Aligning HR to Corporate Strategy

Company A, an IT services company, has been servicing the corporate IT market from its beginning. It has been very successful in the past, enjoying a near monopoly in a number of markets. Over time, it has developed subsidiaries and branches virtually everywhere in the world, a complex structure of entities with specific responsibilities and functions.

However, with the advent of the personal computer and the Internet, the market has considerably changed over the last two decades. Some new companies have been incredibly successful in embracing the revolution, achieving large domination over some very profitable parts of the industry. With product life cycles ever shorter and a growing pressure from financial markets, Company A needs to enrich its current products portfolio with tomorrow's stars that will ensure the future success of the business. Strategic thinkers have recognised the need for more innovative solutions, more swift adaptation to market changes and a closer relationship to clients.

Unfortunately, delivering this new strategy is not proving easy: as demonstrated on the chart above, Company A has a strong corporate culture centred on precise and comprehensive management processes together with a high focus on control and results. The management team knows that it needs to promote and support a much more entrepreneurial spirit, less adverse to risk, where creativity and innovation are valued as well as a culture focused on client satisfaction and strong cooperation within all parts of the organisation. While working with the SPM, using the Corporate Team Profiler, the management team has recognised these characteristics in both of their competitors: companies B and C. Company A is now working on aligning its human resources to its new strategy.

Because of its integrative nature, the SPM provides invaluable support in operations such as corporate culture analysis, change management and restructuring in both national and international contexts.