The games company Valve constantly seek to recuit the most awesome talent. How quickly this happens determines the companies rate of growth. Awesome talent adds value to the business. For detail on how, check out their awesome handbook. (Distilled in this Forbe’s article).
It would be interesting to see how the Valve approach scales beyond a few hundred people. Although, let’s face it, traditional hierarchies don’t scale particularly well.
Could continuous hiring be the the new continuous deployment? It seems to offer many advantages to just-in-time hiring. And it’s certainly refreshing to have an alternative view of growth. Targets driven by profit and shareholders don’t feel right to me. Maybe the financial crisis has taught us something after all.