In my new book, “Leading Strategic Transformation: The H-Factor,” I argue that three tectonic shifts have changed the rules of the game. First, complexity is no longer a backdrop but the defining condition of organisational life. Leaders can no longer rely on linear models or pipeline thinking; they must learn to navigate ecosystems in which interdependencies and feedback loops shape outcomes in unpredictable ways. This shift is tectonic because it does not just change the rules of the game – it changes the very ground on which the game is played.
Second, success depends on embracing ‘both-and logic’: the ability to refine the present while reinventing the future, to capture value while creating it. This requires ambidextrous organisations that can both improve existing operations and invent new possibilities – essentially ‘flying the aeroplane while building it.’ This shift is tectonic because it overturns the traditional ‘either- or’ mindset: organisations can no longer choose between efficiency and innovation, short term and long term, stability and change. They must hold these tensions together and act on both fronts at once. This is tectonic because it represents a profound shift in how we think about organising – from organisational structures to organisational capabilities.
Third, and perhaps most crucially, in strategic transformation human capital has moved to the centre. Not as a collection of individuals, but as a system of synergies and complementarities – the H-factor – that emerges when people interact with organisational architecture. I use the term architecture deliberately rather than infrastructure, because infrastructure connotes static, physical assets, while architecture also encompasses the intangible design of the organisation – its culture, leadership, and learning routines – through which human capital is activated and coordinated. Human capital at the centre is tectonic because it moves people from being treated as inputs or “resources” to being recognised as the very system that generates and renews organisational capabilities. This is not just a shift in emphasis – it is a redefinition of where and how value is created, and who drives transformation.
This is where HR should shine. No other function is better placed to unlock the potential of human capital. Indeed, HR professionals have long demanded a seat at the table. Today, the irony is that they finally have one, but the table itself is empty. Strategy no longer unfolds in closed boardrooms; it emerges in real time, close to customers and across fluid networks of partners, platforms, and digital agents. Yet too often, HR remains behind the scenes, trapped in outdated logics of efficiency, chained to annual processes, and clinging to the comfort of process management.
At this inflection point, HR faces a choice. It can drift into irrelevance – a risk amplified by the accelerating AI revolution. Or it can seize the role of driver, leading the transformation that organisations so urgently need. How to do that? In the book, I present three deceptively simple but profoundly powerful questions – a framework that should place HR in the driving seat of the strategic transformation journey:
- How do we create value for our customers?
- What organisational capabilities are required to deliver that value?
- What human capital strategy should be in place to enable these capabilities?
These questions are not meant to be answered once and filed away. They form a continuous loop of reflection and action – a compass, not a detailed map – that keeps organisations oriented when the terrain shifts beneath their feet. That is why transformation is not about reaching an end point but about sustaining a journey; not about fixing problems once and for all, but about continually learning and unlearning; not about ticking off KPIs, but about cultivating the organisational capacity to adapt, rethink, and renew.
The profession I love is standing at a crossroads. For decades, HR has been criticised for failing to live up to its strategic promise. That criticism is no longer relevant; the challenge now is existential. As Andy Grove wrote, a strategic inflection point is the moment when fundamentals are about to change. It can be an opportunity to rise to new heights or the beginning of the end. For HR, this is that moment.
There will be successes and stumbles, forks in the road, and challenges that demand unlearning as much as learning. HR’s role is not to eliminate this uncertainty but to help leaders and organisations navigate it with courage and curiosity. If HR embraces the H-factor, redefines its role around human-capital synergies, and leads with the compass of those three questions, it can secure its place at the very heart of strategy. If it does not, others will take the wheel – and HR will be left behind.
