Becoming a business architect

Top international HR professionals will give their advice on advancing HR to a “business architect” role at this year’s NZ HR Conference and Expo.

In the evolution of the HR profession, “business architect” is the next step.

It’s the theme running through this year’s Human Resources Institute of New Zealand’s (HRINZ) NZ HR Conference and Expo, which is being held in Auckland next month.

The event, which last year featured HR guru David Ulrich, has a line-up including five international keynote speakers who will present leading-edge thinking on a range of leadership and people-management topics.

“One of the key messages from Dave Ulrich is that HR is now at a point where whilst the manager is the owner, the analogy is that we’re the architect,” said HRINZ CEO Chris Till.

“We can help to design businesses, we can help to design approaches to leadership to get New Zealand to where it needs to be. New Zealand leadership isn’t up there where it should be and we’ve got an opportunity to improve it.”

Till said the idea of moving away from a “command and control” style of leadership to a more collaborative, innovative way of leading and supporting people was also a theme of the conference.

“It’s pretty ground-breaking stuff, it’s exciting. We’ve got five world class speakers, it’s innovative and leading-edge thinking that people will get exposure to. It’s for HR people and for people-managers at all levels so everybody will get something out of it.”

Speakers include Professor Marc Jones, senior consultant, learning centre, at Mt Eliza Executive Education, leadership and culture expert Peter Docker and Vineet Nayar, former CEO of HCL Technologies and founder of the Sampark Foundation.

The three-day conference will also feature a 55-exhibitor expo and associated social activities.

“It gives New Zealand visibility – those leaders go back and talk about New Zealand – and it gives Kiwis the chance to access that international thinking that comes from those speakers,” said Till.

It’s the first time the conference has been held in Auckland in more than a decade and Till said since nearly half of the institute’s members were based in the Auckland area, it would now alternate
venues between Auckland and Wellington. 

The conference and expo will be held at the Viaduct Events Centre, 17-19 September. Click here for more information and to register.