Letting Go Of Your Stars

I was ruminating about some discussions I have been having with some friends of mine around what are the chances of companies holding onto their star employees till they retire ? If the question was pondered on in the 70's or the 80's or the early 90's I would have said the chances are near 100 % but nowadays I would say that it is a lost endeavor ... The funny aspect of this is that I still find companies trying their hardest to keep their star employees when all they need to do is realize that they cannot hold onto their stars forever. Let me explain ...the real goal for leaders and organizations should be to have great people working with you, even after they have stopped working with you .... confused ... let me explain further ... Some of the best companies in the world actually celebrate their star employees leaving ... why ? because they are clear that they attract the best and the brightest to come and work for them and these people are hard to hold onto ..the companies realize that it is their job to create a value proposition which gets the stars to stay another day, another month, another year but ultimately, they know that its foolish to believe that good people will stay forever. The idea is to stay connected even after they leave your payroll .... how do you do it ? By turning them into advocates, clients and business partners for you ... forget the word "lifetime association" and forget the terms "ex-employees" or "former colleagues" ... smart companies are creating alumni networks using the many tools around like linkedin, facebook etc ...and they use the same networks when they need to source good people as well .... hope this was insightful ... have a good rest of the week ... Anand K Padmanaban