chapter news - bangalore the nhrd 4th hr showcase 2015 · the nalco training centre, bhubaneswar....

The NHRD HR Showcase for the year 2015 just got Bigger & Better! NHRDN Bangalore Chapter

thconducted the 4 session of the HR Showcase -2015 as part of a nationwide platform for presenting best prac t ices f rom impac tful Corporate S ocia l Responsibility initiatives and creating an enriched ecosystem around CSR in India. The event was held on September 11th 2015 at the White Feather Convention Centre - Electronics City, Bangalore.

Overall 65 practices were showcased where nominations from 65 Corporate HR Best Practices, 20 CSR Initiatives, 36 HR Research papers were received. 30 HR Startups, 25 HR Product & Service providers & 25 Sponsors/Partners participated in this year’s event. The Welcome address was given by N. Balachandar, President, NHRD Bangalore Chapter. Mark Effron, who leads The Talent Strategy Group, USA and also known as the Talent Management Guru delivered the Key Note Address. NHRD National President K. Ramkumar, addressed the gathering and exhorted more HR Professionals to join & strengthen the NHRD movement. The event also witnessed the launch of NHRD Bangalore-Chicago Booth School partnership. Apart from the Showcase and Expo there were Parallel Discussions and major interactive sessions among all the leading organizations that took part in the event which was attended by more than 1400+ visitors from the HR Community from across the country.

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Bangalore

+1400

11 September 2015

Issue 19 | September - October 2015

Chapter News - Bangalore thThe NHRD 4 HR Showcase 2015

A cross-section of the audience

National HRD Network , Bhubaneswar Chapter organised a Talking Heads programme on the theme

th“The Vanishing Bell Curve” on the 29 August, 2015 at the NALCO Training Centre, Bhubaneswar. Mr Umesh Hota, President HR, HINDALCO was the speaker for the occasion.

The bell curve-based performance appraisal refers to forced rankings which compare employees' performance relative to others and require that managers plot team members along a distribution curve. The bell curve is nothing but a graphical representation of the fact that everybody's performance is not the same. The Bell Curve has been in dominant existence for over two decades now. The iconic former chairman of General Electric (GE), Jack Welch rallied for the concept while executing his turnaround strategy of building GE to be a ‘People Factory’ and reasoned that forced ranking creates a true meritocracy.

Speaking in the program Mr Umesh said that the use of the bell curve or forced ranking in performance appraisals has always been a topic of debate amongst HR professionals. A bell curve model is a systematic bell-shaped graph that is pronounced in the middle and tapered off at the edges. It assumes that all the employees in a company can be ranked as follows: Top 20 percent – High performers; The middle 70 percent – Average performers; The bottom 10 percent – Non performers. The advantages of the bell curve in performance appraisal include top performers through the bell curve grading, managing lenient and strict ratings of managers through the bell curve, identifying suitability of employees in a job position

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through the bell curve. But for many Bell Curve is a stumbling block in organizational progress as it stifles creativity and innovation, breeds rigidity and there is a huge loss in morale.

Despite the voices in favour of the bell curve, there is an increasing trend of corporate looking at alternative methods. Research conducted in 2011 and 2012 by Ernest O’Boyle Jr. and Herman Aguinis (633,263 researchers, entertainers, politicians, and athletes in a total of 198 samples). found that performance in 94 percent of these groups did not follow a normal distribution. Rather these groups fall into what is called a “Power Law” distribution.

A “Power Law” distribution is also known as a “long tail.” It indicates that people are not “normally distributed.” In this statistical model there are a small number of people who are “hyper high performers,” a broad swath of people who are “good performers” and a smaller number of people who are “low performers.” It essentially accounts for a much wider variation in performance among the sample.

It has very different characteristics from the Bell Curve. In the Power Curve most people fall below the

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NALCO Training Centre, Bhubaneswar

29 August 2015


Chapter News- BhubaneswarThe Vanishing Bell Curve - Talking Heads Programme

mean (slightly). Roughly 10-15% of the population are above the average (often far above the average), a large population are slightly below average, and a small group are far below average. So the concept of “average” becomes meaningless. These “hyper performers” are people you want to attract, retain, and empower.

Companies that understand this model focus very heavily on collaboration, professional development, coaching, and empowering people to do great things. He further said that it is time to Re-Engineer Performance Management. Organizational performance philosophy and culture is an important index for nurturing its people processes. It is conversations to connect, information sharing and feedback with transparency and openness that fosters in a collaborative environment to nurture teams and employees at work and creates learning opportunities that are more developmental and more result oriented. The session was well attended by the members of the Bhubaneswar chapter.

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DateVenue IMM, Qutab

Institutional Area, New Delhi

26 August 2015

Chapter News - Delhi & NCRMastering Change Management - Translating Concept to Reality

stThe business landscape of the 21 century is characterized by fluctuating trends wherein change seems to be the only constant. In such a situation, business leaders need to be adept at effective change management which is an important individual and organizational competency. Mastering change management not only helps companies grow and stay strong but also provides them with a competitive edge. To be successful, organisations need to constantly look for more effective and efficient ways to function. A preliminary search on change management shows that companies highly effective at communicating and sustaining change are 2.5 times as likely to out perform their peers as companies that are not highly effective in either area.

However, more often than not organisations invest time, effort, and resources towards change but are unable to translate the concept into reality. The failure may be due to the manner in which change has been perceived, communicated, and executed or because of the internal resistance and friction it builds. Considering the unpredictability and uncertainty of

times, it is imperative to take a hard look at how organizations approach change management and learn how to do it best.

Keeping this agenda in focus the Delhi & NCR Chapter conducted a Special event titled “Mastering Change Management - Translating Concept to Reality” on 26th August, 2015 at the Institute of Marketing Management, New Delhi. The Speakers for the session were Mr Debraj Sinha, Director & CHRO, Max Bupa; Mr Mussarat Hussain, General Manager- Education & Training, Maruti Suzuki and Ms Akansha

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Arora, Head - HR (L & OD), Yum! Restaurants. The session was moderated by Ms Kim Jun Franzen, Director, Franzen Partners.

Some of the Key takeaways and observations about change management are listed below:

• Change is only about people

• Change is about success at organizational level

• Resistance to change is natural

Type of changes

(a) Continuous change; (b) Changes are dynamic in nature; (c) Reinventing continuous

Skills to adapt change

• The ability to embrace

• The ability to zoom in and zoom out

• Unfreeze-move-refreeze

• Empty the cup (forget everything of past)

• Need to change

• Face to face communication

• Change is experimenting

• No-theoretic model

• Building trust

• Keep personal and professional different.

• Business change without mind set change is not sustainable

• Use and throw invest and grow

• Change is not a linear process

• It is combination of art and science

Chapter News - Hosur Knowledge Sharing Session on “The Future of HR”

NHRD Hosur Chapter conducted its monthly meeting thon 10 September 2015 with NHRD Network National

President, Mr. K Ramkumar as its Chief Guest and

Speaker.

The meeting began with a prayer song, followed by

the Welcome address from Chapter President and a

recital of the NHRD Code of Conduct by EC Member Dr.

Sivakumar. Mr. Israel Inbaraj Past President and Mentor

of the Hosur Chapter introduced the speaker for the

evening, Mr. K Ramkumar, Executive Director-ICICI

Bank and National President NHRD Network.

The topic for the session was “The Future of HR”. Mr. K

Ramkumar began the session with a call to all NHRD

Members and Office bearers to make the network more relevant and inclusive so that more HR Professionals join

the network as it is presently representing a very small percentage of HR Professionals in terms of numbers. He

then started his presentation with a comment that the future of HR will depend on the quality of people in the

function. He instigated HR Professionals to use their knowledge in the domain to solve business related problems

as that only will make them heard. He criticised HR professionals for alienating themselves from business by

using various functional jargons and changing their labels frequently. He advised them to know basics

thoroughly in their domain as well as respective business like understanding P&L/Balance Sheet, manufacturing

process, quality standards etc.

With examples from his own life he brought out the facts as to how HR professional can be a business leader with

qualities like: continuous learning, standing up for the cause, attaining cross domain expertise, risk taking, self-

pride, can do attitude and courage.

He rubbished the idea that HR is not relevant and not adding value and advocated that as long as labour and

capital is there, there will be a conflict between them for a bigger share of pie and the need for Human Resource

Management. He further warned HR professionals that it is they who are diminishing the profession by their

wrong conduct of profession. HR people should be clear that they are not Capital but they also are labour while at

the same time having courage to stand up for the right things on either side. Many senior and young HR

Professionals reacted to provocative and factual presentation of more than an hour with queries as to the critical

comments and advice during the speech to which he responded that his style and content of presentation was a

reflection of his concern for the profession and its future and not against any individual or institution. Overall the

audience were left spell bound and deeply impacted by the session which enriched their knowledge on the

status of HR profession and way they should engage themselves in the interest of both themselves and the

profession to make the future better.

The evening also witnessed another important event in the form of Certificate distribution for the successful

participants of “Labour Law Course for working people” which concluded recently. This is the outcome of yet

another proactive initiative of Hosur Chapter to conduct a six - month weekend course on Labour Laws by a

veteran in the field Mr. K Vittala Rao from Bangalore. Mr.Vittala Rao and other guest faculty members (which

included three past presidents of the Chapter) were also felicitated on the occasion. The program ended with

Mr.Sathish Kumar, Secretary of the Chapter offering vote of thanks to all those who participated.

Report credits: Dr. N Sekar, EC Member, NHRD Hosur Chapter

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Mr. S.Y. Siddiqui, Chief Mentor, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. was in Jaipur at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) campus as part of a motivational talk held on 6th August 2015. Speaking to the M anagement and M echanica l Engineer ing Department students , Mr. Siddiqui said that whenever students attend a presentation or go through placement process, they should come prepared after doing homework beforehand so that they are not caught unawares while answering unexpected questions.

“Leadership” - While talking of the great success story of Maruti Suzuki over the years, he shared that the company began with market dominance but with changing times they faced intense competition. However, with emphasis on production and customer orientation, engineering capability and customer delight & people strategies, they have been able to retain no. 1 position in the automotive industry. Mr. Siddiqui said that leadership is winning present challenges, learning from past failures and carving

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out a strategy for the future. Leadership also requires high levels of commitment, association and engagement as well as innovational initiatives. There is always a need to build a competitive edge, taking into consideration tangibles like cost, technology, m a n u f a c t u r i n g , p r o d u c t f e a t u r e s & c o r e competencies and intangibles l ike speed, responsiveness, customer intimacy, employee commitment & competence and leadership, strategy & innovation.

“Innovation” - Talking further about leadership and business strategy and innovation, he cited the example of Govindarjan's Three Boxes: Box-1 stood for managing the present, Box-2 for selectively forgetting the past and Box-3 for creating or envisioning the future. He asked the students in which box they were operating. Their career will depend on the choices they make. Mr. Siddiqui asked the students how they were preparing to build a competitive career. They must set goals and work accordingly to build a competitive edge to prepare a career of say, 40 years. He suggested they should not

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Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Jaipur

6 August 2015


Chapter News- JaipurMotivational talk by Mr. S.Y. Siddiqui on "Winning with a Competitive Edge"

Mr S Y Siddiqui addressing the participants

A cross-section of the audience

hesitate to work on shop floors if they want to achieve their dreams. Quoting Muhammad Ali, he said that he hated every minute of training, but he told himself, "suffer now & live the rest of your life as a champion". Mr. Siddiqui told the students that their first year in Industry will give them the rare opportunity of getting to know the 'Real Game'.

“Passion & Ownership” - He further advised the students that instead of routine employment they should choose an exciting career, have passion & ownership, create own professional identity and make their own career decisions. Industry expectations from them would be- basic subject knowledge, positive attitude, self discipline & adaptability, analytical ability, team spirit, problem solving, proactive approach, focus in execution & result orientation, attention to details, micro approach & challenging the status quo. The winning mindset requires a challenging spirit, deep thinking & finding a way, finding opportunities in challenging times, strong intent, focus & determination and consistent preparation. The Australian Cricket Team who were winners from 1990-2002 had this kind of winning mindset. Quoting Steve Waugh, Mr. Siddiqui said, "Don't get carried away in good times; Always train and prepare as if you are No. 2; Extra 1% is always better".

“You are your own competitor” - Mr. Siddiqui closed his presentation by telling the students that they themselves are their best competitors. Instead of competing with others a student needs to compete with himself and do better each time. He said, "you are the best person to write your own story".

Dr. Ashok Bapna welcomed Mr. Siddiqui and the Vote of Thanks was proposed by Prof. Ravindra Nagar, Dean Academics MNIT. He appreciated Mr. Siddiqui for delivering a very useful talk for the outgoing students of MNIT.The session was facilitated by Dr. Monica Sharma, Faculty Management, MNIT Jaipur.

After the presentation, Mr. Siddiqui took a round of MNIT Labs and Advanced Research Centres. He was especially impressed by the Advanced Tribology Lab and Materials Research Centre. Following the visit, Mr. Siddiqui said in the Exit Meeting that he would love to explore possibilities of long term relationship beyond recruitment with MNIT in areas of R&D. He promised to send his technocrats from Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. to visit these labs and see what projects can be taken up in collaboration with MNIT where he found high-end research was a unique feature.

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Mr S Y Siddiqui during the Q & A session

The NHRDN meeting presided over by the National President of the National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN), Mr. K. Ramkumar

thwas held on 18 August, 2015 at Hotel Marriott, Jaipur. The NHRDN meeting was attended by members of the NHRDN, Jaipur Chapter. Dr. Ashok Bapna, President - NHRDN Jaipur chapter and Professor and Head, Documentation & Brand Building, M.N.I.T, Jaipur opened the meeting by welcoming the Mr. K. Ramkumar - National President of NHRDN and Executive Director of ICICI Bank and President ICICI foundation,. Dr. Ashok Bapna introduced Mr. Ramkumar as a dynamic, action oriented person and hoped that under his leadership the Jaipur Chapter would be able to scale great heights. Dr. Bapna, on Behalf of the Jaipur chapter, presented a report on the activities of the Jaipur chapter to Mr. Ramkumar. He then requested the National Presidents’ attention and action on the following points -

• Support for the Jaipur chapter in getting more speakers for the events and programs such as the National Professor Scheme, conference to be held at Jaipuria in Feb 2016, regular programs being held at various institutes.

• Help in introducing some key industries for their close association

• Suggestion on who can be the speaker for the next Udai Pareek lecture.

• Suggestions on how to make the chapter financially self sufficient.

• Request to choose Jaipur as the venue for the National NHRDN Conference in 2017.

• Exploring the possibility of creating an NHRDN Chair through ICICI for Skill Development in the NHRDN or any relevant technical institute.

• Employability & skill development have become the key concerns of the NHRDN.

Mr. Ramkumar thanked Dr. Bapna and the members for inviting him to the chapter. He shared the following thoughts about NHRDN and the Jaipur Chapter:

• The Agenda for NHRDN should be driven by the agenda set by the individual chapters. The team at the national level should ensure that the required support to fulfil the agenda of the various chapters is provided. The role of the National President, according to Mr. Ramkumar, is to give shape and form to the chapters’ vision and mission, not to tell them what to do.

• NHRDN has been in existence for more than 25 years. However it has only a membership of 9000 people, which is roughly only 3% of the entire pool of HR professionals in the country. This is a very hard hitting fact that majority of the HR professionals do not want to join NHRDN. We must deliberate on why this is so?

• On conducting an informal survey of 500 people ( about 300 of whom were non- members), Mr. Ramkumar found 3 things that are likely reasons for the low membership in NHRDN -

• HR professionals don’t find people of their age group / area/profile in the chapter meetings. They cannot relate to the people who typically attend the meetings and hence do not go for the meetings.

• The network is not providing them any value. Eg. If a member wants to connect to another member for help in a particular area of this job (eg. For training design/ compensation survey etc.), the network does not help him do so.

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DateVenue

Venue

18 August 2015

Hotel Marriott, Jaipur

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Chapter News-JaipurNHRDN Monthly Meeting

• Similarly, while the network has a strong set of senior people, who participate during conferences, the network does not go beyond this to provide mentoring, guidance etc. through these senior professionals

• NHRDN must work in a way similar to a corporate, by finding out what its customers need, then designing products and services that will cater to their need. This has to be done quickly and in the next 5-6 years. NHRDN must become a network that is considered useful and worth joining.

Following are the views shared by various key members on the Jaipur chapter.

Dr. Ashok Agarwal - Trustee, IIHMR & Udai Pareek HRD Research Foundation

Dr. Agarwal thanked Mr. Ramkumar for his visit to speak to the Jaipur Chapter. He was very pleased to hear Mr. Ramkumar talk about how to make the Chapter relevant to the HR professionals and society – the vision on which the Jaipur Chapter had been founded, he said. Dr. Agarwal spoke about how the current Jaipur Chapter of NHRDN was actually founded as foundation way back in 1980 by a set of like minded people devoted to the HR professional under the guidance of Prof. Udai Pareek. The aim of the trust was to enable exchange of ideas and thoughts, provide learning resources and a forum where HR professionals could discuss. Dr. Udai Pareek donated a lot of books and material that is current housed in IIHMR for the purpose of knowledge sharing. The trust had 3 permanent trustees, who provided the support and resources. The trust also had 2 trustees chosen from the members so that the members could participate in deciding the activities of the trust and foundation. Subsequently, ‘Jaipur chapter of NHRDN‘ under the auspices of Udai Pareek HRD Research Foundation was set up. In the last few years, the chapter has become active under the leadership of Prof. Bapna, Dr. Agarwal shared.

Mr. Apurv Kumar - Trustee, Udai Pareek HRD Research Foundation & Managing Director, Clarks Group of Hotels

• Market share is of concern. The Jaipur chapter needs to revisit the vision and mission statements. It needs to introspect on its relevance, what it is doing and how it is delivering. The chapter needs to be relevant to the entire society.

• The chapter earlier has collaborated with CII to develop various training modules. Trainings have been provided to the Police, to people associated with the tourism industry. These modules were well received and appreciated even by the Rajasthan Tourism Department. The modules however have been lost but activities on similar lines can be done again.

• The work of individual organizations, who are part of NHRDN can be documented and made available for use. Eg. Documentation of work in the areas of skill development will be very useful for the chapter.

• In today’s world time is a challenge. Networking, connectivity can be done through technology. Very good lectures are available over the net. Hence the chapter must explore ways of enabling connectivity, communication, networking amongst its members through the use of technology.

• The reigns of the chapter must be handed over to the new generation. They should be driving the chapter with their new ideas and energy

• The challenge for the chapter is how to retain its members for new members can be easily made.

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Prof. Sandeep Sancheti – Vice Chancellor, Manipal University Jaipur & Executive Member, NHRDN Jaipur Chapter

• All bodies such as NHRDN face similar challenges – funds,leadership, involvement of youth etc. The challenges are common.

• The chapter needs to have more youth. They will benefit from the chapter and we must work in that direction.

• Skilling is closely related to Human resources. The Jaipur Chapter should explore how it can be involved in the skilling programs.

• For middle level managers, NHRDN and specifically The Jaipur Chapter can offer training programs that will help them in their jobs.

Feedback from other members

• NHRDN can consider doing work in the area of competency building, assessment centre

• There is a huge SME market that can be tapped for conducting training programs

• Online HR forum can be set up

• NHRDN must compile its list of members

• The Jaipur Chapter must reach out to people and make its presence felt

• The chapter must market its relevance

• Information about the meetings must be given

• The expertise of people in the group should be used.

• Certificates must be given to students who attend programs. This will attract more students.

Points of action suggested by Mr. Ramkumar

• The Jaipur Chapter must set its agenda and identify products and services it can offer.

• At present the chapter must target the HR professional. Later the programs can be extended to the rest of society.

• Formats must be worked out (by the use of technology) so that people can attend the meetings from their places. The timings of various discussions must be fixed and adhered to so that people

can choose what to attend.

• The discussion must be continued and any member who wishes to speak is free to do so.

• In 6 months time the memberships must be increased tenfold.

• The confirmed list of members in the Jaipur chapter must be made available by Friday, 21st Aug. 2015 (Mr. Hem Bhargava, Treasurer, NHRDN Jaipur Chapter was requested to prepare the list for the President and do the needful).

The Vote of Thanks was presented by Dr. Prabhat Pankaj - Secretary of NHRDN Jaipur & Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur.

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Adapting to a VUCA worldMr Agarwala unequivocally stated that we were living in a VUCA world and the faster one accepted this reality the better it would be to cope and adapt. In this context, he mentioned that one of the business principles followed by Jack Welch, erstwhile CEO of GE was that “one should not try to manage what one could not control” implying that one should perhaps not get into a business if one was not reasonably sure of controlling outcomes. However, Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE believed that in an uncertain and ambiguous world, one really could not hope to control or predict anything and that one would still need to figure out how to run and manage a business successfully. Mr Agarwala elaborated that the major disruptions witnessed in the last 12 months like the growth of ISIS, emergence of EBOLA, the sharp drop in the price of oil from USD 100 a barrel to less than USD 50 a barrel, underlining the centrality of uncertainty and ambiguity. He went on to add that the disruptions had impacted GE operations significantly as GE operated in more than 170 countries globally but finally, each business had to learn to navigate through uncertainty and adapt and survive in both the short and the long term. Mr Agarwala made the proposition that preparing employees and the organisation in dealing with uncertainty was important and it was critical to focus on this aspect. Existing business practices, people practices, business processes had to be questioned in the context of emerging realities and redefined wherever necessary. He gave the example of how GE decided to change the performance management and incentive system after 50 years as it was not suited to current realities and strongly advocated the need for organizations to examine their existing belief systems and adapt to the current context to stay relevant.The irrelevance of long term planningMr Agarwala made the proposition that whilst one needed to have a vision for the business for the medium and long term, one also needed to deliver on quarter on quarter targets. So, the trade-off between long term and short term really did not exist and business planning had to encompass both the short term and the long term. While organizations would need to plan for achieving growth and scale, it was important to review business forecasts in the context of the operating environment and the global and local trends which impacted the business model. In this context, Mr Agarwala underlined the relevance of evaluating business performance relative to other players and not being bound by a budgeted target which could be far too limiting or far too stretch depending on the environmental dynamics.Mr Agarwala further elaborated that some businesses like aircraft engines had long investment cycles and required enormous capital infusion. Also, it was virtually impossible to predict how the world would be 5-7 years down the line and its impact on the business model. Despite the uncertainties, one had to nevertheless take decisions based on one’s understanding of the emerging realities. Mr Agarwala reiterated that one needed to be constantly vigilant and identify opportunities and threats as they arose. As an example, he added that the threat

Mr Banmali Agarwala,

President & CEO - GE South Asia


Chapter News- MumbaiLeveraging HR for creating competitive advantage in VUCA times

Date 31 August 2015

Venue NHRDN Mumbai Chapter

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to the Ultrasound business of GE may not be from other Ultrasound businesses but may emerge from telecom companies.Key business imperatives and trendsMr Agarwala articulated the need for job creation as key imperative for improving the quality of lives and living standards of the world and its people. He made the proposition that businesses need to be sensitive to the need for job creation for sustainable and inclusive growth to become a reality. He argued that one should not only look at employment creation in the formal sector but also in downstream units or ancillary jobs and exhorted entrepreneurs to come forward to set up businesses.Mr Agarwala also delved on the trend of greater government involvement in the affairs of corporates and heightened regulatory activity. He argued that whilst corporates may find increasing government intervention restrictive, there was no getting away from engagement with regulatory bodies and there was a pressing need for corporates to demonstrate greater transparency, accountability and openness to scrutiny by the general public.Mr Agarwala also stated that while business would like to look at the world as one large global market the world was anything but a free market. It was about bilateral trade agreements between countries and the way each country was able to promote its interests through concessions, export financing and bilateral pacts etc. He argued the need for businesses to think more local and regional while operating in a global context for achieving success in each and every micro market.Leadership in a VUCA worldMr Agarwala helped decode leadership in the context of a VUCA world. He stated that in the VUCA world, businesses leaders could not afford to operate in command and control mode where final authority rested with only one individual. He made the proposition for businesses leaders to acquire multi-stakeholder management capabilities and the need for leaders to be able to influence outcomes in a matrix structure and in a multi-stakeholder environment including local communities and the public.Mr Agarwala pointed out that in the VUCA world, one would never have complete information about any subject or situation in order to make perfect decisions. Therefore, leaders would need to be comfortable navigating in ambiguous situations and keep experimenting and adapting with changing realities. He further elaborated by giving the example of how GE had moved away from Six Sigma as it was felt that the approach was no longer relevant in the context of the current business environment. He further argued that speed was of essence and investing inordinate amount of time to get things to be perfect impacted the speed to market resulting in lost business opportunities. Mr Agarwala did add the caveat however, that there was little room for error and one had to ensure zero defect processes in businesses like aircraft engines that impacted lives of many people.Mr Agarwala also alluded to the fact that in an uncertain world where past data was of little relevance in predicting the future course of action, it would be important for leaders to develop fine judgement in making strategic choices. Whilst one did have access to leveraging big-data given developments in computational power, the fact remained that black swan events would occur from time to time and hence the need to make balanced decisions based on both data and intuition. Mr Agarwala supported his view with the example of the Jaguar Land Rover deal of Tata Motors. He recollected that the decision of Mr Ratan Tata to buy Jaguar Land Rover was an example of fine judgment as the popular opinion and initial developments seemed to suggest that the decision would not pay off. However, as has been borne out, the Jaguar Land Rover deal has handsomely paid off for Tata Motors and it is a classic example of a bold decision and following through on the same. Mr Agarwala went on to state that the key lesson was not whether the decision was right or wrong but on exercising leadership despite the uncertainty and ambiguity.

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Mr Agarwala also argued for the need for leaders to build depth before they focused on acquiring breadth. He underlined the importance of specialisation and excellence in a chosen domain. He argued the need for leaders to stay connected to the ground realities of the business and market and the need for business leaders to spend considerable amount of time in the local geography to understand the context in which business decisions need to be taken.Further, Mr Agarwala emphasized the importance of humility and stated how there has been clear shift in the GE thinking that no matter how big the organization becomes, it could never become bigger than the society it operated in. He further recollected the time when GE was trying to establish itself in China and had attempted to influence and change the Chinese Government thinking around intellectual property to the point when they realized that either they had to adapt to Chinese laws without compromising their basic values and ethics or decide to get out of China. In this context, he mentioned how the TATA Group was a great example of the commitment that it demonstrated for the welfare of society and how it was paramount to its way of functioning.In a lighter vein, Mr Agarwala also argued for leaders to stay fit and have high energy levels to cope with business complexity and stress levels caused by uncertainty and rapid change. He argued for leaders to invest in themselves to learn and pick up skills to stay relevant and re-energize themselves.Simplifying StrategyMr Agarwala emphasised the need for evolving simple solutions to the complex problems of a VUCA world. Organizations needed to ensure that the last person in the team understand the purpose, goals and objectives of the business. Mr Agarwala made the proposition that strategy was nothing but making choices between different options and gave the example of how Jeff Immelt made two strategic decisions post the 2008 financial crisis. First, he took the decision that GE would not be vulnerable to volatility in financial markets and that earnings from non-financial services revenue streams had to reach 65% to 70% from 35% as it stood in 2008. Secondly, he took the decision to ensure that GE did not rely on few countries like the US and Europe and had presence in many more countries. These strategies played out over a period of 7 to 8 years and currently 70% of GE’s revenue comes from industrial businesses and more than half of the revenue now come from countries outside the US. It was a matter of making a choice; taking the decision to move out of financial services and redeploying teams in other businesses and growing their revenue and income streams.Mr Agarwala also underlined the importance of organization structure in influencing business outcomes. He argued that organization structure was a lever for executing business strategy and gave the example of how GE tried out a variety of structures at different points in time. Whilst in most parts of the world the business was structured around business lines, however in markets like India it was run as a separate P&L to support decentralization in decision making and driving ownership of market share and bottom line. Mr Agarwala alluded to the fact that whatever was the business structure there would always be a matrix in some form or the other and therefore, reiterated the need to be inclusive and to be able to influence multiple stakeholders for driving business outcomes. He also mentioned that in a distributed set-up with different business lines, it was important to embrace the concept of shared services to get cost advantage and argued for the need for business heads of different units to get comfortable with the idea of somebody else delivering a certain functional input and who were not in their direct line of control.In response to the question on the role of HR in business strategy, Mr Agarwala made the proposition that HR could play a pivotal role in working with business heads to ensure that the business strategy was articulated in a clear and simple way. This was absolutely imperative for organizational alignment and HR had a fundamental role to play in driving alignment to the purpose, vision, goals and values of the organization.

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Building a meritocratic cultureMr Agarwala underlined that goal setting was more an art and less of a science. He argued that goals should not be so high that people do not believe in them, nor should they be set so low that people don’t aspire for achievement. He reiterated the need to assess performance of a Company relative to market peers and argued that goals be set in terms of market share or multiples of growth rates to GDP as examples. Mr Agarwala unequivocally stated that in a VUCA world there was no merit in overemphasizing absolute targets and whilst one could make a stretch budget as it was aspirational, finally performance needed to be evaluated on a relative basis.Mr Agarwala placed meritocracy in perspective by stating that a highly meritocratic culture with sharp differentiation excluded people by design and made a few people stars at the expense of the many who worked and contributed for organization growth and success. He advised that business leaders should keep in mind the contribution of solid citizens or “B” Players and the need to respect their contribution and not undermine their importance in the overdrive towards meritocracy. He also cautioned on the need to uphold meritocracy at all levels and gave the example of how senior leaders needed to be evaluated by the same yardstick as junior colleagues to reinforce the principles of fairness and meritocracy at all levels.Mr Agarwala concluded by saying that along with threats and disruptions, there were opportunities to be seized and exhorted business leaders and entrepreneurs to embrace VUCA time and not accept the reality of VUCA times grudgingly & hesitatingly.

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