A CEO of a big MNC made a statement " It is not necessary to look into any activity that does not boost sales. Only consider those activities that will result in a sale."

In that case, HR being a support function, how much to we agree to this statement.

Yes, although we can always discuss we being an HR Business Partner responsible for the organization development and talent management, how do we take this statement as it is, because somewhere down the line, it is what I believe is true and some organizations have at times been stern enough to question our credibility.

Whats your say on this ?

Most of us actually believe that HR does not contribute to sales growth. Therefore, that the CEO should look at HR as a nice function, that does a lot of feel-good things, things that build the organization as an objective in itself, not for what these activities contribute to the sustained growth of the business.

If that is true, little surprise that most CEOs end up with a fuzzy conception of what HR can give to a business and treat it like a transaction service provider (rather than a capability builder) or worse. If we carry such a negative conception of ourselves, little wonder if CEOs don't invite us to the strategic round-table of the business - why should they?

For the record, my own view is that the CEO is right - and that is why he should pay a lot of attention to HR and organization development, because the building of certain capabilities is one of the best ways of assuring long-term survival, which equates to long-term sales growth.

Cheers,
Sanjibani