The Strategic Talent Diagnostic
Focused • Low-lift • Completed in 4-5 weeks
Creates an objective baseline, connects talent-system findings to business impact, and gives leadership clear priorities for what to address first.
What Leadership Needs to See
What is at Stake
1. Can the current talent system reliably support the business plan?
Growth constrained
Capacity or capability gaps can delay execution of the growth plan.
2. Where are gaps creating friction, dependency or management distraction?
Profitability diluted
Turnover, repeated searches, weak hires and lost productivity compound.
3. Do we have the leadership capacity and capabilities needed for what comes next?
Management capacity consumed
Leaders spend time solving recurring people issues instead of operating the business.
4 Which issues are constraining scalability, execution or enterprise value?
Enterprise value exposed
Dependency and inconsistent systems can make growth, transition and scale harder.
Strategic Talent Diagnostic
Diagnose before you prescribe.
The Strategic Talent Diagnostic provides leadership with an objective view of the talent system supporting the business.
Through focused leadership interviews, data and process review, and an external market perspective, Domino 1 identifies strengths, gaps, dependencies and opportunities that can be difficult to see from inside the organization.
The objective is not another HR study or another report. It is visibility into what matters most and where leadership should act first.
The Diagnostic examines nine interconnected areas across the talent system, from leadership alignment and talent access through selection, visibility, employer brand and third-party dependency.
What You Receive
01 | Objective Baseline
Executive scorecard showing strengths, gaps and priorities across the talent system.
02 | Business Impact Analysis
Clear connection between findings and their effect on growth, profitability, capacity and execution.
03 | Prioritized Action Roadmap
Focused recommendations tied to the highest-value business risks and opportunities.
One Diagnostic. Different Business Applications.
The core Diagnostic does not change. The business context determines where objective visibility can create the most value.
Businesses
Give owners and executive teams an objective view of whether the talent system can support the business plan, growth and what comes next.
Private Equity
Give sponsors and portfolio leaders objective visibility into whether the talent system can support the investment thesis, growth plan and eventual exit. Applicable post-close, across existing portfolio companies, in exit preparation and selectively pre-acquisition.
03 | Valuation & Transition
Add objective visibility into factors that may affect enterprise value, management dependency, transition readiness and continuity beyond the current owner. Applicable to business valuation, ownership transition, pre-sale/exit preparation, succession and continuity.
It creates a more productive initial conversation and helps determine whether a deeper Diagnostic would create value.
About Domino 1 | Chris Carmon
Built from decades inside the talent system.
Domino 1 grew from more than 30 years working with owners, CEOs and executive teams across executive search, talent strategy, leadership and business.
Across thousands of business-critical talent situations, the same pattern kept appearing: companies often spend significant time, money and leadership attention addressing individual talent problems without objectively examining the system underneath them.
Domino 1 starts differently.
Diagnose first. Create visibility. Prioritize what matters. Then determine the right response.
Chris Carmon | Founder
Chris has spent more than 30 years advising owners, CEOs and senior leaders at the intersection of business, leadership and talent. He has founded and co-founded multiple talent businesses and has been involved in more than 3,000 business-critical search and talent engagements.
Start with visibility
Before deciding what to fix, understand what is actually happening inside the talent system and what it may be affecting across the business.