Horst Gallo
Chief People Officer
Orion Innovation
Episode 398
Stop Admin, Start Leading: How HR Becomes a Strategic Business Powerhouse with AI
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleOctober 23, 2024 · 11:50
Thesis
“Horst Gallo believes that HR professionals must evolve into business leaders first, deeply understanding revenue and operations, and strategically leverage technology like AI to place HR at the center of organizational influence and drive meaningful change amidst constant transformation.”
Show notes
Horst Gallo's most useful piece of career advice came from a mentor when he was a newly minted executive, overwhelmed and feeling controlled by everyone else's agenda: "You're missing control. You need to find a way to actually make decisions yourself, even if it means you just pretend to make decisions." He left at 5 PM that day. And it worked. That's how he describes developing agency in an executive role—pragmatically and without apology.
Gallo, who started his career accidentally in IBM's HR service center in London after transitioning from insurance, has spent 25 years building a global HR career that now anchors in a core conviction: HR professionals should be business leaders first, and then HR specialists. The professionals who understand revenue generation, operational constraints, and financial drivers before they layer in HR expertise have credibility that HR-only practitioners struggle to build. That perspective shapes how he's deploying AI at Orion Innovation—not as a replacement for judgment, but as a tool that handles administrative work and gives HR more capacity to act like the business function it aspires to be.
His framing on generative AI is specific: tools like Microsoft Copilot and Atlas Copilot for HR are already enabling personalization at scale—the tension between customized employee experience and operational efficiency that has been HR's defining challenge for years. His parting principle is a classic: "The only constant is change. Getting comfortable with change, learning, having a growth mindset—the areas where I learned the most were always the areas I didn't want to go in the first place."
- Business leaders first, HR specialists second: why understanding revenue and operations is the foundation of HR credibility
- Generative AI for HR: how tools like Atlas Copilot and Microsoft Copilot are enabling personalization at scale
- Reclaiming agency in executive roles: the practical psychology of managing an overwhelmed schedule without losing your own agenda
- Trust and delegation in cross-cultural leadership: what working across China, Europe, and the US teaches you about letting go
- The HR function's place in the organization: moving from support role to center of organizational influence
- Growth mindset in practice: why the most formative career lessons always come from the assignments you least wanted to take
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What you'll take away
- 1HR professionals should prioritize understanding business operations and revenue generation to act as effective business leaders.
- 2Leveraging new technologies, especially generative AI (like Atlas Copilot), is crucial for automating administrative tasks and focusing on strategic HR functions.
- 3Leaders must learn to delegate and trust their teams, especially when navigating diverse cultural contexts, and be open to different approaches.
- 4Gaining control over one's own agenda, even symbolically (e.g., leaving at 5 PM), can significantly reduce feeling overwhelmed in demanding executive roles.
- 5Embracing continuous learning and a growth mindset, especially in areas outside one's comfort zone, is essential for navigating constant change in HR.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Horst argues that HR professionals should be 'business leaders first' and then specialize in HR, emphasizing that many HR folks focus too much solely on the 'people aspect' without a deep understanding of business operations and revenue generation.
In Horst's words
“I think one of the major things what I see is, and this is not new, it's this balance between on one side customization, specialization, really getting down to personalization for the employee on one side, but on the other side, of course, also driving scale and actually doing that at a very different kind of level around that.”
This highlights a core tension in modern HR that technology aims to resolve by enabling both personalization and scale.
“The biggest trend now for me is generative AI, using that in the way going forward. And of course you have many tools actually out there which are helping you... a Copilot for HR which is helping you. This is a company called Atlas Copilot.”
Directly identifies generative AI and a specific tool (Atlas Copilot) as a significant and immediate trend transforming HR functions.
“Look, what you're missing is control. You're driven by somebody else's agenda... you need to find a way to actually make decisions yourself, even if it means that you just pretend to make decisions.”
Offers a practical, psychological strategy for managing executive overwhelm and reclaiming personal agency amidst demanding schedules.
“Not accepting that you know everything or you don't have to accept everything. You don't have to know everything. You can ask questions. You have a team normally who's actually very willing to do that.”
Emphasizes the importance of humility, delegation, and leveraging team expertise, especially when navigating diverse cultural or operational contexts.
“HR folks are business leaders first, and then of course they specialize maybe in HR.”
This is his core contrarian take, advocating for HR professionals to prioritize a deep understanding of business operations and financial drivers.
“The only thing which is constant is change. And therefore, of course, actually getting comfortable with change, learning, having a growth mindset, trying to do things differently.”
Provides a concise summary of the essential mindset required for success in the continuously evolving HR and business landscape.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Overwhelmed executives struggling with excessive workload and lack of private life due to being driven by others' agendas (4:49).
- •Difficulty balancing the need for personalized employee experiences with the imperative to drive scale across an organization (1:59).
- •Challenges for HR leaders in rapidly adapting to and understanding diverse cultural norms and expectations in global roles (4:49).
- •HR professionals often lacking a deep understanding of core business operations, revenue generation, and financial implications (9:10).
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Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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