growth hacking is every company a publisher?
TRANSCRIPT
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HR STRATEGY SPECIAL
We look at how companies are utilizing HR strategies to foster
an environment of success
GROWTH HACKINGHow are small companies challenging the big boys using innovative strategies and innovations
IS EVERY COMPANY A PUBLISHER?
As the web allows companies to spread more ideas than
ever, we ask if every company is a publisher
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Welcome to this edition of Chief Strategy Officer.
This issue is concentrating on HR strategies, something that is often under-appreciated in companies today.
Without an effective HR function, the hiring and management of employees often falls by the wayside and overall company objectives suffer as a result. An effective HR function, where employees can feel empowered and respected is often as important than the sales department or teams at the core of company operations.
Without them the risk of losing important employees is increased as their progress, renumeration and overall satisfaction can often be overlooked. This is why having an effective overall strategy for an HR department is now more important than ever.
With increases in the use of data and analytics in the HR function across larger companies, the chance to create great HR strategies has never been higher. This also allows the HR department to become active in the wider business goals of the company, tracking employee progress and allowing them to prosper in the correct departments.
With the importance of this role
and the elements of it that are often missed, we thought that it was important to look at this division of companies and how HR strategies can be improved moving forward.
Regular readers of the magazine may have noticed the longer than usual interval since the last issue. The reason for this is that we are moving to a bi-monthly schedule, which will allow us to create better content within the magazines as well as launch a new website, which allows us to produce content every day.
We are also looking for new contributors, if you feel that you have a new idea that you want to spread, please get in contact at
George HillManaging Editor
If you are looking to put your products in front of key decision makers, contact Hannah at [email protected] for more details.
§
Managing EditorGeorge Hill
PresidentJosie King
Assistant EditorSimon Barton
Art DirectorGavin Bailey
AdvertisingHannah Sturgess
ContributorsMichaela Jeffery-MorrisonRichard AngusPhil RistMack Burnett
General [email protected]
Advertising [email protected]
Letter From The Editor
Editor’s Letter
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5 Mack Burnett talks us through Growth Hacking, why it’s becoming more popular and where he sees it in the coming years
10It is a widely accepted fact that every company is now a publisher, we look at the reasons behind this and why companies should embrace this14How are weather and HR linked? We report on a presentation from Steve Gins-burgh from Universal Weather and Aviation, which explains all18Phil Rist talks us through the findings of a recent survey that suggests 26% of Americans are scared about losing their job to robotics or automation
Contents
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Contents
We investigate how the HR role is changing and how a new holistic strategic approach is going to change perceptions25
Simon Barton reports on the presentation from Michael Barnett, Head of Planning at British American Tobacco, at the Chief Strategy Officer Summit in London
GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?
We are always looking for new contributors, if you have an interesting idea or passion for a subject, please contact George at [email protected]
4
ehunter
415 992 55 10
5
The Growth Of Growth Hacking
Mack BurnettAdjunct Instructor - Digital Strategy and Multichannel Marketing, New York University
Growth Hacking
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It was quite a while back when I was sitting in a Starbucks near Union Square in New York City, waiting to catch up with an old industry colleague who I hadn’t seen in years. I was typing away on my iPhone, sipping on my Chai Tea Latte, when my colleague finally arrived.
What I thought would be your run of the mill ‘catch up’ meeting turned into a ‘Have you heard of Growth Hacking?’ conversation. Although I was aware of the Growth Hacking community, my first thought was that I had missed a very large elephant in the room. Admittedly, I had not yet immersed myself in Growth Hacking as a studious pursuit. That’s one of the largest on-going challenges of working in our industry - keeping up. I had an obligation to my clients and students to get a well-rounded perspective of the industry. I felt obligated to explore the rise of an entirely new segment of our industry.
My colleague was no longer positioning himself as a marketer, but solely as a ‘Growth Hacker’. What does this mean? How much traction does this have that he’s moved away from being a recognized digital marketer. This alone had me ready to pull out my phone and start researching at the table.
After we had caught up, I went back to my office and
immediately hit the web to research, analyze and dissect this thing called ‘Growth Hacking’. That led me down a path to an even greater lack of clarity.
One blog called Growth Hacking an outright fraud. It went on to say that Growth Hacking is just marketing by another name. Another website disagreed and proclaimed that anyone worth their salt should be hacking and not just marketing. Growth Hackers say they pick up where marketers have left off. All of this peaked my interest further.
After a long year of blogs, swipes and tweets, I did a deep dive into what Growth Hacking actually is, how it’s perceived, and where it seems to be going.
Wikipedia defines Growth Hacking as ‘a marketing technique developed by technology start-ups that uses creativity, analytical thinking, and social metrics to sell products and gain exposure.’ If this embodies what Growth Hacking is, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that it’s still ‘just marketing’?
Growth Hacking
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The actual term ‘Growth Hacking’ is attributed to Sean Ellis who says, ‘a Growth Hacker's true north is growth’. This then begs the question, who doesn't want to grow? If the sole focus is growth, does this mean that a company at a latter stage is stagnant or blinded by a focus on revenue or profits?
I had to think about many of the clients, brands and agencies I have worked with. Many do focus solely on driving revenue or brand awareness. Revenue should always be a factor, but not necessarily the driving force. Some strategies and tactics are meant to drive value and not necessarily revenue. Only focusing on revenue is like focusing on where the next gas station is instead of where the car is going.
My first thought was that ‘Growth Hacking’
was a rebrand of an old
profession. A simple matter of progressive nomenclature. Professions tend to do that over the years; planners have evolved in to ‘project managers’ and creative thinkers have gracefully adopted the title of ‘Strategist’.
However, after spending considerable time immersed in the Growth Hacking community, I can say that it’s more than repackaging. It’s a new school of thought. Growth Hacking is where digital marketing meets a lean start-up’s entrepreneurial drive to grow for the purpose of growth. Does a Growth Hacker drive revenue? Sure, they can. Yet revenue may not be what the start up needs at that moment for growth. A Growth Hacker would rather develop an online brand evangelist than make a quick sale. They would rather figure out how to create a viral registration campaign than just optimize the conversion rate of an ad. They would rather stretch the dollar of an ad buy, than go back and ask for more budget.
Growth Hacking is a convergence of innovative
marketing, data, engineering and automation with
a twist of high school ingenuity. Leveraging data insights to uncover new ways to grow. Growth Hackers say they’ve moved past the marketer by focusing on keeping customers after
Growth Hacking
8
acquisition and referrals. Keep in mind there is also an element of big business versus the start-up here.
A true Growth Hacker starts with the premise that they have fewer resources, little or no customer base, small budgets or even no budget and minimal social media presence. Nothing that a traditional company might already have established, but still they are charged with elevating a company to new heights with creativity and a bag of Growth Hacking tricks. It’s amazing to think of the companies that have accomplished amazing growth; Facebook, Dropbox, AirBnb to name a few. All of these companies have applied Growth Hacking techniques to grow their user bases into billion dollar companies, even in crowded markets - that’s true Growth Hacking.
Growth Hacking is much more than just a cool moniker to adopt for LinkedIn. It’s a new way of thinking and processing data, and it almost seems like finding out how to grow smarter, just for the fun of it. That’s what a ‘hacker’ is. So can we at this
point discount this new wave of thought in our industry? I think new waves of thought are what have always driven technology.
I’ve realized I’ve become more of a hacker than marketer, but I’ve always thought of myself as a ‘marketer’s marketer’. Maybe at the end of the day, that’s what Growth Hacking will turn out to be; the ethical extreme of digital marketers who are obsessed with results, revenue and growth.
So ‘old school’ digital marketers beware. There might be a Growth Hacker working in the mailroom whose got a strategy that they developed on their smartphone with a notepad and a calculator while having a latte.
Growth Hacking
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New Strategies In The Tobacco IndustrySimon BartonAssistant Editor
Strategies In Tobacco
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Two teenagers walk up to a shop counter and hand their change to the shop assistant. They’re both a little short of cash and can’t afford their packets of cigarettes. In line with the question; ‘What are cigarettes costing you?’ the shop assistant precedes to take a pair of pliers and rips out both of their teeth. As shocking as this seems, campaigns such as this have become part and parcel of anti-smoking initiatives that run regularly throughout Europe and the U.S.
On the face of it, adverts such as these pose a considerable threat to companies such as British American Tobacco (BAT). However, despite their hard-hitting nature, more than 3,200 people under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette each day, an incredible statistic considering the wealth of information damning cigarette use as a ticket to premature death. The problem is that many of the world’s new smokers are from undeveloped nations where consumers are less exposed to shock media, anti-smoking information and advertising.
In many countries cigarette use is going through a process of marginalization, once considered a norm, it is now deemed a vice for those who continue to indulge. For major tobacco companies like British American Tobacco this has led to a need for diversified strategies that go
far and beyond the traditional cigarette. This process has been in full-flight mode since 2005 with BAT’s aim to be the leader in the non-tobacco nicotine space.
At the Chief Strategy Officer summit in London, Michael Barnett, Head of Planning at BAT, gave us a glimpse into the strategic world of tobacco. The industry seems to be in a state of transition at the moment, with conflicting objectives divided between being as profitable as possible whilst also attempting to become a healthier industry, that offers smokers a way out of nicotine addiction.
When reciting the battle quote of ‘No battle plan survives contact with the enemy’, Michael points to the fact that within the context of the tobacco industry, EU regulators represent the enemy – making a connection with their unwillingness to overturn ‘snus’ regulations that confine its sale to Sweden. ‘Snus’ was one of BAT’s first endeavours into
Strategies In Tobacco
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non-tobacco nicotine products considered to be a healthier alternative to cigarettes, with far lower rates of Lung Cancer. Despite this, EU regulators were unwilling to give BAT the nod to sell the products across the whole of Europe. Michael states ‘all our plans to roll out ‘snus’ across the EU just fell away’, showing just how much BAT are at the peril of lawmakers.
Another strategic dilemma faced by BAT was that it wasn’t in the best interest of all parties to develop certain product lines. Their Marketing Director was at first very sceptical towards these alternative paths, primarily due to the guaranteed, short-term success that the sale of traditional cigarettes gives. This meant that when e-cigarettes became mainstream, BAT were further behind where they should have been. Michael States; ‘had we redone it we would have been further ahead than where we are now’ – a shining example of how the sceptical nature of one individual can hinder the development of an entire product division.
It was also not in the interest of EU regulators to bring yet another tobacco product to the mass-European market. It may well be healthier than smoking, but there are many things that are illegal in the EU that are healthier than smoking. For the regulators there was
little unequivocal evidence that showed the ‘snus’ would have been used as a substitute for cigarettes – instead, the regulator’s may well have felt that ‘snus’ would have been used on top of traditional cigarettes, perhaps in the work place or on public transport where consumption can be fairly inconspicuous, this made it a considerable risk for their efficacy as an organisation.
Michael was keen to point out that BAT’s adoption of new products was never the result of planned meetings where things were discussed in a struc-tured manner. Their evolution developed organically, and was based on the notion that BAT’s people knew about the industry and were more than capable of good decision-making. This was best shown in 2011 where BAT expressed their desire to lead the n o n - t o b a c c o space and a higher share of non-to-bacco products than normal c i g a r e t t e s . Michael says; ‘This wasn’t based on
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evidence, just a gut feeling which led us to believe that we should be doing more in this emerging space’. BAT want to be market leaders in this area, and feel that they warrant this distinction.
Described as a ‘Kodak moment’ for the Tobacco industry by Michael, the realisation that e-cigarettes are here to stay offers up real opportunities for strategic growth. The e-cigarette is not without its critics, but it has been welcomed by would-be quitters who have failed with other products such as patches, gum and inhalers. Traditional cigarettes are also unlikely to be off our supermarket shelves in the near future, despite the magnitude of legislation preventing tobacco companies from selling their products like more traditional industries.
This means that a number of divisions will have to co-exist within Tobacco companies, some tobacco based, some non-tobacco based. This strategy is easier said than done, with Michael reciting an occasion when a project manager caused friction in the company. He says ‘It didn’t help that at the time the guy who was heading up the alternative product division was going round and saying to other teams that your product is messed up’. BAT need to be one slick machine, not a number of cogs working in a disharmonious fashion. If this unity occurs, they
should be able to maximise their operations so that they all run profitably.
Smoking is not going away – young people take up the habit everyday and even more people try and fail to give up. This is good news for tobacco companies, but at the same time it gives industry leaders like BAT a real chance to rise above the rest and invest heavily in alternative products that cause less harm to the consumer. This is even more urgent for those who are living in less developed nations where legislation and anti-smoking information is less widespread. BAT’s desire to help their consumers give up was accentuated in 2010 when they teamed up with Nicoventures to bring new alternative products to the market. From a strategic perspective Michael and his team at BAT are confident that their organic approach to strategy development is the right way forward for their company and will bear considerable fruits going forward, for both themselves and smokers looking to give up.
Strategies In Tobacco
13 Chief Technology Officer Summit
+1 (415) 692 5514
theinnovationenterprise.com/summits
For more information contact Sean Foreman
“Harnessing Technology,Driving Innovation”
November
12 & 13Miami, 2014
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CTO Full final.pdf 1 30/05/2014 16:02
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Today, Every Company Is A PublisherGeorge HillEditor
14 Every Company Is A
Publisher
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Today every company is expected to be a publisher.
There is no longer a distinction between those who can publish and those who can’t, it is expected that if you are selling a product or service, that you know enough about it to write about it. It is not a new concept, we have been told that every company has become a publisher due to the internet and the ability to connect with platforms where content can be pushed. The truth is that it is just a new way of showing that you know enough about a subject to be able to effectively deliver a
service that people want.
A classic example of this would be when taking a car to a garage, if you
talk to a mechanic and they can describe
to you in detail the aspects of
what needs to be
done to fix your c a r , assure y o u t h a t t h e y
h a v e done it
b e f o r e and that
they know
exactly what they are talking about, you are going to be more likely to choose them. On the other hand, if you go to a garage, meet nobody and hear nothing about the expertise that they have, you are likely to choose the first simply because you know more about them and their past. It may be the case that the second garage can do a better job and that they know more than the first, but if it is not demonstrated and shared, then customers will not be interested.
The internet has meant that rather than just walking in to one garage and talking to somebody, there are (metaphorically) millions of garages and the one who can demonstrate that they know the most is the one that is likely to get the most business.
This is digital publishing, it allows companies to showcase what they know, show their work and prove that they are going to offer you the best product or the best service. It is now not done through a conversation with an individual customer, but through the multiple mediums that the internet can give.
One of the key aspects of this new method of communicating with customers is that it also allows them to indirectly communicate with you. With the use of analytics and tracking that the internet and online publishing offers, there is a direct feedback loop that allows companies to adapt
15 Every Company Is A Publisher
16
and change their content to what their customers want to see, be it videos, podcasts, whitepapers or blogs.
Equally there is an important element of digital publishing that goes beyond simply reassuring a customer that you are up to the job. The ability to tell a story and give the company a personality is equally important, a company that somebody can identify with is important and can be the difference between loyalty and a single job. Digital publishing and the creation of something beyond what your company can offer in terms of services is what creates identity and identity is what creates a following.
With the increased use of social media, digital publishing also offers companies the opportunity to spread their message and personality to those beyond their core group of customers and users. It is an important way to disseminate i n f o r m a t i o n about your c o m p a n y without the
need to contact people directly about it or draw people to your website to find it. This is where making the published content as interesting or educational as possible is important, the higher the quality of the material, the more it will be shared. The more it’s shared, the higher your company’s profile will get and the more material will be expected.
This is not just a fad either, looking at the power of digitally published content shows some of the highest profile and famous brands who have prospered through the use of innovative content, think about
where Old Spice would be now without the ‘Smell like a man, man’ campaign. According to P&G ‘Old Spice has month over month strengthened its market position and is now the number one brand of body wash and deodorant in both sales and volume with growth in the high single/double digits’. Effective digital publishing techniques have allowed a brand to re-identify with a new audience, build a considerable following and see a huge upturn in sales.
There will be few examples as popular as this (the content was nominated for an Emmy)
but a coherent digital publishing programme can have a massive positive effect at almost any company, whether it is publishing videos, whitepapers or even just blogs.
16 Every Company Is A Publisher
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HR Strategy
HR Strategy 17
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Weather And HR: They Are Linked In More Ways Than You ThinkMichaela Jeffery-MorrisonDivisional Leader, Strategy
18 Weather & HR
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Getting on a plane and travelling can be a complex task - your perfect plan is always susceptible to changes, whether they’re outside of your control or very much within it, mistakes happen. But for business professionals, these mistakes can be more than an annoyance - missed meetings, lateness or an inability to meet clients face to face can be the catalyst for missed opportunities and failed business deals. This fear of disrupted flight schedules was clearly something that the audience at the HR & Workforce Analytics Innovation Summit in Chicago sympathised with - it’s fair to say that at some time throughout all their careers a missed connection or a two-hour delay has stood between them and a deal clinching handshake.
Presenting in Chicago was Steve Ginsburgh, SVP, HR & Workforce Development at Universal Weather and Aviation. Founded in 1959 by former Air Force meteorologist and network weatherman Tom Evans, the company’s initial ambition was to provide customised weather forecasting for business aviation, a then unique endeavour. Since then, and as the company has evolved, it has developed its services so that every possible avenue for disruption is covered (there are normally 120 services per trip) - whatever the case may be, their mission statement remains the same; to make their
clients’ trips a success’.
As with every customer service orientated company - happy staff equals happy customers. However, in 2006, when Steve joined the company, there wasn’t a HR structure in place that could facilitate this happiness. There was no compensation structure, very little training and a lack of meaningful metrics and employee structures - the bottom line was that there were very few long serving employees and little loyalty to the company. This resentment was only likely to spill over to their customers. At the summit, Steve jokingly pointed to an image of the company’s staff superimposed within a prison cell, but joking aside, with the structure they had in place, this was probably the only recourse they had left that could guarantee their staff would stay at the company - evidently, things had to change.
Steve states ‘people want to speak to individuals they’re comfortable with - if Mary leaves, chances are they’ll follow Mary’ - this observation is indicative of the industry Universal Weather
Weather & HR
20
and Aviation work in as staff get to know clients closely, striking up friendships, friendships which are unlikely to relinquish when ‘Mary’ leaves the company. If Mary leaves she not only takes her experience with her, but considerable revenue as well.
In order to keep ‘Mary’ in the company, and others like her, Steve and his team set about revolutionising the HR function at the company. This restructuring was encapsulated through three drivers; alignment, capabilities and engagement.
Alignment, which is defined by Steve as the ‘strength of employee connection to corporate goals and strategy’ is an imperative cog in their
newfound HR structure. They hold monthly
meetings which the employees
are accountable for as they call the
meeting and they set the agenda for it. This
leads nicely into the year end summary where the accomplishments of the employee are directly matched against the goals and objectives of the company - at Universal Weather and Aviation they go
about this process in a different manner - Steve
says; the typical system is to
tell employees they are meeting expectations, but how many CEO’s tell their stockholders they had a ‘meet expectations’ year - I don’t think many of them do’. Because of this, they tell the employee one of three things - either that they had an extraordinary year, a good year or a poor one. This keeps things simple for all parties and allows for the direction of the company to be easily mapped against that of the employee.
In terms of capabilities, Steve says ‘we actually market our employees’. They try and highlight their staff through professional shots, so that they are marketed to potential clients. Steve also says ‘one of the great things that has happened over the last seven years or so is that all the things we’ve built into HR now goes into our RFP’s so they’re actually selling the stuff we’ve put together’. Evidently they’re building part of the marketing base of the company which will go directly to their customers.
Engagement for a client facing organisation like Universal Weather and Aviation is imperative as the employee has to have the willingness to go above and beyond what is expected of them and be an ambassador for the company. Since 2006, there has been a real focus on retaining their best staff and not letting them go by the wayside. Their employee
20 Weather & HR
21
barometer is a vital tool for this and allows them to differentiate between staff who are worth investing in and those who are not. The members of staff who are excelling in their jobs are given recognition and a number of bonuses. The employee barometer has analytics at its heart and at the summit, Steve informed us of a number of results that showed the correlation between engaged staff and business success - for example, platinum and gold client retention is over 95% and the turnover of key employees is at 5-8%, even in
an ‘oil company market’.
The results seen by the HR department at Universal Weather and Aviation have been impressive in the eight years since 2006. They’ve gone from being a slow, unstructured department to an efficient and effective machine that brings tangible benefits to both the customer and the client. Their vision to be the go-to company in this area is certainly a realistic one if their staff are as happy as the people they hope to serve going forward.
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How Will You Fill the Strategy Gap?
Weather And HR
22
Are Employees Scared Of Robots?Phil RistEVP-Strategy, Prosper
22 Robotics & HR
23
Robots are making headlines (if not writing them—yet). Google’s self-driving car, Amazon’s announcement that it will be using 10,000 robots in its warehouses by the end of the year, and the Associated Press using robots to write earnings reports, are just some recent examples of companies rapidly moving to introduce automation into their workforce. From managing inventory to intellect, these robots (physical or a ghost inside the machine) can provide productivity benefits for companies, but they can also create challenges for the HR department.
Humans using automation to put human jobs at risk is nothing new. It’s what the industrial revolution did to American workers in the early 1800’s. Today almost all of the
work done by farmers in the 19th century has been replaced by machines. Although the revolution brought about new types of job opportunities, it also caused stress and anxiety for those unsure how they were going to make a living. Fast forward a few centuries and robots/automation bring a similar unease to the American workforce.
Americans’ concerns that their jobs are going to be ‘botsourced’ are growing. In cooperation with mobile research technology firm Pollfish, we asked over 3,700 Americans if they are worried about losing their jobs to robots or automation. Year-over-year, there has been a 53% increase in the number of Americans concerned. While 18-34 year olds remain among those most concerned, their level has
Robotics & HR
24
decreased by 7%. Concerns among those 55+ have shot up by 140%.
Physical, laborious tasks have been widely automated for years. But the reality of botsourcing isn’t just for low price labor. In May of 2013, McKinsey released their Ten IT-enabled business trends for the decade ahead report. ‘Automating knowledge work’ came in at #5, stating that, ‘… advances in data analytics, low-cost computer power, machine learning, and interfaces that ‘understand’ humans are moving the automation frontier rapidly toward the world’s more than 200 million knowledge workers.’
We live in the age of advancing artificial intelligence—smart automation is emerging to analyze big data, write articles, and even assist in surgical procedures. Programmatic ad buying is eliminating the need for media buyers, while insight platforms that serve up advanced analytics are reducing data analyst positions. Higher wage earners may find themselves in competition with machines to keep their jobs. David Willetts, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, suggests that robots will take over middle-class professions such as accountants and teachers. But we aren’t there yet. Willitts is quoted as
saying that this would lead to ‘dramatic changes in the pattern of work,’ although not to a reduction in the number of jobs as a whole.
HR professionals are frequently asked to champion change for their organization, and automation is not always a change employees can believe in. It becomes personal when an employee perceives a risk of losing their job. An initiative to ‘free up capital’ will likely impact morale, motivation, and team building, to name a few. Given that 53% more people are worried about losing their jobs to machines than last year, HR professionals need to be both sensitive and strategic in their plans for automation.
Staying on top of this issue is
important, and one way to do so is to highlight and focus on the application of technology that helps people do their job better. Rather than just going the cheapest route, consider which jobs should be automated, which ones can be enhanced with automation and which ones still need human expertise for decision-making, to be creative or make adaptations when necessary. Similar to the 19th century, advancement in technology will create new and exciting jobs in the 21st century that may not have even been considered yet. Successful companies will employ a blend of humans and robots to increase their bottom line without pulling the passion out of its people.
AMERICANS CONCERNED ABOUT LOSING JOB TO ROBOTS OR AUTOMATION
SOURCE: PROSPER INSIGHTS & ANALYTICS, ANALYSIS OF POLLFISH DATA
Robotics & HR
25
The Evoution Of HR StrategyRichard AngusDirector, Chief Strategy Officer Summit
Evolution Of HR
26
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Ram Charan, indicated his desire to wave goodbye to the Department of Human Resources. It’s important to point out that when he says he wants to get rid of HR, it’s just the department he sees no use for - the things it does remain as essential as ever.
If you’re in HR there’s a good chance you’ve already created a mental list of the things you do well, whether it’s workforce planning or solving employee disputes, the HR role clearly adds tangible benefits to the organisation. The problem is that there have been a multitude of studies that reflect badly on HR workers. A recent survey of CEOs identified that the HR department was the least agile and that CFOs struggle to build a strategic relationship with them.
The role, like many around it, has developed significantly. Many still think of it as an admin-based role, but HR strategy is a function which can add significant strategic value to the organisation, as
we know, nothing is more valuable to the corporation than the talent it can attract.
It’s important that HR professionals go further than the ‘good with people’ mantra that has seemingly stuck with the function since the inception of the role. There are a wide range of skills that now go hand-in-hand with the HR role - more than anything it comes down to the individual’s ability to see the organisation as a whole, because it is only when this is achieved that they’ll be able to identify what type of talent is required to drive the business forward.
There also needs to be a move away from qualitative methods for HR strategy as they are less reliable. Analytics are the way forward and agendas have to be set with data at their heart. There are a variety of metrics that can be adopted which will be able to determine who a company should let go, how much they should pay someone and
what types of management they benefit from most. These findings make the HR function far more efficient and value-adding for the rest of the organisation.
Much of the disdain Ram Charan holds for the HR function, and the Chief Human Resources Officer role in particular, is his belief that they don’t know how to make business decisions. They know their people, understand how they tick, but can’t really relate this to why an organisation isn’t meeting its targets.
This apparent need for business acumen is not a view shared by everybody. The HR department, especially in large companies, is often viewed as a platform which enables ‘the go-getters’ to work to the best of their ability. Whereas a pure strategist is focussed on gaining a competitive advantage through new avenues,
Evolution Of HR
27
the HR department’s goal is to make sure that the people who spot these gaps are both happy and dedicated to the cause. This train of thought would see the HR function not as tangible force for strategic change, but an important enabler.
If this is HR’s main goal, then analytics have to be used. As mentioned before, qualitative methods are so ambiguous and there is a good chance that employees that you thought were happy are actually bored and looking to move on. Having these insights are important and there is a good chance that without a dedicated department these insights wouldn’t be so attainable, and the company’s strategic endeavours would likely worsen because of this.
Within a start-up, the HR function has to be different - there is no choice but to move away from its old admin-centric roots. When there is a flatter organisational structure, the ability to confront and influence key staff is a vital function. If your office only has 40 people in it, feuds can grow at an alarming rate - within no time at all you can have a very difficult situation on your hands. This is why the HR strategy has to be able to quell volatile situations quickly.
Social Networks have also added to the demands of the HR strategy. Especially in start-ups, there is a merge between personal and business profiles and this can misrepresent an organisation. The HR department
must keep tabs on all social media activity to make sure that employees aren’t expressing overtly negative feelings, and if they are, work out why this is the case.
The HR role is changing and evolving. It’s as important as it has ever been, however many are unsure where the department should stand within the organisation. There is certainly something to say for the function becoming more central to strategy and I think this will gradually become pivotal to the role and this has to be embraced by the department if it is to establish a better working relationship with other strands of the organisation. One thing is for sure, the HR department is as important as ever, and I cannot envisage that wavering at all, so it looks
like Ram Charan’s ideas will not be coming to fruition.
Evolution Of HR
28
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