When a company has a talent gap, the instinct is often to start writing a job description. There is a role that needs to be filled. Someone needs to own it. So the next step must be to hire.
Not necessarily.
Talent gaps are becoming an increasingly important business challenge. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, 63% of employers identify skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation, while nearly 40% of workers’ core skills are expected to change by 2030.
That means organizations cannot always solve talent challenges by simply replacing one person with another. The better question is: What kind of talent solution does this business actually need? A useful way to think about that decision is through three options: Build, Buy or Borrow.
Build: Develop the Talent You Already Have
Building means investing in the people already inside your organization to develop the capabilities you need. This can be a strong option when the gap is less about a lack of talent and more about a lack of experience, training, structure or opportunity.
For example, perhaps you have a high-performing manager who is ready to take on a broader leadership role. Or maybe your sales team has strong individual contributors who could become effective people leaders with the right coaching and support.
Building talent can strengthen retention, preserve institutional knowledge and create a stronger internal leadership pipeline.
And with skills changing so quickly, developing existing employees is becoming an increasingly important part of talent strategy. LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report found that 49% of learning and talent development professionals say their executives are concerned that employees do not have the right skills to execute the business strategy.
That does not automatically mean you need to hire.
Sometimes, the talent you need is already there.
Before deciding to build, leadership should consider how quickly the capability is needed, whether existing employees have the potential to develop it and whether the organization has the time and resources to make that development successful.
If the business needs a new capability tomorrow, developing it internally may not be realistic.
That is where Buy or Borrow may make more sense.
Buy: Bring in the Expertise You Need
Buying talent means hiring someone from outside the organization. This is often the right approach when a company needs specialized expertise, a new perspective or leadership experience that does not currently exist internally. It can also make sense when the stakes are high and the organization cannot afford a long learning curve.
Executive leadership is a good example.
When a company needs a new CEO, CRO, COO or other senior leader, the goal is not simply to find someone who can perform the responsibilities listed in a job description. The right person needs to bring the experience, judgment and leadership style required for the organization’s next stage of growth.
That requires more than filling a vacancy.
It requires understanding the business, defining what success looks like and identifying the type of leader who can get the organization there.
This is where an executive search partner can add significant value. The best search processes start well before candidates enter the picture.
They begin with questions like:
- What is the business trying to accomplish?
- What capabilities are missing today?
- What will this role need to accomplish in the first 12 to 24 months?
- What does the current team do well, and where are the gaps?
- Does the organization need a specialist, a generalist, a builder or a change agent?
- What leadership experience will matter most in this particular environment?
Only after those questions are answered can you define the right profile.
And sometimes, the answer is not to hire permanently.
Borrow: Bring in Talent for the Need You Have Today
Borrowing talent means bringing in expertise on a temporary, fractional or project basis.
That might look like an interim executive, fractional leader, consultant, contractor or project-based specialist.
Borrowing can be particularly valuable when the business has a defined need but is not yet ready for a permanent hire.
Maybe a company needs a senior operations leader to help restructure a function before determining what the permanent organization should look like. Maybe a business needs specialized expertise for a six-month initiative. Or perhaps a growing company needs experienced leadership support while it searches for the right long-term executive.
Borrowing can provide speed and flexibility while giving a company time to make a more informed long-term decision.
It can also be a bridge.
An interim leader can stabilize a function while an executive search is underway. A project-based expert can help define the capabilities a future full-time hire will need. A fractional leader can help establish processes and priorities that make the eventual permanent role much more successful.
In other words, Borrow does not have to compete with Buy. Sometimes it helps you get to the right Buy decision.
How Do You Know Which Approach Is Right?
The Build, Buy or Borrow framework is not about choosing one option forever. It is about matching the talent strategy to the business problem.
A few questions can help determine which approach makes the most sense:
How quickly do you need the capability?
If the need is immediate, hiring externally or bringing in interim expertise may be more practical than developing someone internally. If there is time to develop the capability, building from within may be a stronger long-term investment.
Is the capability already present on your team?
If you have someone with the right foundation, potential and interest in taking on more responsibility, developing that person may be the right answer. If the capability does not exist internally, it may be time to look outside the organization.
Is this a permanent capability or a defined need?
If the business needs an ongoing capability that will remain critical to its long-term strategy, a permanent hire may make the most sense. If the need is tied to a specific project, transition or period of change, borrowing specialized talent may provide the expertise without creating a permanent role.
How specialized is the expertise?
Some capabilities are simply too specialized to develop quickly from within. A highly technical engineering role, for example, may require years of industry-specific experience, certifications or knowledge that cannot be replicated through a short-term training program. In those situations, bringing in someone who already has the expertise can reduce the learning curve and help the organization move faster.
What does the business need next?
This is where the three approaches come together. The right talent solution should reflect not only the gap that exists today, but where the organization is headed. The goal is to build, buy or borrow the capabilities that will best support the company’s next stage of growth.
What This Can Look Like in Practice
One of our clients came to Impact Partners with questions that went well beyond a single open position.
The organization needed a clearer understanding of its competitive landscape, customer base and sales strategy, along with a closer look at how its people and resources were aligned to growth. We analyzed customer and revenue data to identify the strongest opportunities, areas of revenue leakage or underperformance, and which markets and accounts warranted greater focus.
That intelligence informed not only commercial strategy, but also where the organization needed to strengthen, restructure or redirect talent. We conducted competitive research and analysis, evaluated the sales organization and identified the strategic professionals needed to support the company’s goals. We also consulted on operational gaps, defined where additional capacity was needed, and identified where resources could be reduced or redeployed, recruiting for the roles most critical to the next stage.
From there, our work expanded into helping the client translate those insights into an annual growth plan, including priorities for market development, organizational change, talent investment and greater operating efficiency.
The value was not simply in filling open positions.
It was in helping the client understand where the business had opportunity, where it was losing efficiency or revenue, which capabilities were missing, and how talent needed to align to the strategy.
That is the difference between recruiting for a role and approaching talent as part of a broader business strategy.
Talent Strategy Starts Before the Search
Not every talent gap is a recruiting problem. Sometimes the answer is developing someone who is already on your team. Sometimes it is bringing in an experienced executive who can take the organization to its next stage. And sometimes the best answer is temporary expertise that gives the business the time, flexibility or perspective it needs.
The goal is not to Build, Buy or Borrow simply because one option seems easiest. The goal is to understand the business need first, then choose the talent strategy that best supports it.
- For organizations that need to Build, that may mean identifying and developing the people already on the team.
- For organizations that need to Borrow, it may mean bringing in specialized expertise for a defined period or project.
- And when the answer is to Buy, having the right search partner can make all the difference.
At Impact Partners, executive search and recruiting are at the core of what we do. But our work does not begin and end with a job description. We partner with organizations to understand their business, identify the talent and leadership capabilities they need, and find the people who can help them move forward.
Because the right hire is not simply the person who fills the gap. It is the person who helps close it.
