“Celebrating the thinkers and trailblazers who shaped how India understands people, leadership, and the future of work.”

Adil Malia A Maverick HR Thinker Who Reframed Talent as Enterprise Capital

Compiled using ChatGPT by Dr. Vishal Verma

Profile Snapshot

Adil Malia is a renowned HR strategist, author, and CEO of The FiRM, with earlier leadership roles as Group President HR at the Essar Group. Known for his unconventional thinking, he blends business strategy, people economics, and organizational design into sharp, outcome-driven HR leadership.

Contribution

He redefined HR as a business discipline by introducing concepts such as talent capital, workforce segmentation, and value-based people strategy. Through corporate leadership, consulting, and authorship, he challenged traditional HR boundaries and positioned people decisions as core to enterprise value creation.

What We Learn From Him & Why We Should Follow Him

Adil Malia teaches us to think of HR not as a support function but as a creator of enterprise value. His work pushes HR professionals to adopt business language, economic reasoning, and strategic clarity while dealing with people systems. He encourages courage in challenging legacy practices and advocates sharp alignment between talent, strategy, and outcomes. Following his thinking helps HR leaders move beyond comfort zones and engage deeply with business realities. His career reminds us that HR gains credibility when it demonstrates measurable impact, intellectual rigor, and the confidence to rethink how organizations invest in and deploy human capital.