39752457-October-10

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®

HR PRACTICE

Amara Raja’s

unique people model

PERSONA

Profiling Nathaniel Sasikar,

Vice President - HR, 3M

GLOBAL HR

Cultural compatibility

in M&A transactions

TRAINING

Front line sales

training for impact

HUMAN CAPITALHUMAN CAPITALVol.14 No.5 October 2010realising business strategy through people

CASE

STUDYParody

or paradox

INTERVIEW

Avaya creates

‘Futuremakers’

Canon, Claris and Symphony Services

encourage people to lead irrespective

of formal authority.

Leadingwithout titlesLeadingwithout titlesCanon, Claris and Symphony Services

encourage people to lead irrespective

of formal authority.

HR PRACTICE

10 Building a strong connectThrough its unique and impactful people strategy model,Amara Raja has carved a niche in people practices!

FEATURES

30

Culture assessment in across country deal

Exploring the role of organizational culture and culturalcompatibility in an M&A transaction.

34 FuturemakerIn a conversation with Human Capital, Pamela Craven,Chief Administrative Officer of Avaya reflects on the howAvaya creates its 'Futuremakers' to contribute in buildingits advanced business communications systems whichshapes Avaya's future.

38 Effective front linesales training

Organizations believe in developing their most criticalteam - the front line sales workforce - by imparting theright sales training through effective techniques that arebest in the industry

ContentsOCTOBER 2010 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 5

COVER STORY

22 Jugglingwork and life

Organizations have always had people with titles to lead,but, today they look for people who can lead exclusiveof titles…in fact, here are some of the best leadershipexamples which are coming from within organizationsfrom people without any formal authority.

4 ■ October 2010 www.humancapitalonline.com ■

COLUMNS

54 Food for thought by Dileep Ranjekar

56 A point of view by Gautam Brahma

58 HR tools by V.S.Gurumani

60 HR in MSMEs by Sumeet Varghese

PERSONA

18 Walking the talkFor A.Nathaniel Sasikar, working in an acceleratedgrowth environment is fun as the experience andlearning is immense. An avid reader of psychologyhelps him understand and deal with people not only ata personal level, but, even at an organizational levelespecially in managing change.

CASE STUDY

46 The dilemma within:parody or paradox

The case discusses about the individual decisionmaking dilemma of an executive when more than onegood option are available. It also discusses theopportunities and problems related to permanentnature of mentor-mentee relationship.

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Organizations have always had people with titles to lead, but, today they look for peoplewho can lead exclusive of titles…in fact, some of the best leadership examples comefrom people without any formal authority. Despite our Indian mindset, the truth is thatleadership has nothing to do with one's position or title. A person can be a great leaderwithout any title. Discover "Leading without titles" in our cover story for this month, withSasken Communication Technologies Limited and Symphony Services.

Kulin Patel & Anuradha Sriram of Towers Watson discuss issues pertaining to "Cultureassessment in a cross country deal."

And in a conversation with Human Capital, Pamela Craven, Chief Administrative Officerof Avaya reflects on the how Avaya creates its 'Futuremakers' to contribute in building itsadvanced business communications systems which shapes Avaya's future.

In "Effective front line sales training", we bring you the insider view from companies likeKotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd., Canon India and Claris LifesciencesLimited, who

believe in developing their most critical team - the front line sales workforce - byimparting the right sales training through effective techniques that are best in theindustry.

The case study for the month, "The dilemma within: parody or paradox" by ManasRanjan Tripathy discusses the individual decision making dilemma of an executive whenmore than one good option is available. It also discusses the opportunities and problemsrelated to permanent nature of mentor-mentee relationship. Saikat Chatterjee, Manager-HR n South East & South West Asia, InterContinental Hotels Group and G. Inbavanan,Founder & Chief Practice Officer, People Dimensions@Work provide individualperspectives.

In HR Practice, we look at "The people model" of Amara Raja, which has three coreaspects, "People Engagement, People Performance and People Development".

And in Persona, we profile Nathaniel Sasikar, Vice President - HR, 3M.

PUNITA MALHOTRA

To our readers


Pricing & Revenue Management

Location: Indore

Dates: 25 - 29 October 2010

AO-CMDPIIM IndoreIIM IndoreIIM IndoreIIM IndoreIIM IndorePrabandh Shikhar, Rau-Pithampur RoadIndore 453331Tel.: (91-731) 2439666Fax: (91-731) 2439800E-mail:[email protected]:www.iimidr.ac.in

Operations Management

MDP DivisionIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessGachibowliHyderabad-500 032Tel.: (040) 23007000Fax : (040) 23007099E-mail: [email protected] : www.isb.edu

Kellogg Program on Perpetuating the

Family Enterprise

Location: Hyderabad


General Management

Emerging Dimensions of Leadership

Location: Indore


AO-CMDPIIM IndoreIIM IndoreIIM IndoreIIM IndoreIIM IndorePrabandh Shikhar, Rau-Pithampur RoadIndore 453331Tel.: (91-731) 2439666Fax: (91-731) 2439800E-mail:[email protected]:www.iimidr.ac.in

HR Management

GLOBAL DIARYWhat's on in Oct-Nov '10

Leading Successful Change

Organizer: INSEADFees: Euro 4,150Date: 18 - 20 October 2010Location: SingaporeDetails: www.insead.fr

Blue Ocean StrategyOrganizer: INSEADFees: Euro 6,950Date: 18 - 21 October 2010Location: FontainebleauDetails: www.insead.fr

Coaching Interventions

Organizer: NTLFees: $795Date: 20 - 21 October 2010Location: Metro/Washington, DCDetails: www.ntl.org

Human Interaction Laboratory:

Transforming Interpersonal

Relationsships

Organizer: NTLFees: $3,200Date: 24 - 29 October 2010Location: Metro/Washington, DCDetails: www.ntl.org

Negotiation Dynamics

Organizer: INSEADFees: Euro 6,050Date: 25 - 27 October 2010Location: Abu DhabiDetails: www.insead.fr

Transforming Individual Contributors to

New Leaders

Organizer: NTLFees: $895Date: 28 - 29 October 2010Location: Metro/Washington, DCDetails: www.ntl.org

Asian International Executive Program

Organizer: INSEADFees: Euro 11,900Date: 01 - 12 November 2010Location: SingaporeDetails: www.insead.fr

Shared Leadership - Power Equity Lab

Organizer: NTLFees: $1,395Date: 04 - 06 November 2010Location: Metro/Washington, DCDetails: www.ntl.org

Finance for Decision Making (for Non-

Finance Managers)

Location: Bengaluru


Chief Programmes OfficerIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreBannerghtta RoadBangalore - 560 076Tel.: (080) 6993203Fax: (080)6584004E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.iimb.ernet.in

General Management

Real Estate Marketing

Location: New Delhi


MDP DivisionXLRIXLRIXLRIXLRIXLRIC H Area(East)Jamshedpur-831001Tel.: (0657) 3983329, 3983330Fax : (0657) 2227814E-mail: [email protected] : www.xlri.ac.in

Marketing Management

MDP DivisionIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessIndian School of BusinessGachibowliHyderabad-500 032Tel.: (040) 23007000Fax : (040) 23007099E-mail: [email protected] : www.isb.edu

Leading into the Future: A Scenario

Based Approach

Location: Hyderabad


HR Management

ON THE AGENDA


Managerial Effectiveness

Location: Lucknow


MDP DivisionIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementPrabandh Nagar, Off Sitapur RoadLucknow - 226013Tel.: (91-0522) 361889-98Fax: (91-0522) 360911, 361843/40Website: www.iiml.ac.inE-mail: [email protected]

HR Management

Managerial Leadership & Team

Effectiveness

Location: Kolkata


AO-CMDPIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaDiamond Harbour Road, P.O.-JokaCalcutta - 700104Tel.: (91-033) 4679189Fax: (91-033) 4677851, 4678307E-mail:[email protected]:www.iimcal.in

HR Management

Valuation and Value Based

Management of Banks

Location: Bengaluru

Dates: 08 - 10 November 2010

Chief Programmes OfficerIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreIIM BangaloreBannerghtta RoadBangalore - 560 076Tel.: (080) 6993203Fax: (080)6584004E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.iimb.ernet.in

General Management

NEWS ROUNDUP

According to Mercer's survey sincefinancial uncertainty highlights theneed for multinational employers toproactively manage their employeebenefit plan risk more than three-quarters of multinationals are lookingto better manage their globalfinancial, strategic and reputationalrisks posed by it.

The areas of attention to achievegovernance objectives include:decision making structures, globalpolicy and defined contribution (DC)focus. Mercer's survey reveals thataround 23% of its respondentscurrently have a global committee inplace (and 3% have a regionalcommittee structure), while 43% areconsidering to establishing adecision making structure. Secondly,shows Mercer's survey, having aglobal written policy giving cleardirection for local decision-making islimited to a few areas of planmanagement: accounting (44%);benefit design (36%); and funding(32%), although, 24% ofrespondents have establisheddirectional policy for the investmentof plan assets. However, a 'hands off'approach to benefit planadministration, membercommunication and vendormanagement prevails. Further, about92% of respondents sponsor DCretirement plans in some or allgeographies, most decision-makingon these critical DC issues remainwith local management or fiduciaryboards, with little involvement fromthe corporate head office.

Respondents to Mercer's surveyconfirmed the growing interest ofother stakeholders like 20% reportedincreasing involvement by boards ofdirectors; 23% reported increasingshareholder scrutiny; and 30%reported growing involvement ofemployees.

Balanced Scorecard - Making it

Actionable Process, Methodology &

Techniques

Location: Mumbai

Dates: 08 - 10 November 2010

MDP DivisionXLRIXLRIXLRIXLRIXLRIC H Area(East)Jamshedpur-831001Tel.: (0657) 3983329, 3983330Fax : (0657) 2227814E-mail: [email protected] : www.xlri.ac.in

HR Management

Advanced Financial Management

Location: Lucknow


MDP DivisionIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementPrabandh Nagar, Off Sitapur RoadLucknow - 226013Tel.: (91-0522) 361889-98Fax: (91-0522) 360911, 361843/40Website: www.iiml.ac.inE-mail: [email protected]

General Management

Marketing Skills for High Performance

Location: Kolkata


AO-CMDPIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaIIM Calcutta, JokaDiamond Harbour Road, P.O.-JokaCalcutta - 700104Tel.: (91-033) 4679189Fax: (91-033) 4677851, 4678307E-mail:[email protected]:www.iimcal.in

Marketing Management

ON THE AGENDA

Mercer survey

on benefit

plan risk


Right from its inception, even when AmaraRaja Group had no formal understandingof HR, it had people at its centre of businessactivities. This is well reflected through itscore purpose evolved 20 years back, whichreads: "To transform our spheres of

influence and to improve the quality of life by buildinginstitutions that provide better access to betteropportunities, goods and services to more people... allthe time is driven to success by the power of itsmotivated set of employees."

From this core purpose, Amara Raja developed itspeople strategy model which has three core aspectsviz. "People Engagement, People Performance andPeople Development". Since HR strategy is an integralpart of Amara Raja's business strategy, once it arrivesat the business strategy, the company closely examinesand analyzes what are its requirements from a peoplestandpoint that are required to achieve all the businessobjectives. This analysis of business requirements is

By Arva Shikari

Through its unique and

impactful people strategy

model, Amara Raja has carved

a niche in people practices!

the

people model

done from its people strategy model. Amara Raja feelsthat if it addresses the business requirements from thethree people perspectives, it not only meets its businessneeds, but, also meets its people needs in the business.

Briefly, people engagement means building apsychological contract between the employee and theorganization. "We go beyond the regular terms andconditions and hygiene factors to attach each personto the organization. Amara Raja makes each personfeel a part of a large family rather than working for a


business organization. And we start right from talentacquisition…whether a candidate is selected or not, bein a vice resident position or a worker position, we givedue respect. Also, our on-boarding process involvesmaking a person feel a part of the family within 72hours of joining," says B. Jaikrishna, HR head and vicepresident, Amara Raja Batteries Ltd. (ARBL). Peopledevelopment refers to the learning and developmentthat Amara Raja continuously provides its employeesto excel in their current and future roles by itscontinuous programs and initiatives that ensureemployees develop not just their current, but, evenfuture skills. "We do not just let employees build theirjob skills, we invest in their personality building," aversJaikrishna. Further, he says, "We strongly believe thatif these two are well taken care of, people engagementand people development the result - peopleperformance will happen automatically and in turnshoot up business performance." In fact, Amara Raja'sall people processes, systems, initiatives and policiesare addressed from these three aspects.

This strategy was structured in the year 2005-06.Based on the core purpose of this group the initial stepthat Amara Raja took in building the people model isfirst it shared and believed that people can make theorganization successful and only people can contributeto the society - since the whole core purpose is to takecare of the society at large, and automatically thebusiness will serve its purpose. In 2005-06 when thecompany started building its people strategy model,says Jaikrishna, "We started working on somethingcalled future search conference which involved leadersacross the group who came together and we talkedabout our core purpose, what we want to be by 2020-2025, how we will look like 20 years ahead from now."This entire workshop was done five years back. Further,he explains, "We brought in leaders across the groupand we worked on 10 workshops across two daysinvolving all leaders including the chairman and wetalked about how do we take this group forward, if wewant to make all this happen, what we need to do. Thetheory came out that its all about people structure andsystems, which need to be in place." Thus, step zerowas the core purpose, step one was the future searchworkshop, which involved leaders and from leadersAmara Raja took it to different segments across theorganization and created buy-ins on the things whichthe company needed to do. This is how thedevelopment of people strategy model began takingshape.

Now having developed the model, every year, sharesJaikrishna, they build a five year plan like a 'strat-ling'process, which means strategy alignment. Every year,each of the businesses builds a 'strat-ling' document,which talks about how they will take the business aheadin a five-year period. In that, a five year strategy isevolved that would give a clear picture of businessobjectives for the next five years. Based on that, thepeople strategy model is validated to see what is neededin terms of people engagement, people performanceand people development. The people engagement,

people performance and people development initiativesare not necessarily common for all businesses. Thus,there are five year initiatives or programs in place toimplement for a group as a whole and for differentbusinesses.

Today, in terms of people engagement Amara Rajafollows innovative HR practices such as the AR Speak.Through its employee engagement survey anchoredby an external organization, employee perceptionsacross levels are measured anonymously. Perceptionsare built around 19 dimensions evolved out of differentschools of thought, e.g., some are taken from theinternal leader behaviour model (which have 13dimensions), and others are taken from two well knownindustry models and others from the joint venturecompany, Jonhson Control, which has great peoplepractices. The survey reflects all these, but, mostimportantly, it leads to concrete action too. That iswhat builds in the engagement level. Says Jaykrishna,“We have a change action method i.e. based on thesurvey results. We first anchor a leadership workshop,in which the chairman and senior leadership also takepar, called the Growcom (growth committee), or thedecision making body of the entire group. In theworkshop, the external organization presents surveyresults across various dimensions and shows employeeperceptions on compensation, transparency,communication, leadership, welfare measures, etc. TheGroupcom looks at the top five aspects that have thehighest score and how to retain those. They also lookat the bottom five scores and think on how to improvethem. And then decisions are taken on these by way

HR PRACTICE

Candid quotes“Performance to us is how do we achieve our businessobjectives and when we say business objectives it’s notjust business objectives, but, also a person’stransformation of their life aspirations which also comesinto perspective.”

“Amara Raja is always armed and armed with solutionsand actions to ensure that the business objectives arenot hampered because of people and processes.”

“Wile dealing with people challenges, it’s a fact, thatour worker level team and the leadership team bothwere the most stable while executing our peoplestrategy model. In fact, we faced challenges at thejunior and middle management as they were inflexible,although, currently, that is also getting stabilized.”

“Currently, Amara Raja is looking at certain innovativebusiness projects, which are confidential, but, will helpthe group towards success.”

“For me people management is building skill and will.And if organizations continue to build people’s skill andwill I think businesses will be successful. Thus, everyorganization should focus on this.”

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HR PRACTICE

of selecting and involving people from the worker andstaff level (change owners); functional leaders (changeleaders); and middle management (change champions).Survey results are shared with them and they are askedfor feedback on how to improve the bottom five andstrengthen the top five in their department andfunctional context. These people clearly articulateactions plans to be taken up and they work on thoseaction plans throughout the year. Here, the employeesare able to see these actions really happening, thus,belief in the system becomes stronger. Every companyhas a change ambassador to facilitate and overseethese action plans. Business review meetings are morethan just ‘reviews’... they also check how well theorganization is executing change action plans. Everyyear end, when action plans are closed, the chairmanis present with the leadership team and the changeambassadors to give away awards to people who haveimplemented them. These are highest levels ofemployee engagement at work in Amara Raja.

In terms of people performance, Amara Raja followsan innovative HR practice, whereby employees'performance is measured onthree aspects: essential jobfunctions, objectives/targetsand leader behaviour. This isa unique model for AmaraRaja, says Jaikrishna. Leaderbehaviour includes 13 leaderbehaviours like demonstratingintegrity; focus on customers;developing employees;strategic thinking; analyticalthinking; commitment tosocial responsibility; etc. Everyleader is assessed and therating is provided to achievean aggregate score on thethree aspects by taking theaverage of all the three.Assuming on the executivelevel, Jaikrishna illustrates, ifthe leader behaviour score isless than the total averagescore then the leader behaviour score will be taken asthe final score. In other words, even if one has achievedhis/her objectives and targets by compromising onleader behaviour Amara Raja doesn't grant it. Leaderbehaviour is a reflection of core values - if someoneis achieving his targets by rubbing people in theorganization - he is not respected in the organization.On the contrary, if an executive has a high leaderbehaviour score and has a lower score on objectivesand targets, also is not accepted and here the averagescore is taken as the final score.

Amara Raja also builds an ownership for businessperformance through its balance scorecard process. Itexecutes by connecting the scorecard to all businessesacross the group. The balanced scorecard model entailsfour perspectives - the financial process, customerprocess, the internal process, learning and growth.

These four perspectives are well aligned for everybusiness and the performance appraisal takes care ofthe internal process of the employee and through thebalanced scorecard, Amara Raja executes the variablepay, so one's variable pay is linked to the achievementof objectives in the balanced scorecard.

The training calendar is given utmost importance.If people do not attend programs despite sufficientnotice, it is treated as ‘no work, no pay’. While thecompany has rewards it has consequences too.However, generally, there is a 100% attendance becausepeople are keen to attend the programs, aversJaikrishna.

Performance management serves as a rich sourceof inputs for development of employees. Each employeeis given the opportunity to explore what skills he wouldlike to develop. This is not just connected with businesstargets, but also inclusive of self development targets.And employees have to ensue in achieving their selfdevelopment targets. Amara Raja's training teamconsolidates the training needs across the organizationand comes out with a learning and development

calendar that is released everyyear. Once the appraisalprocess is over by July, thetraining calendar is releasedfrom August to July every year.The calendar anchors all sortsof programs for e.g.communication program,which is conducted in-houseat different levels, in additionto internal junior managementprograms. Besides, AmaraRaja nominates employees forexternal programs. Forspecific targets it has specificprograms like a year beforethe company executed aprogram on leadershipdevelopment for its leaders.Across the globe all AmaraRaja leaders were called at IIMBangalore campus for a one

and a half year program which consisted of 16 capsules.All the nominated leaders were living in the hostel,working on case studies and projects by burning themidnight oil, which created a lot of bonding betweenthem, too, apart from learning.

HR strategies at ARBL are sieved through trendsand opportunities in the market every year to maintainits robustness. ARBL stays ahead in the league byinitiating new trends and innovative practices andadopting new technologies, all of which have becomeindustry benchmarks over the years. For example, it'sinnovative fresh talent acquisition program - "NavaPrathibha" that helps ARBL infuse fresh talent into theorganization across different levels with differentprograms in line with its group business goals. Forinstance, through the Amara Raja Training Scheme(ARTS) fresh workmen are induced into the company.

Future planningIn 2011, Amara Raja will be focusing on peoplemanagement in terms of building capability,enhancing efficiency, and driving innovation. Tobuild capability, the company has plans to createfocused development programs for functions andindividuals and if required make changes in itsexisting learning and development programs. Toenhance efficiency of people and more importantlyoverall productivity, the organization plans a lot ofautomation…along with a cer tain amount ofbusiness realignment to deliver on time. Thirdly,since driving innovation is one of Amara Raja’score values the company will continue its effortsin terms of having innovation workshops whichare imparted periodically.


This is a two-years training (including classroom andon-job) provided to unemployed youth in and aroundthe Amara Raja manufacturing locations in Chitttordistrict. The certificate holders are free to apply tocompanies other than Amara Raja, too. This creates apool of skilled talent and enhances the employability ofthe youth in the society. The company recruited morethan 1000 shop floor members through this programlast year. Through Amara Raja's Graduate Technician

model. Jaikrishna shares, "By understanding ourbusiness needs we came up with programs which wereconnected to the three people aspects. The way it wasdesigned and structured that even the review processesin place could take into account the changes happeningin business during the year and we could adapt quicklyto the changes and simultaneously making thosechanges on our people mission - and this was wellappreciated by the jury members. In fact, in the final

presentation which we did witha 10 member jury, they askedquestions like - How are youchanging your people needswhen the business needs keepchanging? And we were readywith the answer."

Citing an example ofintegrating business and peopleneeds and adapting to businesschanges without gettingaffected, he says, “We hadunderstood that we wouldrequire inducting fresh talentin our business - one was toensure that we build up aleadership pipeline, at themanagement level. Initially westarted off the program in astructured way for themanagement staff, over aperiod of time we realized thatthe business just doesn't needthe leadership at themanagement and executivelevel, but, also, at the staff level,so we quickly adapted ourdesign to accommodate

leadership development for the staff level. In fact, inlast two years we realized that the need has risen at theworker level also, therefore, we started to get talent atall three levels.”

Amara Raja has also won awards for displayingcontinuous innovation in its HR strategy at work againfor two consecutive years. Jaikrishna reveals: “What wetypically do on our innovative side is we scan thebusiness environment and say how would be thebusiness be in the next year as well as the next fiveyears and what it would look like and document it all.Based on the environment scan we determine how thecompetition would be, how the industries are likely toperform in the next five years, then we look at how arewe performing now and how will we perform in thenext five years. From this scan we create our strategies.Before that we see what are the likely hurdles or issueswe are going to face while we execute them? We alsoproactively involve our people in it and get down todocumenting the issues and hurdles while executingthe business strategy and people strategy. Then we listdown those things and think on how we will overcomethese hurdles by designing various programs to combatthese hurdles. By using this strategy we found that 99%

Training Program (ARGTP), fresh graduates anddiploma holders are induced into the company. Itrecruits trainees who are graduates for clerical positionswhile diploma holders are recruited at the shop floorand for field jobs at technician levels. And the AmaraRaja Graduate Engineer Trainee (GET) and ManagementTrainee (MT) programs get fresh talent for managementlevel. The company recruits around 9 to 10% of itsmanagement team strength annually from Tier IIIcolleges across eight states spanning from all cornersof India.

The recognition that ARBL renders on employeesare, in turn, bestowed on it by coveted HR awards likeBest Employer Awards, Continuous Innovation in HRStrategy Award, Excellence in HR through TechnologyAward and other recognition amongst multiple others.Recently, it was commended for Strong Commitmentto HR Excellence Award from Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) based on a national level assessmentdone on a HR Excellence model.

Behind winning the 'Best HR Strategy in line withbusiness' award consecutively for two years in 2008and 2009, is Amara Raja's five-year plan for its everybusiness strategy and linking to its people strategy

HR PRACTICE

Amara Raja Group wins the “Strong Commitment to HR ExcellenceAward” at a national level from CII.


to 100% we were able to overcome hurdles that wehad already researched on and had an action in placefor them. In short, our people are very well preparedand armed when difficulties arise since we conductserious reviews on quarterly and half yearly basis, andfrom quarter to quarter we ensure that theperformance of people and business is doneinnovatively by the mechanical reviewing andarticulating i.e. the preparedness level and courageshown by people to come out and articulate the hurdlesand not pushing it under the carpet and working onprograms to overcome it.”

This is plan A for the company; however, it'sprepared with plan B which consists of overcomingunexpected hurdles. Additionally, Amara Raja has builtan innovative process - an SLA or a service levelagreement within its HR and admin team. Thecompany has individual processes for each team -talent acquisition team, learning and development team,team which supports payroll, MIS, etc. which aredocumented and an agreement is signed between theseteams as to what to deliver in a period of time. Theprocess and delivery time is all calculated so that allteams within the HR and admin work seamlessly. Thisis reviewed continuously. And if there are any failureson this front HR management takes it up very stronglywithin its team by making people improve on theprocesses. Having the SLA within teams helped Amara

Raja to ultimately deliver the customer. In fact, peoplekeep challenging themselves and supporting each otherso that the SLA works smoothly.

The company also makes use of technology todefine excellence in HR. To avoid the lengthy manualprocess of performance management process, whichAmara Raja was going through previously, the companythought of implementing a performance managementsystem which is diligent, fast, and paperless. Itconstituted a team of HR and IT executives within theorganization which worked on its performancemanagement system in-house. Today, Amara Raja'sperformance management system is fully an electronicprocess, except for the final letter that it issues to theemployees with their improvised compensations and adescription of his/her performance. This is called AREpass which means the Amara Raja Electronicperformance appraisal system.

The company has implemented technology in otheraspects of people management like it has an HR portal- ARG - Amara Raja Group HR portal, where AmaraRaja employees can access policies, understand them,they can even ask queries on HR policies where theHR helpdesk clarifies with the help of an email system.There is a learning phase on the HR portal. In fact,many of the organizational circulars and memos arenot in physical form and are delivered through emails,except at the shop floor where prints of these are put

up. In addition, Amara Raja has an e-induction process. Since seniors wanted tohave employees conversant with theorganization within 72 hours of joining; everyemployee joining Amara Raja undergoesthrough the e-induction process or he/shedoesn't get an employee code. At the end ofit he/she has to answer some questions basedon that. The e-induction is employee friendlywith written material and pictures/snap shots,so that when the person visits a factory or anoffice feels that 'I've been in this place before'.Several other processes have been facilitatedby technology at Amara Raja which hashelped it in response time and speed.

In implementing its HR practicesbased on its people strategy model, initiallythere was a lot of apprehension: Will thishappen? Can we make it happen? Jaikrishnagives an example: “Previously, Amara Rajahad only one trainee during a year, but, today,through the Nava Pratibha program werecruit 80-100 management trainees everyyear. At first, when we documented ourmodel, it looked theoretical and analytical,but, by involving our people in making thestructure, today, when we look back we feelgreat. In our Nava Pratibha program alltrainees join together on one day. Many comewith their parents, which is a lovely sight tosee. Our chairman inaugurates the programformally and personally answers questionsfrom trainees. Today, nobody believes that

HR PRACTICE

B. JAIKRISHNA

HEAD & VICE PRESIDENT - HR ■ AMARA RAJA BATTERIES LTD.


our people practices are a part of an HR function. Thisis a transformation - we make every manager feel likehe/she is part of HR, like a sales and marketing manageris also an HR manager for his people. Now, everyonein the company, even while interacting with customers, HC

Success of thePeople Model

From a qualitative perspective, it has been a great journey forAmara Raja because they have seen employee performanceand business showing in terms of results. The engagementlevel year-on-year since the last five-six years is increasingalso. In the annual group wide employee engagement surveythe first thing of measurement is seen whether employees arefully participating - in the first year there was a thumpingparticipation close to 90-95%. And last year, the secondsurvey which was completely structured saw 99.5% peopleparticipating. Statistics shows that people are extremely keenin providing views because they have seen that the companyhas been taking actions based on the initial survey.

From the results point of view, in the last five years the topline growth of the group has touched to 550% growth. Thiswas just not possible due to infrastructure or businessopportunities alone, but, people made it happen right frombottom to top. Also, the attachment of people to theorganization has been phenomenally improving.

is proud to say 'this is our people strategy'.” Anotherchallenge was in terms of belief that whether theprograms will be executed on time - we decided thatwe will roll out particular dates for our peopleprograms, says, Jaikrishna, like for its performanceappraisals, Amara Raja announced that by 7th July allappraisals will roll out and it was completed on time.Here the philosophy is when you take care of peoplethey actively participate in all the processes.

Since Amara Raja group is into seven differentbusinesses, each has its own industry challenges. Andfor us, the challenge is how to respond to industrychallenges from the people perspective. To overcomethis, Amara Raja designs industry specific programs.During challenging economic times Amara Raja tookcare of its people and after recovery since thecompensation levels have gone up… it announced anaverage of 15% compensation increase across thegroup. Here the challenge was managing the businesscost while there is an employee cost increase, too. Infact, overall cost management is a great challenge forHR today. In addition, the hiring activity now has shotup even in the manufacturing industry, as an HR leader,Jaikrishna feels that if a lot of hiring is going outsidethen a lot of looking out is also happening inside theorganization. “The greatest challenge is to keep peopleengaged so that that they never feel like leaving byensuring that every employee is provided with a greatmanager and healthy working environment” heconcludes.

HR PRACTICE

Ad Pearson Repeat


PERSONA

walking the talk

organizational level especially in managing change.Give us some interesting accounts of your academic/Give us some interesting accounts of your academic/Give us some interesting accounts of your academic/Give us some interesting accounts of your academic/Give us some interesting accounts of your academic/education days.education days.education days.education days.education days.My schooling until standard five was in "Little FlowerConvent" at Chennai, run by some nuns and ladyteachers. The environment was very protective and theteachers were very gentle and loving. Since the schoolheld classes up to the fifth standard, I had to move toa boy's school.

This school was run by the Raphael brothers(Monfort) and most teachers were male. As I was usedto the kind atmosphere at the previous school, the wayclasses were conducted, disciplined and handled mademe very uncomfortable in this school. I could not lastfor long and had to move to another school.

Prof Clarence Motha of Loyola College influencedmy attitude towards study and made a big differenceto me. I was an average student in school and had verylimited aspirations. In college Prof Motha wouldencourage us to use the library to prepare forexaminations and projects. His constant encouragementpropelled me to act on his advice to prepare for a test.The exam was over and it was time for paperdistribution. Before distributing the paper to the classhe spoke very highly about the person who stood firstin the class. He said a dark horse has come first muchahead of the intelligent students of the class due toshear hard work. When he called my name to receivethe paper I could not believe that I stood first in his

For A.Nathaniel Sasikar, working in anaccelerated growth environment is fun asthe experience and learning is immense. Anavid reader of psychology helps himunderstand and deal with people not onlyat a personal level, but, even at an

class. While handing over the papers he advised on theneed to be consistent in the score. Ever since that dayI have been consistent in my studies and always wasamong the top 10 in the class.

How did you plan your career?How did you plan your career?How did you plan your career?How did you plan your career?How did you plan your career?My initial career plan was to follow my dad's foot steps- a career in civil service. I took this very seriously anddecided to work towards getting an arts degree. Incollege I joined the Civil service cell and was an activeparticipant. I did well in the first one and half years ofthe course. However, I lost interest in it during thesecond year of college. It was during this period thatmy brother influenced me to pursue a career in humanresources and encouraged me to do a post graduationwith specialization in HR. Interestingly, my first twoappointments were for HR profiles however, within aspan of 6 months I was involved in the operations ofthe business more than HR. It was only after 5 yearsof work experience that I was into a full time HR role.Now looking back, those 5 years in operations gave mea good insight into business and its needs. This helpedme in aligning HR support to business.

Describe your experience of your first day at workDescribe your experience of your first day at workDescribe your experience of your first day at workDescribe your experience of your first day at workDescribe your experience of your first day at workin your first job?in your first job?in your first job?in your first job?in your first job?My first appointment was as Assistant Manager -Personnel and Administration at Hotel Fern Hill Palace,Ooty. I was not afraid of the responsibilities my roleinvolved as I had been spending two days in a week atbusiness establishments during the entire period of mymaster's course. My boss R. E. Smith introduced meto the staff and said he was on leave for the next threedays and I was to run the operations. He also mentionedthat Juhi Chawla was checking into the hotel that


TherTherTherTherThereaftereaftereaftereaftereafter, ho, ho, ho, ho, how has been yw has been yw has been yw has been yw has been your prour prour prour prour professional jourofessional jourofessional jourofessional jourofessional journey?ney?ney?ney?ney?I started my professional journey in Fernhill PalaceOoty between 1988 and 1990. Being a hill resort therewere peaks and valley's in the business. Interactionwith professionals and learning was limited. Since Iwanted to pursue a course in management, I decidedto change jobs. I was hired as plant HR with focus onrecruitment and OD at ISEX fashion (garment exporter)for their green field project. I stepped into the shopfloor to understand the needs for both recruitmentand training. I had long discussion with Kishore Shahani,GM of the plant to firm up the plans. He was impressedwith my grasping of the production process and myability to get along with people he decided that I wasbest suited for the production role. I was initiallyreluctant to move however because of his persuasionI moved to production. In hind sight this was the bestmove in my career. The following 3 years were full oflearning. Kishore passed on industrial engineeringknowledge to me and under his leadership we built theplant and the organization culture. In a year ourproductivity and quality were much higher than ourother plants. Any buyer coming in to check all thefacilities would insist that their production happenedonly at this plant. From 90 to 93 I clocked in close to12 hours a day for 7 days a week. This really helped inbuilding a strong foundation for my career. In themeantime I had joined part time LIBA for PGDBAcourse and by 1993 I had completed 4 of the 6

semesters. In 1993 I movedto Kodak to head HR forthe southern region inIndia. In 1995 I movedfrom Kodak to McDowell'sat Bangalore. From 1995 to2007 I was associated withMcDowell (now known asUnited Spirits). Duringthese 12 years there were 4mergers and an equalnumber of restructurings.The organization grew inemployee strength, salesvolume and market share.In 2007 moved to 3M.

YYYYYour major achievour major achievour major achievour major achievour major achievementsementsementsementsementshave been in UB spiritshave been in UB spiritshave been in UB spiritshave been in UB spiritshave been in UB spiritsand 3M. and 3M. and 3M. and 3M. and 3M. WhichWhichWhichWhichWhichopportunities steered youopportunities steered youopportunities steered youopportunities steered youopportunities steered youon that path?on that path?on that path?on that path?on that path?Working in an acceleratedgrowth environment isalways fun. The experienceand learning is immense.Both the organizationsoffered this opportunity.Some of the high points atUB are the following:1. Change in the profile ofthe frontline sales whichsupported acceleratedgrowth2. Standardizing inductionthrough an module3. Managing the changeduring the SAPimplementation4. Role played in integrationand restructuring5. Being the HR Championand supporting theinnovation journeyAt 3M some of the highpoints are:1. Scaling up recruitment,streamlining therecruitment process todrive productivity andbetter service tour internalcustomer

PERSONA

evening and as she was an important guest I had toreceive and welcome her. Though, I walked into theoffice confidently, fear set in when he said that he wasnot going to be there for the next three days. Stephen,front office turned out to be my advisor and coach forthe next three days. With his help I managed the firstthree days.

NATHANIEL SASIKAR ■ VICE PRESIDENT - HR ■ 3M2. Automation and leveraging technology to improveHR process efficiency, HR team productivity andhelping us to meet the scale challenge.

From your perspective what kind of barriers getsFrom your perspective what kind of barriers getsFrom your perspective what kind of barriers getsFrom your perspective what kind of barriers getsFrom your perspective what kind of barriers getsin the way of trust and collaboration in companies?in the way of trust and collaboration in companies?in the way of trust and collaboration in companies?in the way of trust and collaboration in companies?in the way of trust and collaboration in companies?Philosophy, principles, process and producers play animportant role in promoting trust and collaboration


PERSONA

in a company. When organizations are transparentand consistent, it promotes trust and collaboration.Leadership in the organization plays an importantrole. If the leadership demonstrates trust andcollaboration among themselves and their team thechances of the team demonstrating the same is veryhigh. The team based reward and recognition againstindividual based reward can promote collaborationand trust.

Is there a need for ethicsIs there a need for ethicsIs there a need for ethicsIs there a need for ethicsIs there a need for ethicsin HR so that people hiredin HR so that people hiredin HR so that people hiredin HR so that people hiredin HR so that people hiredare vocal brandare vocal brandare vocal brandare vocal brandare vocal brandambassadors?ambassadors?ambassadors?ambassadors?ambassadors?Ethics is important in everyaspect of the organization.We need to keep theorganizational interest abovepersonal preference orinterest. Our decision wouldbe right only when we areethical.

Being a leader yourself,Being a leader yourself,Being a leader yourself,Being a leader yourself,Being a leader yourself,what do you think youwhat do you think youwhat do you think youwhat do you think youwhat do you think youpossess as a leader thatpossess as a leader thatpossess as a leader thatpossess as a leader thatpossess as a leader thatsets you apart from othersets you apart from othersets you apart from othersets you apart from othersets you apart from otherleaders?leaders?leaders?leaders?leaders?1. Walk the talk - credibility I have built among all stakeholders.2. Consistent and candidness - no favourites/I don'tshy away in telling the truth.3. Open mind to listen to others point of view andhuman in approach.

HHHHHooooow as a leaderw as a leaderw as a leaderw as a leaderw as a leader, do y, do y, do y, do y, do you go about devou go about devou go about devou go about devou go about developingelopingelopingelopingelopingyourself today?yourself today?yourself today?yourself today?yourself today?Learning does not stop. You learn from your team,your peers and your supervisors. I am an insatiablelearner and believe in grooming my own self. Interactingwith professionals in the other organization, and myinternational colleagues and reading are some of theway of learning.

What keeps you so passionate about working inWhat keeps you so passionate about working inWhat keeps you so passionate about working inWhat keeps you so passionate about working inWhat keeps you so passionate about working inHR?HR?HR?HR?HR?HR gives you a unique position to touch the life ofyour employees and also support the organization inits growth journey. There is no greater joy than seeingyour team members or employees of organizationgrowing within your organization and outside. Being inHR makes you play a part in this growth journey of anindividual. 3M believes that as employees in theorganization grow, the organization will grow.

What are your current ambitions for the next phaseWhat are your current ambitions for the next phaseWhat are your current ambitions for the next phaseWhat are your current ambitions for the next phaseWhat are your current ambitions for the next phasein your career?in your career?in your career?in your career?in your career?I think my strength lies in building organizationalcapability for growth and managing the change process.3M in India is growing and in a few years we would bea billion dollar company in India. My skills will be

leveraged during this growth journey at 3M India. Nextstep would be to look for subsidiary outside of Indiawhere these skills can be leveraged or an assignmentwith a larger geographical span where I would be ableto make an impact.

YYYYYou rou rou rou rou read psyead psyead psyead psyead psychology bookschology bookschology bookschology bookschology books. H. H. H. H. Hooooow does this helpw does this helpw does this helpw does this helpw does this helpyou in your personal and professional life?you in your personal and professional life?you in your personal and professional life?you in your personal and professional life?you in your personal and professional life?

We are dealing with peopleall the time. Understandingpeople, their motives helpsyou in dealing with thembetter at an individual leveland at the group level. Theknowledge helps me inseeing through people. Thisexperience helps at anorganizational level inmanaging change, drawingyour rewards andrecognition programme etc.

Besides, readingBesides, readingBesides, readingBesides, readingBesides, readingpsychology what are yourpsychology what are yourpsychology what are yourpsychology what are yourpsychology what are yourother interests?other interests?other interests?other interests?other interests?Music is my passion besides

books. I listen to country blues and POP music. DonWilliams, Bob Marley are my favourite singers.

A family bonding experience…A family bonding experience…A family bonding experience…A family bonding experience…A family bonding experience…We usually take a break twice a year to some remotescenic corner, mostly within India- Kerala is ourparticular favourite owing to its pristine environmentand food. We did not take a proper break in the years2007 & 2008, due to job changes for both of us, and sowhen it was time to plan our vacation in 2009, wechose an unusual location- a forest guest house inTekkadi, Kerala.

The trip turned out to be a most memorableexperience as the government hotel we chose wasinside the forest with no TV and no mobile connectivitywe were forced to spend all the time in family activities.We had ensured that the children did not carry theirplay stations and instead carried badminton racquets,playing cards and indoor games. We spent the wholetime in having fun, in jungle walks and games. Evensmall things like spotting a deer, watching squirrels andtree animals excited us. We began to appreciate thethings we had always taken for granted.

One of the unforgettable activities was a junglewalk we took where we walked through the jungle inthe dark. My youngest son was so scared that he clungto his mother for the whole duration- he was afraid ofboth the dark and the animals! After the walk, we hadto spend another 30 minutes picking the leeches offeach other despite all the protection we took.

A good family bonding experience as it took us offthe routine, in the midst of nature not disturbed byoutside world and we got to spend time with eachother.

NAME Nathaniel Sasikar

TITLE Vice President, HR

ORGANIZATION 3M

EXPERIENCE 22 years

YEARS IN HR 22 years

AGE 44

EDUCATION MSW, PGDBA

In brief

HC


their job titles…in other words, undertake any project,without a title holding them back. For example, a newlyemployed retail sales assistant in a mega store was

For decades having heavyweight, flashy titleswere used to attract and retain smart peopleand build credibility for businesses to getcustomers. Today, the scenario is changing,Leadership 2.0 has stepped in which isenabling employees to lead irrespective of

COVER STORY

By Arva Shikari

Organizations have

always had people

with titles to lead,

but, today they look

for people who can

lead exclusive of

titles…in fact, here

are some of the

best leadership

examples which are

coming from within

organizations from

people without any

formal authority.

leading

without titlesequipped with advanced sales and customer servicetraining, which not only aided her in making a quickstart at work, but she automatically began showing hernew colleagues, by example, on serving customers moreeffectively. In another company, a fresh, inexperiencedjunior HR generalist saw that the company has a veryold performance appraisal system and detected thatthis could affect employees and in turn business, thus,he convinced his HR director to adopt a new system


look forward for flatter structures that lessen thehierarchical bands of titles to give way for change andinnovation. As C Mahalingam, EVP & chief peopleofficer of Symphony Services says, "We do have titlesfor different grades in the organizations. These arefunctional titles and not necessarily hierarchical. Weare non-hierarchical in our structure as we are aproduct organization and innovation is the key to oursuccess and the success of our clients. And a hierarchy-free culture and environment is our key to promotinginnovation."

People Group follows a flat organization structurewith only four levels between C level and first rung.This definitely helps people take on more responsibilitywithout formal distribution of authority, says SanjivKumar, vice president & group head-HR of thecompany. In addition, the environment of the companybreeds people who are self motivated to take onresponsibilities and challenges who unknowinglybecome leaders who lead without titles. "Our culture- 'The People Way' clearly defines leadership

within three months of his joining which increased theperformance levels in the company. In a team ofproduct developers, one of the junior developers cameup with the idea of a next generation product whichbecame a champion in the market and was the leadingproduct of the company.

Such leadership is inspired by thought leadershipthat directs up, down or sideways and has nothing todo with positions or managing people. Thoughtleadership is fundamental to bring innovative change.Also, it is democratic in nature as it can move rapidlyfrom one person to another. The best part of usingthought leadership is it can't be monopolized. In fact,it changes how people think; that's why no action isessentially implied. Linking it to the above examples,people were taking initiatives, coming up with newideas, which were promoted to their colleagues andbosses, thereby showing thought leadership. For one,thought leadership doesn't need influencing skills. Also,it helps in bringing organization-wide change. Although,a thought leader aims to make changes on a smallerscale like ideas for a newproduct or changes inexisting ones, he/she haspower to convince others ofit by simple use of logic,proof or factualpresentation, or anemotional appeal wherenecessary, or by way ofactual demonstration of atrial product, to gain thenecessary support. The retailsales assistant's leadershipwas by example and notintentional. The productdeveloper's leadership wasalso not deliberate. The newproduct that emerged fromher insight was forwardedupwards by someone seniorfrom her team to convincethe management to buy itand a totally different teammanufactured it. Thebottom line here is thatleadership is all about theinitiation of new directions.Only the HR generalist'sthought leadership neededsome strong influencingskills, but even there, hissuccess in convincing hisboss to change theperformance appraisalsystem was built on facts,and not inspirationalinfluencing skills or anemotional appeal.

More than the titles itself,nowadays, organizations

COVER STORY

Fourteen years ago, Employco, a company in Illinois started giving fancy job titlesto its people to attract customers. Also, since the company was having cash flowproblems doling out a few lofty titles served as a low-cost way to draw in brightemployees and keep them. Over the decade,Employco evolved from a start-up ofaround 10 employees to an establishedbusiness with 17,000 full- and part-timers. Unfortunately, as the companyexpanded and the roles of top executivesbecame more complex, someemployees weren’t up to the demandsthat came with their titles. Others lackedtraditional senior-level credentials altogether,having landed their titles by default or out of need. Basically, Employco had done“overtitling”. So, to correct the problem the president of the company decided tooverhaul the company’s titling policy, giving lower titles to half a dozen seniorstaffers. Additionally, the company began to review employees in key positions,determined their lack of the skills and experience and changed their titles like thetitle “account executive” to “risk consultant” which the president thought is moreaccurate since employees holding the position assess a client’s risk coveragerelated to workers’ compensation, taxes, and benefits costs. In some cases, employeeswere told that they would be sharing their title with a more experienced co-worker.The news did not go down well with all the employees. Although, no one quit on thespot, but, most moved on. The best thing about this was the more specific the title,staffers had a tougher time comparing their titles, and paychecks, to those of theirfriends and on salary surveys. The new policy had eliminated ‘overtitling’ and madejob requirements and expectations more clear.

Doing away with titles is another option. This approach was taken by the RichardsGroup, a Dallas-based marketing firm. It erased the titles of 560 employees and gavecompany’s 20 executives the same title: principal. Some longtime employees didn’tapprove, but, staffers did seem to be more focused on their jobs than on their titles.In fact, the lack of hierarchical titles had also helped lure new recruits.

Global overtitling cases


COVER STORY

immaterial of roles and titles, Sasians can take part ininfluencing and directly contributing to businessstrategies, customer-technology offerings, process andoperational areas and so on. "Also, a formal forum foranyone who wants to make a difference, lead andbring in change is, thus, made available," says RameshS., vice president-HR. Additionally, Sasken's reward andrecognition (R&R) programs are also structured in sucha way that leadership attributes shown by any individualimmaterial of role/title is duly recognized and nurtured."Change Leaders, as we call them", avers Ramesh, "areSasians across all levels and functions, are recognizedfor the leadership roles they play, immaterial of howbig or small the impact is."

To further enhance its culture where employeestake initiatives in exhibiting leadership competencies,People Group through its learning and training cell,People Academy, lays emphasis on personal leadership,coaching and mentoring. Since the company's evolvingworkforce constitutes about 90% of Gen Y, it is in thiscontext, that the concept of leading without a titlebecomes relevant for People Group. It's true thatlearning to be a leader is a significant aspiration formajority of ambitious millennials. For instance, back in2008 a recruitment officer was shocked to know thathis latest 23-year old recruit was interested in knowingwhat sorts of leadership opportunities were offered inthe company. The recruitment officer didn'tunderstand what a 23-year old could possibly lead.That's because in general companies feel that leadershipopportunities only come with age and seniority.However, Gen Y is totally indifferent of hierarchy andtitles. In fact, they expect the door to the CEO's officeto be always open, and believe that they will beacknowledged in addition to their ideas beingconsidered earnestly. Nevertheless, in current times,the request of the 23-year old does seem acceptable.Thus, the smartest organizations, today, createleadership opportunities even for their employees whoare fresh out of college.

Symphony has a different perspective on the

competencies and behaviours like problem solving,influencing people, adapting approaches and deliveringresults in the day to day delivery of duties. This helpsin silently creating and strengthening leadership skillson the job where everyone is free to take initiative, beaccountable and create measurable impact on the job.This is demonstrated in many of our productinnovations," informs Kumar. Product innovation andnew product introductions at People Group have beenbased to a large extent on the feedback and consumerinsights brought in by the client relationship officer.The CROs are the company's first line officer whodirectly interacts with its customers. Their highcustomer orientation makes them think with empathyand understand customers' psyche that finally dovetailsin customized products and solutions created byemployees.

Motivating employees to leadTo breed a title free culture, companies create anenvironment that encourages their employees indifferent ways to lead without titles. For instance, tomotivate each employee to lead, SaskenCommunication Technologies Limited has differentforums, committees, initiatives and cross functionaltask forces, team sessions focused on ideation andsolution finding, and forums for sharing best practicesetc. which are open for all Sasians. Through these,

Immersing oneself in his/her

professional domain of expertise

and finding new things to voice

that adds value to one’s

organizational objectives

Using creativity as a tool to form

a new product, process, etc.

Initiating new directions

Proving the credibility of their

new idea

Willingness to risk the possibility

of team rejection in search of

better ways of doing things

What makes athought leader

5

3

2

1

4

SANJIV KUMAR

VICE PRESIDENT & GROUP HEAD - HR ■ PEOPLE GROUP


COVER STORY

concept of leading without titles. While the companydoes provide its employees titles on their businesscards which fulfils an identity need outside and aresponsibility need inside, Mahalingam says, "We believeeveryone has to be a leader and behave like a leader.Our leadership developmentframework has four tiers: (1)Personal leadership for allemployees; (2) ProgramLeadership; (3) BusinessLeadership and (4) Strategic orInstitutional Leadership. Evenindividual contributors need tobe a leader and behave like one.Our belief is if "people can leadfrom any chair"- it does nothave to be a managerial chair!"This explicit belief that "peoplecan lead from any chair" isshared widely in theorganization, enablingSymphony employees to tapon their leadership skills.

The company rewards itsemployees for initiatives onvarious programs, processes and organizationalinitiatives where employees have lead despite theirfunctional titles. In fact, in a product engineeringcompany like Symphony, says Mahalingam, everyday isfull of experiences for our employees who lead without

big titles. There is no obsession with titles, no holycows in the organization, people can have a point ofview and share it freely and the only measurement ishow these initiatives created by people help theorganization further its commitment to its clients.

Furthermore, the companyhas a culture that toleratesmistakes and draws lessonsfrom it rather than punishingit. This again reinforces theculture of leading without titlesfor Symphony employees.

Employees taking leadsWith decades of flashy titling,there were some instances likethe one in 70s (mentioned onww.firstconcepts.com) thatexhibited a worker who leadwithout titles. When a generalmanager from a restaurantindustry began working for abicycle distributor in the 70'she decided to learn this newindustry from the ground level

by starting off with the warehouse. He took off his coatand tie, and put on a khaki uniform. During his workin the warehouse he saw that the warehouse manager(named Jake) and his assistant (named Jared) wouldsometimes leave the warehouse to attend management

Bottom-up leadership is called as 'informalinfluence', which is a kind of suggestionbox material that is fed to the real leaderswho will decide upon its fate. Also, in thisleadership, a leader begins challengingupwards without antagonizing superiors.Here, the leader needs subtle influencingskills to lead people who don't report tohim/her. And any organization that dependson rapid innovation requires all employeesto exhibit leadership and the lower one is inranking the more one's leadership needs tobe directed up the line. In fact, bottom-upleadership is commonly thought leadershipin knowledge intensive businesses.


COVER STORY

meetings or handle special problems. After they wouldleave, he noticed that the productivity would slow downand the coordination between pickers, inspectors andpackers would break, although, only for a short while,as Sam, a warehouse worker would step up to fill theleadership void and soon thewarehouse would again startits activities as before as ifJake and Jared had never left.No one had asked Sam to dothis, but, the workers didfollow him and did whatneeded to be done despitethe fact that Sam neither hada title nor any authority toperform this role. In differentindustries such Sams' standup and lead their fellowworkers. If they don't,performance would suffer.The organizations whichdon't have Sams' to step upto the role go down thedisaster lane. Practically, thepeople with titles cannot bepresent every minute to leadthe team, thus, organizations do require its entireworkforce to exhibit leadership, if not at all times, but,at least certain times.

Previously, known as 'informal leadership', a tagutilized to portray employees who take chargetemporarily in their teams throughout organizationsregardless of having no formal authority over anyone

has now taken a growing interest in form of companiesnot just giving opportunities to its employees to lead,but, expecting them to lead. For example, at SaskenCommunication, who have been following this practicefor years with the 'single status' concept (a story that

Human Capital covered in itsOctober 2002 issue) for all itsemployees cites a few of themany cases where itsemployees have been leadingwithout titles. Rameshnarrates: One of the assistantmanagers from the internalcommunication team cameup with an idea for acentralized and integrateddatabase that would addressneeds of the HR team,business managers andemployees. This need wasidentified through his casualinteractions with HR teamand employees; he shared theidea with the respectiveteams; worked crossfunctionally to convert the

idea into action. He was driven by the idea and solutionto an admin issue that would impact ESAT and increaseoperational efficiency. This had nothing to do with hisrole as an assistant manager from communications.This and several other ideas and initiatives that havecome through this employee are just driven by theneed for making a difference and creating change.

Even engineers havecome up with newprocesses and ways ofdoing things withintheir projects tomeasure and increaseproductivity; someengineers have comeup with employeeengagement ideas,which were passed onto the right personnel,although the engineerssupported and workedwith them toimplement these ideas.Lead engineers andproject managers hadtaken up the role ofinternal trainers andinvolved themselves increating content anddelivering behavioraltrainings to theirpeers and juniors. AnL&D manager usedthe method ofappreciative inquiry as

More and more companies have begun torealize that thought leadership is the mainpar t of becoming a successful marketleader. Organizations like Cisco arefocused on educating prospects throughthought leadership. At Cisco it is pertinentthat each of its executives establishesand develops himself/herself as a thoughtleader by ways of public speaking, blogs,whitepapers, etc. so that the collectivethoughts, ideas and vision of its people -which may be potent and often interesting- do not remain trapped inside thecompany, but, are harnessed further.

Canon PST training exercise discussion on different types of decision makers

in an organization


HC

a practice, by constantly using it andreinforcing it with his team and otherleaders he interacted with. The fact thatnone of the above things were a part oftheir regular roles, but, focused oncreating a difference, making a positiveimpact and becoming a crucial part inthe growth of the organization. Saskenbelieves anyone can bring in change, caninfluence, initiate, bring in an idea, athought, bring people together for apurpose and make a difference. Theseattributes don't essentially tie into aspecific role or title…anyone who wantsto can lead…

Since Sasians take leads throughforums, committees, team sessions, etc.wherein they contribute their ideas andsolutions for business and technology andon operational issues; by sharing bestpractices; by influencing customers withtheir thought leadership; by initiating newpractices within their team, project ororganization wide; by stretchingthemselves to involve in initiatives beyondtheir role for the organizationalbetterment; and by developing demos for futurebusiness prospects during their spare time out of theirown interest - creates a knowledge work environment,the fast rate of change and fosters the now critically

significant factor of innovation which leads tocompetitive advantage. An associated theme that comesto mind here is that of self-organizing teams wheremembers instinctively take the lead rather than relying

COVER STORY

Ad Vyaktitva Repeat

C. MAHALINGAM

EVP & CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER ■ SYMPHONY SERVICES


on formal leaders.At Symphony, people take leads at workplace

through many initiatives, too. For example, any onecompetent and talented can be an internal trainer; bestpractices can come from anyone in the company andthey share it; and thirdly since it has a strong culturefor innovating for its clients, any employee can file anidea and get it examined for its potential to become anIP. Over 70% of our employees participate in this andhelp build an innovative organization, revealsMahalingam. He says, "We view our organization as anetwork of critical processes and the process ownersare employees with knowledge on this process. Thus,process ownership and improvement does not call forany hierarchical title. While title free organizations area bit of a far cry, I think the real success lies in creatinga hierarchy-less culture. Our continued emphasis onwhy and how people can lead from any chair is a keyvalue we cherish and practice."

Examples of some of the employees at SymphonyServices demonstrated thought leadership and itsresultant dynamics: A Lead Consultant for a newbusiness of Symphony Services got involved in variousactivities related to business development: pre-sale;business planning and sales technical support; providingtechnical support (in areas he wasn't an expert at, but,developed skills over a period of time); defining andimplementing processes; interviewing for technical andsales positions. For this Lead Consultant, this resultedin pride, heightened self-worth, a sense of being trustedand a promotion.

A Technical Lead at Symphony Services activelyparticipated in process development, businessdevelopment/presales, energizing and inspiring hisjuniors. Irrespective of his title, in order to get workdone, he would overcome all hurdles. The TechnicalLead was able to create higher ambitions for himself,which resulted in self-confidence and sense of pride

for the company and, of course, hegot his promotion as a manager.Another example at SymphonyServices is that of a ProgramManager who took several initiativesin the innovation program of thecompany and got to virtually headit. He also trained people of thecompany on project management.The Program Manager derivedimmense satisfaction of maintainingand growing business criticalinitiatives and inspiring people. As implied before and shownhere with examples, thoughtleadership in combination withinnovation can yield high riskrevolutionary products to significantchanges in operating procedures fororganization, and, in the processindividual growth and development,at both professional and personal

level required for any leader.

Challenge in IndiaThe idea of leading without titles does sounds greatand ahead of times. However, given the Indian context,treading on this would require some caution. For anaverage employee, the personal and social identityrevolves around "designations and titles", saysMahalingam. Thus, many organizations in India - smalland big - experimented with broad banding and fewergrades/hierarchical levels such as Band A, B, C and D.And employees were pigeon-holed into one of these.Nevertheless, given the expectations that employeeswanted to get a sense of advancement reflected throughboth titles as well as job responsibilities, organizationshad to revisit their strategy and introduce more andmore titles and designations inside the bands. So forexample, Band D may represent an individualcontributor role, but, employees wanted to witnessgrowth in titles, such as, in the IT sector, softwareengineer, senior software engineers, module lead andtechnical lead and the like. The appetite for changingand bettering titles once a few years is an inevitablepart of the psyche of Indian employees. So, a title freeenvironment is a bit of a stretch, he views.

Despite our Indian mindset, the truth is thatleadership has nothing to do with one's position ortitle. A person can be a great leader without any title.In fact, the most successful companies have people ineach function working along side others with the samepositions who assume leadership roles every day. Thebest example people can learn from of leading withouttitles comes from the movie 'Rocket Singh, Salesmanof the Year' where the protagonist recruits his otheroffice members and offers the same level he is at,irrespective of the fact that one of them is a salesmanager and the other is a peon in the company theywork in together. HC

COVER STORY

Claris-Jaanbaaz


GLOBAL HR

Exploring the role of organizational culture and

cultural compatibility in an M&A transaction.

culture assessment in a

cross country deal

By Kulin Patel & Anuradha Sriram

issues due to which most marriages fail includeincompatible personalities or financial hardships. Ittakes respect, effective communication, as well as acommon set of goals to build and sustain a futuretogether. Isn't M&A much like that? Not surprisingly,in a Survey of Forbes 500 companies, CFOs assessed'incompatible cultures' as the top challenge in achievingsynergies.

The challenge and success factors for achievingdeal value in M&A transactions are largely aligned andconsistent as below1. Effective due diligence to ensure that the risks,constraints and liabilities in the business are understood2. M&A readiness3. Selection of the top team4. Effective leadership from top team5. A well executed employee communicationprogramme6. Integrating pay, rewards and benefits7. Change management, and

he business activity of a Merger andAcquisition (M&A) may be likened to amarriage. Couples need to fully understandeach other before they commit to marriageand ensure some success in their lifetogether. Statistics have shown that topT

8. Cultural alignmentIn all these factors, cultural alignment is rated as

the most challenging people issue. Towers Watson'srecent studies also indicated that clashes betweendisparate corporate cultures can be a barrier tosuccessful post merger integration. It was found thateven though strategic and financial aspects of a dealare taken into account, socio cultural aspects can resultin acute inter organizational conflicts and mismatchesbetween HR and managerial policies and practices.

What defines the culture of an organization? Itcould be taken as the sum total of the following sixaspects:-1. Leadership2. Mission, objectives, values and strategies3. Organizational structure4. Brand promise5. Programmes, policies, practices and6. Work environment including national culture

Unmistakably, the culture of an organizationmanifests into customer experience, shareholder valueand business results. In a cross country deal, theorganizational culture of the buyer and seller could beastonishingly divergent on fundamental and strategiccounts.

In addition to the differing cultures, the buyer could


GLOBAL HR

be faced with varying reactions of different employeecadres ranging from resistance and insecurity toenthusiasm and expectation.

Cultural alignment takes time. Employees go througha change process that puts culture and engagement atrisk. Towers Watson's global research indicates thatacquisition related activities carry a 10 percentage pointengagement risk - which equates to a 2.5 percent pointrisk in lost net profit margin and a 4.1 percent pointrisk in lost operating margin, easily costing anorganization millions.

Benefits of culture assessmentIn order to ensure that these differences areunderstood and managed to maximise short- and long-term deal value during an M&A activity, numerousstudies have discussed the importance of proactivelymanaging organizational culture.

Culture assessment is the first stage of creating anintegrated high performance culture and informingpost deal integration strategy and programmes. Theuse of an assessment tool to understand the currentculture would make the process more structured androbust. Such an understanding can be used effectivelyto align with the objective organizational culture byplanning for:-● Leadership actions that will define vision, mission,values and the brand

● People/ HR systems that will include performancemetrics, pay, benefits, staffing and selection, learningand development, etc.● Organization structure and● Work environment that will set the right contextthrough strategic communication, workshops etc.

Many cultural diagnostic and analytic tools can beconsidered to provide objective data. These tools canbe used for a variety of purposes, including:-● Towards the early stages of a deal a culturaldiagnostic can ascertain a "go/no-go decision"● In developing integration plans, the tool can helptarget specific areas warranting added emphasis● During integration it can be used to monitorprogress, and identify specific issues requiring finetuning● Understanding and manage integration in thecontext of country/national culture

These analyses would provide real "business"insights, moving beyond what may be perceived as"soft" analysis.

In order to effectively assess the cultural fit withother organizations, it is important to begin by explicitlyarticulating the existing culture of the buyingorganization. Through a web-based activity such asTowers Watson's Culture Alignment Tool (CAT), this canbe done by asking leaders to rank order defined culturalattributes that best describe their own organization. Atypical corporate cross match tool could be as follows:-


The advantage of the culture assessment tool isthat it ensures that such an assessment is integratedseamlessly with the due diligence process and hasstandard attributes that can be customised to thespecific industry. As the culture of an organizationcomes largely from its leadership, adding these fewculture-related questions to the standard due diligenceprocess provides a valuable indication about the cultureand potential challenges to expect. This would help inproper planning for actions and assessment of theneed for change that will help address cultural gaps.

During the course of a culture assessment surveydone by Towers Watson during an M&A transaction, atypical response was "Currently the team is missing"Currently the team is missing"Currently the team is missing"Currently the team is missing"Currently the team is missinga sense of urgency and a lack of pro activenessa sense of urgency and a lack of pro activenessa sense of urgency and a lack of pro activenessa sense of urgency and a lack of pro activenessa sense of urgency and a lack of pro activenesswhich puts a lot of additional pressure on seniorwhich puts a lot of additional pressure on seniorwhich puts a lot of additional pressure on seniorwhich puts a lot of additional pressure on seniorwhich puts a lot of additional pressure on seniorstaff members to push team members to achievestaff members to push team members to achievestaff members to push team members to achievestaff members to push team members to achievestaff members to push team members to achieveresults and keep promises to customers. This isresults and keep promises to customers. This isresults and keep promises to customers. This isresults and keep promises to customers. This isresults and keep promises to customers. This iscausing an engagement issue with the good staff"causing an engagement issue with the good staff"causing an engagement issue with the good staff"causing an engagement issue with the good staff"causing an engagement issue with the good staff".This feedback gave excellent insight on the level ofresponsiveness of the second tier of management and

showed the need for instilling a sense ofresponsibility and creativeness at all levels ofmanagement.

Another typical response was "XYZ has very"XYZ has very"XYZ has very"XYZ has very"XYZ has veryinefficient, silo internal processes and toolsinefficient, silo internal processes and toolsinefficient, silo internal processes and toolsinefficient, silo internal processes and toolsinefficient, silo internal processes and toolsas well as poor cross team relationshipsas well as poor cross team relationshipsas well as poor cross team relationshipsas well as poor cross team relationshipsas well as poor cross team relationshipshence the bad customer experience. This ishence the bad customer experience. This ishence the bad customer experience. This ishence the bad customer experience. This ishence the bad customer experience. This isdue to product development programmes wedue to product development programmes wedue to product development programmes wedue to product development programmes wedue to product development programmes werush to complete with meagre funds andrush to complete with meagre funds andrush to complete with meagre funds andrush to complete with meagre funds andrush to complete with meagre funds andresources. These programmes do not takeresources. These programmes do not takeresources. These programmes do not takeresources. These programmes do not takeresources. These programmes do not takethe time to implement strong businessthe time to implement strong businessthe time to implement strong businessthe time to implement strong businessthe time to implement strong businessprocesses to support the products."processes to support the products."processes to support the products."processes to support the products."processes to support the products." Thisfeedback clearly gave some understanding ofthe lack of planning and budgeting processesfor product delivery.

While the cultural assessment tool is anefficient way of eliciting these responses, it is

also critical that it is handled in the right manner, byasking the right questions to the right people anddrawing the critical conclusions that would provideadditional business insight over and above the tangibleasset value.

The following illustration demonstrates how atypical culture assessment would show where there isalignment/misalignment to high performance culturesfor specific business strategies.The assessment results would then be used to:-● Engage senior leaders in assessment of current anddesired future culture● Identify areas of agreement/disagreement betweensenior leaders and facilitate achievement of consensusaround future culture attributes● Prioritise areas of change, benchmarking againstother companies with similar strategic profiles● Identify customer focus activities● Finalise on Performance management and incentiveschemes

● Develop a communication strategyaround priorities, goals, and values The findings would serve as aframework for developing a mergermonitor to assess the extent to whichthe current organizational culturesupports the strategic goals andemerging change plans, and theeffectiveness of the integration activity.In addition, the monitor could bematched against the high performingcompanies' strategies to understandkey areas where there areshortcomings. For example, if customer service isidentified as a top strategic priority forthe merged entity, the key culturalattributes essential for this orientationcan be identified and assessed. Theseattributes can be guided by the targetculture and the strategy adopted byhigh performing companies in thatsector.

GLOBAL HR


Case studyA typical case study of cultural assessment was donefor a global pharmaceutical company where post-merger, the company needed to get everyone in thenew organization to think, act and feel like one company.They also needed to create a new common high-performance culture that was to be built upon the bestof both legacy cultures. The result was a culturalintegration programme, whose purpose was to:● Accelerate the integration process through culturalalignment● Promote the building of an identity for the newcompany● Inform and link the cultural integration programmeto future aspirations and strategy

Towers Watson was asked to design and roll out atraining programme that would motivate everyonewithin the new organization to live the new culture andwork towards the success of the new company.

Based on customer, employee and stakeholderfeedback, seven key behaviours were identified at theheart of the new culture. The programme commencedwith the top 150 leaders initiating the process followedby a phased approach to roll out these behaviours,focusing on two priority behaviours in the first phase.The implementation tools ranged from a one-day"culture integration workshop" to workshops that werebuilt on an action learning concept.

The result had an overwhelming impact with acomplete understanding and buy-in from leaders andmanagers as to what this new culture looks like and anall encompassing agreement regarding the new cultureand how this translates into expected behaviours. Thiswas also made possible by action plans from eachworkshop that were tied into the performancemanagement system.

GLOBAL HR

Ultimately, high-performing companies integratetheir values with the purpose (mission) and the cultureof an organization is about values, purpose, corebusiness principles, behaviours, structure and practices.While the inner core elements (values) tend to beenduring, the outer elements (practices) will evolve.

Truly world class organizations synthesize thesecultural attributes that they want the organization toemote into brand value like the name Tata evokes"Trust". These attributes are ingrained in the system bythe leaders by1. Converting them into organization valuepropositions like in Towers Watson where "Excellencein all we do" is a value driven top down2. Incorporating them in the performance objectivesof employees3. Include them as part of the audit and reviewprocesses4. Periodic communication driving these culturalvalues, and5. Create that sense of pride and belonging in thatone culture

Hence where organizations grow throughacquisitions it is critical that the existing culture of thetarget is assessed and aligned to the corporate culturethat is the identity of that organization. So whilemultinational organizations may be different in thelanguage, customs and practices of people in differentcountries a common thread of corporate culture wouldtypically unite them together. Leaders use the corevalues and principles to guide decision-making andestablish appropriate structures and practices to deliverbusiness strategy.

Kulin Patel, is Head-Benefits Practice, Towers Watson India and Anuradha Sriramis Regional Head-Western Head, Benefits Practice, Towers Watson India

HC


In a conversation with Human Capital, Pamela Craven, Chief

Administrative Officer of Avaya reflects on the how Avaya creates

its 'Futuremakers' to contribute in building its advanced business

communications systems which shapes Avaya's future.

INTERVIEW

futuremakerBy Arva Shikari


INTERVIEW

Futuremakers are people who:● are bold and take informed risks - they are originalthinkers, make connections and are ready toexperiment to achieve success● make fact-based decisions in the interest of thecompany and the customer - with a strong externalfocus, and a balanced view of the evidence available● respond with agility to competitive marketconditions - changing gears quickly to take advantageof opportunities as they arise● achieve cross-organizational effectiveness -leveraging collaboration to make more informeddecisions, a more inclusive approach and better teamcohesiveness● act empowered based on strong ownership andpersonal accountability - people who stand up and arecounted, making quick decisions in an action-orientedenvironment● are transparent and use constructive confrontation- they show unwavering integrity, build meaningful,trusting relationships, and show a willingness to graspthe nettle and boldly diffuse tensions

What are the methods in which an identifiedWhat are the methods in which an identifiedWhat are the methods in which an identifiedWhat are the methods in which an identifiedWhat are the methods in which an identified'Futuremaker' employee is trained to achieve his/'Futuremaker' employee is trained to achieve his/'Futuremaker' employee is trained to achieve his/'Futuremaker' employee is trained to achieve his/'Futuremaker' employee is trained to achieve his/her full potential?her full potential?her full potential?her full potential?her full potential?Our main focus is on sustained performance andpotential for the future. The purpose is differentiateddevelopment to enhance business performance. It isdirectly linked to both the development and careerplans for employees and employee engagement.Increased employee engagement leads to increase inproductivity. A key aspect of the five conversationsoutlined above is to identify the development paths forassociates, and to focus in particular on those with thehighest potential to make a significant difference.

As part of the company's strong performanceculture, regular review sessions are used to assess thepotential of associates and ensure that the highestperformers are given the right opportunity to grow.

What arWhat arWhat arWhat arWhat are the differe the differe the differe the differe the different opporent opporent opporent opporent opportunities givtunities givtunities givtunities givtunities given to Aen to Aen to Aen to Aen to Avvvvvayaayaayaayaayaemployees to drive them towards innovativeemployees to drive them towards innovativeemployees to drive them towards innovativeemployees to drive them towards innovativeemployees to drive them towards innovativethinking and develop industry leadership so thatthinking and develop industry leadership so thatthinking and develop industry leadership so thatthinking and develop industry leadership so thatthinking and develop industry leadership so thatthey come into the category of 'Futuremakers'?they come into the category of 'Futuremakers'?they come into the category of 'Futuremakers'?they come into the category of 'Futuremakers'?they come into the category of 'Futuremakers'?Avaya has individual development programs that aremanaged throughout the year with an associate'smanager or coach. These developmental programsidentify key career development goals and bothassociate and coach work consistently to achieve them.The big focus is on on-the-job training anddevelopment. Additional areas of focus include clearsuccession planning, opportunities for mobility andprograms like the Institute Site Leadership Programand Employee Activity Teams which help in cross-functional development.

What kind of innovative business communicationWhat kind of innovative business communicationWhat kind of innovative business communicationWhat kind of innovative business communicationWhat kind of innovative business communicationtools have some 'Futuremaker' employees come uptools have some 'Futuremaker' employees come uptools have some 'Futuremaker' employees come uptools have some 'Futuremaker' employees come uptools have some 'Futuremaker' employees come upwith? How successful are those?with? How successful are those?with? How successful are those?with? How successful are those?with? How successful are those?The list is long! We have filed over 6000 patents fromAvaya Labs globally. India started contributing to the

Avaya Inc. is a global leader in enterprisecommunications systems. The companyprovides unified communications, contactcenters, and related services directly andthrough its channel partners to leadingbusinesses and organizations around the

world. Avaya employs approximately 17,000 peopleworldwide, including 2,500 research and developmentprofessionals. We find out how Avaya creates a band of'Futuremakers'.

Who is a 'FWho is a 'FWho is a 'FWho is a 'FWho is a 'Futuruturuturuturuturemaker' at Aemaker' at Aemaker' at Aemaker' at Aemaker' at Avvvvvaya?aya?aya?aya?aya?At Avaya, we consider all our associates to be potentialFuturemakers. We expect our people to be the drivingforce for innovation in business communications,focused on delivering the future now. Being the globalleader in advanced business communications systemsrequires having the right team of people building onthe past and shaping the future.

Futuremakers are people with the self-confidence,knowledge, and ability to imagine the future and thengo out and create it. By joining Avaya, our associatesjoin a world of Futuremakers. This is a world ofinnovation, of performance-culture, of fast-pacedchange, of pushing back the boundaries of what ispossible, to deliver the vision of tomorrow to ourcustomers.

How do you detect a 'Futuremaker' employee?How do you detect a 'Futuremaker' employee?How do you detect a 'Futuremaker' employee?How do you detect a 'Futuremaker' employee?How do you detect a 'Futuremaker' employee?We have a new approach to help build the Futuremakerpotential of all our associates. We call it the fiveconversations. These are conversations every associatewill have with his or her coach/ manager, aroundfuture potential, development and delivering againstthe goals and ambitions of the company and theindividual. In those five conversations we talk about:● Strategy: helping associates understand thecompany's strategic decisions and how their worksupports attainment of our strategy● Results: ensuring associates understand their resultsin terms of performance against objectives,demonstrated behaviors and overall business impact● Rewards: assessing the individual as part of anemployee-centric organization that has a performancerelated approach to rewards and recognition.● Talent: identifying which organizational andindividual skills, capabilities, and competencies arerequired to realize our strategy and mapping theindividual associate appropriately● Capability: ensuring associates have the necessaryskills to do their job effectively and know how todevelop needed competenciesNot everyone in the organisation is a people manager- but everyone has the potential to be a leader. Leadersmust constantly develop and improve themselves tohelp drive success for the broader team. Theconversations are helping to identify and nurture theleadership potential of our associates.

In what way does your 'Futuremaker' radar help inIn what way does your 'Futuremaker' radar help inIn what way does your 'Futuremaker' radar help inIn what way does your 'Futuremaker' radar help inIn what way does your 'Futuremaker' radar help indetecting the rdetecting the rdetecting the rdetecting the rdetecting the right 'Fight 'Fight 'Fight 'Fight 'Futuruturuturuturuturemaker' emaker' emaker' emaker' emaker' for Afor Afor Afor Afor Avvvvvaya?aya?aya?aya?aya?A Futuremaker needs to display certain key attributes.


pool just last year and has filed over 60 patents in thefirst year alone. Fundamental to, many of ourinnovations, is a platform we call Avaya Aura™.Introduced in 2009, this system has revolutionized theway in which the business communications architectureoperates, enabling a company's existing infrastructureto be leveraged, thanks to the open standards of theSession Initiation protocol (SIP) to drive real-timecommunications and collaboration. Avaya Auradecreases costs, hardware and managementrequirements to the business while increasing flexibility,accessibility and collaboration for employeesthroughout the enterprise.

The Avaya Agile Communications Environment(ACE) uses an open Web Services approach to facilitatethe development of communications-enabled businessapplications to speed business workflow. This meansthat a company's existing business systems - payroll,supply chain, production, financial systems etc. - cancommunicate with one another more effectively,delivering crucial productivity gains and cost savings.

The context-aware next-generation contact centeris redefining customer service levels as companies seekto differentiate their offerings and safeguard their mostvaluable asset - their customers. Avaya solutions forsmall and medium businesses (SMBs) are deliveringthe advantages of big company communicationssystems at a price that matches the needs of smallerplayers. Our data solutions are delivering the always-on, scalable, efficient networks that large and smallcompanies need to run their businesses.

None of these game-changing solutions would befeasible without an intense focus on innovation - andwithout the Futuremakers that drive that innovationengine.

HHHHHooooow does the legacy of innow does the legacy of innow does the legacy of innow does the legacy of innow does the legacy of innovvvvvation at Aation at Aation at Aation at Aation at Avvvvvaya mouldaya mouldaya mouldaya mouldaya mould

new grads in the direction of inventing new waysnew grads in the direction of inventing new waysnew grads in the direction of inventing new waysnew grads in the direction of inventing new waysnew grads in the direction of inventing new waysof communicating?of communicating?of communicating?of communicating?of communicating?The focus of Avaya Labs - our global innovation engine- is on leading the next generation of real time businesscommunications. Innovation at Avaya is accelerating,with multiple product announcements, roadmapdevelopments and new solutions announced in theeight months since our acquisition of the NortelEnterprise Solutions (NES) business closed. Central toour innovation focus is the notion of people-centriccollaboration. Avaya technology supports seamless,context-enabled interactions that enhancecommunications to deliver customer service gains,productivity improvements, and easier access toinformation any time, anywhere, anyhow. People needto be at the center of these interactions with thetechnology serving their needs, not vice versa. This represents a fundamental shift in the waybusinesses communicate - a shift brought about, inpart, by the Futuremakers in our organisation. Acustomer that calls into a contact center does not wantto be pushed from one agent to another, or stuck inan automated voice-prompt system, unable to havehis/her query resolved. So at Avaya, our innovationteam has turned the contact center on its head toensure the customer sits in the middle of the interaction.The agent can bring in an array of resources - experts,additional applications, customer history and contactpreferences to ensure that the customer receives theservice s/he deserves. Our new grads come into an environment wherethe status quo is not taken as a measure of success. Inan industry which evolves at breakneck speed, thinkingout of the box, challenging norms and constantlyseeking 'next-generation' enhancements are the actionsthat drive success.

There are a number of innovations that have come

INTERVIEW

Futuremaker program


out of our Avaya Labs centre in Pune. The team herehas made significant contributions in newer paradigmsin customer service using video, building user interfacesfor next generation endpoints and providing richconference control on mobile endpoints, to name afew. We hired over 100 grads from Tier A and B collegeslast year.

How do employees view this 'Futuremaker' programHow do employees view this 'Futuremaker' programHow do employees view this 'Futuremaker' programHow do employees view this 'Futuremaker' programHow do employees view this 'Futuremaker' programand how excited are they in participating in it?and how excited are they in participating in it?and how excited are they in participating in it?and how excited are they in participating in it?and how excited are they in participating in it?Avaya has had tremendous response from employeeswho are a part of this program. The program is criticalto our new recruitment and to ongoing employeemotivation and development. Everyone wants to bepart of an organization which is driving the future. AtAvaya we are pushing the frontiers of what is possiblein the business communications environment and everyassociate has the opportunity to share in that innovationculture. One of the programs called the AmbassadorProgram that has been launched engages employees tobecome the key users of our new products. Avaya alsouses social technology to share thoughts and guidanceon our new products with other employees.

One program we used to good effect at the timeour acquisition of the NES business was a 'learningmap' exercise for all our associates. Over the course ofa couple of weeks, all our associates engaged in agroup-based activity which assessed our current and

INTERVIEW

potential market and competitive position, assessedour routes to success, focused on the value of ourintegrated company, discussed the role that thebehaviors outlined above would play in our success -and helped outline the key attributes of a Futuremaker.The feedback was positive, and the fact of having ourentire workforce focused on discussing the best possiblestrategy for the company was a very powerful tool.

How has this program been a benefit for theHow has this program been a benefit for theHow has this program been a benefit for theHow has this program been a benefit for theHow has this program been a benefit for thecompany's bottom line?company's bottom line?company's bottom line?company's bottom line?company's bottom line?The Futuremakers program has helped to reinforceAvaya's performance culture. It encourages allassociates to display the attributes which drive success,and helps to reward innovation. Associates evolve aspart of a future-looking employee developmentprogram. Some of the key benefits are more focus onperformance, increased retention of key staff, bettercustomer satisfaction through enhanced servicedelivery, an environment which encourages newinnovation and the evolution of a people-centricapproach to business.

Avaya is currently investing around 16% of it globalsales revenue on R&D. In order for that R&D investmentto bear fruit, the entire organisation must be focused onachieving results, on translating that innovation investmentinto sustainable, profitable growth. That is what ourFuturemaker program will help us to deliver. HC

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training through effective techniques

that are best in the industry


aspects, Kotak Life Insurance (KLI products, effectivecommunication, etiquettes concerning differentcultures, selling skills and recruitment skills. "Integralto this training is also a patented process at KLIwhich is a need based sales approach through acustomized process which we call as cue cards whichessentially enables a person to identify a customer'sneed areas," says Anand Dewan, senior vice president,sales & management development training of thecompany. Illustrating further, he says, insurance is aproduct which invariably is not sold to the customer.Dewan identifies two ways of selling. Either it can bea sales driven process, which traditionally has alwaysbeen ? where a sales person is trying to, for the lackof credibility, push the product to the customer. Forexample, 'I have an excellent product and give me 10minutes and I'll tell you all about it and over the nextthree minutes in a single long breath I give away allthe products features, download irrespective ofwhether the customer understands or not'. Here, asales person who doesn't know a customers needs,background, and financial situation, how can he/sheclaim that it's the best product for the customer?And, insurance is a far more personalized decision.Thus, KLI's sales approach is more customer centricrather than focused on 'skilling' the sales person, and,by default one is doing what is right for the customeras against the traditional approach. The process ofcue cards is to capture various thought processesthat any customer would have, which usually they donot share upfront like 'insurance for me is securityfor my family just in case anything untoward happens;insurance to me is a means to save in a disciplinedmanner so that in future my children don't have aproblem, it is a means to me like say if I look at a planof 10 or 15 years, 'x' amount of money should beavailable to me'. Now these are the thoughts insidethe customer's mind, but, if the sales person onlyfocuses on 'I have a great product for you', thesethoughts never come out. "So cue cards are a meansto get into the customer's head. That's what the entiretool is about, as it puts all these scenarios in front ofthe customer," emphasizes Dewan.

Once these scenarios are put in the customer'smind KLI's sales executive requests if any of those arein his mind currently and would he want to pick up2 to 3 areas which he thinks are priority for him.Once the customer picks up ? for example his child'sfuture, his retirement and ensuring his family is secure? his three main need areas, then the sales executivefrom the chosen cue cards shows only those KLIproducts that actually meets the customer's needs.This makes much simpler for the sales person tofocus on the customer's needs rather than talk aboutwhat is good about the products. Thus, KLI hasadopted a process where the focus is totally on whatthe customer needs are and then see how the productmeets those needs, which is what cue cards are allabout. In fact, the company has taken the lead ondeveloping this need analyzer based technique for itssales team to pitch in their sale of insurance policies/

financial investments according to the customer'sneeds much before the law got enforced.

The cue cards system is a five step process. It's a4R certification process that the company follows forits sales managers and they are supposed todemonstrate these five steps in reality to use the cuecards. From it the first one is to rapport build.Whenever sales executives go with the cue cards afterthe introduction they will say "investment decisionsare customer's personal choice, I have come here tohelp you in making a decision. I cannot say that thismay be the best product for you. We have studiedcustomer priorities in the last 3 years and I will tellthe top ten priorities and you just have to tell mewhat your main priorities out of these are. Then youcan decide which product best suits you, but, evenafter that, if you feel you do not want to buy aproduct you are under no obligation to buy it. So,with your permission may I begin?" Thereafter, thesales executive walks the customer through the cuecards which have questions like Security and peace ofmind for life? Dream home? Dream car? Yourretirement? The customer collects a number of cuecards so the sales person requests him to decide orpick the priority ones from the selected cards like topthree out of five. Once the customer selects the topthree cue cards (which are customer's need areasthat have been identified the sales person will say"Thank you for choosing these cards. I have certainquestions to ascertain your current investments whichenable me to give you the best product. Please mayI ask some basic questions?" "Invariably since thecards are chosen by the customer, the customer wouldwant to know," avers Dewan. The questions are askedto lead the customer to his/her choice of priorityproduct. Since each cue card has a question andbehind it are the KLI product that corresponds withthe customer's need here the sales person doesn'thave to struggle to remember the products forsuggesting it to the customer. "That's the cue thatthat's why they are called cue cards," says Dewan."Although, cue cards are standard," says Dewan"customer needs are different and they will emergefrom the priority. And the priority is zero backedtowards the product which we have and that's wherewe have customization."

To instill the entire process and as a part of theseven days induction Kotak Life Insurance trains itsfront line sales managers for a half a day on cuecards. In half a day one hour takes for delivery andwalking them through the five steps. Then, they arebroken into small groups of say two to perform a roleplay with each other and they have to practice it fivetimes, which takes around an hour and a half. Then,each one has to present or demonstrate the cue cards,for example, one person has to act as a customer andthe other one as a sales person. While demonstratingthey are rated by the trainer on a scale of 1 to 3 - 1means was not able to demonstrate, 2 means wasable to demonstrate but needs handholding, 3 meanswas able to demonstrate flawlessly throughout the

TRAINING


call. Therefore,whoever gets a threegets instantly certified.People who get a 1 or 2have some more daysto present as cue cardstraining comes aroundthe third day in theinduction module. Forexample, if someonewasn't able to presenton the third day, thenthere is an option ofpresenting on the 4th,5th, 6th or 7th day. But,if someone is unable topresent even on the 7thday then there is a needfor concern and thatsales person does notwalk away with the cuecards and after amonth that salesperson will appear atthe branch. Thecertified ones (almost10% of them get it on the first day and the others getit in minimum 4 days get the cue cards which are indifferent languages - English, Hindi and Gujarati -depending upon which location one is handling -north, west and south. The company is looking atother regional languages too like Tamil, Telegu, Marathi,etc. as it plans to take it across other locations. Infact, cue cards are undergoing through a change inSeptember 2010 as new products will be added andmost existing products are undergoing through changeaccording to the new guidelines. Thereafter, the cuecards will become much smaller in size," informsDewan.

For monitoring the effectiveness of the salestraining program the company with the help of aradar that captures all the data and sales MIS is pickedup every month end for monitoring sales managersresults on regular basis. The radar will show theperformance of 3 months before the training, onemonth after the training, second month after training,third month after training, just like a tracker.

As far as challenges are concerned, says Dewan"People who have been long in the industry havemindsets like what is this process? This process willnot work?" As a trainer he has observed that thehigher the success, lower is the receptivity in a salesperson. If someone has been successful in gettingbusiness the traditional way then he/she feels that'sthe right way and why should I look at your process,thus, sales training becomes challenging for successfulpeople. "In contrast, sales people who are morereceptive are the least successful and that's the balanceone needs to maintain," implies Dewan. However, ifsuccessful people use the cue cards process thensales multiply, and Dewan wishes such people can see

the benefit. Since this is a process driven activity, forexample, Dewan says, "Sales people are not supposedto speak anything built up like if the cue cards sayProtection for Family and the sales person says familyis very important, you must take protection for yourfamily, here, the sales person fails in using the cuecards correctly as the sales person is not supposed tosell what is on the card, but, know what's on thecustomers mind, but, many sales people out of habitof speaking tend to get carried away." As a trainer forDeawn it is difficult to control, but, he empathizes asthey are so used to selling the conventional way thatit is difficult for them to get used to KLI way. "The daya sales person learns to accept a 'no' from thecustomer the conversion ratio starts improving,"opines Dewan. In fact, every sales call begins with acustomer's 'no'. Another challenge in using cue cardsis some 10% of customers are well informed aboutinsurance policies/financial investments so they maynot value the process and just skip it entirely.

Canon IndiaSince Canon India is a sales organization and itsproduct is its strength the company generates revenuesprimarily by selling off the product to end customerswhich is either sold to the direct customers, as wellas through channel partners. Thus, Canon has armeditself with its new training model of front line salesteam since it is extremely important for its sales teamto be effective on the field. Monica Chetal, thecompany's senior manager, people excellenceexplains: in order to increase their sales forcecompetencies, it is very important that theorganization trains them on the right selling skills,along with appropriate behaviors to be demonstrated

TRAINING

Anand Dewan in cue cards session


TRAINING

on the job. Selling alone is not sufficient, she stresses;they need to have thorough knowledge of the productas well. "Keeping this in mind, we have a verycomprehensive sales induction module for ourfrontline staff as well as managers," avers Chetal.

Canon's frontline sales team programs are dividedinto two broad categories: Enterprise SolutionsDivision (ESD) - for the direct sales team and BIS IDCDivision - for the indirect channel. Each of thesedivisions is further divided into two types each. TheESD program is divided into front line sales staffprogram and the sales managers program. The frontline sales program has three levels that comprise salesskills, product knowledge and necessary soft skillsrequired on the job and the managers' level focusespurely on managerial aspects. Level I training is for 11days and is meant for new hires/ frontline staff joiningthe team; Level II training which is of eight days is forthe existing frontline sales staff; and Level III trainingwhich is of 11 days is for sales managers.

In Level I training out of 11 days Canon dedicatestwo days on iR Essentials that talks about the productin detail; one day is spent on Basics of Color that tellsabout the product features in detail. Both the aboveprograms are imparted by the way of actualdemonstration of the product along with theory sinceit ensures better understanding. Two days are forProfessional Sales Training (PST) which covers what isa selling cycle, how to focus on a customer, how toconduct telephonic and canvassing calls, how tounderstand customer needs, handling objections, andprocess of performing closures and three days are forCMJ Training which is for understanding what issolution sales, advanced preparations, understandingcustomer needs, understanding the process workflow,objectives of the company, how company's goalsshould be oriented towards customer goals, and aftersales support to customers. The last three days oftraining focuses on - one day on account relationshipmanagement (I), which includes understanding thesignificance of relationship and its impact on business,importance of credibility and relationship in business,understanding ways to build credibility, and assessreal life cases and situations; one day on internalCanon processes; and one day on corporate finessethat involves business etiquette, fine dining, businessattire, and power dressing.

ESD Level II training includes SPIN for two daysinvolving questioning techniques, feature-advantage-benefit of the product, and selling technique of aproduct. The module IST which again is of two dayscovers the general workflow of six different industries- advertising, banking, education, insurance, legal, andlogistics in detail, critical documents required, whatare each industries pain areas and key opportunities.One day is spent on Champions of Color coveringproduct color features in detail, with a hands-onsession and three days concentrate on Building SalesEffectiveness and Efficiency which includes how tomake effective negotiations; factors impactingnegotiations; sequence of sales presentation; making

powerful impact during presentations; andunderstanding customer perception cycle.

The BIS IDC program also has three levelscomprising of programs related to channelmanagement, account relationship management, andrelevant soft skills which are necessary to bedemonstrated on the job. The managers' level purelyfocuses on managerial competencies. Here Level Itraining is of eight days for frontline staff, who areterritory holders; Level II which is of three days ismeant for new as well as existing frontline staff; andLevel III training which lasts for 10 days is for salesmanagers.

Besides training on iR Essentials, Basics of Color,internal Canon processes, and corporate finesse as inESD's Level I, two days training is imparted on channelmanagement including decision making process ofpartners, understanding points of diversion,understanding points of success, and strategydiscussion for partners; and one day oncommunication and presentation which comprises ofbasics of communication, effective communication,unearthing customer requirements - probing andhandling customer objections. In Level II, apart fromSPIN training Canon has a module on Finance forNon-Finance for a day that includes basics of finance,choosing channel partners, and the criteria to be keptin mind.

Both these programs (ESD and BIS IDC) areconducted by internal sales and HR trainers as wellas external vendors. These programs comprise of testsand certifications. Tests are conducted at variouslogical points and the minimum passing score to moveonto the next level is 70%. The performance in thesetests gives Canon a fair idea about the understandingof participants on various modules covered. "Also, atthe end of the training program, we take feedbackfrom the participants," says Chetal. The trainers haveto have a rating of at least 9 on a 10 point scale. Thistells us about the effectiveness of the trainingconducted.

"To customize Canon's training model," saysChetal, "completely with its business requirements,we first identified the key competencies required tobe demonstrated on the job for the front line salesstaff and managers of both these divisions." Further,she elucidates, "These competencies were discussedin detail with the concerned division heads. In fact,we had multiple rounds of discussions with somefront line staff members, a few managers, and thedivision heads in order to understand the challengesbeing faced by them on the job. Then the facilitatorswere given a download of the same and the contentwas worked upon. The case studies which arediscussed during these sessions are real life challengesfaced in Canon context. This gives a betterunderstanding of the situation to the staff and theyare able to relate in a better manner. In addition, tothe training programs sales trainers spend time withthe sales staff on the field for a few days and evenshadow the staff that needs help so that in case of any


gaps the same can be closedimmediately."

Claris Lifesciences

LimitedBeing in a serious and criticalbusiness of manufacturingand marketing of life savingdrugs Claris Lifesciencescustomers include highprofile medical professionals,for that, it is very critical forits sales force to have in-depth product knowledge,positive attitude, and humblebehaviour and of course,excellent selling skills. Hence,the company invests heavilyin the development of itssales force. "Moreover, weare a merit and value basedorganization and believe inpotential of our teammembers, which again by itsvirtue help us drive learningand capability enhancementinitiatives," adds ShyamSharma, president, HRM &corporate communicationof the company.

For its sales team, ClarisLifesciences training modelrevolves around enhancingthe 'skill' and 'will' -managerial skill, leadershipskill, communication, andattitudinal and behaviouralaspects that ensureswholesome development ofteam members and in turngrowth of business. ClarisLifesciences training modelfor sales team includes a'Jaanbaaz' program for front-line sales members (i.e.medical representatives - Claris Lifesciences calls themTSEs ? territory sales executives) for getting promotedto managerial level (i.e. TSMs ? territory salesmanagers) and 'Saksham' program for front line salesmanagers for getting promoted to regional salesmanager (RSM) and 'Daksh' is a managerialeffectiveness training for second line managers i.e.RSM for their further development to national salesmanager and above.

'Jaanbaaz' refers to those fighters who are readyto put their lives on stake for a cause; and to identifysuch fighters the company initiated 'Jaanbaaz' trainingprogram aimed at the wholesome development ofmembers whereby they can learn and internalize softskills and positive attitude, feel young within and fightagainst all odds, explains Sharma. Under this program

each member undergoes rigorous training includingclassroom and outbound trainings of 16 hours a dayfor 10 days (divided into two modules of five dayseach once in a quarter). The program covers learningdimensions like communication skill, interpersonal skilland overall personality development using techniqueslike management games, role plays, case studies,presentations, assignments, in-basket trainings,exposure visits, meditation, and physical exercises.This encourages participants to introspect, discoverand realize who they are, what they want to become,their will to work diligently, their hidden aspirationsand the fire within.

Saksham, which means capable, aims at developingthe front line managers through functional andmanagerial skill enhancement inputs. Each managerundergoes nine days of training (divided into three

TRAINING


modules of three days in each quarter). The programcovers learning dimensions like defining roles andresponsibility, leadership skills, coaching and counselingskills, planning and time management, teamperformance management, customer mapping, andemotional intelligence through use of case studies,group presentation, movie screening, facultypresentation, assignment to develop sales roadmap, etc.

Claris Lifesciences ensures that transfer/implementation of learnings is happening. For thiscritical aspect of training the company has anevaluation framework built on Kirkpatrick's 4-levelevaluation model that (a) captures immediate reactionsof participants through feedback; (b) measureslearning of participants in terms of advancements inskills, knowledge and attitude post training by takingfeedback from faculties; (c) confirms transfer ofacquired skills/knowledge on field through feedbackfrom the trainee's superior and; (d) measures resultsin terms of improvement in productivity/quality. Toenable this, "We make the sales trainees put down anaction plan on how he/she will implement his /herlearnings at work. In addition, the HR team monitorsthe implementation of action plan through one-on-one discussions and regularly takes feedback fromthe trainees' managers," says Sharma.

Trainings can guide a person, resolve routinequeries and help identify potential challenges.However, when it comes to handling newer challenges

TRAINING

upfront, it becomes difficult for a person to follow setstandard methods. Hence, says Sharma, "We observecertain cases where trained members face problemsin meeting targets and combat the challenge bylearning from it at the right time and in the rightmanner." Further, he adds, "There have been incidentswhere members' managers have adopted differentstyle of working and new members have acquireddifferent views due to training."

Besides, challenges like difference of opinions,manager and member conflicts, etc. are usuallyresolved by the HR team who acts as a mediator andmentor to bring the member and manager on thesame plane through psychological treatments."Whatever challenges, our HR team keeps track ofvarious issues faced by members and tries toincorporate such issues in future trainings by way ofcustomization which helps in further enhancing ourtraining programs," informs Sharma.

Impact of trainingAccording to Dewan, the need analyzer method ofapproach is the principal differentiator from thetraditional sales approach. Around 94% of salesmanagers say that cue cards have helped them performtheir job effectively. In fact, the sales performance isaround 60%. Earlier the sales conversions were 1 in5 or 7 and now it's increased to 1 in 3. A sales managerfrom Delhi after using the cue cards felt it has amajor impact on the customer whose need is not

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identified. It is a great need analyzer. Another salesmanager experienced that the usage of cue cardsincreased his conversion ratio which is 1 on every 3calls now and previously he used to have a hard timeconvincing even those customers. One more salesmanager is of the view that cue cards are very effective,previously he had to convince the customer on hisneeds, but, now it hits the customer instantly and outof 3 calls he is able to convert 2 calls, which was notthe case before. Not only has the conversion rate goneup even the sales team comes back with morereferences. Dewan feels that with every new recruit thecompany can't send a trainer on the field, but, cansend a medium with the trained person which enableshim to do things himself.

Besides, the sales team, even customers haveappreciated this process. For example, NRI's have givenfeedback that they have traveled the world over andhaven't seen a process like this. They say, 'I gotinterested simply because the way I have be approachedabout it.' Even customers from other insurancecompanies, although they have need analyzers andfinancial calculators on the website they felt theyactually understood their own needs through thesecue cards. A doctor from Hyderabad commentedthat "this is a very non complicated, clear, customizedway that touched me. I have insurance policies but,I suddenly realized I had no policy for my children."A pilot from US who is an NRI said that he hasinsurance policies, but, he never picked up a policybecause he needed it. Also, people have been able tobuy the right insurance cover, not lower or higher i.e.the customer is able to pick up the right investmentwhich he/she actually needs. "So the sale value alsoincreases," says Dewan.

Kotak Life Insurance plans to take this from itscurrent pilot initiative to mass level and expects anincrease in sales performance of at least 25% to 30%and sustain at 50%.

On the other hand, Canon's sales training programssuccessfully ingraining key skills of selling, negotiations,product knowledge, importance of grooming, creatingpresentations for customers that have impact, in-depthunderstanding of Canon's sales management tool, iCAN,understanding of channel business, and managingaccounts has helped its front line staff to a great extent."The sales team feels that they now understand thecustomer and his expectations better. The training hasalso aided them in understanding the sales flow well.In addition, they are able to suggest options/ alternativesto the customer since they have detailed knowledgeabout the product," explains, Chetal. Not only the frontline sales team, even the managers understand how tomanage their teams effectively in terms of coachingthem, enable them with advanced negotiationtechniques, aligning division and team objectives withthe organization goals.

Claris Lifesciences cites several cases wheremembers have written to its HR team about theirimplementation of learning and how they achieved

TRAINING

results. One of the TSE's from Rajkot met 45 doctorsin February 2009 and shares one interesting doctorconversion for the 'Únibag' product on his first call.The doctor was interested in quality products likewhich Claris Lifesciences offers, so the TSE detailedhim about 'Unibag' but, the doctor was worried aboutthe price of 500 ml variant. The TSE immediatelyresponded with confidence: Your OPD has 40 patientsper day, and if daily, out of 40, even if five patients canafford it, it will be good enough. Hearing this, thedoctor got convinced and he ordered for 24 Unibags.The learning from Jaanbaaz helped the TSE increasehis confidence and convert the call into a sale. A TSMfrom Ludhiana realized the value of time, which wastaught during the Jaanbaaz program when he met adoctor who was always busy. When the doctor wasgoing towards OT the TSM asked him: Doctor, pleasegive me your precious 30 seconds. In that period theTSM briefly explained about the products and in turnthe doctor gave the TSM the next day's appointmentfor order booking. The TSM feels that learnings fromJaanbaaz helped him boost his enthusiasm. Anotherinteresting example is of a TSE from Junagarh. Priorto Jaanbaaz training the TSE had avoided meeting theowner of a medical agency at Upleta who used topurchase a competitor's product. However, afterattending Jaanbaaz, the TSE somehow convinced theowner to meet him once and understand hisrequirements. During the discussion the ownerrevealed that he buys the competitor's product as thecompany gives him products on two months creditterms. The TSE shared the actual market rates andthen offered the medical agency owner products at5% less rate from his current billing rate, which heagreed upon and placed an order with ClarisLifesciences within 10 days.

One of the TSMs from Ludhiana was able to useorganizational systems for development of territoryand achieve business tasks after he went throughSaksham training. Another TSM from Kerala was ableto make calls effectively that converted key doctorsinto Claris Lifesciences customers who previously usedcompetitor's products. After undergoing throughSaksham training an ASM from Delhi was able tosharpen his knowledge on how to use power and whento use authority.

In terms of statistical data, half of the sales personnelthat went through Jaanbaaz training are now managersafter a year or two. In terms of sales productivity, theaverage productivity of each Jaanbaaz every monthhas increased by about 45%. Likewise, even Sakshamtraining has ensured fulfillment of 60% requirementfor second line managers from within. "The overallanalysis highlights the fact that the retention ratio, too,has improved considerably, on account of trainings.Barring a few, most of the trainees have shown fairgrowth with output reaching to their potentials," aversSharma. It is indeed true for Claris Lifesciences thatinvestment in people leads to their involvement andalignment with organizational goals. HC


the dilemma within:

parody or

paradoxThe case discusses about the individual

decision making dilemma of an executive

when more than one good option are

available. It also discusses the opportunities

and problems related to permanent nature

of mentor-mentee relationship.

CASE STUDY

It was 7 O'clock, Thursdayevening. Professor NarendraBhai Thakkar is busy in hisfaculty room of InternationalBusiness Institute (IBI),Hyderabad in uploading

By Manas Ranjan Tripathy

semester grades after a gruelingthree hour MDP session onHuman Capital Management. Hewas getting restive as he has towork on a case for next day'smorning session. Suddenly, hewas interrupted by one of theMDP participants requesting himfor few minutes of his time", Sir,Iam thrown into a complete stateof disarray. May be, -- you maybail me out of this situationconsidering your expertise inmulti-criteria decision making ".He narrated his predicaments.The story goes like this-----

Lokesh Reddy, in his latethirties presently works with amulti national consumer durablecompany Kee International as aJoint Manager and takes care ofafter sales and services at


CASE STUDY

agreed. He had never been to north. Culturally he feltat a distance and local Language was a majorproblem.Initialy he was jeered at by his colleagues andcustomers for his lack of understanding of Hindi anddistorted pronunciation. He even resented the termMadrasi being attributed to him by colleagues.However;he could overcome the linguistic and cultural barrier ina short span and assimilated well. Under the tutelageof Venkatesh,he grew professionally and made significantcontribution to the organisation.He was very much partof core team of Venkatesh and was involved at everystage of planning and coordination though junior enoughin the hierarchy. Apart from his routine after sales andservices job,he was also assigned to build dealer anddistribution network. He helped Venkatesh preparingperiodic corporate presentations considering his innateunderstanding of product, market, channels anddistribution network. He worked almost seven days ina week. During his third year at Alfa,he was awarded asbest employee of the Northen region and was promotedas an executive.However,all was not well at workplace.His larger than life image was resented by many. Hisproximity to Zonal head earned him unwanted suspicion.Some colleagues even maintained a safe distance fromhim. Seniors in the hierarchy including his reportingsupervisor never liked his acquaintance with Zonal head.Allegations of regional favourtism were leveled as bothVenkatesh and Lokesh were from the same state. Someeven complained serious breach of authority structurein the hierarchy.

In the beginning of 2004, Venkatesh resigned fromAlfa and left for Singapore to join a Japanese firm.Heagain asked him to join him. The profile was good andthe offer was quite lucrative.However, Lokesh had hisown set of obligations. His wife was working in a publicschool and he had to take care of ailing mother. Hepolitely declined the offer citing thesereasons.Soon,Lokesh had to face numerous obstaclesat work front. He was reduced to a mere lower levelemployee with no consequence. The autonomy andsupport he enjoyed earlier seemed like a distantdream.His boss at that time Mr Rakesh Datta who wasnot in good terms with Venkatesh made him a softtarget. Rakesh and Venkatesh were contemporaries toeach other and were having similar academic background.His job profile was changing in everyquarter.He wasnot allowed to maintain any further relationship with

CMYK

Manas Ranjan Tripathy is a Professor in HRM area with IBS, Hyderabad. He has nearly fifteen years ofcombined experience in academics and research. PhD in Human Resource Management from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan.He was also a recipient of Junior Research Fellowship of UGC. He has also conductedseveral behavioural training programmes for reputed public and private sector organisations.He has beenalso a resource person for number of FDPs for different National level institutions and member of professionalbodies like National HRD Network and Indian Industrial Relations Association. He has contributed andreviewed papers for several reputed National and international journals. His academic and research interestinclude individual and organizational learning, high performance culture, case pedagogy, cross- culturalteams and social dialogue process in organizations and communities.

MANAS RANJAN TRIPATHY

PROFESSOR (HRM AREA) ■ IBS, HYDERABAD

Hyderabad. He supervises a team of twelve employeesincluding two Assistant Managers and reports to Regionalmanager of same vertical in Andhra region. He has adiploma in Electronics Engineering and having nearlyfifteen years of work experience in consumer durablesector. He hails from Nizamabad district which is fewhours journey from Hyderabad. He was known for hisfrankness in airing his views and never compromisedwith his work. He has just completed second year at hispresent organisation. He had shown remarkable diligenceat his present job. He is liked by his team members andhaving very good personal equations with his boss. Hemaintains cordial relationship with dealers of his areaand earned all-round appreciation for his sincerity andcommitment. The customer complaints have droppednoticeably during the year due to his personal care andprompt redressal of grievances. He was recommendedas employee of the quarter recently. Last month hisefforts found a special mention and were hugelyappreciated by Mr Manji, state head of Kee Internationalin a function organized to felicitate a handful ofemployees for superior performance.

Lokesh started his career in a small manufacturingfirm at Vishakhapatnam and worked at shop-floor as asupervisor for four years. Mr Venkatesh who wasproduction manager of the unit noticed this promisingyoung man in the beginning and personally nurturedhim.Venkatesh was a BTech from a premier institutionand was regarded as a good team leader and dynamicmanager. He was instrumental in successfullyimplementing ISO at the unit. Venkatesh was in his latetwenties at that time.Lokesh enjoyed considerableautonomy and support. He did well at his work and waspromoted as a supervisor in due course. He was alsonominated by Venkatesh to attend advanced trainingprogrammes number of times and was consulted inmatters related to production. His innovative ideas helpedraising the operational efficiency of the unit resultinghigher production for which he got recognition includingcash award. In the mean time,Venkatesh left for higherstudies and returned back to India after completion ofone year executive MBA from a well known universityin UK.

Venkatesh joined electronics major Alfa Inc as zonalSales and services head for northern region in mid1999.He asked Lokesh to join him at Gurgaon .Lokeshthough initially hesitant to relocate to North finally


CASE STUDY

various stakeholders in the process including dealersand distributors of the company. Day and night he washounded. Any constructive suggestion from his side wasmet with jeers. Rakesh Datta even onceremarked"Lokesh, you should know yourlimitations. You are a diploma holder. There aremany people in the system who are engineeringgraduates from premier institutions and havingrich professional exposure". His ratings suddenlydropped from excellent/very good to fair andaverage. In an appraisal discussion HRmanger Mr Sarkar who happened to be aclose friend of Rakesh remarked"Lokesh,your performance is deteriorating day byday. I wonder how you managed excellent/very good rating over the years".Lokeshprotested and stated his expectationswithout blaming anyone whichevoked no positive reaction from thepanel. The matter didn't end there.He was given responsibility of farflung areas for which he had to travelalmost or even more than 150 kms ina day. All these had its obvious toll onhis family matters. He was not able tospend time with his growing kid, neitherable to take care of his mother properly.

Lokesh finally decided to leave hisjob at Alfa after these harrowingexperiences for two years. He joinedanother company Xeta India which wasmuch smaller in size than Alfa as Deputymanager- services based at Noida.XetaIndia's operation and market base waslimited to North India more so inNCR(National Capital Region).Fortunatelyhis wife was also got a teaching job ina nearby locality. He shifted to Noidaalong with family.His office was locatedadjacent to production facility of XetaIndia and he soon got additionalresponsibility of production planningand quality assurance besides aftersales services. Lokesh took up his newjob seriously.He was short listed soonto promote a concept selling productwhich was new in India but priced 30%more than the conventional product. The infrastructurefor extending after sales service and product knowledgeof the end user was very less.

In fact, the core group consisting of four peopleneeded to develop the entire infrastructure to promotethis new product into the market. The core group startedworking under the supervision of Vice-President MrNand Kumar who had 10 years exposure in Marketingand Sales at Dubai. Lokesh had to devote more time onthis new assignment that had the support of VicePresident.

It was a matter of sheer coincidence that Xeta Indiawas taken over by Alfa Inc in 2007 and the unit was

renamed as Alfa plus. The people in company wereapprehensive of unforeseen circumstances. Due to this

sudden development many people includingthe Vice- President resigned from the

company owing to differences of opinionwith the new management even thoughhe was rated as an efficientorganiser.The new managementappointed Rakesh Datta as sales and

services head for Alfa Plus who in turnreported to Zonal Head of sales and

services of Alfa Inc.The new developmentwas just like bolt out of the blue for Lokesh.He

was visibly disturbed hearing this news. He knewthat it would be difficult for him to get along with

Rakesh considering his earlier biases. Moreover,Rakesh had strong likes and dislikes for noapparent reasons and was temperamentallyautocratic in nature.Lokesh suffered again andhad to bear his daily tantrums. He was eitherdeliberately called to office or sent on out ofstation duties on Sundays. The team whichwas headed by Lokesh was reshuffled withthe new members without him beingconsulted. Matters related to Lokesh wasexaggerated and he was shown in poorlight.One such occasion Rakesh evenhumiliated him before the juniors regardingnon compliance of status report of a quarterone day before the deadline. An upset Lokeshtook up the matter with Zonal head Rohtas

Kumar.He simply declined to intervene, ratheradvised him to short out the issues by themselves.

Venkesh, though working abroad, was in touchwith his former protégé through mail and socialnetworking site ORKUT.Lokesh had shared hisextreme differences with Rakesh and the state ofaffairs at the new entity. There were criticalreferences about Rakesh in theconversations.Lokesh had no inkling of thesurveillance. He got a letter from HR asking himto explain why action shouldn't be taken againsthim for disclosing internal matters to an outsider.A helpless and thoroughly dejected Lokesh finallyresigned and took up his present assignment atHyderabad.Last week he got a call from Venkatesh who

has then joined back Alfa Inc as National Sales andservices Head.Venkesh joined Alfa Inc two monthsbefore. He is in the process of restructuring andrebuilding his core team.Rekesh was sent packing toEastern Zone.Lokesh was offered a higher position ofManager with 30% raise in package and liberal benefits.He will have to take a call within two weeks. He is in astate of dilemma. Should he continue at his presentorganisation with a lesser package and lower grade?Should he relocate to North as his mentor is at the helmof affairs? He also wants to revive his old network, butfeels homesick; what should he do? The puzzle seemsto be getting murkier in each passing day.


CASE STUDY

Saikat Chatterjee is responsible for providing the overall strategic HR direction for SWA region and

offer HR support across South East & South West Asia hotels in areas of talent resourcing,

implementing employee engagement strategies, driving talent development interventions and

advancing the employer branding agenda in conjunction with the team from Singapore. Prior to

this, he was the Director of Talent Development at Crowne Plaza Today Gurgaon. Saikat has over 14

years of hospitality experience in handling hotel operations, training specialist roles as well as HR

generalist roles. He has been part of the IHG group for the past 3 years. Prior to IHG, Saikat has

worked with organizations like ITC Welcomgroup, Ananda in the Himalayas etc. Saikat is a hotel

management graduate and has also done his MBA with specialization in HR. His leisure time

interests include traveling, reading and spending time with family.

SAIKAT CHATTERJEE

MANAGER-HR ■ SOUTH EAST & SOUTH WEST ASIA, INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP

meaning of values/beliefs, priorities, and direction sothat everyone understands and can contribute. Oncedefined, values impact every aspect of yourorganization.

If you want the values you identify to have animpact, the following must occur:● People demonstrate and model the values in actionin their personal work behaviors, decision making,contribution, and interpersonal interaction.● Organizational values help each person establishpriorities in their daily work life.● Values guide every decision that is made once theorganization has cooperatively created the values andthe value statements.● Rewards and recognition within the organizationare structured to recognize those people whose workembodies the values the organization embraced.● Organizational goals are grounded in the identifiedvalues.● Adoption of the values and the behaviors that resultis recognized in regular performance feedback.● People hire and promote individuals whose outlookand actions are congruent with the values.● Only the active participation of all members of theorganization will ensure a truly organization-wide,value-based, shared culture.

The increased focus on ethics, corporategovernance and corporate responsibility hasencouraged many organizations to establish codes ofconduct. From a wider economic perspective,implementing codes of conduct effectively andconsistently could improve organizational performanceand control, leading to fewer irregularities andcorporate scandals and a gradual build-up of trustbetween organizations and its stakeholders.

Role of HR in conflict managementIt is essential to probe and understand real issues.Organization leaders are responsible for creating awork environment that enables people to thrive. If turfwars, disagreements and differences of opinion escalate

Getting the foundations of an organizationright - the values and how do we embedthese values. Values form the foundationfor everything that happens in yourworkplace. Effective organizations identifyand develop a clear, concise and shared

into interpersonal conflict, the HR management mustintervene immediately. Not intervening is not an optionif you value your organization and your positive culture.In conflict-ridden situations, your mediation skill andinterventions are critical.

The best way to resolve conflicts is throughnegotiations. The two negotiating approaches that aregenerally practiced in organizations are distributivebargaining and integrative bargaining. Distributivebargaining leads to win-lose situations whereasintegrative bargaining leads to win-win situations.Some useful actions to avoid in conflict resolution:● Do not avoid the conflict, hoping it will go away● One should not believe, for even a moment thatthe only people who are affected by the conflict arethe participants.● Do not meet separately with people in conflict

In such situations, one should mediate and resolveconflict in the following ways:● Meet with the antagonists together● As the supervisor, one must own some of theresponsibilities for helping the employees resolve theirconflict

Mediating a conflict is challenging, but as a manageror supervisor, the role of mediator comes with yourterritory. Your willingness to appropriately intervenesets the stage for your own success. You craft a workenvironment that enables the success of the peoplewho work there. I believe you can learn to do it.Conflict mediation is an example of "practice makesperfect."

Developing & grooming leaders is important

to maintain sanctity of the organization Linking and aligning organizational values and missionwith individual goals and interests leads to betteremployee satisfaction and thereby lesser attrition rates.This positivity is reflected in employee dealings withcustomers. When employees feel happy from within, itenhances their performance as also their pride andcommitment towards the organization.

It is important to define rules of business… who isa good performer? What are the criteria: results-focusedversus behavior-focused, what's versus the how's?

Risk taking ability of successful individuals is thekey. More than the ideas, execution is really the key forsuccessful results.

CMYK


Fall out of lifelong mentor-mentee relationshipA mentor's job is to help the mentee reach her goals.The relationship is mentee-centered. The mentorlistens, sometimes challenges, offers insights andencourages. A mentoring relationship needs reasonablyfrequent and consistent contact. As a dialogue, it isinteractive. Both partners contribute, change and grow.An informal mentoring relationship often just happens,like on my bus ride. Someone takes an interest in us,or we in them. A formal mentoring relationship has anacknowledged commitment of time and energy for thepurpose of guiding and sharing. Both types can be forspecific projects or for extended time periods.

Mentoring is not counseling, being a buddy or aparent, nor is it telling the mentee "how it is done inUnited Methodist Women." Poor mentoring can beworse than no mentoring. Poor mentoring damagesself-confidence and drains enthusiasm.

The mentor-mentee partnership is a dynamicrelationship that is unique to each pair of individuals.A mentor and mentee may decide to have an informalrelationship, one that evolves without a great deal oforganization and planning, or a formal mentoringrelationship that is well-defined.

Mentoring is often used to prepare lower-leveland mid-level managers to move up the ladder. It isa leadership training program that goes beyond thetraining class to teach and model the desired skills/knowledge and behavior. Of course it is also used inaide/student, beginning teachers/senior teachers, andundergraduates/graduates at the university level.

It is important also to recognize what a mentor/mentee relationship is not. While it is a closerelationship, it is not a friendship. The mentor is nota psychiatrist to solve personal problems. It is not justtwo people hanging out and spending time together.

Jan Cummings tells the story of a woman of Chineseheritage with and MBA who worked in a large bank.No matter what she did she couldn't get a way froma position that only used her financial and technologyskills/knowledge. She wanted to become more involvedwith the business of the bank. She was assigned amentor who was an expert in Credit. Through therelationship she was not only able to learn more aboutcredit issues but she was able to become more visible.Later on she was able to transfer to a lending area thattargeted the Chinese community. After that she movedto another bank in charge of an internationaldevelopment division.

In another company where mentoring was notworking, it was discovered that all the mentees werewoman and all the mentors were men. It wasdetermined that male-female issues produced problemsthat were not resolved at the first meeting. These issuesmay have contributed to keeping the relationships ona superficial level.

Matching the mentor and menteeThe success or failure of mentoring is closely tied tohow well the mentor/mentee are matched. Most

sources agree that a mentor should not be the directsupervisor of the mentee or that they even be from thesame department if that is possible. If the personalitytypes are tremendously different, there may beproblems with the relationship. In addition there mustbe a sense of win-win in both the mentor and thementee. Both should want to participate. Thisrelationship can stretch over months or even years.

Special care at the beginning in matching the mentorand mentee, as well as the use of written MentoringAgreement signed by both parties and clear evaluationexpectations at specific times are all vital to the successof a mentoring program.

The value of mentoringThere are advantages for both in the relationship. Thementee will certainly benefit both personally andprofessionally from the intervention. The mentor willlearn or refresh their knowledge simply by having toteach and answer questions about it. In addition thementee can provide knowledge about other areas ofthe organization as well as provide a useful way to spotfuture talent for the mentor.

Mentoring has proven to be a useful tool inretention of employees. It has also shown to strengthen.It is also a form of recognition and reward to thementee. It helps both the mentor and mentee recognizetheir abilities and limitations and highlights areas forfuture development. It can increase motivation in bothmentor and mentee Performance has been significantlyimproved by all these outcomes.

Mentoring is usually an internal intervention, butthe guidance in advising and setting up a program caneasily fall to the performance technologist. There area number of excellent reasons to advise a mentoringprogram. It is an excellent way to build the talentbench in succession planning. It supports diversityprograms so minorities can learn unspoken rules andnorms. Mentoring is an excellent vehicle for generalcorporate career development. It also allows theparticipants to build relationships across functionaldepartments and up and down the corporate ladder.Finally it helps to increase the retention of employees,especially "high potential" employees.

Mentor-mentee relationship could be lifelong, itdoes not have any major fall outs. One should considerhaving more than one mentor who has differentexpertise and can help the individuals in dealing withmultiple situations and succeed in different situationsand environment.

A key characteristic of a good mentor is his/herability to encourage the mentee's self-confidence. Thosewho have been mentored well say the most helpfulaspect is the "I-know-you-can-do-it' attitude of thementor. The mentor-mentee partnership is a dynamicrelationship that is unique to each pair of individuals.A mentor and mentee may decide to have an informalrelationship, one that evolves without a great deal oforganization and planning, or a formal mentoringrelationship that is well-defined.

CASE STUDY


What Lokesh should do?An individual can only succeed in an organization wherethe personal values and beliefs of the individual arealigned to the organizational values. Lokesh has beensuccessful in the past, showed initiative, worked beyondthe call of duty etc. He has the traits of an effectivemanager. His values include being open in expressingopinions, no compromise with work and is able tomanage all his stakeholders well. His motivators includeautonomy and personal achievement.

He got victimized at Alfa Inc due to professionalrivalry of Venkatesh and Rakesh. Suffered humiliationand eventually got demotivated. Had some challengesto adjust to the new environment and culture. Heshould continue at his company in Hyderabad. Successis not just about position or money but it is aboutwhere an individual feels motivated and engaged tocontribute. He should leverage his relationship withVenkatesh to get better at interpersonal skills, managing

upwards rather that just following him where he goes.

Lessons and implications from the case● Part of growth is to enhance your leadershipcapabilities.● Find out about the organizational values beforedeciding where one wants to work.● Don't just follow an individual; one needs to be selfsufficient.● Being successful is an organization is not justexcelling at technical skills but also being able to managethe political environment and understanding the powercentres as well as interpersonal skills.● Work towards improving working relationshipsrather than accepting whatever comes as fate accompli.● To grow in one's career, one needs to take risk andonce decision is taken work around ways of how onecan be successful rather than surrendering andeventually running away.

Inbavanan has over 28 years of experience in all facets of People Practice. His last corporateassignment which concluded in end-March 2009 was with Hewlett-Packard where he was Directorof Learning & Development function of a Global Delivery vertical across the world with a multi-national team of L&D Consultants directly reporting to him. He has worked in Polaris Software LabLtd., BPL Innovision Business Group, GE, GEC Alsthom, L&T, and Britannia. Since July 2009 he andhis wife have set up an independent consulting practice focusing on Organization Development andEffectiveness, Leadership Development, Business & Executive Coaching, Employee Relations andCounseling. Inba has a post graduate degree from Madras University specializing in PMIR. He is anaccredited Business & Executive Coach of Coaching Foundation India and a member of InternationalAssociation of Coaching. He is certified in MBTI, FIRO-B, and PI.

G. INBAVANAN

FOUNDER & CHIEF PRACTICE OFFICER ■ PEOPLE DIMENSIONS@WORK

Mentoring is a process for the informaltransmission of knowledge, social capital,and the psychosocial support perceivedby the recipient as relevant to work,career, or professional development.Mentoring entails informal communication,

pressure, learning can jump. Here the mentor choosesto plunge the learner right into change, provoking adifferent way of thinking, a change in identity or a re-ordering of values.4. Showing:4. Showing:4. Showing:4. Showing:4. Showing: this is making something understandable,or using your own example to demonstrate a skill oractivity. You show what you are talking about, youshow by your own behavior.5. Harvesting:5. Harvesting:5. Harvesting:5. Harvesting:5. Harvesting: Here the mentor focuses on "pickingthe ripe fruit": it is usually learned to create awarenessof what was learned by experience and to drawconclusions. The key questions here are: "What haveyou learned?" "How useful is it?"

If we apply the above definition and framework ofmentorship to the case of Venkatesh and Lokesh, it isevident that it will not qualify to be termed as a mentor-mentee relationship. There will always be employeeslike Lokesh and managers like Venkatesh inorganizations. This relationship works well as long asthe manager is in the same organization and theemployee in his team. Such employees become alterego of the manager and a very productive resourcewho help the manager to achieve their objectives. Inthe process, the organization does benefit. However,the critical question to be asked will be: "Is the employeebuilding up capabilities to independently deliver a high

usually face-to-face and during a sustained period oftime, between a person who is perceived to have greaterrelevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor)and a person who is perceived to have less (theprotégé)". (Bozeman, Feeney, 2007).

A study of mentoring techniques most commonlyused in business was published in 1995 under the titleWorking Wisdom. In the study, five major techniquesor "wisdom tactics" were found to be used mostcommonly by mentors. These are:1. Accompanying: 1. Accompanying: 1. Accompanying: 1. Accompanying: 1. Accompanying: This means making a commitmentin a caring way. Accompanying involves taking part inthe learning process by taking the path with the learner.2. Sowing:2. Sowing:2. Sowing:2. Sowing:2. Sowing: Mentors are often confronted with thedifficulty of preparing the learner before he or she isready to change. Sowing is necessary when you knowthat what you say may not be understood or evenacceptable to learners at first but will make sense andhave value to the mentee when the situation requires it.3. C3. C3. C3. C3. Catalyzing:atalyzing:atalyzing:atalyzing:atalyzing: When change reaches a critical level of

CASE STUDY


CASE STUDY

performance in the absence of the manager"? In thiscase it is evident that once Venkatesh is moved out ofthe picture, Lokesh is not able to perform in, what isa hostile environment created by Rakesh. In manycases employees like Lokesh keep following managerslike Venkatesh, wherever they go. In this case also,when Venkatesh moved to Singapore, he offered a jobto Lokesh. It was his family situation due to which hecould not take up the offer. While such a route tocareer development is not wrong per se, Lokesh needsto be convinced that this is the best route for him.However, Lokesh does well when he moves to a differentorganization and wins laurels which indicate to hisinherent capabilities and attitudes that make it possiblefor his high performance. It also means that Lokeshcan grow his career primarily through his capabilitiesand performance. Moreover, the environment in hiscurrent organization Kee International, is not onlysupportive, but also encourages performers like Lokeshby investing in their development. He has also beenrecognized at the highest level as a superior performer.Hence, when he has established so much in a shortperiod of two years, why should he leave to joinVenkatesh? While the offer from Venkatesh might lookvery appealing at this point in time, it cannot be viewedin isolation. In such situations an employee wouldbenefit if he takes a 3-Year view. Questions that Lokeshneeds to ask of himself to facilitate his decision are:- What is the time frame in which he can become amanager in his current company, if he sustains andimproves further his current performance?- What will be the total compensation and benefits inhis current company for a manager? How does itcompare with the offer from Venkatesh?- What are the risk factors in Venkatesh's joining thesame company again, Alfa Inc.?

If Lokesh were to dispassionately view the answersto the above question, and consider the organizationalculture and the support he has received in KeeInternational, the answer is very clear - he shouldcontinue in his current company. He should explainhis inability to move due to his personal position toVenkatesh and show it as a reason for not being in aposition to accept his offer.

This case also highlights critical issues that happenin organizations that impacts both organizational andindividual performance.

Manager as a coachIt is well researched and accepted that the manager isa very critical person in the career of an employee. Itis said that, "Employees join a company, but leave amanager" - Gallup. We are presented with threemanagers in this case study, viz., Venkatesh, Rakesh,and the Manager in the current company. What is therole that these managers played?VVVVVenkatesh:enkatesh:enkatesh:enkatesh:enkatesh: Lokesh had worked under him for thelongest period. While Venkatesh did contribute to hisdevelopment in the initial period when he was inmanufacturing, very little attention was paid to his

development when he moved to Sales & Service in AlfaInc. While Venkatesh provided opportunities, they wereall in terms of roles and responsibilities that ultimatelyhelped him deliver the business goals. Very little effortwas taken by Venkatesh to help Lokesh identify whatskills and capabilities he needed to develop to assumehigher responsibilities. Venkatesh also did not exposeLokesh's performance and capabilities to seniorleadership which could have helped him whenVenkatesh left the organization. In fact there wasconsiderable resentment and negative assessment thathad been created in the system due to the manner inwhich Venkatesh utilized the services of Lokesh. Hence,Lokesh was tied to Venkatesh and could perform andgrow only if he continued in the company in leadershiproles. If we assess Venkatesh through the lens of thedefinition and framework of a mentor articulated inthe beginning of this analysis, he does not qualify to becalled a mentor. To him Lokesh was not a mentee buta 'Man Friday' who could meet his needs and fulfill theobjectives of his Team.Rakesh:Rakesh:Rakesh:Rakesh:Rakesh: A very short-sighted and vindictive managerwho had the capability to drive away talent from theorganization. His inability to distinguish the capabilitiesof Lokesh and leverage him to enhance the teamperformance, thereby creating an opportunity forRakesh to move into higher responsibilities nevercrossed his thoughts. In fact as a Manager he loweredhimself by taking out his frustrations arising fromVenkatesh's success on one of his team members whoin no way contributed to Rakesh's situation. Hence, itwas not surprising that the company brought backVenkatesh to head the sales & service function for theentire company.

Current managerThe current manager has provided Lokesh with anenvironment where his best could be delivered forachieving the company's goals. Lokesh has not onlyperformed exceedingly well, but also in quick timeresolved some of the long standing problems relatedto service, thereby enhancing the company's imageamong its dealers and customers. His being adjudgedas a star performer within two years of joining thecompany is a big tribute to his current manager'scapabilities to identify and nurture talent.

Performance & talent management processesIn this case we see the play of two systems ofperformance & talent management: the first one beingthat of Alfa Inc., and the second of Kee International.The system at Alfa Inc., was driven more by personalitiesthan by an objective set of criteria applied uniformlyacross the organization. Otherwise, how can we agreethat when an employee has been consistently rated asa high performer and being promoted periodically inthe company, suddenly slips into low performance onthe change of a manager. In a robust system, Lokeshwould have been in the talent pool of the companydue to his consistent performance under Venkatesh.


CASE STUDY

Employees in this pool are nurtured for futureleadership roles. However, what we see is the vilificationof the high performing employee by a short sightedmanager, and the absence of system and processes tostop this from happening.

In Kee International, there is a more robust andcriteria based process in view of how in a short spanof two years, Lokesh has been able to not only perform,but also get recognized for the performance and beadjudged as a star performer. This is critical to buildinga high performance organization.

HR's role as an 'employee champion'According to Prof. Dave Ulrich's model, one of thefour critical roles that human resources plays in anorganization is that of an 'employee champion'.However, in this case we are witness to the HR managerwho is a close friend of Rakesh, actually conniving withhim in the systematic destruction of a high performingemployee and bring him to a situation where he wasforced to quit the company. In such situations, whenHR sees that a high talent in the company is in danger,it intervenes and provides alternative roles which couldtake the employee under a more supportive managerkeeping in mind the track record of the employee.However, instead of championing a high performerthe HR manager actually contributed to the exit of atalented employee. What credibility would HR have inthe organization when the HR head plays such a role?

Could Lokesh have done things differently so thathe could have continued to reap the benefits of hishigh performance and build a career? Definitely, 'yes'.

Firstly, one should not get so closely attached to amanager in a way that the organization looks uponhim as an 'alter ego' of the manager. A professionalwould ensure that he creates an independent identityof his that is separate from that of his manager.

Secondly, one needs to have a healthy, productiverelationship with one's peers and also ensure thatperformance is noticed by others and senior leaders.This is too critical to be solely left to your manager.

Thirdly, one also needs to focus on one's owndevelopment on a periodic basis. Lokesh should haverealized that his being a Diploma holder, would comein the way of his growth in Alfa Inc. Taking a leaf fromVenkatesh's action who went to UK to pursue MBA, hetoo should have enrolled in evening or distanceeducation programme for an engineering qualification.

The legendary CEO of General Electric, Jack Welchused to exhort his employees to, "Control your owndestiny, or someone else will". Now that Lokesh hasindependently established himself in Kee Internationalthrough his performance and prepared the foundationfor his growth and development; he should now focuson acquiring the engineering degree. Giving it all upto go and again work for Venkatesh would becommitting professional 'Harakiri' and remaining a'Man Friday' to a very successful manager all throughhis career. I personally do not see it as a very difficultdecision to make. HC

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so much initiative in maintaining the gardens.For those who are not familiar with the concept ofDIETs they were set up with the mission to provideacademic and resource support at the grass-root forthe success of the various strategies and programmesbeing undertaken in elementary and adult educationwith the broad objectives of teacher preparation &development, academic resource support, actionresearch in education and use of education technology.The National Policy for Education conceived DIETs asthe crucial part of a larger plan to decentralizeeducation to the district level.

At the DIET, the officials warmly received us andthanked us for being on time - the Principal of theDIET was a quiet, confident and humble but non-nonsense leader. While quickly climbing the stairs ofthe first and second floor he informed me that he hasjoined the Mandya DIET about 3 months ago and hassince reformed several processes. He was all excitedby the management development program (that isbeing implemented jointly by the Government ofKarnataka and Azim Premji Foundation) hasenormously helped in implementing some of thereforms and has re-vitalized the work force in theDIET and in the block and cluster offices.

My colleagues and I were pleasantly surprised withthe presentation of various initiatives made by themembers of the DIET and other administrative offices.We clearly sensed that the leadership has made thedifference in addition to the management developmentprogram. The Principal was responsible for terminatingseveral unproductive and wasteful practices andinfusing seriousness in the working of the team ofabout 100 people within and outside the DIET.Everyone seemed to acknowledge the same and was

excited to work with the Principal. While we werehaving the simple lunch that was organized, thePrincipal quietly told me that he was trying his bestto infuse cost consciousness among his staff includingin organizing lunches.

Our next appointment was with the CEO of theZilla Parishad (ZP) because our project - InstitutionalCapacity Building (ICD) for Mandya District includedstudying the role that the CEO-ZP office plays ininfluencing the school developing and monitoringcommittees (SDMCs)

Among the most striking features of his office wasthe prominent board outside his office giving his cellnumber with an inscription that he could be contactedby any person between 8.00 am and 10.00 pm for anygrievance, feedback or suggestion.

The CEO arrived a few minutes late and began hisinteraction with us by apologizing for the delay. Whatfollowed was a major learning experience. Hissimplicity, his commitment, humility and genuinedesire to contribute to the development of his districtwas evident through his perspective, actions and word.His assessment of the situation was incisive, candidand mature. Though he was narrating everything thatwas not in place or not right, there was no bitternessor rancour in his expressions. He was open indescribing the problems of corruption and went aboutexplaining the tendency of taking shortcuts evenamong the poor and disadvantaged and how manywell-meaning programs did not reach the targetedpeople etc. Through several meaningful steps, he wastrying his best to educate the panchayat membersand make things reach the poor.

The enormity of his job struck all of us. He hashuge responsibility without corresponding authorityand resources.

His focus is - how to make every rupee contributeto the original objectives of a particular program. Therange of his responsibilities is from education to healthto water, land and forest resources. It includesproviding finances to the disadvantages. Guiding,

he drive to Mandya was smooth - thanksto the new Mysore expressway. On the wayto the District Institute of EducationTraining (DIET) at Mandya - we came acrossbeautifully maintained, large gardens andwere wondering which authority is takingT

DILEEP RANJEKAR

The unsung heroes

FOOD FOR THOUGHT


coaching and mentoring the 200 odd panchayats inthe district to help the underprivileged people areintegral part of the job. And this CEO enjoys playingit to the hilt. His face was glowing while narrating tous - how many panchayat presidents call him on hismobile during a live meeting of the panchayat andhow he guides them to deal with a live problem duringa panchayat meeting.

There are several barriers - the biggest amongthem being the elected representatives - who frequentlycome up to him with unreasonable and illegal demandsand part of his satisfaction is how he is always ableto dissuade them from such unconstitutionaldemands. There was no bitterness in him for theirharassment. On the contrary he empathizes with themsince they too have pressures from their electorateand have to deal with several illiterate and ignorantmembers.

While speaking to him we also saw the woodenboard in such offices that records the severalincumbents in the office before this CEO - the averagetenure is approximately 2 years - which is grosslyinadequate for any CEO to perform with so manycomplexities. This particular CEO has barely been inthe office since May 2010 and yet has mastered thedetails of every complexity of the problems that he isrequired to address.

While he is valiantly trying to make a difference healso felt sad that "he did not have adequate supportfrom his office". Again he was not pessimistic abouthis work. He said, "God has given me intellect, staminaand the position. People have been very kind with me.And that is what inspires me to deal with several kindsof individual and institutional issues. I take joy andpride in taking calls from all types of people on mymobile from 8 am to 10 pm - after which I go tosound sleep with a sense of satisfaction! I don't knowwhat difference I am making - but am confident thatI am doing something good to the system!!"

During the conversation, we learnt so much of thelack of planning on the part of the State topManagement on vital issues such as watermanagement, public distribution system, the deeprooted corruption at almost every level of execution.We learnt how we as a society are digging our owngrave by recklessly destroying the environment aroundus - completely mismanaging the resources aroundus such as land, forests, water and air.

My colleagues and I had no hesitation in expressingafter the meeting - "This is the real CEO"!

If something good is still happening in thegovernance of our country, it is due to people like theCEO - ZP and the Principal of the DIET we met!They are our last hope even though we have lost faithin some of the highest authorities and institutions ofthis country.

Dileep Ranjekar, Chief Executive Officer of Azim Premji Foundation, is also apassionate student of human behaviour. He can be contacted [email protected].

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

HC

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he workforce in many developed economiesis ageing. Managing old workers is not thesame as managing young workers. Olderworkers are more prone to illness and areless productive in tasks demanding physicallabor unless the workplaces are modified toT

suit their needs. In a previous column we saw whatBMW, the auto company, and CVS, the pharmacy chain,are doing to make effective use of old workers. Thereare other challenges associated with old workers whenthey are being supervised by people younger than them.This is the subject of recentresearch by Peter Capelliand Bill Novelli summarizedin their book "Managing theOlder Worker". Capelliteaches at Wharton BusinesSchool while Novelli hasbeen the CEO of theAmerican Association ofRetired People.

Capelli & Novelli findthat old workers are notmotivated as much by thepromise of higher pay &promotions, nor deterred asmuch by the threat ofdemotion or termination.This is because they haveoften seen ups and downsand have limited needs.This makes it necessary tomanage them by logic,demonstrating superiorknowledge, and appealing to their experience and theirlove of their craft. Supervisors have to change theirmanaging style to accommodate these nuances whenthey manage a mixed-age workforce, treating them insome sense like volunteers.

Some supervisors can go to the other extreme andstop giving directions altogether, when it comes to oldworkers, assuming either that they already know what

to do or that they will resent active supervision andbecome less productive. This is wrong. Workers old oryoung need to be given clear instructions andappropriate performance feedback. Shying away fromthis can only lead to a poor performance from the oldworkers and the confirmation of a self-fulfillinghypothesis. Supervisors just have to do all thisdifferently for young and old workers. As a matter offact, there are areas where old workers may actuallyneed greater attention. Typically these relate to use ofinformation technology devices and tools.

Another factor inhibitingeffective supervision is thecultural bias against directingsomeone younger thanoneself. This is particularly soin Asia. Old workerscontribute to this as well asthey are drawn from the sameculture and expect greaterdeference to their views.Supervisors can accommodatethis partly by changing theirown management style asmentioned above and byproviding an opportunity toold workers to mentor youngones. This satisfies their needto advice, guide and shareexperiences. Properly handled,old workers can be effectiveresources for strengtheningand spreading the cultural gluethat binds organizations.

Finally, many managers shy away from consideringold workers because they assume that they will be, onthe average, more expensive than young workers. Thisis understandable. Till a certain age the marketcompensation rises with years of experience. Howeverbeyond that, if the nature of the job is not changing,this monotonic increase does not hold. Old workersplaying a second innings either to meet their limited

GAUTAM BRAHMA

Ageing workforce:Juniors managing seniors!

A POINT OF VIEW

“

“ Some supervisors can

go to the other extreme and

stop giving directions

altogether, when it comes to

old workers, assuming either

that they already know what

to do or that they will resent

active supervision and

become less productive. This

is wrong. Workers old or

young need to be given clear

instructions and appropriate

performance feedback.


needs or to just keep themselves active and engagedwith life, can be hired at levels comparable with theirmuch younger peers.

All this may seem a little unrelated to the Indianeconomy where we often hear of the 'demographicdividend' that assures an increasing supply of youngworkers well over the next two to three decades.However given the limited literacy, and the even morelimited employability of even the educated workers,there is a scarcity of trained and competent workersat many levels. Recently the news media has highlightedthe delays in infrastructure projects arising from thepaucity of the required human resources. The specificscarcity in technical trades like welding and fitting hasbeen commented upon. The reemployment of PSUbank employees, post-VRS, as contract staff has alsobeen noticed. Further, increased longevity and self-support compulsions arising from nuclear families, isdriving many 'retired' people back into employment ofone form or the other. Many small companies thatcannot find a full-time role for senior staff in certainfunctions engage older people in such roles asconsultants on call. These are effectively part-timeemployees shared with other companies.

Many Indian managers are already doing a greatjob managing older staff especially in blue-collar work.This expertise just has to be available widely across alltypes of industry. There is a subtle need for greaterexpertise even in managing blue-collar work. Manysuch managers inherit an older work force and dotheir best in managing it. They are often reluctant tohire older people or hire back retiring staff ascontractors. In an earlier column we talked of how leftto themselves, hiring managers tend to find a good setof reasons for hiring people younger than themselves.This will need change.

The need for change is not limited to line managers.HR managers will have to adapt to the wide variety ofwork arrangements under which old people arenormally hired. For instance what are the best rewardand recognition mechanisms for contract staff that isbeyond the age of regularization but is really a regularemployee in all but name? How should training, goalsetting and performance feedback be structured forpart-time staff that will always stay part-time? Howshould employee-friendly culture-building practices likelong-stay recognitions and birthday greetings betweaked for old staff?

There is a need for change in the C-suite as well.Senior managers should appreciate that theircompanies offer products and services that eventuallyget used by a mixed consumer base with gender, ageand caste variety. If their internal organization doesnot mirror that variety they will not be able to sustaineffectiveness in designing, delivering, promoting andsupporting these products and services. It is hard toleave out old men while crafting and selling offeringsfor others like them.

A POINT OF VIEW

Gautam Brahma is a management consultant.

HC


ishwanath Chatterjee, VP Human Resources,YZee Software, finds himself facing the biggestnightmare of any HR professional: expensive,difficult to train, retain and replace talentleaving in droves from some of the criticaldivisions of YZee despite his and his CEO'sB

best efforts. Bish, as he is popularly known, is a middleaged, sprightly man with a goatee and an engaging smilewho has been with YZee from its inception in India in2005. YZee itself is the Indian arm of a Silicon Valley firmof the same name, and is just 12 years old. It wasstarted by two American millionaires and an Indianprofessional to serve various industry segments withmission critical, last mile data security solutions. TheIndian has since cashed out but the Americans havesteadily expanded YZee, which today has a presence in15 countries around the world, including China, Thailand,Japan and Philippines in Asia. YZee believes in recruitingsoftware developers from the market with a couple ofyears under their belt. As Bish's boss Stephen Cork putit, "This reduces the cost of our training and moderatesexpectations of the staff that come in, because we aresure that we can offer a work environment which isbetter than what anyone can find in the market!" InIndia, YZee is organized into eight industry verticals,each of them contributing robustly to the total billing.This is remarkable and a testimony to Bish's HRmanagement and marketing prowess of the company.

This year, for the first time, the apple cart seems tobe in danger of being upset. Out of the eight businessverticals, four seem to be heading into a serious "talentcrisis". While none of the heads had quit, one has lost20% of the team in the last two months, another has lostthe deputy head, a real bright star with a great recordin the market, and the other two have had staff fromkey positions leaving.

Though the verticals are independent in their work,the work of one feeds the work of others. For example,the education services vertical's work is important to thesocial sector vertical. This is in addition to the marketreputation gained by every vertical doing good work andgetting recognised for its outstanding work by big clients.

Bish has had some difficult conversations withStephen over the last several months about thesedevelopments. The erosion of talent is having Stephen

really worried. His own conversations with outgoingstaff, middle managers and business heads has notthrown up anything seriously wrong with compensation,working conditions or career growth related issues.Those going out commented on the happy times theyhad in YZee and thanked Bish and Stephen forcontributing to their development. They had nothingbut good words for the company and its work climate,systems and procedures, performance managementsystems and hygiene factors.

Stephen and Bish decided to go out of the office fora full day retreat with the business heads to analysewhat exactly was going on. They got an externalfacilitator who drew up an agenda including small groupwork, doing some root cause analysis to answerquestions like should YZee go in for campus recruitmentlike other companies, should the incentives be raisedand whether there was a pattern and clustering to thepeople who were leaving. At the end of the day,Stephen and the business heads went home with thesatisfaction of having looked at the problem in depth.There were about a dozen recommendations, liketransfer of staff from those verticals which did not havea high turnover to the ones which were suffering, tobalance out the available resources. A task force wasformed with Bish as the convenor and all the businessheads as members to do some emergency hunting forreplacement talent. Stephen put it like this: "I want eachof you to work your Rolodex and come up with threetimes the number of people we need...based on what Ihave seen, if we meet three guys, we get one to join".All the business heads nodded vigorously.

Another recommendation was that the performancerewards should be raised, with 5% of the staff gettingExcellence Awards, over and above the increments basedon performance assessment. Stephen felt this was doablegiven the margins in the business and the health of thecompany. Most of the business heads loved it, especiallywhen it was clarified that the 5% would be equallydistributed and one or two verticals would not be allowedto monopolize the rewards based on their businessperformance (this was necessary because some of theverticals could naturally outperform the market due totheir business and competitive positioning).

At the end of all this, one person was left with more

Spin the wheels you have!V.S.GURUMANI

HR TOOLS


questions than answers: Bish. He felt that all that therecommendations would be to increase jaw boning,meetings and work for the HR Division. He especiallydreaded the endless hours he would have to spendadministering the Excellence Awards, because while therewould be the handful who would be overjoyed with theaward, the majority of staff would feel left out. Bish waspretty sure that the methods of Jack Welch would notwork in India.

He knew that there was something simple they wereall missing. Something that would not be difficult toadminister and would have lasting benefits... and yet hecould not put his finger on it. It was 1030 on a coldwinter night on Sunday in Delhi. On a hunch, Bishdecided to go out for a walk and clear his mind on thisseemingly intractable puzzle: why was it that someverticals were losing people while others were not?

As he crossed the park outside his DDA flat, hefound an ice cream vendor still selling his wares. He stilldid not have any clarity on how to figure the puzzle out.He picked up a choc bar and munching on it, did someslow walking in the cold night. He saw a sign "SalujaClinic"...why did that make him think of Saluja Sir, theEnglish teacher he had in school? What was it that hekept saying? When things seem to be going wrong andyou have more questions than answers, don't go in forreinventing wheels, just spin the wheels you have. Thatwas many years ago. Bish remembered that when hewas in a seminar on Appreciative Inquiry , that statementcame back to him. Suddenly, he could sense somethingclicking in place in his mind: when they discussed thecauses of people leaving YZee in the workshop, everyonetalked of an Achievement Climate, but no one spoke ofAffiliation. What if all that was required to be done wasto see how to help everyone in YZee affiliate and identifybetter with the organization, rather than just pursuetheir own personal goals? Was it likely that the fivevertical heads that did not have talent attrition didsomething right when it came to being a friend in thework place for their professional staff, which the otherswere not doing? What if some of those things could bedone equally well by others? Would that stop the bleedingand be less expensive? Also, is it likely that the threeverticals which had high staff turnover were doing somethings right? Where could he get this information?

By now, Bish was excited. So excited that he couldhardly sleep the night. He was in office by 7 30 am thenext day, two hours ahead of the normal time, figuringout where to find relevant information. He knew hecould find it in the personal files of the vertical businessheads. Their peer and 360 degree feedback would almostcertainly have information on what they were doing right!

Bish was not wrong. In an hour, he had the following"best practices" from his homework. To his pleasantsurprise, he found they were very easy to replicate:● Meeting the staff in the morning by walking aroundthe department, chatting over a cup of tea.● Making small talk with staff who were working late,surprising them once in a while with a snack or a cupof coffee and offering to stay back with them, especiallyif they were ladies.

● Having frequent staff meetings, finding out aboutevents in team member's families and creating occasionsfor impromptu celebrations.● Looking at the personal files of team members,connecting with what was said about their developmentneeds in the last performance review and following upon actions, both by them and YZee.● Openly and genuinely praising good work in front ofthe entire team and talking about it in meetings withother departments.● There was open sharing of problems and joint effortsat solving them.● The boss was approachable: open door, good listener,closing loops all the time and kept promises.● It was easy to get help in the form of additionalmemory on the computer, low cost software to try outand other job aids.● There was a genuine effort on the part of the bossto coach his direct reports and cascade it as part of thedepartmental culture.

There were more, but these seemed to stand out.Bish quickly put all of this together in a neat typewrittennote and convened a follow up retreat for half a day.He decided to keep Stephen out of it as he wanted freeexchange of thoughts among the business heads anddid not want them to be inhibited. More importantly,he took out eight best practices, and anchored it withone business head. In the retreat, he shared hishomework and how excited he became when he wentthrough what they were doing well. Not once did hetalk about problems. He simply said, "Let us do moreof what we are doing well, consistently and better all thetime. I believe people will stop looking outside YZee!".

Bish had expected some argument, debate andquestioning. He thought some of the heads may thinkhe was oversimplifying a complex problem. To hissurprise, he had everyone agreeing with him. Not oneof the business heads showed any reluctance tochampion his assigned practice.

SSSSSix months laterix months laterix months laterix months laterix months later...............The talent erosion problem in YZee is well behind them.Some of the staff who had quit actually want to comeback because they have heard that YZee is a "transformedplace" now. Bish is confident that because of two hoursof homework and half a day of discussion with thebusiness heads, he had set YZee on an upward spiral ofgrowth through talent retention and enhancement.Stephen has not stopped talking about the magic Bishhad created in the company! And it looks as thoughBish will be moving on to bigger things in YZee's headquarters in Chicago shortly.

It is another cold night and Bish is reflecting on thelast six months in YZee over a late night choc bar. Hewonders at how, despite all the debate and the one dayretreat, the entire team of experienced managers couldnot zero in on a solution to YZee's problem. And how,the simple tool of Appreciative Inquiry (Spin The WheelsYou Have and Stop Reinventing Them) gave YZee all theanswers it needed.

HR TOOLS

V S Gurumani is Country Director, Project Concern International India, NewDelhi. His email address is [email protected].

HC


ith talent proving to be as importantas capital in a crunch economy,MSMEs in the country have to engagewith several issues to ensure highlevels of employee satisfaction andengagement. At one MSME where thisW

author conducted an employee satisfaction survey,while 97% of those surveyed said they were quitesatisfied with their working environment, results onsome key satisfaction drivers indicated a mixed trend.Specifically, employees reported mixed scores forfactors like:Personal and professional development:Personal and professional development:Personal and professional development:Personal and professional development:Personal and professional development: Only 60%of employees stated they had received some formaltraining after joining the organization. Apparently, sincea bulk of this population served the company fromvarious pockets across India, the task of bringing themall together for a program in any centralized locationwas proving to be a major concern. However, whenthis author spoke to 2 employees, one placed in Kolkataand the other at HQ, both seemed satisfied with theemphasis on employee training. Apparently theemployee in Kolkata had switched 2 jobs before joiningthe present one. Since the 2 previous MSMEs that hewas with had no formal training programs for theiremployees, he found it rather fortuitous to haveundergone one training program in the last 2.5 yearsthat he had spent in the present company. For thesecond employee, being stationed at HQ afforded easyaccess to many training opportunities that wereconducted throughout the year.Opportunities to learn and grow: Opportunities to learn and grow: Opportunities to learn and grow: Opportunities to learn and grow: Opportunities to learn and grow: For 30-year oldSumanta Mitra, presently working as a MarketingEngineer with the firm, joining big brands like L&T,Schneider or ABB was out of the question. As a studentin a Diploma Engineering college, he knew very earlythat the big players would not consider diploma holderslike him. Naturally, the only choices available to himwere MSMEs that had a brand name in the market.Interestingly, what drives his satisfaction quotient todayis the terrific opportunity to learn and grow on a dailybasis. The firm that he works for develops new productsevery 6 months and that forces him to keep in touchwith the latest technology and the competition. Otheremployees that were surveyed also voiced a similar

SUMEET VARGHESE

Pursuit of employee hap-piness in MSME

HR IN MSMES

sentiment. And though some of them found thatdiscussions over personal progress were quite limited,each one found no dearth of opportunities to exploreand discover one's potentialLeadership capability and support:Leadership capability and support:Leadership capability and support:Leadership capability and support:Leadership capability and support: A majority ofthe employees that were surveyed said they had fullfaith in the leadership capabilities of the founder -their present MD. According to Aarif Patel, a 29 yearold Marketing Engineer who has been working for over6 years with the firm, the MD had a magnetic influenceover all those who interacted with him. Incidentally, inan organization where there are more than 600employees, the opportunities to interact with the MDare far and few. But thanks to a recently launchedtalent identification and development program, manyemployees found themselves rubbing shoulders withthe MD. These initiatives helped to reinforce employeefaith in top leadership.

Interestingly, many employees found theirimmediate bosses quite caring and supportive.However, not all bosses reported similar satisfactionscores. While some of those who were surveyed saidtheir bosses clarified job expectations at the outset,some found their leader's communication to be quiteambiguous and not at all effective, especially inconnection with clarity over day-to-day tasks. This isso because, some employees at this firm regularly endup multi-tasking or doing someone else's job, at timeswith little or no acknowledgement for their effort. Asone employee put it, "it is absolutely essential to betold at times that the occasional tasks we undertake isnot a regular part of the job and that we are stretchingto meet such requirements."

For Sumanta Mitra, critical leadership supportcomes in the form of day-to-day boss inputs. Thoughhis boss sits at HQ, Sumanta and his team mates discusstheir daily plans over phone everyday in the morningand in the evening. Any information or resourcesupport that is required is discussed almost daily duringthese meetings. Infact, these group calls with the bossare further augmented by the regular local teammeetings that provide a platform to discuss marketproblems and developments and arrive at a commonsolution.Inter-departmental cooperation:Inter-departmental cooperation:Inter-departmental cooperation:Inter-departmental cooperation:Inter-departmental cooperation: A critical area of

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concern for most employees who were surveyed wasthe level of cooperation they received from otherdepartments. According to some employees, a criticalfactor aiding inter-departmental cooperation is bosssupport. As one employee put it, "whereas it is easy togarner support from someone in another departmentwho is at my level in the organizational hierarchybecause of our personal rapport, it is extremely difficultto get the required resource or information in timefrom someone senior. This can be more frustrating ifmy boss is also unable to influence the same person.Consequently, this leads to an unending blame game."

Incidentally, as most of the employees whoparticipated in the survey had a customer-facing role,they strongly felt that a range of customer issues thathinged on inter and intra departmental support weredirectly responsible for both customer and employeedissatisfaction. For instance, challenges like not beingable to give clear information to the customer due tonon-responsiveness or delayed responsiveness fromother departments, not having the authority tonegotiate terms with the customer in the absence of aclear decision matrix, or delayed resolution of customerissues, punctured employee confidence and morale.

On a positive note though, some employees declaredthat internal cooperation and support would pick upgradually as elaborate systems and procedures werebeing developed by the company to root out manyinefficiencies.SSSSSalaralaralaralaralaryyyyy, pr, pr, pr, pr, promotions & incromotions & incromotions & incromotions & incromotions & increments:ements:ements:ements:ements: An all too criticalitem, not just for an SME but any large organization aswell, Compensation & Benefits oftentimes proves to bethe proverbial Achilles Heel for any professionally runfirm. While most employees surveyed found salarieswere not as competitive as they would like it to be theywere reasonably happy with the compensation and theincentives they got. Apparently, most employees hadmade the required adjustments in their expectationsgiven the fact that they were working for an MSME.However, some employees did point out disparities inthe incentive structure. Quite obviously they did notcompletely understand the factors directly impactingpromotions and incentives. Thus while one employeereported receiving a 25% year-on-year raise, anothersaid he had received good bonuses that were directlylinked to specific sales-related performance.

Clearly, an MSME needs to work on severalemployee satisfaction drivers at the same time in orderto boost overall employee engagement. While the aboveanalysis indicates there are 5 non-negotiable areas ofemployee satisfaction that may be critical for any MSME,there are likely to be many variances as to what reallydrives employee satisfaction across employeepopulations within the same firm or even between anytwo MSMEs in similar or different industries. Thisshould not however, be an excuse for not tracking keyemployee satisfaction indicators like the ones outlinedhere. At a time when employee satisfaction has beenfound to have a direct linkage with customer satisfaction,it is absolutely essential for top management at anMSME to keep themselves apprised of these factors on

HR IN MSMES

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a regular basis. Obviously, this is easier said than done.What confuses and complicates such well-mindedefforts is the understanding that satisfaction is aconstantly moving target. However, the same can besaid of customer satisfaction. As customers continueto evolve their demands shift and accordingly theirsatisfaction levers evolve. Ironically, organizations spendmore management time and money on chasing thesedetails and only a fraction of that on understandingthose internal customer issues that directly impactexternal customer satisfaction.


Our company operates a pesticide manufacturingOur company operates a pesticide manufacturingOur company operates a pesticide manufacturingOur company operates a pesticide manufacturingOur company operates a pesticide manufacturingplant. plant. plant. plant. plant. WWWWWe take all necessare take all necessare take all necessare take all necessare take all necessary safety measury safety measury safety measury safety measury safety measures fores fores fores fores forensuring health and safety of our workers, and noensuring health and safety of our workers, and noensuring health and safety of our workers, and noensuring health and safety of our workers, and noensuring health and safety of our workers, and noserserserserserious health prious health prious health prious health prious health problem has been diagnosed till nooblem has been diagnosed till nooblem has been diagnosed till nooblem has been diagnosed till nooblem has been diagnosed till nowwwww.....As a matter of policyAs a matter of policyAs a matter of policyAs a matter of policyAs a matter of policy, w, w, w, w, we take care take care take care take care take care of the medicale of the medicale of the medicale of the medicale of the medicalexpenses of the workers who are working at ourexpenses of the workers who are working at ourexpenses of the workers who are working at ourexpenses of the workers who are working at ourexpenses of the workers who are working at ourplant if any ailment is rplant if any ailment is rplant if any ailment is rplant if any ailment is rplant if any ailment is reporeporeporeporeported. Hted. Hted. Hted. Hted. Hooooowwwwwevevevevevererererer, w, w, w, w, we have have have have haveeeeerecently received an unusual claim from one of ourrecently received an unusual claim from one of ourrecently received an unusual claim from one of ourrecently received an unusual claim from one of ourrecently received an unusual claim from one of ourex-workers. This worker used to work at ourex-workers. This worker used to work at ourex-workers. This worker used to work at ourex-workers. This worker used to work at ourex-workers. This worker used to work at ourfactorfactorfactorfactorfactoryyyyy; ho; ho; ho; ho; howwwwwevevevevevererererer, he r, he r, he r, he r, he retiretiretiretiretired two yed two yed two yed two yed two years agoears agoears agoears agoears ago. N. N. N. N. Nooooowwwww, he, he, he, he, hehas been diagnosed with a critical disease whichhas been diagnosed with a critical disease whichhas been diagnosed with a critical disease whichhas been diagnosed with a critical disease whichhas been diagnosed with a critical disease whichseverely infected his lungs. The worker has allegedseverely infected his lungs. The worker has allegedseverely infected his lungs. The worker has allegedseverely infected his lungs. The worker has allegedseverely infected his lungs. The worker has allegedthat he suffered this disease while working in ourthat he suffered this disease while working in ourthat he suffered this disease while working in ourthat he suffered this disease while working in ourthat he suffered this disease while working in ourfactory due to inhalation of toxic fumes, and hasfactory due to inhalation of toxic fumes, and hasfactory due to inhalation of toxic fumes, and hasfactory due to inhalation of toxic fumes, and hasfactory due to inhalation of toxic fumes, and hasdemanded that we pay his hospitalization expensesdemanded that we pay his hospitalization expensesdemanded that we pay his hospitalization expensesdemanded that we pay his hospitalization expensesdemanded that we pay his hospitalization expensesand other medical expenses. Kindly advise whetherand other medical expenses. Kindly advise whetherand other medical expenses. Kindly advise whetherand other medical expenses. Kindly advise whetherand other medical expenses. Kindly advise whetherour company is liable to pay such expensesour company is liable to pay such expensesour company is liable to pay such expensesour company is liable to pay such expensesour company is liable to pay such expensesconsidering that he is no more our employee?considering that he is no more our employee?considering that he is no more our employee?considering that he is no more our employee?considering that he is no more our employee?In terms of the Factories Act, 1948 as well as theprinciples of Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) aslaid down by the higher judiciary in India, an employeror the operator of the factory is squarely responsiblefor ensuring health and safety of its workers. Thisresponsibility becomes further stringent if the employer/ factory is engaged in any hazardous process or anyhazardous chemicals or goods are used at theworkplace. In Consumer Education and Research centerand others vs. Union of India and others (AIR 1995 SC922), the Supreme Court observed that though theexisting regulations, such as the Employees StateInsurance Act and the Worken's Compensation Act donot provide for payment of compensation aftercessation of employment, the right to health andmedical aid of a worker while in service or postretirement is his fundamental right under Article 21 ofthe Constitution of India. The Court held that the rightto health of a worker and the corresponding duty ofthe employer continues even after the cessation ofemployment of the worker. However, there should bea direct nexus between the ailment a worker hasdeveloped and the workplace. In this regard, the Court

LAW AT WORK

directed the Asbestos industry to maintain and keepmaintaining the health records of every worker up toa minimum period of 40 years from the beginning ofthe employment or 15 years after retirement orcessation of the employment, whichever is later.

This principle was further given effect to in MangeshSalodkar vs. Monsanto Chemicals of India Limited . Inthis matter, a petition was filed by a retired employeeof Monsanto Chemicals of India Limited against thecompany, who claimed to have suffered neurologicaldamage while working in the hazardous processes ofa factory operated by the company. In this case, theCourt acknowledged that the employer's obligationstowards the health of an employee continue even aftercessation of employment so far as the diseases thatsuch employee contracts due to his employment withthe employer in question.

Thus, your company's obligations towards ensuringhealth and safety of a workman may continue evenafter the cessation of his employment. However, it isimperative to ascertain whether the disease or illnesssuffered by the worker is such that he would havecontracted it while working at your factory or plant.Accordingly, you may consider getting the concernedemployee medically examined and obtain expertopinion on whether the disease suffered by the workerconcerned is an occupational disease which hasoccurred as a result of work or occupational activityat your factory.

I own a manufacturing unit. 6 months ago, weI own a manufacturing unit. 6 months ago, weI own a manufacturing unit. 6 months ago, weI own a manufacturing unit. 6 months ago, weI own a manufacturing unit. 6 months ago, wefaced some prfaced some prfaced some prfaced some prfaced some problems with our factoroblems with our factoroblems with our factoroblems with our factoroblems with our factory managery managery managery managery manager,,,,,who had embezzled a sum of Rs. 30,000/-. Hewho had embezzled a sum of Rs. 30,000/-. Hewho had embezzled a sum of Rs. 30,000/-. Hewho had embezzled a sum of Rs. 30,000/-. Hewho had embezzled a sum of Rs. 30,000/-. Hecommitted to having embezzled the said amount.committed to having embezzled the said amount.committed to having embezzled the said amount.committed to having embezzled the said amount.committed to having embezzled the said amount.TherTherTherTherThereaftereaftereaftereaftereafter, with the view to settle things cor, with the view to settle things cor, with the view to settle things cor, with the view to settle things cor, with the view to settle things cordiallydiallydiallydiallydially,,,,,he was asked to resign lest his services would behe was asked to resign lest his services would behe was asked to resign lest his services would behe was asked to resign lest his services would behe was asked to resign lest his services would beterminated. At the time of resigning he repaid theterminated. At the time of resigning he repaid theterminated. At the time of resigning he repaid theterminated. At the time of resigning he repaid theterminated. At the time of resigning he repaid theamount so embezzled by him. He has now contactedamount so embezzled by him. He has now contactedamount so embezzled by him. He has now contactedamount so embezzled by him. He has now contactedamount so embezzled by him. He has now contactedus stating that certain amounts are due to himus stating that certain amounts are due to himus stating that certain amounts are due to himus stating that certain amounts are due to himus stating that certain amounts are due to himincluding grincluding grincluding grincluding grincluding gratuityatuityatuityatuityatuity. Am I legally bound to pay. Am I legally bound to pay. Am I legally bound to pay. Am I legally bound to pay. Am I legally bound to paygratuity to him despite his dishonesty?gratuity to him despite his dishonesty?gratuity to him despite his dishonesty?gratuity to him despite his dishonesty?gratuity to him despite his dishonesty?

Legal Q & ALegal Q & ALegal Q & ALegal Q & ALegal Q & A

K. V. SINGH

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Please note that in terms of the Payment of GratuityAct, 1972 ("Gratuity Act"), gratuity is required to bepaid to an employee under the following circumstances:(a) If an employee who has rendered continuous servicefor not less than five (5) years, has superannuated; or(b) If an employee who has rendered continuous servicefor not less than five (5) years, has retired or resigned;(c) On death or disablement of an employee due toaccident or disease.Please note that under the Gratuity Act, the gratuitypayable to an employee may be wholly or partiallyforfeited if the services of such an employee have beenterminated for any act which constitutes an offenceinvolving moral turpitude, provided such offence iscommitted by him in the course of his employment.

We understand that since the services of theconcerned employee were not terminated on accountof embezzlement, and he had resigned in order tosettle the matter amicably, the fact of embezzlementhad not been established against the employee.

Further, you may note that in case where anemployee has caused any loss or damage to theproperty of the employer, Gratuity Act provides forforfeiture of the gratuity amount to the extent of suchloss or damage. However, since the employee inquestion has already repaid the amount he had allegedlyembezzled, this provision would also not apply.

I am of the view that you would be required to paythe gratuity to the employee, provided he had renderedat least five years of continuous service.

WWWWWe are are are are are NGOe NGOe NGOe NGOe NGOs of big grs of big grs of big grs of big grs of big group companyoup companyoup companyoup companyoup company, having differ, having differ, having differ, having differ, having differentententententactivities in the field of computer education andactivities in the field of computer education andactivities in the field of computer education andactivities in the field of computer education andactivities in the field of computer education andother prother prother prother prother projectsojectsojectsojectsojects. . . . . WWWWWe have have have have have are are are are around 100 Aaganwadiound 100 Aaganwadiound 100 Aaganwadiound 100 Aaganwadiound 100 Aaganwadicentres in different part of Orissa and Rajasthan.centres in different part of Orissa and Rajasthan.centres in different part of Orissa and Rajasthan.centres in different part of Orissa and Rajasthan.centres in different part of Orissa and Rajasthan.Under this project we have some employees onUnder this project we have some employees onUnder this project we have some employees onUnder this project we have some employees onUnder this project we have some employees oncontract basis and issue them one year contractcontract basis and issue them one year contractcontract basis and issue them one year contractcontract basis and issue them one year contractcontract basis and issue them one year contractletter and expand so on as per prletter and expand so on as per prletter and expand so on as per prletter and expand so on as per prletter and expand so on as per project existenceoject existenceoject existenceoject existenceoject existence. . . . . WWWWWeeeeereceive the separate fund from our parent industriesreceive the separate fund from our parent industriesreceive the separate fund from our parent industriesreceive the separate fund from our parent industriesreceive the separate fund from our parent industriesfor the running the same project. Our most of thefor the running the same project. Our most of thefor the running the same project. Our most of thefor the running the same project. Our most of thefor the running the same project. Our most of theAaganwadi employees are in the salary range of RsAaganwadi employees are in the salary range of RsAaganwadi employees are in the salary range of RsAaganwadi employees are in the salary range of RsAaganwadi employees are in the salary range of Rs4500-6000 and we do not deduct the PF from their4500-6000 and we do not deduct the PF from their4500-6000 and we do not deduct the PF from their4500-6000 and we do not deduct the PF from their4500-6000 and we do not deduct the PF from theirsalary considering their low salary and retention.salary considering their low salary and retention.salary considering their low salary and retention.salary considering their low salary and retention.salary considering their low salary and retention.Can we do the same or is it mandatory as per PFCan we do the same or is it mandatory as per PFCan we do the same or is it mandatory as per PFCan we do the same or is it mandatory as per PFCan we do the same or is it mandatory as per PFAct to deduct the PF amount.Act to deduct the PF amount.Act to deduct the PF amount.Act to deduct the PF amount.Act to deduct the PF amount.Please note that the Employees' Provident Funds andMiscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 ("EPF Act") isapplicable to all establishments which employ twenty(20) or more persons and which are notified by theCentral Government. The EPF Act provides for theinstitution of provident funds, pension funds anddeposit-linked insurance funds for employees.

Your organization is a not-for-profit entity engagedin imparting technical education in rural areas of India.It is pertinent to note that the EPF Act also applies toestablishments registered as societies. The EPF Act hasbeen specifically extended to educational institutions.Vide a notification dated March 6, 1982, the EPF Acthas been made applicable to various educationalinstitutes, including, inter-alia, 'any other institution inwhich the activity of imparting knowledge or training

LAW AT WORK

is systematically carried on'. The EPF Act would beapplicable to your organization in the event it fallswithin the purview of the aforesaid entry.

Further, please note that the provident fund schemecovers all employees whose monthly wages does notexceed Rs. 6500/-. The EPF Act defines the term'employee' to mean "any person who is employed forwages in any kind of work, manual or otherwise, in orin connection with the work of an establishment andwho gets wages directly or indirectly from theemployer…". The term also includes a personemployed by or through a contractor in connectionwith the work of the establishment. Thus, in order todetermine the applicability of the EPF Act, it isimmaterial whether the employee is a permanentemployee or a temporary employee. Thus, theaganwadi employees, employed on contract basis,would also be eligible for the PF benefits, providedtheir monthly wages are equal to or less than INR6500/-.

The employer is required to make compulsorycontribution at the rate of 12% of the employees' basicwages and dearness allowance to the provident fund,subject to a maximum of INR. 6500/- per month. Asimilar contribution is required to be made by theemployee. An employee becomes eligible to withdrawthe amount lying in the provident fund at the time ofretirement or discharge from service.

K. V. Singh is Partner at Kochhar & Co., one of the leading and largest law firmsin India with offices at New Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad,Mumbai and Atlanta (USA). The firm represents some of the largest multinationalcorporations from North America, Europe and Japan (many of which are Fortune500 companies) in diverse areas of corporate and commercial laws. The sevicesprovided by the firm cover a very broad spectrum of laws and sectors including,but not limited to foreign direct investments, joint ventures, mergers andacquisitions, privatisation, infrastructure, employment, project fianance, capitalmarkets, telecommunications, real estate, energy, intellectual property andarbitration. The firm has a substantial corporate litigation practice and regularlyrepresents clients in various matters in the Supreme Court of India, differentHigh Courts and District Courts as well as Consumer Courts, Monopolies andRestrictive Trade Practices Commission, Board of Industrial and FinancialReconstruction, Company Law Board and before the Income Tax Tribunals.

Email us your queries on legal issues at [email protected].

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