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The Quiet Edge: Reorganizing Around Extraordinary Talent
In the rarest and luckiest organizations, there are individuals whose brilliance shifts the trajectory of the entire enterprise. These aren’t just high performers—they are super-contributors, the minds behind ideas or designs that reshape industries and create untold value.
Recognizing the Rare Talent That Changes Everything
Most companies don’t realize when they’ve stumbled upon one of these individuals. It’s like lucking into the fastest racehorse in the world and then strapping it to a plow.
Even when organizations do recognize this level of talent, the temptation is to ask the usual questions:
- Should they manage bigger teams?
- Can we spread their expertise across multiple projects?
- How do we fit them into our existing leadership track?
In my 25 years of coaching and advising executives, I’ve worked with maybe half a dozen people whose talent alone could shift the financial trajectory of their companies. These are rare individuals, and when they emerge, the right move isn’t to give them more responsibilities—it’s to restructure the organization around them.
Jony Ive – A Public Example of Organizational Realignment for Talent
One of the clearest public examples of this is Jony Ive at Apple. Ive wasn’t an engineer—his brilliance lay in design. His work on products like the iPod and iPhone reshaped not only Apple but entire industries.
Apple’s leadership, especially Steve Jobs, recognized Ive’s genius early on. But instead of giving him a standard promotion, they built a fortress around him.
- Apple sealed off the Industrial Design Group, giving Ive and his small team freedom from day-to-day distractions.
- Ive had direct access to senior leadership, bypassing layers of approval.
- His job wasn’t to scale across departments—it was to focus entirely on design.
By reorganizing around Ive’s talent, Apple produced iconic products that drove billions in revenue and cemented the company’s dominance.
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Ilya Sutskever – OpenAI’s Strategic Approach to Talent
At OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever plays a similar role—not in design, but in artificial intelligence. As one of the brightest minds in deep learning, his work has driven major AI breakthroughs, including the GPT models.
OpenAI’s leadership, led by Sam Altman, recognized Sutskever’s importance and shielded him from operational distractions:
- Sutskever wasn’t bogged down by management or administrative oversight.
- His focus remained almost entirely on advancing AI research.
- OpenAI scaled the teams beneath him instead of asking him to stretch horizontally across the company.
That decision allowed OpenAI to leap ahead in the AI race, with Sutskever’s contributions helping to shape the future of the industry.
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For HR – The Role in Enabling (Not Spotting) Super-Contributors
HR plays a vital role—not in identifying super-contributors, but in removing barriers once they are recognized by senior leadership.
Rather than asking who these individuals are, HR should focus on:
- “How can we help leadership reorganize around this person?”
- “What structures are limiting their output?”
- “Where can we create specialized teams or dissolve unnecessary roles to multiply their impact?”
HR’s Role in Action:
- Organizational Design: Restructure teams to protect the contributor’s focus.
- Operational Relief: Shift administrative work or approvals away from these individuals.
- Building Protective Spaces: Advocate for dedicated innovation teams or smaller working groups that give them breathing room to create.
The best HR teams understand that sometimes the right move is to break traditional organizational molds.
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For CEOs – The Real Work of Transformational Leadership
For CEOs and senior executives, spotting and backing super-contributors sits at the core of transformational leadership.
When a CEO identifies someone capable of driving exponential growth, the job is clear:
- Protect Them Ruthlessly – Don’t dilute their focus with additional responsibilities. Shield them from operational noise.
- Reorganize Around Them – Create or dissolve structures to maximize their contribution.
- Be Decisive – Half-measures won’t cut it. Rebuild the system to let them sprint.
At the highest level, this is the CEO’s real job—unhooking the plow and letting the racehorse run.
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Final Thoughts – Reshaping for the Future
The best organizations understand that talent at this level is rare. Sometimes, the most important shift isn’t in changing the person—it’s in reshaping the organization around them.
By stepping back and reorganizing around brilliance, companies don’t just retain top talent—they create environments where the truly exceptional can redefine the future.
