We couldn’t agree more that HR can (and should) be a business leadership function and that people should inform strategy. In fact our position is that the gap between strategy and execution can be filled through better business alignment and people performance. We think it’s critical for the “Business” and HR to partner in order to address both.

The fact of the matter is that in many companies Strategy is informed mainly by Financial and Customer metrics – i.e., companies typically don’t devise strategies that they can’t afford, and/or that they don’t have customers for. The breakdown comes in two areas:

People Performance
Do I have the right (human) resources needed to effectively execute? Am I working to constantly increase high-performance and decrease low-performance?

Business Alignment
Do those resources understand the strategy? Do they understand the individual tactics needed to execute? Can I measure progress and course correct?

Given the two issues above, it is only natural (and prudent) for HR to inform strategy, but at the end of the day the business value lies in execution of the plan more than the plan itself.

The easiest way for HR to become a business leadership function is to provide value by serving as a conduit for execution effectiveness.

Keith Messick
SuccessFactors Research