CBS alumni made up every third top-talent again this year

This year, 33 out of the 100 talents in Berlingske Business’ Talent 100 publication were alumni from Copenhagen Business School – more precisely, 29 Master’s graduates, one Bachelor, one MBA, one HD (Graduate Certificate in Business Administration), and even a PhD. In addition there were two currently pursuing an HD. President Per Holten-Andersen could not help but being especially proud of these talents when he welcomed everyone to this year’s Talent 100 conference.

Besides the welcome speech, there were speeches on Berlingske Business’ Talent 100 project and the specially chosen talents from business editor Peter Suppli Benson and community editor Pia Fuglsang Bach. Danske Bank CEO Thomas F. Borgen spoke on the special responsibilities the talents have, and the former Talent 100 candidate and chairwoman of the Danish Union of Librarians (Bibliotekarforbundet) Tine Jørgensen spoke on the realities of carrying the special designation of being a talent.

Prior to engaging in the customary networking and socializing with champagne and tapas, the participants were spoken to about  the special art of selecting and deselecting through a panel debate with management consultant and author Christian Ørsted, headhunter at Odgers Berndtson Rikke Stampe Skov, and Director for CBS Business Louise Seest.

The messages about the responsibility, commitment, risk, and effect of being named a Talent were many, and the most useful were probably that receiving the honour of the title is an acknowledgement of an obvious potential, something that gives an expectation of but no guarantee that the Talent will make it far – and also that the title will lead to future offers, also for tasks and in organizations that are not a match with their specific talent, meaning that they should be critical and reflective.

Talent in itself is far from enough

Without talent you cannot make it, but talent in itself is not enough either, writes Peter Suppli Benson, Berlingske Business’ business editor, in the Talent 100 Magazine editorial – and to continue with a boiled down resume of the editorial: If you want to break through and go from talent to success, you must combine your talent with hard work, this while very different competencies are required of this year’s 100 Danish talents compared to those of 10 years ago, Peter Suppli Benson points out.

That they must possess different competencies today than just 10 years ago to earn the ‘Talent’ label is already clear (…), but that talent in itself is never enough to break through and go from talent to professional has also become clear to the majority as well. It does not matter whether the talent is within research or athletics, or in being one of the many business talents who are presented in this year’s magazine.

It requires hard work, planning, and sometimes luck to make it in business. The ability to work hard and perform is also a crucial ingredient if you want to earn the talent label and enjoy the rights and opportunities that come with such a label. What the future brings is up to the talents themselves.

At the same time, demands are quickly evolving, which means that the talent title today is based on much more than just performance and results. The talents must be able to see the bigger picture, have the ability to decode their colleagues, and be able to bring the competencies of others into play and co-create results. Finally, the talents must be ready to reinvent themselves – over and over again; otherwise the talent label fades all too quickly.

A relevant hosting of a continuously relevant event

Louise Seest, Director of CBS Business, considers CBS’ role as host for Berlingske Business’ Talent 100 conference especially relevant this year when CBS celebrates its 100th anniversary:

- Through its 100 years, CBS has always revolved around talent development. In 1917, talents from the business community founded us – and it is because of the thousands of talents who, with their diligence, engagement, and innovative strength have taught, researched, and – not least – studied at CBS, that we are the strong business university today that we are so proud of being, emphasizes Louise Seest and continues:

- It is crucial to CBS that our graduates have the necessary development-oriented, useful, and business relevant knowledge. And that they additionally have curiosity, drive, are dedicated, persistent, hard-working, and possess a ‘never give up’ attitude. That is what characterises talents – just like the ones we celebrated at the event at CBS, not least the third of them who we think of as ours.

1,400 Berlingske Business talents since 2004

Berlingske Business Magazine has selected talents and published the Talent 100 special edition magazine for 14 years. The magazine annually shines a light on 100 young talents of less than 35 years of age from a wide, but business relevant, range of categories.

The talents are often nominated by their organizations – according to community editor Pia Fuglsang Bach sometimes even as an outright corporate decision – and other interested parties. From the nominations the year’s 100 talents are selected by a team of Berlingske Business editors and journalists on basis of the reasons given in the nominations, as well as resume and age. In 2017 there were 400 nominees.

You can read portraits and see the resumes of this year’s 100 talents here.