A prominent business academic has challenged corporate boards to fundamentally transform how they view human resources, arguing that traditional HR approaches are failing to prepare organisations for an era of unprecedented global volatility.
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The Strategic Imperative
Senior Lecturer in International Business at Sheffield Business School, Dr. Alim Abubakre, delivered an assessment of current HR practices at the CIPM UK Confab, warning that companies clinging to outdated people management models risk being overwhelmed by climate disruption, geopolitical instability, and technological transformation.
The critique centres on a fundamental misalignment: while corporate strategy functions as “a resource-allocation machine,” most boards continue treating HR as a peripheral policy function rather than recognising people as “the only resource that compounds,” according to Abubakre, who also founded TEXEM UK.
Breaking the Finance-Dominated Leadership Pipeline
The numbers tell a revealing story about corporate priorities. Nearly one-third of Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 CEOs emerge from finance backgrounds, while HR professionals rarely penetrate the chief executive pipeline—a disparity Abubakre attributes to boards’ narrow perception of HR capabilities.
“Boards still treat HR as peripheral,” he said in a statement released by former TGI Group HR Director Tominiyi Oni. “Stop asking for a seat at the table. Bring the map that shows where capabilities must go for strategy to live.”
From Policy to Portfolio Management
The transformation Abubakre envisions requires HR leaders to become “portfolio leaders of capabilities” who can identify and resource the critical roles driving organisational success. This means focusing intensively on “the 20 roles that drive 70% of the plan” and strategically directing leadership development, learning resources, and incentive structures toward these high-impact positions.
He illustrated this approach with Microsoft’s successful pivot to cloud computing and artificial intelligence, crediting Chief Human Resources Officer Kathleen Hogan with operationalising CEO Satya Nadella’s vision by “rewiring systems, leadership standards and incentives around the cloud investment.”
“That wasn’t HR policy; it was corporate strategy in action,” Abubakre noted.
Addressing Systemic Barriers
The evolution faces significant obstacles rooted in organisational culture and expectations. Chief Financial Officers earn board trust by presenting “costed, staged plans,” while HR remains “pigeonholed as policy,” creating an uneven playing field for strategic influence.
Abubakre identified contrasting but equally problematic patterns: “In Nigeria, informality hoards stars; in the UK, over-proceduralisation cages them—both kill reallocation.”
The New HR Skill Set
For HR professionals aspiring to strategic roles, Abubakre outlined five essential competencies: corporate finance fluency, business model redesign capability, intelligence gathering expertise, geopolitical literacy, and decision-rights architecture.
“Read a P&L (profit and loss) like a novel; map scenarios for FX shocks, sanctions and supply-chain risk,” he advised. “Nigeria sharpens courage; the UK sharpens evidence. Blend both—and you have a strategist.”
When Strategy Needs Restraint
The strategic HR leader must also know when to apply brakes to ambitious plans. Abubakre cited Uber‘s 2017 culture crisis—mishandled harassment complaints that “cost a CEO, delayed IPO credibility, diminished brand equity and burned billions”—as evidence that capability gaps can derail even well-funded strategies.
“Sometimes the bravest thing HR can say is: ‘We cannot win there—yet,'” he stated.
Call to Action for Leadership
Abubakre’s prescription for CEOs involves making HR a co-owner of capital allocation by linking every strategic investment to detailed capability plans covering critical roles, leadership development, and cultural transformation.
“No people plan, no capital,” he declared, arguing that boards should demand the same financial rigor from HR that they expect from finance teams.
The business academic, who serves on the Business Council for Africa, concluded with a vision of HR as the firm’s “strategic allocator of options”—a transformation he believes essential for navigating an increasingly unpredictable business environment where “capital follows conviction, but advantage follows capability.”
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