What does it really take to develop and sustain Human Capital? It is the Individual growth we are talking about when addressing the Human Capital issues; where Individual Growth contributes to the growth of the organization, society and / or nation. Individual growth needs to be addressed from all the three dimensions; Personal, Professional and Emotional. Whose primary concern is it therefore, to facilitate and address such growth? Without a doubt, it is the individual themselves. While most perspectives floating around today are mostly around the concept of human capital from a business enterprise perspective, this is restricted to the context of organizational performance. It is proven scientifically that performance at work is productive only when it is balanced emotionally between the professional and personal life.

From family to society to organization and nation, there is a contribution in our lives from diverse sources. Individuals need to address the context of each of the dimensions (Personal, Professional and Emotional) in relation with the contributing sources and shape their aspirations and expectations for growth. While the individuals are themselves accountable for their growth, the organizations and others with the means as well as the distribution and reach, can provide individuals access to mechanisms to manage the rapid cycles of growth. This provision for mechanisms should facilitate individual growth overcoming the ever increasing demands on resource availability and its consequent constraints.

The explicit and implicit contract here is the growth of talent and a productive society, where the organization benefits for its specific contexts and the individual succeeds in building not only a successful career but also a more rewarding society. The premise of a Public Sector Enterprise may have been embedded in this philosophy and would have succeeded without its related isms. It is time to correct the interpretation of such enterprise which may have had more to do with political socialism than socialistic welfare. Let then organizations contribute to their peoples enterprise before contributing to charity. While organizations would undoubtedly benefit from the agenda for creating wealth in society, it would also allow government to seek and tap additional sources of revenue, when individual growth is repetitively rapid; fueled by the engine of wealth creation.

The essence of Human Capital Management is Investment in Growth as opposed to the traditional organizational approach of Investment for Growth. The former takes a proactive approach to developing capabilities and managing change that will service growth requirements while the latter takes a reactive response to developing capabilities based on the priorities of pre-determined growth strategies which is not in consonance with emerging change requirements. This is the area that deserves a missionary zeal on the part of an organization in pursuing capabilities development as a cause to renew and sustain growth continuously. HCM will not meet the requirements of tactical planning that looks for quick ROIs only. It will address the sustenance and consistency of Enterprise Performance, where the present is equally important as the immediate and long term future.