Foulkes (1975) memprediksi bahwa peran SDM dari waktu ke waktu akan semakin strategis dengan ucapan berikut:

“For many years it has been said that capital is the bottleneck for a developing industry. I don’t think this any longer holds true. I think it’s the work force and the company’s inability to recruit and maintain a good work force that does constitute the bottleneck for production. … I think this will hold true even more in the future.”[

Tidak heran jika sekarang untuk SDM yang handal digunakan terminologi human capital yang semakin santer kita dengar.