Sampark volume 8 issue 2

Volume 8 Issue 2 6 September 2014

HR SYMPOSIUM

After the success of FMCG Symposium, it was time for the HR Symposium. The Alumni Relationship Commi>ee organized HR Symposium at IMT Ghaziabad on 30th August, 2014. The symposium garnered a lot of excitement among the students and faculty and it witnessed the convergence of several great minds on a single platform. The symposium was chaired by Mr Prabhat Ummat, an IMT Ghaziabad alumnus of batch 1995. He is a partner and co founder of Aksas. !The first session of the day on ‘HR Context: The HR Roles and Hiring for Success’ was delivered by Mrs Madhulika Makar of batch 1995, who is the director and founder of Mirus Solutions. She explained the importance of talent acquisition role of HR Department in a firm. It was a highly interactive session where students were made to undertake group activities and participate in spot interviews. !

�1IMT GhaziabadAlumni Relationship Committee

SAMPARKVolume 8, Issue 2


Next speaker was Mrs Harpreet Du>a, an alumnus of 1995 batch. She is Vice President -‐‑ Human Resource and Administration at SMS Siemag. She covered ‘Addressing Human Capital: Talent Management and Talent Retention’ and in the process busted myths relating to the field of HR. She put emphasis on the significance of HR professionals, who according to her, are ‘harbingers of change in an organisation’; responsible for understanding the objectives of the company and creating an environment conducive to achieve the same. !Post lunch, the stage was taken over by Mr Sudeep Ralhan, 2001 batch passout of IMT Ghaziabad. Mr. Ralhan is the HR Business Lead for Sales and Marketing at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. He spoke on ‘Role of HR in Building Organizational Capability’. From being a peripheral function designed to store employee information to being a key factor in shaping policies and strategies of today’s multinational organizations, he explained the importance and changing dynamics of human resource management. !The final speaker for the day was, Mr Dev Amritesh, an alumnus of 1999 batch. Mr. Amritesh, one of the most distinguished alumnus of IMT is currently the COO of Dunkin Donuts. He shared his insights on the topic ‘Living the Brand-‐‑ A Brand and Business Perspective ’. It was a highly informative and entertaining session for the students. He touched upon key concepts of branding through practical examples and reemphasized on the role of HR personnel as the ones, who inculcate the change in an organisation whenever it becomes necessary. He explained the process of achieving business goals by defining a process of steps, which begins by nurturing the required culture or a>itudes among the organization and its people to achieve results. He summarised all that had been discussed by the previous speakers about the role and dynamics of talent acquisition and human resource management and linked it with the overall strategy of the firm. !The students thoroughly enjoyed the HR symposium and are looking forward to more such upcoming events in near future. We would like to express our gratitude to all the alumni for their presence at the symposium and are looking forward to host them soon again.





Words of Wisdom from Mr. Krish Dhanam Krish Dhanam, one of IMT’s most distinguished alumnus, is the epitome of the American Dream. A native of India, he arrived in the United States with nine dollars in his pocket and a vision of promise in his heart. Krish Dhanam joined the Zig Ziglar Corporation in the sales department in October of 1991. Through speaking and teaching the timeless principles of its legendary founder Zig Ziglar, Krish soon embarked on a career that has seen him facilitate workshops and conduct seminars all over the world. His current assignments include functioning as Vice President of Consulting and Business Development for Ziglar True Performance and Co-‐‑founder of Krish Dhanam Training International.

How does one keep himself motivated to outperform this cuBhroat competition?

Well, you have to self motivate yourself everyday because the competition is ge>ing keener. So, some of the two or three things I ask people to do for self motivation is, what do you know right now about the competition or the competitive environment, what would you like to know about them, and how will you know when you have enough



knowledge so that you can beat your competition. Thus, the first one establishes identity, second one expansion and the third defines the benchmark. You need to reflect, whether you are learning something new about your competition everyday and that’s the key, because the world we live in today is information age related.

In India, HR is not given as much importance as other departments like Marketing or Finance. Do you think a paradigm shift is going to take place soon?

It will, because within the confines of HR, the most important task is not hiring but retention. Only an organization with a strong identity, as to what works in the company and the articulation of what works, can create that retention model. Because, then you can go out and recruit people, whom you believe personality wise will lend themselves to the longevity. So from that standpoint, I think HR should not be considered a place,that just stores personnel’s records and understands salaries and occasionally sends people for training. HR should be the internal vehicle for communication and a medium for predicting the demand of the employees and to that degree; I have seen a shift taking place. Human Resource Management in modern times has evolved into an elaborate, ecosystem friendly, intra as well as inter departmental communication that leads to growth of the organization. I don’t think India or any geography has any role to play in that. Economics is the driving factor here. So if you want to be a world class organization, sooner or later you need to adapt to this perspective.

Today we see people working 15 hrs a day and compromising their family life. Many people choosing success over happiness. Do you think it is sustainable over the long run?

The question actually is can you have it all and not either or. It is detrimental if you are spending 15 hours in one place on the chairs of success. There is no easy way; someone will pay the price. The question has to be answered form our self motivation perspective and the belief that, yes I can have it all. Even if you work for 16 hours, when you finish your work and go home, be totally



commi>ed to your family, don’t wash out and arrive there tired. Make sure you take your family out; they want only a couple of hours. So it is important to make sure these two hours get utilized constructively, as problem arises when you fail to do that. We pay the price because we come home and say we are doing all this for you (family); we put our legs up and watch tv; they don’t get any of our time. Change the model. Leave the house in the morning saying, whatever I am able to do is because of my family and I can’t wait to get back and share my day with them.

What are your key takeaways from IMT in terms of motivation?One of the things that motivated me about this place was the fact that they did stay true to their word. They advertised that they would get accredited soon, we didn’t realize how soon. We were in 3rd semester when IMT actually got approved by AICTE and suddenly the dynamics changed. The belief system within us changed, that this is just not another run of the mill ordinary college. I remember that was India 1982, when people were making lot of false promises regarding autonomous education. The second thing that motivated me is the fact that they stayed true to the promise they gave us. When I look around as to what has been built here in these 30 years, it is beyond anything I can imagine. The fascinating thing is when I travel throughout United States and meet young people coming from India and they ask me where did I went t o s choo l . I r ep ly IMT and everybody knows it; nobody knew it when I left. That gives me pride. So there was a past, there was an in between and there is a present and I am sure the future will be as bright.

Any parting message for IMTians...

If you don’t believe that something is possible for you, it will always be impossible for you. No ma>er whether something is possible for you or not, you have to believe


“The fascinating thing is when I travel throughout United States and meet young people coming from India and they ask me where did I go to school. I reply IMT and everybody knows it; nobody knew it when I left. That gives me pride.”


that it is possible for you. If you begin with a defeatist a>itude that the deck is stacked, or I can’t do more, then why try. Because the logic is this is that you have to get our nose bloodied, you have to get hurt not physically – that’s the way we learn. I have been fired from jobs and I have fired other people from their jobs; it is a learning curve. If you believe it’s possible then only you have a chance.

!Madhulika Makar started Mirus Solutions, a human capital management firm, after qui>ing her job in Standard Chartered. We got an opportunity to know a few insights on this decision and her perspective on the future of recruitment industry. !

You left your job at Standard Chartered to start your own company. What was the motivation behind doing so and how did you decide on starting your own venture? !No glamorous thoughts on entrepreneurship or anything like that. Banking, per se, is an industry which runs on routine. You don’t innovate too much. It’s a highly regulated industry. When I came from Nerolac paints, where there was enough leeway in terms of how you operate, coming to Standard Chartered was a huge cultural shift that I didn’t take to very well. Plus, I was in the relationship sales side and then I moved into the service side handling wealth management. And the service side wasn’t challenging enough and one had to just ensure that things are moving in the right direction. Since the job was fairly monotonous I decided to quit. I came back to Delhi and I started Mirus on a very small scale. It was a very practical decision, which involved minimal investment; minimal risk and maximum strength. There was this whole IMT network that one could access and it was a good place to start. You have also mentioned about how IMT inculcated the “You can do it” aBitude. So, how did that play a role in deciding to quit? !Now, the college has become extremely academic oriented. The



batches and students that we were at that point in time, the one thing that IMT made you was street smart. It kind of inculcated to a point where we were ready to do anything. There were 7 one of us who were hired in Nerolac from IMT. We went in with the enthusiasm that we are going to change the whole company. The USP for us was that we are willing to pick up anything and I think when you do that, you open a lot of avenues for yourself. We were not up there academically but our will to do anything that came our way is what differentiated us. !Where do yourself in Mirus 5 years from now? What is the vision that your company has? !In Mirus, we’ve been in the search space and the hiring space, so it’s a perennial industry. It’s shifting a lot because, when all these portals like Naukri.com were launched, people thought recruitment firms would get wiped off. But we became the largest clients for the portal business. The fact that hiring is always a huge cost centre for companies and companies have large hiring teams themselves, the client today is competing with you. That means as a recruitment firm you have to become more and more niche. The problem in India is that there is a lot of talent and lot of mismatch, which means we are not able to find the right kind of people for a job. So, we are taking a step backward and making them more aligned to the industry in terms of preparing them be>er and skilling them be>er. Subsequently, we started talking to Times Job and we are launching a program with them on recruitment side. We are talking to organisations like Pink, which is a Times of India initiative for interning women and we’re working on aligning this work force be>er to the demands of the industry, in terms of how they should negotiate their compensation and other important areas just to cross the evaluation process. So the landscape is very open from the new

initiatives that we’ve taken up and it’s extremely exciting. This whole ecosystem needs to facilitate be>er.

Harpreet Du>a has currently joined SMS Siemag as Vice President H u m a n R e s o u r c e a n d


“Starting a company was a very practical decision which involved minimal investment; minimal risk and maximum strength”


Administration. She has been awarded Women Super Achiever Award from Asia Pacific HRM Congress Awards 2012 for her 18 years of diverse industry experience in areas of Human Resource Management. !Since you have recently joined a new company as Vice President HR, how does the interview process go since you’re also an HR person and you’re the one usually on the other side taking interviews? !You have to go through the same process. But you are be>er prepared for it since you have done it for so many people, you have gone through the process so many times. Generally at these levels, these are not interviews per say, they are more conversational in nature. What you are trying to see, like Mr Dev Amritesh mentioned, whether you can align yourself with that company, its vision, its culture and are your values and your organization’s values in synergy. You do also check whether the portfolio offered to you excites you. !Many students here in IMT take marketing and finance as their majors and very few select HR as their majors, does this send out any kind of negative vibe to the firms recruiting from here, specially those offering HR profiles? !No, here are no negative vibes and it’s purely a personal choice of the students. There is no value judgment on which stream you select. If you are good with numbers and accounting and finance excites you then you should align your career in that sense, and as HR persons, we are the first person who understand that what you feel you want to do and what excites you as a career or what ticks your mind should be the path you take up. Giving my own example I can say that I was grooming myself to become a finance person until I realised that it is People that really interest me more. This was also the reason that I took dual majors in IMT only for keeping both of them together and developing more clarity. !Human Resource Management is an emerging management science. What future do you foresee for HR? Will it be more integrated in an organisation where departments have their own HR team or will it still be like a centralised department in a


“More youngsters need to look at HR not as a component, but as a holistic strategic function.”


company? !I personally believe that HR has evolved very fast in the past few years, from time keeping to labor relations to personnel management to HR to HRT and now we are calling it Talent Acquisition and Management. I believe that HR is not the right word for it, because it carries with it the old world legacy and thinking. On the question of whether it will become a corporate function or a business function, I believe it will have to be both. There has to be a common value system or culture, but for the operative element of the business, the functions of HR may get re aligned structurally to different business units. There may be teams handling the complete HRM for different business units. More youngsters need to look at HR not as a component, but as a holistic strategic function.

!Dev Amritesh, President & COO -‐‑Dunkin’ Donuts shares his insights on the importance of organisational culture in delivering brand value and how not just the product but other factors play an important role in building a brand. !

You chose to pursue Brands and Marketing after aBending a lecture from Santosh Sood. What should be the motivating factor for people willing to join HR and what sort of competency is expected from them? !Generally for people who believe in creating value over a sustained period of time and who are not looking at instant gratification. People who think long term and who wish to add value to a firm in the long run should consider HR as a specialisation. People who like to understand meaning of things, build strategy and take initiatives that would help in building the long term culture of the organisation should be venturing into HR. !What kind of culture would you like to promote at Jubiliant Foodworks and Dunkin’ Donuts? What kind of a culture is already existing? For new companies, this question becomes even more relevant. Actually it becomes even more relevant for old businesses because you inherit a culture. The question is why should you change?And if



you’re changing what should you change it for? There’s a clear relationship between the business that you’re in. The business you’re in is build through the behaviour of your employees. Employees behave in a certain way for that business to happen and for that business result to be delivered. Values drive behaviour -‐‑ How they differentiate between two rights, how they choose between a right and a wrong, not just limited to ethical but business values such as your reaction to a competitor launching a product. So finally culture drives values and the business you’re in and the culture you’re organisation should have existing business should answer. And is the existing culture sufficient to del iver in the new business environment? New businesses who already have a business idea, need to ask, what culture we need to have to deliver this business. One must have a strong idea of what business we are in, how the brand is differentiated and drive a culture as a tool to deliver the brand. !When foreign food chains like McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts or Dominos enter India, sometimes the original taste gets lost, so what sort of implications does it create? Do you have to create something different? !The question you need to ask is the core idea of the brand, does it sit in just the product or does it sit in other things as well. Increasing you’ll find the answer in categories which are strongly connected to social and cultural aspects. Food is very close to who we are as people, mobile phone is not. All of us will move into the world of a mobile phone, because a mobile phone is sort of an outsider into our lives. Food is a category which is very core to consumers. The consumption pa>erns are very different. The core idea of these brands is not just restricted to the products that they have but more around several other things that build the brand. The important thing is to identify the core idea and find it’s expressions which are relevant to each geography, which are relevant to the people and culture of that place. But without losing what the brand is all about.

Mr Harmeet Chandok, Deputy General Manager -‐‑ Airtel, delivered an insightful guest lecture on Business


“The important thing is to identify the core idea and find it’s expressions which are relevant to each geography”


Forecasting. We got a great opportunity to talk to him about his experience on working in a startup, approaching international clients and the upcoming analytics industry. Here are a few excerpts from the interview. !!You have handled finance for a start up, how important do you think working in a startup is to evolve and grow as a manager in the industry? Do you think working for a startup adds qualities in an individual which he/she would not have developed otherwise?

In a start up nothing is defined. Whereas large company is like a city; there are roads and signs, public transport and private transport, you know where to go and you have data to guide you. For a start up you need to have a broader perspective. You need to know which thing is going to face the impact of your action. There are so many transactions to be done and that to with full accuracy because there are not many people working there as compared to a large company. In a startup there are no processes whatever you do there is reflected throughout. There is a lot of ambiguity involved which requires a different kind of leadership.

You were a part of the office of the MD & CEO (International), Airtel with a focus on Airtel business performance in countries across Africa and South Asia. How different and difficult it is to deal with foreign clients?

The biggest difference is of the Culture. These people do not know things which according to you are obvious. From greeting by saying Namaste to almost everything is different due to cultural variances. What you have to acknowledge first is that this is a person who is groomed totally in a different environment. Moreover, it is important to do some home work by reading about their culture so as to get familiar. I think this is where one must start from.

While working with Strata sports (India) Ltd. You were successful in geBing sponsors for the Indian national football team. That


“There is a lot of ambiguity involved in a startup, which requires a different kind of leadership”


must have been a great challenge. What kind of strategy you used to aBract them?

You always find people receiving some benefit from every decision. It is an economics fundamental. One of the ‘In things’ today is to not follow cricket which is a sport played by only 11-‐‑12 countries. That led to focusing on other sports. I basically support the fact that for everything there’s a price and as long as somebody likes the sport and the price is right, it’s not difficult to get sponsors. The team got sponsored by Adidas and it was reaching the target market so that’s how it happened.

What do you think of pursuing analytics as a major?

Analytics is a tool to draw statistical results from large set of data and is useful when you have domain knowledge on a specific field like finance. When analytics is taken as a major it would go into handling big data, coding and being able to use specific software. So Analytics as a major should be avoided. Focus should be placed on ge>ing domain knowledge and then using analytics to drive strategy.

!Entrepreneurs of IMT

Allsport – A venture by our alumnus Mr. Angshul Bagai

Allsport is an online sports management platform that started its operations in early 2012. It operates as a unique platform that takes care of all sports’ needs of amateur & professional sports persons, offering offline & online services. The platform also creates a market place where any & every person associated with sports, comes together for sharing, trading and managing their products and services. The initiative caters to social and professional community for sports lovers which also allows for online & offline trading. 480+ corporate teams and 31 event managers have already been listed. Currently no platform offers corporate to participate, play or book for events. Event managers have no platform to showcase or manage their events. Professional players do not have immediate access to information from academies, associations,



coaches, event managers. Associations have a non-‐‑interactive platform that only displays information and does not allow for transactions. Academies, Clubs & Educational Institutes (Schools & Colleges) use manual system for records management which are not suitable for regular updates. Ground owners have inventory but do not have a platform where they can create an online community for bookings of premises/grounds. This leaves a vacuum which can be utilized by Allsport effectively through its diversified service offerings that are listed below: !Online Booking along with payment gateway for sports facilities, academies, tournaments & events. Profile Listing on the platform for individual players, coaches, associations/ federations, academies, event managers, facility owners and corporate teams. Tournament / Event Information, i.e. upcoming tournaments, match schedule and results, player/ team rankings. My Calendar, report card, grading and others as paid services under the membership tier system. Online Advertising for corporate, sports good retailers, academies. Venue Advertising for corporate and other companies associated with sports. Ground Aggregation services, i.e. reselling facilities on an annual basis. Brand Management services for corporate. Mobile Apps for users with paid upgrade facilities. E-‐‑commerce marketspace for sports goods retailers / distributors/ manufacturers with paid facility for online stock management software. The exciting business model of Allsport is presently seeking funds of around US$ 4 million for 3 years which can be broken up as R1Y1 US$ 1.3 million; R1Y2 US$ 1.7 million; R1Y3 US$ 1 million. This requirement is for funding to support and grow operations for first three years. Internal accruals will totally fund operations from fourth year onwards. Proceeds will be used for software development and business expansion in Delhi NCR, Metros and other Tier II and Tier III cities. !!

!!



!Asim Hussain

Founder, SMEFinancemart.com

!

Graduating in Electrical Engineering and starting my career after IMT at Tata Motors selling trucks & buses, li>le did I expect to be running my own financial advisory and Syndication Company one day!

Unlike many, I have taken the plunge into entrepreneurship somewhat late but as they say – be>er late than never! As I worked thru a regular corporate career spanning mega organizations like Tatas, ICICI , ABN Amro , HSBC & Bibby , my need for a more fulfilling work life grew inside. Working in the Small & Medium Enterprises lending area, I experienced firsthand the problems faced by these businesses in accessing finance. At the same time, being on the lender’s side, I was also privy to the challenges faced in reaching out to credit worthy SMEs .My desire to bridge this gap took roots on a day when an SME owner expressed his helplessness to get funding even though he had a small but healthy running enterprise.

India has over 35 million Micro, Small and Medium businesses. As per a government survey , as many as 90 % of these are either self funded or funded by informal sources. Very few grow to larger sizes due to lack of capital despite there being a plethora of schemes and products. Banks and other financial institutions focus on the slightly larger or upper SMEs who are more easily accessed & managed. Thus, a crying need exists for a facility to enable the micro & small businesses be a part of financial inclusion. A recent study by IFC Washington further corroborates the huge demand-‐‑supply gap with respect to finance for micro and small businesses. As per the report, over INR 3.9 trillion (USD 65 billion ) is the viable debt demand that can be addressed by financial institutions.



This can happen by finding efficient ways to reach out to these borrowers. !I t i s t h i s gap tha t www.smefinancemar t . com a ims to b r idge . SMEFinancemart.com is an innovative web based platform to use the power of internet and mobile penetration to reach target customers apart from using offline measures to build awareness and credibility. India now has almost 200 million internet users. Additionally there are 800 million mobile phone connections. Of which almost 90 million are Smartphone users. More than half the internet access is thru mobile phones. It is this fast deepening connectivity which SMEFinancemart aims to capitalize on to reach these small borrowers. SMEFinancemart aims to be a Pan India player, helping small businesses find finance for growth.

The key USP of our platform is that we match the requirement and risk profile of the borrower with a product which suits the need and a lender whose credit eligibility parameters match the risk profile. SMEFinancemart hence ensures that the small borrower does not have to search everywhere and yet not find the answer. SMEFinancemart.com cuts the time, energy and money spent by both borrowers and lenders in finding each other.A host of good advise and tips are also provided.

We are seeking equity partners, co-‐‑founders and of course business referrals /association opportunities. Suggestions most welcome. Please connect at [email protected]

www.smefinancemart.com

!IMT IN NEWS Rockstand -‐‑ A Startup by Mr. Praveen Rajpal

Mr. Praveen Rajpal, an IMT Ghaziabad alumnus from the batch of 2000, was in news recently for his new venture Rockstand which is an e-‐‑book and e-‐‑magazine application. His venture earned a place in


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.smefinancemart.com


Economic Times for being recognised by the top 3 Venture Capitalist firms in the country for funding. SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital have entered into negotiations to invest up to $10 million in this start up which was started last year in 2013. Rockstand through its partnerships with more than 600 publishers, gets raw data culled from textbooks, magazines and related test preparation material, , reworks them into an electronic format, before uploading the same on its cloud servers. This New Delhi-‐‑based venture is the second startup for Mr. Praveen, who had earlier founded the mobile value added services firm Handygo Technologies in 2000. Currently, Rockstand is funded from Handygo’s balance sheet. We would like to extend our heartiest congratulations to Mr Praveen and his team, for achieving this great milestone so early for their venture and we wish him great success for the future.

!!!!!!


Made by Alumni Relationship Committee, IMT Ghaziabad

Documents

Sampark volume 8 issue 2