All leaders know people are critical to the success of organizations. Executives just don't act that way sometimes. Why? Because they lack the facts. Too often they don't know which workforce practices create the greatest value or which attributes of a workforce are critical to business strategy.

Absent these facts executives look outside for cues on what to do through benchmarking and searching for so-called best practices. The result is a perverse reality in which other companies, often competitors, are in effect telling them how to run their company. Such copycat tactics can’t be right, and the evidence shows they aren’t.

All of this is changing. Now companies can measure the links between their specific workforce practices and business results—learning what’s creating value and what’s not. Consequently, important decisions about where to cut costs, where to re-allocate spending, and where to invest more for greater returns can be based on facts specific to their enterprise.

It’s an extraordinary opportunity. Indeed it’s the last great unexploited source of competitive advantage for companies today.

Play to Your Strengths describes this new science of human capital management. Using it gives companies the advantage of acting based on the measured impact of their firm-specific practices on their business outcomes.
- Learn how to break the typically squishy thinking around workforce decisions
- Learn why your "internal labor market" is the key to understanding your workforce dynamics
- Learn how to actually predict what effect a new practices will have on business results
- Learn how to beat the competition with advantages others can’t copy
- Learn how to build true accountability for optimizing the return on your human capital investments

Whether your strategic imperative is being the low cost producer, delivering world-class customer service, producing matchless quality, or generating head-turning returns for shareholders, this book will show you how to make the necessary decisions to meet your goals.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
Introduction: The Last Asset

Part. I Principles
1 Insist on Systems Thinking
2 Get the Right Facts
3 Focus on Value

Part. II Tools
4 Defining Human Capital Strategy 73
5 Understanding Your Internal Labor Market 81
6 Building Your Strategy 103

Part. III Applications
7 The People Side of Strategic Shifts
8 Making Acquisitions Work
9 Better Linking to Customers
10 The Implications of Business Risk

Part. IV Implications
11 The Investor’s Perspective
12 New Roles for Chief Executive Officers and Other Leaders
13 Managing Your Personal Human Capital
14 Into the Future: A Boardroom Conversation

App. A The Research Roots of the Six-Factor Framework
App. B The Intellectual Foundations of the New Science
Notes 259
Index