Majed Asiri
Chief Human Resources Officer, Naval Group Arabia
1. What qualities do you consider essential for effective leadership in today’s workplace?
Effective leadership today requires much more than authority or technical expertise. It demands clarity of purpose, adaptability, empathy, courage and accountability. Throughout my career, I have learned that people do not simply follow positions—they follow leaders they trust.
That trust is built when leaders communicate openly, listen genuinely, make difficult decisions fairly and demonstrate consistency between what they say and what they do. Leaders must also be commercially aware. People leadership cannot be separated from business leadership. Whether we are discussing talent, culture, transformation or performance, leaders must understand how these areas contribute to organizational strategy and long-term sustainability. In today’s rapidly changing environment, I would add another essential quality: a willingness to keep learning. The strongest leaders are not those who believe they have all the answers, but those who create an environment where people feel empowered to challenge assumptions, contribute ideas and grow together. Ultimately, I believe leadership should be measured not only by the results we deliver today, but also by the capability, confidence and future leaders we leave behind.
2. What can leaders do to ensure their workforce remains adaptable in a rapidly changing environment?
Adaptability cannot be developed through training alone. It must become part of an organization’s culture, leadership behaviour, workforce strategy and operating model. Leaders must first understand the capabilities their organization will require in the future, identify existing gaps and then invest deliberately in reskilling, knowledge transfer, succession planning and internal mobility. I have seen the importance of this particularly within the defence sector, where specialized technical capabilities can take years to develop. One initiative I am especially proud of involved supporting the structured transfer of knowledge from experienced international experts to junior Saudi talent across more than ten technical and engineering specializations. The objective was not simply to fill today’s positions, but to build sustainable local capability for the future. That experience reinforced an important principle for me: workforce localization should not be approached as replacing one employee with another. It should be about transferring capability, developing talent and creating sustainable expertise. Organizations that approach workforce planning in this way become more resilient because their knowledge becomes institutional rather than dependent on particular individuals. When this is combined with continuous learning, technology, data-driven workforce planning and leaders who encourage people to embrace change, adaptability becomes an organizational capability rather than merely a reaction to disruption.
3. How can HR leaders align people strategies more effectively with organizational goals?
The starting point is simple: HR must understand the business before designing its people strategy. HR leaders need to understand where the organization is going, how it creates value, which capabilities it will require, where its risks lie and what could prevent its strategy from being executed successfully. Only then can business priorities be translated into meaningful workforce priorities. My perspective has evolved considerably through serving not only in senior HR positions, but also in broader executive and governance roles. When you view an organization through both a CHRO and a business leadership lens, the conversation changes. Workforce planning becomes capacity planning. Succession becomes business continuity. Engagement becomes a performance enabler. Leadership development becomes an investment in the organization’s future capability. This is where I believe modern HR creates its greatest value. The CHRO should therefore be at the table while business strategy is being developed—not brought in afterward simply to implement its people-related implications. HR should provide leadership with evidence-based insights into organizational capability, critical talent, succession risk, productivity, culture, workforce costs and future skills. For me, the ultimate measure of an HR strategy is not how sophisticated its programs appear. It is whether the business is stronger because of them.
4. What approaches have you found most effective for developing the next generation of leaders?
I believe leadership development begins with opportunity and accountability—not only with classroom-based programs. Organizations need a disciplined succession process that identifies critical positions, assesses potential objectively, creates meaningful development plans and gives high-potential employees exposure to increasingly complex responsibilities. Throughout my HR leadership career, I have worked extensively with succession planning, talent mapping, leadership pipelines, workforce localization and capability development. One lesson has remained consistent: potential develops fastest when people are trusted with real responsibility while receiving the appropriate coaching and support. Mentoring, cross-functional assignments, exposure to senior leadership, international collaboration, project leadership and structured knowledge transfer can therefore be just as important as formal leadership programs. In Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030 presents a significant opportunity to accelerate the development of national leadership and specialist capabilities. However, localization must remain connected to capability. Success should not be measured only by the number of positions localized, but also by whether we are developing professionals who can become experts, executives and mentors to the generations that follow them. For me, the strongest succession strategy is one that allows an organization to say with confidence: our future leaders are already being developed within the business.
5. What advice would you share with senior HR and people leaders navigating the future of work?
My advice would be: do not allow HR to become disconnected from the business it is there to serve.
The future of work will continue to be shaped by artificial intelligence, automation, demographic change, evolving workforce expectations, skills shortages and new models of employment. HR leaders certainly need to understand these developments, but following trends should never become the objective in itself.
Our responsibility is to determine what these changes mean for our particular organization, workforce, customers and strategy.
I believe the CHRO of the future must increasingly operate as a business executive with deep human-capital expertise. This means understanding strategy, financial implications, technology, organizational risk, governance, productivity and operations alongside the traditional HR disciplines.
At the same time, we must never lose sight of the human element. Technology can provide better data, automate processes and increasingly support decision-making, but leadership will continue to depend on trust, judgement, communication, purpose and genuine human connection.
My final advice to HR leaders would therefore be: stay close to the business, stay close to your people and remain curious. Challenge established practices when they no longer create value. Use data to improve decisions, invest in capabilities before they become shortages and always develop successors.
The future of HR will not be defined by how many processes we manage. It will be defined by how effectively we help organizations and people succeed together.
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