Ian Mann : What do Warren Buffett, Tiger Woods and Mozart have in common? In the fields of investment, golf and composing, they are among the best the world has ever seen.

How did they become that good? Was it hard work, persistence, and focus? If you worked as hard as they did, were as persistent and as focused as they were, would you be as successful? Probably not.

Talent is Overrated is a must-readbecause it gives the question of talent 200 pages of thought, and it challenges our assumptions.

Based on clear arguments and compelling research, Colvin provides perspective that alters our insights into talent. Our views about talent are extraordinarily important for our lives and careers and for those of our children.

And talent is the primary concern of every business today.

The limitation in business is not the shortage of capital or materials any more - it is the shortage of talented staff.

We all know that those with exceptional talent work hard at their discipline. What is surprising is that researchers have found no signs of precocious achievement before the intense practice began.

In fact, if we expected that as soon as the training began the talent would shine through by the third lesson, the research indicates that there are no early signs - in fact there are no signs at all.

So, is what we call "talent" nothing more than the result of huge amounts of practice started early enough?

Two issues remain. First, what did family or teacher see that made them want to put the child through such training in the first place? And second, how much training and practice is required?

To answer the first question, consider the case of Laszlo Polgar, the Hungarian educational psychologist, author of Bring up Genius! He publicly asked for a woman who would marry him, have children with him, and help conduct the experiment.

When their oldest child turned four, the experiment began. The child, they decided, would be a chess genius. Polgar was a poor player and his wife didn't play. The child, Susan, was subjected to intense training, almost to the exclusion of everything else, and at 17 qualified for the Men's World Chess Championship - which she couldn't play in, because she was a woman. At 21 she was the first female grand master. The youngest of the three sisters, Judit, became the youngest person ever to be a grand master.

But what of Mozart? Actually, pretty much the same. His father, Leopold, was an accomplished musician and educator who wanted his son to be great musician too, and worked intensely on young Mozart. And Tiger Woods? Ditto. Father Earl wrote in Training a Tiger that he had always loved to teach and always loved sport and, when he retired from the army, had the opportunity to train Tiger in the game he enjoyed so much. And Buffett? Almost ditto. His father was a stockbroker and investment was in the air.

So is talent a question of a decision by a parent or teacher and then huge amounts of practice? Actually practice won't do it - only "deliberate practice" will. Going to the driving range and hitting balls by the bucketful won't make anyone a great golfer.

This is where a superb trainer or coach or parent comes in.

Deliberate training is designed to address the issues that you specifically need to work at. It requires the deliberate identification and isolation of specific aspects and then focusing on them until they are superb. Deliberate practice is never fun, because it always focuses on what the person finds the hardest to do. This partly explains why there are so few who do it. And then there is the requirement of continuous feedback.

Merely bashing away mindlessly at what needs to be improved won't do it either.

What is required are huge amounts of "mindful practice" in short sessions.

What has this to do with developing superb talent in organisations? Regrettably, nothing - not because it is not relevant, but because it is virtually never applied. Can it be applied with success? Absolutely! GE applies much of it to its leadership development model and so does the US military.

Two examples: performance appraisals once a year? Coaching as the exception? That is the equivalent of telling little Tiger once a year that his swing is off - and spending a bit of time with him when you are on holiday.

The winners of Larry O'Sullivan's book Client Service Excellence are:

• BL Jali; Ladysmith
• Gavin Michaels; Riversdale
• Kantilal Ramjee; Port Elizabeth