J&J's Longtime CHRO: HR is about Value Creation | Peter Fasolo

Peter Fasolo, Johnson & Johnson's longtime CHRO, believes HR is not about HR. It is about linking people practices to the value a company is trying to create. That belief shaped how he built J&J's people data science team, reorganized the HR function, and ran two CEO successions. Today Peter is a Senior Advisor at TowerBrook, where he leads the firm's human resources practice, and a Professor of the Practice at Boston University's Institute for Leadership and Work, which he previously directed. He spent 14 years leading HR at Johnson & Johnson, and before that was one of the first chief talent officers in private equity, building the talent function at KKR. Below the Surface is a show about how the best companies build their teams, hosted by Joelle Emerson, co-founder and CEO of Paradigm. Joelle and Peter get into: 1. How J&J's Credo guides leaders through real trade-offs, and why every paragraph is linked by the word "and" 2. Building a people data science team that tied hiring, pay, training, and manager data to business outcomes 3. What the data showed about college hires versus experienced hires, and what actually drove turnover 4. Why he moved much of HR into global shared services, and how to lead a transformation that size without going it alone 5. What a well-run CEO succession looks like, from painting the future to the board's final decision 6. What private equity taught him about focusing HR on value creation 7. How CHROs earn a seat in strategy formation, and the story they should be telling employees about AI **Chapters:** 00:00 Meet Peter Fasolo 01:24 J&J's Credo and the power of "and" 04:13 When the Credo shapes a hard decision 08:03 Building a people data science team 11:45 Why college hires outperform after 18 months 13:43 What actually drives turnover 16:53 Moving HR into global shared services 21:16 How to lead a major HR transformation 25:01 What a well-run CEO succession looks like 29:43 What private equity taught him about HR 33:31 How CHROs earn a seat in strategy 37:56 The AI story CHROs should be telling 42:17 Lightning round 45:27 Closing thoughts **Show Links:** - Follow Peter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-fasolo/ - Follow Joelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelle-emerson-4a24225/ - Follow Joelle on X: https://x.com/joelle\_emerson - Learn more about Johnson & Johnson: https://www.jnj.com - Learn more about Surface: https://surface.ai - Explore All episodes: https://surface.ai/podcast - Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/below-the-surface/id1896941268 - Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033AK9SGqJCL9HLx7dE7bn