Written for EO by Vikram Ahuja. Ahuja is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder at X10 and founder of Byond Travel. He is also a member of EO Bangalore.

At the 2019 Web Summit, Ahuja joined a delegation of 16 EO members from 11 countries to lead workshops and speed mentoring sessions. As a Web Summit speaker, he presented on the rise of the “2nd City Office.” Read on for his perspective on the problem of finding talent. 

If you’re like many global entrepreneurs and CEOs, you might be facing the greatest business challenge of them all: Great companies need great talent. And there has never been such a pronounced talent shortage in the world.

Consider this:

Talent is expensive

In mature Western economies (the US, UK, Canada, for example), it’s almost twice as costly to operate a business in 2019 as it was in 2009. Wages constitute the majority of that expense.

Talent is scarce

45 percent of employers around the world report difficulty in filling vacant roles.