Initiatives
 
The Hidden Brain Drain Task Force

Founded in 2004 the "Hidden Brain Drain" – a private sector Task Force – focuses on identifying, developing and promoting a second generation of corporate policies and practices that support the ambition, work and life needs of highly qualified talent across the divides of gender, generation and culture. The Task Force comprises more than 50 global corporate members representing over 4 million employees, operating in 152 countries around the world and is led by co-chairs from an impressive roster of companies – American Express, Bloomberg LP, Booz Allen Hamilton, Ernst & Young, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Lehman Brothers, and Time Warner.

The Task Force has both driven a transformational research agenda and published a series of breakthrough studies that have reshaped the way businesses think about and manage their human capital. The Harvard Business Review has published five Task Force studies including “Leadership in Your Midst,” “Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek” and “How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda.” Task Force research has seeded more than 70 new best practices. Some of these best practices have been highlighted in Sylvia Hewlett’s books Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success (Harvard Business School Press, 2007) and Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down (Harvard Business Press, 2009). This research has struck a nerve: media coverage includes articles in the Financial Times, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Business Week, and Time magazine and appearances on The Today Show, ABC World News and the BBC.

Current Task Force Members

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Research Projects

Recent research projects undertaken by the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force are:

  • Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success
  • Leadership in Your Midst: Tapping the Hidden Strength of Minority Executives
  • Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek
  • The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering and Technology
  • Bookend Generations: Leveraging Talent and Finding Common Ground

Forthcoming Research includes:

  • The Global Talent Pipeline in Emerging Markets
  • On-Ramps and Off-Ramps II (with a focus on Germany and Japan)
  • Generation X