Lateral hiring is at record levels. Business cases are more rigorous than they have ever been, and the investment in finding and landing senior talent has never been higher. And yet integration outcomes remain stubbornly inconsistent. The hire is getting more sophisticated but what happens next often is not.

For a long time, the war for talent was a skills race. Which candidate had done the launch, led the transformation, shipped the product. The logic was simple: find the person who has already done the thing you need done. That logic no longer holds.

Ask most HR leaders to describe strategic workforce planning and you'll get a familiar answer: forecasting headcount, modelling future demand, identifying gaps.