Ryan Breslow’s decision to eliminate Bolt’s HR function made headlines precisely because it articulated what many executives privately believe: HR’s primary contribution is administration and bureaucratically enforcing policies and compliance processes.
Companies can outsource those functions cheaply or ignore them during crises.
But wasn’t Breslow solving the wrong problem?
The real issue is whether HR impacts strategically or operationally.
Many, if not most, HR functions operate operationally – managing benefits, recruiting, handling compliance, running payroll. These are necessary but insufficient.
They’re table stakes, not competitive advantages. And when companies face existential pressure, table stakes get cut.
The HR leaders who become impactful strategically partner with the CEO and executive team to translate organisational strategy into the behavioural, organisational and capability changes required for execution.
They recognise that strategy doesn’t fail because the thinking was flawed. It fails because the organisation lacks the clarity, capability, alignment or incentives to execute it.
That’s where HR can create extraordinary value – if it chooses to.
Why strategy fails (it’s usually not the strategy)
In three decades advising companies through transformations, I’ve observed a consistent pattern: strategic failure sometimes stems from weak strategic thinking, but nearly every time from execution failure.
Companies develop solid strategies, boards approve them, CEOs champion them, and then…nothing changes. Or things change inconsistently. Or people execute in ways that feel strategically misaligned. The plan is 10 per cent, execution is 90 per cent. Execution is about people.
This is where HR traditionally steps in with training programmes and cultural initiatives that feel disconnected from actual strategy.
Workshops on “strategic thinking” while compensation systems still reward the old behaviours.
All-hands meetings about transformation priorities while organisational structures reinforce silos that block collaboration.
Talent development programs that build generic leadership capabilities while the company needs specific capabilities to execute this particular strategy.
The mismatch between what execution of strategy demands and what the organisation actually enables is where most execution fails. And that’s precisely where HR can become the most important strategic function in the company.
Strategic failure sometimes stems from weak strategic thinking, but nearly every time from execution failure
From process manager to execution architect
Strategic HR starts with a fundamental reframing: HR’s job isn’t to manage people. It’s to design organisational systems that enable people to execute strategy effectively.
This means several things practically:
1. Translate strategy into required organisational behaviours and patterns
The CEO announces a digital transformation strategy. That’s the “what”.
HR’s job is understanding what that strategy actually requires in terms of how people make decisions, what they prioritise, how they collaborate, what risks they take, what pace they move at.
A traditional infrastructure company becoming a SaaS business doesn’t just need new products.
It needs engineers who think about recurring revenue models, sales teams who focus on customer success rather than one-time deals, finance that understands subscription economics, executives who make faster decisions with less information.
HR’s job is diagnosing these behavioural and capability requirements and building organisational systems to enable them.
This starts with conversations with the CEO and executive team:
- What does this strategy actually demand from the organisation? Not from departments – from the organisation as a system.
- What decisions need to be made faster?
- What requires cross-functional collaboration that currently doesn’t happen?
- What capabilities do we need to build?
- Where will people’s natural instincts diverge from what strategy requires?
2. Design clear responsibility, accountability and measurement systems
Strategy becomes real when it’s woven into how people are evaluated and rewarded.
If your strategy emphasises customer success but you’re still measuring sales on bookings rather than retention, you have a misalignment problem.
HR’s role is ensuring that performance management systems, compensation structures and advancement criteria all reinforce strategic priorities.
I worked with an EdTech company transitioning from course licensing (one-time sales) to subscription learning platforms (recurring revenue). Their compensation system was still built around annual deals. Even after strategy changed, sales teams kept pursuing annual contracts because that’s how they were compensated. The strategy was sound; the incentive system undermined it.
HR can’t fix this alone – but without HR’s involvement, it won’t get fixed.
3. Implement organisational design that enables strategy
Organisational structures either enable or obstruct strategy. The company that needs rapid cross-functional innovation but has deeply siloed functions has an organisational design problem.
The company pursuing acquisition-led growth but has HR reporting structures that prevent integration has a design problem. This isn’t about reorganising for reorganisation’s sake. It’s about asking:
- Does our structure enable or impede the strategy we’re pursuing?
- Where do we need tighter collaboration that current structure prevents?
- Where are handoffs creating delays?
- What capabilities do we need to centralise versus decentralise?
HR’s job is diagnosing what leadership capabilities strategy demands and ensuring the company has them
4. Talent: develop the leadership bench strength strategy execution requires
Every strategy requires specific leadership capabilities. Scaling requires different leadership skills than entrepreneurial growth. Digital transformation requires leaders comfortable with ambiguity and iteration. Acquisition integration requires leaders skilled at cultural assessment and change management.
HR’s job is diagnosing what leadership capabilities strategy demands and ensuring the company has them – whether through external recruitment, internal development or targeted coaching.
This is where my work as an executive and team coach becomes organisationally strategic. It’s not about generic leadership development, it’s about building specific capabilities this organisation needs to execute this strategy.
5. Create transparency and alignment systems
Strategy clarifies intentions. Execution requires that intentions travel. HR can create the systems and forums that ensure strategic clarity cascades through the organisation – not through top-down communication alone, but through dialogue where people understand how their work connects to strategy.
This might include: strategy dialogue forums at different organisational levels, structured conversations about how department strategies align with corporate strategy, performance review processes that explicitly connect individual work to strategic prioritiesor communication cadences that regularly reinforce strategic focus.
The challenge for HR leaders in 2026 is simple: Prove that you’re not just managing processes. Prove that you’re enabling execution
The measurable outcome: strategy that sticks
When HR operates strategically, execution improves measurably. I’ve watched companies where:
- Leadership teams that were misaligned around strategy became aligned once HR facilitated structured strategic dialogue and diagnosed what was driving disagreement
- Organisations pursuing transformation strategies maintained focus during difficult quarters because HR-led accountability systems kept strategy visible
- Acquisition integrations succeeded because HR-designed integration processes ensured the two organisations developed aligned cultures and decision-making approaches.
This doesn’t require fancy technology or elaborate programmes. It requires HR leaders who understand strategy deeply enough to ask: What organisational changes must happen for this strategy to work?
Then designing systems – measurement, accountability, organisational structure, capability development, communication – to create those conditions.
The strategic imperative
HR leaders who recognise this opportunity can become invaluable. They’re not managing compliance. They’re architecting the organisational systems that translate CEO strategy into team-level impact. That’s indispensable.
Executives who eliminate HR because it feels like overhead are often right – overhead HR should be cut. But strategically-integrated HR that helps the organisation actually execute its strategy? That’s not a cost center, it’s a competitive advantage.
The challenge for HR leaders in 2026 is simple: Prove that you’re not just managing processes. Prove that you’re enabling execution.
Partner with your CEO on the organisational, behavioural and capability changes strategy demands. Build measurement systems that reinforce strategic priorities. Create alignment mechanisms that make strategy visible. Develop leaders with the specific capabilities strategy requires.
Do that, and HR becomes so strategically central that cutting it becomes impossible.
That’s how HR turns strategy into impact – and why it matters.
Read another practical insights article: Five steps: Stop running HR. Start running the business
