hr most influential practitioners

hrmagazine.co.uk Most Influential Supplement November 2011 HR 3

HR’s influence can grow

HR readers have spoken and within this special supplement you will find the full list of those HRDs and thinkers the sector believes have had the greatest influence in the field of people

strategy during 2011.This is the sixth year we have produced the HR

Most Influential ranking, in association with sponsor Ceridian and our academic partner, Ashridge Business School. The 2011 ranking comprises the Top 30 places for Most Influential Practitioners, Top 25 for Most Influential UK Thinkers, the Top 20 places for the Most Influential International Thinkers and the Bubbling Under list – those HR directors and thinkers who so nearly made the full ranking. As some people receive the same number of points, the actual number in all these lists totals 100 – hence ‘the 100 people that matter’.

I am often asked about the methodology for HR Most Influential. The process starts with the creation of a long-list, following nominations from our readers and other experts. An advisory panel comprising Mike Haffenden, co-founder of the Corporate Research Forum, members of Ashridge Business School and myself review this list based on criteria including contribution to the business, to the HR function in the business, to HR outside the business, personal profile, success of the business and complexity of job. We are looking for people who:

n Challenge conventional thinking in HRnBring credibility to HR, both inside and

outside the businessn Play an ambassadorial rolen Command the respect of their peers and of

key stakeholdersn Add real value to the businessn Are visionary and transformational

The resulting shortlist is sent out to our audited HR director circulation of 8,000, as well as members of the HR Leaders Club and 3,000 directors from Ashridge’s database.

Respondents are asked to rank the top five most influential practitioners and thinkers. They are also asked to provide qualitative comments on why they selected that individual. In addition, they are asked if there is anyone else they would nominate and why. This informs the long-list in future years. The final ranking is investigated, to remove any anomalies and ensure it is one vote/one HR director and one vote per company.

We unveiled the 2011 ranking at Claridge’s in September and revealed why the top people were influential in our feature in October’s issue. This supplement concentrates on the interview work Ashridge conducts with chief executives as part of HR Most Influential. We do this in order to gain a greater insight into how HR is perceived in the business. And it appears that the image has improved in 2011, although it is still patchy.

There is general consensus that the difficult economic times we face provide a great opportu-nity for HR to grow in influence – as long as it is agile and aligned properly to the business. This is what CEOs want and this is what those in our Practitioner ranking demonstrate.

We also interview the first recipient of HR’s Lifetime Achievement Award (and the first person in our new HR Most Influential Hall of Fame), Charles Handy. His forthright views on HR will prove challenging for some, but are remarkably consistent with the comments we are hearing from CEOs.

I hope you enjoy this first HR Most Influential supplement and I look forward to hearing your feedback and who you think should be on next year’s rankings.

More information on everyone on the lists, plus updated news and features, can be found on our dedicated website, www.hrmostinfluential.com.

Siân Harrington, publisher and editor, HR magazine

CONTENTS04 Charles Handy One of our great thinkers on why he doesn’t like ‘HR’

10 Overview What do chief executives think about HR? Plus, those leaders bubbling under

16 Practitioners Brilliant ideas, but implementing them, that’s the key

24 Thinkers: UK Public or private sector, TUC or CIPD, UK talent impresses

30 Thinkers: global Plus, the range of insight from around the world

Publisher and editor Siân Harrington

Deputy editor David Woods

Sub-editor Peter Bradley

Design Laura Hawkins

Associate publisher Anna Patrickson

020 7501 6774

Senior sales executive Paul Barron

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Email [email protected]

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4 HR Most Influential Supplement November 2011 hrmagazine.co.uk

Charles Handy, the first recipient of the HR Lifetime Achievement award, is a bit anti-HR. Not that he doesn’t believe in the things HR stands for, he tells SIÂN HARRINGTON. Companies led by passion and purpose rather than profit, decentralisation, ‘twin citizenship’ and ‘small is beautiful’ don’t sound anti-HR at all…

or the thousands of HR magazine readers whose bookshelves are laden with the philosophies and business musings of leading management guru Charles Handy, his view on HR will come as something of a blow. “HR is a contaminated brand,” he asserts.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, he then admits to being “a bit anti-HR”.

“I wouldn’t call anything ‘HR’. New organisations talk about ‘people managers’. The nitty-gritty of HR should be dispensed with and called something else.”

And it’s not just HR. “I don’t like CSR,” he says, warming to the subject as we talk in the Charles Sheppard-designed room at his home in southwest London, which reminds me of the stunning art deco entrance hall built for the Courtauld family at Eltham Palace (Handy divides his time between this London home and a cottage in Diss, Norfolk). As for strategy consultants: “Really? You are bringing in somebody else to decide your future? Come on.”

The problem, Handy believes, is that all the above are an excuse for organisations to “box the problem”.

“Companies define an issue and put it in a box on the organisation chart and think it is solved. This is the case with CSR and to some extent true with HR,” he continues.

“It gives people the chance to say, ‘I’m a line manager, I am about getting things done and we have an HR department to deal with all the weepy stuff ’.

“No,” he confirms, “great organisations shouldn’t have an HR department, if I’m being honest. You should carry HR in your blood. Yes, you need someone to manage the technical and legal bits, but the danger is you allow line management to shunt responsibility for people onto someone else. This is very dangerous.”

But, before HR directors throw their hands up in horror, he offers a salvo: “This doesn’t mean the things HR stands for are not terribly important, but the strategic elements need to be separated out: for example, what kinds of people do we want

F I really wish people would understand you can grow better as well as bigger

Eliz

abet

h H

andy


philosopherpeople


in the business, what is the structure of the organisation? No-one is going to put an HR manager on the board unless they are very exceptional and then they are probably calling themselves something else, such as ‘strategist’.”

This clarification will be of some comfort to those readers whose votes resulted in Handy receiving HR magazine’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement award in September, the first on our list to take a place in our new HR Most Influential Hall of Fame. And, if the Most Influential Practitioner rank-ing is anything to go by, directors are heeding his warnings: can it be a coincidence that eight of the top 30 in our list do not have HR in their job title?

Handy, who coined the terms ‘portfolio worker’ and ‘shamrock organisation’ to describe respectively a working world where individuals are in charge of their careers and a structure whereby a core of permanent workers is supported by contractors and a flexible part-time/freelance workforce, has always been ahead of the curve – and this is something he himself prescribes for business leaders and workers in his most successful book, The Empty Raincoat (Hutchinson), first published in 1994. In this, he writes about the sigmoid, or ‘S’, curve – the theory being that growth (in the company,

your career, product lifecycles or personal relationships, for example) begins slowly, then rises up the curve before plateauing and then beginning to decline. To ensure one benefits from the comfort, money and life afforded by the upward curve, one needs to start a new ‘S’ curve near the height of the current cycle, before the curve peaks.

Not only is this sage advice, but also in this book (as in so many of his published works) Handy proves to be far-seeing. Capitalism, he says, has not proved as flexible as it was supposed to be. “We were not destined to be empty raincoats, nameless numbers on a payroll, role occupants, the raw material of economics or sociology, statistics in some government report. If that is to be its price, then economic progress is an empty promise.”

It is a theme we return to as we discuss Labour leader Ed Miliband’s division of business into good and bad companies, when he branded private equity firms as “predators” rather than “producers” at his party’s conference in Liverpool in September.

“I agree with a new type of capitalism and understand Ed’s idealism, but think he is naïve and comes across as not understanding business and slightly disapproving of people who make money,” Handy says.

“He is politically stupid to have said this, but I do think companies need a purpose beyond themselves and should see profit as a means to achieve that purpose. If the whole purpose is only to make themselves rich, then they misunderstand Adam Smith. He said the purpose of existence is to enrich society by employing people, helping customers, redistributing wealth – not through taxation, but through making other people rich, as well as yourself. Good companies understand that, even if they don’t always live up to what they say.”

While defending private equity (though “not sure” he can defend hedge funds), Handy says too many organisations have their priorities the wrong way round, being all about efficiency and making profit – whereas, if you get people excited and stimulated, the efficiency and profit will come.

“People sit in their panelled offices talking to clients and analysts, but not to their own staff. They are all so obsessed with growth. And, if you are growing fast – usually by acquisition rather than organic growth – you are solving problems all the time. I really wish people would understand you can grow better as well as bigger.”

To illustrate this view, Handy uses one of his favourite analogies – that of an orchestra. If you were to ask members of the London Symphony Orchestra how it would grow next year, he explains, they wouldn’t talk about income or numbers, they would talk about growing their repertoire, their reputation or touring more. Whereas “businesses produce a wretched sales graph”.

“Companies screw themselves up by mistaking the means for the ends. You have got to make money to pay people, invest and keep shareholders happy, but that is not the point. You have to eat and take exercise, but if that is all you do, you are not having a very exciting life.”

Instead, he believes, companies should be led by their passion and purpose, such as voluntary organisations whose annual reports are full of how many homes they have

Handy quotes

nProfitshouldbehiddenawayandyoushouldbeboastingabouthowmanyofyourwonderfulautomatedfridgesyouhavesoldtoimprovelivesinstead.

nYoushouldn’tneedachampionforpeople.YoushouldcarryHRinyourblood.

nThereisashortageofaspirationratherthanashortageofskills.

nThecountryisnowrunbypeoplewhowereatschoolwithmyson,andhe’snotcapableofrunningabar…Weneedtotakeriskswithyoungerpeople,withpeoplewhoare25yearsold.

nBusinessesdon’tgenerallyhaveconstitutionslikevoluntaryorganisations,becausetheyareautocraticmonarchies,sotherearenorightsforanyone,asidefromtheonesacountry’slawimposes.

nAsyougetolder,yougetmoreexperienceandwisdom,butloseenergy.Organisationsneedamixofboth,butsometimesgetover-stockedwithwisdomandnoenergy–thoughmoreoftenitismoreenergyandnowisdom,astheygetridofthebestpeople.

nThebestpeoplewehadatLondonBusinessSchoolhadtakenhistoryastheirfirstdegree,becausewhathistoryteachesyoutodo,ifitiswelltaught,istopiecetogetherapicture.Andthatissousefulinmanagement.


provided for the homeless, how many people their lifeboats have rescued or how many blind people have been given dogs, for example.

“These organisations talk about making a difference to society. You can find this in a company’s annual report, but it is hidden away. I ask businesses, what is your impact on the world? – and don’t give me all this guff about making share-holders rich, don’t give me guff that you are responsible to the owners. You are not. The owners are people who have bought the right to a share in your profit stream and the only right they actually have is to elect the board of directors or sack them. They are basically punters at a racecourse and if they don’t think something is doing well, they take their money out.”

The perfect organisation, believes Handy, is small, with a flat structure. “There is reliable anthropological evidence that once you get above 150, you don’t know all the people,” he explains. “You can stretch this through the way you divide the organisation – you could get up to roughly 500 people. A good school can go up to circa 600 people because those people are there for five to six years and a good head would know all of them.”

But, given many organisations today are large, complex

and global, he is a strong advocate of federalism, a concept he espouses in The Empty Raincoat and later in The Elephant and the Flea.

“If you are going to have to be big, then for God’s sake keep the component bits small and give as much independence as possible,” he states.

This can be achieved, he believes, through the concept of ‘twin citizenship’: a historic principle of federalism Handy

believes is not well understood. “Just as you can be proud of being

Californian, but still be American, so you can be proud of being a little unit in Scotland but still part of something bigger,” he says.

As such, he is scathing about corporate branding, pointing to Aviva as just one of the

companies that have replaced well-recognised brands (in this case, Norwich Union and Hibernian in Ireland) with corporate entities.

“I think they are crazy – stupid names mean nothing. Companies say to maintain a global company you have got to have a global brand. I say, nonsense; you can have your own identity. People can’t relate to anything that is too big,” he says.

To enable a federal company to work, it needs reverse

HR is a contaminated

brand


CharlesHandyhasbeenwritingandbroadcastingaboutorganisationalbehaviourandmanagementformorethanthreedecadesandisamust-readforpeopleinthefield.OneHRdirectordescribeshimasbeing“asclosetoapeoplephilosopherasyoucanget”.

InJuly2006,HandywasconferredwithanhonorarydoctoroflawsbyTrinityCollege,Dublin.BornthesonofaChurchofIrelandarchdeacon,HandywaseducatedasaboarderatBromsgroveSchoolnearBirminghamandOrielCollege,Oxford.

HisbusinesscareerstartedinmarketingatShellInternational,whereheworkedfrom1956-1965.HewasaneconomistatCharterConsolidatedbetween1965-1966andaninternationalfacultyfellowatMITbetween1966-1967.Hewasaco-founderoftheLondonBusinessSchool,workingtherebetween1967and1995.HehasbeenwardenatStGeorge’sHouse,WindsorCastleandawriterandbroadcastersince1977,bestknowntothewiderworldaspresenterof‘ThoughtsfortheDay’onRadio4’sTodayprogramme.

HandywaschairmanoftheRoyalSocietyfrom1987to1989andhashonorarydoctoratesfromBristolPolytechnic(nowtheUniversityof

theWestofEngland),UEA,Essex,Durham,Queen’sUniversityBelfastandtheUniversityofDublin.HeisanhonoraryfellowofStMary’sCollege,Twickenham,theInstituteofEducation,CityandGuildsandOrielCollege,Oxford.HewasawardedaCBEin2000.

Handyistheauthorofthefollowingbooks:Understanding Organisations(1976),Gods of Management(1978),The Future of Work(1984),Understanding Schools(1986),Understanding Voluntary Organisations(1988),The Age of Unreason(1989),Inside Organisations (1990), The Empty Raincoat (1994),Waiting for the Mountain to Move (1995), Beyond Certainty (1995),The Hungry Spirit (1997), A Journey through Tea (1997), New Alchemists (1999),Thoughts for the Day (1999),21 Ideas for Managers (2000), The Elephant and the Flea (2001), Re-invented lives (2002),Myself and Other More Important Matters (2006),The New Philanthropists(2006).

HandyismarriedtoElizabethHandy,aphotographer,withwhomhehascollaboratedonanumberofbooks,includingThe New Alchemists and A Journey through Tea.TheirsonScottHandyisanactorwhohasworkedfortheRSC.

A Handy guide

delegation, Handy explains. “The constituent parts have to say what the centre has. Typically, the centre has new money and new direction – the strategy and money for investment. It also controls a core group of people and will want to run the information system. It will likely retain some legal division and sometimes HR, which could be given to one of the constituent companies to run on behalf of the whole. There is a small centre, but it is quite powerful. But no-one is doing this perfectly,” he says.

So why hasn’t business adopted this organisational structure? Handy believes it is because the centre wants power and doesn’t trust the parts. “You see it in governments that say they want to de-centralise and then end by building up the centre. If you want to do this, you have to give financial responsibility. It is the same in business. The parts should be allowed to keep the money they need to run the business and pass on a dividend to the centre. So, for example, if they want to pay people differently, they can do. HR is just as bad – it wants everyone to do the same appraisal system or whatever. The important point is that the centre should not be about current money, it is about new money.”

He is circumspect about the fact that no-one has been able to make this system work well. “My job is to spell out the basic principles. The danger is that over time the tweaks become more dominant than the principles,” he says.

With challenging theories such as this, it is no wonder Handy has sold nearly two million copies of his books globally. Those who voted for him in HR’s Most Influential 2011 described him as “the original”, “a great thinker and communicator” and someone “others only imitate”. His ideas are “innovative and reflective”, says one HR director, while another says he is a “baseline must-read”. He is “inspiring” and, despite a body of work that goes back more than three decades, his “theories still stand today”.

While his family points to his autobiography, Myself and Other More Important Matters (William Heinemann), as his best book, Handy’s own favourite work is Hungry Spirit (Random House), in which he sets out his vision of what capitalism could be about.

He starts it with an African proverb that says there are two types of

hunger: hunger for food and hunger for meaning in what we do. “I address the spiritual hunger,” he explains. “This is not often found in large organisations, which are a prison to the human soul, to a large extent.” Addressing this hunger is important, because work is still the dominant determinant of our lives, believes Handy.

“Work is essential to society. My thesis is that work is changing. It is becoming ever more individualistic. This is both problem and opportunity. In a splintering society, we need other kinds of ways to bond people together. Work is absolutely critical to society – it changes and defines it.”

Work may indeed do this, but for many in business it is Handy himself – the self-styled social philosopher – who is really changing and defining work today. HR

For Charles Handy’s view on his career, how work has changed, the talent crisis and the CEO, go to www.hrmostinfluential.com

I address the spiritual hunger. This is not often found in large organisations, which are a prison to the human soul, to a large extent

Michael IllertInternational London

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Is HR a ‘business partner’ or a transactional service function? Exclusive research from Ashridge Business School, undertaken in support of our 2011 Most Influential rankings, shows CEOs have a range of challenging views, says SIÂN HARRINGTON. And, would HR by another name smell as sweet?

he good news is that the influence of HR is growing, if research for HR Most Influential 2011 is anything to go by. The bad news, however, is that chief executives think this influence is patchy.

Two key measures of influence were identified in confidential interviews with a

sample of CEOs and HR professionals, conducted by Ashridge Business School to support this year’s HR Most Influential ranking. The first key measure is ‘HR taking a place at board level’. Those beneath this level are not regarded as greatly influential.

“The image of HR is really divided into two camps,” says one CEO. “On one side are those who are not at board level and are rated within the business as second to finance; below corporate core functions such as legal, but above corporate communications. They are definitely lower down the pecking order.”

Secondly, our interviewees say the influence of HR is likely to increase when a company has difficulties in attracting and retaining talent.

“What is interesting, though, is that although HRDs may sink, they can also rise. For example, in much of the Middle East, where HR is crucial because there is a skills shortage, then they are on a level with finance,” the CEO adds.

The Ashridge findings show there is general agreement the image of HR has improved in recent years. A CEO at one SME says HR is now on the agenda at every board meeting and as the company has grown in size (it now employs 60 staff), this has increased the need for HR processes: “We are a third-generation, family-run firm and proud of the family

atmosphere we have created for our workforce. However, at one time we only included HR at board meetings if there was a big issue, but now it is regularly discussed and routinely reported upon.

“We appointed our first HR director at the end of 2010 – something we certainly never thought necessary before. As our workforce has grown, so has the need for more formalised processes; our ‘Investors in People’ analysis, for example, highlighted a need for more training. We also wanted to look after staff in a more sensitive way. Another factor is the growing complexity of business, for example, the increasing number of legislative changes that affect us.”

Another chief executive, this time in a multinational, is wholly positive about HR and its contribution to his business. He highlights the need for HR to align with the business perspective.

“I like working with HR people. In our company, they are a young team and they are good at looking at things from a business perspective. That is important, as it then means this

What value

T

do you bring?

We in HR behave like victims, but need just to get on and not bother about what others say about us. We should just crack on and do it


Top 30 Practitioners 2011 2010 Name, title and company

1 1 David Fairhurst, chief people officer Europe, McDonald’s

2 2 Clare Chapman, group people director, BT

3 10 Caroline Waters, director of people and policy, BT

4 13 Vance Kearney, vice president for HR, Oracle EMEA

5 11 John Ainley, group HR director, Aviva

6 3 Tanith Dodge, HR director, Marks & Spencer

7 21 Gillian Hibberd, strategic director (resources and business transformation), Buckinghamshire County Council

8 9 Therese Procter, HR director, Tesco Retailing Services

9 = new Chris Last, director general HR, DWP and head of HR operations for government

9 = 14 Graham White, HR director, Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

10 30 Ann Almeida, group head of human resources, HSBC

11 new Sandy Begbie, group people and communications director, Standard Life

12 29 Jean Tomlin, HR director, LOCOG

13 18 Helen Giles, director of human resources and consultancy, Broadway Homelessness & Support

14 new Angie Risley, group human resources director, Lloyds Banking Group

15 15 Rachel Campbell, global head of people, performance and culture, KPMG

16 new Geoff Lloyd, group human resources director, Serco

17 new Anne Gibson, head of HR and organisational development, Norfolk County Council and president PPMA

18 new Sue Swanborough, HR director UK and Ireland, General Mills

19 new Stephen Lehane, human resources director, Alliance Boots

20 new Richard Bide, group HR director, Co-Operative Group

21 new Ronald Schellekens, group HR director, Vodafone

22 new Hugh Mitchell, chief HR and corporate officer, Royal Dutch Shell

23 = new Gwyn Burr, customer service and colleague director, Sainsbury’s

23 = 26 Gareth Williams, global human resources director, Diageo

24 27 Stephen Kelly, chief people officer, Logica

25 new Claire Thomas, senior VP, human resources, GSK

26 = new Celia Baxter, director of group HR, Bunzl

26 = new Dean Shoesmith, executive head of HR, London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton

27 = 23 Sara Edwards, director of HR worldwide, Orient Express (now vice president, HR)

27 = new Alistair Imrie, group HR director, BAE Systems

28 = new Sally Bott, group HR director, Barclays

28 = 8 Stephen Dando, EVP and chief human resources officer, Thomson Reuters

28 = new Frank Douglas, executive VP and group HR director, Misys

29 new Alan Walters, VP HR, Unilever UK and Ireland

30 new Norman Pickavance, HR director, Morrisons


is how we in the business see HR. When I started my career, HR was only for dismissal issues or industrial action. It is now stitched into what we do. Our HR team has a positive approach to solving issues – it is a really important part of what we in the business do,” he says.

This is the second year Ashridge has interviewed CEOs for HR Most Influential and many of the findings remain the same, with views emphasising some continuing problem areas for HR. There is a sharp divide between those who are impressed by HR in their own organisation (or elsewhere) and others who are far from complimentary.

“From the interviews, it appears HR is viewed as either being a ‘business partner’ on one side of a scale, through to a transactional service function on the other side; something also noted last year. Where HR is a business partner, its reported value is seen to be greater to the business in ques-tion,” explains Vicki Culpin, director of research at Ashridge.

Of those who were less favourable towards HR, there were a number of factors leading them to adopt this viewpoint. One talks about HR being “detached from reality” and more focused on box-ticking.

“In one company where I worked, some were good at their job, but others were ‘box-tickers’ and not good with people – which is a shame,” he says.

In fact, he feels the relationship between HR and the board should always be an unequal partnership, adding it is crucial HR serves the business needs, rather than “growing its own

empire, as I have seen happen. Where HR thinks it is really good, and has no idea about its poor image to the rest of the business, it is seen as simply launching endless initiatives that are either too complex or not particularly relevant to the business,” he adds.

One CEO even comments HR can have too much

In its survey of CEOs and HR professionals, to support this year’s HR Most Influential ranking, Ashridge Business School has identified four areas that affect the reputation of HR:

1 Improve the HR brandHR does not always have a good reputation externally or internally. A particular issue this year is HR’s own low self-awareness about the poor image it has internally among colleagues.

Perhaps one key to change relates to the discovery of a major retailer some years ago when HR decided to streamline processes, forms and so on (instead of continually creating

more) and there was a realisation that if they concentrated on finding ways to make things easier rather than harder for store managers, this approach would also improve business performance.

2 Reconsider the title ‘HR’Some chief executives commented that a title that included ‘people’ might more accurately reflect the key objectives of HR. These views seem to be shared among some larger organisations such as Sainsbury, where in 2010 Gwyn Burr was appointed as customer services and colleague director, rather than as ‘human resources’ director.

3 Speak up for businessesRepresenting HR views has traditionally been the preserve of professional bodies such as the CIPD, but this representation seems to be an area that could create a new and influential way for HR individuals to contribute to employment debates and help smaller firms. Finding ways to broker a better business environment with government (and being more influential with regard to EU legislation) could improve HR’s image.

4 The business case: what are HR’s financial returns? This may not be a new issue, but proving a business return appears to be critical, if HR is going to impress chief executives and other directors in the senior management team.

Calculating the financial returns for HR is not easy, but nevertheless is important. Says one interviewee: “Five years ago, you regularly heard the argument that HR can’t measure what it does, but these days it ought to be able to say if it has been a good or bad year and use some type of measurement.

“Perhaps it would be taken more seriously if it did use more financial terms and language.”

Build up HR – or knock it down?

When I started my career, HR was only for dismissal issues or industrial action. It is now stitched into what we do. Our HR team has a positive approach to solving issues – it is a really important part of what we in the business do


influence, that, if not used wisely, can have a negative impact on the perception of the industry: “Businesses don’t always use personnel wisely. In one company, where the CEO, the finance and the personnel director ran the business, the operational directors were consulted – so were not complete-ly excluded – but they were not on the board where the main decisions were made. This meant, for example, that a direc-tor’s view on a potential recruit was secondary to that of HR.”

It is perhaps no surprise CEOs feel like this when some in the HR community itself admit the profession has failings. One HR professional with 16 years’ experience in HR in manufacturing and more recently in an NHS Trust, says: “We are good in HR at talking about things and observing – instead of just getting on with it. I also run my own business with my wife and see from that experience some of the differ-ences. We are risk-averse in HR and get hung up on budgets

Top 25 HR Most Influential UK Thinkers 20112011 2010 Name, title and company

1 3 Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice, London Business School

2 5 Jackie Orme, chief executive, CIPD

3 2 Will Hutton, principal Hertford College, Oxford University and chair of the Big Innovation Centre

4 new David MacLeod, chair, Employee Engagement Task Force

5 7 Cary Cooper, distinguished professor of organisational psychology and health, Lancaster University Management School (LUMS)

6 17 David Guest, professor of organisational psychology and human resource management, department of management, King’s College London

7 16 John Philpott, chief economic adviser, CIPD

8 12 Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology, University College London

9 14 Linda Holbeche, visiting professor (leadership innovation), University of Bedfordshire

10 9 John Adair, chair of leadership studies United Nations

11 6 Chris Bones, professor of creativity and leadership, Manchester Business School

12 13 Paul Sparrow, director of the centre for performance-led HR, Lancaster University Management School

13 10 Dame Carol Black, national director for Health and Work

14 new Lord Davies, minister of state and author of 2011 Women on Boards report

15 new Ruth Spellman, CEO, Chartered Management Institute

16 19 Nick Holley, director of the centre for HR excellence, Henley Business School

17 new Stephen Bevan, director of the centre for workplace effectiveness, The Work Foundation and honorary professor, Lancaster University

18 24 Andrew Mayo, associate professor of human capital management, Middlesex University Business School

19 new Shaun Tyson, emeritus professor of human resource management, Cranfield University

20 new Chris Roebuck, visiting professor of transformational leadership, Cass Business School (now head of organisational design & transformation at the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham)

21 new David Clutterbuck, visiting professor of coaching & mentoring at Sheffield Hallam and Oxford Brookes University

22 = 21 Wayne Clarke, managing partner, Best Companies

22 = 8 Rob Goffee, professor of organisational behaviour, London Business School

23 new Jon Ingham, HR blogger and executive consultant, Strategic Dynamics

24 = new Chris Brewster, professor of international human resource management, Henley Business School, University of Reading

24 = 25 Adrian Moorhouse, managing director, Lane 4

25 new Brendan Barber, general secretary, Trades Union Congress


– yet if we were using our own budgets in our own business, then we would behave differently. We in HR behave like victims but need just to get on and not bother about what others say about us. We should just crack on and do it.”

He adds: “My personal view is the business is still saying ‘show us what you can do – what value do you bring to the business?’ In health, for example, it is about saving us money and being more effective; in manufacturing, it is about being more profitable. In too many cases, HR is an observer rather than playing a role in the business.”

Another HR director says: “These days, you are lucky if your CEO is 100% supportive of HR and can see the contribution it can make.”

It is among SMEs that the influence of HR appears to have increased most, though this is mainly as a result of HR’s more traditional role as guardian of employment legislation and process. Much of this is thanks to difficult decisions having to be made as a result of the economic circumstances. One chief executive talks about the realisation that legal processes are more complicated than in the past: “HR is taken more seri-ously than, say, 10 to 15 years ago. We had to make six people redundant at the beginning of this recession and we were very aware that the processes were far more elaborate than had previously been the case,” the CEO says.

Yet another believes HR can be more strategic in a smaller business than in a large corporation.

Top 20 HR Most Influential International Thinkers 20112011 2010 Name, title and company

1 1 Dave Ulrich, professor Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and partner, RBL Group

2 2 Stephen R Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and co-founder of FranklinCovey

3 5 Michael E Porter, Bishop William Lawrence university professor, Harvard Business School

4 3 Jim Collins, business researcher and author

5 10 Malcolm Gladwell, author and staff writer, The New Yorker magazine

6 4 Chris Argyris, James Bryant Conant emeritus professor of education and organizational behaviour, Harvard Business School

7 18 Edward E Lawler III, director, center for effective organizations and distinguished professor of business, University of Southern California

8 15 Rosbeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L Arbuckle professor of business administration, Harvard Business School

9 new Barry Posner, Accolti professor of leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

10 16 Marcus Buckingham, author and member of the secretary of state’s advisory committee on leadership and management

11 12 Stephen M R Covey, author of Speed of Trust and lead for Global Speed of Trust Project

12 6 Paul Stoltz, author, guest lecturer, Harvard Business School executive education programme and CEO, Peak Learning

13 8 Fons Trompenaars, author and founder, Trompenaars Hampden-Turner

14 9 Robert S Kaplan, Baker Foundation professor, Harvard Business School

15 16 Manfred Kets de Vries, Raoul de Vitry d’Avaucourt chair of leadership development and organizational change, Insead

16 11 Jim Kouzes, dean’s executive professor of leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

17 new Peter Cappelli, George W Taylor professor of management, The Wharton School, and director of Wharton’s center for human resources

18 12 Robert K Cooper, author and founder of Cooper Strategic

19 new Patrick Wright, William J Conaty GE professor of strategic human resources in the ILR School (Industrial annd Labor Relations), Cornell University

20 new John W Boudreau, professor and research director, center for effective organizations, University of Southern California


“When I worked at a larger business with lots of staff, in multiple sites and locations, HR had to be transactional,” the CEO says. “It was all like a factory operation and had to be that way because of the scale of the operation. However, in this smaller company, where we have been growing the business, across a few sites, then it is easier for HR to be a business partner. We can all see one another, everyone knows everyone else and there are fewer boundaries.”

Either way, the challenging economic times provide an opportunity for HR to grow in influence. A number of interviewees say HR has to be part of the solution in helping business to survive and be successful. To do so, it needs to be more agile, something the HR directors ranked on our HR Most Influential Practitioner list demonstrate in spades, but which many CEOs still think is a skill lacking in HR generally.

“The overall economic situation is likely to continue for a period of time and therefore all markets have to be more competitive. It is about how HR can help businesses in such an environment to sell – to unlock potential in our people,” says one CEO.

“At a time of recession, HR is more about developing people. Instead of recruiting, there may be different ways to do the work or to re-train our existing staff, and HR needs to be part of the group that provides these new solutions. It should help shape that plan. These are the kind of HR people who will succeed, in my experience.”

And when HRDs do get it right, they are valued, as noted by one chief executive: “HR has played a significant role in helping build the business and in getting staff motivated.”

However, too often it does not, with some chief executives thinking many HR directors do not have the appropriate skills and frameworks to meet the future business needs of organisations.

One CEO admits the image of HR depends on how the chief executive operates.

“There are a couple of things chief executives could do to improve the image of HR,” he says. “Firstly, democracy is important. They need to treat HR in the same way as other business support functions; they are as important as opera-tions, marketing and finance. The other aspect is to involve HR. In virtually every business decision there is a people issue and if this is not considered then there will be problems, so HR should be involved in every decision that’s made.”

Charles Handy, the first recipient of the HR Lifetime Achievement Award (see profile, p4) and one of the world’s leading management thinkers, believes the name ‘HR’ itself is off-putting – and he is not the only one.

“There is something wrong about the name ‘HR’. I personally believe that instead of ‘HR professionals’, their title should be ‘business professionals with a focus on people management’,” says one CEO.

The Ashridge survey gives food for thought – something our Most Influential thinkers and practitioners will no doubt be working on over the coming year – and that HR magazine will be highlighting at our 2012 rankings. HR

HR Most Influential 2011 Bubbling UnderThe wealth of talent at the top of the HR sector is great and it is therefore no surprise to find some influential names hot on the heels of those who appear in the 2011 rankings. Below, in alphabetical order, are the 10 HR practitioners and six HR thinkers that are just bubbling under the main HR Most Influential rankings for this year. Will they make it into the 2012 main list?

Lucy Adams, director business operations, BBC

Tea Colaianni, group HR director, Merlin Entertainments Group

Ann Gillies, HR associate, WL Gore Associates

Kevin Green, CEO, Recruitment and Employment Federation

Katja Hall, head of policy, CBI

Jo Hennessy, director of research, Roffey Park

Sarah Jackson, CEO, Working Families

Alex Lewis, HR director, BAE Systems

Doug Mclldowie, group HR director, GKN

Terry Nolan, group HR director, Smiths Industries

Alison Platt, chair, Opportunity Now

Gill Rider, head of the Civil Service Capability Group and head of profession, Civil Service HR

Dean Royles, director, NHS Employers

Joanne Segars, CEO, National Association Pension Funds

Kevin White, director-general, HR, Home Office

John Wrighthouse, HR director, Nationwide

At a time of recession, HR is more about developing people. Instead of recruiting, there may be different ways to do the work or to re-train our existing staff, and HR needs to be part of the group that provides these new solutions

hrmagazine.co.uk

Most Influential Practitioners 2011

16 HR Most Influential Supplement November 2011

Clare Chapman was director general of workforce at the NHS until July, starting in a new role as head of people at BT last month. At the NHS, she was responsible for work-force issues in the NHS and social care system. She was appointed to the position in January 2007. Chapman has more than 20 years of personnel experience in the UK, US and

mainland Europe. Before joining the NHS, she was group personnel director, Tesco.

Her previous roles include vice president of human resources at Pepsi Cola International’s central Europe operations offices, and dean of Quaker University at Quaker Oats Inc, where she established the company’s worldwide learning institute.

2. Clare Chapman, head of people, BT

“Chapman is one of the top HR experts and has made some inroads into changing the NHS in the biggest, most complex HR role in the UK”

David Fairhurst tops the practitioner ranking for a fourth year but it is no suprise given that he continues to push the HR sector forward and in 2011 was appointed to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills by business secretary, Vince Cable.

Fairhurst has enjoyed a rich and varied career in HR. After joining Lucas Industries as a graduate trainee, he became the youngest group manager at HJ Heinz, European direc-tor of recruitment and leadership planning for SmithKline Beecham and corporate HR director for Tesco. He joined McDonald’s Restaurants as VP people in 2005 – the first time McDonald’s had appointed an HR professional at this level in the UK.

In 2011, he was promoted to the newly cre-ated position of chief people officer, Europe, with responsibility for all people strategies and practices for 6,900 restaurants employing

more than 375,000 staff in 39 countries. He is VP of learning, training and development at the CIPD; chairman of People 1st; a fellow of Lancaster University Business School; chair, advisory board at the Centre for Professional Personnel and Development (CPPD) and fel-low of the Sunningdale Institute – a virtual academy of thought-leaders created to advise and advance public service. He is also visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and in 2010 was awarded an honorary doctorate by Middlesex University Business School.

In 2008, Fairhurst received the Institute of Internal Communications’ business commu-nicator of the year award – previously given to business luminaries such as Justin King, Richard Branson and Anita Roddick. He was the first HR professional to receive this prestigious award.

1. David Fairhurst, chief people officer, Europe, McDonald’s

“He is a thinker and initiator of great ideas, which he readily shares with the profession”

Most Influential Practitioners 2011We need the great thinkers, home-grown and international, but if we don’t have great people putting the ideas into practice in an HR department near you, what’s the point? Here’s this year’s list of doers

hrmagazine.co.uk


Most Influential Supplement November 2011 HR 17

Caroline Waters has been BT’s director of people and policy since January 2005. She has established herself as a leading voice, both within the company and across industry, for diversity and equal opportunities. She was recognised for this in the 2010 New Year’s honours with her appointment as OBE.

Waters has long championed equal pay, working with the (then) Equal Opportunities Commission Taskforce. She sits on the board of the UK Resource Centre for Women, encouraging women into technical careers. As a trustee of the Employers Forum on Age, she

was key to the introduction of the 2006 age regulations.

She is founder and chair of the Employers Forum on Belief, and the architect of BT’s volunteering programme – which last year delivered over 49,000 days to charities – and of Work Inspiration, which gave work experience to 3,600 young people.

Waters has long been involved in affecting the political agenda and public policy, notably as chair of Employers for Carers, where she was influential in legislation to extend the right to request flexible working.

3. Caroline Waters, director of people and policy, BT

“Unique. Highlights the conscience of HR brilliantly and is formidably capable in representing the value of exceptional people in business”

Vance Kearney joined Oracle in November 1991 as UK director of human resources and is now the vice president for human resources, Oracle Europe, Middle East and Africa Division.

He has overall responsibility for all aspects of HR for Oracle’s 23,000 employees across 60 coun-tries. Oracle has acquired more than 10,000 employees from

more than 50 companies in the past five years and has integrated their pay and benefits into its structure. He has also served as a trustee on two pension plans for almost 20 years.

Prior to Oracle, Kearney held various senior HR positions with Data General, STC and Rolls-Royce. He is a member of the CBI employment policy committee.

4. Vance Kearney, vice president for HR, Oracle EMEA

“States his mind on issues others steer clear of. Great track record”

John Ainley was appointed group HR director of global insurer Aviva in April 2006. He is a member of its group executive committee. His career spans more than 30 years in HR.

Ainley is also non-executive director and a member of the remuneration committee at West Bromwich Building Society, a board member at CEDEP

(Insead) and a member of the CBI climate change board. He is passionate about simplification and focusing on global HR processes that make it easier to serve customers’ needs.

As well as ensuring Aviva suc-cessfully navigated the financial crisis, his leadership has made Aviva a best-practice firm in sustainability and business ethics.

5. John Ainley, group HR director, Aviva

“Inspirational about the need for more human significance at work”

hrmagazine.co.uk



Tanith Dodge joined Marks & Spencer as director of HR in March 2008. She is a member of the M&S management commit-tee, leading HR for its 78,000 employees across the UK and 42 territories internationally.

Before joining M&S, Dodge was group HRD at WH Smith, where she also held responsibility for PR, communications and

Post Office operations. She is an active member of the BiTC Workwell Leadership Team and sits on the board of the BiTC Business Action on Homeless-ness campaign.

She is also trustee of Working Chance, which helps female offenders regain life and employ-ment skills, is on the Employee Engagement Taskforce.

6. Tanith Dodge, HR director, Marks & Spencer

“She has demonstrated the impact of progressive, evidence- based HR”

Therese Procter joined Tesco Stores in 1986, progressing through a number of operation-al roles in the UK and overseas.

She leads an HR team that has responsibility for supporting the culturally diverse retailing serv-ices division of Tesco – this is its fastest growing area, which includes Tesco.com, Tesco Bank, Tesco Telecoms, and its data

analytics firm, Dunnhumby. Procter has a particular

interest in creating an inclusive and integrated workplace, which is supported by her active involvement through talent planning in women’s leadership development and supporting women’s networks in other businesses and organisations.

Procter is a fellow of the CIPD.

8. Therese Procter, HR director, Tesco Retailing Services

“Charismatic, leading from the front. Down to earth, with heavy experience in a terrifically successful business”

Gillian Hibberd joined Bucking-hamshire County Council in late 2005 as corporate director (HR and OD) and is now strategic director (resources and business transformation), responsible for finance, legal, HR, ICT, customer services, business transformation and a major support services programme. She is a board director at Buckinghamshire.

Hibberd has led an HR trans-formation that reduced costs by 30%, has delivered £22 million savings and has led a perform-ance-management programme. The council has 4-star excellence status and is the second highest performing county council in the UK. Hibberd is a past president of the Public Sector People Managers’ Association.

7. Gillian Hibbberd, strategic director (resources, business transformation) Buckinghamshire CC

“Showing the way forward where cuts are being made that would make most private sector HRDs panic”

Chris Last is head of HR opera-tions for government, as well as director general HR for the Department for Work and Pensions. Since joining the Civil Service three years ago, he has fo-cused on transforming HR into a smaller, more focused profession.

The Civil Service did not have a graduate entry programme for HR and Last initiated one,

making it the largest recruiter of graduates in UK HR.

The senior management has begun the process of reorganis-ing HR across government and these changes have improved HR delivery, while reducing the size of HR in cost and headcount.

Previously, Last worked for the Ford Motor Company in a variety of HR roles.

9= Chris Last, director general HR, DWP and head of HR operations for government

“The challenges and interventions he leads on give a massive ‘weight of numbers’ influence to the world of UK HR”

hrmagazine.co.uk



Graham White is HR director at Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH).

Prior to that, White spent 10 years in local government. At Westminster City Council, he implemented a remodelling of

remuneration, and restructured the workforce, which has seen the removal of 550 posts, making savings of £20 million.

He pioneered publishing of senior salaries, leading the way for others to show transparency.

9= Graham White, HR director, Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

“Ignores HR’s primal survival technique of only saying what others want to hear”

Sandy Begbie was appointed group people and communica-tions director at Standard Life in 2010. He is responsible for deliv-ering the organisational change programme at group level to create a fit-for-purpose business.

Begbie is also a non-executive director with the Scottish Government and chairs its remu-neration committee.

Before joining Standard Life, he was HR director at Aegon UK and Scottish Power.

11. Sandy Begbie, group people and communications director, Standard Life

“Ideal combination of HR change capabilities and key relationship with CEO”

Helen Giles is HR director of Broadway Homelessness and Support and MD of Broadway’s Real People, a social enterprise HR consultancy. Broadway has been voted by employees into the Sunday Times Best 100 Employ-

ers for five years, winning many awards for its excellence in people management practice.

Giles has been awarded the MBE for services to homeless people. She is a resident blogger for HR Magazine.

13. Helen Giles, director of human resources and consultancy, Broadway Homelessness & Support

“Prepared to say what many think about the adverse impact of regulation”

Ann Almeida is group head of human resources at HSBC. She has been a group managing director since February 2008, after joining HSBC in 1992. She was appointed a group general manager in 2007.

Almeida was global head of human resources for global banking and markets, global asset management, global private banking, global transaction banking and HSBC Amanah from 1996 to June 2007.

10. Ann Almeida, group head of human resources, HSBC

“Consistent, long-term impact on a major global organisation in challenging times”

Jean Tomlin joined LOCOG (the London 2012 Organising Com-mittee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) as HRD in 2006, accountable for recruit-ing 200,000 paid staff, contrac-tors and volunteers, developing

one million hours of training and deploying the operational workforce at Games time.

Tomlin was group HRD at Marks & Spencer and executive advisor to the BBC. She is also a companion of the CIPD.

12. Jean Tomlin, HR director, LOCOG

“Overseeing the highest profile UK plc activity this century”

Responsible for developing group-wide people practices for more than 100,000 colleagues, in charge of reward, employment policy and relations, talent, L&D, HR operations and diversity and inclusion, Angie Risley leads a

team of 1,300 HR professionals across the group.

She is group sponsor for ethnicity and a member of BiTC’s Race for Opportunity board. Risley is also on the Employment Engagement Task Force.

14. Angie Risley, group human resources director, Lloyds Banking Group

“Strategic approach to linking people to business objectives in challenging culture”

hrmagazine.co.uk



Rachel Campbell is global head of people performance and culture at KMPG. She joined KPMG (UK) in 1989.

In recent years, KPMG won the Sunday Times Best Big Compa-nies to Work for award three

times and a lifetime achievement award in 2009.

She is active in CSR agendas and has supported Business in the Community and Working Families. She is on the UK Board of SIFE, the education network.

15. Rachel Campbell, global head of people, performance and culture, KPMG

“Her initiatives on flexible working and careers in recession – ground-breaking”

Geoff Lloyd joined Serco in 2008 as group HRD working for CEO Chris Hyman.

Previously he was executive VP of HR for Airbus Industries in Toulouse. Lloyd was one of the executive sponsors of the Power8

programme that sought multi-billion euro savings. The module he took responsibility for achieved €270 million savings in the first year, ahead of target.

Prior to Airbus, Lloyd spent 14 years at Nortel Networks.

16. Geoff Lloyd, group human resources director, Serco

“Improved engagement in a very diverse organisation with great success”

Anne Gibson is president of the Public Sector People Managers’ Association. She has been head of HR and organisational develop-ment at Norfolk County Council since 2002. Her career has covered all disciplines in the pro-

fession and all aspects of upper tier local authority services.

Her theme as PPMA president is ‘From Insight to Action’: the insights the public sector needs will come in many shapes and from all sectors, she says.

17. Anne Gibson, head of HR and organisational development, Norfolk County Council and president, PPMA

“A deep thinker with strong public sector ethics”

Sue Swanborough started her career as a scientist with Boots before moving to Mars and, in 2006, joining General Mills. She has held various roles, including R&D, logistics and manufactur-ing roles within the supply chain.

Her expertise lies in cultural and leadership development through building trust to deliver excellent business results. She has been integral in enabling General Mills to become one of the fastest growing UK food companies.

18. Sue Swanborough, HR director, UK and Ireland, General Mills

“She has taken a pragmatic approach to HR’s contribution and made it count”

Stephen Lehane is focused on the people agenda for the 70,000 em-ployees serving Boots’ 15 million UK customers. He has played a pivotal role in the people and or-ganisation challenges of creating Alliance Boots from the merger

of Boots and Alliance Unichem five years ago, and Europe’s larg-est leveraged buy-out a year later.

Previous experience is with ICI and Unilever. He is a member of the Employee Engagement Task Force and a fellow of the CIPD.

19. Stephen Lehane, human resources director, Alliance Boots

“Consistently challenging the status quo”

Richard Bide joined Co-opera-tive Group in 2003 with a remit to modernise its people agenda as a core ingredient of reinventing the brand. Headcount has dou-bled (to 110,000), as have profits. The reinvention of Co-operative

HR has attracted recognition, in particular for pension practice, engagement and shared services.

Bide is a governor of Manches-ter Metropolitan University and has worked at ICI, Tate & Lyle and Centrica.

20. Richard Bide, group HR director, Co-Operative Group

“Consistently delivers against the Co-operative Group’s values”

hrmagazine.co.uk



After stints at Royal Dutch Shell, PepsiCo and AT&T, Ronald Schellekens joined Vodafone and the executive committee in 2009.

Along with HR, he is responsible for global real estate and facilities

management, as well as group health, safety and wellbeing.

He is a Vodafone Foundation trustee and on the board of Voda-com, an African mobile comms firm, part-owned by Vodafone.

21. Ronald Schellekens, group HR director, Vodafone

“In a very volatile environment, Schellekens has brought order in possible chaos”

Hugh Mitchell was appointed HR director of Royal Dutch Shell in March 2005. He became a member of the executive com-mittee in October 2007, then chief HR and corporate officer in

July 2009. He is responsible for all aspects of HR strategy, planning and support in Shell.

He has contributed to many HR publications, including The Chief HR Officer (Jossey Bass, 2011).

22. Hugh Mitchell, chief HR and corporate officer, Royal Dutch Shell

“It is all too easy for HR to get lost. This has not happened in Shell, thanks to Hugh Mitchell”

Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury’s custom-er service and colleague director, is one of the most influential women in European retail.

She has responsibility for train-ing Sainsbury’s 153,000 staff. She

is responsible for Sainsbury’s PR, CSR and sponsorship, including London 2012 Paralympic Games.

In 2010, Sainsbury’s was the first food retailer to be awarded gold status by Investors in People.

23= Gwyn Burr, customer service and colleague director, Sainsbury’s

“Mixing customer and colleague is an inspiration”

Gareth Williams is global HR director of Diageo, appointed to this position in January 1999 and has been a member of the Diageo executive committee since that time. Williams joined the former

GrandMet brewing division in 1984 and moved through a number of positions to become director of management devel-opment and resourcing for the division in 1987.

23= Gareth Williams, global human resources director, Diageo

“Introduced virtual HR during HR transformation”

Stephen Kelly was appointed chief people officer and a mem-ber of Logica’s executive commit-tee in March 2009.

He joined Logica from the BBC, where he was director, BBC

People. His responsibilities in-cluded the provision of strategic and operational HR services across the UK and internationally.

Prior to this, Kelly was chief HR officer at BT Global Services.

24. Stephen Kelly, chief people officer, Logica

“A greatly respected commentator”

Claire Thomas, senior VP, HR, joined the company in 1996 and was appointed senior vice presi-dent, HR, pharmaceuticals Europe in 2001, where she successfully led HR through the

merger. From 2003 to 2006, Thomas played a key role in the redesign of the operating model.

She was honoured as an Outstanding European Woman of Achievement in 2007.

25. Claire Thomas, senior VP, human resources, GSK

“A thoughtful and articulate practitioner”

Bunzl is a distribution company operating in 23 countries with revenues of £5 billion and 12,000 staff. Baxter is responsible for all HR, pensions and corporate responsibility across the group.

She has held her role at Bunzl for eight years. She has 30 years’ experience, including as group HRD for Enterprise Oil, having held a similar role at Tate & Lyle.

She spent six years at KPMG.

26= Celia Baxter, director of group HR, Bunzl

“Pivotal role in helping the FTSE 100 company’s performance”

Dean Shoesmith is executive head of HR for the London boroughs of Sutton and Merton.

He leads the only full HR shared service of this scale in UK local government. He heads a strategic

procurement body for London boroughs to provide outsourced recruitment and resourcing serv-ices and has secured efficiency savings across London as a result of economies of scale.

26= Dean Shoesmith, executive head of HR, London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton

“Challenges accepted public sector norms”

hrmagazine.co.uk



Sally Bott was appointed group HRD at Barclays in April. Prior to this she was global HRD at BP and a member of its executive committee. She has also been a non-executive board member of

UBS, chairing the bank’s HR and compensation committee and was MD and head of global HR at Marsh & McLennan.

Bott is a member of the execu-tive committee of Barclays.

28= Sally Bott, group HR director, Barclays

“High-profile international HR director”

Stephen Dando is CHRO at Thomson Reuters, responsible for providing leadership on peo-ple and organisational issues.

He joined Reuters in 2006, prior to which he was director,

BBC People. He led the transfor-mation of the BBC’s HR function and implemented the BBC’s largest ever leadership-training programme. For the CIPD, he is VP, international.

28= Stephen Dando, EVP and chief human resources officer, Thomson Reuters

“Leading the way in global talent practice and thinking”

Frank Douglas is the executive president, group HRD for Misys. Prior to that, he was the group HRD for Transport for London.

Born in the US, Douglas has worked internationally for the

past 13 years. He was the first HR manager to win the BT chair-man’s award for a project that saved BT £200 million.

In 2009, Douglas was elected non-exec director of the CIPD.

28= Frank Douglas, executive president, group human resources director, Misys

“Wealth of experience in public and private sectors globally”

Norman Pickavance became the first group HR director of Wm Morrison Supermarkets when he joined in 2007, reporting to the CEO. He is leading a programme to identify future female business

leaders, with a target to double its number of female senior manag-ers by 2014.

Pickavance was group HRD of Northern Foods, where he was a member of the operating board.

30. Norman Pickavance, group HR director, Morrisons

“An early advocate for bringing more women into senior management roles”

Alan Walters spent the first 10 years of his career with ICI and Ineos Acrylics in various HR roles. He joined Unilever in 2000 as an HRD in global R&D. His areas of interest are change management, engage-

ment and health and wellbeing. He is on the advisory board of

Catalyst Europe, a member of the Responsibility Deal – Health at Work Network and the Employee Engagement Task Force.

29. Alan Walters, VP HR, Unilever UK & Ireland

“Walters helps mentor SMEs in the area of wellbeing”

Since joining Orient-Express in 2009, Edwards has introduced a range of business-changing initi-atives including restructuring the HR and L&D team worldwide.

Since our ranking, she has been

appointed VP HR worldwide. She is a member of the employer board of People 1st and has been on the panel working with the Home Office on immigration and work permit issues.

27= Sara Edwards, director of human resources worldwide, Orient Express

“Sara Edwards has been excellent in developing customer care”

Alastair Imrie has worked for BAE Systems for 22 years. He is group HRD, responsible for HR strategy globally, and is also group MD for the shared services busi-ness, which he formed in 2002.

Imrie is non-executive director of Semta, the UK Sector Skills Council for science, engineering and manufacturing, and of e-trading exchange, Exostar and the charity, Rathbone.

27= Alistair Imrie, group HR director, BAE Systems

“Big role, great track record”

Registered as Ashridge (Bonar Law Memorial) Trust. Charity number 311096.

What’s on your mind?

• Customers

• Competitors

• The economy

• Leadership pipeline

• Industry changes

• Driving innovation

• Delivering value

• Sustainability

Ashridge combines executive educationwith real business problem-solving

The true value is in the outcomewww.ashridge.org.uk/truevalue

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Most Influential UK Thinkers 2011


Lynda Gratton is professor of management practice at London Business School, where she teaches an elective to MBA students on the future of work. She is highly regarded by the HR community, being praised as a “deep thinker who is a champion of women in top management” and for being constantly in front of HR directors by those who voted for her in this year’s UK Thinkers ranking.

In 2009, Gratton was ranked by The Times as one of the top 20 business thinkers in the world and described by the FT as the management guru most likely to impact on the future. She received India’s Tata Award for services to HR.

She was named the 2010 fellow of the American Academy of Human Resources. She has written six books including Living Strategy, Hot Spots and Glow and many articles for the FT, The Wall Street Journal,

Harvard Business Review and the MIT Sloan Business Review.

Her latest book, The Shift – about the future of work – was published this year.

Gratton has won a number of prizes for her writing and research and her books have been translated into more than 20 languages. She advises companies in Europe, the US and Asia and founded the Hot Spots Movement (www.hotspotsmovement.com) dedicated to bring-ing energy and innovation to companies. The movement has offices in London, Singapore and California, more than 5,000 members, and advises more than 40 companies and governments around the world.

Gratton writes a weekly blog about the fu-ture of work – www.lyndagrattonfutureoff-work.typepad.com. Her books and Tweets are awaited with anticipation, according to those who voted her top this year.

1. Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice, London Business School

“A classic management thinker who is always respected and listened to”

Jackie Orme has been CEO of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) since April 2008 and is establishing it as a centre for new HR thinking, as well as “making it a much more professional outfit”, according to those who voted for her.

Her early years were spent in the Depart-ment of Employment and the Institute of

Chartered Accountants, before moving to work in the steel industry in South Wales.

Prior to joining the CIPD, Orme spent 12 years working for PepsiCo – including seven years leading the UK and Ireland HR function and sitting on both the UK executive board of PepsiCo International and the global PepsiCo International HR council.

2. Jackie Orme, chief executive, CIPD

“A champion and model for next-generation HR thinking”

Most Influential UK Thinkers 2011An ex-Olympic gold medallist, the TUC general secretary and a mighty handful of academics – HR thought leadership in the UK is in safe hands

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Will Hutton was executive vice chair of The Work Foundation, the most influential voice on work, employment and organisation issues in the UK. Regularly called on to advise senior political and business figures and comment in the national and international media, he is today one of the pre-eminent economics commentators in the country.

Hutton’s best-known book is probably The State We’re In, which was seen at the time as setting the scene for the Blair revolution. He is the chair of the Commission on Ownership, which is examining to what extent and how

ownership matters – and which is due to de-liver its findings this autumn. He also led the Public Sector Fair Pay Review, which pub-lished its final report in March.

Hutton took up his post as principal of Hertford College, Oxford in September.

He is chair of the Big Innovation Centre – an initiative from The Work Foundation and Lancaster University launched in October with the backing of business secretary Vince Cable, businesses and universities. Its aim is to deliver a step-change in the UK’s capacity to innovate and generate wealth.

3. Will Hutton, principal, Hertford College, Oxford, chair of the Big Innovation Centre

“A thoughtful writer and one of the most influential thinkers on the economy”

David MacLeod has worked in manufacturing, the services and the Cabinet Office.

He has been MD of businesses in Europe and latterly was CEO of a global business formed through the merger of Unilever and ICI businesses.

In 2009, he co-authored the report to Government, Engaging for Success, and was then asked to

chair the Government-spon-sored, employer-led taskforce on employee engagement, launched by the prime minister.

This taskforce is sponsored by 50 of the UK’s leading CEOs and public sector equivalents, while the taskforce itself is composed of 40 practitioners, typically glo-bal group heads of HR drawn from leading UK companies.

4. David MacLeod, chair, Employee Engagement Task Force

“We are living in the engagement era... and David MacLeod has led the charge”

Cary Cooper is the author/editor of more than 120 books, on top-ics such as occupational stress, women at work and industrial and organisational psychology.

He has written 400 scholarly articles for academic journals, and is a frequent contributor to newspapers, TV and radio.

Cooper is president of the Institute of Welfare, president of

the British Association of Coun-selling and Psychotherapy, presi-dent of Relate, a national ambassador of the Samaritans and a patron of Anxiety UK.

Cooper’s recent books include Wellbeing: Productivity and happiness at work, Employee Morale, How to deal with stress and Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions.

5. Cary Cooper, distinguished professor of organisational psychology and health, Lancaster University Management School

“Very bright and forthright in his views on people and their development – or otherwise!”

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David Guest is a leading expert on HR management and related aspects of work and organisa-tional psychology. He has written and researched extensively on HRM, employment relations and the psychological contract, moti-vation, commitment and careers.

His most recent book is Psycho-logical Contracts, Employment Contracts and Employee Well-Being.

His research is concerned with the relationship between HRM, organisational performance and employee wellbeing in the private and public sectors; the role of HR departments; the individualisa-tion of employment relations; and the role of the psychological contract; flexibility and con-tracts; partnership at work; and the future of the career.

6. David E Guest, professor of organisational psychology and human resource management, department of management, King’s College London

“His work is always evidence-based and not abstract theory”

Adrian Furnham has been the professor of psychology at University College London since 1992. He has written more than 750 scientific papers and 65 books, including The Protestant Work Ethic, The Psychology of Money, The Incompetent Manag-er and The Elephant in the Board-room: The Psychology of Leadership Derailment.

He is a fellow of the British Psychological Society and among the most productive psycholo-gists in the world.

He is a newspaper columnist, previously at the FT, now at the Sunday Times. He writes regu-larly for the Daily Telegraph and is a contributor to radio and TV stations, including the BBC, CNN and ITV.

8. Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology, University College London

“A brilliant thinker. He combines his psychological expertise with practical commonsense”

John Philpott is chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). His research covers the labour market, workplace trends and employment policy.

He is a media commentator and platform speaker. Philpott has advised numerous UK and international bodies, including several UK government depart-

ments, the UN, the EC, the IMF and the OECD.

Philpott is visiting professor in economics at the University of Hertfordshire. Prior to joining the CIPD, he was director of the Employment Policy Institute (EPI), an independent policy think-tank.

He is responsible for CIPD’s Labour Market Outlook reports.

7. John Philpott, chief economic adviser, CIPD

“An effective challenge to government on economic policy and the impact on UK employment”

Linda Holbeche has had a busy year developing a portfolio of consultancy, development and advisory work, as well as research and writing.

Her client work is mostly about strategic leadership, change man-agement, organisational strategy development and HR develop-ment. She is a member of several advisory boards and a visiting

professor at the University of Bedfordshire, where she has helped create a centre to pursue this theme through research and policy, leadership development and cross-sectoral ‘big debates’.

She is is co-editing a textbook on organisation development and change, due out in January, and co-writing a book on employee engagement.

9. Linda Holbeche, visiting professor (leadership innovation), University of Bedfordshire

“Good quality and thought-provoking contributions to the profession”

hrmagazine.co.uk



John Adair is an authority on leadership. More than a million managers worldwide have taken part in his Action-Centred Leadership programmes.

Adair has written more than 40 books, including How to Grow

Leaders and Effective Leadership Development. He is also a teacher and consultant.

In 2009, Adair was made chair, leadership studies, at the United Nations System Staff College in Turin.

10. John Adair, author, chair of leadership studies, United Nations

“His work on leadership has been the guiding light to organisational success”

Paul Sparrow focuses on the nature of strategic competence, HR leadership, boardroom en-gagement, performance drivers, business model change, talent management, evaluating and benchmarking human capital.

He consults with multinationals, public sector organisations and inter-governmental agencies, is a member of the MacLeod Review guru group and was an expert for the Sector Skills Develop-ment Agency.

12. Paul Sparrow, director of the centre for performance-led HR, Lancaster University Management School

“Probably the academic most in touch with HR thinking”

Lord Davies of Abersoch came to prominence for his report into the number of women in board-room positions. He called for a minimum of 25% female board member representation on FTSE 100 companies by 2015, with a

deadline of now for FTSE 350 firms to set out their own targets to achieve more gender diversity.

He is chair of council at Bangor University, member of the Singa-pore Business Council, UK-India Forum and UK-China Forum.

14. Lord Davies, minister of state and author of Women on Boards report

“An important one-off contributor this year”

Professor of creativity and lead-ership at Manchester Business School, Chris Bones is also one of two founder partners of Good Growth, a strategic consultancy that combines customer analyt-ics with his global experience in

organisation development and change to transform growth.

His most recent book, The Cult of the Leader, has won acclaim.

Bones is working with KPMG on the development of a change-leadership proposition.

11. Chris Bones, professor of creativity and leadership, Manchester Business School

“Speaks out fearlessly for what he believes in”

During five years as national director for health and work, Carol Black has addressed the burden and costs of impaired health and sickness absence.

Besides the effects on personal and family life and the wider

community, her work has high-lighted the impact of ill-health.

Her 2008 report, Working for a Healthier Tomorrow, led to the new Fit Note and an OH helpline.

Black is co-chairing a review of sickness absence.

13. Dame Carol Black, national director for health and work

“Has put employee wellbeing on the agenda”

Spellman took up the new role of chair at the CPA in January. The alliance plans to develop and promote a code of ethical princi-ples and standards to which all UK careers professionals should work. She stood down as CEO of

the Chartered Management Institute in August this year, hav-ing been in the role since 2009.

Spellman was the first female chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and HRD for the NSPCC.

15. Ruth Spellman, chair, Careers Profession Alliance

“Open-minded to the future of HR”

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Wayne Clarke is an expert in internal communications and employee engagement.

He has worked worldwide on strategic engagement programmes.

He is managing partner of Best

Companies, which helps to pro-duce the Sunday Times Best Companies To Work For lists.

He is UN/JCI global business ambassador with a brief to pro-mote the UN Global Compact.

22= Wayne Clarke, managing partner, Best Companies Partnership

“Brilliant inspirational presenter on employee engagement”

Rob Goffee is professor of organ-isational behaviour at London Business School.

He has served as director of the Innovation Exchange and faculty director of executive education.

Goffee has led executive devel-opment and corporate change initiatives worldwide in a range of industries.

He has published 10 books and more than 70 articles.

22= Rob Goffee, professor of organisational behaviour, London Business School

“Great at corporate change globally”

Nick Holley has been involved in creating large-scale organisation-al change, leadership and people-development programmes, but his expertise lies in embedding them in day-to-day operations.

Holley has worked with a number of global businesses on change management, HR strate-gy and capability, leadership, strategy implementation and talent management.

16. Nick Holley, director of the centre for HR excellence, Henley Business School

“Head rooted firmly in business realities rather than ivory tower theory”

Stephen Bevan is director of the centre for workforce effectiveness at The Work Foundation and an honorary professor at Lancaster.

He has carried out research and policy work for the No 10

Policy Unit, HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the EC.

He is on the expert group sup-porting the Government’s review of Sickness Absence and on David MacLeod’s ‘guru’ group.

17. Stephen Bevan, director of the centre for workforce effectiveness, The Work Foundation

“Very keen to progress employee development”

Andrew Mayo is a consultant, speaker, writer and facilitator in international HR management.

He worked for 30 years in major international organisa-tions in line and HR positions.

At Middlesex, he teaches HR strategy; his main research inter-est is in people-related measures.

He runs his own consultancy, MLI. His latest book is Human Resources or Human Capital?

18. Andrew Mayo, associate professor of human capital management, Middlesex University Business School

“An energetic and lively thinker”

Shaun Tyson is emeritus profes-sor of human resource manage-ment at Cranfield University.

For 20 years he was director of the Human Resource Research Centre, which he founded.

He chairs the remuneration committee of the Law Society.

He spent 11 years in retail and manufacturing at senior HR level and five years in the public sector.

He has written 20 books.

19. Shaun Tyson, emeritus professor of human resource management, Cranfield University

“Commentator with good thinking on age diversity”

Chris Roebuck couples his role as visiting professor at Cass with a new role as head of the OD and transformation division at the London Borough of Hammer-smith and Fulham.

He helps the non-HR business world understand what HR can do to help it via his column in CEO Magazine, articles for FDs and CEOs and his NED Workshop for the FT.

20. Chris Roebuck, visiting professor of transformational leadership, Cass Business School

“A very hard worker with varied experiences”

David Clutterbuck is writing his 53rd book, subtitled If succession planning works, how do the wrong people so often get to the top?

Visiting professor of coaching and mentoring at both Sheffield

Hallam and Oxford Brookes uni-versities, he has spent 30 years help-ing people have better dialogue.

Clutterbuck co-founded the European Mentoring and Coach-ing Council (EMCC).

21. David Clutterbuck, visiting professor of coaching and mentoring at Sheffield Hallam and Oxford Brookes universities

“David Clutterbuck has had an impact on every organisation that does mentoring”

hrmagazine.co.uk



Jon Ingham is an insight-based HR/OD consultant. He focuses on innovation in workforce planning, talent management, value-based measurement and HR capability development.

His recent interest is social cap-ital and helping create this type of capability through community-oriented leadership, team-based HR, OD interventions and the use of web 2.0/social media tools.

23. Jon Ingham, HR blogger and executive consultant, Strategic Dynamics

“He is the top HR blogger”

Chris Brewster is professor of international HR management at Henley Business School.

Brewster has conducted exten-sive research in the field of inter-national and comparative HRM;

and published more than 20 books and 100 articles.

He spent 10 years with Ford of Britain in a number of personnel positions at locations including Dagenham and Halewood.

24= Chris Brewster, professor of international human resource management, Henley Business School

“Good at the international thinking”

Adrian Moorhouse MBE retired in 1992 from a career unparal-leled in British swimming. He won Olympic gold at the 1988 Seoul Games and was World Number 1 for six consecutive years.

He is MD of Lane4, a perform-ance development consultancy.

Moorhouse has co-authored Developing Mental Toughness with Graham Jones and writes a Harvard Business Review blog.

24=Adrian Moorhouse, founder, managing director, Lane 4

“Bringing Olympic performance to the corporate world”

Brendan Barber joined the TUC in 1975 as a policy officer and in 1979 became head of press. He dealt with TUC media relations in the Miners Strike of 1984-85 and 1986-87 Wapping Dispute.

In June 2003 Barber became general secretary of the TUC.

He has been a member of the ACAS council since 1995 and is a non-executive director of the Court of the Bank of England.

25. Brendan Barber, general secretary, TUC

“Navigating the unions through difficult times”

Middlesex University Business School has a strong reputation forcourses that are taught by some of the UK’s most respected HRscholars and practitioners.

Andrew Mayo, Professor of Human Capital Management atMiddlesex University, has featured in HR Magazine’s Top 25Most Influential UK Thinkers for the last three years.

Offering CIPD accredited HR masters courses, either taught or aswork-based professional practice programmes, we help ensurethat HR practitioners, from new graduates to establishedprofessionals, develop their careers.

Our professional HR practitioner doctoral programme is designedfor aspirant senior HR practitioners looking to make an impacton their organisation and the profession.

Visit www.mdx.ac.uk/pghrm to find out more

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AT MIDDLESEX INCLUDES ONE OF THE UK’S MOST INFLUENTIAL THINKERS

MDX HR _Layout 1 21/10/2011 15:14 Page 1

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Most Influential International Thinkers 2011


Stephen R Covey is the author of several acclaimed books, including the international bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has sold 20 million copies. His latest book, The 3rd Alternative (Simon & Schuster) was released in October.

Covey, named as one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans, is a leadership

authority who has taught principle-centred leadership to individuals, business and com-munity leaders, and government officials.

He is co-founder and vice chairman of FranklinCovey, a global consultancy special-ising in strategy execution, leadership, HR, customer loyalty, sales performance, school transformation and individual effectiveness.

2. Stephen R Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and co-founder of FranklinCovey

“A class act – used time and time again”

Dave Ulrich is professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He is also a partner at the RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organisations and leaders deliver value. He has helped generate award-winning databases that assess alignment between strategies, organisation capabilities, HR practices, HR competencies, and custom-er and investor results.

Ulrich has published more than 175 articles and book chapters and 23 books, including The Why of Work, HR Transformation, Human Resource Value Proposition, HR Scorecard and Organizational Capability. He edited Human Resource Management 1990-1999. He is a fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources. Last year, honours included the Nobels Colloquia prize for leadership on business and economic thinking, life fellow-ship in Australia Human Resources Institute

(AHRI) and the Kirk Englehardt exemplary business ethics award from Utah Valley University. Why of Work (co-authored with Wendy Ulrich) was the number 1 bestseller for Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

In 2009, Ulrich was listed in Thinkers 50 as a management thought leader. He has also received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Training and Devel-opment (ASTD) and an honorary doctorate from University of Abertay, Dundee.

Ulrich has also been listed in Forbes as one of the ‘world’s top five’ business coaches and received the Pro Meritus Award from the Employment Management Association for ‘outstanding contribution to the HR field’.

He has consulted and done research with over half of the Fortune 200 and has topped HR magazine’s Most Influential list since it was launched in 2005.

1. Dave Ulrich, professor, Ross School of Business, and partner, RBL Group

“Ulrich continues to lead international HR conceptual thinking”

Most Influential International Thinkers 2011From Argyris to Ulrich, via Kanter and Kets de Vries, our industry is not short of international thinkers whose ideas inspire, infuriate and challenge us to be ever better leaders in people management

hrmagazine.co.uk



Michael E Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations and regions, and the application of competitive principles to social problems such as health care, the environment, and CSR.

Porter is generally recognised as the father of the modern strategy field, identified in a variety of surveys as an influential thinker on management and competitiveness.

He is the Bishop William Lawrence univer-sity professor, based at Harvard Business School. A university professorship is the

highest recognition that can be awarded to a Harvard faculty member. In 2001, Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, dedicated to Porter’s work.

He is the author of 18 books and 125 articles. His ideas are the foundation for courses on strategy and competitiveness, and his work is taught worldwide.

He chairs the Global Competitiveness Report, an annual ranking of the competitive-ness and growth prospects of 120 countries, published by the World Economic Forum.

3. Michael E Porter, Bishop William Lawrence university professor, Harvard Business School

“He has influenced business, not just HR, for many years”

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of great companies – how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies become great.

He has authored or co- authored four books, including Built to Last, a fixture on the Business Week best-seller list for six years. His work has been fea-tured in Fortune, The Wall Street

Journal, Business Week and Har-vard Business Review.

Collins’ book, Good to Great, attained long-running positions on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller lists; it has sold three million hardcover copies and been translated into 35 languages.

His most recent book is How the Mighty Fall.

4. Jim Collins, business researcher and author

“Very influential among CEOs”

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996. His 1999 profile of Ron Popeil won a National Magazine Award, and in 2005 he was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential.

He is author of four books: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking

Without Thinking (2005), and Outliers (2008), all of which were number one New York Times bestsellers. His latest, What the Dog Saw (2009), is a compilation of stories from The New Yorker.

From 1987 to 1996, he was with the Washington Post, where he covered business and science, and then served as New York City bureau chief.

5. Malcolm Gladwell, author and staff writer, The New Yorker

“Gladwell forces us to think outside our HR box”

Brooke W

illiams

hrmagazine.co.uk



Chris Argyis is the James Bryant Conant professor of education and organizational behavior emeritus, Harvard University.

He is a board member or in various research task groups: National Institute of Mental Health, National Science Foun-dation, Social Science Research Council, Ford Foundation; and a consultant for organisations in-

cluding AT&T, BAT, GE, General Foods, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Standard Chartered Bank. He is also a consultant to govern-ments on problems of executive development and productivity.

Argyris is the author of 31 books and some 400 articles. Re-cent books include Organization-al Traps, Flawed Advice and The Management Trap.

6. Chris Argyris, James Bryant Conant professor of education and organizational behavior emeritus, Harvard

“A long-term giant of organisational behaviour”

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L Arbuckle professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specialises in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her insights have guided leaders worldwide for over 25 years, through teaching, writing and direct consultation.

The former editor of Harvard Business Review, Kanter has been

named one of The Times’ ‘50 most powerful women’ and Accenture’s ‘50 most influential business thinkers’. In 2002, she was named ‘Intelligent commu-nity visionary of the year’ by the World Teleport Association.

Amazon named SuperCorp one of the 10 best business books of 2009. She is chair of Harvard’s advanced leadership initiative.

8. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L Arbuckle professor of business administration, Harvard Business School

“For almost 30 years, she has been a foremost thinker in strategy, innovation and leadership”

Edward E Lawler III is distin-guished professor of business and director of the center for effective organizations (which he founded) in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

He has consulted on employee involvement, organisational change and compensation and honoured as a top contributor to

the fields of organisational devel-opment, organisational behaviour, corporate governance and human resource management.

His articles have appeared in Fortune, Harvard Business Review and USA Today and The Financial Times. Recent books include Achieving Excellence in HR Management (2009) and Management Reset (2011).

7. Edward E Lawler III, director, center for effective organizations and professor of business, University of Southern California

“His work on areas such as motivation has been extremely influential for HR and managers generally”

Posner served for 12 years as dean of the Leavey school. Along with co-author Jim Kouzes, he received the American Society for Training and Development’s highest award for ‘distinguished contribution to workplace learning and performance’.

Named as one of the nation’s top management and leadership educators by the International

Management Council, he is recognised as one of the Top 50 leadership coaches in the US.

He is co-author of the best-seller, The Leadership Challenge. It has been named one of the Top 100 business books of all time.

His ‘Leadership Practices Inventory’ has been called “the most reliable, up-to-date leader-ship instrument available today”.

9. Barry Posner, Accolti professor of leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

“Scientifically validated research”

hrmagazine.co.uk



Marcus Buckingham has dedi-cated his career to helping people discover and capitalise on their personal strengths.

He has helped to usher in the ‘strengths revolution’, arguing people are more effective and

successful when they are able to focus on the best of themselves.

Buckingham’s Find Your Strongest Life: What the happiest and most successful women do differently, was in response to his appearance on Oprah Winfrey.

10. Marcus Buckingham, author, member of the secretary of state’s advisory committee on leadership and management

“Brilliant concepts around strengths-based leadership”

Paul G Stoltz is considered a pre-eminent thought leader on the science of mindset and is author of four international bestselling books on the subject, printed in 15 languages. His lat-est, Put Your Mindset to Work, is a

New York Times bestseller. HBS incorporates Stoltz’s AQ (adver-sity quotient) theory into its prestigious executive develop-ment and MBA programmes.

Stoltz founded Peak Learning, a global consultancy, in 1987.

12. Paul G Stoltz, author, guest lecturer, Harvard Business School

“His methodologies cut across cultures and are simple to understand and use”

Kaplan’s research, teaching and consulting focus on linking cost and performance-management systems to strategy implementa-tion. He is running a project with Michael Porter on linking patient costs to outcomes.

Kaplan was co-developer of activity-based costing and the balanced scorecard.

The Execution Premium is his fifth scorecard book.

He was elected to the Account-ing Hall of Fame in 2006.

14. Robert S Kaplan, Baker Foundation professor, Harvard Business School

“His balanced scorecard has been used throughout business worldwide”

Stephen M R Covey is co-found-er and CEO of CoveyLink Worldwide. An advisor on trust, leadership, ethics and high per-formance, he speaks worldwide.

He is author of The Speed of Trust, a book that asserts trust is

a hard-edged, economic driver.Covey led the strategy that pro-pelled his father’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to one of the two most influential business books of the 20th cen-tury, according to CEO Magazine.

11. Stephen M R Covey, author of The Speed of Trust and lead for Global Speed of Trust Project

“A chip off the old block. Bold and vibrant in his challenge to us all”

Fons Trompenaars earned a PhD from Wharton School with a dissertation on differences in conceptions of organisational structure in various cultures.

In 1989 he founded the Centre for International Business

Studies, a consultancy for global management, now known as Trompenaars Hampden-Turner.

Trompenaars has been a consultant for Shell, BP, ICI, and Philips. His book, Riding the Waves of Culture, sold 120,000 copies.

13. Fons Trompenaars, author, founder, Trompenaars Hampden-Turner

“His work on people and culture has shaped global thinking for many years”

Manfred FR Kets de Vries is Raoul de Vitry d’Avaucourt chair of leadership development and organisational change at business school, Insead. He is founding director of Insead’s global leadership centre.

The Financial Times and The Economist have rated him as one of the world’s outstanding leadership theoreticians.

Kets de Vries is recipient of the International Leadership Associ-ation lifetime achievement award.

15. Manfred FR Kets de Vries, Raoul de Vitry d’Avaucourt chair of leadership development and organisational change, Insead

“People listen to him”

hrmagazine.co.uk



Jim Kouzes is co-author of the award-winning best-seller, The Leadership Challenge, with over 1.8 million copies sold.

Wall Street Journal cited him as one of the 12 best executive edu-

cators in the US. Kouzes received the 2010 Thought Leadership Award from the Instructional Systems Association.

Leadership Excellence ranked him 16 on its Top 100 Leaders list.

16. Jim Kouzes, Dean’s executive professor of leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

“One of the world’s leaders in executive education”

Peter Cappelli is the George W Taylor professor of management at Wharton School and director of Wharton’s Center for HR.

Cappelli is researching changes in US employment relations.

His Talent Management was named “best business book” for 2008 by Booz-Allen. The India Way describes a mission-driven and employee-focused approach to strategy and competitiveness.

17. Peter Cappelli, George W Taylor professor of management, Wharton School, director of Wharton’s center for HR

“Sustained academic contribution over many years”

Robert K Cooper is a strategic advisor to CEOs and their teams. His pioneering work draws on peak performance research with more than one million leaders, professionals and teams globally.

Cooper is recognised for his work on the practical application of emotional intelligence.

His books, including Executive EQ and Get Out of Your Own Way, have sold four million copies.

18. Robert K Cooper, author, founder, Cooper Strategic

“Looks at alternative and innovative ways to succeed in a changing world”

Patrick Wright teaches, conducts research and consults in the area of strategic human resource management (SHRM), focusing on how firms use people as a source of competitive advantage.

He served as lead editor on the recently released book, The Chief HR Officer: Defining the new role of human resource leaders.

Wright has consulted for Shell, AstraZeneca, BT and BP.

19 Patrick Wright, William J Conaty GE professor of strategic human resources, Industrial and Labor Relations School, Cornell

“His work on the role of the CHRO is constantly challenging on age diversity”

John W Boudreau is professor of management and organization, Marshall School of Business and research director, center for ef-fective organizations, University of Southern California.

He is recognised for research on the bridge between superior human capital, talent and com-petitive advantage. He works with startups, non-profit organi-sations and multinationals.

20. John W Boudreau, professor, management and organization, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

“Great research linking talent and sustainable competitive advantage”

Agree with the 2011 rankings? Think someone has been overlooked? Then let us know. Nominations for HR Most Influential 2012 will open soon.

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