HR Pulse

HR managers make the best CEOs

Many of the great CEOs start out as HR managers as a company's most valuable resource is its people and HR is the custodian of this precious commodity. "You have it in you," encourages Mpho Makwana – chairman at ArcelorMittal South Africa, "because of the complexity of issues that you have to deal with in your career. These issues challenge you to become a strategist so go out of your way to educate yourself to become a great strategist." But how do you become a great strategist?

At the recent IPM HR Director's Leadership Summit, Makwana said that you can't talk about strategy without speaking about Michael Porter, the father of competitive strategy, who gave us the five forces model to shape competitiveness (see below). Porter makes the point that, among enterprises, there is constant competitiveness and rivalry. When you win the war on talent, you win in terms of strategy because people are going to deliver on your company's competitive strategy – not people.

Every single day, you're competing in the war for talent and you need to figure out who you're losing your talent to. One of the most important questions you need to ask yourself, to remain competitive, is: 'Where else can I compete for talent?'

You can't 'just' be competitive – there must be something more

Be careful when you talk about competitiveness, cautions Makwana, as to be successful and competitive, you need to have a pioneering spirit as well.

"When you're a pioneer, you set new rules for others to follow and you discover new frontiers," he says. And when you become a pioneer and are imaginative in the way you approach problems in your organisation, as HR you find new avenues for your company to grow into.

Imagination is sometimes more important than knowledge. We find people in HR who spend a lot of time preaching rules, regulations and policies but lack imagination and new ideas – in a big way. To succeed and become competitive, you need to be creative and think out of the box

Learn from the wisdom of other professions

The marketing profession has taught us the value of looking at business using the six p's, namely:

• Product: You need to sell the right products to your customer base,
• Price: The products that you sell must be correctly priced – otherwise no one will buy these,
• Promotion: You must promote your products and services in such a way to encourage your target market to buy these,
• Place: You must choose the correct place to market your products or services, otherwise your target market won't be exposed to these,
• People: You need the right people to promote your brand, and
• Passion: All your marketing activities need to be imbued with passion – otherwise, your business will never get off the ground.

"My sense is that HR also has its own set of p's. For example, you compete through price (salaries) to attract the best talent for your organisation. Run HR as a people-service business within your company because that way, you'll be able to quantify your true value-add," concludes Makwana.