Culture has become one of the most familiar words in business—and one of the least precisely understood. Every organisation claims to have one. Many invest heavily in shaping it. Few can explain how it actually drives performance. That gap is exactly where Stan Slap begins his return to the HR World Summit in Porto on May 26–27
Speaking from San Francisco ahead of the event, Slap makes it clear that he is not interested in repeating well-worn arguments about why “good culture” matters. The business world has heard those arguments before. What it has not fully absorbed is how culture functions as a command tool—one with unmatched influence when properly understood.
For more than three decades, across 44 countries, Slap has worked with demanding global organisations to translate culture into tangible performance outcomes. His work has influenced billions of dollars in measurable business results. The reason, he argues, is simple: culture is not abstract. It is predictable. Its motives do not change. And once those motives are understood, culture becomes manageable rather than mystical.
This perspective has profound implications for HR leaders. Too often, culture is treated as something to be nurtured rather than directed—something to inspire rather than align. Slap challenges that assumption by reframing culture as a system that can be assessed, corrected, and mobilised in service of strategy.
Perhaps the most striking element of his upcoming keynote is his focus on what he calls manager culture. While organisations devote enormous attention to employee engagement, the cultural reality of managers is frequently overlooked. Yet managers are the group that translates strategy into daily behaviour. When their motivations are misunderstood or misaligned, even the most carefully designed initiatives fail to deliver.
Slap describes a fundamental problem that sits at the heart of many organisations: companies struggle to get what they need most from their managers, while managers struggle to get what they need from their companies. This tension quietly erodes execution, accountability, and trust. Addressing it, he suggests, is one of the fastest ways to unlock performance without adding complexity.
For HR executives, this insight goes beyond organisational effectiveness. It speaks directly to professional relevance. When HR can ensure genuine commitment—not compliance—from both manager and employee cultures, it strengthens its position at the executive table. Culture stops being a support topic and becomes a strategic asset, one that senior leadership depends on to deliver results.
Yet Slap’s message is not purely commercial. He reminds his audience that culture is ultimately where humans gather in business. Beneath targets, metrics, and transformation programmes lies a shared search for safety and meaning in an uncertain world. Organisations that ignore this human dimension may achieve short-term gains, but they do so at long-term cost.
“If we lose humanity in business, we are doomed,” Slap observes. Preserving it, company by company and culture by culture, is not only good leadership—it is a form of legacy.
This is why his keynote at HR World Summit 2026 is likely to resonate so strongly with senior HR leaders. It does not offer comfort or theory. It offers clarity, responsibility, and a reframing of culture as one of the most powerful tools HR can command.
Stan Slap will take the main stage in Porto alongside global HR leaders and decision-makers from around the world. For those ready to move beyond surface-level culture conversations, his session promises a rare combination of realism, authority, and practical consequence.
Watch Stan’s intro:
