In this highly competitive environment, organizations are continuously striving for excellence. There are many factors that can influence an organizations competitive positioning. In this article, the author identifies the two Ps, namely People and Practices, as the key factors that influence an organization's performance.

Competitiveness among companies keeps the managements engaged in devising the alternatives to be at the top. Every company tries its best to achieve levels high of efficiency and effectiveness. Companies need to streamline their policies, goals, strategies and practices for riding the wave of excellence. There can be many factors responsible for a company reaching a competitive positon and sustaining it too, but the two key factors are the `People' and `Practices'. We come across many phrases like `Man behind the machine', `Manage the talent and talent will manage the results', but we often forget to emphasize on practices used by people for best performance. Let us try to understand how some of the wonderful practices help in hiring and retaining smart people. Besides hiring and retaining, the practices adopted for performance appraisal, innovation and creativity need also to be taken care of.

Talking about practices that help the companies in bringing the right people into the organization, it is well-known that now "high IQ is required to get in, but high EQ is required to get on". Therefore, companies have gradually started emphasizing on attitudinal and behavioral aspects besides testing for knowledge and IQ. Many kinds of tests are available to ensure that a person with the kind of behavior, attitude, passion and personality suitable for a particular job is selected. Wipro uses PAPI [PA (Preference Inventory) Job Profiler]—a test that shows how close the individual's personality is to the job profile. LG electronics uses MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) test that helps in measuring personality. It divides personalities that divides into 16 possible combinations under four basic scales.

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