The shift from product-based to knowledge economies has resulted in an excess demand for skilled workers and created a global ‘war’ for talent. In order to retain talents, organizations need to meet their expectations. The new generation to enter the workforce, namely the millennial generation have very explicit demands, for leadership development in particular. These demands create challenges for companies, especially smaller organizations with limited resources. The development of new leadership talents is indeed one of the main impediments to growth today, as current leaders are retiring at accelerating rates.

This qualitative study explores how medium-sized organizations (MSOs) in Sweden employ talent management as a succession-planning tool to retain Millennial talents, using an abduc- tive research approach. Through eleven semi-structured interview, the authors have gained an in-depth understanding of how managers in MSOs reason about succession planning and talent management as a mean to retain millennial talents.

The authors expand the understanding of academic literature of how medium-sized compa- nies approach succession planning by developing their internal leadership talents. Four nu- ances of succession planning are presented and in addition to existing literature, the authors have identified a dilemma to talent development in MSOs, denoted ‘The Paradox’.

This study finally provides starting points for further research as well as practical recommen- dations for medium-sized company managers.