1. In what ways have the different forms of capital contributed to the success of Mother? 

2. Explain the role of people management practices in supporting these forms of capital. 

3. What risks and problems might Mother encounter in the future in the people management area and how might these be overcome? 

This case provides an example of the potential contribution that HRM can make to a medium-sized creative organization. In particular, it traces the links amongst various forms of capital (human, social and organizational) and the creation of valuable outputs as summarised in Figure 1 (Swart, 2006). This example is also representative of professional service firms more generally because of the role played by clients. Like many other creative and innovative organizations, Mother has a set of assets (human, social and organizational capital) and the task is to convert these into products and services which have value in the marketplace. HR practices can play a key role in this conversion process. Kinnie et al. (2006) include an extensive discussion of these issues. Useful sectoral references include Florida and Goodnight (2005), Grabher (2002) and Hackley (2000).