The Future Competitive Edges
In the near future, Human Resources will completely change the nature of focusing.

"Human resources are a company's most valuable asset," or at least, so we were told when we went to business school. However, in practice, do we actually treat human resources with the utmost respect?

With regard to academia, the answer is no. Only until recently has a master's degree in human resource management and development even been offered. This implies that we do not consider human resources to be something fundamental to the success of a company. The academic view corresponds to the formal business world where accounting, marketing and finance are often allocated the most talented employees.
 

We see this behavior at every level of business. I grew up doing small wholesale and retail business beside my father. After he made his decisions about location, he would proceed to worry about whether or not his store could generate sales to survive. Then, he would worry about how much he would earn. Accounting was the answer and solution to his problems. That is why accounting is at so popular and desired by every business entrepreneur.

When industries develop, the competitive edge moves to mass marketing, rather than individual salesmanship. This is for good reason: the power of mass marketing is enormous. The marketing era began with Phillip Klotler and lasted for nearly three decades. Marketing has remained at the forefront for a very long period because marketing is both a science and an art. It deals with humans, and it has taken us a very long time to grasp its potential. Now, Harvard University Business School graduates are everywhere, and we are all using the same books and techniques to compete. The competitive marketing edge is obsolete.

Companies turn to finance when they start to consider how to better the return of their marketing campaign investments. Competent companies that place finance over marketing will see their stock price increase. Finance is the new competitive edge. Unfortunately this edge will only last for a few years, until the market has been saturated with finance personnel.

Internet technology has changed the world and affected the socioeconomic status of people. Life has become more complex and sophisticated. The business edges of focusing on skills of business is of less importance. Some people are able to move from job to job easily. This creates a unique problem of continuity in terms of a company's growth and development. Newcomers require time to adapt before they can truly contribute to a company. If turnover is high, the tendency to lose on the business battlefield is high, as we have no people to fight our competitors. Therefore the solution depends on each company's human resource management and development capabilities to help solve the loyalty problem. In the future, it is entirely likely that human resources will play a bigger role in successful companies.
 
 

 


Copyright 2001 - Vichien Shnatepaporn, All Rights Reserved.
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