Human Resource Strategy Focusing more on the people and putting their needs and wants first is one of the most essential contributors to success of an organization. Among the toughest challenges being faced by human resources (HR) executives today is the development of effective and efficient yet at the same time powerful business solutions that would focus more on the business by keeping the concerned people in perspective. However, some feel that the role being played by HR executives in the achievement of such objectives is still not very clear (Deloitte).

Companies that have effective HR have the ability to attract and retain employees who are qualified and motivated to perform. Such human resources help the companies to obtain more profits, have lower employee turnover, have lower costs of production, have higher quality of products, and have more rapid implementation and acceptance of corporate strategies (Schuler and MacMillan).

Two companies, Goldman Sachs, Inc. And Whole Foods Market (WFM) will be discussed in this paper. Goldman Sachs, Inc. is among the largest companies that offer banking services. Whole Foods Market (WFM) is a world famous chain of supermarkets known for its organic and natural products. Both these companies will be compared and contrasted in this paper with regards to their size, services and products, regulatory/economic environments, and their customer base.

We will be explaining the beliefs, mission and vision statements, and values as well as business competencies of these organizations. Furthermore, we will be suggesting some HR strategies for these firms to become more competitive in the market. Finally, a conclusion and references will be given in the end.

2. Whole Food Market

It was in 1980 that in Austin, Texas the Whole Foods Market® was started by John Mackey -- the present CEO of the company -- who merged his store with 'Safer Way' and 'Natural Grocery. Safer Way was owned by his girlfriend Rene Lawson whereas Mark Skiles and Craig Weller were the owners of Natural Grocery. Today, the biggest supermarket retailer of organic and natural products and food items in the world is Whole Foods Market (Conway).

2.1 Size

In September of 2008 there were 264 stores of the Whole Foods Market in the United States (U.S.), five in the United Kingdom (UK) and six in Canada. There aren't a lot of companies that have the kind of loyalty and following that Whole Foods has among the media and its customers. If Whole Foods is typed in Google there will be more than 3.5 million hits, whereas John Mackey would get more than 100,000 hits. On average the corporate website of the company is visited more than 50,000 times each day. The projected sales of the company for 2009 were in excess of $8 billion and by 2010 the company wanted the sales to go up to $12 billion. There are 275 stores of the Whole Foods and more than 50,000 team members (Harbin and Humphrey).

2.2 Products and services

The leading supermarket providing its customers with organic and natural foods is Whole Foods Market (Harbin and Humphrey). Following are some of their products:

Prepared Foods

Meat

Grocery, which includes frozen, dry goods, general merchandise and dairy.

Seafood

Specialty that includes beer, wine and cheese (Whole Foods Market).

2.3 Customers

The customers of whole foods market are diverse and multicultural. The majority of these people are working parents between the ages of 30-50 years. Female customers are in the majority. Most of the WFM customers have college degrees, and are employed through which they earn mid-to-high level incomes. Many of the WFM customers are fitness- and health-conscious people who care about the health of their children, their own health, and the 'environment'. They live in the suburbs or the city. Many of the WFM customers are always on the lookout for a place where they can shop for all their essentials as they have very busy lives (May).

2.4 Mission, Vision, values and core business practices

Core Values

Selling the organic and natural products of the HIGHEST QUALITY

DELIGHTING and SATISFYING customers

Providing support to the team members' EXCELLENCE and HAPPINESS

Creating WEALTH with the help of growth and profits

Taking care of the environment and COMMUNITIES

Forming continuous WIN-WIN PARTNERSHIPS with suppliers

Promoting the stakeholders health with the help of "HEALTHY EATING EDUCATION-- (Whole Foods Market, Inc.)

Mission

Whole Foods Company and Whole Foods Markets' mission statement starts with their motto:

"Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet"

The motto is defined and explained by the Whole Foods:

"In the food business Whole Foods Market is an energetic leader. Our company is mission-driven and we strive to set high excellence standards for other food retailers as well. High standards are a part of all the traits of our organization. At the Whole Foods Markets quality is a state of mind." (Whole...

We measure the success of our vision's fulfillment by the level of satisfaction of our customers, the happiness and excellence of our team members, return on investment and the betterment of our environment and community (Gupta)."
2.5 Possible HR strategies

Investing in employee training.

Internal system of promotion(s) that will allow the company to have employees with longer tenures; this will ultimately result in a workforce that will have a lot of knowledge and experience.

Paying the employees relatively more as, this will make them feel more valued by the company. (Wright).

2.6 How recommended HR strategies will promote a competitive advantage

There needs to be perfect alignment between the business and HR strategy of the company in order for the HR practices to be able to build motivation and skills of the employees in such a way that they would add to the success of the business (Wright). With the help of employee training the workers will become more knowledgeable and will be able to perform their tasks in better ways. Also, by increasing the working tenures of the staff the company will have experienced people working for it which will ultimately make it more competitive. Getting higher pays increases the job satisfaction and retention of employees which will further increase the number of experienced employees.

3. Goldman Sachs

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is one of the top investment management, securities and global investment banking firms. This firm provides various financial services to diverse and influential clients that include governments, corporations, high-net-worth individuals and financial institutions. It was in 1869 that the firm was founded; it has its offices in all the significant financial centers in the world and its headquarters is located in New York (Goldman Sachs).

3.1 Size

$34.53 billion were reported by the company in net revenues with $8.48 billion in net earnings on 31st of December, 2014 (The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.). There are 32,900 people employed by the firm with $743,112 of average income in about 170 locations in more than 30 countries (The Statistics Portal).

3.2 Products and services

Following are the services offered by Goldman Sachs:

Investment and lending

Investment banking

Investment management

Institutional Client Services

Real estate (The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.).

3.3 Customers

There are three other types of clients of Goldman Sachs. In his tell-all by the name 'Why I Left' Greg Smith writes that people became more aggressive at Goldman. The fiduciary responsibility was diminishing and relationships transformed for the worse. Following are the types of clients the company catered to:

Large institutional investors and hedge funds that had a lot of resources

Charities

Large pension funds and asset managers with outdated systems and strong influences

3.4 Mission, Vision, values and core business practices

Mission

Business principles are used by Goldman Sachs Group instead of a vision or mission statement:

"1. The interests of our clients comes first. We know from experience that serving the clients well ultimately result in the success of the firm.

2. Reputation, people and capital are out assets. Reputation is the hardest to rebuild. We are committed to fulfilling the ethical principles, rules and laws which govern us. (Makingafortune)

3.5 Possible HR strategy

Training with focus on high knowledge intensity

Hiring talented and diverse people

Leadership (Wright).

3.6 How recommended HR strategies will promote a competitive advantage

A high level of discretion from employees is very important in high-level, knowledge intensive and professional services such as Goldman Sachs (Wright). In business of such kind one of the biggest motivator for the staff is the possibility of getting to a leadership position. Therefore, employees will be motivated to work to the best of their abilities when they will be rewarded accordingly.

Conclusion

There are a number of ways through which companies can gain competitive advantage as stated by MacMillan (1983). Among these ways is HR which is often overlooked by the firms. There are 2 main methods in which companies are able to achieve competitive advantages with the help of HR. First, is through helping themselves and the second is through helping others. Therefore, HR policies should be considered not just in implementation stage but also in strategy formulation stage (Schuler and MacMillan).

It is also important to put such HR policies in place that allow the employees to work at the most optimum levels by improving their behaviors, skills and attitudes along with decreasing the turnover as,…