Arguably the most valuable seminars offered at the annual Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development conference in Harrogate last month focused on the opportunities open to HR to make a decisive difference in business — in particular, by building and sustaining employer brand, talent management and helping companies develop entrepreneurial leadership.

The underlying message of it all? No surprises here — the most important element in any business is the people, which has been the constant battle cry of recruiters and HR professionals alike.

However, the message experienced a revitalisation at this year's CIPD conference, the highlight of UK HR professionals' calendar year, because the emphasis had been redirected on approaches to making a strategic difference instead of simply that they could and should.

HR can even have an impact on the degree to which a business can innovate, as speakers pointed out. "The time you need to be innovative is before you need innovation," said Professor Rita Gunther McGrath of Columbia Business School in New York City.

Entrepreneurial leaders share five key practices, she said. They specify an attractive scope, clear paths for new ventures, create organisational commitment to pursuing opportunities, create an entrepreneurial climate and prune projects and businesses, but capture value from them.

That means that entrepreneurial business failures should not necessarily be feared. "Fail fast, fail cheap, move on," McGrath told her large audience. Lessons learned from failures can be valuable, and failures can sometimes be redirected into success, she added.

Business leaders who think their companies should innovate in new products or practices should put innovation high on their agenda, give innovative projects a simon dewhurst photography"disproportionate" amount of attention and not delegate projects to the average worker. "Winning companies put their best people on opportunities," she said.

HR can benefit from more creative thinking, particularly when it comes to building and sustaining an employer brand. Speaker Glyn House of noodle bar chain Wagamama exemplifies the HR professional who operates on a strategic level within a business, because he is not only the company's director of HR and training, but is also responsible for marketing and for all UK restaurant operations.

House, who shared the podium with easyJet people director Mike Campbell, urged his audience to be able to articulate and understand their employment brands in the same way that marketing professionals must understand a business's customers. An employment brand can include everything from the distance from home the job is, the company's consumer brand, to how appraisals are carried out, to what people think when workers tell them where they work.

HR personnel and recruiters must keep such points in mind to drive businesses forward, he said. And he reminded the audience: attracting and retaining talent is the most important, and most strategic, contribution they can make.