Internet companies know the important components of a business plan: building and protecting a brand, creating the best possible technology, building market share, raising capital, understanding the exit strategy. But taking a company from plan to reality requires the ability to execute. And effective execution requires the right management and personnel.

With the growth of successful .com companies frequently occurring at almost the speed of sound, they can’t afford to wait until they are pre-IPO to begin looking like a public company. Investors, whether in a public offering or a merger, look not only at the products and services the company is offering but also - and, possibly, even more critically - at the company’s structure, its internal systems and the management team they expect to carry the business plan forward. Silicon Alley companies should have a plan in place at the earliest possible stage for identifying and recruiting executive talent, the kind of people who know how to build a company and how to create value for investors.

With unemployment at an all-time low and technology taking the job market by storm, Internet and new media companies in New York are finding the competition for talent fierce. Whether it’s a CEO, CFO, marketing director, business developer or public relations professional, the job market in the technology sector is booming. Internet companies are staffing up in all positions and at all levels. Failure to meet this challenge successfully by bringing the right staff on board at the right time will not only hinder growth, it might actually stand in the way of development, much as a shortage of capital or delays in technology development would. Further complicating a young company’s personnel agenda is that a whole host of positions, from Web developers and designers to network administrators, didn’t even exist until recently.

Technology has also altered the traditional job requirements. For the first time, employers aren’t necessarily looking at a candidate’s amount of experience, but are more concerned with where that experience comes from and what skills were learned. For instance, most Internet companies would rather hire a professional with three years’ experience and skills that can bring something new and useful to the company than a more senior professional who has more years of experience but skills that are less apparently relevant.

Companies recognize that, to a degree, talent is fungible. Someone with the requisite skills, experience and personality, who has worked in a somewhat different area in the past, may prove to be a great fit and a valuable addition to the team. Employers sometimes need to look at candidates’ experience in a very analytical way to determine whether it can be applied to the position at hand.

For instance, we recently worked with one of the industry’s biggest online service companies to recruit a director of loyalty marketing. The candidate we offered had 11 years of experience - in offline companies - but great skills that were translatable to the Internet environment. She also came to the table with great ideas for the company. Because the candidate was able to market herself well and the employer could see her potential, she was given the position. The company found her skills useful and went on to invest time and money to make her more Internet-savvy. As a result, the candidate has been successful in developing new programs for the company, putting systems in place and ultimately developing new areas of business based on what she had carriedin with her from the earlier stages of her career. Within seven months of her hire date, this individual was named vice president of client services and has become an integral part of the company’s senior management team.

The Internet has also affected the way candidates must project themselves to potential employers. In the fast-paced, ever-changing world of technology, there is a need for people who can work quickly and juggle all of the tools of the trade. Cell phones, laptops and Palm Pilots are just a few reasons why business NEVER stops in this industry. Candidates must market themselves more aggressively than ever before and be able to learn and work quickly to stay afloat.

The growing economy and the rapid growth of the technology industry have led to the job market’s becoming so competitive that businesses are offering ever-more-impressive salaries, benefits and incentives to sweeten the deal for prospective employees. Job candidates in this market can afford to be picky and hold out for their dream position. Internet companies, in turn, are constantly always refining their appeal to young, fresh-faced techies by offering both excellent stock options and such incentives as gym memberships, Friday pizza parties and even video games in the office. They are appealing to higher-level candidates with such perks as on-site day care and great retirement plans. These kinds of incentives often prove decisive when trying to lure someone who is not necessarily job hunting away from their present job.

Stock options and incentives alone will not always get the company the talent it needs. The bottom line is that most people looking for jobs in the high-tech industries are looking for a fun and challenging work environment where they believe in the company’s mission and/or product. Whether it’s developing new software or marketing a new portal, employees want to feel as if they belong to something with a future.

These are but a few of the human resources challenges facing every Silicon Alley company. For better or worse, the success or failure of any young - or even any well-established - company’s short- and long-range plans almost always comes down to people.