Ram Charan in “Rethinking Competitive Advantage” makes it crystal clear: if at all can we talk about sustained competitive advantage, it has moved from owning tangible hard assets, established patents, and controlled distribution channels to repeatedly reinventing intangible soft assets, consumer preferences, and ecosystems.
Competitive advantage comes as much from what a company does as from a company has. For HR the questions are: how we select leaders, organize work, and bundle HR services.
👉 Leaders need to be first of all superb communicators, and have the cognitive ability to conceive ecosystems in their entirety, see how the partners will enhance each other’s capabilities to deliver a great experience for the consumer.
👉 Employees are one of those partners as well and responsible partners do not need excessive organizational layers. Most digital global companies operate with as few as three or four organizational layers.
👉 HR focus should be on expressing shared values and providing support for developing skills and sharing knowledge so that team based organization with its domains, tribes, squads and chapters can florish.
👉 Leaders need to be first of all superb communicators, and have the cognitive ability to conceive ecosystems in their entirety, see how the partners will enhance each other’s capabilities to deliver a great experience for the consumer.
👉 Employees are one of those partners as well and responsible partners do not need excessive organizational layers. Most digital global companies operate with as few as three or four organizational layers.
👉 HR focus should be on expressing shared values and providing support for developing skills and sharing knowledge so that team based organization with its domains, tribes, squads and chapters can florish.