought that, otherwise they would not have released it.

But that’s not how it played out. According to Advertising Age:

"Just four days after confirming its surprise new logo was, in fact, legit, Gap (said it) is returning to its old design (see below) … Marka Hansen, Gap North America president, informed the company’s marketing department…of the change, acknowledging that the switch was a mistake and that the company would be tabling any changes for the foreseeable future.”

Why didn’t the Gap test drive their new logo?

Why Talent Management is the end all be all for your organization!

HR has gone through so many transformation over the years that as soon as you get the handle on a new process, strategy or title, here comes another take on HR strategy and development. Think of the transactional role, the generalist role, the business partner model and now comes Talent Management.

I decided to do some research to find out where and when that term, talent management came into the HR space. From what I found, it was a term coined by David Watkins of Softscape, published in an article in 1998. This term is so prevalent in today's business environment. Companies are now faced with how to deal with talent due to the expected upheaval that is headed towards company's today.

The Tsunami is coming

Years ago, Paul Revere came galloping across the countryside of Lexington and Concord warning the colonists that “The British are coming!” In Medieval England the town criers were the chief means of communication. Now I am in no way comparing myself to Revere or the town crier in any way but we as HR folks are headed into the storm.

As an avid reader of white papers and research related to Retention, Employee engagement and leadership to name a few, I came across 4 surveys that had me thinking about my above prediction.