A Powerful Team

Our 2nd Ground Breaking Research-Based Book

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A Powerful Team shows why HR strategy matters and how it can mean the difference between organizational success and failure. Based on interviews with top CEOs and HR leaders, this book makes the compelling argument that an effective HR strategy can lead to transformative improvements in your business approach and bottom line. The advice contained herein— a collection of “best practices” on how to make the most of HR— is based on the hard-earned experience of business leaders from large, medium, and smaller companies in various industries, both public and private.

This book seeks to answer a number of important questions:

How do CEOs and HR leaders create a powerful team?
How do CEOs and HR leaders complement their skills, strengths, and weaknesses to work together effectively?
How do CEOs and HR chiefs become aligned around core values and common goals?
How does HR help create a unified and engaged corporate culture, where shared values and unity of purpose drive performance?

As one of the CEOs interviewed in this book says, “The ultimate measure of HR success is not in tactical things, like involuntary turnover or time to fill positions. HR needs to play an essential role in driving every one of our key results. At the end of the day, our results are all that matter. Therefore, everyone’s ultimate measure should be that, and HR is no exception.”

HR leaders are now as responsible for contributing to the bottom line as the CFO and other senior members of the leadership team. A Powerful Team shows how a business unit that once served a largely tactical role is now at the forefront of strategic planning and execution.

Company HR Leader CEO
Tyco Larry Costello George Oliver
NFI Nancy Stefanowicz Sid Brown
Publicis Healthcare Andrew Adams Michelle Keefe
Citadel Margolit Hilsberg Jeff March
Rentokil Scott Cook John Meyers
TeleRx Dave Desch Linda Schellinger
Lassonde Anne Novak Mark McNeil
Ricoh Americas Donna Venable Martin Brodigan
Houghton Kym Johnson Mike Shannon
Virtua Rhonda Jordan Richard Miller
PMA Andy McGill Vincent Donnelly
Tekni Plex Rochelle Krombolz Paul Young
Teleflex Cam Hicks Benson Smith

Initial Key Findings

  • CEOs interviewed believe the HR leader should have a role in the organization equal to the COO, CFO, and other leaders on the business side of operations.
  • The HR leader’s and team’s understanding of the business has to be equal to or greater than their understanding of HR issues.  The CEO needs to see the HR leader as an equal on the leadership team.
  • A major role played by HR is in finding out what employees truly think about the company and acting on that information to improve culture.  A positive and engaged culture plays a critical role in driving results.
  • The HR person needs to take a pro-active lead in establishing that relationship, not by adhering to HR’s traditional roles, but by searching out ways to add value to the organization, by complementing the CEO’s talents and abilities, and by looking for ways to make a major impact on the company’s performance.
  • An HR leader needs to be strategic and not reactive or tactical.  The strategy and tactics of the HR team need to match the overall strategy and tactics of the business.
  • Positive cultural changes can drive a company’s performance, and those changes cannot take place without the strategic orientation of the HR team.  A large part of this is teaching employees throughout every level of the organization about their strategic role in the company—what they need to know and do to drive performance.

About the Authors

Scott Rosen is Founder and President of the Rosen Group, managing the company since 1995.  The company has grown over the last twenty years into a leading consulting and staffing firm, providing direct hire and contract placement of Human Resource professionals at all experience levels, specializing in recruiting, compensation, benefits, HRIS, payroll, labor relations, training and development and employee relations.  The company’s network of talent consists of thousands of highly-qualified, prescreened individuals ready to hit the ground running.

Scott’s responsibilities include management, sales, marketing, recruiting, finance and operations.  Additionally, Scott has founded the following brands to support the HR community:

HR Department of the Year Awards (www.hrawards.org)
Human Resource Executive Alliance (HREA) (www.hrexecutivealliance.com)
Talent Acquisition Leadership Alliance

Prior to staring the Rosen Group, Scott spent twenty years in corporate America.  The first half of that time was in operations management as a generalist with Prudential and Cigna, and the second half was spent in HR management as a generalist with Reliance Insurance Company, Travelers Mortgage, and GE Capital.  Scott earned his B.S. in Business from Rider University and currently resides in Cherry Hill, N.J. with his wife Risa and their twin children, Lee and Cassidy.  In his spare time Scott enjoys traveling, reading, playing guitar, watching movies, and attending concerts and sporting events.


David Pinette is Senior Vice President with global outplacement provider Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.  Founded in the early 1960s, the firm’s primary goal is to assist displaced workers in making the transition to reemployment.  It has proven record of success, conducting fully individualized programs and one-on one consulting for each individual who participates in the process.  The firm’s clients find new jobs in a median time of 3.2 months, compared to the five months cites by The Wall Street Journal as the average length of a job search.

David’s twenty years of expertise includes partnering with business leaders and their teams to identify areas of opportunity necessary to achieve performance targets linked to business strategy.  His work with Challenger clients has been highly effective in assessing their needs providing them with tailored solutions to achieve business objectives.

With Scott Rosen, David is a founding member of the Human Resource Executive Alliance, an invitation-only community providing human resources executives in the greater Philadelphia area with a high quality networking and educational experience.

David established Challenger Executive HR Group of Philadelphia to help support senior level HR professionals in transition, providing them with structure and support in landing their next opportunity.

David is also a partner in the Delaware Valley HR Department of the Year Awards, a prestigious program founded in 1998 that recognizes HR professionals who have managed change and positive growth. (www.hrawards.org)

He earned a B.A, degree for Bryant University, where he studied marketing and business management.


John V. Touey is a Principal of Salveson Stetson Group Inc. and member of the management committee of the firm, a multi-specialty retained executive search firm based in suburban Philadelphia.

Specializing in enhancing leadership capacity, Salveson Stetson Group places senior executives at a wide variety of organizations, ranging from high-growth ventures, to Fortune 500 companies, to non-profit entities.  The firm is a member of IIC Partners, one of the top ten retained executive search groups in the world, with 52 offices in 34 countries.

John has more than twenty years of experience in providing executive search, human resources, and management consulting services to a broad range of organizations and industries.  At SSG, John manages the firm’s financial officer practice and has successfully placed senior level financial executives with several Fortune 500 companies, both in the Philadelphia region and beyond.  Additionally, his functional search expertise extends into senior sales and marketing, operations, human resources, technology, and general management roles.

John is a frequent contributor to several business publications and currently serves as a guest columnist regarding career issues for CFO.com.  He also has authored articles for TLNT.com and Brazen Careerist.

In addition, his work has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Fortune Magazine, Bloomberg News, and MSNBC.

Previously, John spent seven years with Right Management Consultants.  As Vice President in Right’s Philadelphia Regional Practice, he was a major contributor in the development of new human resource and management consulting services for the company.  He has worked with a broad range of Philadelphia’s leading companies in this capacity.

John holds a B.A. in English from Temple University.  He currently serves of the Boards of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia and the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians.  He is a Past President for the Society for Human Resource Management’s Philadelphia Chapter and most recently served as the Chair of the Chapter’s Senior Human Resources Forum.  He is also a past Board Member of the Philadelphia Human Resources Planning Society, the entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia, and DPT Business School.

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