Maximising business impact: Developing mission-critical skills for organisational success

Still tracking course completions instead of real skill shifts? It's time to rethink your L&D strategy.

According to a report by  The World Economic Forum, skill gaps are considered the biggest barrier to business transformation, with 63% of employers perceiving them as crucial barriers over the 2025-2030 period. In this context, the question is no longer whether organisations must invest in learning, but how learning initiatives can demonstrably impact business outcomes. 

To explore the strategies, mindsets and frameworks required to build mission-critical skills, People Matters, in partnership with Coursera for Business, conducted an insightful virtual discussion on the theme “Maximising business impact: Developing mission-critical skills for organisational success” featuring Cathlea Barote, Chief People Officer, East-West Seed, Rajan Gulati, DVP - Head HR, PBPartners; Charlotte Evans, Director, Global Customer Advocacy, Coursera for Business, and Seetteng Low, Vice President, Learning & Transformation, OCBC.

Start with the mission, not the module

The most impactful learning journeys begin by anchoring skill development to business outcomes, not content libraries. 

A crucial question organisations must address is this: What is the business trying to achieve, and what capabilities do people need to get us there? Whether it's driving customer centricity, accelerating innovation, or expanding into new markets, learning must be a strategic lever tied to that core mission. 

Speaking about aligning learning with business shifts, Charlotte emphasised that the most effective learning strategies start by diagnosing business shifts and building clear, prescriptive learning paths that help employees evolve purposefully.

Shifting from training to transformation

For Cathlea, the journey begins with clarity, the organisation’s mission and the skills needed to deliver it. “We often say we want people to grow, but do they know what growth looks like?” she remarked. Cathlea underscored the need for enabling leaders to decode their transformation journey and translate that into future-fit skillsets, a shift she called critical to closing communication as well as execution gaps.

Rajan Gulati shared how his organisation’s L&D strategy has transitioned from role-based to purpose-led. By embedding internal mobility as a strategic priority, the organisation has begun linking development to what the business truly values—empathy, customer centricity, and ownership. 

Measuring what matters: From metrics to mindsets

One of the biggest shifts, the panel noted, is in how organisations define the success of learning initiatives. As Cathlea pointed out, it’s no longer about completion rates or learning hours. “The business doesn’t care about those metrics. They care about performance.” She offered a practical example of how her team is upskilling managers to observe behavioural changes post-training, helping link learning directly to on-the-job impact.

A common pitfall in L&D strategy is assuming that an organisation’s learning metrics align with their business counterparts’ metrics, highlighted Charlotte. A more empathetic, business-centric lens is essential, one that actively seeks to understand how success is defined in functions like tech, data, and marketing. 

For instance, tech leaders aren’t particularly interested in course completions—they are more focused on speeding up onboarding, fostering cybersecurity, and ensuring data integrity to enable accurate GenAI outputs. If L&D can position itself as a solution to these high-stakes challenges, it shifts from being a support system to a strategic partner.

L&D as a shared strategic mandate

Often, L&D is perceived merely as an HR-led function tasked with building workforce capabilities. However, this narrow framing extensively limits its potential impact.  As Cathlea shared, “It’s time to educate leaders that L&D is not just a support role—it’s a business-critical responsibility that must be shared across the organisation.

By understanding what success looks like through the eyes of different functions, L&D teams can design programmes that support those ambitions — and crucially, communicate value in language that business leaders understand.

The panel referenced a case from a tech retailer with over 150,000 employees, where the central L&D team worked to identify cross-cutting capability needs, such as communication, project management, and leadership, while empowering local departments to shape their training solutions. This balance of central coordination and local autonomy enabled the organisation to scale learning in a way that was both relevant and impactful.

Moving beyond traditional content to generative AI capability

The shift towards skill-based development is also transforming how learning experiences are designed and delivered. What matters most is whether these learning moments are recognised, supported, and meaningfully connected to broader organisational goals.

Charlotte shared how Coursera is harnessing AI to deliver more personalised learning experiences. With tools like Coach, a real-time, AI-powered assistant, learners no longer face the frustration of getting stuck midway or scouring for answers across external forums. Instead, they receive contextual guidance that keeps them motivated and moving forward. 

These tools create psychologically safe environments for practising challenging skills, whether coding or handling difficult conversations, and offer immediate, tailored feedback. It marks a significant evolution from static, one-size-fits-all training models.

Putting leaders in the driver’s seat 

Learning does not happen in a vacuum. Increasingly, organisations are recognising that business leaders, not just HR or L&D teams, must play a central role in skill development.

This shift requires equipping managers with the tools and confidence to assess skills gaps and foster learning within their teams. Simple diagnostic frameworks, observation techniques, and coaching skills can go a long way in helping leaders create meaningful, embedded learning experiences.

Rajan Gulati shared how his organisation is putting this into practice: “We’re co-creating learning experiences with our business leaders — we call them ‘BIKES’ — that are project-based and rooted in real work. Leaders become hosts, guiding colleagues through challenges tied directly to business objectives.”

Seetteng discussed how OCBC’s learning function is shifting gears by putting business leaders in control of the upskilling agenda. Through cross-functional projects designed and hosted within business functions, leaders are identifying skill requirements and collaborating to curate hands-on learning experiences. It’s a clear shift from learning as an HR-owned process to one embedded in the business, driven by those closest to the work.

The way forward: Purposeful, strategic learning

As organisations look to the future, the role of L&D must continue to evolve — from content provider to capability builder, from administrator to strategic partner.

This means shifting away from transactional learning models and towards transformational ones. It calls for the design of purposeful, role-aligned learning journeys that are embedded in the flow of work. It also involves enabling business leaders to become learning architects within their teams.

Crucially, it means reimagining metrics — not to track activity, but to prove contribution. In a world where competitive advantage depends on adaptability, mission-critical skills are no longer optional. They are the currency of innovation, resilience, and growth.

Tomorrow’s leading organisations will be those that treat learning not as a cost centre, but as a strategic engine for growth.