Three: The Human Resources Emerging Executive

CHAPTER 3 Follow the Money

Business/Human Capital Strategy

Artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci reportedly said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” He could have been talking about the process of integrating business and human capital strategy.

We HR leaders have an uncanny ability to “complexify” human capital strategy in the name of being more strategic. Sometimes, we love to out-strategize the strategists by making our approach to people strategy even more complicated, lengthy, and difficult to understand than the business strategy. Or we throw up our hands in exasperation and claim that we can’t put together a people strategy because either the business doesn’t have a clear strategy or because no one will tell us what it is—because ...