5. Talent & Succession
Grow, flex, hire, augment
Build-borrow-buy, with AI as the fourth option
Use when
Any capability gap, before a requisition is raised
Grow
Develop the skill internally and move people to it: cheapest and slowest
Flex
Contingent capacity or internal redeployment when the need is bounded or uncertain
Hire
Add people when the skill is durable, strategic, and genuinely absent
Augment
Use AI to do part of the work: a real option in the same conversation, not a separate technology decision
“Answer all four for the same gap before choosing.”
How to use it
The classic build-borrow-buy question with a fourth answer added, which is what changed. Most organizations default to Hire and discover later that Grow or Augment was available. Watch-out: Augment is the one that gets asserted rather than tested; require the same evidence you would demand for a hire.
Card details
- Model type
- Grid
- Origin status
- Synthesis
- Content last reviewed
- 28 July 2026
Origin
SynthesisPeter Cappelli's build, borrow, buy (Talent on Demand, 2008), extended here with augment as a fourth option.