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The HR-IT Merger: Moderna's Bold Move
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Ever wonder what happens when a biotech innovator throws out the traditional organizational playbook? Moderna has made waves by merging their IT and HR departments into a unified "Digital People Organization" — a move that's both fascinating and potentially transformative.
This isn't just administrative reshuffling. It's a strategic response to AI becoming the connective tissue throughout Moderna's operations. From drug discovery to employee onboarding, artificial intelligence permeates their business, blurring traditional boundaries between technology and human capital management. Their extensive partnership with OpenAI has enabled them to deploy advanced systems across scientific innovation and back-office processes alike.
What makes this experiment particularly intriguing is the leadership behind it. Tracy Franklin, Moderna's Chief People and Digital Technology Officer, brings a rare combination of traditional HR expertise and deep technical acumen. This unique profile enables her to bridge cultural and operational differences that might sink similar efforts elsewhere. Coupled with Moderna's mature AI integration and adaptable culture, they've created the perfect conditions for this bold organizational redesign.
Should your company follow suit? Proceed with caution. Moderna's approach works because of their specific context — exceptional AI maturity, the right leadership talent, and a culture built for rapid technological adoption. For most organizations, the value lies not in structural mergers but in fostering meaningful collaboration between IT and HR functions. Success comes not from blindly copying others but from understanding your unique organizational needs and implementing solutions that truly address them.
Join us next week for a special conversation about the power of communication with our guest expert. Have you experienced major organizational restructuring in your workplace? We'd love to hear your stories and insights!
Hey, welcome back. Today I'm looking into a fascinating and, frankly, quite unusual move by a company that's been in the spotlight for innovation Moderna. They've recently made headlines by merging their IT and HR functions, creating a new digital people organization under leadership of their chief human resources officer. It's bold and many would say why? Why are they doing it? What does it mean? And is there something other businesses, particularly those that are growing, should even consider? So let's unpack the why behind Moderna's decision to bring IT and HR together.
Speaker 1:This isn't just a simple organizational shuffle. It's a deep strategic play, heavily influenced by the pervasive use of artificial intelligence. From what I'm seeing, ai isn't just a side project at Moderna. It's deeply embedded across their entire strategic roadmap, from groundbreaking drug discovery right through to their digital marketing efforts. In fact, a conversation about ChatGPT apparently acted as a key catalyst. Their CEO, stéphane Bancel, identified the increasing entanglement of AI in virtually every workplace function and an organizational design. He saw a profound opportunity to completely reimagine how Moderna's technology and its people would interface. They've partnered extensively with OpenAI, deploying advanced AI systems not just for scientific innovation, but significantly for back-office efficiency. We're talking about automation of processes like candidate screening, internal ticketing for employees and even parts of new employee onboarding. In an environment like this, where AI genuinely acts as a connective tissue between systems and people, the decision to unify HR and IT, I believe, makes a lot of sense. For them, it's about building a digital-first approach to human capital, ensuring technology directly facilitates and enhances the entire employee experience.
Speaker 1:But Moderna isn't just taking a leap of faith. Their confidence in this merger is rooted in several unique strengths, particularly their leadership capabilities and organizational maturity. Firstly, moderna has a remarkable culture of deep AI integration and rapid technological adoption. This isn't a company just dabbling in AI. It's fundamental to how they operate. This means they are inherently more adaptable to significant organizational shifts like this. Their leadership is fostered in an environment where they're not afraid to experiment and redefine traditional structures to maximize technological leverage. But a critical and perhaps the most defining factor in their competence lies with the individual leading this charge, tracy Franklin, their Chief People and Digital Technology Officer. Tracy's not your typical CHRO. Her background includes extensive traditional HR expertise, but crucially, she also possesses a strong and deep grasp of the company's broader digital transformation initiatives and its involving AI strategy. She's uniquely positioned, with a technical acumen to lead IT and the people-centric understanding to lead HR. This rare combination of capabilities and a single executive means Moderna has the right leadership in place to drive such a complex integration. This merger, therefore, is built on a unique overlap of strong leadership capability, a high degree of organizational maturity in embracing AI and existing executive talent perfectly suited to tackle this ambitious vision. It's about bringing the who HR and the how IT and AI into a single cohesive strategy driven from the top.
Speaker 1:So what are the potential outcomes for Moderna with this move? Well, if successful, we could see a truly seamless and highly productive employee experience where technology intuitively supports every aspect of everyone's work lives. This integration of digital tools directly into HR workflows can lead to significant operational efficiencies. It could also fundamentally redefine the HR and IT functions, transforming them from traditional support departments into truly strategic partners and driving the core business. This level of alignment allows for faster, more data-informed organizational design, constantly evaluating which tasks are best handled by humans and which by the core business. This level of alignment allows for faster, more data-informed organizational design, constantly evaluating which tasks are best handled by humans and which by AI. Ultimately, this could further solidify Moderna's competitive advantage in attracting and retaining top talent In an increasingly AI-driven world. A company that thoughtfully integrates technology and people at a foundational level offers a compelling proposition for the future workforce.
Speaker 1:So should other companies follow suit? Well, the critical question, especially for any leader of a growing business should your company rush to merge HR and IT? Look, based on this case, I'd say treat carefully. Only do it if you're confident it will solve a specific, identifiable problem with your organization and, crucially, only if you have the right leadership and organizational context. Moderna's decision, while innovative, is deeply situational. It followed some internal restructuring and leadership changes and it's built on a foundation of enterprise-wide AI integration. That is truly exceptional.
Speaker 1:For many businesses, ai adoption is still quite immature and often siloed, and the kind of deep, pervasive integration Moderna has is far from the norm. Consider these challenges Merging IT and HR brings together two departments with vastly different cultures, compliance requirements and before with metrics. The risks of conflicting mindsets or one function overshadowing the other are significant, particularly if you don't have a unique leader like Tracy Franklin with her deep expertise in both domains. We've also seen cautionary tales of organizations rehiring human staff after over-relying on AI for customer service, highlighting that empathy and nuance, especially in HR, are inherently human traits. Organizations rehiring human staff after over-relying on AI for customer service, highlighting that empathy and nuance, especially in HR, are inherently human traits that AI cannot fully replicate.
Speaker 1:Instead of a full structural merger, many companies, particularly in the tech space, have found success with alternate models of fostering collaboration. Think about Spotify's famous squads and tribes models, where autonomous autonomous cross-functional teams are empowered to deliver. While not a direct merger of departments, it's another example of an innovative organizational design aimed at breaking down silos and increasing agility. The core lesson is that, whether through a radical merger like Moderna's, or a flexible cross-functional team model like Spotify's, the goal is always to improve how work gets done and how people collaborate. However, it's important to note that many organizations that tried to blindly emulate the Spotify model ended up struggling significantly. They often lacked Spotify's unique underlying culture, their specific leadership approach or the maturity and agile practices that made the model work for Spotify. Copying a successful model without understanding the unique elements and context that made it work for the original company is a recipe for frustration and inefficiency.
Speaker 1:From my perspective, the focus for most organizations should be on fostering deep collaboration and partnership between IT and HR, rather than a full structural merger. As IT leaders, our role continues to evolve into a strategic, cross-functional one. We need to work closely with our HR leaders to ensure technology enables their people strategically effectively and that AI-driven decisions are transparent, ethical and human-centered. For growing businesses, the immediate value often lies in optimizing existing technology investments, streamlining current processes and ensuring technology spend is clearly aligned with business goals. This gives you the competence and clarity to make smart, tangible improvements that will drive growth, without necessarily needing to redefine your entire organizational structure.
Speaker 1:Moderna's HRIT Fusion is a fascinating experiment, reflecting their specific capabilities, the depth of their AI integration and their willingness to truly experiment. But for most, the future lies not in merging these departments but in aligning them strategically, building strong collaborative relationships with shared goals and ensuring the right balance between human and machine capabilities. Moderna's Digital People organization is a great example of how a company is redefining work in the age of AI, and it's certainly food for thought. But remember, the goal isn't just to mimic what companies do. It's to understand the underlying problems they're solving, assess your own unique context and then apply solutions that truly make sense for your business to achieve sustainable growth. Thanks for tuning in. In next week's episode, I have a very special guest talking about the power of communication.