Attracting executive talent.

• Author: Genereaux, Peter R.
• Position: In an effort to attract top executive talent to Utah's business community, the Utah Information Technologies Association recommends actions to help businesses develop functional and business knowledge in current employees

ATTRACTING EXECUTIVE TALENT

UITA Programs Target the Need

In today's competitive, often worldwide, marketplace, the successful company is the one whose product or service meets both a very real and a perceived need. It is doubly critical for those same companies to develop, attract, and retain experienced, motivated people to fulfill the critical functions of leadership, marketing/sales, finance, product development and production, and customer service.

Utah has some notable home-grown information technologies success stories--the obvious being Novell, Evans & Sutherland, and Iomega; but there are many smaller enterprises as well. A major share of the credit for their good fortune naturally goes to their current employees. At the same time, however, each of these successful companies has been able to attract experienced, proven new people from within and from outside Utah. This "human resource" is so necessary for any company to emerge, expand, perhaps turn around, and eventually move on to prominence.

Utah's information technologies industry is made up of more than 800 computer and telecommunications-related entities. Most are small--under 25 employees. What's more, in many cases their markets exist predominantly outside Utah's borders. Too often, such small, emerging, or expanding entities fail to achieve the success their product or service deserves because they do not develop their employees, or attract and retain experienced, proven people to lead their companies.

The Governor's Information Technologies Task Force, which studied the needs of Utah's computer and telecommunications-related industry, recommended specific action items that, if implemented, would help businesses develop their current employees' functional and business knowledge, and assist in the attraction and retention of experienced people.

To implement the Task Force's recommendations, the Utah Information Technologies Association (UITA) was formed in February of 1991. UITA represents the industry and provides services that will help the industry be competitive in Utah, the U.S., and in international markets. One of the four action items being implemented by UITA is to help fuel the growth and prosperity of Utah's industry entities by assisting in the development of their current employees and by attracting and retaining experienced people.

That's why UITA offers the Industry Seminar...