A chain of events determines how well a company achieves EVA. To learn how to align HR with the strategic business plan we have to build a series of links that run backward from EVA to the HR department. At the end of that chain we will be able to determine what HR has to do to be aligned with and contribute to the objectives set out in the business plan. This linkage looks like the chain described in the following paragraphs. Alignment requires an unbroken connection from the beginning to the end of the chain: from EVA to staff responses and back again to EVA results.