introduction

In "the good old days," many P&O managers acted as part ofthe management team to bridge the regular problems that came upbetween top management and labor people. They relied on theirexperience as troubleshooters and promoted the basic feeling amongboth parties that everything was under control; "Im OK youre OK"was in vogue.

It was not easy to gain trust from both labor and management,but with enough expertise in and knowledge about payroll systems,labor/tax regulations, training and recruitment, it was not verydifficult to survive. When a conflict arose, the P&O managercould always say that it was his boss' decision. That was thesituation in the old business model.

In his book, HR Champions , Dave Ulrich, one of the mostfamous HR professors and consultants in the world says,"Thedeliverable from the management of strategic human resources isstrategic execution." That is a much more powerful statement thanever before. HR always exceeded, even in the old days, theimportance of the P&O function, but many HR officers in globalcompanies did little more than improve on the P&O's work. Timeshave changed drastically and now, because we are in the middle ofthe digital revolution with a substantial paradigm shift in values,markets and cultures, we have to be conscious of those changes thatare a result of the new E-Business model.

the new paradigms

The most dominating change of the new model in the marketapproach is in essence that the customer is more and more themaster of his own destiny. To promote this shift, customers needthe freedom to communicate interactively everywhere and withouttime limits. There are no narrow borders anymore. We need newcompetencies especially in marketing and communication based on afundamental insight of information technology. (See my article"Vision on Management in the Digital Age" in M@n@gement .) Most European companies lack this know-how andcompared to their US counterparts, certainly those on the WestCoast, are at least three years behind.

The result is that the modern HR manager is increasinglybecoming the key for managing change, especially as he gainsgreater understanding of what is going on. He has to take greatcare in the recruitment and training of talents to bridge thestrategic gap. Unfortunately, a top-quality…