Trends like globalization and increased competition have placed HR front and center in most firm’s strategic planning efforts. For example, we will see that HR man-agers today are more involved in partnering with their top managers in both designing and implementing their companies’ strategies. Today’s emphasis on gaining competitive advantage through people makes input from the department that helps to screen, train, appraise, and reward employees too important to ignore when the company is reviewing its strategic options. Today’s focus on competitiveness and operational improvements also means that all managers—including HR—must be much more adept at expressing