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Linking Corporate Strategy and HR Strategy Rishikesha T. Krishnan Associate Professor of Corporate Strategy Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Recognition of the link between corporate and business strategies and strategies related to the people function is not new. McKinsey’s 7-S framework that emphasised the need for the alignment of seven organisational variables (superordinate goals, strategy, structure, systems, staff, skills, and style) for organisational effectiveness is about twenty years old. But, during this time, the importance of people to organisational success has, if anything, only multiplied as businesses have become more knowledge- and technology-driven. As a result, even strategy gurus, who typically talk about esoteric topics like transnational corporations and integrated networks, today emphasise the importance of the “individualised corporation”. 1 In this paper, we attempt to integrate multiple perspectives on the links between corporate strategy and human resources strategy with the objective of giving HR professionals working within an organisational context some pointers on how they can contribute to better integration of corporate and business strategy with HR strategy. Corporate and Business Strategy Corporate strategy refers to decisions on what business to enter, what businesses to retain in the portfolio and those to exit from. It specifically directs attention at how the corporate office can add value to the diverse businesses in the portfolio so that their value as a part of the corporation exceeds the value they would have as free-standing businesses. Business strategy focuses on