The One Thing #13: Be strategic partners

The days of traditional banking are gone. The days of building your product and people breaking down your door to buy it are gone and the days of HR being non-strategic are gone.
In 2014, many markets will finally be recovering from the recession and assuming parts of Europe does not fall into deflation, (which is a real threat and if it happens, it will stall the recovery as it did for Japan), then many businesses across the world will start 2014 optimistically. Instead of discussing controlling costs, managing working capital and hiring freezes, discussions will be about growth and new opportunities.
Coming out of the recession, businesses will be leaner, fitter and more agile. They will be looking to do more with less. Enter HR. HR will need to partner the businesses to fuel the growth. They can no longer wait for the businesses to submit their plans and then respond reactively; they must become the businesses “Strategic Partners”. The demand on HR is to play a more active and va