Optimize Your Leadership Pipeline: Leveraging HR Analytics for Business Model Innovation

Abstract

Firms navigating the constantly changing business environment demand a supply of executives who can create and execute new business models, achieve financial targets, strengthen corporate ethical reputation, and transform the organization in pursuit of corporate sustainability. This paper aims to leverage human resources (HR) analytics to explore how high-potential managers navigate different developmental paths to reach the C-suite and how and why different developmental paths influence their turnover after becoming an executive. Combining job analysis and competency assessment with sequence analysis, we applied HR analytics on 53 general managers’ work experience spanning 57 years (n = 2,742), with roles, job requirements, and 20 executive competencies over 1,000 positions. Our findings reveal three distinct developmental paths that lead to the C-suite, characterized by differences in the content, context, timing, and complexity of work experience. Furthermore, we identify that a more complex developmental path tends to reinforce executives’ competency in self-awareness while inhibiting their development of technical competency, ultimately resulting in reduced executive turnover. Applying HR analytics with empirical data embedded in job and organizational contexts, this study reveals the importance of timing and complexity of work experience in executive development. It also offers insights for firms to leverage HR analytics to optimize their leadership pipeline and reduce executive turnover along with business model innovation.