BEST RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES

ACCENTURE:

TypePublic(NYSE: ACN, ISIN: BMG1150G1116)

Founded 1989 as Andersen Consulting

Headquarters Accenture Ltd. Hamilton, Bermuda (registered)

Key people William (Bill) D. Green, Chief Executive Officer

IndustryManagement consulting, technology services and outsourcing

Revenue ▲ $19.7 billion (2007)Net income ▲ $1.24 billion (2007)Employees About 178,000 (2008)

Slogan High performance. Delivered.Website www.accenture.com

History: Formation and early years

Accenture originated as the consulting division of Arthur Andersen, which Arthur Andersen and

Clarence DeLany founded in 1913 as Andersen, DeLany & Co. Accenture's origins are in a 1953

feasibility study for General Electric. GE asked Arthur Andersen about the feasibility of

automating payroll processing and manufacturing at GE's Appliance Park facility near

Louisville, Kentucky. Arthur Andersen recommended installation of a UNIVAC I computer and

printer, and GE agreed, which is the start of what became the first-ever commercial computer in

the United States. Joe Glickauf was Arthur Andersen's project leader for the GE engagement and

was responsible for the payroll processing automation, launching commercial data processing in

the United States. Considered to be the father of computer consulting, Glickauf headed Arthur

Andersen's Administrative Services division for 12 years

Emergence of Accenture

On January 1, 2001 Andersen Consulting adopted its current name, "Accenture". The word

"Accenture" is derived from "Accent on the future". Although a marketing consultancy was

tasked with finding a new name for the company, the name "Accenture" was chosen by an

employee from the Oslo office named Kim Petersen, as a result of an internal competition.

Accenture felt that the name should represent its will to be a global consulting leader and high

performer, and also intended that the name should not be offensive in any country in which

Accenture operates. The choice of name also means that the company appears closer towards the

top of any alphabetized lists, and retains the AC letter sequence of its previous identity.

It is also rumored that while the idea came from someone in the Oslo office, the thought that

started that idea came from the training regime that almost all new employees to AC were put

through, where many of the classes were called "Accent on C", a reference to the C

programming language.

HR STRATEGIES

Accenture is the world's leading management consulting and technology services company.

Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them realize

their visions and create tangible value. With deep industry expertise, broad global resources and

proven experience in consulting and outsourcing, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills,

alliances and technologies.

Great Place to Work for Women

Multinational companies face unique challenges in addressing the importance of women in the

workplace. Since they go to market globally and share people across borders, they need to

develop global leadership strategies to address the women’s issues in a complex organization,

while allowing for customized implementation at the local level. Accenture is one company that

has learned how to successfully meet these challenges. The company developed and

implemented the Great Place to Work for Women global strategy to create a culture in

which all employees, regardless of geography, can achieve their personal career

aspirations. To ensure the strategy’s success, the company has implemented a variety of

innovative people management processes. These processes include metrics, such as geographic

scorecards, a Global Leadership Survey, Global People Survey, and performance appraisals. It

also includes programs such as career counseling, mentoring programs for women, and events

that foster networking and relationship building. Although the initiative is managed globally,

local offices focus on the diversity issues most relevant to them. Accenture likens its approach to

a spider web, with global leadership at the center, linked to the operating groups and geographies

in a complex set of interrelationships. Managers share initiative results by unit and geography

throughout the company. In addition, in a unique approach for a professional services company,

Accenture has made flexibility an integral part of doing business. At Accenture, going part-time

or working a modified workweek are not career limiting moves. All of these efforts have resulted

in increased success for women at Accenture.

History and Launch of the Initiative

The global initiative grew out of Accenture’s US Diversity program, which was created in 1994.

The US Diversity umbrella includes nine programs, one of which is the US Women’s Initiatives

program. Developed in 1995, it focuses on four areas:

1) External relationship building;

2) Building program awareness;

3) Customized mentoring programs

4) Work balance initiatives, such as the US Working Parent’s Discussion database and back-

up dependent care.

The success of the US Diversity program paved the way for Accenture to expand its diversity

work to the United Kingdom in 1999, and then to the global level, where the Great Place to

Work for Women initiative was born. In 2000, Accenture Chairman and CEO Joe Forehand

specifically endorsed global women’s initiatives as critical to Accenture’s ongoing success.

Accenture’s Strategy

The Great Place to Work for Women initiative focuses on four key areas:

1. Provide global direction, vision, and coordination; customize and implement locally.

2. Aggressively and proactively attract women to the organization.

3. Develop women over the course of their career lifecycles, and create an inclusive work

environment that maximizes commitment and retention.

4. Help women advance in the organization.

Detail on Global Strategy and Local Customization

Accenture’s global women’s initiative operates worldwide in twelve geographic units and five

operating groups, and is accessible to all 75,000 employees. Key elements of the global strategy,

with examples of local customization, include:

1. Provide global direction, vision, and coordination; customize and implement locally.

Accenture’s initiative is co-sponsored by the company’s Chairman and CEO, Joe W. Forehand,

and Gill Rider, Chief Leadership Officer and Managing Partner-Human Resources, who also

manages the program globally. Ms. Rider and her team provide the direction and vision for the

initiative and coordinate the global network of women’s initiative leaders in each of the

company’s operating groups and geographic units. Using the global initiative as a template, each

operating group and geographic unit is responsible for creating a local action plan, which is

reviewed twice yearly by Accenture’s Executive Committee.

Examples of Local Strategy Development and Oversight Approaches

Japan: In December 2001, all Accenture women in Japan were surveyed to determine what

needs women had. Based on the survey results, the women’s initiatives team put in place action

plans that included increased access to mentoring opportunities, improved welfare programs,

quarterly meetings for women and men, and more external events for networking. Japan has also

created a confidential dialogue database for all employees to use in discussing how Accenture

can provide a better place to work for women.

2. Aggressively and proactively attract women to the organization. These efforts begin at

the campus level but also focus on experienced hires.

Global Strategy:

Establish strong relationships with colleges and universities by developing and

teaching courses, delivering presentations, serving on discussion panels, and participating

in campus women’s associations, such as the Society of Women Engineers.

Create recruiting campaigns targeting both campus and experienced hires.

Profile Accenture’s top female executives in the media and in the careers section of

accenture.com.

Anticipate, shape, and stay current on trends affecting women in the workforce to put

Accenture at the forefront of these issues, through involvement in such forums as the

World Economic Forum and Women Future Main Event—an empowering daylong series

of discussions among the world's leading business and thought leaders exploring the topic

of leadership—sponsored by Accenture.

Examples of Local Customization:

United States: “Sisters Supporting Sisters Day” at Spellman College, a historically

black college in Atlanta, Georgia. Austria, Switzerland, and Germany: Accenture

sponsored the “World Women Work” conference in Berlin in February 2002, during

which company leaders presented a research study on executive women in Europe,

entitled “Women and Power.” Keynote attendees included Federal Minister Dr. Christine

Bergmann, leader of the Federal German State of Schleswig-Holstein, as well as

numerous representatives from politics, science, and the media.

3. Develop women over the course of their career lifecycles, and create

an inclusive work environment that maximizes commitment and retention.

Accenture works with women to proactively address issues that may lead them to drop out

of the workforce, move to different parts of the company, or leave Accenture.

Global Strategy:

Create, support, and provide opportunities for flexible work arrangements across

multiple career levels. These flexible arrangements are often innovative and have been a

significant factor in the retention and promotion of women. Opportunities are provided

for part time, flextime, job sharing, modified or compressed workweeks, telecommuting,

and leaves of absence. Innovations include:

o The 3, 4, 5 Schedule allows consultants to be away from the client site for three

nights, work four days at the client site, and spend the fifth day either at the

office, working from home, or off.

o The Part-time Partner Policy allows partners to work part time. There are

currently 14 partners on part-time schedules. In addition, employees on part time

schedules have been promoted to partner.

o Sponsor local women’s development forums, which create a sense of

community and enable women to share ambitions and achievements in an

informal setting.

o Promote continuous learning opportunities through formal training and on-the-

job experiences.

o Leverage performance appraisals and partner selection/evaluation criteria to

emphasize the importance of employees and managers becoming “People

Developers.” To be considered a successful “People Developer,” Accenture

leaders must be able to work with a diverse group of people, help their team

members address work/life balance issues, build an open and collaborative team,

and understand how to use the unique perspectives of a diverse workforce to the

fullest extent possible. Partners at Accenture are required to embrace diversity,

create an environment that is respectful and accepting, and be a leader that others

will want to emulate.

Examples of Local Customization:

Working Parents’ Discussion Databases are in place in several geographies. This tool

gives individuals the opportunity to exchange information, resources, and stories about

parenting in the interest of balancing the demands of parenting with a career at

Accenture.

“Career Pause”/Balanced Workforce Programme – This UK- and Ireland-based

program allows managers who need greater work/life balance than that typically afforded

by the traditional “up or out” consulting work style to take a “career pause” of up to three

years. This “career pause” helps employees continue to work at their current level

without assuming the more intense activities (selling/thought leadership, among others)

required to reach partner level. This pause can help employees facilitate the transition to

parenting, cope with elderly parent care, or deal with other family issues. When the

“pause” is complete, the employee can resume the full scale of responsibilities needed to

advance to the next career level.

Accumulated Work Model – Developed in the Austria, Switzerland, Germany region of

Accenture, this model allows employees to work full time for a mutually agreed upon

reduced salary (70 to 90 percent of their full salary). They can then take an extended

leave, while still drawing on the “saved up” portion of the salary (the 10 to 30 percent

remaining).

Networking Forums – Accenture in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands

pioneered monthly large group discussions for women facilitated by three senior women

and focused on defined themes. Norway created a “women in technology” initiative that

provides a forum for discussing the challenges and benefits of working in a male-

dominated environment. These discussions also provide an arena for personal and

professional growth.

Community of Interest Groups – Grassroots groups have come together to provide

support and information for and among their members. The groups develop around a

particular topic of shared interest—for example, a Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Community of

Interest Group.

4. Help women advance in the organization. Efforts to move women into

leadership roles include:

Global Strategy:

Provide career counselors. Each Accenture employee is assigned a career counselor

who advises his/her assignee on career growth opportunities, areas of development, and

future career goals and objectives.

Create and implement the Visible Career Progression Model. Critical information on

what it takes to advance at Accenture, every step of the way, is shared with each

employee from day one at the company.

Institute the Global Leadership Development Seminar. The inaugural seminar, led by

Joe Forehand and members of the Executive and Management Committees, was a three-

day event designed to further train Accenture’s top-performing women for senior

leadership roles. The seminar is now being delivered to a larger audience, which includes

men, with guidelines in place to ensure a diverse group of attendees.

Assign HR representatives/engagement schedulers to match staff with appropriate

projects based on relevant skill sets and experience. An employee can initiate the staffing

process by presenting her profile.

Examples of Local Customization:

Mentoring Program for Women – This program was developed in the US to improve

the advancement and retention of Accenture’s experienced female managers by pairing

them with partner and associate partner mentors (male or female) outside their direct

reporting relationships. In 2001, the program was transitioned to the global operating

groups and now has a presence around the world.

Minority Mentoring Program – Originally launched in the US in 1996, this program

facilitates mentoring relationships with senior executives to improve the retention and

advancement of minorities—defined as individuals of African American, Hispanic

American, Asian American, and Native American descent. Accenture’s business units are

responsible for customizing the Minority Mentoring Program to their unique challenges

and may make the program more inclusive and expand eligibility where applicable.

Catalyst Award Criteria: Change Drivers

Accenture’s approach also includes components that address the criteria Catalyst has identified

as necessary for a successful initiative.

1. Integrate the Initiative with the Business Strategy. The Great Place to Work for

Women global initiative is part of one of three strategic priorities for Accenture.

Accenture has articulated a concise business case that links its diversity efforts directly to

its business strategy, as follows:

“We are an organization of ideas, and recognize that the best idea creation comes in teams rich

with diversity of opinion and perspective. It is imperative that Accenture nurture and develop all

top talent in order to achieve business objectives, lead in innovation, and truly differentiate

ourselves in the market. We believe that promoting an inclusive work environment will:

Generate creativity and innovation

Increase productivity

Foster stronger employee commitment

Meet/exceed client expectations on diversity and gender issues

Reflect Accenture’s stature and standing as an organization of “best people”

2. Demonstrate the Commitment of Senior-Level Leadership. Great Place to Work for

Women is the only company-wide initiative sponsored by Chairman and CEO Joe W. Forehand.

The initiative is co-sponsored by Gill Rider, Chief Leadership Officer and Managing Partner-

Human Resources, who manages the program with the Global Women’s Initiative Team. Mr.

Forehand asked members of his leadership team, chairs of geographic units and chief executives

of operating groups to spearhead the initiative in their respective geographies and organizations.

Ms. Rider led the development of a formal leadership statement, which was sent to all employees

to formalize the role of leadership at Accenture. The leadership statement articulates, “The sum

of the whole is greater than its individual parts;” supporting a diverse work environment is

explicitly defined in the document.

3. Effectively Communicate the Strategy. Programs and communications are tailored for

three target audiences: women at the consultant through senior manager levels, all executives,

and all women. Accenture communicates its commitment to the initiative through a variety of

channels, including a home page on Accenture’s main intranet portal. Any employee can access

information about both global and local women’s activities via this portal. Other communication

channels include the global online newsletter Dialogue, the HR-focused online newsletter

Horizons, orientation programs for all new employees, and two-day new executive seminars for

all newly promoted managers.

4. Create Accountability Systems.

Global Accountability

Business results are not the sole measure of success at Accenture. The chairs of each of 12

geographic councils are accountable for progress on the Measures and Metrics Package. This

includes a detailed breakdown of headcount, recruitment, attrition, performance, chargeability

rates, and associate partner/partner promotions by gender, level, business organization, and

geographic region. These results are shared during the quarterly updates presented at

Management and Executive Committee meetings.

Geography/Operating Unit Accountability: Geographic Scorecard

A scorecard is used to measure each geographic unit on a variety of metrics including net

revenue, sales growth, supply demand gap, etc. This scorecard has now been expanded to

measure the percentage of women at the senior manager, associate partner, and partner levels.

Accountability through Performance Management

The Global Leadership Survey was designed to provide those in leadership roles with a self-

assessment tool and upward feedback for performance management purposes. In order to

advance, senior leaders must score well on the section of the Global Leadership Survey that

indicates a manager’s ability to embrace diversity. In the “People Developer” section of the

performance appraisal, both partners and prospective partners are evaluated on their ability to

successfully manage a diverse workforce and develop their people. Because being a good

“People Developer” is a core evaluation priority, poor performance in this area affects

compensation.

5. Create Tools to Measure Progress. In addition to the quarterly review of measures and

metrics described above, Accenture has also instituted an annual electronic Global People

Survey that helps measure the success of the overall initiative.

The Impact of the Initiative

Together, these efforts have resulted in increased success for women at Accenture. The

percentage of female partners has increased globally from 5.8 percent in 1994 to 10 percent in

2002. In 2002, women comprised 14.1 percent of all promotions to partner globally and 19.0

percent of all promotions to partner in the United States. Women currently comprise 17 percent

of Accenture's Management Committee, the company's senior leadership group. Furthermore,

women represented 41.3 percent of U.S. promotions in 2001, an increase since 1994 when

women represented 31.3 percent. Finally, in 2001, women of color represented 23.8 percent of

U.S. promotions, up from 10.5 percent in 1994.

Learning while working and earning

One of the key challenges faced by organizations in today’s dynamic world is to keep pace with

changing technologies and systems. Further to this, it is vital that the Intellectual Capital that

differentiates one organization from the other is kept abreast of these changes to retain a

competitive advantage. Organizations these days are investing heavily into skilling needs of

employees by imparting training of various kinds.

The concept of training as a serious business is underlined that it is not limited to in-house

organization efforts, but includes tie-ups as well. For instance Tesco Hindustan Service Center’s

(HSC) “Tesco Retail Certification programme”. This is aimed at developing knowledge of

contemporary retail management issues among the employees of Tesco HSC. The Indian

Institute of Management Bangalore will provide academic input and integrated retail

management consulting will conduct workshops to reinforce the learning.

Accenture - XLRI HR Academy

It is the first of its kind training academy dedicated to the human capital management needs of

the growing information technology and business process outsourcing industries. This is a 24-

month programme for recent university graduates who have joined Accenture as trainees in the

HR department. Trainees who complete the programme will receive the “Accenture and XLRI

Certification in Human Capital Management.”  “We also have a partnership with LIBA and run a

two year PG programme, a prerequisite for graduate engineers to join Maveric,” adds Ranga

Reddy, CEO, Maveric Systems.

In fact most organizations organize two types of training programmes that can be broadly

classified as technical and non-technical. Yahoo offers programmes in 4 key development arenas

to hone technical, professional, life and leadership skills. “We have internally designed a

leadership programme ‘Leading Big’ as well as a variety of coaching, mentoring and executive

development programmes in conjunction with leading Indian Business Schools,” explains Phil

Quigley, Manager, Talent Development, Yahoo! India R&D.

Specifics

These courses are both instructor facilitated classroom courses and on the job (OJT) delivered by

a manager in the form of coaching. Kotak Mahindra does refresher courses for the mandatory

training for product knowledge and positioning, enhancing selling skills, recruitment and

selection, goal setting and train the trainer programmes.

At Perot Systems, employee training is done through ‘Perot Academy’ that primarily looks into

technical and domain specific training, learning and development training, soft skills, compliance

and performance management programmes. Says Ashok Waran, Senior VP, Perot Systems and

Head, Perot Academy, “These are of various levels to best suit the needs of our associates.

Depending on the participant profile and nature of the programme, some are offered in

classrooms, while some can be taken through e-learning.”

“my Learning”

Accenture uses an internet-based tool called “myLearning”, serving as a starting point for

employee’s professional development. Infinite’s mandate is that every employee needs to

complete 8 days of training in a year. “Infinite has tied up with various training institutes in line

with its requirements and also invites external speakers or industry experts to conduct special

sessions on a regular basis,” says Prashanth L J, AVP & Global Marketing Head, Infinite

Computer Solutions. The Training and Development activities at Infinite involve both the on-

the-job as well as the classroom training. As part of classroom training, we have the “Hire-Train-

Deploy” model where individuals undergo extensive training for a couple of months on generic

skill sets. “Our comprehensive training in Monsanto called ‘Building Excellence’ aims at

enabling employees with skills and competencies required to compete,” says Ernest Louis, HR

Director, India Region.

The training and capacity building at CRY provides opportunities to individuals to realize their

full potential. “Experiential training on the other hand helps an individual gain hands on

experience. Employees get involved working in a specific area or a project and learn the job

better. In exploratory learning individuals explore their current personal stances, ideologies,

values and iron out similarities and dissimilarities,” says Shehkar Manelkar, Director, and HR &

ADMIN.

Locations

Trainers first do the training in classrooms. Subsequently, the reporting managers along with the

trainers do on the job coaching (not training). This is the only combination that works explains

Arun Patil, Head - Sales Training & Management Development, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual

life insurance Company Ltd. Mumbai. At Yahoo, teambuilding and specialty courses are also

held in offsite locations like Goa, Mumbai and Singapore. In fact sessions out of office have a

positive effect, advocates Pramod Jajoo, MD, Xora Software Systems Private Ltd. “These

sessions help in bonding of the team and recognize each other's strengths,” he added.

Most organizations use a combination of on the job training and classroom sessions. Says Ravi

Shankar, Director, Natural Search Internet Solutions; “The Company’s target is to see to it that

every employee is involved in training for at least two days every quarter. The resource persons

interact with the target group a week before the session and elicit information on the areas that

needs to be specifically addressed.”

Classroom sessions are an effective method to introduce a new subject to a participant while on

the job training gives the learner the flexibility of exploring any facet of the subject in depth at

one's own pace and requirement. Team building types of programmes as well as leadership that

are generally outbound. “We have a program called ‘Triumph Through Teamwork’ which is a

two day residential programme conducted in the outskirts, places like Banerghatta jungle resort

in Bangalore or Corbett Park for Delhi associates,” explains Mr Waran.

“CSR has been driving its training initiatives on both technical and behavioral front. CSR

engineers also attend trainings on other sites like for technical seminars given in the UK,” says

Saritha Radhakrishnan - Manager HR, CSR.

“We also find outbound training to be very effective when it comes to building better teams or

enhancing the interpersonal skills and to empower people to face challenges and increase their

risk taking capability,” says G S Ramesh, Sr. VP - HR, Hyundai Motor India Limited. Adds

Shankar Narasimhan, Director - HR, Ajuba International, “We have found that classroom

training is highly effective when we have to transfer knowledge.  Various tools and

methodologies such as, Computer Based Training, instructor led workshops and intranet

supplements this. We have our own in-house intranet training portal called Skillworx.”

COGNIZANT

Type Public (NASDAQ: CTSH)

Founded 1994

Headquarters Teaneck, New Jersey

Key people

Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice chairman

FranciscoD'Souza, CEO

Chandra Sekaran, President and MD

Industry IT Services

Revenue 2.14 Billion USD (Dec 2007)

Employees 55400(Dec 2007)

Slogan Passion for building stronger businesses

Website www.cognizant.com

History

Cognizant started in 1994, as Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (by Sushant Gupta) - the in-

house technology development center for the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation (D&B) and its

operating units. Initially a joint venture between Dun & Bradstreet (76%) and Satyam Computer

Services Ltd. (24%), it soon became a 100% subsidiary of D&B Corp. In 1996, the company

became a division of the Cognizant Corporation, after the split-up of Dun & Bradstreet

Corporation.

In June 1998, Cognizant Corporation was again split into independent companies, and Cognizant

Technology Solutions was formed as a division of IMS Health, a provider of information

solutions to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The same year, the company

completed its initial public offering and was listed on the NASDAQ. In November 2002, IMS

Health divested its majority interest in Cognizant through a tax-free split-off.

Operations Although it is headquartered in New Jersey, USA, most of Cognizant Technology Solutions'

employees are based in the city of Chennai, India. It also has offices in Bangalore, Coimbatore,

Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Cochin and development centres in Shanghai, China

and Amsterdam. Cognizant has over 55,000 employees. It became the first company in the world

to be certified for CMMI-Level5 per the latest model.[3]

Cognizant has aligned its businesses vertically and has clients in

Banking & Financial Services

Healthcare

Manufacturing & Logistics

Information ,Media & Entertainment

Telecommunications

Insurance

Life Sciences

Retail

Hospitality

Technology

In addition to vertical focus, Cognizant also provides specialty technology services through its

horizontal expertise such as Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence, CRM, ERP,ITIS,BPO

etc

Financial Health

Cognizant's revenue for the fourth quarter of year 2006 is up 65 per cent from $256.9 million for

the corresponding quarter the previous year to $424.4 million, and the company ended the year

2006 with $1.424 billion in revenue. During this quarter the company added a net total of almost

4,500 employees and more than 50,000 employees in 2006 overall. The company has a debt free

balance sheet. Its income has seen a compounded 40% annual growth in the last few years. For

the five years ended Dec. 31, 2006, CTSH has grown its revenue by an average of 58.1% every

year.

After the close of trading on November 16, 2006 Cognizant moved from the mid cap S&P 400 to

the S&P 500. On March 5th 2007 Cognizant became first American company to ring the

NASDAQ opening bell remotely, from the Company's Chennai, India techno-complex.

HR STRATEGIES

Employee referral programmes at CTS.

They have this programme for the last four years, much before it became a buzzword in the IT

industry.  Over the last two years they have been constantly fine tuning this programme and

They got excellent results because of this.  It provided 40% of the total number of people who

joined us.  The total number of people who joined us last year was 1,500. The employee referral

programme is therefore the single largest source of employees for CTS.  They obviously use

head-hunters, consultants, advertisements and they have unsolicited walk-ins also.  And when it

said fine tune, it is not about money alone.  The money has been more or less constant over the

last 36 months.  But they have seen the results of this programme increasing in terms of

percentage over the last three years.  So with money being constant, and results increasing, it

means that something else is happening.  And one of the biggest things that are happening is

communication.  Communication within the organization across all levels. And remember, all

this is without diluting any standardized process.  They are a CMM Level 5 organization and

recruitment process is as good as any customer interaction or software development process. 

They are also ISO 9000 certified.  This means basically that a referral doesn’t entitle a person for

a clean or an easy walk-in to the organization.  It means following exactly the same process that

one would have to follow if he were to come from any other source.  So they maintain the

process integrity and I maintain my cost base, which I have not increased over the past 36

months.  But I get increasingly larger and larger returns and that is why they are very proud of

our employee referral system.

CTS PREFERS FRESHERS

CTS goes for fresher, when a majority of software development companies are going in

only for experienced programmers

See, it is a very complex decision.  But there are a couple of important things, like the cost of the

search.  So you are talking of a person with three or four years experience. What is my cost of

search for this person?  There are about 60,000 to 80,000 fresh engineers coming out every year

into the market and it is quite a big task to search and find out whom you want and who wants

you.  So the cost of search is the first parameter that they are looking at.  Secondly, they are

looking to leverage our internal training capability.  Having already invested in and built up an

in-house training center to train young science and engineering graduates into mature software

professionals, gives me another reason to move and look at the model from another angle. 

Lastly, our experience is that software (and by 'software' here I mean coding, programming,

system analysis and design) is not a major 'rocket science' that has to be gained obviously at

someone else’s cost. 

They have done a lot of research into what makes good software professionals from the technical

side.  There is a set of data coming out which says that if these things are present, sooner or later,

with the right kind of input, the context and the kind of work he does, he will become a software

professional.  So why should I then take a long and devious route to figuring out where that one

unique individual is (which involves the cost of search), when I am not using my current

capability to train in- house.  And I have seen it work because clarity of thinking, data

rationality ...if they are there, within six to 12 months I have a very good software professional in

my organization.  If you spend a couple of weeks in our organization you will find out why this

model works best for us.  Depending upon how the context changes, they change our system.  It

need not be the only model and there could be other models, which could do equally well for

other organizations.  So someone who wants only people with three to four years of experience, I

hope has a business reason behind that.  It is not to say that this is a better model over that or this

is better over that.  In our business scenario this works and therefore it is good for us.

SKILL SETS THAT CTS LOOKS FOR IN ITS POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES

The principles, the fundamentals and its application are what they look for in a candidate. 

Clarity of thinking, transparency in dealings (honesty) and the ability to learn and learn

continuously. It is a combination of ability, desire and attitude to learning. 

There's what they call ‘learning to learn'. I mean, in this fast-paced industry, change itself is

changing.  Another aspect that they look for is, when you are learning a new method are you able

to focus and learn?  It not only learning, but also stepping out of the process to find out how you

learn, whether you learn well by doing or by seeing others do or by reading how to do.  These are

all different ways of learning and it is important to know by which method they learn.  Then they

know by which way they learn best.  From my experience across industries and cultures, by the

age of eighteen this trait is either well established and one’s preferences are concretized.

CTS calls work ‘Celebration’

Like all good things in life, this did not come from one source; be it the Communications

department or from my CEO’s brainwave at midnight.  It comes from experiencing fun in

actually what they are doing. 

You know this concept of soaking the rice.  To make your dosa or idly, you soak the rice before

grinding it and then the batter is fermented after which only you get your dosa or idly.  Now

what was happening over the last 36 or 48 months was that they were getting soaked up in the

fun atmosphere and then They realized through our ability of ‘learning to learn’ that what was

happening over here was that they were having fun.  Then they went into how it happened.  But

it was not like - suddenly the posters came out ‘Celebrate Work’ and they were having fun.  That

was just when They decided to say to the world that for us fun and work are not two separate

things of the same continuum, but that they are part and parcel of each other.  That is how it

happened.

Flow of information within CTS has added value

It has added the value by helping us make the transition.  If this were not there, there would be

no transition.  If they were a Y2K company still in 2001, They would have all gone home,

because this flow of information is core to the business.  This flow of information across all

levels has added value to the organization and created openness in sharing. 

WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH TO IN-HOUSE TRAINING?

They say that every person should be trained for ten days in a year.  Our total revenue spent on

training should not be less than 4% of the total turnover.  That is a huge amount of time and

money.  If there are transitions and if the context in which you work, (the market, the

environment) keep changing, what do you have to do?  You have to re-skill.  What does it mean

to re- skill an organization?  You have to re-skill individuals who are the final unit of analysis. 

Then you re-skill the team, the project and the organization. This is not something that is done to

make the annual report look good or because it is good.  They do it because it is core to the

business.  If they don’t train, they would be dead.  It is as simple as that.  I don’t think they do

anyone a favor by training our people.

INFOSYS

TypePublic NASDAQ: INFY

BSE: 500209

Founded July 2, 1981

Headquarters Electronics City, Hosur Road, Bangalore, India

Key people

N. R. Narayana Murthy (Co-founder, Non Executive

Chairman and Chief Mentor)

Nandan Nilekani (Co-founder and Co-Chairman)

Kris Gopalakrishnan (Co-founder, CEO and MD)

S. D. Shibulal (Co-founder and COO)

Industry Software services

ProductsFinacle (a financial software package for the banking

industry)

Services Information technology services and solutions

Revenue ▲ $3.1 billion (in FY 2006-07)

Employees 88,601 (As on December 31st, 2007)

Slogan Powered by Intellect, Driven by Values

Website www.infosys.com

INTRODUCTION

Infosys technology, a leading software company based in India, was voted as the best employer

in the country in many HR surveys in the recent years. The company is well known for its

employee friendly HR practices. Though Infosys has grown to become a US $ 2 billion company

by the year 2006, it has still retained the culture of a small company. Infosys attracts the best

talent from across the country and recruits candidates by conducting one of the toughest selection

process. Infosys was one of the first companies to offer ESOPs to its employees. The company

followed variable compensation structure where the employees’ compensation depended on the

performance of the individual, the team and the company. It also very tackles the challenges

faced by the company to retain its talented workforce.

THE HR PRACTICES

Most of the HR practices of Infosys are a result of the vision of its founders and the culture that

they have created over the years. The founder advocated simplicity and maintained the culture of

the company. The employees are encouraged to share the learning experience. Infosys was the

first company to provide the employees with world class facilities for training and working. The

company’s head office at Bangalore is located on a 70 acre campus with multi-cuisine food

courts and recreation facilities like swimming pools, a gym, and a golf course for employees.

Since its inception, till the early 1990s, Infosys recruited employees from engineering

colleges. The training imparted to them was largely informal and consist of on the job training.

In the early 1990s it experienced a shortfall of skilled manpower in the organization due to which

it could not realize its growth plan. The company during that time developed the policy of

recruiting personnel with generic analytical skills and high learning potential and of

imparting them with specific skill required for the job offered in the company.

Infosys international business strategy revolves around 5 elements:

World-class operating model.

Focusing on human resources.

Providing managed software solutions.

Exploiting a well established off shore development model. Maintaining an equitable

client and business mix.

The company believes that in order to succeed in the competitive environment it is necessary to

recruit, train, and retain talented employees. Infosys aims at recruiting the best available talent,

training them according to the industry demands and retaining them in a culture that promoted

informal learning and free flow of ideas.

The career model that the Infosys created emphasizes on individual growth along with

organizational growth. The employees can identify their career path and the additional skills they

would have to obtain to move ahead in their career. Infosys identifies the structural requirement

of the people at different levels and creates a demand for the roles. If the employees fulfill those

demands they would inspire for that role. Infosys adopts a role-based structure, which ensures an

employee career growth through different streams, customer interface stream, and domain

consulting stream. In each of the streams, the role of the employee is defined and for each role

competencies have been identified and created. Recruitment, training, performance appraisal and

career progression are carried out based on the roles.

RECRUITMENT

Infosys takes adequate steps to recruit people on the basis of various factors to identify the right

candidate. The following are the main factors that are considered while recruiting new

employees.

Learnability:

Infosys give more emphasis on learnability, it means the ability to derive generic

knowledge from specific experiences and apply the same in new situation.

Competency: I

Infosys give more importance to professional competence and academic excellence.

RECRUITMENT PROGRAMS:

Instep:

Infosys Edge

Infosys' IT consulting and software solutions address the mission-critical needs of Fortune 500

corporations as well as emerging corporate leaders. Located across the globe, Infosys handles a

variety of exciting multi-million dollar projects for clients including Adidas-Salomon AG, Apple

Computer, J. Sainsbury PLC Group, Nortel Networks, Salomon and Taylor Made and Toshiba

Corporation through its pioneering Global Delivery Model. Infosys offers a stimulating and

challenging, yet informal and campus-like work environment.

InStep - Venture, Discover, Achieve

InStep is an internship program for undergraduate, graduate and PhD students from top academic

institutions around the world. As part of the Infosys family, you are given an opportunity to work

on high-quality, customer-facing projects. While you venture into new and emerging

technologies and business opportunities, you will discover your untapped potential and achieve

the impossible.

Projects Unlimited

This program provides a platform for you to work on live technical and business projects,

ranging from application development to business consulting in Infosys' offices worldwide.

Time Schedule Flexibility

InStep runs through the year, to suit academic calendars across the globe. The internship

assignment ranges from 8 - 24 weeks.

Global Exposure

InStep interns gain not only experience in the dynamic Information Technology industry but also

global exposure by working in a multi-cultural environment.

Interaction with Senior Management

Infosys' senior management is regarded as a pioneering synergy in the Indian IT industry. Mr.

Narayana Murthy (Chairman and Chief Mentor) and Mr. Nandan Nilekani (Managing Director,

President and CEO) were voted Fortune Asia's Businessmen of the Year 2003.

As an InStep intern, you will get an opportunity to interact with top management when initiated

into the company.

Constant Support

A student mentor will help you settle into Infosys' international working environment, while a

project mentor will guide you through your internship assignment.

Benefits

You will receive a monthly stipend. The stipend is structured according to the cost of living in

the region that you are based in during your internship period. Infosys will also pay for your

airfare. Owing to our large infrastructure in India, we will also provide accommodation in a fully

furnished apartment, free food and cab transportation within the city for students working from

our offices in India. What's more, you will also have an opportunity to experience India during

the 'intern excursion'.

Infosys offers internship to student from foreign universities, through a program called Instep.

The duration of the Instep program was six weeks. Instep receives around 9,500 applications and

chooses around 100 students as interns. The interns are from reputed universities and business

schools like MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Carnegic Mellon, Oxford, London Business

School, Munich, Damstadt, INSEAD, and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

The students are exposed to live projects during their internship with Infosys. The students

undertake a study on a wide range of topics like equity based compensation in the HR

department, the telecom industry in Europe, and new services that could be offered there and

other topics such as work ethics, working hours, and employee motivation.

As a part of this program, Infosys conducts a seminar through which the interns are given a basic

idea about Indian culture, cuisine, working styles, etc. in order to guide and help them during

their internship, the interns were assigned to mentors who guided them on project related

activities.

Global Talent Program:

The Global Talent Program is Infosys universities level recruitment program outside India.

Trainees recruited under the program undergo a customized education and training program in

Mysore, where they are trained on technical skills, client facing skills, and the global delivery

model of Infosys. In 2006, 126 students from 85 US universities are offered employment in

Infosys. Infosys are also looking at UK and other European countries besides Australia and

China and planned to recruit 300 trainees from the US in 2007.

Campus Connect:

How many times have IT companies’ employers complained about fresh recruits from

engineering colleges not being “industry ready?” Enter Campus Connect (CC) to bridge this gap!

Launched by Infosys in May 2004, CC is a unique academia-industry initiative to “architect the

education experience”. Our goal is to build a sustainable partnership with engineering education

institutions in India and abroad for mutual benefit; producing “industry ready” recruits

Our objective in launching the CC programme is to enhance the quality and quantity of the IT

talent-pool; sustain the growth of the IT industry itself. We don’t want to increase the number of

engineering colleges, or the number of graduates. We intend to increase the employability of

students. We want to have a consistent output, irrespective of all variables involved. It doesn’t

matter where the college is located (big city or remote town), the kind of faculty, or students.

However the conditions may be, with the help of our partners, we want to achieve a high-quality,

constant product.

As per predictions, by the year 2040, Asia, especially the Indian subcontinent will have the

maximum number of working professionals in the world! Doesn’t this throw up huge

possibilities your way? Clearly we have a plethora of opportunities staring us in the face. The

future looks bright and promising…all we need to do is work towards it.

Currently we have more than 300 engineering colleges under our wing, and the numbers are

growing steadily! As a part of the CC programme, we have launched this portal. The portal will

provide a digital platform for academia-industry interaction anytime, and anywhere.

What do they do?

We align the college curriculum with the industry's requirements, and work with educational

bodies towards implementing it. We organize sem ina rs and training sessions for the faculty to

give them an industry perspective, enabling them to train the students accordingly. We design

industry-oriented topics, and provide the courseware to students; we give them projects to do,

and also provide sabbaticals for the faculty. The Infosys courseware is published on our portal, to

be viewed by member colleges.

Foundation Programme (Generic)

We have a different approach when it comes to learning and teaching. The Foundation

Programme aligns technical competency to a student's individual needs. Our methodology goes

beyond teaching what is available in the books. It comprises real-life case studies, and insights

into application of technology. These unique teaching aids go a long way in ensuring that the

students are “industry ready.”

Faculty Ennoblement Programme

The Faculty Enablement Programme introduces to the faculty the 9 generic courses, CC teaching

methodology, and prepares them to roll out the Foundation Programme in their colleges.

Through this programme we aim at a paradigm shift in the learning and teaching methodology at

an accelerated pace, to increase effectiveness. The way the faculty train the students, assess them

and put technology to use undergoes a major change. It exposes faculty to the Infosys way of

professional training and sharing industry best practices.

Soft Skills Programme

We want students to acquire behavioral skills that will enable them to live by principles. We

believe that a person who has strong principles, and is trustworthy, is a better team player than

the others. This programme aims at grooming individuals into excellent team players, who will

have strong communication skills, and will adapt to the corporate work culture easily.

Student Industrial Visit

A student- faculty group from different engineering disciplines visits one of the Infosys DCs, and

spend half a day there. The purpose of this visit is to demystify the image that students would

have on the working of IT business enterprise. The well-planned event exposes them to corporate

work culture, learning environment, Infosys background, services offered to global customers,

and learn about leading edge technologies through short lectures.

SABBATICALS

CC sponsors sabbaticals for the faculty, involving them at Infosys' Development Centres for 2-3

months. We want to expose the faculty to real-life customer project experiences. This is very

important, as the experience that the faculty gains here is further transmitted to the students.

Deep Dive Technology: Train the Trainer Programme

It is a technical workshop for engineering college faculty, conducted at one of the Infosys'

campus. Train The Trainer (TTT) covers an assorted set of industry oriented topics for a chosen

focus area and latest trend of technologies in IT. It involves team discussions and analysis of real

life case studies/projects. TTT is the ideal setting for faculty to interact with su bject matter

experts, and impart the knowledge acquired to their students.

KEEPING IN TOUCH!

     •  Conclave : The CC Conclave brings IT managers and college management on the same

platform to discuss the need and actions for academia-industry collaboration.

     •  Regional Meets: Regional meets are an attempt to bring all the partnering colleges on the

same platform with the CC team. In the meet we acknowledge excellent performances by partner

colleges, motivate other colleges in the region, etc

Contests

Aspirations 2020: We want to create an exciting and appealing learning environment in the CC

partner colleges through knowledge events . As a part of this initiative we are conducting a series

of contests, clubbed together as Aspirations 2020. It will include an IT-related quiz, a paper

presentation contest, and a “distinguished engineer” contest (will involve problem solving, crisis

management etc).

Campus Connect

In July 2004, Infosys launched the Campus Connect program that focuses on grooming the

students in engineering colleges and transforming them into industry ready professionals. Infosys

invested Rs.100 million in the program, and published its in house courseware on its website.

The program is aimed at reducing the burden of training at Infosys, as the students of Campus

Connect program would have some amount of training imparted to them. The program also aims

at solving issues such as outdated courses that are taught in some of the engineering colleges and

the absence of industry orientation among the engineering colleges and students.

As a part of Campus Connect Program, Infosys launched a portal to connect students and

teachers of engineering colleges with the company. The portal contains information and

courseware related to IT industry that can be used by the students and faculty. The portal also

contains online tests to help students assess their capability.

Other Programme:

Infosys uses Recruitment Management system (RMS) developed by Blueshift, an online

solution provider based in Chennai, India. It has different modules for candidates who applied

directly, for employees’ referrals, for staffing agencies which submitted the profile of suitable

candidate and for application submitted by campus placement coordinators.

Candidates who are not selected can reapply after nine month. In 2005 -06, more than 14, 23,000

candidates applied to infosys for employment, of these 48,750 were interviewed and 16,878

joined the company. Last year, the company had more than 1.3 million applicants for full-time

position and hired only 1% of them.

Recruitment Procedure

Each year, out of the total recruitment infosys plans to hire 70% college graduates and 30%

lateral workers. In the first quarter of 2006-07, 4,200 freshers were recruited while lateral hires

were at 2,140.

The Steps in recruitment procedure:

Sources:

The Company uses different sources like Campus Interviews, advertisements in newspapers and

from applications received through the company website.

Short listing of candidate:

Initially the candidates give the initial screening test based on their academic criteria and

experiences. Short listed candidate are called for a written test which comprises of arithmetic

reasoning, analytical thinking and English language skills. Candidates who scored the cut off

marks in the selection test are called for an interview.

Interview Stage:

The interview panel consists of personnel from HR department and technical manager. During

the interview a candidate’s communication skills, presentation skills, flexibility and aspiration

level are tested.

TRANING NEW RECRUITS

Infosys conducts a 14.5 weeks technique training program for all new entrants. The company

spent around Rs.2, 00, 000 per year on training each new entrant. The new recruits are trained at

the Global Education Center (GEC) in Mysore, which has world-class training facilities and the

capacity to train more than 4500 employees at a time.GEC,which was inaugurated in February

2005 is spread over 270 acres and was the largest corporate training center in the world with 58

training rooms and 183 faculty rooms at that point of time. Other facilities at the GEC included

the largest gym in India, a cricket field a volley–ball court,22 tables tennis court, swimming

pool, six lane bowling alley, four screen digital auditorium, meditation hall, and a library.

Commenting on the training facility, fortune wrote,” Indeed, the $120mn Infosys center, which

opened last year, is an odd combination of Disney world, club med, and a modern American

university. It’s enough to make you forget the poverty outside and believe you’re in a first world

fairy tale”

The new employees are trained on the culture and value system of Infosys and also on technical

and managerial skills. The first three days of training comprise of orientation about the culture

and values of Infosys, and about the company’s customers. This is followed by five weeks of

foundation courses on programming, systems development, and inter-personnel skills. In the

following seven weeks, the new entrants are trained on technology courses like C++, UNIX, and

HTML.

The training program equips the new entrant for a challenging career in software and comprises

of generic conceptual courses, platform specific courses, a mini project, and an end term project,

which is designed in the form of real life projects. The new entrants are also imparted training in

communication skills, interpersonal skills, customer interaction, management development, and

quality systems.

Care is taken to ensure that the necessary technical skills are provided along with soft,

interpersonal and communication skills, and quality-related competencies. There is a feedback

mechanism to ensure continuous improvement in the training program.

TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR EMPLOYEES

Infosys also conducts training programs for experienced employees. The company has a

competency system in place which takes into account individual’s performance, organizational

priorities and feedback from the clients. According to the system, every employee is to have a

training plan based on the identified competencies. The training interventions are organized in

four areas-technical training, managerial and skills training, domain training, and training on

quality processes. Technical training accounts for half of the total training efforts.

The E&R department conducts training courses which are mainly project-specific. Most of the

training is class-room based while the training through e-learning is limited. Employees can

nominate themselves for the training programs. For each of the streams –project management,

customer interface, technical, program management, and domain consulting, the behavioral and

technical competencies require to be outlined. Training is also imparted in other streams

including quality process training, personal effectiveness, and managerial development. Every

quarter, over 100 technical training courses are offered. The technical training is imparted for

eight days.

The quality process training is also conducted on a regular basis. For software engineers, quality

process training includes courses on configuration management, defect prevention, and an

introduction to CMM, for the programmer analysts, the quality training comprised defect

prevention training and an internal auditors training. At the program manager level, the quality

process training included implementing CMM and statistical process control.

The need for the managerial development programs was assessed through the performance

appraisal process. During performances appraisal, the employees are asked to choose, in

consultation with their superior, areas in which they need training. Then the required training is

imparted and during the next appraisal the improvement is tracked. The E&R department takes

complete responsibility for imparting the training to the employees. It also conducts research on

emerging technologies and designs the training programs according to the trends in the industry.

Infosys conducts over 160 middle level training programs. The training needs are determined

depending on the business needs. The management determined the upcoming technology

requirements and communicated these to the E&R department. The senior executives of E&R

and other departments decide on the content and duration of the course. Another way of

determining the training needs was during the process of planning. At the planning meetings,

expected projects are forecasted along with the required skills to arrive at the training needs.

Apart from technical training, Infosys conducts several other training programs including soft

skills, communication, building competency, and personal effectiveness. Personnel effective

training is imparted through the Infosys finishing school, where employees are trained on

business etiquette, business communication, assertiveness skills, and customer skills for a period

of eight days. A milestone program-PRAVESH addresses the needs of the employees when they

assume higher positions in the organization. For employees schedule to travel abroad for the first

time, a program called “first time traveler” is conducted, which aims at sensitizing the employees

to new cultures and workplace. The training is spread over six modules and is conducted over a

span of three days. It includes personal trait understanding, culture and projects elements

appreciation, customer interfacing, communication skills, corporate etiquette, and social

interfacing.

Another training program called “chips” {cultural highlights and international practices

sensitization} is targeted at employees traveling to the US, EUROPE, and the Far East countries.

A one-day program, which is meant for employees traveling to different countries. For

employees who are to stay in another country for long time periods; Infosys conducts language

training. Infosys believes that all employees have to ultimately serve the customer, and conducts

a program called C-enabled, or customer-enabled. This program helped the employees to interact

with the customers

COMPENSATION POLICIES

Infosys compensates its human assets in three ways. Infosys adds learning value through training

and development and appraisal practices. Infosys adds emotional value through initiatives

directed towards supporting employees with their work and personal needs, and we adds

financial value through monetary compensation.

Although Infosys faces strong domestic and international competition for its human assets,

through enticing offers from competitors, the compensation level at Infosys equals the average

industry level for each country. It is neither above market nor below the market level.

Infosys is one of the first Indian companies to offer stock option plans to their employees.

Currently Infosys offers three option plans that cover all Infosys employees:

1994 Employees Stock Offer Plan:

Established in September 1994, the plan provides for the issuance of 6,000,000 warrants to

eligible employees.

1998 Stock Option Plan:

Infosys 1998 Stock Option Plan provides for the grant of no statutory stock options and incentive

stock options to employees. A total of 1,600,000 equity shares are currently reserved for issuance

pursuant to the 1998 Plan. Unless terminated sooner, the 1998 Plan w ill terminate automatically

in January 2008. All options under the 1998 Plan w ill12 Please see Appendix C for description

of one such scale.13 “The Lightening Spark,” Silicon Technology and Business Magazine,

August 1998, 50-51.9 be exercisable for ADSs represented by ADRs.

1999 Stock Option Plan:

The 1999 Plan provides for the issue of 6,600,000 equity shares to employees. A compensation

committee comprising a maximum of seven members administers the 1999 Plan. Options are be

issued to employees at an exercise price not less than the FairMarket Value. Under the 1999

Plan, options may also be issued to employees at exercise prices that are less than Fair Market

Value, only if specifically approved by the members of Infosys in a general meeting.

In addition, such statutory benefits as pension, medical and leave, Infosys also offers a loan

program that employees find very attractive. Loans may be taken for pursuing a degree

program Such as an MBA, or to meet such personal needs as purchasing a car or a house. The

interest rate varies (4% for a car purchase and 0-4% for house purchase). To date, almost all

loans have been repaid.

How Infosys grooms its future leaders…

Great companies can neither be built nor their greatness sustained without great leaders. A

Reliance would not have been possible without a Dhirubhai, nor an Infosys without a Murthy.

But on August 20, 2006, at the age of 60, when N R Narayana Murthy retires as the company's

chief mentor and chairman, Infosys Technologies Ltd is not really chewing its nails anxiously.

A succession plan has long been put in place and the smooth transition of authority and

leadership ensured. Murthy will also continue as the non-executive chairman of Infosys.

Of the seven original founders of Infosys, one of India's greatest corporate success stories, only

four will remain at the helm of affairs at the company from August 21: Nandan Nilekani, S

Gopalakrishnan, S D Shibulal, and K Dinesh. N S Raghavan retired in 1999, while Ashok Arora

had quit the firm much earlier, in 1989, to settle down in the United States.

While Infosys continues to be in very good hands to take on any challenge, the IT major has

already identified a pool of 400 leaders who will steer it in the future. Especially, since the

founders of the company are in their early- or mid-fifties and due for retirement at 60.

So how does Infosys groom its future leaders? The process is long-drawn, meticulous, and in

consonance with the company's stated vision: 'To be a globally respected corporation that

provides best-of-breed business solutions, leveraging technology, delivered by best-in-class

people.'

This is where the Infosys Leadership Institute at the company's Mysore campus comes into the

picture. The 162,000 square feet structure, built at the cost of Rs 41.1 crore (Rs 411 million), is

where the next generation of Infosys leaders is being primed.

Says S 'Kris' Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer and deputy managing director, Infosys:

"The company has identified 400 'leaders' on the basis of several parameters: their performance

throughout their tenure with the company being a prime criterion for selection."

Gopalakrishnan, who will take over as the company's President, COO and Joint MD, on August

21, spoke to rediff.com at Infosys' Mysore campus during its 25th anniversary celebrations.

"Great performance puts employees on the fast track to growth within the organisation. As does

their commitment to surpassing customer expectations, setting standards in business and

transactions, and being an paradigm for the industry and the company," adds Gopalakrishnan.

"Creativity, devotion to being ethical and sincere in dealings, and the commitment to strive

relentlessly in pursuit of excellence are also major considerations while identifying future leaders

at Infosys," he points out.

The charismatic Narayana Murthy, speaking about his retirement, said: "I do feel sad, but am

happy too. It is a mixed feeling. It's like getting your daughter married: you are sad that she is

going away, but happy that there is someone younger -- and stronger -- to take care of her."

"The company is now in the hands of the youngsters. It is necessary to recognise the power of

youth and to nurture it. We must respect youth and create opportunities for them to participate in

everything. Which is why at every function, we have the youth participating. I am about the past.

I am gone. They are the future," says Murthy.

"The pool of 400 leaders," says Gopalakrishnan, "that Infosys has identified is from across the

globe and does not comprise Indians alone. It is in keeping with the company's multi-national,

multi-cultural image where excellence is the most important condition."

"There is a three-tier mentoring process at Infosys.

Tier-1 of the Infosys Management Council, which consists of the company's board of directors,

mentors Tier-2 leaders who in turn guide the Tier-3 group.

About 45 executives are a part of the company's Tier-1 of the management council. And each of

the leaders undergoes exhaustive and sustained training through the company's personal

development programme -- PDP.

Infosys training programmes are designed to enable company professionals enhance their skill

sets in tune with their respective roles," says Gopalakrishnan.

The management council is an advisory body that takes strategic decisions on the company's

businesses and was set up by N R Narayana Murthy, with the idea of building an outfit that is

built to last and is ably "geared to handle the uncertainties of a global market, the high and lows

of business cycles, and to power the company towards strong growth in the future," says the

Infosys COO.

When Murthy first set up the council, he found that the young go-getters in the company were

diffident to air their suggestions. It was then that the idea of an in-house leadership institute was

born. Encouragement from the top management has put an end to the fears of transgressing the

chain of command, and young Infoscions are now urged to give vent to their creative talent and

come up with their ideas and plans.

The faculty at the ILI has in a note spelt out the rationale behind the institute and charted out the

manner in which it operates.

The ILI was set up in 2001 to prepare Infosys to manage its exceptional growth; to prepare its

executives to handle the external and internal business environment; and through 'thought

leadership' create better customer value.

The leadership development programme at Infosys takes after similar processes followed by

many global mega corps. It has been refined to suit the particular needs of Infosys and is termed

as the 'nine pillars for leadership development in Infosys.'These nine pillars form the backbone of

the PDP and each leader can choose from these pillars for personal development. "Depending

upon the individual's need to grow and the company's sensitivity to these needs, every (short-

listed) individual is groomed to lead the company in the future," Gopalakrishnan says.

The chosen few -- 400 of the 58,409 employees -- identified as 'high potential Infoscions'

undergo a three-year 'leadership journey' that includes training, astonishing personal

development programme, interacting with other participants, understanding the company better

and resolving real business issues.

The note prepared by the ILI faculty enumerates 'the nine pillars for leadership development' as:

1. 360 degree feedback

This is the mechanism through which the company gathers data about an individual's

performance and abilities. This information is collected from coworkers, including peers,

subordinates, managers and customers. Personal development plans are prepared on the basis of

this feedback. Then, each of these individuals is assigned an ILI faculty member to help prepare

the PDP and to follow it.

2. Development assignments

Identified high potential Infoscions are trained at various functions of the company through job

rotations and cross-functional assignments. This helps employees to acquire new leadership

skills outside their own areas of expertise and experience.

3. Infosys Culture workshops

These workshops are designed to fortify the Infosys culture amongst the participants, help instill

better communication skills through sustained interaction amongst themselves, and identify with

the values and processes involved in leadership development.

4. Development relationships

This includes one-on-one interaction in actual on-the-job work climate and leads to better

sharing of knowledge and camaraderie amongst individuals. Mentoring forms an integral part of

this exercise.

5. Leadership skills training

The 'Leaders Teach Series' are workshops that the company's Tier-1 members, including

Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani (CEO and MD), hold to acclimatise the next rung with

leadership roles and to groom them through their own rich experience.

6. Feedback intensive programmes

These are akin to 360 degree feedback, but based on formal and informal feedback from

employees that an individual interacts with.

7. Systemic process learning

This helps individuals to gain an overall view of the company and its diverse and complex

systems, business, operations and processes. It is a continuous process and helps improve the

individual and also the systems.

8. Action learning

This exercise constitutes solving real problems in real-time conditions, but as a team.

9. Community empathy

The company stresses the need to give back to society through involvement in various

developmental, educational and social causes. This programme helps nurture a social conscience

amongst its leaders.

"The last 25 years for Infosys have been successful. And we are ready for the future. Yes, our

growth rates will change, the business cycles will change, our ability to influence the business

environment will change, even our leaders will change.

SATYAM

Type Public (NYSE: SAY)

Founded (1987)

Headquarters Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

Key peopleRamalinga Raju , Founder & Chairman

Rama Raju, MD

Industry Information Technology

Revenue ▲ 2.1 billion USD (2007)

Employees 49,200 (2007)

Slogan What Business Demands

Website http://satyam.com//

Satyam Computer Services Ltd. was founded by B.Ramalinga Raju in 1987;Satyam means

"truth" in Sanskrit. The company offers a variety of information technology (IT) services

spanning various industry sectors, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Satyam's network spans 57 countries across six continents. The company employs 54,000 IT

professionals across development centers in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, the

United Arab Emirates, Canada, Hungary, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan,Egypt and

Australia. It serves over 489 global companies, 156 of which are Fortune 500 corporations.

Satyam has strategic technology and marketing alliances with over 50 companies. Apart from

Hyderabad, it has development centers in India at Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur,

Delhi, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and Visakhapatnam.

In October 2007, Satyam announced a collaboration with Cisco to enhance Health Management

Solutions. In November 2007, Satyam is announced as the official Information Technology

Services Provider for the FIFA World Cups to be held in 2010 and 2014. Satyam partnered with

arvato systems to provide innovative solutions for medium-sized enterprise market in Germany,

Austria and Switzerland.

Satyam has been ranked consistently in the top Employers list released by surveys done by

leading groups such as Business India. The company has massive expansion plans to penetrate

across the globe especially Europe. Satyam is poised to cross $2 billion in Annual Revenues for

the year 2007-2008.

On Jan 21, 2008 Satyam announced the acquisition of a Illinois based boutique consulting firm

Bridge Strategy. This is yet another acquisition by Satyam after Knowledge Dynamics and

Citisoft. "Satyam has the largest overall ERP practice and the heaviest commercial focus on

packaged enterprise software" - Dana Stiffler, Research Director, AMR Research, “Indian

Service Provider’s ERP Practice Grow up,” January 26, 2007.

Satyam is focusing its expertise around NGN transformation. The Company is investing

modestly in developing solutions assets in the areas in which it has chosen to specialise. This is

untypical; most offshore companies are poor at making this kind of investment and keep margins

high by focusing development around specific projects in order to get an immediate payback. -

Eirwen Nichols, Principal Analyst, Ovum

On February 23, 2008 Satyam completed 20 years of existence. It is considered as India's

youngest software consulting company to exceed $2 billion in annual revenue.

The way they do it at Satyam

SATYAM Computer Services treats its employees as associates of the company. This speaks a

lot about its work culture. About 13,000 associates of Satyam are involved in providing IT

services to more than 300 customers across 45 countries. In such a big organization, human

resources (HR) practice plays a critical role, not only in the decision-making process but also in

employee welfare and development activities. The company never wanted to be the best

paymaster, but it wants to keep its associates, customers and investors delighted.

Satyam broadly categories its focus area of responsibility and accountability into three segments;

associates, customers and investors. The vision of the company aims at delighting these

segments. Earlier it used to be satisfaction, but with the increasing competition in providing cost-

effective IT solutions, and the poaching of people, it has become a major challenge for IT

companies to retain employees. This trend prompted software companies to design various

attractive policies and incentives to retain their staff. Satyam therefore adopted the strategy of

winning the hearts of its associates rather just confining them to the satisfaction level . Satyam's

strategy is to keep all its associates, customers and investors happy. Though the task is not easy,

the IT major has been pioneering with its HR practices that keep them happy.

Increasing salaries is not the right method to retain associates. No company can keep its

employees in its grip infinitely, and there is no end-point in this game. We strongly believe that

money alone cannot bring loyalty; hence our strategy is that while we maintain competitive pay

structures, our HR practices focus on emotional involvement, on getting attached to the

company. Satyam also provides stock options to all employees even at the entry level. Moreover,

performance-based stock options and incentives are being given every year. These measures

have been successful in making our associates loyal to the organization. We encourage our

associates to have passion…delight with entrepreneurial skills. Our core value is

entrepreneurship and every Satyamite is a leader," A S Murty, the director and senior vice

president of HR at Satyam told IT People.

The company critically evaluates its functioning style in executing projects in time. It aims to

make the customers and associates happy at the same time. Within the organization, each

department also considers others as customers, and every project leader is a business manager for

his team. It has formulated an Associate Delight Index (ADI) to measure key parameters such as

performance, job satisfaction, commitment towards the organization, etc., and it is linked to

incentives. The higher the ADI, the more will be the incentives. There is no cap on variable

salary, and for business leaders, there is no cap on incentives.

Recruitment process

Identifying the right candidate and retaining him is crucial for any company to withstand global

competition. Satyam follows two recruitment methods-at entry and lateral levels.

For entry-level recruitment, it has tied up with about 70 reputed institutions in the country.

Usually this is done at the end of the examinations of engineering courses. During the year, off-

campus interviews are conducted.

1. Entry-level recruitment consists of an aptitude test, group discussion and technical

interview. Satyam believes that hard factors (revenue) and soft factors (attitude) are both

critical in assessing candidates.

2. After the recruitment process is over, candidates are placed in different business units

for about 10-12 weeks. Each unit has a HR wing and works in a partnership model.

For lateral recruitments, interviews are conducted at two levels.

1. Usually, candidates having 2+ years of experience are considered for lateral recruitment.

During 2003-04, Satyam has recruited about 4,000 associates, with 40 percent coming

from entry-level recruitment. (Internal Search)

2. Of the total headcount, 30 percent of Satyamites are overseas at any point of time.

3. Orientation: For those Satyamites who are about to travel abroad, an orientation

programme is organised to brief them about the country they are going to visit. As part of

this orientation, Satyamites will be briefed about the culture, language and etiquette.

Help desk

In order to make its associates free of house-related work such as payment of utility bills,

reserving tickets for trains, etc-without any service charge-Satyam evolved the Help Desk

concept, which takes care of all house-related work at product cost only.

The objective of the Help Desk is to create an environment for associates to concentrate totally

on their projects. For those associates who have been transferred from a different city or country,

assistance is also provided to help them find school admission for their children. For this, Satyam

has also tied up with about six schools in the city. Help Desk Satyam has eight centres in

Hyderabad alone, apart from six in Chennai, five in Bangalore, three in Pune and one at

Bhubaneshwar. All these centers are electronically connected.

The Samanvay concept aims at involving the families of associates in the learning process on

various issues such as health, personal finance, IT education, etc. Only the parents and spouses

of associates are allowed to participate in this scheme, which is conducted once every two

months. Satyam Learning Centre takes care of this and coordinates the activities. It also conducts

cultural and social entertainment programmes for children of the associates.

Every year in early January, a Satyam Utsav is organised at all the centres where the families of

associates are involved.

Corporate social responsibility

When it comes to social responsibility, Satyam is at the forefront creating awareness about

health, education and environment activities. Satyamites and their spouses have been actively

taking part in such initiatives of the company. Every Satyamite contributes Rs 20 per month to

the Satyam Alambana Trust, and the company contributes an equal amount. This trust mainly

focuses on urban areas.

The Bairraju Trust is a personal foundation of the promoters, and focuses on rural areas. It trains

children below 15 years in IT with an aim at bridging the digital divide.

Other activities

Breaking from the routine is very important for everyone, particularly those who are part of the

creative think-tank of Satyam. In order to re-energize its associates, it provides recreational and

entertainment facilities at nominal charges at the Satyam Technology Centre spread over 128

acres. Here cultural events are organized on every occasion for every age group. The company

also lends a hand to its associates for their financial needs.

Leveraging its brand value, Satyam has been able to arrange finance facilities for its associates at

reduced interest rates. It has tied up with a few financial institutions, shopping malls and retail

companies for offering discounts on shopping. To keep up the tempo and enthusiasm among

associates, Satyam strongly believes in learning and offers an opportunity for them to learn

different technologies in various countries.

Earlier it was a matter of prestige for parents to say that their son/daughter was working in the

US. Now the more countries they travel to, the more pride for them. As part of these initiatives,

many associates working in maintenance have been shifted to development and vice versa;

associates also move from one package to other. The best example is Murty himself. A B Tech

from the regional engineering college, Warangal, and M Tech (computer science) from the

Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, he is now looking after the HR department after working

on hardcore technologies for about eight years.

Every Satyamite is a leader. To make Satyamites friendly to each other and create a no-boss

environment, Satyam follows a trendy practice of calling each other-irrespective of designation-

by the first name. The company also follows an open door policy. Every associate can directly

access the chairman and e-mail him too. This has broken the barriers of the hierarchy system and

brought all Satyamites together. For high-caliber young professionals, age is not a constraint

for allocating major tasks to them. "We have young professionals in their early thirties who are

managing big projects," Murty says. Telecommuting has been growing, and saves a lot of time

and stress for Satyamites. The company believes in virtual leadership, real-time leadership and

delegation of accountability. As part of this, every head of a business unit acts as a chief

executive officer, with great freedom to run his unit successfully.

Finally, at the end of the day, everyone needs relaxation from the day's hard work. The company

organizes yoga, meditation and other personality development classes like the Art of Living for

Satyamites.

TCS

Type Public BSE: 532540, Public

Founded 1968

Headquarters TCS House, Raveline Street, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001

Key peopleRatan Tata, (Chairman of the Board, TATA Group)

S Ramadorai , (CEO & Managing Director)

Industry Information Technology Consulting

Services Information technology Services and Solutions

Revenue ▲ $4.3 billion (in FY 2006-07)

Employees 110,000 (As on Jan 31st, 2008)

Slogan Experience certainty

Website www.tcs.com

Tata Consultancy Services was established in the year 1968. It began as a division of the Tata

Group, Tata Computer Centre, whose main business was to provide computer services to other

group companies. However, the potential of computerization and computer services was realized

early on, and an electrical engineer from the Tata Electric Companies, Fakir Chand Kohli, was

brought in as the first General Manager. Soon after, the company was named Tata Consultancy

Services.

TCS's first software export project was undertaken in 1974 when it converted the Hospital

Information System from Burroughs Medium Systems COBOL to Burroughs Small Systems

COBOL. This project was carried out entirely in TCS Mumbai on the ICL 1903 Computer. In

1980, TCS and a sister Tata firm accounted for 63% of the Indian software industry exports, $4

million shared by 21 firms. In 1984, TCS set up an office in the Santacruz Export Processing

Zone (SEEPZ) – Mumbai.

The early 1990s saw a tremendous surge in TCS's business, which also resulted in a massive

recruitment drive by the company. In early and mid-1990s, TCS re-invented itself to become a

software products company. In the late 1990s, to accelerate its revenue growth, TCS decided to

employ a three-pronged strategy – developing new products with high revenue earning potential,

tapping domestic and other fast growing markets and focusing on inorganic growth through

mergers & acquisitions. In late 1998, the company decided to concentrate on new revenue

opportunities including Y2K and Euro conversion. E-business was a major area of focus in the

late 1990s.

TCS started a project aimed at eliminating illiteracy in India with a pilot project in Andhra

Pradesh. In 2001, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) commissioned the latest 64-bit zSeries

eServer from IBM, thereby becoming the first organization in the ASEAN and South Asia region

to adopt the latest technology in mainframe computing. In 2004, TCS became a public listed

company. In fiscal 2006 the Company's profit before taxes and exceptional items aggregated

Rs.3,074.35 crore as compared to Rs.2,308.65 crore in the previous fiscal 2005 - a growth of

33.17%.

Tata Research Development and Design Centre

The Tata Research Development and Design Centre was established in 1981. TRDDC is today

one of India’s premier R&D centres in software engineering and process engineering.

Research and development work at TRDDC is focused in different groups, each specializing in a

key area of work. Projects of an interdisciplinary nature are also carried out. With expertise in

process engineering, software engineering tools and technologies, advanced techniques, and in

systems engineering methodologies, TRDDC provides solutions within TCS and for major

clients. There is also an ongoing effort to integrate the products into the Eclipse Integration

Framework.

The process engineering group of TRDDC focuses on modeling and optimization of industrial

unit operations for steel and automotive sector.

In addition, TRDDC is also involved in the areas of language processing, formal methods, and

research on Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support.

On account of the ongoing diversification effort, the other centres situated in India have also

begun R&D facilities; the centre in Hyderabad is called Advanced Technology Centre (ATC)

carries out work on e-Security related issues and bioinformatics.

Recently TRDDC celebrated its Silver Jubilee at its Headquarters in Pune in a function presided

by former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and with the launch of the Co-Innovation Network.

Students of the winning schools of the TCS IT Wiz, Pune were also invited. They included

Aditya Ramani, Gautam Sondur, Gyanish Kakati and Anshul Singhle.

TCS Innovation Labs

TCS currently has 19 labs spanning across 4 countries. Many of the labs are located in India. The

most recent lab however is the TCS Innovations Lab, located in Peterborough, U.K. This new lab

works as a central hub to the other 18 TCS Innovation Labs, making use of the ideas and

innovations created in those labs and bringing them to one collaborative location.

Indian branches

Currently (2006), TCS has branches in the following Indian cities: Hyderabad, Bhavnagar,

Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Ahmedabad,

Pune, Nagpur, Jamshedpur, Gandhinagar, Coimbatore, Kochi, Gurgaon, NOIDA, Bhubaneswar,

Nabadwip and Goa.

Global units

Africa: South Africa,Morocco

Asia (outside India): China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,

South Korea, Taiwan, UAE

Australia: Australia,

Europe: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg,

Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

North America: Canada, Mexico, USA

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay

HR STRATEGIES:

TCS hires more from smaller cities.

India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services on Monday said it will hire up to

5,000 employees in northern region this fiscal and 70 per cent will come from smaller cities.

"The company is set to hire 3,000 at trainee level and 2,000 positions will be filled through

lateral hiring in the northern region. We plan to hire over 70 per cent candidates from tier II and

tier III cities due to quality talent present in these places, which we don't want to miss out on,"

Thomas Simon, vice-president, HR, TCS said.

The company believes that the knowledge base of these candidates is as strong as their

counterparts belonging to bigger cities. However, imparting training in areas of language, soft

skills and etiquette is essential to give them a finishing touch, he said. The compensation and

rewards for employees across centers would be similar, Simon added.

Eligibility criterion for trainees would be a minimum 60 per cent score in all the degrees

attained. As for hiring experienced professionals, the cut-off has been kept at 50 per cent, Simon

said.

The hiring would be taken up for positions based in the NCR region apart from Lucknow. While

experienced professional hiring would be done for pre-mapped positions, the trainees would be

sent to Thiruvananthapuram for initial training.

The company had earlier said it planned to ramp up head count by 32,000 across India this fiscal.

TCS has witnessed an attrition rate of 11.5 per cent overall, with 11 per cent attrition rate in the

IT services business and 16.7 per cent attrition rate in BPO in the first quarter of current fiscal

ended June 30.

"We managed to keep a check in the attrition figures this year," Simon added. The total

employee strength of the company was 94,902, from 67 nationalities at the end of first quarter.

There was a gross addition of 8,706 employees, of which 2,898 were trainees and 4,795

experienced professionals in India and 1,013 employees in overseas subsidiaries and branches in

Q1.

The net addition in the quarter was 5,512 employees. The company is expanding the talent pool

beyond engineering students through its 'Ignite' programme aimed at science graduates as well.

TCS recently completed a seven-month on-the-job training programme for science graduates.

It also plans to reinforce its new brand image though increased branding activities, newsletters,

blogs, campus portal and interacting with training and placement officers and institutional heads

of technical institutes through its existing forums 'Sparsh' and 'Sangam'.

WIPRO

Type Public (NYSE: WIT)

Founded 1945 (Pre Independence)

Headquarters Bangalore

Key people Azim Premji, Chairman and Managing director

Industry Information technology services

Revenue ▲$5.0 billion (2008) USD

Net income ▲$677 million (2007) USD

Employees 79,832+ (2007)

Slogan Applying Thought

Website www.wipro.com

Wipro Tech (NYSE: WIT) is an information technology service company established in India in

1980. It is the global IT services arm of Wipro Limited (in operation since 1945, incorporated

1946). It is headquartered in Bangalore and is the third largest IT services company in India. It

has more than 79,832 employees as of December 2007, including its business process

outsourcing (BPO) arm which it acquired in 2002.[1]

Wipro Technologies has over 300 customers across U.S., Europe and Japan including 50 of the

Fortune 500 companies. Some of its customers are Nortel, Boeing, BP, Cisco, Ericsson, IBM,

Microsoft, Prudential, Seagate, Sony, HP, Windriver, Airbus, Toshiba and Wal-Mart. It is listed

on the New York Stock Exchange and is part of its TMT (technology media telecom) index

testing.

With revenue in the excess of US $5 billion, Wipro is one of India's major IT companies. It has

dedicated development centers and offices across India, Europe, North America, Latin America

and Asia Pacific. The current Chairman, Managing Director and majority stake owner is Azim

Premji, who has headed the software and hardware divisions since Wipro's inception.

HISTORY

Wipro was set up in 1945. Primarily an edible oil factory, the chief products were Sunflower

Vanaspati and 787 laundry soap (a by-product of the Vanaspati operations). The company was

called Western India vegetable Products Limited (WIPRO) ; it had a minor presence in

Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. In the 1970s and 1980s, it began to expand and made forays

into computing. In 1975, Wipro marketed India's first homegrown PC.

Wipro was the sole representative for Sun Microsystems in India, before the Sun liaison office

was set up in India, in the early 1990s.

Wipro is the highest-ranked Indian IT provider by International Association of Outsourcing

Professionals.

Wipro and its success in handling outsourced information technology from US businesses is

detailed in Thomas L. Friedman's best-selling book The World Is Flat and Steve Hamm's

Bangalore Tiger. Wipro's offshore model is considered 'unique among the larger players in the

security consulting space' according to an independent report by Forrester Research.

HR STRATEGIES

The unique HR practices at Wipro especially in terms of attracting and retaining talent

that set it apart from other companies. Considering the number of spin-offs that have

originated from Wipro, the environment in the company appears to be particularly conducive

to the entrepreneurial spirit.

Among several attributes is the fact that Wipro leaders develop a complete business

perspective early in their career.

Wipro leaders get early general managerial/CEO responsibility to get a good rounding, and

exposure to all aspects of the organization: finance (e.g. P&L), operations (process, quality,

cost etc.) and people perspective

This helps them develop the ability to see the big picture early in their careers. The feeling of

ownership is built through higher responsibilities early in the career. We strongly believe that

strong ownership feeling and multiple opportunities lead to a passion for hard work.

Our leadership development programmes play a major role in developing leaders. We have

several life-cycle leadership programmes like the

Early Leaders Programme

New Leaders Programme

Wipro Leaders Programme

Business Leaders Programme

Strategic Leaders Programme

Each being targeted at a particular stage in the life of a leader. Finally, it is the self-confidence

to stand up for one’s view that builds entrepreneurial leaders.

Our 360-degree feedback process helps personal development and builds confidence. Wipro

is a meritocracy competing with some of the best people builds tremendous confidence. I

believe ESOPs are a good way of sharing wealth with employees.

Azim Premji ’s View

Premji believes in creating teams of highly charged individuals to deliver superior performance,

investing significant time as a faculty in leadership development programmes. He was the prime

mover in making Wipro the first Indian company to embrace Six Sigma, the first software

services company in the world to achieve SEI CMM Level 5 and the world’s first organization to

achieve PCMM Level 5. Premji equates quality with integrity – both being non-negotiable.

Premji shared his formula for a successful company, and the way Wipro has developed

entrepreneurial leaders with a firm commitment to the company's values.

Azim Premji Foundation, a not-for-profit organization established in 2001. Sustained by his

personal financial contributions, the aim of the Foundation is the universalisation of elementary

education.

Wipro has been perhaps the most successful adapter among Indian corporate, evolving with

increasing success from soap and consumer care to computer hardware and then onto software

and services. The principal strength that has enabled Wipro to make such successful moves are

Values combined with a powerful vision can turbo-charge a company to scale new heights and

make it succeed beyond one’s wildest expectations. Add to that our ability to attract and retain

the best talent and our continuous pursuit of quality, and you have a high-performance

organization that can continuously re-invent itself and succeed.

Employee Ethics @ WIPRO

It is believed that values should be driven from the top. Wipro was perhaps the first Indian

company to articulate a set of Beliefs that guided our business conduct, way back in the early

70s. Today, the four Core Values encapsulated in the Wipro Promise (Human Values, Integrity,

Innovative Solutions and Value for Money), form the foundation of our organization.

They have Value Booklet and the Integrity Manual

They guide Wiproites through the tough choices they may be faced with. They have also

introduced a help line known as ‘Wipro SOS’; comprising senior members of the company who

have helped mould our values. They are always available for guidance on any ethical issue that a

Wiproites may face.

The Azim Premji Foundation

The Azim Premji Foundation has been active in the field of education. They are engaging with

the Indian education system in two ways:

Firstly, through the Foundation, our mission is to catalyze the Universalisation of Elementary

Education (UEE) .

There are today nearly 50 million children who are out of school in India. The dropout rate

between standard 1-4 is 42% and between standard 1-8 as high as 58%. A significant percentage

of third standard children do not know reading and writing. At the Azim Premji Foundation we

believe that sustained UEE is possible only through the improvement of learning levels in school

and dramatically improving all that happens inside the school. Working in partnership with the

government, the Foundation focuses on rural areas. The theme that we are working around in the

identified geographies is ‘Guaranteeing Learning’. Our approach has the following essentials: l

Partnership with the government l Partnership with the community l Large scale initiative l

Focus on improvement of learning l Time bound plan for withdrawal and handing over

responsibility to relevant stakeholders. Currently, the geographical coverage of the Foundation is

3500 villages in Karnataka and 2500 villages in Andhra Pradesh. The Foundation is also

supporting school learning improvement initiatives in three cities in Gujarat. In the first year of

its operations, the Foundation has facilitated the process of mainstreaming for about 50,000

children through bridge courses, supported remedial teaching for 35,000 children who required

special attention, and imparted computer based curricular education in about 35 rural schools

covering about 10,000 children. The Foundation also conducted a specialized training and

development programme for 100 top education officers across Karnataka state.

The second initiative is the ‘Wipro Applying Thought in Schools’ programme, the aim of

which is to transform the education system to deliver a high quality of learning. The knowledge

economy demands people who can think creatively and critically, solve problems and make

decisions, and are self-directed lifelong learners. Such individuals are really the output of an

education system that delivers high quality of learning. The building blocks of our approach to

transforming the education system are: l Transform the teacher into a ‘reflective practitioner’

who is herself a thinker and learner l Help school leadership see their role as leading this

transformation l Help parents change their view of the true purpose of education in the

knowledge economy l Help education administrators change the curriculum from being content

heavy to ability enhancing, and transform the examination system from focusing solely on

testing memorization skill to also assessing abilities such as creative and critical thinking and

problem solving. Currently, the programme has reached out to 700 teachers in 40 schools across

Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Work Culture @ WIPRO

Wipro work culture is characterized by:

- Openness

- Absence of politics

- Non-hierarchical (no visible symbols of hierarchy)

- Hard work

- Meritocracy (completely professional work atmosphere)

- Middle class Values - non-flashy.

Recruitment process @ WIPRO

Recruitment in Wipro is not just an event but is a part of a complete leadership development

process. Most of our recruitment is done from the campus. We began recruiting people from

premier institutes since 1970 and have developed some of the best leaders of the Indian industry.

However, we do not hire people at senior levels unless it is absolutely required. Policy is such

that even if an insider is 60% ready for a given internal vacancy; he will be preferred over an

outsider.

The recruitment process is extremely important to Wipro and involves a significant application

of the senior and top management time. The assessment of the campus panel is supported by an

assessment of the candidate's performance in group discussions, psychometric tests and an in-

depth reference check.

Reward high performing staff

They have a comprehensive performance management system, which has been institutionalized

over three decades ago. It has been well accepted by the employees. The human resources

department does the review and planning is the high point of our performance management and

employee development process. The HRRP serves the following purpose:

1. Identifying top 10% and bottom 10% of the employees

2. Identifying talent that we should not lose under any circumstances

3. Succession planning

4. People in the same job for five years and more

As for attrition, we are significantly below the industry average. That is more important than

numbers.

Training programmes

Development of employees is one of the most critical processes in Wipro. There are broadly two

categories of development programmes:

1. Life cycle management programme

2. Individual development programme against individual development need

They cover the following under the Life Cycle Management Programme:

a. Entry-level programme - this consists of both elaborate technical exposure as well as

exposure to issues related to how to be a good productive employee in the Company. This is in

addition to a common induction programme that employees go through on joining. b. New

leaders programme - For employees who become leaders for the first time. c. Wipro leaders

programme - for employees who start leading other managers. d. Business leaders programme -

for those who become business managers for the first time. e. Strategic leaders programme - for

top management who are responsible for strategic inputs.

Besides the above, a detailed action plan is made on completion of performance appraisal for the

individual employee. The action plan can include the following:

a. Specific need related development programme

b. b. Efforts on the job by the employee c. Supervisor coaching guidance etc.

Career progression @ WIPRO

Due to its growth (23% CAGR in sales and 50% CAGR in PAT for the past 11 years) career

growth has never been an issue at Wipro. Various options are available for an individual -

ranging from being an individual contributor to team leader to technological contributor. People

can progress vertically as well as horizontally.

Employee grievances

All supervisors are responsible for addressing the grievances of their team members. They may

in turn seek help from their supervisors, human resources people or business heads. Due to the

company's open culture, employees are free to communicate with any other individual within the

organisation after having exhausted the options of speaking to the supervisor.

Mr. Dileep Ranjekar’s View (Corporate Executive Vice-President HR, Wipro)

Changes and trends in HR in the near future

The last five years, HR functions have undergone significant changes due to a large proportion

of employees being knowledge workers or from the service industry. The Internet and

communication explosion has erased all boundaries of culture, knowledge and sharing of

practices among professionals. As a result, the paradigm of leadership has changed completely,

with team members knowing more about their work than their supervisors. There is a great need

for leadership, especially with a complete breakdown in hierarchy at the workplace as well as at

home. Therefore, the only important issue is how a leader is able to add value to his/her team

members. You have employee groups that are fiercely competitive, have a lot of stress early on

in their career and whose world revolves only around themselves. That they also contribute to the

organization is incidental and not the main purpose.

It is very important for employees to constantly develop and enrich their resume and become

more valuable in the market place. This trend will continue. In addition, HR people have the

responsibility of boosting employee morale due to the economic downturn.

What qualities and attributes, in your opinion, epitomize a good HR professional?

* In-depth subject knowledge

* Business knowledge

* Ability to see newer, different dimensions and possibilities

* Tremendous awareness of the global environment

* Resilience, high energy and stamina