HROA European Quarterly Pulse - Exigencies
Click here to download a PDF of the full article.
One of the nice things about being an academic is executives tell you more about their organization than they would perhaps normally let on to their competitors, the media, or even what they might divulge to their consultants. These discussions since the downturn have taken on decidedly more of a therapeutic offering on my part as senior managers charged with the responsibility of managing their organizations through these difficult times, offload their concerns about future directions. As one executive put it to me on the phone recently, ‘It's nothing but exigencies, Ant. You constantly have to deal with things not of your own making or under your own control. And, boy, you have to move fast, very fast.'
Control is something senior executives have gotten too use to. The events of the past 24 months or so have rocked this inflated sense of autonomy over business strategy and operations as the speed of operational reaction has taken over from the eloquence of strategy formulationâ€"or ‘strategic bullshit' as one market analyst has recently described CEO presentations to me. Mitigating these challenging circumstances was the focus of a fascinating conversation by senior executives comprising the Board of the Human Resources Outsourcing Association (HROA) I recently chaired in London. There were primarily three topics covered by the debate. Not surprisingly, the first theme was devoted to the economic crisis and the repercussions of this for the human resources (HR) function. Attention then switched to the evolving structure of outsourcing deals currently under discussion. That the financial crisis has undoubtedly shaped the propensity of some companies to come to market was taken as a given. What we were interested in, however, was unpacking how deals were being structured to meet organizations' evolving strategic requirements in a recession. Finally, despite all of the stresses and strains of the current climate, organizations were still focused on how to obtain best value from their talent systems, both now and, crucially, in the future when the upturn arrives. The challenge, it seems, is one of spending money where it matters.