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VIKALPA VOLUME 36 NO 3 JULY - SEPTEMBER 2011 61

KEY WORDS

Self LeadershipDevelopment

Retail LeadershipManagement

Enabling Culture

Values

Assessment Centres

Satisfaction Indices

Performance SupportLearning

Work-enabled Learning

Talent Lifecycle

Succession Planning

Self Awareness

360 Degree Feedback

Competence Development

Leading Change

Global Leader

Innovation

Transformative Leadership

includes debate bypractitioners andacademicians on acontemporary topic

C O L L O Q U I U MLeadership Development in Organizationsin India: The Why and How of It (Part I)

Aarti Shyamsunder, Anand S*, Ankush Punj*, Arvind Shatdal*, B M Vyas,Balaji Kumar, Binu Philip, C Manohar Reddy*, Chitra Sarmma,

Gopal Mahapatra, Govind Srikhande, Kartikeyan V, Manoj Jaiswal*,Nandini Chawla*, Prabhat Rao, Prakash K Nair, Prasad Kaipa,Rajshekhar Krishnan, Rishikesha T Krishnan*, Rituraj Sar*, S K Vasant,S Ramesh Shankar*, Santrupt Misra*, Shabari Madappa, Sudhakar B*,Swasthika Ramamurthy, Twisha Anand, Vasanthi Srinivasan*,Vikas Rai Bhatnagar*, Vishwanath P, Vivek Subramanian andNeharika Vohra and Deepti Bhatnagar (Coordinators)

INTRODUCTION

Neharika Vohra and Deepti Bhatnagar

A bout six to seven years ago, probably like many of our professional colleagues,we started noticing a systematic change in the pattern of demand for train-ing. Almost every single request we received from training heads or learningand development heads of companies for training was for leadership development.Our management development programme on leadership and change managementwas receiving close to 100 applications from all sectors of the industry. These requestscame from a variety of organizations, irrespec-tive of the size, ownership pattern of the organi-zation, or industry. Like everybody else, we got busy in designing and delivering programmeson developing leadership.

A few months ago, we stepped back, observed apattern and wanted to decipher it. We noticedthat while leadership development as a topicacquired prominence for executive develop-ment, either through customized or open-enrol-ment programmes, dialogue among academiaand practitioners on leadership developmentwas scant. It appeared that while everyone in-cluding companies, consultants, academic in-stitutes, and trainers were busy working ontheir leadership agenda, there had not been an adequate organized effort to collateexperiences, share processes, look at best practices, reflect on trends, and learn fromeach other. This Colloquium is an attempt to put together in one place such practicesand, hopefully, begin a healthy dialogue among academicians, consultants, practi-

* The contribution of these authors will appear in Part II of the Colloquium in the October-December,2011 issue of Vikalpa. The names of all the authors appear in alphabetical order.

Multinationals, including

those with an establishedpresence in India as wellas the new ones whichhave started their Indiaoperations recently, are

endeavouring hard to findthe right people andinduct them in their

culture.


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tioners, and users of such practices.

In our discussions and analysis of the reasons for thedeluge of leadership development initiatives, we figuredthat part of the answer lies in the robust economic growthof India. Many Indian companies have been growing at arate that was inconceivable even ten years ago. Compa-nies that grew at 3 to 4 per cent for the first thirty years of their existence somewhat in sync with the rate of growth of the Indian economy at that time have grownat 150 per cent in the last few years. According to the July2011 Economic Report released by the Ministry of Finance,the overall growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP)was 8.5 per cent in 2010-11 and theindex of industrial production was 8.8per cent. The growth of core eight in-frastructure industries was 5.2 per centin June 2011 as compared to the growthof 4.4 per cent in June 2010. 1

At the organizational level, it is notuncommon to find companies expandphenomenally over the last five years from having single-country opera-tions to manufacturing in four coun-tries and selling in 35 countries,increasing their workforce up to fivetimes the number of people they hadever hired. Selling targets are set any-where between 100 to 300 per cent ascompared to the last year. Family busi-nesses have had to choose to inductprofessional talent to be able to sus-tain and grow, and to learn to deal withcountries they may have only readabout in geography books. Many or-ganizations in the public sector are being pushed to stepout of their zone of comfort because of competition fortheir talent from private companies and intense competi-

tion for their products from China and other countries.Besides Indias dominance in the field of IT and relatedservices, of late, India has become an attractive locationfor multinationals to set up their Research and Develop-ment Centres. Multinationals, including those with anestablished presence in India as well as the new oneswhich have started their India operations recently, areendeavouring hard to find the right people and induct

them in their culture. Growth has been triggered by both,the growth of the Indian economy as also the changestaking place in different economies across the world.

It goes without saying that such unprecedented growth brings with it attendant opportunities and challenges.One such key challenge centres around managing peo-ple. If a company had grown organically at normal pace,in five to seven years, it would have been ready with itsleadership pipeline, systems for training and develop-ment, and processes for managing expectations and ca-reers. However, given the explosive discontinuousgrowth, that privilege has been denied to many organiza-

tions in India.

To illustrate what we mean by explo-sive and discontinuous growth, wewould cite a few examples. Subhiksha(now closed), added 500 retail storesacross the country between February2007 and December 2007. The fact thatpeople had to be identified, selected,inducted, trained, and put in front of the customers so that the operationsran smoothly and the customers keptcoming back to the store, suggests for-midable expectations. Equally press-ing were challenges like building adesired culture, norms for working and being in the organization, and devel-oping employee commitment and iden-tification with the organization.Similarly, when a twenty-five year oldAhmedabad-based company acquiredthe largest manufacturing facility inMexico for the same product which

they have been manufacturing, there were challenges inrunning the operations in a distant country where peo-ple spoke a language that probably not even one of the

Indian managers understood! Streamlining the operationsin the Mexico plant so as to integrate the Gujarat facilitywith that of the Mexico was a redoubtable task. However,as if addressing such problems was not enough, therewere additional issues to resolve. For example, the rightpeople had to be sent to Mexico; the existing staff of theacquired plant had to be won over; maybe some had to belet go and new ones had to be hired, trust had to be builtfrom scratch, relationships had to be built with the localgovernment, businesses, and the local academic commu-

1 http://www.ibef.org/india/economy/economyoverview.aspx

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN INDIAN ORGANIZATIONS: THE WHY AND HOW OF IT (PART I)

If a company had grownorganically at normal

pace, in five to sevenyears, it would have beenready with its leadership

pipeline, systems fortraining and development,

and processes formanaging expectationsand careers. However,

given the explosivediscontinuous growth, thatprivilege has been deniedto many organizations in

India.


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nity; and profits had to be made to win investor confi-dence. For all of this to happen smoothly, having well-trained and committed people in leadership positions wasthe first prerequisite.

Multinational companies which have established shopsin India over the last one decade have had to deal withsimilar concerns. They are faced with challenges of adapt-ing to the Indian context while keeping the norms of thehost country or company intact. Choices have to be madewith respect to having expatriate managers or hiring lo-cal talent. Employees have to be hired and inducted intothe desired culture. There is stiff com-petition to attract managerial talent,and appropriately trained skilled andsemi-skilled people have to be found.

Growth in sectors such as IT and fi-nancial services has been particularlyimpressive. In the last ten years, Indiancompanies such as Infosys and Wiprohave grown 24 to 25 times in terms of the number of people they employ. Forexample, Infosys grew from 5,400 em-ployees in 2000 to 1,31,000 employeesin 2011. Many other organizationshave equally impressive accounts.Such stories of exponential growth andrelated people management concernsare becoming fairly common in India.The growth of the economy has brought with it unique opportunitiesand also unprecedented challenges and consequently theneed for leadership development. In addition to attract-ing, managing, and retaining talent and the existing andnew people learning new ways of doing business is theincredible task of making people comfortable with change.It goes without saying that in the face of growth and op-portunities, the established ways of working might need

to undergo drastic changes. Organizations cannot bemanaged by mechanical approaches such as organiza-tional restructuring and reengineering. New mindsetsand leadership competencies are required to lead, man-age, implement, and accept changes by all employeeswithin the organization. Thus the demand for leadershipdevelopment is also fuelled by the need to develop thesenew leadership competencies that help in dealing withchange and bringing about change.

Another facet of this change and one more reason for thespurt in demand for leadership development training,we conjecture, is because today, more than ever before,continuing with what worked in the past is just not suffi-cient. The old notions of positional authority and manag-ing through command and control are fast losing theirrelevance. A recent study by Hay Group on best compa-nies for leadership, observed, Leadership in the twenty-first century is about leading at all levels; not restricting itto title. As organizations become flatter, the best leadersare learning they must check their egos at the door and become increasingly sensitive to diversity, generational

and geographical issues. 2 Theworkplace of the 21st century is char-acterized by greater complexity, ambi-guity, and interconnectedness. Thereis undoubtedly more diversity and dif-

ferent value systems of the GenerationY to be contended with. Employees seekchallenge, meaningfulness, and pur-pose in the work they do. Working to-wards work-life balance is notsomething young employees are embarrassed about. The increase in com-plexity and higher accountabilitymakes it impossible to hold on to theolder ways of managing and leading.Employees have to be trained to leadin more effective ways.

It is our belief that to be able to survivethe challenges posed by growth, the changing nature of work, and the aspirations of the people, the need for lead-ership development has intensified.

Defining Leadership Development

The two seemingly innocuous words, Leadership De-velopment are, of late, generating curiosity, intense de-

bates, and multiple interpretations. There are manyquestions about leadership development: Is leadershipdevelopment about the leader? If yes, then who is a leader?If no, then is it about developing leadership in the organi-zation? What does leadership in the organization mean capabilities or processes, or both? Also the attendantquestions are What are leadership capabilities? Who

2 http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2011/01/hay_groups_2010_best_companies.html

Organizations cannot bemanaged by mechanical

approaches such asorganizational

restructuring andreengineering. New

mindsets and leadershipcompetencies are required

to lead, manage,implement, and accept

changes by all employeeswithin the organization.


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defines capabilities? What does it mean to develop them?Is it a consciously designed and carefully controlled pro-cess or is it something that happens on the sideline asindividuals pursue their organizational dreams? Is it both? Neither? If it is structured, who structures it, andhow should it be structured? If it is the process of devel-opment, what should be developed knowledge, skills,attitudes, or behaviours? What role, if any, do the receiv-ers of development inputs have? What indicators depend-ably indicate that indeed the desired development has been achieved? If leadership development is an emergentprocess, then what is needed for the emergent goal of de-velopment to evolve? If it is development of the leader orleadership, then who should be the driver and whoshould be the receiver? We do notclaim to have answers to these ques-tions. But we believe that the way a

company or a group of managerschoose to answer these questions sig-nificantly influences the route they willtake to develop leadership within theirorganization.

However, just to give a flavour of thecomplexity of these questions, wewould like to share some ideas onleader and leadership development.According to thinkers like Day (2000), 3

there is a discernible difference be-tween leader development and leader-ship development. Leader developmentis the honing of attitude, behaviours, skills, and actionsthat a person might need to exhibit leader-like behaviours;it is a process of differentiation. Leadership development,on the other hand, includes focus on processes such associal influence, team leadership, attention to factors suchas organizational climate and social networks towardseffectiveness in organizations; it is a process of integra-tion. Leader development involves teaching communi-cation skills, sharing, and the ability to motivateindividuals through positive social influences. Leader-ship development helps potential leaders with the howand when of leading. In their work, McCall, Lombardoand Morrison (1998) 4 have defined leadership develop-

ment as a conscious effort to provide opportunities tolearn and grow to selected employees. It is expected thatsuch efforts will prepare appropriately skilled peoplewithin the organization for future needs. The opportuni-ties provided may be in the form of assignments, projects,classroom learning, coaching or mentoring. Effective lead-ership development design would strategically link theopportunity to the needs of the person and the organiza-tion at that time. Quinn (1996) maintains that leader andleadership development are not independent but they mu-tually influence each other. 5 Another approach combinesleader and leadership development in the objectives of leadership development in saying that leadership devel-opment programmes have three-fold objectives: (a) Situ-

ate the leadership developmentprogramme within the existing busi-ness logic and the desired culture; (b)

Match the leadership developmentneeds to the programme for develop-ment; and (c) help individuals developand grow in their personal skills andattitudes. 6

Intent of this Colloquium

It is not our intention to engage in adebate on which is the best approachfor leadership development. In our ex-

perience, we have found that most or-ganizations are in fact trying in theirown way to define leadership devel-

opment. Some have made major strides in this direction.Others are experimenting and evolving new approaches.However, the efforts, experiences, learning from experi-ences from various organizations, sectors, and industryare not all available in one place. Thus as a humble firststep, this Colloquium brings together the current prac-tices of leadership development from a few practitioners,consultants, and academicians in one forum. We believe

that this will help us to begin a dialogue on leadershipand processes nurturing it within organizations.

Summarizing the above discussion, one can conclude thatorganizations today face the dual challenge of findingand retaining people who are willing to lead in theseinteresting times, and also steadily developing their lead-3 Day, D V (2000). Leadership Development: A Review in Con-

text, Leadership Quarterly , 11, 581-613.4 McCall, M W, Jr.; Lombardo, M M and Morrison, A M (1988).

The Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job , Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

Leader development

involves teachingcommunication skills,

sharing, and the ability tomotivate individuals

through positive socialinfluences. Leadership

development helpspotential leaders with the

how and when of leading.


5 Quinn, R E (2004). Building the Bridge as You Walk on It, SanFrancisco: Jossey Bass.

6 www.hillconsultinggroup.org


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ership pipeline. It is possible that after having investedheavily in training, several of those who were trainedleave for other opportunities. The challenge for organiza-tions is to train and enhance leadership skills among alarge base of employees and also keep them engaged withthe organization. This Colloquium presents some inter-esting perspectives and experiences.

In trying to be broadly representative, we wanted per-spectives from organizations in the public sector, privatesector, cooperatives, family business, and the multina-tional to be shared. Similarly, we wanted sectors such asmanufacturing, software, finance and banking, retail, andservice to be represented. We also wanted experiencesfrom small, medium, and large organizations to be in-cluded. We hope that our final collection carries someflavour of each of these. In addition, the Colloquium car-ries a few contributions from consultants and academicsactive in the area of leadership development.

Our own experience of selecting contributors and reach-ing out to them was exigent and educative. We offer toour readers of this Colloquium a bouquet of varied ap-proaches to leadership development in India. We hopethat the variety and diversity will lend richness and depth

to the readers engagement with the issue of leadershipdevelopment. However, in trying to include several voices,the Colloquium became very long and the journal pagelimitations came in the way. It was simply not possible tocarry the entire collection in one issue. We were asked totake a difficult call have an unwieldy colloquium orsplit it into two parts. After much agony and delibera-tion, we opted for the latter. We decided to carry experi-ences from the manufacturing sector in the next issue(Aditya Birla Group, Ashok Minda Group, BEL, HUL,Lupin, Muruggapa Group, Siemens, and TCL). The nextissue will also carry the perspectives on developing global leadership skills by Mark E Mendenhall. The presentissue features experiences of the service sector (GCMMF,HDFC, Shoppers Stop), the IT sector (IBM, Infosys, IT Mul-tinational, Microsoft) and views of two consulting organi-zations, the Kaipa Group and Vistas Consulting. We invite

you to read these contributions to enjoy a productive andthought-provoking experience and wait for our next is-sue. Part II of the Colloquium would carry the leadershipdevelopment journey into a different terrain of manufac-turing and would also present insights drawn from therich array of all the experiences included in the two is-sues.

Leadership Experiments at GCMMFB M Vyas

Historical Background of Gujarat Cooperative MilkMarketing Federation (GCMMF)

The Kheda district of Gujarat, well-known also asCharutar Pradesh, is a delta between two perennialrivers, Mahi and Sabarmati, consistently receiving goodrains. Inhabitants of this region are widely believed to beamong the most enterprising and hard working commu-nity in Gujarat.

Since milk was produced in abundance in this region,the British Government had given monopoly rights toPolson Dairy to collect milk from Kheda district and sup-ply to Mumbai and to the British Army. For many years,Polson used this monopoly right to its great commercialadvantage, and paid extremely low prices to milk pro-ducers, especially during the winter months when milkproduction would be much higher.

The milk producers were agitated due to this exploita-tion. When they went to complain to Sardar Vallabh BhaiPatel about this patently unfair treatment, he advisedthem to organize themselves into a cooperative whichwould procure, process, and market milk and milk prod-ucts. If successful, their cooperative could remove themiddlemen so that the major part of the consumers ru-

pee could be passed on to the milk producer. Sardar Patelsent Morarji Desai to organize the milk cooperatives.Morarji Desai, in turn, entrusted the job to TribhuvandasKishibhai Patel to lead this cooperative movement.Tribhuvandas became the founder of the Amul Coopera-tive movement. He hired Verghese Kurien as the Man-ager.

The Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers UnionLtd. (KCMPUL), Anand was registered in 1946. The Un-


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ion established the brand name Amul in 1955. By 1964,Amul had emerged not only as a well-known brand formilk and milk products like butter, but also as a success-ful development model. In 1965, the then Prime Minister,Lal Bahadur Shastri saw the potential and created theNational Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and askedDr. Verghese Kurien, to replicate the model on a nation-wide level, as he had successfully done with Amul since1949. With more Amul-like cooperatives coming up inGujarat, in 1974, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk MarketingFederation (GCMMF) was founded to provide an over-arching umbrella organization for the milk cooperatives.Dr Kurien successfully led the GCMMF and NDDB formany years. Sustained and focused efforts resulted in ahigh level of professionalism in the procurement, process-ing, and marketing of milk and milk products, moderni-zation of the Indian dairy industry, and raising it to the

global standards.

In later years, farmer leaders visitingAmul would often request Dr VergheseKurien, the then Chairman of theGCMMF, to identify a professional of his calibre to lead their cooperatives intheir areas. In response, Dr Kurienwould say, There are many Institutesto produce a Kurien, but there is noneto produce a Tribhuvandas. You give

me a Tribhuvandas and I will give youa Kurien. Tribhuvandas, a respected freedom fighter, waswell known for his ability to organize farmers of that re-gion and to keep them together.

The above quip by Kurien implied that though there wereschools to produce managers, the real challenge was todevelop quality leadership among the farmers. I was notclear about the meaning of leadership Who is a leaderand how can leadership be developed? Does developingleadership mean putting in position of authority a few

trusted and competent individuals who would share theirvision with people and guide them to move in that par-ticular direction? Or, is it possible to develop a large baseof leaders people who can enable others to solve theirproblems themselves, especially in rural India? Thesethoughts would make me restless and I would wonderwhere and how to look for answers. I was unclear andmy search for convincing answers continued.

Several years later, when I took over as the Managing

Director of the GCMMF to my good fortune, Dr Kurienwas the founder Chairman of GCMMF. He allowed me alot of space and freedom, so that I could dare to experi-ment towards developing some new models of leader-ship, and evolve some possible answers to my questionsabout the meaning and role of leadership. I share below afew such experiments with regard to self leadership de-velopment. I cannot claim to have obtained great successor final answers to my questions. In fact, there were somefailures along with limited success. But I feel that none-theless my learnings are worth sharing.

Self Leadership and Learning: A New Approach andSome Experiments

Our society has numerous problems and most people lookup to the government or others to take the lead in findinga solution. Most people who provide such services or so-

lutions expect to be compensated fortheir effort through adequate paymentof dues. Rarely would anyone do any-thing meaningful out of self-motiva-tion. Organizations try to solve theirproblems by creating positions of au-thority and placing their preferredemployees in those positions thatwould have the responsibility to solveorganizational problems. This oftenends up building a bureaucratic struc-

ture with selected people in positions of power who mayinitially be very upbeat about the prospects, but their re-sponse and enthusiasm towards solving organizationalproblems often slows down with the passage of time.

Developing Together an Agenda for Change and Skills to Achieve It

I wanted to evolve a new approach towards leadershipin milk cooperatives. I put up a small team of young fieldworkers (officers) to conduct a research in villages to iden-

tify a few important issues/problems that farmers wantedto solve. Such officers were trained in change manage-ment and also in the process of designing solutions to aproblem.

Our design team researched and designed solutions, cre-ated training materials, and trained a battery of about1,000 field workers who in turn carried out training acrossthousands of chairpersons, secretaries, and committeemembers of the village cooperatives and also a large

Though there wereschools to producemanagers, the real

challenge was to developquality leadership among

the farmers.



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number of milk producers in 10,000 villages on select prob-lems and their solutions. Farmers were encouraged tocome forward and take charge of their problems them-selves. The success of the first awareness programme withregard to What and Why We Need to Change and lateron the initiatives like Clean Milk Production, House-keeping and Installation of Quality System ISO 9000 invillage cooperative societies gave a lot of confidence tothe design team and also to the participants.

Building Vision Mission Strategy at the Village Cooperative Level

It was then decided to conduct a Vision Mission Strategy(VMS) Workshop for all the village dairy cooperativeswith the expectation that the milk producers themselveswould arrive at a vision for their dairycooperatives, the goals of the coopera-

tives and the strategy they would fol-low to achieve their goals. In a typicalVMS workshop, the design teams pre-sented factual data with analysis anddescribed the current issues and chal-lenges. For example, water is the mainraw material for milk production. It is,therefore, very important to have anassured perennial availability of goodquality water, have a system and fa-cilities for proper storage and distri- bution of water, and develop practicesto ensure that enough water is avail-able to the cattle. The issues debated inthe workshop included questions like:If water is the key to increased milkproduction, then what are the gapsand what action should be taken bythe Management Committee and members on their ownwithout waiting for external inducement to fill the gaps?

The goals and action plans were discussed, debated, anddocumented. Efforts were made to understand the cur-rent situation with regard to pressing issues such as cat-tle breed and its management, disease and itsmanagement, feed and fodder production, membershipstrength and its enhancement, human resource issues andprocuring and use of technology such as installation of bulk milk coolers, automated milk testing machines, com-puters, etc. It was found that once the two-day VMS work-shop was attended by 200 plus milk producers of the

village with the Management Committee members, theirdecisions and goals were aligned with the implementa-tion schedule, which was then put up on the notice boardof the office of the cooperative. The progress was regu-larly reviewed during Board meetings.

Such workshops were conducted in about 7,600 villages between 2006 and 2010 and are being continued till date.It is my belief that those villages where members tookcharge and implemented such vital goals are bound tothrow up farmer leaders who have done something ontheir own for common good without the politicians orGovernments inducements.

Improving Quality at the Village Cooperative Level

Five years ago farmers were not evenfully aware of how liberalization and

globalization would impact them.They did not understand the impor-tance of creating green cover throughtree plantation for their villages. Theydid not realize the importance of clean-liness for their main business of milkcollection, processing, and marketing.They did not know how to put QualitySystems in place in Village Society byhaving ISO 9000 or why they neededto install state-of-the-art automatic bulkmilk coolers and automatic milk test-ing and weighing machines.

Awareness about these issues wasraised among the villagers by involv-ing them. The Chairpersons and Man-agement Committee members of thevillage dairy cooperatives were encour-

aged to take the lead and make every member aware of the key concerns, and motivate them to participate ontheir own. Thus the Chairman and nine Managing Com-mittee members provided leadership to the cooperativein this area. The same team would lead a discussion of the benefits of the Cold Chain Building (installing bulkmilk coolers) and convince members to go for it and run itefficiently. Again, they would discuss with members themeaning and advantages of getting ISO 9000 certifica-tion, audit, and rectification for their village milk coop-erative, and convince them to bring clean milk, removeshoes as they entered the cooperative society building,

Organizations try to solvetheir problems by creatingpositions of authority and

placing their preferredemployees in those

positions that would havethe responsibility to solveorganizational problems.

This often ends upbuilding a bureaucraticstructure with selectedpeople in positions of

power.


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and not smoke or eat gutka on the premises. Close in-volvement of farmers would make them feel proud if theircooperative received the ISO 9000 certification. The farm-ers felt embarrassed and ashamed in case the certifica-tion was suspended for deviations.

As a result of these efforts, all the village dairy coopera-

tives are today ISO 9000 certified. You may ask any Chair-man or Management Committee member of a milkcooperative the meaning of ISO and its advantages, andyou will get an informed and convincing reply. Even acasual conversation with an ordinary milk producer willimpress you with the extent to which the members valuetheir certification and the care they take to maintain theexpected standards. In the last fiveyears, thousands of bulk milk coolersand automatic milk collection systemshave been installed all over Gujarat.

The increasing competition due to lib-eralization and impact of WTO led tothe realization that doing businesswould be extremely competitive andthat a focus on Total Quality Manage-ment (TQM) would be very important.And therefore, as a unique measure,several TQM initiatives were extendedto our business partners whether it wasthe farmer producer in the village or awholesale distributor in a metro townor its most sophisticated productionunit. A number of TQM initiativeswhich ran successfully across the organization includedKaizen, Housekeeping, Small Group Activities, and HoshinKanri (policy development). It was believed that these ini-tiatives would create a culture of transparency, openness,and leadership in the organization.

Going Green: Involving Farmers

Sometime in 2006, I started dabbling with the problem of the need for green cover in our villages. I believed that if India had to become Green, the forest departments can-not do so single-handedly the farmers have to be in-volved. Running the Green India campaign on television,and actually turning India Green are two differentpropositions. I strongly feel that our greatest asset is ourpeople resources at the grass-roots and they need to beengaged in the right direction, including for the greeninitiative.

It was felt that there was a need to sensitize farmers aboutglobal warming. Moreover, the tree cover is fundamentalfor good rains as rains enhance ground water level, whichis a pre-requisite for Animal Husbandry and Dairying.Milk Producers of Gujarat have understood that tree plan-tation is essential for Dairy Development and that it is animportant measure to check climate change and globalwarming.

I wanted awareness and involvement of farmers ingreening Gujarat and hence asked the Design Team todevise a programme for inspiring and involving milk pro-ducers to plant one sapling each on August 15, 2006 be-tween 9.30 and 10.30 am on an experimental basis. As a

first step, we set up a target to plant atleast 2 million trees.

The Design Team consisting of 50 pro-curement officers from different milkunions and 1,000 trainers worked onthe idea. The trainers conducted pro-grammes in villages and encouragedfarmers to take up the idea. All Chair-persons, Management Committeemembers, Secretaries of village coop-eratives were involved at the planningand preparation stage. The designteam developed an Activity plan andmethodology for conducting tree plan-tation. They identified village level co-ordinators and arranged tree planta-tion awareness programmes. Roles

and responsibilities were assigned to each member. TheDistrict Forest Officers and the government authoritieswere contacted for obtaining the plan. The tree planta-tion awareness was cascaded to all villagers so that theycould collect the required tree saplings. Logistics wereworked out for delivery of saplings at least three daysprior to the Independence Day. On the day of the tree

plantation (15th August), after the milk collection andflag hoisting ceremony, saplings were distributed to members from milk cooperative societies. The members tookoath to protect the saplings and accept the responsibilityfor successfully growing them into trees. The actual sap-ling plantation was carried out by members at their iden-tified places in their farm, home, common plot of villages, schools, etc. The Chairman and MDs of MilkCooperatives also participated in the sapling plantationactivity.

Running the Green India

campaign on television,and actually turning IndiaGreen are two differentpropositions. I strongly

feel that our greatest assetis our people resources atthe grass-roots and they

need to be engaged in theright direction, includingfor the green initiative.



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On August 16, 2006, the Design Team reported that 1.8million saplings had been planted on the IndependenceDay! This achievement was celebrated and it was decidedto speed up the process and inspire farmers to plant threesaplings each. Accordingly, on August 15, 2007, duringthe flag hoisting ceremony held in the village dairy coop-erative offices, saplings were distributed to all membersin 13,000 villages. The farmers were advised to keep threepits ready in advance. Between 9.30 and 10.30 am, 5.5million saplings were planted voluntarily.

The farmers were given a choice to select the type of sap-lings and their choices were procured by the village co-operatives. An evaluation showed asurvival rate of more than 45 per centover the next five months. This initia-tive was further intensified to plantsaplings at the rate of five per farmerand include fruit trees like mango,chikoo, etc. In the years 2009 and 2010,about 8.8 million trees were plantedeach year. Between 2007 and 2009, outof a total of 15.6 million saplingsplanted, 8.4 million survived, indicat-ing a survival rate of 53 per cent. Theinitiative has subsequently got rootedin the dairy cooperative model.

This initiative of farmers has been rec-ognized nationally and internation-ally. In fact, GCMMF has won SrishtisG-Cube (G3 - Good Green Governance)Award 2010 in the Service Category for the fourth con-secutive time. The Amul Green movement has also beenrecognized and selected for the award of the best envi-ronment initiative in the sustainability category by theInternational Dairy Federation.

In all the above cases, young leaders in their early thirties

came forward to drive the change management processes.They helped in convincing other members, carrying themalong with their movement, and implementing signifi-cant initiatives by sacrificing their time and in the pro-cess learning the most valuable lessons of leadershipthrough experimentation.

My belief, that the leadership that gets built through self-learning practices is not party- or politics-driven andtherefore does not need government props, has been

strengthened. It will sustain over the years even withoutexternal support. Once a person has experienced the abil-ity to move people towards a common agenda, he willsurely recognize its power.

Conducting Self Leadership Programmes at the Village Level

I once attended a transformational spiritual leadershipworkshop conducted by a leading spiritual organization.However, I felt that just my attending it was of no use. Allthe Board members and others must undergo a similarprogramme so that they are able to transform the way weall lived and worked. I felt only such transformation could

sustain the success of GCMMF in thecoming years. With the help of the lead-ers of the organization, I organized ashort programme for the Board mem-

bers. Subsequent meetings with thehead of the organization led to the de-sign of a 4-day programme on self-lead-ership. The purpose was to expose allof the village cooperative members toprinciples and practice of self manage-ment and meditation. The workshopwas expected to infuse discipline, self-management, and leadership skills inthe participants while teaching themthe values of life, and urging them tonot treat selling of milk as a pure com-mercial act. Many such programmeswere conducted from 1997 to 2009.

Even today, I feel happy when I go to visit the milk coop-eratives. I find a large number of members embodying thevalues discussed in the programme.

Outcome of the Experiments

When 10,000 Chairpersons, and their 90,000 ManagingCommittee members come forward and lead milk pro-

ducers to implement these changes, handle the difficultprocess of managing change themselves, overcome thedifficulties, experience the successful and not-so-success-ful results they encounter, it would give them a rare andinvaluable experience in leadership and embolden themto take higher level of initiatives.

Hopefully, through these and other similar initiatives,the villagers would get a chance to manage change di-rectly. The people who work with involvement and ex-

My belief, that theleadership that gets built

through self-learningpractices is not party- or

politics-driven andtherefore does not needgovernment props, has

been strengthened. It willsustain over the yearseven without external

support.


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traordinary drive emerge and get accepted as milk pro-ducers leaders.

Many of the present leaders (Cooperative Chairpersonsand Management Committee members of village milk co-operatives) are very young and eager to learn and grow.Thanks to the various initiatives, there has not been aleadership vacuum as the old members moved on. I be-lieve that some of the initiatives gave the opportunity tothousands of youth to experience and exercise leader-ship and thus helped to churn and bring the cream on thetop.

By sharing these experiences, I wish to urge others to exam-ine and look at alternative ways of developing leadership.I have tried some unique experiments and I feel that if they can be continuously refined and consistently imple-mented, we may throw up a different breed of leaders, notonly in the villages but also in the country. I hope that atleast a few of those village cooperative members who haveexperienced these initiatives or have participated throughself-initiative and drive will emerge as good leaders sooneror later. I am fully convinced that we have to pursue thepath of grooming young leaders relentlessly.

Leadership Development at HDFC Limited

Prabhat Rao and S K Vasant

H DFC is Indias first retail housing finance company.Promoted in 1977, it is currently one of the largestoriginators of housing loans in India. The primary objec-tive of HDFC is to enhance residential housing stock inIndia through the provision of housing finance on a sys-tematic and professional basis and to promote home own-ership throughout the country. It hascontributed to increasing the flow of resources to the housing sectorthrough the integration of the housingfinance sector with the overall domes-tic financial markets. Since its incep-tion in 1977, HDFC has financed over3.8 million housing units with cumu-lative loan approvals amounting to Rs.3,732.46 billion (US$ 83.46 billion) andcumulative loan disbursementsamounting to Rs. 3,025.33 billion (US$67.65 billion). It also offers technical

assistance and consultancy services inmortgage finance to new and existingmortgage finance institutions in sev-eral countries in Asia, Africa, and EastEurope. It has 203,966 shareholders,74 per cent of them being foreign in-vestors.

HDFC has a wide network of 289 offices catering to over2,400 towns and cities spread across India. To cater to the

non-resident Indians, it has offices in London, Dubai, andSingapore and service associates in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia Al Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh.

Till mid 90s, the housing market comprised of very fewplayers along with HDFC. Since then,the competitive landscape has signifi-cantly changed, redefining the natureof business. HDFC accelerated thelearning process to counter the com-petition and reviewed the value propo-sition it offered to its customers. Thusit vigorously focused on the need toinvest in leadership at all levels in theorganization.

Organization Structure

HDFC has an organization structure

that has a broad span of control at eachlevel. The Company is managed by aBoard of Directors comprising eminentpersonalities who are specialists invarious fields. A team of Regional Busi-ness Heads based at different RegionalOffices across the country are sup-

ported by Business Heads and Branch Managers whoare responsible for managing business at their respectivelocations.


HDFC has committed tolearning by continuous

improvement. It considerspeople as its mostvaluable assets and

therefore believes in theircontinuous learning and

development. TheCompany maintains thatthe rate of learning has tobe faster than the rate of

change in theenvironment.


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Employee Profile

HDFC has a strength of more than 1,700 employees, whichincludes over 800 professionals from the fields of finance,law, accountancy, management, marketing, and engineer-ing. Over 500 staff members form part of the middle andsenior management executives. The overall ratio of males

to females in HDFC is 80:20. Around 15 per cent of theSenior Management team comprises women, all of whomare professionally qualified.

Learning in HDFC

Philosophy

H T Parekh, the Founder Chairmain of HDFC said , HDFCs finest investmentis in its human resources. It draws its per-sonnel from many disciplines. They are

building blocks on which the companys performance and productivity are based.

HDFC has committed to learning bycontinuous improvement. It considerspeople as its most valuable assets andtherefore believes in their continuouslearning and development. The Com-pany maintains that the rate of learn-ing has to be faster than the rate of change in the environment. It recog-

nizes the need for accelerating thelearning process within the organiza-tion to enhance competitiveness andthereby contribute to stakeholder value. On-going train-ing, both in functional and behavioural areas, ensuresthat the customer experience is enhanced continuously.

HDFC as an organization has been built on the basis of fairness, kindness, efficiency, and effectiveness. A genu-ineness of purpose with transparency in execution has been a major building block, providing the foundation

for learning organization. At HDFC, the emphasis is onlearning by doing and the objective is not to make thesame mistake twice over.

The Company focuses on employees career developmentto ensure that their aspirations are aligned with the or-ganizational goals. It has a highly motivated team of pro-fessionals and has one of the lowest employee attritionrates in the industry. The consistent high growth rate overthe past 33 years has provided challenging career oppor-

tunities for young professionals, many of whom havegrown to become functional heads, regional managers, branch managers, and service centre heads. The incum- bent Vice-Chairman and CEO joined the organization in1981 as an entry level manager.

Also, HDFC has been a single product company over the

last 33 years. However, we have looked at creating verti-cals such as loan against property and rural hous-ing which have created ample opportunities forleadership roles as well.

HDFCs strategy in line with its goals of growing throughdiversification and by leveraging off its existing client

base is to create new companies likethe HDFC Bank, HDFC Life, HDFCAsset Management Company, HDFCErgo, and other such companies. The

dual advantage of this strategy has been that it has been able to offer itsexisting clients financial products un-der the HDFC brand and that somesenior managers have moved to thesegroup companies into critical leader-ship positions.

Learning Needs and Communication Process

The primary objective of Learning andDevelopment function is to ensure thatstaff members are not only adequately

trained in functional and behavioural skills to sustainhigh standards of service, but also evolve as learning andgrowing human beings. Learning and development areperceived as an investment. Job-specific knowledge, skills,and attitudes are identified during the performance ap-praisal process, through discussions with immediate su-periors/managers, based on the changing business needsdiscussed at strategy meets, etc.

HDFCs communication process is highly penetrative andeffective and is able to maintain transparency and ac-countability. The periodic business strategy meetings andreview meetings are good examples of how communica-tion takes place. These meetings are conducted at all lev-els and not limited only to the top management.

Meetings are held periodically at branch and regionallevels. In the branch level meetings, the branch manageralong with the employees chalk out their strategic plan

A genuineness of purposewith transparency inexecution has been amajor building block,

providing the foundationfor learning organization.At HDFC, the emphasis is

on learning by doing

and the objective is not tomake the same mistake

twice over.


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for the branch, in line with the overall corporate plan.Issues including customer service, product development,operational procedure, system requirements, and profit-ability and training needs are discussed in detail. Gener-ally, after such review meets, the areas in which trainingis required in the context of business requirements arecommunicated to the Learning and Development func-tion.

Every Friday, the Top and Senior management have aconference call, where the issues of the week such as the business achieved, major issues faced, strategies of thecompetition, the costs of borrowing, and in which direc-tion the action should focus, are discussed. This call ischaired by the Vice Chairman or the Managing Director.It has proved to be a very useful activity for sharing andescalation of business related issues ina transparent and participative man-ner.

HDFC has a transparent performanceappraisal process. Training needs areidentified after assessing performanceat work and discussion withappraisees. Performance is evaluatedon the basis of key result areas andspecific attributes. The Learning andDevelopment Needs Assessment formis completed during the appraisalprocess. The appraiser and theappraisee discuss the key areas wherethe appraisee needs to develop his/herknowledge, skills, and attitude. Learn-ing and development needs are alsoidentified on the basis of internal au-dit reports. HDFC has also recently ini-tiated a competency mapping exercisefor Branch Managers, the primary objective being identi-fication of learning needs. Based on the information avail-

able, the HRD department develops an action plan forprogrammes, i.e., on-the-job training, job rotation or train-ing through various programmes internal, external orinternational.

Nature of Training Offered

At HDFC, we have developed a multi-pronged trainingstrategy for developing leaders. Starting from induction,on-the-job training to international assignments and pro-grammes, all are part of our training canvas. We neither

restrict ourselves to methodology or periodicity, nor to being thought leaders about leadership development. We believe in growing internal trainers, and stress on actual behaviour, on-the-job training, and classroom deliveryas bonafide means of training.

On-the-job training: As indicated earlier, HDFC adoptsthe philosophy of Learning by doing. An employee learnsmore by actually performing. On-the-job training helpsthe employee to get access to their work and in relating totheir tasks and role more efficiently.

Job Rotation: Employees should be familiar with proce-sses in other functions. This is achieved by moving peo-ple through various functions to appreciate, learn, andunderstand specific processes. This enables employees

to understand the various customertouch points in depth and the valuecreation process.

Training Programmes

HDFCs aim is to create an enablingenvironment in which employees takethe responsibility for making signifi-cant shifts in the value creation pro-cess for the customers and contributeto the goals of the company. Some of the training programmes offered to the

employees, based on identified needsare:

HDFC School: The School provides acomplete insight to the frontline staff into the operations of HDFC, its prod-ucts and processes on the assets andliability side of the balance sheet. Theprogramme is facilitated by senior line

managers.

Enjoying Challenges Together : It is a teamwork-basedprogramme that helps to clarify roles and responsibili-ties of each department by giving and receiving individualand departmental feedback. It helps in resolving intra/inter-department concerns. Participants learn ways towork joyfully together, resulting in superior results.

Executive Development Programme : The main purposeof this programme is role clarification to clearly definesupervisory role in the overall context of the organizationand initiate specific actions to improve effectiveness.

We neither restrictourselves to methodology

or periodicity, nor tobeing thought leaders

about leadershipdevelopment. We believe

in growing internaltrainers, and stress on

actual behaviour, on-the- job training, and

classroom delivery asbonafide means of

training.



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Communication skills and ability to work in teams areimportant ingredients of the programme. Participantslearn to manage time and energy better in relation to themultiplicity of expectations from their role.

Enhancing Managerial Skills Programme : This pro-gramme is designed to enhance awareness, inspire, and

build on both behavioural competencies and managerialskills. The objective is to enable participants to cope upwith the current challenges and achieve defined out-comes. Its contents include problem solving, decision-making, leadership skills, self-exploration, timemanagement, and role clarity.

Leadership Programmes

Leadership effectiveness plays a significant role in thesuccess of the team and consequently organizational re-

sults. It is extremely important therefore for key individu-als in the organization to understandhow they can enhance their skills andadapt their styles in response to theneeds of the organization. Leadershipskills facilitate learning in the organi-zation. Leadership programmes in-clude inputs on motivation, coaching,and counseling. They are conductedon a regular basis for Branch Heads aswell as functional heads.

During 2011, HDFC initiated a Lead-ership Development Programme witha reputable management institute for a select group of middle and senior managers, specifically identified forfuture leadership positions. This exercise was under thedirect guidance of the Managing Director.

Empowered Trainer

Empowered trainers are the driving force for organiza-tional learning and change at all levels. While relevantinformation required for training is available in books,exercises, slides, films, etc., it is the skilled trainers whotranslate it all into powerful programmes for the organi-zation.

At HDFC, senior executives in the line function who havenecessary knowledge, traits, and inclination and drive tofacilitate have been trained to be trainers in their respec-tive functional areas. These facilitators are not only capable of scientifically identifying training needs but also

design, develop, and deliver training programmes in their branch/region. The HR department centrally coordinatestheir effort and gives necessary support.

Mentoring

In addition to training at HDFC, there is also a structured

mentoring programme as another way to deepen leader-ship development across the organization. The mentoringprogramme assists new employees to integrate quicklyinto the organization; it serves as a vehicle to inculcatevalues of HDFC such as result orientation and team work-ing among new employees; helps outline and draw up acompetency development plan; and find aspirations andwork out solutions in real time to spot and retain talent.

Mentors are carefully selected on the basis of their func-tional exposure and experience and trained on the

mentoring process. Each employee is assigned a mentorand each newcomer is told in the ap-pointment letter itself who is going to be his/he r mentor. Mentors andmentees submit meeting reports toHRD at periodic intervals after eachmeeting.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming(NLP)

The art of managing and leading hasalways been dynamic. Today it ischanging more quickly and dramati-

cally than ever before. The soft skills such as the abilityto understand oneself, understand peoples thinking andemotions, to inspire them by selling them your visionand getting their buy in to this vision, are critical inevery role. The NLP programmes are custom-designedafter identifying specific needs for credit risk manage-ment, loan origination, and other functional staff.

Enhancing Personal Effectiveness

This workshop is designed to empower participants to be fully in control of their lives and optimize their unlim-ited potential thereby enabling them to achieve break-throughs at work as well as in personal life. EnhancingPersonal Effectiveness provides an opportunity and aplatform to the participants to explore the strengths andweaknesses of ones own self and become capable of de-veloping ones potential to the fullest, while handlingweaknesses effectively.

Every company has a setof written values andgoals but what sets

HDFC apart is that it hasinstitutionalized a set of practices so as to live by

its values and principles.


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Time and Stress Management

This programme is conducted in order to help partici-pants to manage their time and priorities better and han-dle stress in positive ways to achieve results. Employeeslearn to keep track of their time expenditure and accord-ingly identify and eliminate time wasters. They learn the

benefits of delegation, thereby releasing more time for crea-tive work.

External Training Programme

Based on the identified needs, employees are nominatedfor external programmes conducted by various institu-tions and professional bodies, management institutes, etc.

International Programmes and Ex-posure

Selected staff members are nominatedfor international training programmesconducted by institutions of reputeabroad. Some of them have also vis-ited various mortgage and retail lend-ing institutions in USA and Europe tostudy various products, processes, andwork practices followed in these insti-tutions especially those related to useof technology.

These study assignments have beeninstrumental in the development of new products as well as benchmarking some processes inHDFC. For some of the consulting as-signments taken up by HDFC for vari-ous corporate and countries, middle management staff isusually inducted into the team in order to nurture themand develop in them an international/global perspec-tive.

Overall Implementation Plan forHDFC Training Programmes

After the learning needs of the employees are identified,learning initiatives are planned to fulfill the requirementsand accordingly participants attend different trainingprogrammes. Pre-programme questionnaire is sent to thenominees. Questions are framed such that it provides aclear picture of the role of nominee and specific skillswherein s/he needs development. After receiving the

questionnaire from the nominees, it is compiled and ana-lysed. Accordingly, the programme is designed/fine-tuned and data is shared with the facilitators of theprogramme. Participants in the programme are usuallyfrom various branches and departments. The programmesare designed for maximum interaction amongst partici-pants through discussions, role-plays, case studies andmany more activities, which leads to better bondingamongst the participants. At the end of the programme,participants fill in the programme feedback questionnaire,where they rate the programme as well as the facilitators,which is compiled and shared with the facilitators andthe senior/top management.

Training Management System

The training database is utilized for thepurpose of updating needs identifiedthrough the performance appraisalprocess and other process mentionedearlier. Participation of employees isupdated on a regular basis and data isavailable through various report op-tions. All staff members have access totheir respective training related infor-mation. Functional heads, branchmanagers, and regional managers canaccess training related data for their

respective staff.Infrastructure for Training

HDFC has a professional learning cen-tre, Centre of Housing Finance (CHF),at Lonavla. It was set up in 1990 to pro-

vide functional and soft skill training to its executivesfrom all locations in the country. CHF also conducts in-ternational training programmes on housing financemanagement and organizational development for hous-ing finance companies in Asia, Africa, and East Europe.

HDFC Culture

At HDFC, leadership development is not limited to as-sessment and training. We believe that leaders can bedeveloped and kept in an organization only by having aconsistent organizational culture. Each employee mustembody the culture. The organization believes that it isthis corporate culture or the HDFC way of doing thingswhich forms the foundation for long-term success.


The people who work at

HDFC do not viewthemselves as employeesor see the company as an

employer. Seniormanagement has instilled

among employees afeeling that the companybelongs to us as much as

we belong to thecompany. This gives

them a sense of being partof an extended family.


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Every company has a set of written values and goals but what sets HDFC apart is that it has institutionalizeda set of practices so as to live by its values and principles.At the heart of these practices is the organizations firmcommitment to building long-term, mutually supportiverelationships with all its key constitu-encies: its employees, investors, de-positors, borrowers, and regulators.

HDFC has built a principle-centredorganization based on fairness, kind-ness, efficiency, and effectiveness. Ithas built trust between people,strengthened communication, andadopted a participative style of man-agement. The company works with anopen-door policy. Everyone knowseach other and people can walk intothe office of the Chairman, Vice-Chair-man and CEO, Managing Director orExecutive Director to raise their con-cerns and have them addressed.

HDFC values strong teamwork, interpersonal relation-ship, and supportive leadership. Senior managers wanta lot of inputs with the initiatives of planning and deci-sion making to come from all employees, irrespective of their hierarchy. Employees are expected to exercise andaccept leadership, thereby learning to lead and follow

simultaneously. Senior management view leadership asa creative process and depend on fluid communication up, down, and across the organization, thus ensuringfree sharing of information.

The people who work at HDFC do not view themselvesas employees or see the company asan employer. Senior management hasinstilled among employees a feelingthat the company belongs to us asmuch as we belong to the company.This gives them a sense of being partof an extended family.

HDFCs robust growth story and im-pressive business results, coupled withnumerous prestigious awards con-ferred over the years for, inter alia, in-vestor relations, corporate governance,corporate social responsibility, ethicalmanagement, etc., seem to endorse the

fact that its leadership development efforts are yieldinggood dividends. HDFC has proved that an organization based on strong business ethics, an impeccable enlight-ened leadership, can not only survive, but also continueto remain a market leader even in an aggressively com-petitive market. Perhaps, all the above have resulted inthe creation of a very strong HDFC brand.

HDFC has proved that anorganization based on

strong business ethics, animpeccable enlightenedleadership, can not only

survive, but also continueto remain a market leader

even in an aggressivelycompetitive market.

Retail Leadership Development:The Theory and Practice at Shoppers Stop

Govind Shrikhande

Govinda Pyramid

Everyone in India knows about the Govinda Pyra-mid,which celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna, througha ritual of Dahi Handi (pot full of curd). The entire atmos-phere, created by the rains, a Handi suspended high inthe air, a joyous Toli (Group) of Govindas, stretching them-selves to the ultimate to reach the pot, and the boisterouscrowd cheering them, is a Must See Experience.

Apart from the formation of an eye-catching symmetricalstructure, there is a hidden management principle in this

wholesome fun activity, which is not quite apparent.

The Govinda Pyramid is a combination of several levelsof varying competencies that tries to attain a goal, in thiscase, the Dahi Handi, through a coordinated team effort.

The bottom level brings in experience, strength, maturity,and planning to the Pyramid. The middle level adds flairto push the boundaries, provides tough support in ex-ecution and also gives flexibility. The top level triggersagility, speed, nimbleness and a youthful urge to beat thegoals.


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If all the three levels had the same qualities and compe-tencies, then the Toli would never achieve the task of breaking the handi. It is the combined effect of team workand an appropriate mix of competencies that help theToli to plan, execute, and break the Handi.

What is the significance of this Pyramid to Retail Leader-ship Management?

Indian Organized Retail

India has been a country of traders from time immemo-rial. It is a land of dukandaars (shopkeepers) with morethan 15 million retailers spread across the country. Or-ganized retail, however, has been slowto start with ration shops, textilechains, and footwear chains, rulingthe roost, from 1960s to 1990. 1991

saw the birth of Shoppers Stop, thefirst Department Store Chain of India.This was followed by many otherchains and formats, post-economic lib-eralization of 1995. A number of chains including apparel and elec-tronics retailers came up in the newopen economy. But it was only after2001 that the pace of modernizationof the Indian retail gathered momen-tum.

A lot of new formats emerged fromHypermarkets and Home Stores, toMobile Stores, F&B Outlets, andMultiplexes. Awareness and aspira-tions rose along with the rising con-sumer income. Malls became the newrecreation centres and popular hang-outs for family andfriends. Consumers also became more demanding, fash-ionable, and knowledgeable. Double income families hadthe additional means and aspirations to make theirdreams come true.

As the industry exploded at a break-neck pace, the big-gest challenge was talent management. The other big chal-lenges included:

High cost of rents High competition from both organized and unorgan-

ized sectors Low margins

Poor infrastructure.

Multi-tax structure cutting across the states and the Cen-tre further added to the complexity. Retail business is de-pendent on a growing economy. Whenever the economyfalters, retail sales are the first to take a dip as consumersprefer to save or postpone their expenses, and when re-tail sales go down, a lot of retail companies go down un-der, as we saw during the last few years.

The key foundation of retail success has definitely been talent management. Most management effort isdedicated to attracting, retaining, and growing talent. Thisstrategy has worked wonders for Shoppers Stop as can

be seen from its history of growth.Launched in 1991, as a mens-wearstore, covering just 4,500 sq ft space, ithas not only expanded across India,to 43 stores and 3.5 million sq ft in thedepartment store format but has alsostarted other formats like Homestop,Crossword, Hypercity, Airport Stores,etc., over the last twenty years,

The network of Shoppers Stop outletscovers 19 cities across India. While thedepartment store is positioned as ahouse of brands for fashionable fami-lies stocking apparel and non-ap-parel fashion brands bothinternational and national, Hypercitystocks food, grocery and general mer-chandise catering to the maximumwallet share of the customers.HomeStop and Crossword have aniche segment covering home and

books, music, toys, and stationery. All the formats havewon several national and international awards. As of date, there are more than 4,500 associates working from

Siliguri to Chennai.

Retail Leadership Management at Shoppers Stop

When organized retail started in India very few peoplesaw it as an attractive employment opportunity. Whilemost of them were worried about losing their Sundaysand holidays the days of high retail sales some feltthat it was a tiring job standing throughout the day in astore, waiting for their God The Customer to arrive,and a few gave silly reasons like who will marry us!!


Sketch by Sharon Pimento, Designer and aCategory Visual Merchandiser at Shoppers

Stop


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So, we had a tough time, recruiting people at all levels.

For an outsider, retail is a simple job of selling merchan-dise at a profit. In reality, it is much more complex, in-volving both science and art of retailing. The retailIndustry requires three kinds of roles/skill sets:

a) The Buying, Merchandising and Design (B&M) Teamworks to create the merchandise offering, consideringthe target customers. This team comprises Fashiongraduates, MBAs, designers, etc., who work on fash-ion insights, sourcing skills, and customer under-standing and is the backbone of the organization. Themerchandise assortment is completed by workingalong with designers, manufacturers, and brands, andensuring the right size and pricealong with timely availability. Cre-ating an assortment requires expe-rience, a proper understanding of fashion and consumers needs, andthe ability to innovate and identifywinning products.

b) The Operations Team works onachieving sales by actually servic-ing the customers and deliveringthe sales targets. This team is theArmy and Face of the retail or-ganization. They are young, ener-getic, and live-wire go-getters. Thisgroup mainly consists of under-graduates and graduates, along with MBAs and ac-countants.

c) A Third team, which is an amalgamation of variousteams, makes the whole cycle of attracting, retaining,and transacting with the customer seamless. Thisgroup consists of marketing wizards, CAs, architects,IT experts, lawyers, engineers, accountants, HR ex-

perts, and MBAs. They design and deliver great stores,recruit and retain the right talent, manage the supplychain and information chain, manage costs and prof-its, draw agreements, and sign retail spaces.

This also brings us to the parallel between the GovindaPyramid and Retail Structures!

The B&M team is the bottom level of the pyramid, whichprovides experience, knowledge, and strength to produce

an attractive assortment for the customer. Their planningcreates the platform for winning. The middle levels whichare a combination of all enabling teams, are the backboneof the pyramid and hold the structure together. The toplevel is the operations and front-end sales team. This isthe army that serves the customer with a smile and deliv-ers sales. This team is nimble, young, and raring to go,puts in long hours of work, and picks up the Dahi Handi .

Only when all the three levels work together, can the Dahi Handi be won.

Retail Career Paths at Shoppers Stop

Everyone wants to grow fast in their career. Some are ca-pable, while some others are not. Somegrow through experience and timespent in the organization. Others may

grow through delivery of job. Yet someothers grow through impressing andinfluencing the boss.

Organizations need a fool-proof sys-tem that would nurture the right talentfor the right job at the right time. In agrowing organization, maintaining thepipeline for current and future jobs isa key challenge. The attrition levels inretail are phenomenally high and fur-

ther add to the challenge.

Realizing that the challenge could not be met in an ad hoc manner, we developed systematic proc-esses and tools for assignment of people to appropriateroles, ensuring that the leadership pipeline is filled withthe right people. To facilitate career growth of employees,we developed the Assessment Centre, clarified the careerpath for each role, and then mapped them for selectedemployees. For example, a Customer Care Associate cangrow to be a Store Head, by clearing stages of Baby Kan-

garoo, Department Manager, ROM, to a Store Managerover a 8 to 10 year period. A Management Trainee canstart off as a Department Manager, post-training, and thengrow to a ROM, Store Manager, Area Manager, and Re-gional Head to an All India Operations Managers posi-tion. Similarly, each individual Customer Care Associatecan see a path for his/her growth in Role & Designa-tion. On the B&M side, a Management Trainee can growfrom an Assistant Merchandiser to Deputy Merchandiser,

The key foundation of

retail success hasdefinitely been talentmanagement. Most

management effort isdedicated to attracting,retaining, and growingtalent. This strategy has

worked wonders for

Shoppers Stop.


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Merchandiser, Assistant Category Manager, CategoryManager, Trading Manager, and finally to B&M Head,over a 10 to 15 year period.

The Heads of both the functions have the prospect of lead-ing the All India Functions of B&M and Operations andcan ultimately become the COO, CEO, or Head of the Com-pany or Divisions.

Assessment Centres

We adopted the Assessment Centre methodology almost10 years back to identify the right talent for the next level.We intended to scale up at a pace of more than 20 per centevery year by adding a lot of storesacross India and this needed a largepool of talent at every store level and atthe Services Office a team that could

scale up their capabilities along withthe growth of the Company.

The Assessment Centres determine theindividuals ratings against specificcompetencies that are required for aspecific role. The design was adaptedfrom an international programme thatwas used as a benchmark. The topmanagement itself went through anassessment programme to understand

the relevance of the programme andcheck out their own competencies. Thismethod uses a combination of toolssuch as group discussion, personalinterview, case study, in-basket/trays,mathematical/analytical puzzles, etc.We use a mix of internal and external assessors depend-ing on the role and its importance. We also train asses-sors internally, as the number of Assessment Centresconducted every year are pretty large.

The level of difficulty and competencies change as perthe role and level. While grade promotions can happenthrough yearly appraisals and experience, role changehas to go through assessments, especially in the two keystreams of operations and buying and merchandising.

From the beginning, we have faced two objections to thismethod:

Many participants feel that it is like a one-day cricketmatch. If they underperform on that day - they lose at

least six months to a year. The assessment does not consider participants on-

the-job performance.

We have used the feedback to strengthen the process andmake it bias-free. Also, with multiple tools to check com-petency, the one-day failure is actually not a reality. Thisis communicated to our employees to assuage their fearsand criticisms. Additionally, Development Centres have been set up to provide our employees with an opportu-nity to acquire skills that may be needed in the future.

The Development Centres were started two years afterthe Assessment Centres were operationalized. Typically,

the Development Centres act like SemiFinal Programmes. They identify thekey issues in an individuals compe-tency portfolio, after which, the HRteam tailors a programme for improve-ment in each of the parameters. This isdone through projects, team work, casestudies, store visits, exposure, andmentoring. Once an individual hasgone through a programme at the de-velopment centre, he/she is better pre-pared for an Assessment Centre, andeven those who fail are in a better posi-tion to accept the results than earlier,as they acknowledge and understandthe efforts underlying the whole proc-ess.

We also have a unique programme Baby Kangaroo at the starting point of

a Customer Care Associates career. It utilizes the con-cept of a Mother Kangaroo and her Joey whom she pro-tects and nurtures till he/she is ready to take off on itsown. All fresh front-end Associates who spend a year onthe job are eligible to appear for the Programme. After

clearing the Assessment Centre Programme, the Associ-ates go through MAST (Managerial and SupervisoryTraining) spread over 37 days. They are mentored underan experienced supervisor before they take on the actualrole. As an organization, we believe that every managershould be capable of conducting training; and hence, theseAssociates go through Train the Trainer programme andare assessed on the delivery skills in areas like customerservice, retail selling skills, and product knowledge, etc.Apart from the above, associates are trained through vari-


Organizations need a fool-proof system that would

nurture the right talent forthe right job at the right

time. In a growingorganization, maintaining

the pipeline for currentand future jobs is a keychallenge. The attrition

levels in retail arephenomenally high and

further add to thechallenge.


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ous courses to take up bigger respon-sibilities.

Being a member of the IGDS (Intercon-tinental Group of Department Stores),we nominate all our key managers forthe Strategic Retail Management (SRM)Programme conducted by them. Man-agers from all functions including op-erations and buying andmerchandising have attended the Pro-gramme which has helped in enhanc-ing their strategic perspective. Weidentify young potential managers andnominate them for the IGDS High Po-tential Programme annually. Our ex-change programmes help themunderstand the best practices adopted.

IGDS membership is only by invite and consists of onlyone department store from each country. It has famousretailers like, Woolworths from Australia, Bloomingdalesfrom USA, Printemps from France, Central from Thailand,and Parksons from Malaysia. The programme is run bythe IGDS secretariat and all members can send two orthree nominees. The partcipants are guided by the CEOof one of the IGDS companies. They present their reportin the bi-annual/annual summits of IGDS.

In another initiative The Hi Pot Programme Managersinteract with their counterparts from global retail compa-nies, enhancing their knowledge of best retail practices.

Learnings and the Way Ahead

The biggest challenge in all such as-sessments is the fairness of the Centreand the belief of the participants in thesystem followed by the Centre.

As mentioned earlier, we have tried toinstill faith in the system by usingtrained assessors both internal andexternal. The HR Head also runsthrough the results to ensure that thereis no bias in the assessment. One needsto continuously improve and updatethe tools, cases, and assignments asAssociates get used to various testsover the years. Over the past 10 years,

this method has provided us with theCEO, B&M Heads, Trading Managers,Category Managers, Store Managers,etc., and majority of them have actu-ally delivered brilliantly in their jobs.This reaffirms our belief that it is a robust programme which has grown fromstrength to strength.

Enabling Culture

At Shoppers Stop, we believe that it isimportant to have an enabling culturein the organization that encouragesperformance, openness, and growth.Retail, as we saw earlier, requires dif-ferent kind of competencies and talent

for different roles and it is important to bring empathyamong the various team members spread across the storeslocated in various cities. This is especially required as thefront-end team is working 365 days of the year throughDiwali and Christmas, sacrificing their holidays to servethe customers. Over the years, we have therefore madeconscious attempts to develop the culture of empathy andrespect through various initiatives.

Common Designation

The starting point of all these initiatives has been the re-

moval of overt signs of hierarchy by introducing a com-mon designation, Customer Care Associate, for all theteam members. From the Managing Director to the StorePlanner or the front-end Sales Associate each one isfirst referred to as Customer Care Associate. The Associ-

ates feel proud to share the same des-ignation; it helps reinforce that allemployees are part of one team that ex-ists because of and for the customerwho is paying for their salary. It en-courages the team to be humble andunited and on par with each other. Itenhances the service leadership quali-ties amongst all managers.

Values

We have carefully chosen and adoptedthe following key values which guidethe behaviour of all the employees:

The front-end team isworking 365 days of the

year through Diwali andChristmas, sacrificing

their holidays to serve thecustomers. Over theyears, we have thereforemade conscious attemptsto develop the culture of

empathy and respectthrough various initiatives.

Four years ago, ShoppersStop started the practice of singing an Anthem every

day at 10.45 am in all thestores and service officesacross the country. Veryfew organizations have

utilized the force of a songto get their teams charged

up.


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We will not take what is not ours We will uphold the obligation to dissent We will have an environment conducive to openness We will have an environment for innovation We will have an environment for development We will have willingness to apologize and forgive We will respect our customers rights We will create an environment of trust We will be fair We will be socially responsible.

These values help the team to face vari-ous challenges that appear from timeto time. For example, although we donot accept any gifts, we continue to re-ceive gifts on various occasions. Thesegifts are deposited in the CEOs Officeand auctioned every year, the proceedsfrom which are sent to CRY.

Satisfaction Indices

Shoppers Stop commissions three an-nual satisfaction surveys which areconducted by an independent interna-tional research agency. The surveysinclude Customer Satisfaction Index(CSI), Associate Satisfaction Index (ASI), and Partner Sat-isfaction Index (PSI). The results of the surveys are treated

as interdependent and in combination, indicate the healthof the organizational culture in dealing with its custom-ers, associates, and supplier partners.

It is firmly believed that if associates are happy, then boththe customers and supplier partners would be happy.The surveys are not treated as mere rituals undertaken toincrease the feel good factor of managers. Instead, theyare given weightage in the Balance Score Card of everyindividuals performance appraisal. The ASI/CSI scoreshelp the managers to take corrective actions and improve

performance.

Anthem

Four years ago, Shoppers Stop started the practice of sing-ing an Anthem every day at 10.45 am in all the stores andservice offices across the country. Very few organizations

have utilized the force of a song to get their teams chargedup. The Anthem, Hadh Se Aage, written by Gulzaar,sung by Sonu Nigam, and composed by Ram Sampath isunique in its power to bind and inspire people. This song

unites all employees in the spirit of de-livering a service standard that is be-yond the capabilities of individualemployees. It also helps the store to startthe day with an adrenaline rush thatkeeps the employees in high spirits.Most employees feel that it creates asense of oneness in all the stores andoffices across the country.

Concluding Comments

We, at Shoppers Stop, have always believed in team power as the key fac-tor for success in retail. Our efforts inattracting, training, retaining, and

growing the talent pool have met with success in differ-ent metrices. Within the retail Industry, we boast of the

most loyal and long-serving retail management team.Majority of the top management team members at Shop-pers Stop have spent more than ten years in the organiza-tion. Our Associate Satisfaction Scores along with PSIand CSI have held on well. Our attrition in the back-endhas been relatively low. Most importantly, majority of thetop positions have been filled by internal candidates. Weare extremely thrilled to share that the Govinda Pyramiddoes work well and can meet international metrices andchallenges head on.


Within the retail Industry,we boast of the most loyal

and long-serving retailmanagement team.Majority of the topmanagement team

members at Shoppers Stophave spent more than tenyears in the organization.

Leader and Leadership Development at IBM

Rajshekar Krishnan

This perspective has two distinct parts. One, whichgives an overall description of IBMs leadership de-velopment philosophy and method and the other which

provides a portrayal of who is a leader. The first piece isdescriptive and the second piece is contemplative andcomes out of the experience of the writer in his current


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role and his philosophical stance towards life and being.

Part A: The Organizational Journey of IBM into Leadership Development

It is appropriate to begin this article with a quote of LouGerstner from his book Who Says Elephants Cant Dance?-

The work-a-day world of business isnt about fads and mira-cles. There are fundamentals that characterize successful enter- prises and successful executives:

They are focused They are superb at execution They abound with personal leadership.7

As Noel Tichy says, A number of management theoristsdont buy the argument that leadership is the key factorin determining an organizations success; they assert thata winning culture or efficient workprocesses, or any number of ancillaryattributes are the sine qua non of suc-cess. I agree with them that thosethings are important. But leadershiptakes precedence over everything else.. Without leaders, good results are amatter of random chance, and there-fore unsustainable. 8

IBM is celebrating its centenary thisyear which is a testament to its sus-tained success. It has weathered nu-merous storms and crises over the yearsand is seen as a dominant force in thetechnology sector. It has produced gen-erations of leaders across national cul-tures leaders, who have successfullycarried forward the corporate mission in their respectivecountries. What is the secret of IBMs sustained success?What has been the rationale behind its leaders achieve-ments and how does it develop leaders to sustain growth

and momentum? This article seeks to address these ques-tions from the perspective of a leadership developmentprofessional as well as an IBMer who heads the leader-ship development practice for IBM India.

Values

As Sam Palmisano, the Chairman and CEO of IBM, saysin the booklet on IBM values which is given to every IBMeron joining: Many companies define themselves in termsof technologies, products, pricing or e

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