The Context Has Changed. The Model Hasn’t.

Ulrich’s 1997 HR model reshaped the profession—introducing HRBPs, COEs, and Shared Services to align HR with the business. It standardized structure, gave HR language, and created proximity to power.

But the world it was designed for is gone.

Markets move in weeks, not quarters.
Trust breaks faster than it’s earned.
Workforces are hybrid, AI-integrated, decentralized, and in constant flux.

Yet most HR systems still optimize for alignment—when the real need is authority.

The Current Model Is Quietly Failing

HRBPs are overwhelmed and under-leveraged.
COEs operate as policy engines, removed from frontline pressure.
Shared Services solve for efficiency—not escalation, learning, or system correction.
CHROs still fight for access to strategy—instead of leading it.

The model hasn’t adapted.
And every quarter you keep it, your organizational trust and velocity quietly erode.

Compliance Isn’t Credibility

Legacy institutions like SHRM helped embed and preserve this outdated model. Through certifications, competency checklists, and role formalization, they built a generation of HR around procedural safety—not structural authority.

The result?
HR functions that are “aligned” on paper but powerless in practice.

Alignment is not leadership.
Compliance is not capability.
And credibility cannot be outsourced.

The HR Power Model™

A System of Power—Not Just Process

The HR Power Model™ is not a modernization of Ulrich.
It’s a replacement.
A full-system redesign of HR for complexity, speed, and performance under pressure.

It doesn’t optimize delivery.
It reclaims design.

It doesn’t serve the business.
It architects the system through which the business performs.

Five Foundational Pillars of the HR Power Model™

1. Insurgent Leadership

HR doesn’t follow. It leads.
Insurgent Leadership is the doctrine behind this model. It rejects passive alignment and challenges inherited structures. It empowers CHROs to stop absorbing dysfunction and start redesigning systems. Influence isn’t requested. It’s assumed. Authority isn’t earned through proximity. It’s built into the architecture.

2. Systemic Ownership

HR owns the full design of performance—trust, accountability, decision-making, leadership cadence, and cultural architecture. No more acting as program managers for systems built elsewhere. HR becomes the architect of how work works.

3. Unified Accountability

The entire function operates as one system. No more HRBPs trapped between teams. No more disconnected COEs. No more isolated delivery units. Everyone is responsible for performance—not just compliance or communication.

4. Antifragile Design

The model doesn’t recover from disruption—it sharpens inside it. It’s built for speed, volatility, and transformation. Pressure becomes insight. Crisis becomes advantage. The system learns and evolves without waiting for permission.

5. Strategic Centralization with Operational Flexibility

Power and principles are centralized. Execution is context-sensitive. This ensures clarity without bureaucracy. The result: speed of action, consistency of trust, and agility across geographies or divisions.

What This Model Delivers

The HR Power Model™ is already producing results inside progressive organizations:

• Trusted, high-velocity decision-making

• Strategic authority for CHROs—not just service alignment

• Cultures that scale under pressure

• Structures that improve through volatility

• Retention of top talent and elimination of quiet dysfunction

This is HR as a system of power—not a cost center.

CHROs Can No Longer Interpret Strategy. They Must Architect It.

The highest-performing companies of the next decade won’t just fix HR.
They’ll replace the architecture it was built on.

They’ll give CHROs system ownership, not symbolic alignment.
They’ll demand design authority, not just program delivery.
And they’ll measure HR’s effectiveness by speed, trust, and performance at scale.

This is not optional.
It is structural.

Book Your Executive Briefing

This is not a webinar. It is a 60-minute private redesign session for CHROs and CEOs ready to lead beyond legacy.

You’ll receive:

• A system diagnostic on where the Ulrich model is quietly eroding trust and performance

• A blueprint for implementing the HR Power Model™—adapted to your structure and scale

• Strategic clarity on what to dismantle, what to build, and how to accelerate the transition

If your HR system can’t grow stronger under pressure—it’s already failing.
Book your Executive Briefing now.

Book Your Executive Briefing