HR Transformation Through the Lens of Market Expansion & Growth

In my previous piece, I highlighted that HR transformation is being driven by six key business factors that demand evolution:

• Market Expansion & Growth

• Flexible Work as a Standard

• Rejection of Traditional Corporate Culture

• Increased Focus on Employee Well-Being

• Redefinition of Career Growth

• Technology-Driven Workforce Evolution

In this piece, I want to focus specifically on market expansion and growth because, as organizations pursue new markets, whether through geographic reach, emerging service lines, or evolving customer demographics, the pressure on the workforce intensifies. It’s no longer enough to scale what has always worked; success today demands that organizations build something different, and build it fast.

That difference is powered by people, specifically, by three essential attributes:

• Diversity of Thought

• Agility in Skill

• Alignment in Purpose

Together, these qualities form the foundation of what I call an Adaptable Transformative Culture (ATC), a concept I’ve coined that highlights the new pivot in cultural transformation. ATC is a culture that not only withstands disruption but leverages it to evolve, grow, and lead. It’s the kind of culture that enables organizations to expand with intentionality, navigate complexity with resilience, and respond to change with purpose.

The Pillars of Adaptable Transformative Culture

1. Diversity of Thought

As companies expand into unfamiliar territories, new regions, industries, or demographics, they require fresh perspectives to navigate the nuances. Diverse teams challenge group-think, uncover blind spots, and bring a richer understanding of customer needs. Managing diverse thinking is a concept and skill all in its own realm.

When entering new markets, especially those with unique cultural, linguistic, or social dynamics, having a workforce that reflects and understands those differences isn’t a “nice to have”, it’s a strategic necessity.

In an Adaptable Transformative Culture, diversity isn’t just represented; instead, it’s activated. It becomes the lens through which products are built, services are delivered, and communities are engaged.

2. Agility in Skill

Market expansion necessitates speed, adaptability, and the ability to pivot quickly, particularly in response to evolving customer demands or shifting regulatory environments.

A workforce that is agile in skill can stretch beyond fixed roles. It can adopt new tools, deliver through new channels, and rise to new challenges without disruption.

An Adaptable Transformative Culture fosters this agility by investing in reskilling, internal mobility, and cross-functional growth, enabling talent to move with the business, not behind it.

3. Alignment in Purpose

Alignment to purpose in central to any culture. As organizations grow, complexity increases. Teams spread across regions, business units, and functions must stay connected not just by process, but by purpose.

Purpose becomes the glue in an adaptable culture. It gives employees a reason to adapt, a reason to stay engaged, and a reason to lead—even when strategy shifts or circumstances change.

When purpose is clear and shared, every employee becomes a brand ambassador, every market entry becomes intentional, and every challenge becomes an opportunity to deliver on the mission.

These three attributes — diverse in thought, agile in skill, and aligned in purpose — are the building blocks of an Adaptable Transformative Culture. And cultivating them at scale is not a side project; it is the strategic responsibility of HR.

As we move deeper into this piece, I’ll explore how HR steps into this role. Not just by supporting market expansion, but enabling it as a driver of sustainable growth.

Why Market Growth Demands a New HR Model

Consider a U.S.-based retail brand experiencing rapid expansion. After early success in suburban markets, it begins opening stores in urban centers, only to face declining engagement, high turnover, and inconsistent performance.

What worked before, standardized training, centralized hiring, uniform policies, suddenly becomes a constraint. The issue isn’t scale. It’s the lack of local nuance.

This is where HR must evolve from a back-office function into a strategic growth enabler. Success in new markets requires hyper-local workforce strategies that reflect local community values, regulatory environments, and the lived experiences of employees.

And market expansion isn’t always limited to geography. A healthcare organization entering telemedicine, for instance, must attract digital-native clinicians and data professionals, while retraining traditional staff for virtual care delivery. A workforce built solely for brick-and-mortar no longer meets the moment.

In both cases, HR must go beyond recruitment, designing reskilling programs, leadership development pathways, and mobility frameworks that support growth across every layer of the business.

Case Study: CVS Health – HR at the Heart of a National Response

A powerful example of HR leading in a moment of high-stakes growth comes from my time supporting CVS Health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the height of the crisis, the federal government tasked CVS with launching a nationwide COVID-19 testing initiative and preparing to administer vaccines across the U.S., an unprecedented expansion of services into underserved and historically marginalized communities.

At the core of CVS’s success was HR.

The HR team reimagined how talent strategy could serve public health outcomes, scaling local hiring, building diverse pipelines, and embedding cultural fluency into frontline operations. This wasn’t about simply filling roles. It was about rebuilding trust and delivering care in a way that resonated with the community at a deeper level.

• Over 55 million COVID tests and 59 million vaccines were administered

• More than 40,000 frontline roles were filled by diverse, community-connected talent

• The company saw record revenue growth, aligned with inclusive deployment and brand trust

I was fortunate to serve as a strategic partner during this effort, helping shape the company’s approach to workforce transformation, equity integration, and community engagement. My focus was aligning business strategy with HR innovation, ensuring that CVS didn’t just respond to the crisis, but built lasting infrastructure for inclusive growth.

It was a defining moment that proved unequivocally: people strategy is growth strategy, and HR is the catalyst.

(Download the CVS Health Market Expansion & Growth Case Study)

From Scaling to Sustaining: The Role of Adaptable Culture

This is the very essence of building an Adaptable Transformative Culture.

Growth reveals the limits of rigid, outdated HR models. Traditional systems, such as linear career ladders, annual performance reviews, and homogeneous leadership pipelines often collapse under the weight of scale.

In large enterprises, expansion brings complexity. Silos form. Transformation slows. While headquarters may be pushing digital initiatives, frontline teams are still operating in analog. The result? Inconsistent execution and cultural fragmentation.

Smaller organizations, on the other hand, tend to adapt more quickly. With flatter structures and closer ties between leadership and employees, they can pivot more quickly, experiment with new models, and align their culture with evolving business needs in real-time.

But agility isn’t just for the small and scrappy. Larger organizations can, and must adapt by decentralizing decision-making, empowering HR business partners at the local level, and embedding cultural transformation into broader workforce strategies.

From Support Function to Strategic Driver

To thrive in this new era, HR must shed its traditional view as a compliance or administrative function. Instead, it must step fully into its role as a strategic driver of growth, innovation, and resilience.

HR transformation isn’t just about new tools or policies. It’s about reimagining how organizations attract, develop, and empower talent in ways that are responsive, equitable, and sustainable. It’s about building cultures that don’t resist change but adapt to it.

And that transformation must go beyond operations; it must be cultural.

Because culture isn’t what’s written in a handbook, culture is how people behave when no one is watching.