Hr Is Business: Achieving Competitive Advantage Through Strategic Talent Management

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HR is Business: Achieving competitive advantage through strategic talent management W.B. Scott-Jackson Centre for Applied HR Research, Oxford Brookes University Business School, Oxford, UK SKOPE, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Oxford Strategic Consulting, Oxford, UK Corresponding Author: Professor William Scott-Jackson, OSC, 34 St John St, Oxford, OX1 2LH Tel: 0044 (0) 7785 110910. Email: wsj@oxfordstrategicconsulting.com Abstract: All organizations, whether in the public or private sector, aim to achieve strategic objectives. This requires a clear understanding and linkage between these strategic goals and the key capabilities required for their achievement. To achieve sustainable competitive advantage organizations need two kinds of capabilities: • Non-contingent capabilities are those capabilities which every organization needs, in varying degrees, such as ‘effective financial management’. These are the basics that will enable an organization to be “just as good” as its competitors. • Differentiating capabilities are those that distinguish one organization from another and can provide real competitive advantage. Many HR activities (including standardized competency frameworks and talent processes) aim to develop non-contingent capabilities but these can only meet the basic requirements for future strategy and are often un-related to the strategy itself. As a result, very few HR plans address the real need to achieve competitive advantage through differentiating capabilities. In effect, most HR plans aim to develop people who are competent in the same areas as their competitors which clearly cannot enable competitive advantage. This may be the major reason why HR functions have generally failed to clearly link their activities to the achievement of business strategy. This paper first defines ‘strategic differentiating capabilities’ and then describes a

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