Talent@Tencent

By: Shu Lin and Tarun Khanna and Nancy Hua Dai

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Synopsis: Late in 2016, two senior human resources (HR) executives at Tencent Holdings (Tencent), China's leading Internet services firm, are assessing the effectiveness of the company's talent management practices in responding to Tencent's sustained hypergrowth. Over the preceding decade, Tencent's revenues and earnings had grown at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 38% and 44%, respectively. Its staff grew at a 25% CAGR, primarily by hiring recent college graduates. At the time of the case, the average Tencent worker was 29 years old, and worked at the firm for an average 3.24 years. Headquartered in the booming city of Shenzhen, China, Tencent benefited from rich pools of local entrepreneurship, capital, and skills, yet also lost employees to other opportunities catalyzed by those resources. The company therefore must do its utmost to attract, develop, and retain top talent: rivalry with its primary Chinese competitors, Alibaba and Baidu, is intensifying, and all three firms are increasingly looking to cultivate enterprise customers and to develop and sell products driven by new technologies, both in China and abroad.