BOOKMARK
The Narratology Of Balance Sheets
BY VISHAL KRISHNA
27 Mar 2009
Storytelling Organizations
Storytelling Organizations;
By David M. Boje; Publisher: Sage Publications;
Pages: 282; Price: £24.99
Writers, unfortunately and often, do not pay attention to their narrative, and to making sense. This book by David M. Boje teaches every apprentice of the written word the importance of examining thoughts and theories before putting an idea down on paper.
The book aims to capture narratives of companies’ past business events, and to give an argument some coherence in order to achieve believability. He throws certain theories at the reader with which he (the reader) may introspect before going out to write a story. Boje builds upon the usual journalistic tradition of asking what, where, when, why and who, followed by how, but he also goes beyond connecting the dots.
The author looks at how business organisations can employ story-telling techniques to gather support for the company’s goals from its shareholders and the public. Corporate annual reports, news stories and press releases are routinely mundane, repetitive and, not surprisingly, frequently ignored by writers. The question is: what do we, as writers, do with all this information? Boje’s contention is that information related to a company can be made lively and easy to understand.
The book explains theories such as Michel Foucault’s architectonic narratives, which basically stress on a structure for everything that is to be written. Boje presents eight ways of making sense in a business narrative — the beginning-middle-and-end method is one of them. Although the book does not offer any one solution in order to make sense out of business stories, Boje reminds us of the structure and chaos that exist between the pen and the process of thinking. He points to a direction and turns this book into a tool with which the writer can structure a narrative. In the end, there is no right way of telling a story, as long as readers are captivated with it.
To this end, Boje brings in dialogisms, where one element of the story becomes the storyteller. He illustrates the use of dialogisms with the example of Wal-Mart: for over 30 years, till before his death, Sam Walton based his annual reports on what consumers and employees thought of his company — often featuring their lives in his annual reports and his autobiography. Walton had the reports written carefully so that they would not speak of the company and its greatness. Instead, the focus was always on the target (the stakeholders), and the story would tell them there were no complaints.
David Boje David M. Boje is a professor of management at the New Mexico State University. He has published articles in management journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Leadership Quarterly and Management Communication Quarterly. Boje is former editor of the Journal of Organizational Change Management and founding editor of Tamara: The Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science.
The story-telling is a form of propaganda with which a CEO can control his sales force, vendors and customers, writes Boje. But he also says that even though a conglomerate will have some epic stories to tell, the general trend is to favour short reports.
However, approaching a story and shortening it depends on the writer’s ability to capture everything within a small space. To understand and resolve this conflict between a lot of information and little space, Boje throws in a paradox: he says there is no whole story — that a whole story is just a poetic illusion. The story is not about victors with swords, but about a simultaneous narrative with causes and effect, interpreted through characters in the story.
Companies also use writing techniques to prove their legitimacy. Enron was a classic case in point: it kept adding dead assets to its balance sheets, and presented to the world a high stock valuation over business that was non-existent.
Perhaps, the most important part of the book covers strategies related to story-telling. The author explains why elements such as the use of different media, or the hiring of consultants, becomes important for the narrative. He quotes IBM, which says that strategy narrative is important because of “the character of a company — the stamp it puts on its products, services and the market place — is shaped and defined over time. It evolves. It deepens”.
Boje’s work is a theoretical interpretation of how a writer would have to rethink a million times before he organises his script or story by weaving in all the characters. By doing this, the theories showcased in this book become essential reading for professionals in the film, journalism and advertising industry.
The beauty of the book can be captured only when the reader does not confine himself to any one theory. Instead, these theories can be connected to the reader’s real experiences in the corporate field, which can then go towards the writing of a fabulous tale. Sadly, we do live in a repetitive and monotonous era. Boje does well by reminding us of the basics. And it is here that he allows us to find who we really are as writers, and as organisations.
The Story Of My Assassins
Selection 1
Through The Prism Of Crime
The Story Of My Assassins;
By Tarun Tejpal; Publisher: HarperCollins;
Pages: 522; Price: Rs 495
In the story of my assassins, Tarun Tejpal examines the politics of power and shatters any illusions we may harbour of being a tolerant and just society. Set in the Hindi heartland, the book traverses across the multiple Indias that co-exist — urban-rural; educated-uneducated; elite-streetkid; and don-Guru. It makes hunger for power, violence and injustice its central theme.
All journalists have stories to tell. And given Tejpal’s extraordinary life since the 2001 Tehelka exposé, one is eager to hear his. He writes in the first person, weaving an extremely powerful plot and telling it skillfully. The police has foiled a plot to kill the protagonist. Who are the five killers, who is the mastermind? Through the stories of the assassins from childhood to adulthood, Tejpal explores the world of the underclass, the politician-police-don nexus — an India far removed from the reality of the urban educated Indian. The expertly crafted plot comes to a nail-biting finish much too soon.
Tejpal’s command over languages enables him to capture the north Indian idiom like never before. He paints vivid sketches of characters recognisable in everyday life. Also, the author takes a dig at everyone — the panting television journalist, the partner nicknamed Lincoln, the public school elite “who has no idea about the reality of India”. No comment on Indian society is complete without religion, sex and adultery. There is the mistress who works in a women’s advocacy group, all righteous about justice; and there’s Guruji, the protagonist’s spiritual advisor.
This book is a must-read. Cynical, yes — too much anger, violence, injustice, abuse — but extraordinary for its portrayal of modern society.
Sumita Thapar
Memory's Gold: Writing From Calcutta
Selection 2
Pen Sketches Of Kolkata
We live in times when the cultural manifestation of memory is increasingly cast in the digital mode. Digicams, Web albums, Facebook, Orkut, YouTube and blogs galore record the disappearing here and now. The narratives of memory are preferred in short, condensed fragments.
In this context, Amit Chaudhuri’s anthology of writings on Kolkata is a singular collection, for most of its 55 inclusions draw the reader in by their brief compass. Also, the fact that these pieces are eminently readable and combine to evoke a distinctive sense of the place shows the care he has taken in arranging and editing the material for Memory’s Gold: Writings From Calcutta (Penguin).
Robert Clive, a key architect of British India, once described Kolkata as “one of the most wicked places in the universe”. Chaudhuri’s book gives the lie to the English soldier’s dubious hyperbole. The brief introduction announces the editor’s project to trace “an aesthetic of the city”. As an editor, he includes the usual suspects — Rabindranath Tagore, Nirad Chaudhuri, V.S. Naipaul, Gunter Grass, Jug Suraiya, among others. But there is also a heartening inclusion of translations of original Bengali writing that bears witness to the many facets of Kolkata’s past, including a chunk of modern Bengali literary history by way of the work of the Krittibas group. Overall, the book is a nuanced selection of writings that remembers the making of the modern Kolkata.
Ram Shankar Nanda
Alert
ALERT
Bernanke’s Test
By Johan Van Overtveldt
B2 Book (Agate)
While the world scrutinises Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s strides to strengthen the crumbling US economy, Johan Van Overtveldt — in his analysis of the challenges that Bernanke is facing — looks at the careers of previous US Fed chairmen. The author believes that the current economic crisis that is testing the Fed chairman today is in fact rooted in the policies of Bernanke’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan (responsible for the subprime-induced credit crisis). In a detailed documentation of Bernanke’s obstacle, Overtveldt maintains a dispassionate and incisive stand.
Ganesh Ram V.
BROWSING
Ganesh Ram V.
Managing Director, Amoha Education
At the moment, I am reading Rediscovering The Veda by Frits Staal. The book gives insights on the language of the Vedas. Being in the language education industry, I wanted to understand how a language evolves over time. I read all genres — popular science, linguistics, management, philosophy and fiction, the last one only if the author is well-known. One book that I would recommend is A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
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MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT
Picture Imperfect
Despite failures, filmmaking continues to lure corporates
GURBIR SINGH
27 Mar 2009
Sorry Bhai (left) & Black
Black And White: Mumbai Mantra’s maiden venture Sorry Bhai bombed, while Applause Entertainment’s Black was a hit
Speaking at the annual federation of indian chambers of commerce and industry (Ficci) convention at Mumbai in February this year, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) chairman Anand Mahindra had the audience in splits with his self-deprecating humour. M&M’s latest foray into the world of film-making was a “spectacular disaster”, he said. Mumbai Mantra, a company owned by a trust set up by Mahindra, had failed to make a success of its first two films. The first — a Bhojpuri film called Hum Bahubali — was unfortunately released at the time of the Bihar floods. The film too got swept away by the swirling waters. Its second movie — a Bollywood production — was equally unlucky. It was released on 27 November when everyone was glued to television sets watching Kasab and his gang wreck mayhem in Mumbai.
“The film was called Sorry Bhai, and we conveyed the box office disaster to the director telling him ‘Sorry Bhai’,” said Mahindra.
M&M isn’t the first business group unable to gauge the quicksand of Bollywood. Attracted by the glitz and glam of the tinsel world, the past 6-8 years have seen many corporate groups enter a business quite removed from their core competence. They have ended up burning their fingers and very often exited as fast as they entered.
Tata Infomedia entered the entertainment industry with a bang in June 2002 announcing Aitbar, a Rs 12-crore venture with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead. However, its appetite for Bollywood risk quickly fizzled out and the Tatas exited with ICICI Venture taking a controlling 50 per cent stake in the company in September 2003 for Rs 100 crore. Kumar mangalam Birla-promoted Applause Entertainment, which produced the successful Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed Black, also exited by 2005 as it found the business too unpredictable.
Pantaloon chairman Kishore Biyani, too, tried his hand at filmmaking, launching 3-4 movies riding on actor Diya Mirza, all of which turned out to be duds.
But this is not to argue that corporate groups have all failed in film-making. The Manmohan Shetty-promoted Adlabs (now taken over by Anil Ambani’s ADAG) has been a successful production and distribution house. In case of UTV, film production has been its most profitable vertical, and the company is the first to put together the Hollywood studio model in India.
Is the film industry resistant to corporates, or do the corporate groups fail to get the Indian film formula right? According to Madhu Mantena, the young producer of the Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini, and head of Saregama Films, corporate groups have wrongly interpreted the relationship between the studio, the film-maker and themselves. “The corporate group creates the studio platform but not the movie; it is the film-maker and his creative team that creates the movie. The studio provides the platform, then carries the movie forward through marketing and distribution.”
According to Sanjay Bhattacharjee, a film consultant who earlier headed UTV’s film division, “Many of these corporate groups don’t know the value of the products and stars, and end up overspending.”
Meanwhile, the CEO of Mumbai Mantra, Andrey Purushottam, is planning to release two films this year. Part of his learning is to make mid-budget movies in the range of Rs 5-10 crore and focus on strong scripts. Mumbai Mantra has so far invested rs 50 crore in the business, industry pundits estimate, but the mood is clearly to go slow. Despite reverses like those suffered by Mumbai Mantra, Bollywood will continue to attract glam-struck corporates, as failure in the tinsel industry has never been a deterrent.
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SATYAM
One Fraud, Three Stories
Three months after Raju’s confession, several questions remain. Here are three versions of the Satyam saga
ANJULI BHARGAVA
27 March 2009
THE ARREST: Every camera lens in the state focused on Raju as he was arrested two days after his confession (AP)
Even as bidders line up to pick up the company he built, what must be going through Byrraju Ramalinga Raju’s head, sitting alone in his cell in Chanchalguda jail, roughly 15 km from his palatial bungalow in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad? Stripped of his mobile phone, his personal possessions, contact with his family and the comfortable existence he led before the great fall, what must be the thoughts running through the mind of the former chairman of Satyam Computers?
Would all the implications of his actions, both for himself and his family, have sunk in by now?
Raju’s actions have alienated him and his immediate family from most people today. Once a highly revered figure (“Raju almost had a halo around his head,” says one former family friend) in Andhra society, he finds himself disgraced in his own city today.
Autorickshaw drivers have an opinion on him, and it is not charitable. “Chor hai,” says one rickshaw driver. “Andhra ka naam badnaam kar diya he (He is a thief… he has brought disgrace to Andhra’s name).”
His sons, Teja and Rama Raju junior — both of whom have to some extent lost control of their own companies, Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties (Company Law Board-nominated members are now on the boards of both companies), in the scam fallout — and their wives and his grandchildren are keeping a low profile. Barring his lawyer, his sons and a select few loyal friends, Raju does not get too many visitors. Only investigating officers from various agencies come to meet him. The intense media scrutiny has kept his wife Nandini away, so far. She has been largely in the confines of the Jubilee Hills residence since 7 January. His grandchildren — like the rest of his family — will have to face social disgrace from an unforgiving world. “The Rajus are persona non grata in Hyderabad today,” says a former family friend.
He has become the butt of many jokes. A popular one is: “Raju Raju, yes Papa. Cheating people? No, Papa. Telling lies? No, Papa. Open your balance sheet, ha ha ha.”
But jokes are just one small part of the vilification. The more serious indictment has been from the media, which has seen a steady stream of vitriolic stories, some with scant regard for facts. The local media that once lionised him has turned against him with vengeance.
Click here for enlarged view
With access to two newspapers daily in prison, Raju must be acutely aware of the public castigation. The barbs uttered against him by some who were his acquaintances in better days must surely hurt. When some stories appeared of how Raju had asked for a mosquito net in jail (he got a repellent, in fact), M. Damodaran, former Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, chairman (and the man under whose nose most of this transpired), said,“The mosquitoes must be very brave to go near him.”
He is equally alienated from his fairly extended family — several of whom have been implicated in the case. Some of his cousins are quite uncharitable, and claim that he owes them huge sums of money.
Barring very few who are sticking to his side and who stayed in the initial days with his wife in the Jubilee Hills house, most of the family are attempting to distance themselves from the episode. While one of his brothers, Suryanaryana Raju, has been trying his best to not get arrested, his younger brother B. Rama Raju, former managing director of Satyam, housed in the same prison, has already fallen out with Ramalinga. Rama Raju has hired a new lawyer to represent him, and has parted ways with Ramalinga’s lawyer who was initially defending both.
But the worst may be the complete alienation from Satyam, the company he built painstakingly over 20 years and for which — according to his supporters — “he risked everything”.
Is Raju thinking of all he has lost or the money he made through the scam? Is he ruing the loss of his reputation of being a “world-renowned visionary, global business leader and a thinker”? Stripped of all the accolades heaped on him over the years (see ‘Can Someone Apply The Brakes?’) does he feel his own nakedness? Is he feeling relieved that the duplicitous life he led is finally over? Or is he regretting his confession that prised open the can of worms?
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SATYAM
Into The Final Lap
As the race for acquiring Satyam approaches the last stages, many new questions are emerging
SRIKANTH SRINIVAS
27 March 2009
CHINESE AUCTION: While the identity of
most Indian bidders are known, there is
less transparency about several overseas
bidders (Pic by Reuters)
It’s ‘show’ time. Over the next 10-15 days, prospective acquirers of Satyam Computers will show their hands in support of their bids for the scandal-hit company. That includes plans on how they will go about dealing with the business, the staff and how they intend to satisfy the clients of what used to be India’s fourth-largest information technology firm.
“Given the way the acquisition process was run, the companies in the game are playing blind,” says the head of a private equity firm that is not in the running, but did not want to be identified. “They cannot even discount the worst-case scenario, because this is the worst-case scenario.” That sentiment is reflective of most views about the ongoing acquisition process.
No one really knows what and how much information Satyam’s board can or will share with the eight or so shortlisted bidders. Perhaps some about client lists, ongoing contracts and, perhaps, even something about the assets and known liabilities.
The head of one securities firm puts it rather colourfully. “It is like buying land in Sri Lanka that was formerly controlled by the LTTE,” says V.R. Srinivasan, CEO of Brics Securities in Mumbai. “It will be very cheap, but who knows where the mines and booby traps are?” But apart from the unknowns, many have had issues with the bidding process itself.
A Few Rumblings
Take the identity of all the bidders: while many are known, there is less transparency about several overseas bidders, just to accommodate their concerns. The overseas bidders believe that their identities should be kept private until such time the final shortlist of those eligible to make financial bids is decided upon.
As BW went to print, presentations were being made by Satyam board members to prospective buyers who made it to the initial shortlist; that was to be followed by discussions wherein individual firms make the case for being picked for the next round of financial bids. Before making their financial bids — slated for 9 April — bidding firms will conduct their own due diligence, limited though that might be.
“Unlike a traditional merger or acquisition, not being allowed to make representations or seek warranties can be a handicap,” says Venkat Rangaswamy, executive director of Edelweiss Capital, a Mumbai-based investment bank and securities firm. “That means you cannot sue the members of Satyam board or the investment bankers if you discover some unforeseen liability after you complete the transaction.” Which raises an interesting question: what is the value of a due diligence exercise in these conditions?
Those making it to the next round make a financial bid — essentially when they quote the price at which they will buy the 31 per cent preferential share offer and at which they will make the open offer to current shareholders. If the offers of two or more bidders with the highest price are within 10 per cent of each other, each gets the chance to revise its bid one final time. Then, the board picks the winner.
Sidelined!
But will there be other losers? Strangely enough, with all the public discussion about the company and the misdeeds of its founder, two classes of stakeholders have been very silent. The first is the individual investor, who has little power or voice.
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ADVERTISING
Media’s Annus Horribilis
A sharp decline in advertising revenues has hit the media across verticals
GURBIR SINGH
03 April 2009
Media’s Annus Horribilis
Source: TAM Media Research
The businesschannel launched by Ronnie Screwvala in April last year, UTVi, has begun a corporate restructuring exercise to raise another round of funding. The original business plan has gone awry. The expectation that UTVi would break the hold of business news leader CNBC has not materialised and the viewership and reach of the channel never took off.
“Against the first year’s cash requirement of Rs 110 crore, and expected ad revenue of Rs 40 crore, the channel has been able to garner barely Rs 15 crore in advertising,” says a senior insider, adding, “the target of a break-even by the third year is clearly not possible with ET Now also entering the fray next month”.
UTV Software Communications, in which The Walt Disney Company holds a 60 per cent stake, will thus bail out the business channel and take a 49 per cent stake in the new special purpose vehicle that will now own UTVi. This is expected to bring in Rs 80 crore-100 crore considering that the valuation of the business channel is unlikely to exceed Rs 200 crore.
With most media companies dependent on ad revenues, the slowdown has had a debilitating effect. The total advertising pie is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore annually of which television takes away Rs 8,500 crore and newspapers account for Rs 10,000 crore.
On television, the advertising volume in November last year fell sharply to 45.31 million seconds compared to the previous month’s 55.37 million seconds — a fall of 18 per cent in a single month. The print industry’s pain was worse. From a high of 20.99 million column centimetres of advertising in October last, ads fell 45 per cent to just 11.59 centimetres in November. Radio advertising, too, declined by 30 per cent from 9,176 seconds in October to 6,515 seconds in November.
The actual fall in ad revenue would be far larger considering that advertising rates have crashed between 15 and 30 per cent across all mediums. From November onwards, too, television advertising has continued to decline marginally. On the other hand, both print and radio ad volumes have been inching up. The April-May Lok Sabha elections are, however, expected to arrest the downward trend. “We expect an infusion of Rs 800 crore – Rs 500 crore in national media and Rs 300 crore on regional platforms,” TAM Media’s CEO L.V. Krishnan said.
News channels have been hit harder by the advertising downturn since most of them are free to air and are largely dependent on advertisement revenues. NDTV suffered a Q3 loss of Rs 125 crore compared to Rs 32 crore in the previous quarter. TV18 was in the red with a Rs 30-crore loss compared to a net profit of Rs 8.4 crore in FY2008. Deccan Chronicle Holdings’ net profit for the quarter ended 31 December 2008 fell sharply by 75 per cent to just Rs 25.7 crore compared to the Rs 103 crore in the previous quarter.
Notably, Hindi entertainment channels have been increasing their subscription revenues to 35-40 per cent of their total earnings. As Rajesh Jain, head of KPMG’s entertainment and media practice puts it: “These are expected to be robust even during the meltdown.” For instance, Zee Entertainment’s third quarter results ending 31 December 2008 showed ad revenue growing just 2 per cent to Rs 264 crore as compared to the previous comparable quarter. On the other hand, subscription revenue grew 17 per cent to Rs 227 crore in the same period. This also means subscription revenue now accounts for 42 per cent of the company’s earnings — up from 38 per cent in the previous comparable quarter.
What is the forecast for calendar 2009? Estimates vary. The Pitch-Madison survey expects a flat scenario. After a heady 17 per cent growth to Rs 20,717 crore, total ad revenues are expected to inch up just 2 per cent in 2009. WPP’s media arm Group M on the other hand is more optimistic forecasting a 8.9 per cent growth to Rs 24,900 crore by the end of 2009. In this, television is expected to grow faster at 11.4 per cent to Rs 9,353 crore as compared to the print medium that is expected to log a 7.4 per cent growth rate to inch up to Rs 10,770 crore.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Crisis in the desert
Crisis in the desert
R. Priyadarshini
April 2, 2009
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A high-flying ex-ceo sits huddled in a friend’s one-bedroom flat wondering what to do next. Bankers busily scribble off resignation letters after receiving large pay cuts. Expatriates run around in a frenzy winding up their affairs before their visas expire. Labourers from South Asia pack up their meagre belongings and return home. These are the surreal scenes unfurling in Dubai, one of seven citystates in the United Arab Emirates and the once-storied oasis of unbridled, conspicuous consumption.
One of the major reasons for the slump is the implosion of the real estate bubble that spearheaded Dubai’s boom in the past decade.
Most people think that the reason for Dubai’s past success is its oil reserves, but this is a big misconception. Revenues from oil & gas form a tiny 6 per cent of Dubai’s economy. The real drivers behind the rise of Dubai were construction, tourism, banking and shopping—all of which have experienced sharp declines.
For much of the past decade, Dubai indulged in an orgy of construction— fuelled by regional banks—building fantastical projects that were ostentatious in design and price. These included the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island fanning out into the Arabian Gulf in the shape of a palm frond, consisting of sea-facing, multi-million dollar apartments owned by the likes of David Beckham and Michael Schumacher; the Atlantis, a gaudy $1.5 billion hotel complex that housed a whale shark swimming in a gigantic tank; a massive indoor ski-resort amidst the searing desert heat and Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.
Image
Today, the value of Palm Jumeirah’s apartments has fallen by as much as 60 per cent. The Atlantis stands eerily empty and rumours are that work on Burj Dubai has stalled. Investment bank Morgan Stanley revealed that the UAE is delaying or cancelling real estate projects worth $260 billion, the majority of which are in Dubai. Proleads declared that 52.8 per cent of projects are on hold.
Other high-profile projects in trouble include the Meraas Jumeirah Gardens ($98 billion), Nakheel’s Harbour and Tower project ($38 billion), Tatweer’s $3.3 billion 6,500-room Asia-Asia Hotel, Nad El Sheba race course being built by Mayden LLC ($1.3 billion) and the Dubai Exhibition City ($450 million). Dubai’s skyline has become littered with half-finished skyscrapers that give the once-glittering metropolis the aura of a ghost town.
Dubai's woes
* Dubai is hardly oil rich.the major components of its economy are construction, tourism and banking
* The city overdosed on erecting fantastical structures such as an indoor ski resort and the world's tallest building
* Now, the UAE is delaying or cancelling projects worth $260 billion, the majority of which are in Dubai
* A wide web of companies sponsored by the city's rulers have racked up some $70 billion in bills
* Out of work, a large portion of the 1.2 million migrant workers from South Asia are returning home
The carnage in construction and tourism has had drastic consequences for Dubai’s workforce. Once a haven for wealthy sheikhs, speculators, playboys and business executives who enjoyed tax-free salaries and an opportunity to get rich quick, the city is witnessing an exodus of foreigners who made Dubai their home.
Employees in Dubai are now experiencing the brunt of drastic cost-saving decisions. “Canteen facilities have been aborted. Even the free supply of toilet paper may stop,” complains a marketing executive. Banker Shakeel Ahmed reached his office hoping to get a pat on the back for his “good performance”. Instead, he was informed about a pay cut. “Take it or leave it,” said the boss. Ahmed opted for the latter.
Others are acting proactively to save their jobs: “As we are a new company, a group of us voluntarily suggested that our employer cut our salary. It’s a question of survival,” said Aruna Sen, a media professional. Rumours are also spreading that hundreds of families are relocating their children to India after the exams end in March. But major schools denied such claims saying the situation was normal.
The most hapless victims of Dubai’s downward spiral have been the approximately 1.2 million migrant workers from South Asia, who are shipped in to undertake work on construction sites. Housed in squalor in labour camps situated at the fringes of the desert, and paid a relative pittance—around $140 a month—to build these dream buildings, these labourers have seen their jobs evaporate and their visas cancelled. They’ve been left with no option but to return to their hometowns, penniless and laden with the debt that they had undertaken to land these jobs in the first place.
An unanticipated victim of the Dubai meltdown is the city of Dubai itself. Dubai’s rulers are sponsors of a wide web of companies that have racked up some $70 billion in bills, according to reports— almost matching UAE’s collective $82 billion GDP last year. The crisis has become so severe that Dubai recently announced a $20-billion bond scheme and its Central Bank agreed to purchase half of it to keep the city afloat.
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Waterfront development
The other half of the bond issue was purchased in late February by Dubai’s knight in shining armour, Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE and the wealthiest Emirate with 95 per cent of the oil reserves in the federation. Abu Dhabi, many say, has grown more cautiously than its neighbour and is bound to supplant Dubai as the financial nerve centre of the region in just a few years. Despite this bleakness, some analysts insist that this is simply a passing phase. “The economy is sliding, but there is no bloodbath.
There is a crisis of market confidence, which is complicated by a lack of transparency and opaque financial declarations by the Dubai Inc. entities,” says Dr Samir Pradhan, Senior Researcher of the Gulf Research Centre. Pradhan says that what is happening to Dubai today is not very dissimilar to what took place in Singapore during the Asian crisis in 1997—and Singapore rebounded successfully in the following years.
Still, Dubai’s recovery is plagued with many more complications than Singapore’s in the late 1990s. In order for it to recover, the city desperately needs to attract institutional funds (a scarcity in this creditstarved global economy), clean up its balance sheet, abandon its gaudy ways and focus on sensible and selfsustaining development. Anything else could bury this once-opulent Mecca of capitalism in the desert for a long time to come.
R. Priyadarshini
April 2, 2009
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A high-flying ex-ceo sits huddled in a friend’s one-bedroom flat wondering what to do next. Bankers busily scribble off resignation letters after receiving large pay cuts. Expatriates run around in a frenzy winding up their affairs before their visas expire. Labourers from South Asia pack up their meagre belongings and return home. These are the surreal scenes unfurling in Dubai, one of seven citystates in the United Arab Emirates and the once-storied oasis of unbridled, conspicuous consumption.
One of the major reasons for the slump is the implosion of the real estate bubble that spearheaded Dubai’s boom in the past decade.
Most people think that the reason for Dubai’s past success is its oil reserves, but this is a big misconception. Revenues from oil & gas form a tiny 6 per cent of Dubai’s economy. The real drivers behind the rise of Dubai were construction, tourism, banking and shopping—all of which have experienced sharp declines.
For much of the past decade, Dubai indulged in an orgy of construction— fuelled by regional banks—building fantastical projects that were ostentatious in design and price. These included the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island fanning out into the Arabian Gulf in the shape of a palm frond, consisting of sea-facing, multi-million dollar apartments owned by the likes of David Beckham and Michael Schumacher; the Atlantis, a gaudy $1.5 billion hotel complex that housed a whale shark swimming in a gigantic tank; a massive indoor ski-resort amidst the searing desert heat and Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.
Image
Today, the value of Palm Jumeirah’s apartments has fallen by as much as 60 per cent. The Atlantis stands eerily empty and rumours are that work on Burj Dubai has stalled. Investment bank Morgan Stanley revealed that the UAE is delaying or cancelling real estate projects worth $260 billion, the majority of which are in Dubai. Proleads declared that 52.8 per cent of projects are on hold.
Other high-profile projects in trouble include the Meraas Jumeirah Gardens ($98 billion), Nakheel’s Harbour and Tower project ($38 billion), Tatweer’s $3.3 billion 6,500-room Asia-Asia Hotel, Nad El Sheba race course being built by Mayden LLC ($1.3 billion) and the Dubai Exhibition City ($450 million). Dubai’s skyline has become littered with half-finished skyscrapers that give the once-glittering metropolis the aura of a ghost town.
Dubai's woes
* Dubai is hardly oil rich.the major components of its economy are construction, tourism and banking
* The city overdosed on erecting fantastical structures such as an indoor ski resort and the world's tallest building
* Now, the UAE is delaying or cancelling projects worth $260 billion, the majority of which are in Dubai
* A wide web of companies sponsored by the city's rulers have racked up some $70 billion in bills
* Out of work, a large portion of the 1.2 million migrant workers from South Asia are returning home
The carnage in construction and tourism has had drastic consequences for Dubai’s workforce. Once a haven for wealthy sheikhs, speculators, playboys and business executives who enjoyed tax-free salaries and an opportunity to get rich quick, the city is witnessing an exodus of foreigners who made Dubai their home.
Employees in Dubai are now experiencing the brunt of drastic cost-saving decisions. “Canteen facilities have been aborted. Even the free supply of toilet paper may stop,” complains a marketing executive. Banker Shakeel Ahmed reached his office hoping to get a pat on the back for his “good performance”. Instead, he was informed about a pay cut. “Take it or leave it,” said the boss. Ahmed opted for the latter.
Others are acting proactively to save their jobs: “As we are a new company, a group of us voluntarily suggested that our employer cut our salary. It’s a question of survival,” said Aruna Sen, a media professional. Rumours are also spreading that hundreds of families are relocating their children to India after the exams end in March. But major schools denied such claims saying the situation was normal.
The most hapless victims of Dubai’s downward spiral have been the approximately 1.2 million migrant workers from South Asia, who are shipped in to undertake work on construction sites. Housed in squalor in labour camps situated at the fringes of the desert, and paid a relative pittance—around $140 a month—to build these dream buildings, these labourers have seen their jobs evaporate and their visas cancelled. They’ve been left with no option but to return to their hometowns, penniless and laden with the debt that they had undertaken to land these jobs in the first place.
An unanticipated victim of the Dubai meltdown is the city of Dubai itself. Dubai’s rulers are sponsors of a wide web of companies that have racked up some $70 billion in bills, according to reports— almost matching UAE’s collective $82 billion GDP last year. The crisis has become so severe that Dubai recently announced a $20-billion bond scheme and its Central Bank agreed to purchase half of it to keep the city afloat.
Image
Waterfront development
The other half of the bond issue was purchased in late February by Dubai’s knight in shining armour, Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE and the wealthiest Emirate with 95 per cent of the oil reserves in the federation. Abu Dhabi, many say, has grown more cautiously than its neighbour and is bound to supplant Dubai as the financial nerve centre of the region in just a few years. Despite this bleakness, some analysts insist that this is simply a passing phase. “The economy is sliding, but there is no bloodbath.
There is a crisis of market confidence, which is complicated by a lack of transparency and opaque financial declarations by the Dubai Inc. entities,” says Dr Samir Pradhan, Senior Researcher of the Gulf Research Centre. Pradhan says that what is happening to Dubai today is not very dissimilar to what took place in Singapore during the Asian crisis in 1997—and Singapore rebounded successfully in the following years.
Still, Dubai’s recovery is plagued with many more complications than Singapore’s in the late 1990s. In order for it to recover, the city desperately needs to attract institutional funds (a scarcity in this creditstarved global economy), clean up its balance sheet, abandon its gaudy ways and focus on sensible and selfsustaining development. Anything else could bury this once-opulent Mecca of capitalism in the desert for a long time to come.
Slowdown Mantras
Slowdown Mantras
Ten things to do when there’s less work in the office and more time on your hands
Rachna Chhachhi
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Okay, so it’s that time in life when, if you’ve worked for about seven to nine years, you’re depressed. And if you’ve been around for 18-20 years, you know things will look up. A slowdown can look extremely grim. If you haven’t seen the slow growth rates of the early-1990s, and thought that the seven-year good run was going to continue forever, just sit down and breathe deeply.
You will get a lot of time to do that anyway. Most offices have professionals hanging around, taking cigarette breaks or fatty coffee ones. So, instead of twiddling your thumbs, here’s what can keep you constructively occupied
1. Build Stronger Customer Relationships
Invest this spare time in your clients. This is a good way to be top-of-the-mind for the future. You could send them reports on their industries published by consulting firms, refer them via email to articles that may have carried data on their industry. You could also win goodwill by sending them links for training that could increase their business. To get this data, you can:
*
Research online on your clients and their competitors—there is a wealth of data out there.
*
Go to consulting firm websites to gather information on your clients’ industry segments, and more.
*
Read online versions of business magazines and cull articles you can send
to them.
*
If your clients are in varied industry segments, you could spend a few days on each industry, make folders specific to that industry, and then edit and organise the data to send to them.
2. Take An Online Course
It’s easy to be in office and on your laptop the whole day. Which is what may be expected of you. So, why not hone your skills and take an online course? It will save you from getting bored and add to your resume.
List the topics you’d like to study, the classes to take, to keep you up-to-date with your industry and business skills. Use this time to add to your intelligence pool.
3. Spend Time With Colleagues
This is the best time to get to know your colleagues, bosses and team members. What are their aspirations? What do they expect from you? What are the triggers you can press later to motivate your team. How can you improve your performance? All these questions will be answered once you take time out for people who work with you but who you may not know at all. Make the effort to know them. It will pay. One day.
4. Organise Your Paperwork
There is no time like the present to get your paperwork in order. Use this free time to download your salary slips, bank statements and other receipts. Some things that you can do are:
*
Go through your expense receipts, credit card and mobile bills, and categorise them.
*
Get your Form 16, insurance receipts, salary slips and bank statements in
one file.
*
Scan all your documents for an electronic record.
*
Estimate your last tax payment for the current year.
5. Keep Fit With An Exercise Regime
Okay, so you cannot step out of the office for too long. And you have been putting off losing weight because you never had the time. Start by researching if there is a gym in your office area that you can join. You can always step out at lunch for an hour. Most gyms have a shower facility and, hence, you can be fresh. For those who cannot get away at lunch or are conserving cash, you still don’t have any excuse. Most offices are in multi-storied buildings, and getting away at lunch or noon or 4 pm to go down and climb up 10 flights of stairs is doable. It takes only 15 minutes each. So, start it today, and see your youthful statistics re-emerge.
6. Take A Long Weekend Off
It’s easy to get leave at this time since work pressure is not high. Hence, taking a day off and combining it with a weekend is the best way to take a mini-break. You could use this break to be with the family or just rejuvenate yourself by checking into a spa. There are many weekend getaways within a few hours of the city. It will be a happy, cost-effective holiday with no airfare outflows.
7. Discover A Value-For-Money Lifestyle
In busy times, you might end up trading time for money since you don’t have the time to negotiate or bargain hard. But slow times mean you can haggle with your travel agent, electronics or mobile services or instruments provider. This is the best time to research and get cheap bargains for holidays, phones, iPods, furnishings and even houses. Re-organise your life in a value-for-money (VFM) way. You could even search for cheaper restaurants to eat in, stores to get deals for clothes and grocery items...This information is available right there on your laptop, with the Internet connection provided by your office.
8. Get Creative With Pictures
You’ve taken a million pictures on your digicam and they’re all lying on a drive in your laptop. Go to Snapfish or Kodak, and get the really nice ones printed. Get them framed. These are memories not meant to be locked inside a laptop.
Get T-shirts or mugs printed with you or your family’s pictures on them. If one of your kids has a birthday coming up, get his or her picture printed on mugs as a return present to all the friends, instead of the regular boring ones. This way, your child’s birthday will always be remembered. Online orders can also be delivered to someone else’s address.
9. Spend Time With Family And Friends
When you’re busy, you’re pretty much invisible to all those who truly love and care about you. Now that work is slow, surprise your family by dropping in early in the evenings. They’ve been wondering where you’ve disappeared to. On most days, leave office on time. Delight your kids with an outing. Bowl over your spouse with a mid-week drink. Bring happiness to your parents by visiting them.
10. Rediscover Your Hobbies
You’re able to get away early from work. Three days a week, the family loves to have you home early. One day, meet friends. One day, you can spare for yourself.
Time travel back to college and you will remember many of your passions. Re-ignite them. If you played a musical instrument, re-hone your skills. Join an evening class to learn music. If you were great at dramatics, form an after-office team to put up plays. Soon, you’ll be glowing with your after-work achievements too.
‘Slow’ is a four-letter word, but used well, it can add meaning to your office hours. Now, get on with it
Ten things to do when there’s less work in the office and more time on your hands
Rachna Chhachhi
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Okay, so it’s that time in life when, if you’ve worked for about seven to nine years, you’re depressed. And if you’ve been around for 18-20 years, you know things will look up. A slowdown can look extremely grim. If you haven’t seen the slow growth rates of the early-1990s, and thought that the seven-year good run was going to continue forever, just sit down and breathe deeply.
You will get a lot of time to do that anyway. Most offices have professionals hanging around, taking cigarette breaks or fatty coffee ones. So, instead of twiddling your thumbs, here’s what can keep you constructively occupied
1. Build Stronger Customer Relationships
Invest this spare time in your clients. This is a good way to be top-of-the-mind for the future. You could send them reports on their industries published by consulting firms, refer them via email to articles that may have carried data on their industry. You could also win goodwill by sending them links for training that could increase their business. To get this data, you can:
*
Research online on your clients and their competitors—there is a wealth of data out there.
*
Go to consulting firm websites to gather information on your clients’ industry segments, and more.
*
Read online versions of business magazines and cull articles you can send
to them.
*
If your clients are in varied industry segments, you could spend a few days on each industry, make folders specific to that industry, and then edit and organise the data to send to them.
2. Take An Online Course
It’s easy to be in office and on your laptop the whole day. Which is what may be expected of you. So, why not hone your skills and take an online course? It will save you from getting bored and add to your resume.
List the topics you’d like to study, the classes to take, to keep you up-to-date with your industry and business skills. Use this time to add to your intelligence pool.
3. Spend Time With Colleagues
This is the best time to get to know your colleagues, bosses and team members. What are their aspirations? What do they expect from you? What are the triggers you can press later to motivate your team. How can you improve your performance? All these questions will be answered once you take time out for people who work with you but who you may not know at all. Make the effort to know them. It will pay. One day.
4. Organise Your Paperwork
There is no time like the present to get your paperwork in order. Use this free time to download your salary slips, bank statements and other receipts. Some things that you can do are:
*
Go through your expense receipts, credit card and mobile bills, and categorise them.
*
Get your Form 16, insurance receipts, salary slips and bank statements in
one file.
*
Scan all your documents for an electronic record.
*
Estimate your last tax payment for the current year.
5. Keep Fit With An Exercise Regime
Okay, so you cannot step out of the office for too long. And you have been putting off losing weight because you never had the time. Start by researching if there is a gym in your office area that you can join. You can always step out at lunch for an hour. Most gyms have a shower facility and, hence, you can be fresh. For those who cannot get away at lunch or are conserving cash, you still don’t have any excuse. Most offices are in multi-storied buildings, and getting away at lunch or noon or 4 pm to go down and climb up 10 flights of stairs is doable. It takes only 15 minutes each. So, start it today, and see your youthful statistics re-emerge.
6. Take A Long Weekend Off
It’s easy to get leave at this time since work pressure is not high. Hence, taking a day off and combining it with a weekend is the best way to take a mini-break. You could use this break to be with the family or just rejuvenate yourself by checking into a spa. There are many weekend getaways within a few hours of the city. It will be a happy, cost-effective holiday with no airfare outflows.
7. Discover A Value-For-Money Lifestyle
In busy times, you might end up trading time for money since you don’t have the time to negotiate or bargain hard. But slow times mean you can haggle with your travel agent, electronics or mobile services or instruments provider. This is the best time to research and get cheap bargains for holidays, phones, iPods, furnishings and even houses. Re-organise your life in a value-for-money (VFM) way. You could even search for cheaper restaurants to eat in, stores to get deals for clothes and grocery items...This information is available right there on your laptop, with the Internet connection provided by your office.
8. Get Creative With Pictures
You’ve taken a million pictures on your digicam and they’re all lying on a drive in your laptop. Go to Snapfish or Kodak, and get the really nice ones printed. Get them framed. These are memories not meant to be locked inside a laptop.
Get T-shirts or mugs printed with you or your family’s pictures on them. If one of your kids has a birthday coming up, get his or her picture printed on mugs as a return present to all the friends, instead of the regular boring ones. This way, your child’s birthday will always be remembered. Online orders can also be delivered to someone else’s address.
9. Spend Time With Family And Friends
When you’re busy, you’re pretty much invisible to all those who truly love and care about you. Now that work is slow, surprise your family by dropping in early in the evenings. They’ve been wondering where you’ve disappeared to. On most days, leave office on time. Delight your kids with an outing. Bowl over your spouse with a mid-week drink. Bring happiness to your parents by visiting them.
10. Rediscover Your Hobbies
You’re able to get away early from work. Three days a week, the family loves to have you home early. One day, meet friends. One day, you can spare for yourself.
Time travel back to college and you will remember many of your passions. Re-ignite them. If you played a musical instrument, re-hone your skills. Join an evening class to learn music. If you were great at dramatics, form an after-office team to put up plays. Soon, you’ll be glowing with your after-work achievements too.
‘Slow’ is a four-letter word, but used well, it can add meaning to your office hours. Now, get on with it
Best 25 Employers
Zeroing In
How 25 winners were picked from 230 companies that took part in the study
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In July 2008, about 1,500 companies were invited to participate in the Outlook Business-Hewitt Associates Best Employers 2009 Study. More than 230 companies registered, spanning several sectors, including banking and financial services, consumer durables, manufacturing, retail, telecom, IT, ITES and hospitality. The organisations were put through three rigorous surveys:
1) Employee Opinion Survey
This was designed to gauge the level of employee engagement and collect information about employee perceptions of the work environment. It was completed with a statistically valid random sample of employees.
2) People Practices Inventory
It gathered information about philosophies, practices and policies that influence the management of people in organisations in the following areas:
o
People initiatives
o
Recruitment and retention
o
Talent management
o
Leadership
o
Performance management
o
Building capability
o
Rewards and recognition
o
Flexible work arrangements
3) CEO questionnaire
This was designed to understand the CEO’s philosophy and approach to
managing people.
After all this data was analysed, onsite HR audits were conducted at more than 20% of the participating companies. These audits involved focus groups with employees, an interview with HR, a discussion with the CEO and a site visit.
At the end of this exercise, a list of organisations based on overall company score and audit insights were shortlisted for the next stage of the judging process. Exhaustive profiles of each of these companies, along with the full results of the three surveys, were presented to the jury. The four-member jury, chaired by Nripendra Mishra, former Chairman, TRAI, Zia Mody, Managing Partner, AZB & Partners, Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM Bangalore, and M Anand, Editor, Outlook Business, picked out the 25 winners after day-long deliberations.
The jury, to begin with, considered the company score assigned to each organisation. (This is the weighted average of the overall engagement and alignment scores for each company.) Then, it looked at how these companies were treating employees in the context of the current economic crisis.
It also took special note of company scores on leadership, diversity, learning and development, integrity, honesty and ethics when it selected and ranked the
25 winners.
Top 25 Best Employers
25 Companies that kept employees smiling even in the slowdown
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ARINDAM 1 HCL Technologies
2 Hindustan Zinc
3 Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
4 Cisco Systems
5 ITC Welcomgroup
6 Intuit Technology Services
7 Eureka Forbes
8 LG Electronics
9 Domino’s Pizza
10 Marriott Hotels
11 Godrej Consumer Products
12 Becton Dickinson
13 Stryker Global Technology Center
14 NetApp
15 The Oberoi Group
16 VCustomer Corporation
17 Paypal
18 Accenture Services
19 Kotak Mahindra Bank
20 Whirlpool of India
21 Intelenet Global Services
22 HSBC
23 Hewlett Packard
24 Indian Oil Corporation
25 Ford India
1) HCL Technologies
Industry: IT
Employees: 37,426
Workplace Units: 41
Business units: 11
Unique roles: 76
EMPLOYEES FIRST! WHEN HCL TECHNOLOGIES CEO VINEET NAYAR unveiled this concept at the company’s 2005 ‘global customer’ meet, it left everyone stunned. No one could believe that the company was putting its employees before customers. The shock was even more pronounced as HCL was struggling to find its feet when other Indian IT companies were taking leadership positions in the global IT market.
The Employee First programme was part of HCL’s transformational blue-ocean strategy. Not only was it going aft er newer markets and segments in which other Indian IT companies had a minimal presence, it was also searching for differentiators that would put it six to eight months ahead of the competition. The focus was to consolidate business lines, invest in sales, internal IT processes and services, pursue big-ticket deals and raise bills on output-based pricing. However, all this meant a lot of pressure on the workforce, which was already dealing with high attrition rates.
The new strategy positioned employees as the biggest differentiator. The premise of employee first and customer second is that delighted employees will create delighted customers, thereby sustaining business success. The company was not chasing volume deals, but high-value deals. Nayar says value is created at the point of interface with the client, and this is done by employees. This, in turn, produces business results. “Though it was a transparent concept, it took time to sink in. But we were serious about it, we believed in it and we had the will to implement it,” says Dilip Kumar rivastava, Global Head (HR), HCL Technologies.
HCL’s entire HR policy was revisited to bring in a qualitative shift towards employees. Exposure was increased and skills were updated to enhance knowledge. Employees were empowered to have views about the company and given opportunities to express them. This was done through 360-degree appraisals, surveys and opinion polls. The transformation of employees happened through coaching and mentoring programmes. A reward and recognition system was also put in place. The growth in the business reflects employee and customer acceptance of the programme.
“Change is the only thing that is constant here. I became multi-skilled and started believing in myself. HCL helped me to grow,” says Rajani Kapani, who joined the company in 1998 as a front-office executive. Today, his designation is Deputy Manager, Employee HR Services.
The initiative to put the spotlight on employees has made a huge difference. This, perhaps, is the prime reason for employees being confident about the steps being taken by the management to negotiate difficult times.
Good news or bad, employees get to hear first from the CEO or the leadership team. For instance, in September 2008, Vineet Nayar personally addressed employees across centres and explained the rationale behind the Axon acquisition, and what it meant for the company and the workforce. He also spoke about the economic situation and what it meant for HCL’s business.
Employees learnt that the organisation was not looking at layoffs or salary cuts as part of its efforts to minimise costs. This reassured the employees and also made them work harder. HCL Technologies is already known as the CEO factory for India, with almost 100 of its former employees now holding chief executive posts in the corporate world.
Today, it is evolving into a global company, where nationalities and region dissolve into just one thing: being an HCLite.
-Anurag Prasad
2) Hindustan Zinc
Industry: Metals
Employees: 6,363
Workplace Units: 12
Business units: 13
Unique roles: 221
OUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE,’’ SAYS AKHILESH JOSHI, CHIEF Operating Officer, Hindustan Zinc (HZL), the world’s second largest integrated zinc and lead producer, “is to attract the best talent to some of the remotest areas of the country, where our mines are.’’ Fortunately, for HZL, a part of the global Vedanta Resources Group, the task hasn’t been difficult, thanks to the company’s employees, who have been its “brand ambassadors” and helped rope in talent. Industry-topping salaries and a great work culture have also helped.
HZL’s expansion plans and global operations have added to the lure. Production capacity of zinc and lead (metals) has jumped from 204,000 tonnes in 2002 to 754,000 tonnes in 2008, and is expected to touch 1 million tonnes by 2010. Mining capacity has also increased from 3.45 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2002 to 7.1 mpta in 2008.
For HK Mehta, Vice-President, Human Resources, HZL, the company’s policy of empowering individuals and giving them the freedom to carry out their responsibilities makes HZL an exciting place for its 6,363 employees. Its attrition rate of 12% is much below the industry average of 18%.
There’s also the lure of global career growth opportunities in other Vedanta group companies, to get familiar with cutting-edge technology at mines and smelters across the world, and to add educational qualifi cations. HZL helps science graduates in the company become engineers. It has tied up with the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, located within its Chanderiya smelter plant complex, for a three-year process-engineering course. Chosen employees can study alongside work, with the company partly footing the course fee.
This has benefited many, including 43-year-old Abdul Waheed, a science graduate from Kota Government College, Rajasthan. Waheed joined HZL in 1991 as a plant operator. Today, the Associate Manager, soon to become an engineer, has set his sights even higher. “In 18 years, I have got five promotions and my salary has more than doubled,’’ says Waheed. Like him, as many as 261 workmen have become executives from 2004 onwards.
Every year, HZL selects 50 ‘stars of business’ based on their performance and puts them on the fast track of growth and development.These stars become heads of ‘strategic business units’ in five to six years,occupying the second-in-command position in one of the verticals of the plant.This is a jump that would have taken 15-20 years earlier.
Sunipa Roy, 28, is one such star. A graduate from Regional Engineering College, Durgapur, she is already the strategic business unit head of the leaching and purification division of Chanderiya smelter complex, commercial unit-II, after just five years in the company. Her salary has risen from Rs 14,000 per month to Rs 75,000, not to forget the bonuses— three times a year—and other generous perks.
There is active employee interaction. “Every quarter, junior members of the company interact with the group Chairman, Anil Agarwal, to understand the vision and philosophy of the company,’’ says Mehta.CEO workshops are also common.
As MS Mehta, CEO, Vedanta Group puts it: “We provide employees a vibrant working environment that helps them to innovate, discover their potential and realise their professional dreams.”
-Ashish Gupta
3) Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 13,500
Workplace Units: 43
Business units: 64
Unique roles: 395
WHEN TERRORISTS ATTACKED MUMBAI’S TAJ MAHAL HOTEL ON November 26, last year, hotel employees immediately swung into action trying to save the lives of the guests trapped inside. The heroic manner in which they saved the lives of hundreds, at great personal cost, is well known. When the ordeal was over, the Taj Group not only had to undertake the huge task of restoring the 106-year-old structure to its erstwhile glory, but also to renew the confidence of its traumatised employees.
While some were scared of getting back to work, others were wondering if they had a job to go back to. The day after the attack was snuffed out, the company set up a trauma centre, and with the help of 15 counsellors and psychiatrists from the Tata Institute of Social Services, got each employee and his/her family counselled. “We convinced them that the Taj was safe and so were their jobs,” reminisces an emotional HN Shrinivas, Senior Vice- President, Human Resources, Taj Hotels. “Each one of them had their share of anxieties, but in the end, they all pledged to work together to once again make the Taj Mahal the best hotel in Mumbai.”
Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata personally met the families of the deceased, and distributed a compensation package of Rs 7 crore. This included a lumpsum payment and other facilities such as ensuring a spouse got the last-drawn salary of the deceased throughout his or her lifetime, taking care of the children’s education, and so on.
This humanitarian approach has underlined how the Taj Group backs its employees even during times of crisis. Employee well-being, says Raymond Bickson, Managing Director, Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, has always been a priority. “We want to be recognised among the best employers in the country.” It is the people who are in the trenches that have made the Taj what it is, he says. A guest at the Taj interacts with the hotel staff on at least 42 occasions each day, right from getting a wake-up call from the operator and getting room service to getting information at the front desk and being greeted by the doorman, says Bickson. “All these employees can be at their best only if they love what they do and feel a sense of belonging.”
To instill this, the company has put in place several programmes such as the ‘speed programme’, through which it identifies good performers and gives them a double promotion. It has also put together an ‘emerging leaders programme’, under which hundreds of managers with leadership potential have been selected and put through a rigorous training programme. “We need 2,000 leaders in the next 10 years and we have already charted out a career plan for these candidates,” says Bickson.
Good employee retention practices help maintain market share and margins. “There are 37 global hospitality brands wanting to enter India and we have to keep up with the times.”
Despite the economic slowdown, the Taj Group is expanding aggressively. The hotel chain plans to double its rooms from 10,000 to 20,000 in the next couple of years. To do so, it will need a lot of manpower. “One can’t open hotels and not hire. However, we will first look at internal movements,” says Bickson.
-Ajita Shashidhar
4) CISCO
Industry: Networking
Employees: 4,600
Workplace Units: 7
Business units: 4
Unique roles: 72
CISCO PRIDES ITSELF ON ITS NETWORKING ABILITIES—HUMAN networking. So, one would expect the company to stress on HR practices that pamper employees. Surprisingly, HR boss Subhash AK Rao is remarkably blasé on what differentiates Cisco as a workplace. “By itself, we don’t do anything out-of-the-ordinary—rather it is the degree to which the attributes of a good workplace come together that makes us unique.” To top it all, this isn’t your usual MNC, where control rests outside India. With 20% of Cisco’s leadership based here, India calls the shots too. Rao explains: “India today leads 28 sectors for Cisco worldwide, up from just five earlier. This has opened up new opportunities.” Because a chunk of Cisco’s work is driven out of India, people here are exposed to a wider canvas.
In a day, a Cisco employee could be working for four different geographies, two technologies and three markets. Employees find this variety exhilarating, but admit its hard work. Long hours are common in Cisco, but employees have the flexibility to work according to their timelines. “If you want to take off early on Friday or get into office late on Monday, nobody will stop you. We are treated as mature adults—there’s no nagging,” says a young hire.
The opportunity to work across different technologies and diverse customer groups is another attraction at Cisco. This is possible, says Rao, because Cisco does not follow a single technology religion. “We started with routers, moved into switches and followed up with data, voice, video and now mobility. There are 20 technologies in which Cisco is either number one or number two globally. At Cisco, we cover the gamut of the hi-tech industry—not many organisations give you this opportunity,” adds Rao.
Although the size of the organisation is $40 billion with 60,000-plus employees on the rolls, Cisco works like a cluster of businesses (built around a particular echnology area). An old Cisco hand says each business unit runs like an independent company, and is responsible for its products and revenue stream. “Targets are set internally and people within the business unit are responsible for these targets. You are pretty much on your own, and that’s what keeps the spirit of innovation alive,” he adds.
At Cisco, innovation is not just about technology and engineering—it’s also about how to run the business. Explains Rao, “Our mantra is collaboration and teamwork. For example, formal reporting is a very insignifi cant part of what defines you—you are defined more by how many councils you are on, what you are leading and what initiatives you are a part of.” Also, as Cisco transitions from simply selling a product to sharing risk and revenues with customers, everyday brings with it new lessons.
Cisco’s tagline of ‘changing the way we live, work, play and learn’ may sound a little exaggerated to outsiders, but Rao says the company actually walks the talk. For example, the use of technology at the workplace enables employees to work anywhere and collaborate with anyone—whether it’s a video-conference at the touch of a button or a ‘virtual office’ router at home. Cisco does not believe in commute to compute— the rationale is that you should be able to compute from anywhere and commuting should be more around collaboration.
People inside Cisco use the phrase ‘worklife integration’ to describe the Cisco culture. “If you enjoy what you do and are able to do it at your convenience, I can’t think of a better alternative,” sums up Rao.
-Nandita Datta
5) ITC Welcomgroup
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 2,000
Workplace Units: 26
Business units: 14
Unique roles: 21
THE DOWNTURN, THE MUMBAI TERROR ATTACKS, AND MOST recently, the shifting of the IPL to foreign shores, have affected the hospitality sector adversely, but the Rs 2,300 crore ITC Welcomgroup hotel chain has no plans to slow down. The company isn’t lowering growth projections or reducing its workforce. In fact, ITC’s cash-rich, debt-free hospitality division plans to double the number of rooms in its luxury hotels to 5,000 in the next three years, to be in a good position to ride the upturn when it happens.
At a recent conference in Gurgaon, senior officials from across the country discussed how to weather the current difficulties without any major internal upheaval. The message that went out to employees at the end of the three-day conclave was: “no layoffs or pay cuts’’. Given how most other companies are taking drastic cost-cutting measures just to stay afloat, that message would have been very reassuring for employee morale.
Employees have always been treated well, even after they retire. Although it is the ideal hunting ground for other services players such as airlines, business process outsourcing (BPOs) and banks, especially at the junior management level, ITC Welcomgroup has managed to keep attrition down to 11%, well below the industry average. “That has been made possible,’’ says Anil Sharma, Vice-President and Head of HR at ITC Welcomgroup, “by benchmarking our salaries to those paid in these industries, ensuring that the cash component is the highest in the salary, and also paying a handsome retention bonus at the end of three years.’’
For middle-level managers, the benchmark is the hospitality sector: hospitals, competing hotels and real estate companies, because these companies were luring away its managers. ITC Welcomgroup also added the best in lifestyle benefits—houses in good locations and expensive cars—to take care of employees’ family needs. For those at the very top, it is Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) that became the competition.
A high basic pay is just one part of the package; other intangible benefits such as job satisfaction, ability to move within the organisation and the freedom to express opinions also help in employee retention. Moreover, the company’s distributive leadership model, as opposed to centralised leadership followed by most companies gives strategic business unit (SBU) heads full autonomy and authority to run their respective businesses as they see fit. Also, its emphasis on collective action has built team spirit among employees.
Nakul Anand, CEO, ITC Welcomgroup, feels that morale is high because the company takes care of most employee needs. And he should know, having spent 33 years in the company. Every employee gets ample opportunities to rise up the ladder. Says Sharma: “The only limits to growth in our company is our own competence.” He cites the example of Sunil Sikka, who rose from bellboy to general manager over a 30-year period, after getting 17 promotions.
Anil Sharma recruited Jeevan Unnithan, who was a captain in the army, as an assistant manager nearly six years ago. Today, Unnithan has risen to the post of Divisional Human Resource Manager. “Even in these troubled economic times,
I know I can sleep soundly because I am working with ITC Welcomgroup,’’
says Unnithan .
-Ashish Gupta
6) INTUIT TECHNOLOGY
Industry: IT
Employees: 224
Workplace locations: 1
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 16
A WORK culture that answers to customers is Intuit’s “secret sauce”, says Managing Director Vijay Anand. “Engineers, typically, never get to connect directly with customers. They sit in their cubicles and come up with cool products they think people will want. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way,” he says.
So, Intuit teaches its engineers to follow their customers—that is, meet prospective users of their products, at their workplace (small enterprises like a tailor shop, a local kirana store, a beauty salon, a welding shop, a farming field). The objective is to see their pain points first-hand, and then design products that provide a soothing effect.
Typically, 10-15% of the work time of engineers is left free for them to follow the customer home, connect with the outside world and solve real-time problems that have the potential to become the next big Intuit product. Unstructured time, it’s termed. “This free time is not monitored—you are free to do as you please,” says an employee.
Engineers don’t have to wait endlessly to see their ideas take shape—it can take just six weeks for an idea to move into the prototype stage. UVG Sekar, Head, Human Resources, says Intuit helps engineers hone their entrepreneurial skills, be it the ability to take risks, the passion for an idea, taking an idea to fruition or customer orientation. Products like TurboTax, the number one tax preparation software in the US, and QuickBooks, the number one business accounting software for small enterprises,are outcomes of such support systems.
This open culture requires active participation by senior management. The company is proud of this culture—senior managers are often found lounging around with employees, discussing ideas and strategies. Access to senior management is actively encouraged—Founder & Chairman Scott Cook himself conducts a few training sessions for employees every year. All this makes it a satisfying experience for employees, who vote with their mouths—30-40% of lateral hiring in the company is through employee referrals.
—Nandita Datta
7) EUREKA FORBES
Industry: Consumer durables
Employees: 9,400
Workplace locations: 243
Business units: 4
Unique roles: 106
AT EUREKA Forbes, employees who have put in two years in the company are eligible to contest an in-house election for ‘councillors’ and ‘senators’. In 2008, 270 candidates contested for 56 seats (42 councillors and 14 senators); they even drafted their own manifestos, and articulated plans to develop their ‘constituencies’. All employees cast their votes through a secret ballot to elect the ‘house of Eurochamps’. Councillors meet once a month, the senate once a quarter, to address employee issues. “The idea is to ensure the voice of our people is heard in the decision-making process,” says Suresh Goklaney, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Eureka Forbes: “The concept has helped us eliminate barriers in the flow of knowledge and communication across hierarchies.”
For a direct-selling company like Eureka Forbes, employees are its single biggest asset. The company looks to take people with average educational qualifications and turn them into performers through a mix of training and performance-based incentives.The company runs an induction programme for newcomers and a refresher course for front-line employees. In 2000, Eureka Forbes tied up with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies, and floated an academy to offer management diploma courses to its employees. The academy is still active. The company is now planning to team up with premier B-Schools to co-develop sales-centric training programmes.
Succession planning is also a critical item on the company’s agenda. It is working on a programme that will help it spot potential managers and mould them for bigger roles. So, a front-line sales person can grow to become a Vice-President.
Eureka Forbes, says Goklaney, is highly performance- driven. “Compensation at all levels is performance-linked and the variable component varies from 40-60%,” he says. However, attrition is high. “Although it is 4% at senior levels, it is 30% at the front-line,” says Harsimran Singh, Senior Vice-President-Human Resources & Organisational Effectiveness. Still, she says, there’s a silver lining to this high rate of attrition: “It helps to align the employee base with regular performers.” And that helps the business—and, in turn, the people who run it.
—Rajiv Bhuva
8) LG ELECTRONICS
Industry: Consumer durables
Employees: 3,000
Workplace locations: 41
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 417
THE PREMISE for HR at LG is if the company takes care of its employees, its performance will improve. Yet, just five years ago, LG India was losing 35% of freshers within a year of them joining the company. That number is now down to 5% and not one employee earmarked as core talent or in the successor group has left in the last one year.
Behind this turnaround is a change in the basis of expectations from employees and the way they engage with the company. Activities were introduced and processes were reoriented towards increasing inter- and intra-departmental interaction, promoting fun at work, providing instant recognition and improving work-life balance. LG was considered a tough place to work, especially at the branch level.People were slogging even on Sundays to meet targets. This workaholism ended when the HR imposed a blanket ban on employees working on Sundays. Initially, workers accustomed to chasing targets at the expense of personal lives still flouted the diktat, but HR followed through—they called up employee homes on Sundays and holidays to confirm that employees were not working.
Touches like this make Dr Yasho V Verma, Director (HR and Marketing Sales), LG, say: “On paper, every HR team is strong, it is implementation that matters.” Small things, like the 30-minute freewheeling session with the boss, count. Team leaders managing less than 15 people have to do this once a month; those managing more than 15 people, once in two months. They also have to take their team out every month, at the company’s expense.The bonding and interaction improves trust and team spirit, and creates a better working environment. After these measures were introduced, late sitting in the office reduced by about 80%.
A similar concept exists at the blue-collar worker level too. An HR person takes line guardianship of 30-40 employees, and meets them once a month for at least 15-20 minutes to hear them out and understand their mindset. The onus of resolving employee issues lies with the HR person, and processes in place make them accountable.
For employees, professional growth is important. So, the HR team prepares a five-year plan for employees based on a three-day workshop with them, where behavioural and functional capabilities are assessed. A clear training plan is drawn up on how to achieve the goals. Two months back, this programme covered 1,250 employees. Every month, 40 more employees are added, with the eventual objective of covering all 3,400 employees at LG. Verma sees HR people as “psychologists” who can read employee minds and take quick action. LG’s numbers show they have been doing that.
—Anurag Prasad
9) DOMINO’S PIZZA INDIA
Industry: Food services
Employees: 5,620
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 176
Unique roles: 32
IN MOST organisations, a 106% attrition rate would be alarming. At Domino’s, it’s pizza as usual. That triple-digit rate is at the entry (delivery person) level, populated by 12th pass students who are still finding themselves. At the store manager level, the attrition rate is 21%, much better than the industry average of 40-45%. At the corporate office, it’s almost nil, with several employees having been in the company since it was formed in 1998-99.
The challenge for Domino’s is how to keep its 20-somethings interested, compete as it does with the BPO industry, which offers higher salaries and more perks. Still, people stay. Some even return to a system that empowers them to perform and gives a fair opportunity to the deserving to rise through the ranks. For instance, by clearing four training modules, a delivery boy can become a store manager in five years. Straight out of class 12, Raj Sahi joined as a delivery boy in 1996. Today, the 33-year-old oversees the Western region, and is responsible for a turnover of Rs 100 crore per year. With financial assistance from Domino’s, he also completed his graduation.
Employee education is a stated objective at Domino’s— it spent Rs 45 lakh in 2007-08 on training and will spend Rs 55 lakh this year. The company has tied up with leading institutes for distant education courses (both graduate and post-graduate). It also sends chosen employees for a one-year, residential, customised management course at IMT Ghaziabad. Says Ajay Kaul, Chief Executive Officer, “If they stay with the company for two to three months, they see the benefits flowing.”
Store managers are seen as the CEO of their stores. Says Basab Bordoloi, Vice-President (HR): “They practically run the business, which inculcates an entrepreneurial zeal among them.” Store managers handle their store as a separate business unit. They have the right to question corporate moves that have cost implications on their store. “The sense of responsibility and career growth keeps us motivated,” sums up 25-year-old R Devrajan, who manages six stores in Delhi.
—Anurag Prasad
10) MARRIOTT HOTELS INDIA
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 3,250
Workplace locations: 4
Business units: 5
Unique roles: 27
BUSINESS IS tough, which is even more reason for Marriott to hone its workforce. “Our values get stronger during such times,” says Rajeev Menon, Vice-President for Marriott in India, Malaysia, Maldives and Pakistan. The company’s pyramid organisation structure has associates (its front-end staff ) at the top. They are the company’s biggest asset, says Menon. “So, we have already paid bonuses and the increment has been 8-10%,” he says.
Once a year, associates take an online survey of 42 questions on personal leadership, teamwork, worklife balance, personal growth and rewards. “The survey helps us understand associates and improve their performance,” says Gurmeet Singh, Area Director of HR for India, Maldives and Pakistan.
Marriott runs 14 different training programmes for its employees, and the investment on training is on the no-compromise list. New recruits undergo a week-long training, and follow ups after 60 days and 90 days on the job. There’s an online programme to develop skills of associates and a portal that facilitates their personal development. At the managerial level, Marriott employees are categorised into three bands: red (entry level), blue (department-head level) and purple (divisionalhead level). Across these bands, the company runs a talent development and succession plan. “We have groomed about 80% of our associates to the red band,” says Singh.
With an average increment of 8-10%, Marriott is not a big paymaster, and its 30% attrition rate is a cause for concern. “But we don’t lose employees due to monetary issues. It’s mainly to foreign competition and luxury cruises,” says Nayna Panjanani, Director of HR at JW Marriott (a division of Marriott, in Mumbai). “Many do come back.” Adds Singh: “We focus more on recognition than on rewards.” Every May, Marriott hosts an associate appreciation week, which is a time to thank its associates. “Th e executive committee is on the floor serving them,” says Panjanani.
—Rajiv Bhuva
11) GODREJ CONSUMER
Industry: FMCG
Employees: 1,354
Workplace locations: 8
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 105
“WE SEE our employees, and not our brands, as our greatest assets,” says Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Rs 7,500 crore Godrej Group. It’s a healthy giveand- take relationship, and it is more pronounced in a slow market like this. Says Sumit Mitra, Executive Vice-President (HR), Godrej Consumer, the Rs 1,200 crore group flagship: “The company’s philosophy is do more for people, but also demand more from them.”
The company has always followed a policy to weed out non-performers. Now, it has made its rewards structure sharper than ever before. Says Godrej: “We have a strong performance-linked bonus system and have even extended employee stock options across all levels of management.”
The group believes in empowering its employees and taking initiatives for their development. So, Godrej Consumer offers multi-skilled training to its employees so that they can play multiple roles, instead of hiring afresh and adding to costs. More recently, it launched a consumer immersion programme. Employees, across functions, are encouraged to interact with consumers on Godrej products and pass on feedback to the product development team. One outcome of such engagement is greater emphasis on fragrance and packaging. Says Mitra: “The rough consumer interaction, they realised that, besides core values, fragrances and packaging play a key role in buying decisions.”
In May 2008, the group unveiled a new brand identity that promised “brighter living”. It wasn’t just a cosmetic change, says Mitra. “We took every employee through the attributes of brighter living at a mindset level, and told them that we meant it.” The Godrej brass gives two numbers to make their point. Attrition, says Mitra, is just 1%. Adds Godrej: “In 2008, only 20 stocks gained, and Godrej Consumer was one of them.”
—Ajita Shashidhar
12) BECTON DICKINSON
Industry: Medical tech
Employees: 325
Workplace locations: 7
Business units: 5
Unique roles: 132
IT IS not very often that a company conducts ethical fitness training for its employees. But for Becton Dickinson India (BD), which manufactures and sells medical instruments and devices, ethics are important, even more than growth. “There are no short cuts,” says Ram Sharma, Managing Director of our way to get it.” In the past two months, BD India has walked away from a few large contracts as they would have involved compromising on core values.
Apart from rallying employees around organisational values, the $80 million company’s HR section encourages employees to voice concerns and opinions, and shape its policies. HR policies like allowances and review processes were modified based on employee feedback. Employees are also asked to have an HR orientation. Explains Sharma: “In a small team, HR is too important a function to be delegated. Every line employee should have elements of HR.”
Some HR practices that have been well-received include the option to work from home, flexi-timings, and special provisions for women employees during travel and emergencies. Employees are encouraged to beat targets, but are not treated harshly if they fall short. Its annual ‘Braveheart’ award recognises the top 15% employees on a set of defined criteria. “It has become a coveted award,” says Ajay Kumar, Director (HR), BD India. “Recognition is not just about achieving targets, but also about demonstrating how it was done.”
Employee growth and training go hand-in-hand here. The company has a virtual university to train employees, which is supplemented by career development and job training programmes (that have been developed in close association with employees), and monthly meetings with the MD and CEO. BD India spends around Rs 1 crore a year on learning and training initiatives.
There is a talent pipeline in the short-, mediumand long-term for all roles. This requires some thought since the pool of people is small. “In a small team, finding a replacement with the right skills is difficult,” says Sharma. “So, we have people multitasking and engaging among themselves so that at no point of time is any function without a head.” In the last two years, the company filled 40% of highlevel jobs by promoting employees. This acts as a retention tool too. In the last five years, there has been no attrition in the leadership team.
—Anurag Prasad
13) STRYKER GLOBAL
Industry: IT
Employees: 100
Workplace locations: 1
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 19
14) NETAPP INDIA
Industry: IT
Employees: 877
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 20
Unique roles: 4
AN EGALITARIAN work culture (even fresh hires are entitled to benefits like stock options and car lease) and a down-to-earth management (Vice- Chairman Tom Mendoza calls employees to thank them for going beyond the call of duty to meet customer expectations) are two workplace attributes at NetApp that employees talk about frequently.
It’s probably people practices like these that keep motivation levels high at the company. “Even in current conditions, we are able to acquire new customers,” says SR Manjunath, Senior Director, Human Resources. “This is because of our people going the extra mile to get the job done. And this happens because NetApp creates a work environment where people want to go the extra mile to give back to the company.”
Right from the selection process (which is more than just skill matching or a job requirement) to the on-boarding process (all new hires are flown to Sunnyvale, California, to meet the founders, senior executive team and heads of functions), the amount of money, management bandwidth and time NetApp invests in making sure people understand the culture and value system is high.
Says Manjunath: “When employees see they are being recognised for their work from a person no less than the Vice-Chairman, sometimes the Chairman, motivation levels go up dramatically.” Apparently, Mendoza makes 30-40 calls a week to employees at all levels for a job well done.
And it’s not work all the time. There’s no monitoring of work time—employees can work at their own convenience. There’s even a break-room on every floor, where employees can saunter in anytime they want and catch some snooker or a game of table tennis. NetApp also encourages community service— globally, NetApp employees get 8-10 days off every year to pursue community service; in India, this is in the process of being rolled out. For NetApp, it’s just another pay out that will pay back.
—Nandita Datta
15) THE OBEROI GROUP
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 5,740
Workplace locations: 30
Business units: 6
Unique roles: 125
SITTING IN his office at his lush green farmhouse on the outskirts of the Capital, PRS Oberoi, the 79- year-old Chairman of the Oberoi Group, narrates an anecdote. A guest was enamoured by a rare Ganesha mural, with its trunk tilted to the right, at the Oberoi Vanyavilas in Ranthambore, and he wanted to take one home.
The guest, accompanied by a hotel executive, scouted the local markets for the exclusive Ganesha, but to no avail. The next morning, the executive, on what was his off day, drove to the nearest town, found the elusive mural and delivered it just before the guest was about to check out. “That’s the Oberoi Dharma—customer first, company second and self last,” says the patriarch of the Oberoi Group, which owns or manages 30 hotels and luxury cruisers in five countries. Of course, the guest left delighted, and made a special mention of the executive in the guest book.
“We always want to exceed the guest’s expectations,” PRS Oberoi puts it succinctly. A small, eight-page, green book, which spells out the group’s mission, vision, dharma and key principles is a must-carry for all 5,700-odd employees. Not surprisingly, all guest recommendations are taken seriously during performance appraisals.
With the group setting high performance benchmarks, the progression path is merit-based. “The company does not discriminate on age,” says 35- year-old Kapil Chopra, General Manager at Trident Gurgaon, in his second stint with the group. “There are seven GMs below the age of 35 years.”
To offer best-in-class service, the group’s mantra has been simple: hire carefully, train them well and keep them motivated. Around 80% of managers working in the group have passed out from the Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development, its in-house training school. “We don’t create jobs, we make careers for them,” says Oberoi.
Every month, team members meet with department heads to review progress and discuss training requirements. While employees take care of the guests, the employee concierge service helps them on the personal and home front. Says Chandan Chattaraj, Executive Vice-President, Human Resources: “One can ask them to pick up groceries, laundry or book travel tickets. It works 24x7.” Happy employees means happy guests, and vice versa.
—Sudipto Dey
16) VCUSTOMER CORP
Industry: ITES
Employees: 4,000
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 4
Unique roles: 100
NIMISH SHARMA, who has been working with vCustomer for 15 months now, as a target acquisition executive, gives his vote of confidence to the company’s HR: “It’s not just something at the back-end, it’s a visible team.” It’s about the usual integrating, mentoring, handholding, goal-setting and empowering employees, and creating a good work-fun-life balance for them. The difference from most other BPOs is that the intent is greater and, sometimes, the means resorted to achieve those objectives are different.
Policies are for the people and by the people. For instance, vCustomer has a workforce management team that acts as a bridge between employees and the HR team. Their interactions and subsequent feedback is instrumental in formulating HR policies. “The communication is very open and results in action,” says Sharma. One example of this is the company’s leave policy. Earlier, privilege leave could be taken only in blocks of five days. Most employees would not be able to avail of it, and it would lapse. After consultation, the five-day block was cut to three, enabling more employees to take this leave.
Because of these little things, vCustomer’s attrition rate is lower than the industry. And even then, and despite the slowdown, it has completed its appraisals on time. The company believes in home-grown leadership. Almost 80% of the midlevel management has been trained in the company. Like Siddhartha Pavagadhi, who joined as a call agent in 2001 and is now a senior manager. When it comes to goal-setting, the discussion in vCustomer revolves around an individual’s needs, motivation, learning requirements and any other aspect that will help the company utilise her potential to the maximum. “We identify the functional and behavioural training requirements, and everything is put online to be executed in a time-bound manner,” says Krishnan Viswanathan, Senior Director, vCustomer.
As part of the training programme, vCustomer has put training modules online, enabling employees to access them anytime. Employees are encouraged to take ownership and participate in the decisionmaking process. And evidently, they are.
—Anurag Prasad
17) PAYPAL INDIA
Industry: e-commerce
Employees: 270
Workplace locations: 1
Business units: 2
Unique roles: 8
WHEN THE global economy started slowing, Paypal’s parent in San Jose started laying off employees. Obviously, Paypal employees in India were concerned about their jobs, but not one person has been laid off . Not only that, it conducted counselling sessions to put employees at ease.
Even during these times of cost-cutting, the comfort of employees is a priority. “People need to be taken care of,” says Raj Sundaresan, Head of Paypal India Development Centre. “The spend on them is a small bump on our budget.” So, for instance, Paypal still provides air-conditioned buses to transport its employees. And discretionary spends in- entertaining and comfortable continue. Paypal has earmarked a space for employees to chill out. Called the ‘break out room’, they can munch on sandwiches, down coff ee, play chess, watch TV. Teams are allocated entertainment budgets, which many use to take weekend treks.
At Paypal, the first rule of work is, there are no rules. Employees don’t have to sit on chairs or be at their desk to work. They can use bean bags in their office, and if they want to work from home, that’s fine too. “At times, employees can exercise the option of working from home, depending upon the circumstances,” says Jayanthi Vaidyanathan, HR Head. “Since work gets done, we are happy. We have an open work culture.” The company has a theme for each year. Th is year, it is, “I am Paypal”. The aim is to motivate all employees to imbibe a culture of ownership and entrepreneurship.
Paypal has many programmes to promote talent. Rewards and recognitions for innovations come in plenty, with funky-sounding sobriquets like Labrats and Paypalian. Although Paypal India accounts for 10% of the company’s employees worldwide, half the innovations come from them.
Anita Lekshmi Narayan, an engineer, got a $7,000 Labrats award for an online innovation. “The Labrats concept motivated me,” she says. Every Friday, a TGIF session is held at the office rooftop intended to help employees unwind after a week of work. No wonder, the attrition rate at Paypal has always been less than 10%.
—Sharada Balasubramanian
18) ACCENTURE SERVICES
Industry: Consulting
Employees: 38,000
Workplace locations: 15
Business units: 3
Unique roles: 235
ACCENTURE IN India is not an outpost of a global organisation, says Chairman and Geography Managing Director Harsh Manglik. It’s one company and one culture with integrated global governance. “Our style of working, the bedrock of core values, processes and methodologies, and tools and technologies, are identical across geographies,” says Manglik. “You can take Accenture employees from one part of the world and place them in another, and they will hit the ground running”
That has something to do with people practices that strive for development, leadership, adaptability and expression. So, all employees are assigned individual counsellors, who are, typically, a level or two higher in the hierarchy and who help mould the careers of their wards. Early on in their career, sometimes just two years into the organisation, employees are identified for leadership roles and groomed for it. People are allowed to switch functions and businesses. And the work environment encourages people to ask questions and think for themselves.
Engagement scores are at peak levels and attrition is low. HR Lead Prithvi Shergil says the biggest vindication of Accenture’s strong people focus comes from customers. “I’m often told the employee commitment to outcome and delivery is the same across the organisation, whether in Boston, Buenos Aires or Bangalore,” he says.
Accenture also focuses on learning—employees go through proficiency assessments twice a year, based on which a competency development plan is tailored. In fact, a portion of an employee’s compensation is linked to skill proficiency. Apart from its own learning management system that off ers 20,000 online courses, Accenture partners educational institutions like MIT, XLRI and IGNOU to off er its employees specialised training in functions like HR, marketing, BPO and solutions delivery, among others. Call it partners in progress.
—Nandita Datta
19) KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK
Industry: Banking
Employees: 9,800
Workplace locations: 476
Business units: 17
Unique roles: 463
“OUR people practices are aligned to our culture and values,” says Subhro Bhaduri, Executive Vice- President, Human Resources, Kotak Mahindra Bank. It starts from the time a person is under consideration for a Kotak job. “We try to match a candidate’s aspirations and goals with our values,” he says. It continues into the induction, when an in-house programme spells out the bank’s values, and do’s and dont’s.
This focus on a moral code of conduct may make Kotak look like a pedagogical institution. In some ways, it is, given the organisation’s bent towards learning and career development of its employees. Kotak has several options for executive education, both for senior management (a general management course tailored by IIM-Ahmedabad) and junior employees (a banking course by IIM-Bangalore and management courses by Manipal University). Kotak pays for the senior management courses and gives hefty discounts for the junior ones.
The bank identifies high-potential employees capable of jumping two levels in two years, and nurtures them. “Our hiring policy for manager cadre and above is to avoid outsiders as far as possible,” says Bhaduri. About 28% of the middle-level managers get promoted annually. Even laggards are taken care of. A senior panel meets employees who are stuck in one position for more than two years, and suggests ways to improve their performance.
Although the attrition rate is 5-10%, most of it is in the frontline, where Kotak has a clear policy that non-performers need to move out. “But we give them a fair opportunity for six months,” says Bhaduri. “At the leadership team level, the attrition has been below 2% for the last five years,” says Bhaduri.
Targets for employees are set at the beginning of the year and tracked right through. In the boom years, companies would have tracked employees by volume and value of output only. “However, we focus on both input and output in our productivity metrics,” says Bhaduri. A year ago, five calls a day would have brought two conversions, but now it would take at least 10 calls for the same output. “We set goals that are realistic and grounded in the prevailing business environment,” says Bhaduri.
Kotak’s HR likes to stay connected with employees. “The sessions aim to touch at least 10% of our employee base during a year,” says Bhaduri. Beyond HR, even the business heads call for random meetings with employees two levels below for a brief question-and-answer session, and discuss ways to grow the business—and people.
—Rajiv Bhuva
20) WHIRLPOOL OF INDIA
Industry: Consumer durables
Employees: 1,034
Workplace units: 26
Business locations: 1
Unique roles: 87
A FEW years back, things were looking down for Whirlpool. The company’s product pipeline was drying up, it was losing market share—and losing people, including its leadership team. The HR team lost focus completely.
In 2005, a new leadership team under Arvind Uppal, Head, Asia-Pacific, went about trying to regain lost ground. Product innovation, improved service delivery and customer support were accompanied by extensive changes on the HR side. Says Sanjay Singh, Vice-President (HR): “We could have products and services significantly differentiated, but it is the people behind their delivery that make the real difference.”
This realisation led Whirlpool to make some radical changes in its HR management strategies. When it needed leadership talent, instead of look- given opportunities and training, promising existing employees could take on bigger roles. Whirlpool worked with leading business schools and its own employees to create executive training programmes. It was a rather expensive exercise in a cost-conscious industry, but it is paying off . Attrition is down from 17% in 2007 to 14% in 2008.
The more important thing it did was to introduce multi-tasking programmes to equip employees to handle multiple roles. It was a win-win situation. For young employees, it meant a better job profile and more money. For the company, it meant filling a leadership vacuum and greater stability in the ranks. Take Neeraj Bhalla, Director, Sales Strategy. Bhalla began his stint in Whirlpool as a branch manager and now also handles modern (retail) trade, channel management and price margin realisation projects.
Employees are responding, trust is being built, growth has resumed. From its rough patch, Whirlpool took away three important lessons: trust your employees, earn their respect and encourage collaboration. “Lack of trust holds back performance,” says Singh. “We have even asked senior people to leave if the feedback from their team was negative on parameters of trust.” Despite the strides made—people are staying, it is able to draw new talent, and it is gearing up for strong revenue and profi t growth—the management is continuing to build Whirlpool as an employee brand.
—Anurag Prasad
21) INTELENET GLOBAL
Industry: ITES
Employees: 25,000
Workplace locations: 15
Business units: 30
Unique roles: Not available
IN A business driven by the young and the restless, managing their aspirations and keeping them engaged is critical. So, Intelenet gives importance to rewards and recognition. In 2007, when it announced the largest management buyout deal in India ($200 million), it rewarded 600 employees with stock or cash. A survey of these employees showed that 95% had received more than they had expected. Besides that, the company organises functions, on a quarterly basis, to reward top performers in the organisation.
Intelenet encourages its people to learn and grow, at work and away from work. At work, its ‘internal promotion programme’—I-versity—is designed to outline a growth path for employees, and support them with performance and strategic inputs. “The employee gets to know the company’s expectations as well as the demands of the next growth level,” says Manuel D’Souza, Chief Human Resources Officer, Intelenet.
Under I-versity, there is a six-month programme that enables agents to graduate to team leaders. The top 5% performers in every process—or about 250 employees—go through various stages of training. About 50-60 are short-listed for the programme. This pool of employees identified for accelerated career development programmes become candidates for internal promotions, thus ensuring succession planning. Communication, both top-down and bottom-up, in the organisation is also given importance. Employees get quarterly updates on developments relating to the company and regular CXO interactions.
Away from work, Intelenet promotes executive education. For instance, it had tied up with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies in Mumbai for an onsite facility, where 44 employees pursued management courses, with the company paying three-fourths of the course fee. Currently, 27 employees are enrolled for correspondence courses at ICFAI, and Intelenet will reimburse part of their course fee on successful completion of the course.
Intelenet also looks to make life easier and fun for its employees. A 24x7 concierge desk takes care of several employee needs like utility bill payments, sending flowers and arranging for a plumber. It arranges on-site doctor visits thrice a week; a counsellor is available to discuss personal or professional issues.
Every month, the company organises two events like volleyball, cricket, kite-flying, and singing and dancing competitions. The company has tied up with various consumer brands and arranges for shopping at work at discounted prices. And despite the downturn, Intelenet is hiring.
—Rajiv Bhuva
22) HSBC
Industry: Banking
Employees: 8,532
Workplace locations: 62
Business locations: 4
Unique roles: 1,034
HSBC WAS the first company in India to implement a flexible work arrangements (FWA) policy. Introduced in February 2008, it offers three options: telecommuting, part-time work and staggered hours. HSBC has hired housewives for its call centre under the part-time work option, and is keen to leverage the FWA to launch a return-towork scheme for women on a career break.
Much before it introduced FWA, HSBC launched a five-day week, in 2006, which is strictly monitored by the HR department. “I ask business heads to step in where the five-day week is ineffective,” says Tanuj Kapilashrami, Head, HR, HSBC. She says work-life balance is critical for its workforce, especially the younger lot—70% of the workforce is under 30. The company’s audit department already practices telecommuting and working-from-home. Employees who want to work from home undergo a three-day counselling session to understand the challenges of doing so.
Under FWA, senior employees can even take a six-month sabbatical in a year. Employees can also swap roles if they have completed 18 months in HSBC, as Nitin Nahata, Vice-President, Rewards and Job Evaluation, and Nidhima Malhotra, Assistant Vice-President, Human Resources, did. Nahata, who joined HSBC’s personal financial services team in Bangalore in January 2008, was keen to switch to rewards and job evaluation. Similarly, Malhotra, who had been working on the rewards team in Mumbai, was keen to move to Bangalore for personal reasons. She wanted to engage in an HR role in relationships management. They swapped. “I got support from my line manager and the HR facilitated the swap,” says Malhotra.
The bank has also put in place a people strategy plan, aimed at delivering greater return on investment in people. “Earlier, business used to ask how many people can we hire, and how quickly. The focus now is on return-on-investment on human capital,” says Kapilashrami. The plan includes strategies to develop leadership skills in employees, performance management and rewards. In terms of rewarding employees, HSBC has a growing variable component—the fixed-to-variable ratio has gone from 85:15 in 2004 to 70:30 in 2009; it’s 50:50 at the senior level.
Another programme identifies talented employees and grooms them to ensure that a sufficient number of employees are ready in a talent pool every time a new position comes up. “Our target is to fill 50% of the new jobs from the pool,” says Kapilashrami, who herself came from the talent pool.
—Rajiv Bhuva
23) HEWLETT PACKARD INDIA
Industry: IT
Employees: 26,494
Workplace locations: 14
Business units: 16
Unique roles: 548
IN 2008, internal hires—people moving within a company—constituted 20% of all hires in HP India. If the number of people who moved within a particular business were added, that number would be higher. Given the size of HP India—about 25,000 employees—that’s a sizeable percentage. Internal job postings are put up on the HP First Portal. The HR department, which is common for all the businesses in HP, not only tracks internal job openings, it also actively follows up with employees on new and exciting opportunities.
HP employees are well-equipped to make lateral moves. HR Director Zarir Batlivala likes to say the company offers a career in IT, not just an IT job. “We are uniquely positioned to offer people the entire spectrum of experience in IT. Our capabilities range from consumer products to high-end enterprise products, from services to consulting, from BPO to basic research.”
HP is considered one of the best organisations for IT professionals to build capabilities. Batlivala says an employee can learn anything, even outside the sphere of their domain, thanks to big investments in the HP Learning Centre, its free online resource. There’s also a structured career development programme, which involves a lot of training around specific skills required to excel in the job.
Employees say HP encourages freedom of expression, it is performance-driven, but not ruthless. Management buzzwords like openness, flexibility, collaboration and profit-sharing owe their origin to HP Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who, decades ago, incorporated these into the value system of their fledgling firm. Over time, these attributes have come to be referred to as the ‘HP way’. Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, HP India, says any employee can speak to their manager or their manager’s manager without fear. “The important thing is to look at the issue been raised, not the person behind it,” she says.
—Nandita Datta
24) INDIAN OIL CORP.
Industry: Oil and gas
Employees: 31,000
Workplace locations: 610
Business units: 40
Unique roles: 1,100
IT IS fairly common for top-ranking officials at IOC, India’s largest company, to leave and join other companies—and earn a far greater salary. But the funny thing is that all of them do so only after retiring, almost never when they are with IOC. It boasts of an attrition of less than 1%. The reason, says VC Agrawal, Director, Human Resources, is that IOC offers the best job content in the industry, though not the best pay.
Agrawal discovered the importance of job content in a 2007 employee engagement survey done by International Management Institute, Gurgaon. To provide rich work content, a company needs to have two things: a strong business growth strategy, and transparent and well-defined HR policies. “Just having one will not suffi ce, even if the company promises the best compensation,” he says.
IOC is the only PSU in this list, but it doesn’t act like one. It has revamped online appraisal system, and 40% of salaries and promotions are linked to performance. It has regular leadership courses for its deputy general managers and above, and project management courses in Indian Institute of Petroleum Management, Gurgaon, and other centres.
—Ashish Gupta
25) FORD INDIA
Industry: Manufacturing
Employees: 622
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 86
IN ORDER to measure employee satisfaction levels and frame HR policies, Ford India conducts a ‘pulse survey’ every year. In 2009, employees were more satisfied than last year despite operating in a shaky economic environment, which is a good commentary on Ford’s HR practices.
The survey itself is a week-long affair, during which employees open up on their work experiences. All facets of an employee’s life are touched upon, including work-life balance and mental and physical well-being. Health camps, yoga sessions and games are organised. There is space to showcase dormant talents too.
Career development is a stated objective at Ford India. Right from the level of technicians, there are programmes and clear-cut growth paths for everyone. Employees discuss their career development issues with a senior manager, and together they chalk out a programme to achieve stated goals. Employees have access to online subscription-based resources and learning materials, as well as the in-house library. It also has people development programmes at different levels with committees specially constituted to focus on the career development of employees.
Perhaps, the most employee-friendly initiative at Ford is its culture of openness. Hierarchy is not a barrier for communication. Skip-level meetings, where the top management meets technicians, are common. The company tries to bring everybody into its fold. For instance, it has a five-day programme for new entrants: Ford Production System. Here, new hires get to know everything about how a car is built to how it is sold, and everything in between. That means covering many functions, often unrelated to an employee’s designated line of work. So, an engineer will see how the sales force sells a car and the challenges they face. After the induction programme, they know the big picture and the importance of their role in the company. Employees feel the horizontal hierarchy culture nurtures talent and supports cross-functional roles at all levels. If there is potential, there is a position.
—Sharada Balasubramanian
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How 25 winners were picked from 230 companies that took part in the study
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In July 2008, about 1,500 companies were invited to participate in the Outlook Business-Hewitt Associates Best Employers 2009 Study. More than 230 companies registered, spanning several sectors, including banking and financial services, consumer durables, manufacturing, retail, telecom, IT, ITES and hospitality. The organisations were put through three rigorous surveys:
1) Employee Opinion Survey
This was designed to gauge the level of employee engagement and collect information about employee perceptions of the work environment. It was completed with a statistically valid random sample of employees.
2) People Practices Inventory
It gathered information about philosophies, practices and policies that influence the management of people in organisations in the following areas:
o
People initiatives
o
Recruitment and retention
o
Talent management
o
Leadership
o
Performance management
o
Building capability
o
Rewards and recognition
o
Flexible work arrangements
3) CEO questionnaire
This was designed to understand the CEO’s philosophy and approach to
managing people.
After all this data was analysed, onsite HR audits were conducted at more than 20% of the participating companies. These audits involved focus groups with employees, an interview with HR, a discussion with the CEO and a site visit.
At the end of this exercise, a list of organisations based on overall company score and audit insights were shortlisted for the next stage of the judging process. Exhaustive profiles of each of these companies, along with the full results of the three surveys, were presented to the jury. The four-member jury, chaired by Nripendra Mishra, former Chairman, TRAI, Zia Mody, Managing Partner, AZB & Partners, Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM Bangalore, and M Anand, Editor, Outlook Business, picked out the 25 winners after day-long deliberations.
The jury, to begin with, considered the company score assigned to each organisation. (This is the weighted average of the overall engagement and alignment scores for each company.) Then, it looked at how these companies were treating employees in the context of the current economic crisis.
It also took special note of company scores on leadership, diversity, learning and development, integrity, honesty and ethics when it selected and ranked the
25 winners.
Top 25 Best Employers
25 Companies that kept employees smiling even in the slowdown
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ARINDAM 1 HCL Technologies
2 Hindustan Zinc
3 Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
4 Cisco Systems
5 ITC Welcomgroup
6 Intuit Technology Services
7 Eureka Forbes
8 LG Electronics
9 Domino’s Pizza
10 Marriott Hotels
11 Godrej Consumer Products
12 Becton Dickinson
13 Stryker Global Technology Center
14 NetApp
15 The Oberoi Group
16 VCustomer Corporation
17 Paypal
18 Accenture Services
19 Kotak Mahindra Bank
20 Whirlpool of India
21 Intelenet Global Services
22 HSBC
23 Hewlett Packard
24 Indian Oil Corporation
25 Ford India
1) HCL Technologies
Industry: IT
Employees: 37,426
Workplace Units: 41
Business units: 11
Unique roles: 76
EMPLOYEES FIRST! WHEN HCL TECHNOLOGIES CEO VINEET NAYAR unveiled this concept at the company’s 2005 ‘global customer’ meet, it left everyone stunned. No one could believe that the company was putting its employees before customers. The shock was even more pronounced as HCL was struggling to find its feet when other Indian IT companies were taking leadership positions in the global IT market.
The Employee First programme was part of HCL’s transformational blue-ocean strategy. Not only was it going aft er newer markets and segments in which other Indian IT companies had a minimal presence, it was also searching for differentiators that would put it six to eight months ahead of the competition. The focus was to consolidate business lines, invest in sales, internal IT processes and services, pursue big-ticket deals and raise bills on output-based pricing. However, all this meant a lot of pressure on the workforce, which was already dealing with high attrition rates.
The new strategy positioned employees as the biggest differentiator. The premise of employee first and customer second is that delighted employees will create delighted customers, thereby sustaining business success. The company was not chasing volume deals, but high-value deals. Nayar says value is created at the point of interface with the client, and this is done by employees. This, in turn, produces business results. “Though it was a transparent concept, it took time to sink in. But we were serious about it, we believed in it and we had the will to implement it,” says Dilip Kumar rivastava, Global Head (HR), HCL Technologies.
HCL’s entire HR policy was revisited to bring in a qualitative shift towards employees. Exposure was increased and skills were updated to enhance knowledge. Employees were empowered to have views about the company and given opportunities to express them. This was done through 360-degree appraisals, surveys and opinion polls. The transformation of employees happened through coaching and mentoring programmes. A reward and recognition system was also put in place. The growth in the business reflects employee and customer acceptance of the programme.
“Change is the only thing that is constant here. I became multi-skilled and started believing in myself. HCL helped me to grow,” says Rajani Kapani, who joined the company in 1998 as a front-office executive. Today, his designation is Deputy Manager, Employee HR Services.
The initiative to put the spotlight on employees has made a huge difference. This, perhaps, is the prime reason for employees being confident about the steps being taken by the management to negotiate difficult times.
Good news or bad, employees get to hear first from the CEO or the leadership team. For instance, in September 2008, Vineet Nayar personally addressed employees across centres and explained the rationale behind the Axon acquisition, and what it meant for the company and the workforce. He also spoke about the economic situation and what it meant for HCL’s business.
Employees learnt that the organisation was not looking at layoffs or salary cuts as part of its efforts to minimise costs. This reassured the employees and also made them work harder. HCL Technologies is already known as the CEO factory for India, with almost 100 of its former employees now holding chief executive posts in the corporate world.
Today, it is evolving into a global company, where nationalities and region dissolve into just one thing: being an HCLite.
-Anurag Prasad
2) Hindustan Zinc
Industry: Metals
Employees: 6,363
Workplace Units: 12
Business units: 13
Unique roles: 221
OUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE,’’ SAYS AKHILESH JOSHI, CHIEF Operating Officer, Hindustan Zinc (HZL), the world’s second largest integrated zinc and lead producer, “is to attract the best talent to some of the remotest areas of the country, where our mines are.’’ Fortunately, for HZL, a part of the global Vedanta Resources Group, the task hasn’t been difficult, thanks to the company’s employees, who have been its “brand ambassadors” and helped rope in talent. Industry-topping salaries and a great work culture have also helped.
HZL’s expansion plans and global operations have added to the lure. Production capacity of zinc and lead (metals) has jumped from 204,000 tonnes in 2002 to 754,000 tonnes in 2008, and is expected to touch 1 million tonnes by 2010. Mining capacity has also increased from 3.45 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2002 to 7.1 mpta in 2008.
For HK Mehta, Vice-President, Human Resources, HZL, the company’s policy of empowering individuals and giving them the freedom to carry out their responsibilities makes HZL an exciting place for its 6,363 employees. Its attrition rate of 12% is much below the industry average of 18%.
There’s also the lure of global career growth opportunities in other Vedanta group companies, to get familiar with cutting-edge technology at mines and smelters across the world, and to add educational qualifi cations. HZL helps science graduates in the company become engineers. It has tied up with the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, located within its Chanderiya smelter plant complex, for a three-year process-engineering course. Chosen employees can study alongside work, with the company partly footing the course fee.
This has benefited many, including 43-year-old Abdul Waheed, a science graduate from Kota Government College, Rajasthan. Waheed joined HZL in 1991 as a plant operator. Today, the Associate Manager, soon to become an engineer, has set his sights even higher. “In 18 years, I have got five promotions and my salary has more than doubled,’’ says Waheed. Like him, as many as 261 workmen have become executives from 2004 onwards.
Every year, HZL selects 50 ‘stars of business’ based on their performance and puts them on the fast track of growth and development.These stars become heads of ‘strategic business units’ in five to six years,occupying the second-in-command position in one of the verticals of the plant.This is a jump that would have taken 15-20 years earlier.
Sunipa Roy, 28, is one such star. A graduate from Regional Engineering College, Durgapur, she is already the strategic business unit head of the leaching and purification division of Chanderiya smelter complex, commercial unit-II, after just five years in the company. Her salary has risen from Rs 14,000 per month to Rs 75,000, not to forget the bonuses— three times a year—and other generous perks.
There is active employee interaction. “Every quarter, junior members of the company interact with the group Chairman, Anil Agarwal, to understand the vision and philosophy of the company,’’ says Mehta.CEO workshops are also common.
As MS Mehta, CEO, Vedanta Group puts it: “We provide employees a vibrant working environment that helps them to innovate, discover their potential and realise their professional dreams.”
-Ashish Gupta
3) Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 13,500
Workplace Units: 43
Business units: 64
Unique roles: 395
WHEN TERRORISTS ATTACKED MUMBAI’S TAJ MAHAL HOTEL ON November 26, last year, hotel employees immediately swung into action trying to save the lives of the guests trapped inside. The heroic manner in which they saved the lives of hundreds, at great personal cost, is well known. When the ordeal was over, the Taj Group not only had to undertake the huge task of restoring the 106-year-old structure to its erstwhile glory, but also to renew the confidence of its traumatised employees.
While some were scared of getting back to work, others were wondering if they had a job to go back to. The day after the attack was snuffed out, the company set up a trauma centre, and with the help of 15 counsellors and psychiatrists from the Tata Institute of Social Services, got each employee and his/her family counselled. “We convinced them that the Taj was safe and so were their jobs,” reminisces an emotional HN Shrinivas, Senior Vice- President, Human Resources, Taj Hotels. “Each one of them had their share of anxieties, but in the end, they all pledged to work together to once again make the Taj Mahal the best hotel in Mumbai.”
Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata personally met the families of the deceased, and distributed a compensation package of Rs 7 crore. This included a lumpsum payment and other facilities such as ensuring a spouse got the last-drawn salary of the deceased throughout his or her lifetime, taking care of the children’s education, and so on.
This humanitarian approach has underlined how the Taj Group backs its employees even during times of crisis. Employee well-being, says Raymond Bickson, Managing Director, Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, has always been a priority. “We want to be recognised among the best employers in the country.” It is the people who are in the trenches that have made the Taj what it is, he says. A guest at the Taj interacts with the hotel staff on at least 42 occasions each day, right from getting a wake-up call from the operator and getting room service to getting information at the front desk and being greeted by the doorman, says Bickson. “All these employees can be at their best only if they love what they do and feel a sense of belonging.”
To instill this, the company has put in place several programmes such as the ‘speed programme’, through which it identifies good performers and gives them a double promotion. It has also put together an ‘emerging leaders programme’, under which hundreds of managers with leadership potential have been selected and put through a rigorous training programme. “We need 2,000 leaders in the next 10 years and we have already charted out a career plan for these candidates,” says Bickson.
Good employee retention practices help maintain market share and margins. “There are 37 global hospitality brands wanting to enter India and we have to keep up with the times.”
Despite the economic slowdown, the Taj Group is expanding aggressively. The hotel chain plans to double its rooms from 10,000 to 20,000 in the next couple of years. To do so, it will need a lot of manpower. “One can’t open hotels and not hire. However, we will first look at internal movements,” says Bickson.
-Ajita Shashidhar
4) CISCO
Industry: Networking
Employees: 4,600
Workplace Units: 7
Business units: 4
Unique roles: 72
CISCO PRIDES ITSELF ON ITS NETWORKING ABILITIES—HUMAN networking. So, one would expect the company to stress on HR practices that pamper employees. Surprisingly, HR boss Subhash AK Rao is remarkably blasé on what differentiates Cisco as a workplace. “By itself, we don’t do anything out-of-the-ordinary—rather it is the degree to which the attributes of a good workplace come together that makes us unique.” To top it all, this isn’t your usual MNC, where control rests outside India. With 20% of Cisco’s leadership based here, India calls the shots too. Rao explains: “India today leads 28 sectors for Cisco worldwide, up from just five earlier. This has opened up new opportunities.” Because a chunk of Cisco’s work is driven out of India, people here are exposed to a wider canvas.
In a day, a Cisco employee could be working for four different geographies, two technologies and three markets. Employees find this variety exhilarating, but admit its hard work. Long hours are common in Cisco, but employees have the flexibility to work according to their timelines. “If you want to take off early on Friday or get into office late on Monday, nobody will stop you. We are treated as mature adults—there’s no nagging,” says a young hire.
The opportunity to work across different technologies and diverse customer groups is another attraction at Cisco. This is possible, says Rao, because Cisco does not follow a single technology religion. “We started with routers, moved into switches and followed up with data, voice, video and now mobility. There are 20 technologies in which Cisco is either number one or number two globally. At Cisco, we cover the gamut of the hi-tech industry—not many organisations give you this opportunity,” adds Rao.
Although the size of the organisation is $40 billion with 60,000-plus employees on the rolls, Cisco works like a cluster of businesses (built around a particular echnology area). An old Cisco hand says each business unit runs like an independent company, and is responsible for its products and revenue stream. “Targets are set internally and people within the business unit are responsible for these targets. You are pretty much on your own, and that’s what keeps the spirit of innovation alive,” he adds.
At Cisco, innovation is not just about technology and engineering—it’s also about how to run the business. Explains Rao, “Our mantra is collaboration and teamwork. For example, formal reporting is a very insignifi cant part of what defines you—you are defined more by how many councils you are on, what you are leading and what initiatives you are a part of.” Also, as Cisco transitions from simply selling a product to sharing risk and revenues with customers, everyday brings with it new lessons.
Cisco’s tagline of ‘changing the way we live, work, play and learn’ may sound a little exaggerated to outsiders, but Rao says the company actually walks the talk. For example, the use of technology at the workplace enables employees to work anywhere and collaborate with anyone—whether it’s a video-conference at the touch of a button or a ‘virtual office’ router at home. Cisco does not believe in commute to compute— the rationale is that you should be able to compute from anywhere and commuting should be more around collaboration.
People inside Cisco use the phrase ‘worklife integration’ to describe the Cisco culture. “If you enjoy what you do and are able to do it at your convenience, I can’t think of a better alternative,” sums up Rao.
-Nandita Datta
5) ITC Welcomgroup
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 2,000
Workplace Units: 26
Business units: 14
Unique roles: 21
THE DOWNTURN, THE MUMBAI TERROR ATTACKS, AND MOST recently, the shifting of the IPL to foreign shores, have affected the hospitality sector adversely, but the Rs 2,300 crore ITC Welcomgroup hotel chain has no plans to slow down. The company isn’t lowering growth projections or reducing its workforce. In fact, ITC’s cash-rich, debt-free hospitality division plans to double the number of rooms in its luxury hotels to 5,000 in the next three years, to be in a good position to ride the upturn when it happens.
At a recent conference in Gurgaon, senior officials from across the country discussed how to weather the current difficulties without any major internal upheaval. The message that went out to employees at the end of the three-day conclave was: “no layoffs or pay cuts’’. Given how most other companies are taking drastic cost-cutting measures just to stay afloat, that message would have been very reassuring for employee morale.
Employees have always been treated well, even after they retire. Although it is the ideal hunting ground for other services players such as airlines, business process outsourcing (BPOs) and banks, especially at the junior management level, ITC Welcomgroup has managed to keep attrition down to 11%, well below the industry average. “That has been made possible,’’ says Anil Sharma, Vice-President and Head of HR at ITC Welcomgroup, “by benchmarking our salaries to those paid in these industries, ensuring that the cash component is the highest in the salary, and also paying a handsome retention bonus at the end of three years.’’
For middle-level managers, the benchmark is the hospitality sector: hospitals, competing hotels and real estate companies, because these companies were luring away its managers. ITC Welcomgroup also added the best in lifestyle benefits—houses in good locations and expensive cars—to take care of employees’ family needs. For those at the very top, it is Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) that became the competition.
A high basic pay is just one part of the package; other intangible benefits such as job satisfaction, ability to move within the organisation and the freedom to express opinions also help in employee retention. Moreover, the company’s distributive leadership model, as opposed to centralised leadership followed by most companies gives strategic business unit (SBU) heads full autonomy and authority to run their respective businesses as they see fit. Also, its emphasis on collective action has built team spirit among employees.
Nakul Anand, CEO, ITC Welcomgroup, feels that morale is high because the company takes care of most employee needs. And he should know, having spent 33 years in the company. Every employee gets ample opportunities to rise up the ladder. Says Sharma: “The only limits to growth in our company is our own competence.” He cites the example of Sunil Sikka, who rose from bellboy to general manager over a 30-year period, after getting 17 promotions.
Anil Sharma recruited Jeevan Unnithan, who was a captain in the army, as an assistant manager nearly six years ago. Today, Unnithan has risen to the post of Divisional Human Resource Manager. “Even in these troubled economic times,
I know I can sleep soundly because I am working with ITC Welcomgroup,’’
says Unnithan .
-Ashish Gupta
6) INTUIT TECHNOLOGY
Industry: IT
Employees: 224
Workplace locations: 1
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 16
A WORK culture that answers to customers is Intuit’s “secret sauce”, says Managing Director Vijay Anand. “Engineers, typically, never get to connect directly with customers. They sit in their cubicles and come up with cool products they think people will want. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way,” he says.
So, Intuit teaches its engineers to follow their customers—that is, meet prospective users of their products, at their workplace (small enterprises like a tailor shop, a local kirana store, a beauty salon, a welding shop, a farming field). The objective is to see their pain points first-hand, and then design products that provide a soothing effect.
Typically, 10-15% of the work time of engineers is left free for them to follow the customer home, connect with the outside world and solve real-time problems that have the potential to become the next big Intuit product. Unstructured time, it’s termed. “This free time is not monitored—you are free to do as you please,” says an employee.
Engineers don’t have to wait endlessly to see their ideas take shape—it can take just six weeks for an idea to move into the prototype stage. UVG Sekar, Head, Human Resources, says Intuit helps engineers hone their entrepreneurial skills, be it the ability to take risks, the passion for an idea, taking an idea to fruition or customer orientation. Products like TurboTax, the number one tax preparation software in the US, and QuickBooks, the number one business accounting software for small enterprises,are outcomes of such support systems.
This open culture requires active participation by senior management. The company is proud of this culture—senior managers are often found lounging around with employees, discussing ideas and strategies. Access to senior management is actively encouraged—Founder & Chairman Scott Cook himself conducts a few training sessions for employees every year. All this makes it a satisfying experience for employees, who vote with their mouths—30-40% of lateral hiring in the company is through employee referrals.
—Nandita Datta
7) EUREKA FORBES
Industry: Consumer durables
Employees: 9,400
Workplace locations: 243
Business units: 4
Unique roles: 106
AT EUREKA Forbes, employees who have put in two years in the company are eligible to contest an in-house election for ‘councillors’ and ‘senators’. In 2008, 270 candidates contested for 56 seats (42 councillors and 14 senators); they even drafted their own manifestos, and articulated plans to develop their ‘constituencies’. All employees cast their votes through a secret ballot to elect the ‘house of Eurochamps’. Councillors meet once a month, the senate once a quarter, to address employee issues. “The idea is to ensure the voice of our people is heard in the decision-making process,” says Suresh Goklaney, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Eureka Forbes: “The concept has helped us eliminate barriers in the flow of knowledge and communication across hierarchies.”
For a direct-selling company like Eureka Forbes, employees are its single biggest asset. The company looks to take people with average educational qualifications and turn them into performers through a mix of training and performance-based incentives.The company runs an induction programme for newcomers and a refresher course for front-line employees. In 2000, Eureka Forbes tied up with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies, and floated an academy to offer management diploma courses to its employees. The academy is still active. The company is now planning to team up with premier B-Schools to co-develop sales-centric training programmes.
Succession planning is also a critical item on the company’s agenda. It is working on a programme that will help it spot potential managers and mould them for bigger roles. So, a front-line sales person can grow to become a Vice-President.
Eureka Forbes, says Goklaney, is highly performance- driven. “Compensation at all levels is performance-linked and the variable component varies from 40-60%,” he says. However, attrition is high. “Although it is 4% at senior levels, it is 30% at the front-line,” says Harsimran Singh, Senior Vice-President-Human Resources & Organisational Effectiveness. Still, she says, there’s a silver lining to this high rate of attrition: “It helps to align the employee base with regular performers.” And that helps the business—and, in turn, the people who run it.
—Rajiv Bhuva
8) LG ELECTRONICS
Industry: Consumer durables
Employees: 3,000
Workplace locations: 41
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 417
THE PREMISE for HR at LG is if the company takes care of its employees, its performance will improve. Yet, just five years ago, LG India was losing 35% of freshers within a year of them joining the company. That number is now down to 5% and not one employee earmarked as core talent or in the successor group has left in the last one year.
Behind this turnaround is a change in the basis of expectations from employees and the way they engage with the company. Activities were introduced and processes were reoriented towards increasing inter- and intra-departmental interaction, promoting fun at work, providing instant recognition and improving work-life balance. LG was considered a tough place to work, especially at the branch level.People were slogging even on Sundays to meet targets. This workaholism ended when the HR imposed a blanket ban on employees working on Sundays. Initially, workers accustomed to chasing targets at the expense of personal lives still flouted the diktat, but HR followed through—they called up employee homes on Sundays and holidays to confirm that employees were not working.
Touches like this make Dr Yasho V Verma, Director (HR and Marketing Sales), LG, say: “On paper, every HR team is strong, it is implementation that matters.” Small things, like the 30-minute freewheeling session with the boss, count. Team leaders managing less than 15 people have to do this once a month; those managing more than 15 people, once in two months. They also have to take their team out every month, at the company’s expense.The bonding and interaction improves trust and team spirit, and creates a better working environment. After these measures were introduced, late sitting in the office reduced by about 80%.
A similar concept exists at the blue-collar worker level too. An HR person takes line guardianship of 30-40 employees, and meets them once a month for at least 15-20 minutes to hear them out and understand their mindset. The onus of resolving employee issues lies with the HR person, and processes in place make them accountable.
For employees, professional growth is important. So, the HR team prepares a five-year plan for employees based on a three-day workshop with them, where behavioural and functional capabilities are assessed. A clear training plan is drawn up on how to achieve the goals. Two months back, this programme covered 1,250 employees. Every month, 40 more employees are added, with the eventual objective of covering all 3,400 employees at LG. Verma sees HR people as “psychologists” who can read employee minds and take quick action. LG’s numbers show they have been doing that.
—Anurag Prasad
9) DOMINO’S PIZZA INDIA
Industry: Food services
Employees: 5,620
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 176
Unique roles: 32
IN MOST organisations, a 106% attrition rate would be alarming. At Domino’s, it’s pizza as usual. That triple-digit rate is at the entry (delivery person) level, populated by 12th pass students who are still finding themselves. At the store manager level, the attrition rate is 21%, much better than the industry average of 40-45%. At the corporate office, it’s almost nil, with several employees having been in the company since it was formed in 1998-99.
The challenge for Domino’s is how to keep its 20-somethings interested, compete as it does with the BPO industry, which offers higher salaries and more perks. Still, people stay. Some even return to a system that empowers them to perform and gives a fair opportunity to the deserving to rise through the ranks. For instance, by clearing four training modules, a delivery boy can become a store manager in five years. Straight out of class 12, Raj Sahi joined as a delivery boy in 1996. Today, the 33-year-old oversees the Western region, and is responsible for a turnover of Rs 100 crore per year. With financial assistance from Domino’s, he also completed his graduation.
Employee education is a stated objective at Domino’s— it spent Rs 45 lakh in 2007-08 on training and will spend Rs 55 lakh this year. The company has tied up with leading institutes for distant education courses (both graduate and post-graduate). It also sends chosen employees for a one-year, residential, customised management course at IMT Ghaziabad. Says Ajay Kaul, Chief Executive Officer, “If they stay with the company for two to three months, they see the benefits flowing.”
Store managers are seen as the CEO of their stores. Says Basab Bordoloi, Vice-President (HR): “They practically run the business, which inculcates an entrepreneurial zeal among them.” Store managers handle their store as a separate business unit. They have the right to question corporate moves that have cost implications on their store. “The sense of responsibility and career growth keeps us motivated,” sums up 25-year-old R Devrajan, who manages six stores in Delhi.
—Anurag Prasad
10) MARRIOTT HOTELS INDIA
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 3,250
Workplace locations: 4
Business units: 5
Unique roles: 27
BUSINESS IS tough, which is even more reason for Marriott to hone its workforce. “Our values get stronger during such times,” says Rajeev Menon, Vice-President for Marriott in India, Malaysia, Maldives and Pakistan. The company’s pyramid organisation structure has associates (its front-end staff ) at the top. They are the company’s biggest asset, says Menon. “So, we have already paid bonuses and the increment has been 8-10%,” he says.
Once a year, associates take an online survey of 42 questions on personal leadership, teamwork, worklife balance, personal growth and rewards. “The survey helps us understand associates and improve their performance,” says Gurmeet Singh, Area Director of HR for India, Maldives and Pakistan.
Marriott runs 14 different training programmes for its employees, and the investment on training is on the no-compromise list. New recruits undergo a week-long training, and follow ups after 60 days and 90 days on the job. There’s an online programme to develop skills of associates and a portal that facilitates their personal development. At the managerial level, Marriott employees are categorised into three bands: red (entry level), blue (department-head level) and purple (divisionalhead level). Across these bands, the company runs a talent development and succession plan. “We have groomed about 80% of our associates to the red band,” says Singh.
With an average increment of 8-10%, Marriott is not a big paymaster, and its 30% attrition rate is a cause for concern. “But we don’t lose employees due to monetary issues. It’s mainly to foreign competition and luxury cruises,” says Nayna Panjanani, Director of HR at JW Marriott (a division of Marriott, in Mumbai). “Many do come back.” Adds Singh: “We focus more on recognition than on rewards.” Every May, Marriott hosts an associate appreciation week, which is a time to thank its associates. “Th e executive committee is on the floor serving them,” says Panjanani.
—Rajiv Bhuva
11) GODREJ CONSUMER
Industry: FMCG
Employees: 1,354
Workplace locations: 8
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 105
“WE SEE our employees, and not our brands, as our greatest assets,” says Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Rs 7,500 crore Godrej Group. It’s a healthy giveand- take relationship, and it is more pronounced in a slow market like this. Says Sumit Mitra, Executive Vice-President (HR), Godrej Consumer, the Rs 1,200 crore group flagship: “The company’s philosophy is do more for people, but also demand more from them.”
The company has always followed a policy to weed out non-performers. Now, it has made its rewards structure sharper than ever before. Says Godrej: “We have a strong performance-linked bonus system and have even extended employee stock options across all levels of management.”
The group believes in empowering its employees and taking initiatives for their development. So, Godrej Consumer offers multi-skilled training to its employees so that they can play multiple roles, instead of hiring afresh and adding to costs. More recently, it launched a consumer immersion programme. Employees, across functions, are encouraged to interact with consumers on Godrej products and pass on feedback to the product development team. One outcome of such engagement is greater emphasis on fragrance and packaging. Says Mitra: “The rough consumer interaction, they realised that, besides core values, fragrances and packaging play a key role in buying decisions.”
In May 2008, the group unveiled a new brand identity that promised “brighter living”. It wasn’t just a cosmetic change, says Mitra. “We took every employee through the attributes of brighter living at a mindset level, and told them that we meant it.” The Godrej brass gives two numbers to make their point. Attrition, says Mitra, is just 1%. Adds Godrej: “In 2008, only 20 stocks gained, and Godrej Consumer was one of them.”
—Ajita Shashidhar
12) BECTON DICKINSON
Industry: Medical tech
Employees: 325
Workplace locations: 7
Business units: 5
Unique roles: 132
IT IS not very often that a company conducts ethical fitness training for its employees. But for Becton Dickinson India (BD), which manufactures and sells medical instruments and devices, ethics are important, even more than growth. “There are no short cuts,” says Ram Sharma, Managing Director of our way to get it.” In the past two months, BD India has walked away from a few large contracts as they would have involved compromising on core values.
Apart from rallying employees around organisational values, the $80 million company’s HR section encourages employees to voice concerns and opinions, and shape its policies. HR policies like allowances and review processes were modified based on employee feedback. Employees are also asked to have an HR orientation. Explains Sharma: “In a small team, HR is too important a function to be delegated. Every line employee should have elements of HR.”
Some HR practices that have been well-received include the option to work from home, flexi-timings, and special provisions for women employees during travel and emergencies. Employees are encouraged to beat targets, but are not treated harshly if they fall short. Its annual ‘Braveheart’ award recognises the top 15% employees on a set of defined criteria. “It has become a coveted award,” says Ajay Kumar, Director (HR), BD India. “Recognition is not just about achieving targets, but also about demonstrating how it was done.”
Employee growth and training go hand-in-hand here. The company has a virtual university to train employees, which is supplemented by career development and job training programmes (that have been developed in close association with employees), and monthly meetings with the MD and CEO. BD India spends around Rs 1 crore a year on learning and training initiatives.
There is a talent pipeline in the short-, mediumand long-term for all roles. This requires some thought since the pool of people is small. “In a small team, finding a replacement with the right skills is difficult,” says Sharma. “So, we have people multitasking and engaging among themselves so that at no point of time is any function without a head.” In the last two years, the company filled 40% of highlevel jobs by promoting employees. This acts as a retention tool too. In the last five years, there has been no attrition in the leadership team.
—Anurag Prasad
13) STRYKER GLOBAL
Industry: IT
Employees: 100
Workplace locations: 1
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 19
14) NETAPP INDIA
Industry: IT
Employees: 877
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 20
Unique roles: 4
AN EGALITARIAN work culture (even fresh hires are entitled to benefits like stock options and car lease) and a down-to-earth management (Vice- Chairman Tom Mendoza calls employees to thank them for going beyond the call of duty to meet customer expectations) are two workplace attributes at NetApp that employees talk about frequently.
It’s probably people practices like these that keep motivation levels high at the company. “Even in current conditions, we are able to acquire new customers,” says SR Manjunath, Senior Director, Human Resources. “This is because of our people going the extra mile to get the job done. And this happens because NetApp creates a work environment where people want to go the extra mile to give back to the company.”
Right from the selection process (which is more than just skill matching or a job requirement) to the on-boarding process (all new hires are flown to Sunnyvale, California, to meet the founders, senior executive team and heads of functions), the amount of money, management bandwidth and time NetApp invests in making sure people understand the culture and value system is high.
Says Manjunath: “When employees see they are being recognised for their work from a person no less than the Vice-Chairman, sometimes the Chairman, motivation levels go up dramatically.” Apparently, Mendoza makes 30-40 calls a week to employees at all levels for a job well done.
And it’s not work all the time. There’s no monitoring of work time—employees can work at their own convenience. There’s even a break-room on every floor, where employees can saunter in anytime they want and catch some snooker or a game of table tennis. NetApp also encourages community service— globally, NetApp employees get 8-10 days off every year to pursue community service; in India, this is in the process of being rolled out. For NetApp, it’s just another pay out that will pay back.
—Nandita Datta
15) THE OBEROI GROUP
Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 5,740
Workplace locations: 30
Business units: 6
Unique roles: 125
SITTING IN his office at his lush green farmhouse on the outskirts of the Capital, PRS Oberoi, the 79- year-old Chairman of the Oberoi Group, narrates an anecdote. A guest was enamoured by a rare Ganesha mural, with its trunk tilted to the right, at the Oberoi Vanyavilas in Ranthambore, and he wanted to take one home.
The guest, accompanied by a hotel executive, scouted the local markets for the exclusive Ganesha, but to no avail. The next morning, the executive, on what was his off day, drove to the nearest town, found the elusive mural and delivered it just before the guest was about to check out. “That’s the Oberoi Dharma—customer first, company second and self last,” says the patriarch of the Oberoi Group, which owns or manages 30 hotels and luxury cruisers in five countries. Of course, the guest left delighted, and made a special mention of the executive in the guest book.
“We always want to exceed the guest’s expectations,” PRS Oberoi puts it succinctly. A small, eight-page, green book, which spells out the group’s mission, vision, dharma and key principles is a must-carry for all 5,700-odd employees. Not surprisingly, all guest recommendations are taken seriously during performance appraisals.
With the group setting high performance benchmarks, the progression path is merit-based. “The company does not discriminate on age,” says 35- year-old Kapil Chopra, General Manager at Trident Gurgaon, in his second stint with the group. “There are seven GMs below the age of 35 years.”
To offer best-in-class service, the group’s mantra has been simple: hire carefully, train them well and keep them motivated. Around 80% of managers working in the group have passed out from the Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development, its in-house training school. “We don’t create jobs, we make careers for them,” says Oberoi.
Every month, team members meet with department heads to review progress and discuss training requirements. While employees take care of the guests, the employee concierge service helps them on the personal and home front. Says Chandan Chattaraj, Executive Vice-President, Human Resources: “One can ask them to pick up groceries, laundry or book travel tickets. It works 24x7.” Happy employees means happy guests, and vice versa.
—Sudipto Dey
16) VCUSTOMER CORP
Industry: ITES
Employees: 4,000
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 4
Unique roles: 100
NIMISH SHARMA, who has been working with vCustomer for 15 months now, as a target acquisition executive, gives his vote of confidence to the company’s HR: “It’s not just something at the back-end, it’s a visible team.” It’s about the usual integrating, mentoring, handholding, goal-setting and empowering employees, and creating a good work-fun-life balance for them. The difference from most other BPOs is that the intent is greater and, sometimes, the means resorted to achieve those objectives are different.
Policies are for the people and by the people. For instance, vCustomer has a workforce management team that acts as a bridge between employees and the HR team. Their interactions and subsequent feedback is instrumental in formulating HR policies. “The communication is very open and results in action,” says Sharma. One example of this is the company’s leave policy. Earlier, privilege leave could be taken only in blocks of five days. Most employees would not be able to avail of it, and it would lapse. After consultation, the five-day block was cut to three, enabling more employees to take this leave.
Because of these little things, vCustomer’s attrition rate is lower than the industry. And even then, and despite the slowdown, it has completed its appraisals on time. The company believes in home-grown leadership. Almost 80% of the midlevel management has been trained in the company. Like Siddhartha Pavagadhi, who joined as a call agent in 2001 and is now a senior manager. When it comes to goal-setting, the discussion in vCustomer revolves around an individual’s needs, motivation, learning requirements and any other aspect that will help the company utilise her potential to the maximum. “We identify the functional and behavioural training requirements, and everything is put online to be executed in a time-bound manner,” says Krishnan Viswanathan, Senior Director, vCustomer.
As part of the training programme, vCustomer has put training modules online, enabling employees to access them anytime. Employees are encouraged to take ownership and participate in the decisionmaking process. And evidently, they are.
—Anurag Prasad
17) PAYPAL INDIA
Industry: e-commerce
Employees: 270
Workplace locations: 1
Business units: 2
Unique roles: 8
WHEN THE global economy started slowing, Paypal’s parent in San Jose started laying off employees. Obviously, Paypal employees in India were concerned about their jobs, but not one person has been laid off . Not only that, it conducted counselling sessions to put employees at ease.
Even during these times of cost-cutting, the comfort of employees is a priority. “People need to be taken care of,” says Raj Sundaresan, Head of Paypal India Development Centre. “The spend on them is a small bump on our budget.” So, for instance, Paypal still provides air-conditioned buses to transport its employees. And discretionary spends in- entertaining and comfortable continue. Paypal has earmarked a space for employees to chill out. Called the ‘break out room’, they can munch on sandwiches, down coff ee, play chess, watch TV. Teams are allocated entertainment budgets, which many use to take weekend treks.
At Paypal, the first rule of work is, there are no rules. Employees don’t have to sit on chairs or be at their desk to work. They can use bean bags in their office, and if they want to work from home, that’s fine too. “At times, employees can exercise the option of working from home, depending upon the circumstances,” says Jayanthi Vaidyanathan, HR Head. “Since work gets done, we are happy. We have an open work culture.” The company has a theme for each year. Th is year, it is, “I am Paypal”. The aim is to motivate all employees to imbibe a culture of ownership and entrepreneurship.
Paypal has many programmes to promote talent. Rewards and recognitions for innovations come in plenty, with funky-sounding sobriquets like Labrats and Paypalian. Although Paypal India accounts for 10% of the company’s employees worldwide, half the innovations come from them.
Anita Lekshmi Narayan, an engineer, got a $7,000 Labrats award for an online innovation. “The Labrats concept motivated me,” she says. Every Friday, a TGIF session is held at the office rooftop intended to help employees unwind after a week of work. No wonder, the attrition rate at Paypal has always been less than 10%.
—Sharada Balasubramanian
18) ACCENTURE SERVICES
Industry: Consulting
Employees: 38,000
Workplace locations: 15
Business units: 3
Unique roles: 235
ACCENTURE IN India is not an outpost of a global organisation, says Chairman and Geography Managing Director Harsh Manglik. It’s one company and one culture with integrated global governance. “Our style of working, the bedrock of core values, processes and methodologies, and tools and technologies, are identical across geographies,” says Manglik. “You can take Accenture employees from one part of the world and place them in another, and they will hit the ground running”
That has something to do with people practices that strive for development, leadership, adaptability and expression. So, all employees are assigned individual counsellors, who are, typically, a level or two higher in the hierarchy and who help mould the careers of their wards. Early on in their career, sometimes just two years into the organisation, employees are identified for leadership roles and groomed for it. People are allowed to switch functions and businesses. And the work environment encourages people to ask questions and think for themselves.
Engagement scores are at peak levels and attrition is low. HR Lead Prithvi Shergil says the biggest vindication of Accenture’s strong people focus comes from customers. “I’m often told the employee commitment to outcome and delivery is the same across the organisation, whether in Boston, Buenos Aires or Bangalore,” he says.
Accenture also focuses on learning—employees go through proficiency assessments twice a year, based on which a competency development plan is tailored. In fact, a portion of an employee’s compensation is linked to skill proficiency. Apart from its own learning management system that off ers 20,000 online courses, Accenture partners educational institutions like MIT, XLRI and IGNOU to off er its employees specialised training in functions like HR, marketing, BPO and solutions delivery, among others. Call it partners in progress.
—Nandita Datta
19) KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK
Industry: Banking
Employees: 9,800
Workplace locations: 476
Business units: 17
Unique roles: 463
“OUR people practices are aligned to our culture and values,” says Subhro Bhaduri, Executive Vice- President, Human Resources, Kotak Mahindra Bank. It starts from the time a person is under consideration for a Kotak job. “We try to match a candidate’s aspirations and goals with our values,” he says. It continues into the induction, when an in-house programme spells out the bank’s values, and do’s and dont’s.
This focus on a moral code of conduct may make Kotak look like a pedagogical institution. In some ways, it is, given the organisation’s bent towards learning and career development of its employees. Kotak has several options for executive education, both for senior management (a general management course tailored by IIM-Ahmedabad) and junior employees (a banking course by IIM-Bangalore and management courses by Manipal University). Kotak pays for the senior management courses and gives hefty discounts for the junior ones.
The bank identifies high-potential employees capable of jumping two levels in two years, and nurtures them. “Our hiring policy for manager cadre and above is to avoid outsiders as far as possible,” says Bhaduri. About 28% of the middle-level managers get promoted annually. Even laggards are taken care of. A senior panel meets employees who are stuck in one position for more than two years, and suggests ways to improve their performance.
Although the attrition rate is 5-10%, most of it is in the frontline, where Kotak has a clear policy that non-performers need to move out. “But we give them a fair opportunity for six months,” says Bhaduri. “At the leadership team level, the attrition has been below 2% for the last five years,” says Bhaduri.
Targets for employees are set at the beginning of the year and tracked right through. In the boom years, companies would have tracked employees by volume and value of output only. “However, we focus on both input and output in our productivity metrics,” says Bhaduri. A year ago, five calls a day would have brought two conversions, but now it would take at least 10 calls for the same output. “We set goals that are realistic and grounded in the prevailing business environment,” says Bhaduri.
Kotak’s HR likes to stay connected with employees. “The sessions aim to touch at least 10% of our employee base during a year,” says Bhaduri. Beyond HR, even the business heads call for random meetings with employees two levels below for a brief question-and-answer session, and discuss ways to grow the business—and people.
—Rajiv Bhuva
20) WHIRLPOOL OF INDIA
Industry: Consumer durables
Employees: 1,034
Workplace units: 26
Business locations: 1
Unique roles: 87
A FEW years back, things were looking down for Whirlpool. The company’s product pipeline was drying up, it was losing market share—and losing people, including its leadership team. The HR team lost focus completely.
In 2005, a new leadership team under Arvind Uppal, Head, Asia-Pacific, went about trying to regain lost ground. Product innovation, improved service delivery and customer support were accompanied by extensive changes on the HR side. Says Sanjay Singh, Vice-President (HR): “We could have products and services significantly differentiated, but it is the people behind their delivery that make the real difference.”
This realisation led Whirlpool to make some radical changes in its HR management strategies. When it needed leadership talent, instead of look- given opportunities and training, promising existing employees could take on bigger roles. Whirlpool worked with leading business schools and its own employees to create executive training programmes. It was a rather expensive exercise in a cost-conscious industry, but it is paying off . Attrition is down from 17% in 2007 to 14% in 2008.
The more important thing it did was to introduce multi-tasking programmes to equip employees to handle multiple roles. It was a win-win situation. For young employees, it meant a better job profile and more money. For the company, it meant filling a leadership vacuum and greater stability in the ranks. Take Neeraj Bhalla, Director, Sales Strategy. Bhalla began his stint in Whirlpool as a branch manager and now also handles modern (retail) trade, channel management and price margin realisation projects.
Employees are responding, trust is being built, growth has resumed. From its rough patch, Whirlpool took away three important lessons: trust your employees, earn their respect and encourage collaboration. “Lack of trust holds back performance,” says Singh. “We have even asked senior people to leave if the feedback from their team was negative on parameters of trust.” Despite the strides made—people are staying, it is able to draw new talent, and it is gearing up for strong revenue and profi t growth—the management is continuing to build Whirlpool as an employee brand.
—Anurag Prasad
21) INTELENET GLOBAL
Industry: ITES
Employees: 25,000
Workplace locations: 15
Business units: 30
Unique roles: Not available
IN A business driven by the young and the restless, managing their aspirations and keeping them engaged is critical. So, Intelenet gives importance to rewards and recognition. In 2007, when it announced the largest management buyout deal in India ($200 million), it rewarded 600 employees with stock or cash. A survey of these employees showed that 95% had received more than they had expected. Besides that, the company organises functions, on a quarterly basis, to reward top performers in the organisation.
Intelenet encourages its people to learn and grow, at work and away from work. At work, its ‘internal promotion programme’—I-versity—is designed to outline a growth path for employees, and support them with performance and strategic inputs. “The employee gets to know the company’s expectations as well as the demands of the next growth level,” says Manuel D’Souza, Chief Human Resources Officer, Intelenet.
Under I-versity, there is a six-month programme that enables agents to graduate to team leaders. The top 5% performers in every process—or about 250 employees—go through various stages of training. About 50-60 are short-listed for the programme. This pool of employees identified for accelerated career development programmes become candidates for internal promotions, thus ensuring succession planning. Communication, both top-down and bottom-up, in the organisation is also given importance. Employees get quarterly updates on developments relating to the company and regular CXO interactions.
Away from work, Intelenet promotes executive education. For instance, it had tied up with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies in Mumbai for an onsite facility, where 44 employees pursued management courses, with the company paying three-fourths of the course fee. Currently, 27 employees are enrolled for correspondence courses at ICFAI, and Intelenet will reimburse part of their course fee on successful completion of the course.
Intelenet also looks to make life easier and fun for its employees. A 24x7 concierge desk takes care of several employee needs like utility bill payments, sending flowers and arranging for a plumber. It arranges on-site doctor visits thrice a week; a counsellor is available to discuss personal or professional issues.
Every month, the company organises two events like volleyball, cricket, kite-flying, and singing and dancing competitions. The company has tied up with various consumer brands and arranges for shopping at work at discounted prices. And despite the downturn, Intelenet is hiring.
—Rajiv Bhuva
22) HSBC
Industry: Banking
Employees: 8,532
Workplace locations: 62
Business locations: 4
Unique roles: 1,034
HSBC WAS the first company in India to implement a flexible work arrangements (FWA) policy. Introduced in February 2008, it offers three options: telecommuting, part-time work and staggered hours. HSBC has hired housewives for its call centre under the part-time work option, and is keen to leverage the FWA to launch a return-towork scheme for women on a career break.
Much before it introduced FWA, HSBC launched a five-day week, in 2006, which is strictly monitored by the HR department. “I ask business heads to step in where the five-day week is ineffective,” says Tanuj Kapilashrami, Head, HR, HSBC. She says work-life balance is critical for its workforce, especially the younger lot—70% of the workforce is under 30. The company’s audit department already practices telecommuting and working-from-home. Employees who want to work from home undergo a three-day counselling session to understand the challenges of doing so.
Under FWA, senior employees can even take a six-month sabbatical in a year. Employees can also swap roles if they have completed 18 months in HSBC, as Nitin Nahata, Vice-President, Rewards and Job Evaluation, and Nidhima Malhotra, Assistant Vice-President, Human Resources, did. Nahata, who joined HSBC’s personal financial services team in Bangalore in January 2008, was keen to switch to rewards and job evaluation. Similarly, Malhotra, who had been working on the rewards team in Mumbai, was keen to move to Bangalore for personal reasons. She wanted to engage in an HR role in relationships management. They swapped. “I got support from my line manager and the HR facilitated the swap,” says Malhotra.
The bank has also put in place a people strategy plan, aimed at delivering greater return on investment in people. “Earlier, business used to ask how many people can we hire, and how quickly. The focus now is on return-on-investment on human capital,” says Kapilashrami. The plan includes strategies to develop leadership skills in employees, performance management and rewards. In terms of rewarding employees, HSBC has a growing variable component—the fixed-to-variable ratio has gone from 85:15 in 2004 to 70:30 in 2009; it’s 50:50 at the senior level.
Another programme identifies talented employees and grooms them to ensure that a sufficient number of employees are ready in a talent pool every time a new position comes up. “Our target is to fill 50% of the new jobs from the pool,” says Kapilashrami, who herself came from the talent pool.
—Rajiv Bhuva
23) HEWLETT PACKARD INDIA
Industry: IT
Employees: 26,494
Workplace locations: 14
Business units: 16
Unique roles: 548
IN 2008, internal hires—people moving within a company—constituted 20% of all hires in HP India. If the number of people who moved within a particular business were added, that number would be higher. Given the size of HP India—about 25,000 employees—that’s a sizeable percentage. Internal job postings are put up on the HP First Portal. The HR department, which is common for all the businesses in HP, not only tracks internal job openings, it also actively follows up with employees on new and exciting opportunities.
HP employees are well-equipped to make lateral moves. HR Director Zarir Batlivala likes to say the company offers a career in IT, not just an IT job. “We are uniquely positioned to offer people the entire spectrum of experience in IT. Our capabilities range from consumer products to high-end enterprise products, from services to consulting, from BPO to basic research.”
HP is considered one of the best organisations for IT professionals to build capabilities. Batlivala says an employee can learn anything, even outside the sphere of their domain, thanks to big investments in the HP Learning Centre, its free online resource. There’s also a structured career development programme, which involves a lot of training around specific skills required to excel in the job.
Employees say HP encourages freedom of expression, it is performance-driven, but not ruthless. Management buzzwords like openness, flexibility, collaboration and profit-sharing owe their origin to HP Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who, decades ago, incorporated these into the value system of their fledgling firm. Over time, these attributes have come to be referred to as the ‘HP way’. Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, HP India, says any employee can speak to their manager or their manager’s manager without fear. “The important thing is to look at the issue been raised, not the person behind it,” she says.
—Nandita Datta
24) INDIAN OIL CORP.
Industry: Oil and gas
Employees: 31,000
Workplace locations: 610
Business units: 40
Unique roles: 1,100
IT IS fairly common for top-ranking officials at IOC, India’s largest company, to leave and join other companies—and earn a far greater salary. But the funny thing is that all of them do so only after retiring, almost never when they are with IOC. It boasts of an attrition of less than 1%. The reason, says VC Agrawal, Director, Human Resources, is that IOC offers the best job content in the industry, though not the best pay.
Agrawal discovered the importance of job content in a 2007 employee engagement survey done by International Management Institute, Gurgaon. To provide rich work content, a company needs to have two things: a strong business growth strategy, and transparent and well-defined HR policies. “Just having one will not suffi ce, even if the company promises the best compensation,” he says.
IOC is the only PSU in this list, but it doesn’t act like one. It has revamped online appraisal system, and 40% of salaries and promotions are linked to performance. It has regular leadership courses for its deputy general managers and above, and project management courses in Indian Institute of Petroleum Management, Gurgaon, and other centres.
—Ashish Gupta
25) FORD INDIA
Industry: Manufacturing
Employees: 622
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 86
IN ORDER to measure employee satisfaction levels and frame HR policies, Ford India conducts a ‘pulse survey’ every year. In 2009, employees were more satisfied than last year despite operating in a shaky economic environment, which is a good commentary on Ford’s HR practices.
The survey itself is a week-long affair, during which employees open up on their work experiences. All facets of an employee’s life are touched upon, including work-life balance and mental and physical well-being. Health camps, yoga sessions and games are organised. There is space to showcase dormant talents too.
Career development is a stated objective at Ford India. Right from the level of technicians, there are programmes and clear-cut growth paths for everyone. Employees discuss their career development issues with a senior manager, and together they chalk out a programme to achieve stated goals. Employees have access to online subscription-based resources and learning materials, as well as the in-house library. It also has people development programmes at different levels with committees specially constituted to focus on the career development of employees.
Perhaps, the most employee-friendly initiative at Ford is its culture of openness. Hierarchy is not a barrier for communication. Skip-level meetings, where the top management meets technicians, are common. The company tries to bring everybody into its fold. For instance, it has a five-day programme for new entrants: Ford Production System. Here, new hires get to know everything about how a car is built to how it is sold, and everything in between. That means covering many functions, often unrelated to an employee’s designated line of work. So, an engineer will see how the sales force sells a car and the challenges they face. After the induction programme, they know the big picture and the importance of their role in the company. Employees feel the horizontal hierarchy culture nurtures talent and supports cross-functional roles at all levels. If there is potential, there is a position.
—Sharada Balasubramanian
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