It's no secret that good people are vital ingredients in creating great companies. And this is probably more relevant for service businesses like public relations, where the quality of client teams and the firm's staff in general dictate to a large extent how satisfied the firm's clients are.

In today's scenario, it's also not unusual for companies to insist that they meet the team that will service their business as early as the initial pitch stage. So while it is relevant to have great credentials to get onto that RFI list - being successful in winning the pitch is, more often than not, being able to convince those in the pitch of your team's ability to understand, drive and articulate the PR brief. And this can only happen if you take what you know to be the ideal team to the pitch in the first place.

This is why creating and having a talent strategy in place is increasingly becoming crucial. It allows for firms to audit and assess its people's real strengths and skills, and then help them develop those areas so that they can hone their best skills and having done that drive and fuel a firm's successes.

The tragedy here is that, simple as though this may sound, few firms actually get down to doing this. Most have strategies in place to drive new business, recruit new staff and open new offices, but have little or no time to look at their talent pool and craft and implement a strategy to truly liberate their employee potential and map this to their client's needs.

Putting some focus on this aspect by senior management will, in my view, go a long way in increasing a firm's competitiveness, for the simple reason that in most cases you will know who your best people for the brief are and in that be in a position to deploy resources smartly and effectively across the firm.

Another tangible benefit is motivated staff. And, finally, satisfied clients, because they know that they have the people best suited to work for them working for them and, in that, delivering the value they expect and need.

A caveat before you go about building this. I'd say this need not be a huge initiative that consumes the firm in its entirety. That would not be practical and definitely not smart. Start at the top of the firm, say account director and above, and work your way to the bottom.

What model to follow? Again, don't get too consumed by trying to over-elaborate. Senior executives are busy people and rightly so. The do-able thing could be to have this initiative run concurrently with their personal review cycles.

This will save time and also allow you to create a different and refreshing discussion point at the meeting. And also send a great message to senior staff that the firm is keen to help them get a real sense of what they are great at and keen for them to become stronger consultants.