We are obsessed with high-performance organizations.

These companies are the role models of the business community, representing what most organizations aspire to be. They are agile, innovative, and consistently achieve -and outperform - competitors for extended periods of time. We want to know what makes them tick.

The People-Profit Chain

What are the five domains?

i4cp adds science to the art of HR. Decades of our research has revealed that high-performance organizations excel in five key human capital areas. Our Five Domains of High-Performance model is grounded in those key areas, providing a roadmap that top organizations rely on for consistent excellence. In each of these domains, we are constantly discovering next practices that enhance the value of the people function by prioritizing workforce initiatives that realize greater business impact.

Membership in i4cp’s network provides organizations with the research, peers, tools, and data to maximize business impact across the five domains of high performance.

The key components

  1. Market – Is the organization prepared to anticipate, adapt, and act on the demands and changes in the market?
  2. Strategy – Are strategies aligned with markets? More importantly, is the organization aligned to ensure the execution of those strategies?
  3. Culture – Does the organization’s culture enable the workforce to execute the strategy at the speed the business requires?
  4. Leadership – Do leaders (at all levels) exemplify the behaviors that support the culture and allow the workforce to execute the strategy?
  5. Talent – Can the organization recruit, develop, and retain the right talent to maintain a competitive advantage and achieve desired business outcomes?

Our research approach

We have been studying the people practices of high-performance organizations for decades. We focus on organizations that excel in four key areas:

  • Market share
  • Revenue growth
  • Profitability
  • Customer satisfaction

We then compare their human capital practices to those of low-performance organizations. There is almost always a marked difference.

The HR profession needs a standard—a universal framework that ties an HR strategy to business results. That standard is i4cp's People-Profit Chain.
Kurt Fischer
Former CHRO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
If what we want is to prove our worth, the People-Profit Chain provides incredible power. The power of proof.
John Coné
Former CLO, Dell Computers
Many people focus on just the “art” of HR and I think i4cp's People-Profit Chain is adding more science to the practice of HR, which helps more of our colleagues understand our impact to market value and performance. This information helps us prioritize actions that yield the greatest impact for the effort.
CHRO, Fortune 100 Corporation