Challenge for HR - National HRD Network

| HRD News Letter | December 2007, Vol.23, Issue:9 2 |

Conference Color Photographs 


| HRD News Letter | December 2007, Vol.23, Issue:9 4 | 

Conference Color Photographs

Conference Color Photographs 


11 th National Conference 

Kolkata played host to the The 11 th National 

Conference of the National HRD Network 

that was held from November 29 th to 

December 1 st , 2007 at the ITC Sonar. The 

theme of the Conference was “India’s 

Century: The Challenge for Indian 

Business Leadership.” Mr Sarthak 

Behuria, Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation 

was the Conference Chairman. 725 

delegates attended the Conference 

including 100 students from various 

Management Institutes from all over the 

country. 

The Conference kicked off on the morning 

of November 29 th with an impactful audio 

visual on the theme of the Conference, the 

recitation of the Code of Professional 

Conduct of the National HRD Network 

followed by the Jan Gan Man. The 

traditional lamp lighting ceremony followed. 

with the lamp lit by Mr Sarthak Behuria, 

Chairman Indian Oil and Conference 

Chairman, Mr Y C Deveshwar, Chairman 

of ITC, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Co Chairman 

of Infosys, Mr Aquil Busrai, Executive 

Director HR of IBM and National 

President, National HRD Network, Mr 

Sourav Daspatnaik, Director HR & 

Strategy of the Apeejay Surrendra Group 

and President of the Kolkata Chapter of 

the National HJRD Network, Mr B 

Santhanam, Chief Executive of St Gobain 

and Chairman of the HR & IR Sub 

Committee of the CII and Dr A K Balyan, 

HR Director ONGC and President of the 

National Institute of Personnel 

Management. 

In his address as Chairman of the 

Conference Mr Sarthak Behuria spoke on 

“The Role of Industry in National Building”, 

Mr Y C Deveshwar delivered the Inaugural 

Address on the theme “Creating a More 

Secure and Sustainable Future” and Mr 

Nandan Nilekani as the Key Note Speaker 

spoke on “Vision 2025” and the rolw that 

“ideas” will play in shaping the future. 

The Inaugural Session was followed by a 

module on “The Emerging Environment for 

Business” that was moderatedby Mr 

Govind Ethiraj, Editor in Chief of UTV 

News. Speakers at this session included 

Prof Amitav Bose of the Indian Institute of 

Management, Calcutta, Prof (Ms) Nandini 

Sundar from the Delhi School of 

Economics, Mr Baijayant Panda, Member 

of Parliament and Mr Ramesh Vangal, 

Chairman of the Katra Group of 

Companies. This session explored the 

impact that macro economic, political and 

social-cultural trends would have on shaping 

the future environment for business. 

Ms Madhabi Puri-Buch, Executive Director 

of ICICI Bank, addressed the delegates on 

“The Challenge of Diversity” and 

emphasised the need for corporates to look 

beyond traditional sources of talent supply 

to build more inclusive and diverse groups 

of employees. 

The highlight of the first day’s proceedings 

was the address by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, 

former President of India. Dr Kalam spoke 

about his Vision for India, the need for 

compassionate and creative leaders, the 

special role that youth has in shaping the 

destiny of the country and the need to build 

appropriate management structures and 

systems for effective execution. He had a 

special word for the students present at the 

Conference. Dr Kalam’s session was 

followed by a module on “The Empolyee of 

the Future” with Dr (Ms) Sujaya Banerjee, 

Chief Learning Officer of the Essar Group 

speaking on “The New Employee Profile” 

and Mr Pratik Kumar, Executive Vice 

Preident, Group HR, Wipro Corporation, 

speaking on “The New Employment 

Contract.” 

Day I concluded with the Conference 

Dinner hosted by Mr Sarthak Behuria. 

Day 2, November 30 th , began with an 

address by Mr Debu Bhattacharya, 

Managing Director of Hindalco and Vice 

Chairman of Novelis, who spoke about the 

“Challenge of Overseas Acquisitions” on the 

context of the acquisition of Novelis by the 

Aditya Birla Group earlier this year. He 

shared his insights and learnings from the 

acquisition process with the delegates. His 

session was followed by a Panel Discussion 

on the Global Survey on Talent Retention 

conducted by Summit HR, USA. The 

session was anchored by Mr Ranjan Sinha, 

CEO of Summit HR USA. He shared the 

findings of the Research Study and the 

implications for talent retention arising from 

this Study. 

This session was followed by a very 

interesting Panel Discussion on “The HR 

Challenge of Building a World Class 

Enterprise” brilliantly moderated by Dr 

Santrupt Misra, Director of the Aditya Birla 

Corporation. Panelists included Mr G K 

Agarwal, HR Director of NTPC, Mr Rajeev 

Dubey, President HR and Corporate 

Services of Mahindra & Mahindra, Mr Steve 

Correa, HR Director of Vodafone Essar, 

Mr Udai Upendra, Managing Director of 

The HR Company and Mr T V Mohandas 

Pai, Director HR of Infosys. The Panel 

explored what world class organizations 

really are, how they are built and what 

are the HR challenges that need to be 

addressed in this process. 

The afternoon session on day 2 dealt with 

the Sunrise Sectors of Media and Modern 

Retail with the delegates addressed by Mr 

Rajdeep Sardesai, Managing Editor of 

CNN IBN and Mr Bijou Kurien, President 

of the Lifestyle Division of Reliance Retail. 

The opportunities opening up in these 

sectors, the impact they would have on 

the business environment and the new 

challenges arising form the opening of 

these sectors were discussed. 

Mr K V Kamath, Managing Director and 

Chief Executive of ICICI Bank addressed 

the delegates on the theme “Building a 

World Class Enterprise” and emphasized 

the need of focusing not only on human 

capital but on speed capital and innovation 

as well. This session was followd by a 

Panel Discussion on “Entrepreneurship” 

moderated by Mr Sanjeev Bikhchandani, 

CEO of Naukri. The other panelists were 

Mr Sanjeev Agarwal of Helion Ventures, 

Mr Mohan Reddy of Infotech Enterprises 

and Mr R Sashikant of Subiksha. What 

inspired them to take the road less 

traveled, the unique challenges of building 

entrepreneurial organizations and the HR 

role in such organizations were discussed. 

Day 3 started with an address by Ms 

Poonam Barua on the “Role of Women in 

Providing Leadship to Business and 

Industry in the Future.” This was followed 

by Mr B Muthuraman, Managing Director 

of Tata Steel, addressing the delegates on 

“Building the Indian MNC.” Mr Muthuraman 

spoke about the experience of the Tata 

Group in acquiring enterprises across the 

globe and how important it was to allow 

the manmagements of these enterprises 

to continue managing their enterprises 

within the overall policy and values 

framework of the Tata Group. 

Two sessions on the “HR Implications of 

Mergers and Acquisitions” and the “HR 

Challenge of Managing Across Borders” 

followed. These session were addressed 

by Mr Marcus Banfield, Chief Executive 

of Typhoo Tea which has recently been 

acquired by the Apeejay Surrendra Group 


and Mr Inder Walia, Group HR Director of 

the Bharti Group who spoke about his 

learnings whilst managing the HR 

responsibility at Arcelor Mittal. 

Prof Peter Cappelli of The Wharton 

School, who directed the Research Study 

jointly undertaken by The Wharton School 

and the National HRD Network, on “The 

DNA of Business Leadership,” presented 

the findings of the Study and released the 

preliminary report of the Study to Mr Aquil 

Busrai, National President and to Mr Vivek 

Paranjpe, HR Advisor of Reliance 

Industries. Reliance Industries had 

sponsored the Research Study in which 

over 100 Chief Executives of Indian 

corporations participated. 

Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Mr R 

Vidyasagar and Prof Premrajan of XLRI 

presented the salient features of 

CompMode to the delegates. 

A unique feature of the Conference was the 

session on social entrepreneurship which 

aimed to enable delegates learn from the 

experience of social entrepreneurs working 

in the non-corporate sector. Speakers 

included Mr Vishal Talreja of the Dream a 

Dream Foundation and Gargi Banerjee of 

Pragya. These sessions were truly 

exhilarating. 

The Valedictory Session brought the 

curtains down on the National Conference. 

Mr S K Roongta, Chairman of SAIL 

delivered the Valedictory Address and Prof 

Jitendra Singh, Dean and Shaw Professor 

of the Nanyang Business School, Singapore 

and Paul Steinberg Professor of 

Management at Wharton was the Chief 

Guest. He spoke on “How will we make this 

India’s Century.” 

The Eastern Region of the National HRD 

Network honoured four social 

entrepereneurs for their unique service to 

society and for choosing the road less 

traveled. They were Mr Vishal Talreja of 

Dream a Dream Foundation, Ms Gargi 

Banerjee and Mr Sunil Pillai of Pragya and 

Sr Cyril Mooney of the Rainbox Education 

Project working with street children in 

Kolkata. Mr Roongta presented the “Most 

Promising Chapter Award “ to the Nagpur 

Chapter and the “Best Chapter Award” to 

the Delhi Chapter. 

The curtains came down on the 11th 

National Conference at 6.30 pm on 

Saturday, December 1 st , 2007. We now look 

forward to the 12 th National Conference to 

be held in Chennai in 2008. The delegates 

carried away with them “saplings” as 

mementoes that they will plant and nurture 

and as these saplings grow they will serve 

as a reminder of the Conference and in the 

process help in a small way in greening 

our environment. The baton has now been 

passed on from Kolkata to Chennai. 

UDAIPUR DECLARATION - November 3, 2007 

Second International Dialogue on “Economics of Non-violence: Cultural Values & Ethics” was held at 

Pragya Shikar, Mahapragya Vihar, Bhuwana, Udaipur, during November 1-3, 2007. 

The dialogue concluded: 

1. The present day Economics 

emphasises largely materialistic 

development; in its place, it is necessary 

to develop a new economic concept 

which is based on balanced cultural, 

social, spiritual and material 

development in society. 

2. In order to keep social, political and 

economic aspects of life free from 

problems, it is necessary to connect 

development with the element of 

"transformation of consciousness” so 

that greed, selfishness, impertinence, 

etc. can be curbed and minimized. 

3. A new concept of Relative Economics 

is being developed so that people at 

large can be benefited by the economic 

development and ultimately the chasm 

of disparity between the rich and the 

poor, between rural and urban areas, 

between different regions of a country 

and communities is reduced through a 

process of inclusive development of all. 

4. The "Corporate Social Responsibility” 

should be borne by big business houses 

and industrial groups so that none 

should remain bereft of basic needs. 

Government should also perform its role 

of social responsibility. 

5. The elements of non-violence, 

compassion, sensitiveness etc. should 

be strongly cultivated in the 

consciousness of people so that 

violence, cruelty, callousness etc. in 

human relations and behaviour may be 

curbed and consequently, a new society 

infused with amity, cooperation and 

peace may be constructed. 

6. Without controlling tendencies of 

individual accumulation and 

consumerism, it would not be possible 

to curb acts of violence, killings, crimes, 

terrorism etc.; keeping this in view, the 

consciousness of non-possessiveness 

or limitation of wants needs to be 

developed and the trend of voluntary 

"visarjana” (sharing with others) needs 

to be emphasized. Giving & caring for 

others is a must for building a happy 

and congenial social order. 

7. "Roti" (i.e. bread), Ahimsa, Spirituality 

and Morality—all these four dimensions 

are to be considered simultaneously 

with respect to their development and 

for that the technique of “Training-in- 

Non-violence” should be administered. 

The entitlements for the poor should be 

stressed in this regards, so that their 

concerns are properly taken care of 

regarding food, shelter, education, 

health and other basic needs of life. 

8. Making a total change in the system of 

education, the technique of "emotional 

control” should be included in 

curriculum from the very beginning so 

that inspite of the growth of intellectual 

and economic competence, it can be 

put under control through the 

consciousness of Viveka (prudence) & 

children start imbibing the noble spirit 

of truth and non-violence from the early 

stage in life. 

9. To save the individual as well as society 

from the dreadful consequences of the 

lopsided material prosperity, giving rise 

to the internal restlessness, tension, 

conflict, environmental pollution etc., a 

paradigm shift in the development 

requires to be developed so that peace, 

true happiness, relaxed life and 

conservation of environment is 

guaranteed for all human beings. 

10. The Relative Economics should be 

centred round "human being” and not 

"matter”. 

11. Economic rationality needs to be 

extended to include cultural and ethical 

rationality. In fact, there should be 

complete convergence between 

economics, culture and ethics for 

building a sustainable society. The 

necessary details should be worked out 

in this regard through further surveys 

and studies by experts in their 

respective fields. 

Ashok Bapna 

Convener 


Vol - 23 December 2007 Issue - 9 

Editor 

C. Balaji, 

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DWARAKANATH P, Immediate Past President 

ANAND NAYAK, Regional President (East) 

GOPAL KRISHNA M., Regional President(South) 

SATISH PRADHAN, Regional President (West) 

RAO G P, Regional President (North) 

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SANTHANAM B, Co-opted Member 

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27,32-35.. Udaipur International Conference 

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Cent ACS/Chatur Colour Add 


ETHICS AT WORKPLACE 

The single most important 

business imperative 

All seemed to be going well for this 

22,000 strong, over $110 bln 

revenue, blue chip organisation. But 

then suddenly, everything started 

crumbling - overnight - Stock price fell 

to near zero, senior management went 

behind bars and it seemed that all 

'energy' had been sapped out of this 

once giant organisation. What went 

wrong ? Simple, top leaders had 

crossed that thin distinguishing line of 

ethics. This story has been repeated 

often and with one certainty - world 

does not forgive any institution that 

mistakenly believes of escaping 

consequences after infringing ethical 

standards. Maintaining high ethics is 

becoming a single most important 

business imperative. 

Workplace ethics is a set of ideal and 

principle that an organisation commits 

to and ensures that all its constituents 

adhere unfailingly. This then becomes 

a set of formal or informal standards 

of conduct that guides behaviour at 

workplace. These standards are partly 

based on core values such as honesty, 

respect, and trust often reinforced or 

demonstrated by the actions of 

organizational leaders and co-workers. 

If embedded strongly into the DNA of 

the organisation, they can help guide 

high-performance organizations 

through the stormiest of ups and 

downs. 

While there are certain values that are 

essential to furthering ethical actions, 

there is no one magical 'code of 

conduct' document that applies to all 

businesses. Ethical guidelines will vary 

President's Message 

with the values, culture, processes and 

the core business of each individual 

organization. While an accounting 

group might focus on integrity, 

confidentiality and obligations to its 

clients, a baby food or toy manufacturer 

might emphasize safety of its product. 

Most organisations will, however, 

define expected behaviour around 

financial and personal integrity. 

An organization culture that 

encourages employees to raise issues 

and show courage in confronting 

unethical or illegal practices without 

fear of personal consequences builds 

faith in its uprightness and prevents any 

suspicious activities from going 

unnoticed. Progressive organisations 

provide a forum to employees to safely 

report violation of law or organisation 

norms. Given many names like "Speak 

up", "Whistle Blowing" etc they 

uniformly ensure confidentiality. Some 

organisations also appoint 

independent, external ombudsman. 

Organizations that maintain strong 

ethical practices invariably attract 

higher degree of employee loyalty, 

tending to attract better talent and have 

higher retention record. A study by 

Hudson Institute found that 55 percent 

of employees who describe their 

workplace environment as ethical are 

more likely to stay with the same 

organization for a longer period. 

Ethical failures are rooted in leadership 

failure. Leading to lack of a corporate 

culture in which ethical concerns have 

not been given due importance or, 

worst still, where these have been 

compromised for some immediate 

business gains. Most often under the 

mistaken belief, that these 

infringements will be covered up and 

will not be unearthed. 

A standard of ethical behaviour has to 

be set and displayed at the top most 

level in the organisations. Employees 

are perceptible enough to distinguish 

stated ethical aims and those actually 

practiced by the organisation leaders. 

How these leaders 'walk-the-talk' 

decides how much adherence to ethical 

standards gets permeated in the 

organisation. 

Corporate leaders have a professional 

obligation to build and foster a valuesbased 

culture that nurtures high ethical 

standards. Only by instilling these 

values, will they be able to ensure long 

term sustainability of the organisation. 

Thus it is by their own conduct that they 

demonstrate the extent of their 

commitment. In Indian scenario, some 

large and reputed organisations have 

had close brush with ethical violations. 

In most cases where these 

organisations have been exposed the 

negative impact has been immediate 

and lasting. Though in a few cases, 

unfortunately, by their mega growth 

some organisations have even 

managed to gain legitimacy and 

obliterate their past reputation. 

Increasing number of companies, in the 

last decade, have adopted and 

enforced codes of ethics and on-going 

educational programs to help combat 

ethical breaches. Clearly employees 

have an inherent desire to work in a 

clean work environment and if they are 

made aware of the organisations 

commitment and also the processes of 

escalation they would rather resort to 

compliance than turn away from 

reporting an infringement. Educating 

the workforce therefore is critical, if a 

culture of high ethical standard is to be 

evolved. 

Organizations known for non ethical 

practices not only find themselves in 

legal entangle sinking millions of funds, 

but also face challenges in 

recruitments, employee productivity 

and loyalty. Ethics matter in business 

because all internal and external 

stakeholders stand to gain when 

individuals, organizations and 

employees seek to do what is right. A 

clean image attracts both customers 

and investors. Though it does not 

appear on the balance sheet, good 

corporate ethics are huge assets to any 

organization. 

Conduct of senior management and 

direct supervisors, coupled with 

positive reinforcement for ethical 

behaviour, are major factors for 

promoting ethical standard amongst 

the workforce. Zero tolerance policy 

towards infringement further reinforces 

the seriousness of intent. At the end of 

the day, it all boils down to sincere 

intent. If the intent is really to be ethical, 

people will sense it. Even value it. 

- Aquil Busrai 


Suryadatta Colour Add 


Editorial 

Ihave a couple of points to write about 

in this editorial. Firstly, the number 

of articles that we receive for 

publication appears to have reduced. I 

am told that one possible reason for 

this is the 'stringent' criteria we apply - 

not to accept articles that do not seem 

to be original. Now, there is nothing 

'stringent' about this! We simply cannot 

accept materials that are possibly 

plagiarized! I have no doubt at all that 

there are so many people who have 

thoughts and practices of theirs to 

share about. I am re-appealing to such 

people to kindly share these with the 

fellow professionals. The HRD 

Newsletter was started as an organ of 

the National HRD Network, whose 

purpose is to learn from each other. 

And the Newsletter is a platform for 

that. 

The second point that I wish to touch 

upon is based on written material that 

I came across in the recent past - 

materials about the role of 

conversations in organizational 

change, many of which can be found 

in www.laurieford.com. I want to refer 

to the paper titled "Resistance and the 

background conversations of change" 

co-authored by Jeffrey Ford, Laurie 

Ford and Randall Mc Namara (Journal 

of Organisational Change 

Management, Vol 15, No 2, 2002, pp. 

105-121.). In this paper, the authors 

take a post-modernst, constructivist 

perspective and consider that there is 

no singular, objective reality of 

phenomena, but is "interpreted, 

constructed, or enacted through social 

interactions'. Proceeding from this 

premise, the authors consider that 

resistance to change is to be found in 

the constructed social reality: there is 

a conversation in the social system that 

is at the 'background' of change efforts. 

Attempts at change that ignore to alter 

this background conversation are not 

likely to succeed. The authors identified 

three such resistance-to-change 

backgrounds: complacent, resigned 

and cynical. These three are created 

and sustained by three different sets 

Best Chapter Award 2006-07 - Delhi Chapter 

of conversations. The authors propose 

'reinvention' as a way of dealing with 

these background conversations: 

reinvention "is not about changing what 

is, but undoing what is and creating 

something new." Readers who are 

interested to delve deeper into this 

matter will benefit hugely from going 

through this paper, and others the 

website I had mentioned above. 

- C. Balaji 

The Delhi Chapter of NHRDN established during 1985-86 has been attaining a multi-fold growth in size, contribution to the profession 

and service to members. During the period 2006-07, the membership of the Chapter has grown considerably including the growth of 

Life membership to 1500 plus, which is commendable. 

Besides organizing regular monthly/special meets with outstanding speakers, the Chapter has organized a number of special events 

during the year. The Chapter successfully organized the 10th National Conference which became the biggest conference in terms of 

revenue and profits in the history of NHRDN. The Chapter has shown innovation in the way they have organized a couple of very 

interactive sessions : 'HR in action' which is organized on the lines of a Town Hall where any participant in the event is free to share 

his/her thoughts on HR with the rest of the group. Recently, the chapter has launched its mega web project (web 2.0) with some 

unprecedented and path breaking work. Chapter also hosted board meets and contributed significantly to the national activities etc. 

The Delhi Chapter has created a benchmark by holding regular Annual General Body Meetings and leadership renewal. AGM 

immediately after close of accounts, duly audited in record time. Their annual secretary report is a masterpiece and exemplary work 

of corporate governance. The Chapter has a clear succession plan with young talent contributing and taking charge. The Code of 

Conduct is consistently institutionalized and has been making highest funds contribution to the Head Quarter. The Chapter has been 

making contribution beyond to the non-profit organizations. Delhi chapter has also been supporting the National and Regional level 

activities of NHRDN. 

In recognition of the outstanding achievements made during 2006-07, the National HRD Network takes pride in conferring the Best 

Chapter Award 2006-07 on the Delhi Chapter. 

Most Promising Chapter Award 2006-07 - Nagpur Chapter 

Nagpur Chapter of NHRDN has been attaining a multi-fold growth in size, contribution to the profession & service to members. 

During the period 2006-07, the membership of Chapter has grown considerably including the growth of Life Membership to 68, 

which is commendable in smaller non-metros. Besides maintaining a continuous momentum in organizing the regular meetings, the 

Chapter has organized 2 special events in this year. 

Nagpur Chapter has also been the frontrunner for the share of membership made to the Headquarters. In recognition to the noteworthy 

achievements made during 2006-07 amongst the non-metro Chapters, the National HRD Network takes pride in conferring the Most 

Promising Chapter Award 2006-07 on the Nagpur Chapter. 


Crisp Color Add 


The Artist and the Audience 

Insight happens by serendipity and 

sometimes in the unlikeliest of places. This 

time, the setting was the International 

Children's Festival recently hosted by Delhi. 

Held every year for the past seven years, 

the festival brings together students of the 

Ryan group of schools from various 

countries to promote cultural exchange and 

understanding. 

As we walked into National Bal Bhavan, the 

sight of groups of students and teachers of 

different nationalities conversing and 

laughing with one another fascinated us. The 

feeling continued as we trooped into the 

auditorium for the cultural show. That 

evening, students from two countries - 

Estonia and Slovania were putting up 

performances. 

The Trio of Piglets from Estonia was a 

delightful play of three piglets played by 

blonde girls in the age group of 8 - 12 

supported by a quartet of musicians. The 

simplicity of the script and the spontaneous 

exuberance of the girls as they pranced 

about on stage and shouted their names in 

quick succession (Neff Neff, Niff Niff and 

Nuff Nuff) had the audience in splits and 

endeared them in a matter of moments. At 

the end, the audience roared in applause. 

A choreography item, Mikroorganisms from 

Slovania used the ballet dance form to 

render an artistic interpretation of the 

beginning of life in the universe. Starting on 

a slow tempo, the late-teen boys and girls 

started crossing each other in long and 

staccato strides in studied indifference. As 

the music stepped up, they writhed and 

convulsed to a crescendo that would have 

demanded a high level of raw physical 

strength, stamina and flexibility. The 

spectators went through a multitude of 

emotions ranging from awe and shock to 

confusion and admiration before settling for 

a big round of clapping. 

"Which performance was better?" Maybe it 

is a wrong question to ask because both 

performances were creative in their own way 

and done with loads of passion and energy. 

The piglets scored on their use of humor 

and simplicity; the organisms on their 

extremely well choreographed moves and 

haunting music score. 

Column 

Let's reframe the question "Which 

performance did the audience like better?" 

If one had asked this particular audience - 

a group largely comprised of children and 

teens - to make a choice, my surmise would 

have been Advantage Piglets. 

In the artistic world, there will always be the 

creative license to interpret a theme or topic 

in a completely whacky manner. What's of 

essence is the artist-audience relationship. 

If the artist is fickle, the interplay between 

these two is even more so. One can safely 

venture that for an artist to be 'successful' 

(let's put it 'commercially successful'), he/ 

she needs to know the audience well. How 

else can one explain how an artist recently 

received Rs. 6 lakhs for a painting on a 

2.5'X2' canvas that bore a striking 

resemblance to red blobs on a yellow sky? 

Is there an artist-audience relationship in 

the corporate world too - at our workplace 

where performance and results count, not 

merely creative ideas; where consistency 

and stability is valued more than 

eccentricity? One can say that this 

relationship exists in a slightly different form 

and at two levels - external and internal. 

In the former, the artist is the savvy 

marketing professional and the audience is 

the target consumer. The marketer knows 

that his offering - product or service - is not 

always markedly differentiated from 

competition in today's business 

environment, hence he applies his 4 P's of 

Marketing to 'paint' an attractive value 

proposition that appeals to the mind and 

heart of the consumer and get deeply 

entrenched into her mind space. He also 

tries to influence repeat behavior through 

loyalty programs etc. 

The marketer is granted the creative license 

to the extent that his art (marketing 

communications, ads) brings revenue or 

profits. Thus, it is not creativity for its own 

sake; the art of marketing is to bring in the 

moolah. Haven't we heard the debate on 

what truly constitutes real good advertising/ 

copywriting and what does not? Opinion 

may be divided on whether winning a 

prestigious award can classify an ad as 

effective, but the final say belongs to the 

audience - the consumer. 

Madan Srinivasan is based at Gurgaon. He can be reached at: Madan_sri@yahoo.com 

– Madan Srinivasan 

At the internal level, the artist and the 

audience are drawn together by the internal 

customer-vendor relationship. Of the several 

types that exist, we'll explore one that's close 

to our hearts - the HR professional as the 

artist and the employees as the audience. 

For the HR professional to be successful as 

an artist, she needs to firstly understand the 

needs, desires and aspirations of the 

audience. She needs to do market 

segmentation of her audience because the 

workforce in today's organization is 

heterogeneous - blue collar, white collar, 

knowledge worker, managers and leaders - 

and no ONE size can fit them all. This is done 

through a process of exploration and discovery 

- two-way dialog, employee connect, pulse 

surveys - just like the artist uses his keen 

sense of observation of nature and the world 

around him to get ideas for his art. 

The consolidated insights serve as the muse 

that inspires the HR professional to create 

a set of programs and initiatives that offer a 

relevant value proposition to the employees, 

just as the artist translates his imaginative 

and creative intent into a repertoire of work 

- painting, sculpture, prose and poems, etc. 

The impact of the HR offerings depends 

largely on how well they have been received 

by the employees and would be measured 

by metrics like higher retention, greater 

employee satisfaction and engagement, 

improved performance, etc, but the greatest 

satisfaction that a HR person will experience 

is when her audience loves the HR program 

or initiative. 

The inherent nature of the HR professionalemployees 

relationship may not be fickle in 

the sense of the artist-audience pairing; but 

it definitely comes under a lot of scrutiny in 

today's job market, where the talent pool - 

both prospective and those inside - are 

continuously assessing their current 

organization's offerings with respect to their 

own needs & aspirations and those in other 

organizations. This is where the HR person 

- the Artist comes in and creates and 

sustains a compelling proposition that fires 

the imagination of its audience. 

Whether it is the savvy marketer or the 

empathetic HR person, they are out to woo 

their audience! Hurrah for the artist and the 

audience! 

u H 


Sona Steering Colour Add 


Educating Facts and Factoids 

India on the fast lane, "India is the next 

super power" "India is no pushover" 

…..a lot is being said and written about 

India. Everyone from TiE-the US based 

powerful NRI club-to our very own 

NHRDN has been mounting national and 

international debate to discuss on what 

it means to be in India now, a happening 

country….. Well there are facts and there 

are factoids according to Jug Suraya, the 

inimitable columnist with a sharp wit. He 

wrote in Times of India the other day that 

by repeating endlessly what is not a fact 

one could create an impression that it is 

so. India may be all that and more but let 

us not get mixed up about the context and 

timeline and end up exhausting all the 

accolades before time and be left with 

only expletives for a job not done. If one 

only could look at the pathetic state of 

preparedness of the all important human 

resource to make the magic of India Inc 

happen, one could easily see what is fact 

and what is not . 

The Indian Labour Report 2007 says that 

"about 90 % of employment opportunities 

require vocational skills, but 90 % of our 

college and higher education output has 

only bookish knowledge". 

A similar study conducted by Infosys, the 

IT major, concludes that close to 30 % of 

the candidates they interviewed were not 

employable. Coming from an employer of 

repute who almost exclusively recruit 

computer specialists or qualified 

engineers or MBAs, this is quite a telling 

comment on the state of affairs. The 

software association Nasscom holds a 

similar view about the quality of the 

passouts from our higher education 

institutions about their employability 

quotient. Being unemployed is no curse 

as there is still hope of landing a job, but 

to be "unemployable" a curse worse than 

that of the devil's own. The institutions 

and the system that has created these 

can offer no excuse for continuing with 

this sort of affair any more. But who is in 

a hurry to change things on the ground? 

Column 

None and ironically by the factoids that 

are being trotted out of India being a world 

beater much ahead of times, one is only 

adding to the laxity and worse, complicity 

to continuing with the inevitable. 

Not that the employers who are fighting 

with each other to offer tantalizing 

packages in our business school 

campuses are not aware of the ability of 

our "blue-eyed MBAs" performing in live 

work situations. But it is equally an open 

secret that blue eyed are few and 

increasingly rare and what is being offered 

in the campus today may be justified in 

some cases but in most it could be 

construed as wage inflation necessitated 

by lack of supply, a dangerous situation 

to be in where you not only end up with a 

substandard talent but also pay more than 

what you would want to pay for it. 

Quantity and quality 

The much touted Goldman Sachs study 

of Brazil, Russia, India and China 

(identified as BRIC countries) is being 

quoted by the factoid hunters tirelessly 

to say that India can very well emerge as 

the third largest economy in the world in 

2040 and the largest economy in 2050. 

India has the potential to grow the fastest 

among the four BRIC countries over the 

next 30 to 50 years 

Such a massive growth however require 

a comprehensive development and 

planning strategy that would primarily aim 

at providing an appropriate talent pool 

and leadership talent in the country which 

can only happen through the education 

process. As a result higher education has 

become a focus of attention in the country. 

According to the Indian HRD ministry 30 

new central universities would be created 

in the 11th plan period which is about to 

commence, of which 16 are to be set up 

in areas which don't have a central 

university. The rest 14 are to be model 

universities of world class infrastructure., 

A.Thothathri Raman, Consulting Editor Business India magazine. E-mail: atraman@gmail.com 

– Thothathri Raman 

each of these 16 universities would cost 

around Rs 1,000 crores a piece. There 

are plans for seven IIMs, 10 National 

Institute of Technology, five Indian Institute 

of Science, Education and Research, 20 

IIITs and two schools of architecture. 

There will also be 330 new colleges in 

educationally backward districts. Well, the 

numbers are impressive enough, never 

mind that it will not add up to much as 

together these institutions will not add 

more than 20 per cent additional capacity 

of seats. 

The National Knowledge Commission 

headed by a die-hard dreamer, Sam 

Pitroda has recommended the 

establishment of 1500 new universities to 

bring at least 15 per cent of school pass 

outs to get a graduate degree. 

The numbers are fine and by repeating 

these in time and again one could even 

create a factoid that India will have met 

the magic numbers needed to fuel the 

manpower needs of the industry. But fact 

is, such massive outturn in university 

education would require a lot more nerve 

than what we have at present. A steely 

resolve is needed to pull out all stops to 

put together a higher education system 

which not only could fund itself on a 

massive scale using government, private 

and international sources, but also spruce 

the bottomline quality so that the curse 

of unemployable graduates will be ended 

once and for all. This would require a 

drastic rethink and greater participation 

by professionals in the education process 

than what we see at present. Time to 

mount a national action plan on what we 

can do to create capacity with quality than 

waste time waxing eloquent on factoids. 

Join me in sending in your opinion as to 

how professionals could establish 

institutions and companies to provide 

quality education. 

Write to atr124@yahoo.com u H 


Alfastar Colour Add 


SESSION WISE SUMMARY OF 11 TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF 

NHRD NETWORK AT KOLKATA 29 TH NOV 1 ST DECEMBER 07. 

Report by : Sourav Das Patnaik 

Kolkata played host to the The 11 th National Conference of the National HRD Network that was held from November 29 th to December 1 st , 

2007 at the ITC Sonar. The theme of the Conference was “India’s Century: The Challenge for Indian Business Leadership.” Mr. Sarthak 

Behuria, Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation was the Conference Chairman. 725 delegates attended the Conference including 100 students 

from various Management Institutes from all over the country. 

The Conference kicked off on the morning of November 29 th with an impactful audio visual on the theme of the Conference, the recitation 

of the Code of Professional Conduct of the National HRD Network followed by the Jan Gan Man. The traditional lamp lighting ceremony 

followed with the lamp lit by Mr. Sarthak Behuria, Chairman Indian Oil and Conference Chairman, Mr. Y C Deveshwar, Chairman of ITC, Mr. 

Nandan Nilekani, Co Chairman of Infosys, Mr. Aquil Busrai, Executive Director HR of IBM and National President, National HRD Network, 

Mr. Sourav Daspatnaik, Director HR & Strategy of the Apeejay Surrendra Group and President of the Kolkata Chapter of the National 

HJRD Network, Mr B Santhanam, Chief Executive of St Gobain and Chairman of the HR & IR Sub Committee of the CII and Dr A K Balyan, 

HR Director ONGC and President of the National Institute of Personnel Management. 

DAY -1 

Highlights of Speech 

INAUGRAL SESSION Speaker 

Mr. Sarthak Behuria-Chairman 

Indian Oil Corporation Limited and 

Chairman of the Conference. 

Mr. Y. C. Deveshwar, Chairman, 

ITC Limited, Chief Guest 

Mr. Nandan Nilekani, 

Co-Chairman, Infosys 

Mr. Aquil Busrai, Executive 

Director, Human Resources, IBM 

India 

Mr. Sourav Daspatnaik, Director, 

HRD & Strategy, Apeejay 

Surrendra Group 

Post Lunch Session 

Panel Discussion with Moderator: 

Mr. Govind EthirajPanelists: Mr. 

Baijaynta Jay Panda, Mr. Ramesh 

Vangal, Prof (Ms) Nandini Sundar, 

Prof Amitava Bose. 

Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch, 

Executive Director, ICICI Bank 

"The Role of Industry in Nation Building" - India at 60 years, If one looks back at the last 60 years it 

has been a difficult journey with major developments and progress made in self reliance in agriculture 

and industry and at the same time there remains great challenges ahead. The issues of inclusive 

growth, rural as well as urban infrastructure, lagging of agriculture sector, low efficiencies in farm 

and non-farm sector, simplification of labour laws. He pointed out that manufacturing sector would 

be the core sector if India has to achieve a double-digit growth. 

Delivered the Inaugural Address on the theme "Creating a More Secure and Sustainable Future". In 

his speech he highlighted the HRD role to develop ignited and brilliant mind. He also highlighted the 

need to build and augment the National and Social capital of the country. In his speech he highlighted 

the need of sustainable growth, the issue of urban and rural employment and raising of the power of 

income. He highlighted India has 6,40,000 villages out of which 60% has got over 1000 people, 35% 

having 1000 to 5000 people and 0.75% villages have over 1000 people. He highlighted the fact that 

there is a large population of landless labourers, which needs to be suitably employed, and productivity 

issues are addressed. The low productivity and farming sector is cause of concern and hence the 

living condition and standard of rural people need to be enhanced. He also highlighted the need of 

CSR integrated with business module like ITC e chaupal /chaupal sagar as well as CSR initiatives 

which are de-linked to business. He felt the need of Government's initiatives for CSR_____. 

The Key Note Speaker spoke on "Vision 2025 and highlighted the ideas which will play the role in 

shaping the future of the country. In his speech he spoke about the four ideas: -1. Ideas which 

become main stream 2.Ideas in execution. 3. Ideas, which are debated and implied. 4. Ideas of 

future.He spoke about the population burden vs. human capital akin to liability vs. asset. India is yet 

to reap the benefits from its demographic profile and felt rapid urbanization in India as well as 

technology, which can make difference to our life. He emphasized the issue of Opportunity vs. 

Rights, Higher Education, need for creation of jobs. He felt that idea is to think about the Indian 

context with clear solution are required for the following areas 1. Environment 2. High growth with 

low carbon 3. Health 4. Cost of Social Security 

He welcomed all the delegates and pointed out the people power as great differentiators within the 

corporate and country at large. He also highlighted HRD has come up as a business partner but 

needs to ensure that quality of talent and ability to use the talent as catalyst in transformation 

process. 

He welcomed all the dignitaries and the audience at the dais to the 11th National Conference held at 

Kolkata. He highlighted it is a unique time in the country's history whereby growth rate has rapidly 

increased and at the same time grappling with basic issues. He felt HRD has played a pivotal role in 

achieving goal and ensure all citizens live in social and economic dignity. 

Module-1 The Emerging Business Environment 

A module followed the Inaugural Session on "The Emerging Environment for Business" that was 

moderated by Mr. Govind Ethiraj, Editor in Chief of UTV News. This session explored the impact that 

macro economic, political and social-cultural trends would have on shaping the future environment 

for business. 

She addressed the delegates on "The Challenge of Diversity" and emphasized the need for corporates 

to look beyond traditional sources of talent supply to build more inclusive and diverse groups of 

employees. 


Special Address 

Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, 

former President of India 

The highlight of the first day's proceedings was the address by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, former President 

of India. Dr Kalam spoke about his Vision for India, the need for compassionate and creative leaders, 

the special role that youth has in shaping the destiny of the country and the need to build appropriate 

management structures and systems for effective execution. He had a special word for the students 

present at the Conference 

Module-2 The Employee of the Future 

Dr Kalam's session was followed by a module on "The Employee of the Future" with Dr (Ms) Sujaya Banerjee, Chief Learning Officer of 

the Essar Group speaking on "The New Employee Profile" and Mr Pratik Kumar, Executive Vice President, Group HR, Wipro Corporation, 

speaking on "The New Employment Contract." 

Day 1 concluded with a dinner hosted by Mr. Sarthak Behuria, Chairman, India Oil 

Day 2 Module-3 

Mr. Debu Bhattacharya, 

Managing Director, Hindalco and 

Vice Chairman, Novelis 

He spoke about the "Challenge of Overseas Acquisitions" on the context of the acquisition of 

Novelis by the Aditya Birla Group earlier this year. He shared his insights and learning's from the 

acquisition process with the delegates. 

Panel Discussions on Global 

Survey on Talent Retention 

conducted by Summit HR- Ranjan 

Sinha, Summit HR, USA 

Post Lunch Session 

Module-4: The New world of 

Retail and MediaMr. Rajdeep 

Sardesai, Managing Director, CNN 

IBN andMr. Bijou Kurien, 

President, Lifestyle Division, 

Reliance Retail 

Next Session 

Mr K V Kamath, Managing 

Director and Chief Executive of 

ICICI Bank 

Day 3 

Ms. Poonam Barua 

Next Session 

Module 6: Building the Indian MNC 

Mr. B Muthuraman, Managing 

Director, Tata Steel 

Module-7: The DNA of Indian 

Business Leadership.Prof Peter 

Cappelli, Wharton School 

Mr. Ranjan Sinha, CEO of Summit HR USA, anchored the session. He shared the findings of the 

Research Study and the implications for talent retention arising from this Study. 

This session was followed by a very interesting Panel Discussion on "The HR Challenge of Building a World Class Enterprise" brilliantly 

moderated by Dr Santrupt Misra, Director of the Adyta Burlap Corporation. Panelists included Mr. G K Agarwal, Executive Director(HRD) 

of NTPC, Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President, HR and Corporate Services of Mahindra & Mahindra, Mr Steve Correa, HR Director of Vodafone 

Essar, Mr Udai Upendra, Managing Director of The HR Company and Mr T V Mohandas Pai, Director HR of Infosys. The Panel explored 

what world class organizations really are, how they are built and what are the HR challenges that need to be addressed in this process. 

The Audience was enthralled with the quality of discussions and was fully involved from start to finish. 

Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai spoke of the Media and the need for the media to be responsive as well as 

responsible. He highlighted thru his experiences the trends and how Indian Media has come of age. 

He sounded a word of caution for the media to maintain standards and purity. Mr. Bijou Kurien spoke 

on the Sunrise Sectors Modern Retail The opportunities opening up in this sector, the impact they 

would have on the business environment and the new challenges arising form the opening of these 

sectors were discussed. 

He addressed the delegates on the theme "Building a World Class Enterprise" and emphasized the 

need of focusing not only on human capital but on speed capital and innovation as well. Mr. Kamath 

highlighted that HRD was a unique capital in the sense that it can draw infinite competitive advantage 

with proper leveraging of right opportunities. 

Module-5: EntrepreneurshipThis session was followed by a Panel Discussion on "Entrepreneurship" moderated by Mr. Sanjeev 

Bikhchandani, CEO of Naukri. The other panelists were Mr. Sanjeev Agarwal of Helion Ventures, Mr. Mohan Reddy of Infotech Enterprises 

and Mr. R Sashikant of Subiksha. What inspired them to take the road less traveled; the unique challenges of building entrepreneurial 

organizations and the HR role in such organizations were discussed. 

Day 2 session concluded by a grand Dinner by NHRD Network for all delegates and speakers 

She spoke on the "Role of Women in providing Leadership to Business and Industry in the future" 

He addressed the delegates on "Building the Indian MNC." Mr. Muthuraman spoke about the 

experience of the Tata Group in acquiring enterprises across the globe and how important it was to 

allow the managements of these enterprises to continue managing their enterprises within the overall 

policy and values framework of the Tata Group. 

Two sessions on the "HR Implications of Mergers and Acquisitions" and the "HR Challenge of Managing Across Borders" followed. 

These session were addressed by Mr. Marcus Banfield, Chief Executive of Typhoo Tea which has recently been acquired by the Apeejay 

Surrendra Group and Mr. Inder Walia, Group HR Director of the Bharti Group who spoke about his learnings whilst managing the HR 

responsibility at Arcelor Mittal. 

Spoke on "The DNA of Business Leadership," presented the findings of the Study and released the 

preliminary report of the Study to Mr. Aquil Busrai, National President and to Mr Vivek Paranjpe, HR 

Advisor of Reliance Industries. Reliance Industries had sponsored the Research Study in which 

over 100 Chief Executives of Indian corporations participated. 

Next session was presented by Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Mr R Vidyasagar and Prof Premrajan of XLRI presented the salient features 

of CompMode to the delegates. 


Module 8: Leadership Learning 

from the Non Corporate SectorMr. 

Vishal Talreja, Dream Foundation 

and Ms. Gargi Banerjee, Pragya 

Spoke on social entrepreneurship, which aimed to enable delegates, learn from the experience of 

social entrepreneurs working in the non-corporate sector. Delegated enjoyed this session very 

much. 

The Valedictory Session brought the curtains down on the National Conference. Mr S K Roongta, Chairman of SAIL delivered the 

Valedictory Address. In his speech Mr. Roongta highlighted the need for equitable growth, need for social harmony and need for 

corporates to embrace more responsibility. He highlighted that there exists large disparity in the Indian context. Failure to do so would 

result in social unrest and disharmony. 

Prof Jitendra Singh, Dean and Shaw Professor of the Nanyang Business School, Singapore and Paul Steinberg Professor of Management 

at Wharton was the Chief Guest. He spoke on "How will we make this India's Century." He kept the audience highly involved with his 

comparisons of China and India from past to present. 

The Eastern Region of the National HRD Network honoured four social entrepreneurs for their unique service to society and for 

choosing the road less traveled. 

l 

l 

Mr. Vishal Talreja of Dream a Dream Foundation, 

Ms Gargi Banerjee and Mr Sunil Pillai of Pragya and 

l Sister Cyril Mooney of the Rainbox Education Project working with street children in Kolkata. 

Mr. Roongta presented the "Most Promising Chapter Award " to the Nagpur Chapter and the "Best Chapter Award" to the Delhi Chapter. 

The student Volunteers were presented with certificates and felicitated by Mr. Aquil Busrai, National President, NHRD Network and Mr. 

Sourav Daspatnaik, President, Kolkata Chapter. 

The curtains came down on the 11th National Conference at 6.30 pm on Saturday, December 1st, 2007. We now look forward to the 12th 

National Conference to be held in Chennai in 2008. The delegates carried away with them "saplings" as mementoes that they will plant 

and nurture and as these saplings grow they will serve as a reminder of the Conference and in the process help in a small way in 

greening our environment. The baton has now been passed on from Kolkata to Chennai. 

We look forward to all Members and delegates at Chennai. 

11th National HRD Network Concluded with cocktails and Music. 

Carried from Page 21 Thinking 'Integrated Space' TQM and HRM 

fits all approach to reward and recognition 

is antitheses to the TQM philosophy of 

understanding customer needs and wantssegment 

wise- and the current movement 

in the world is to delivering mass 

customization with an 

elevating and unique experience .How 

many of us HR professionals are able to 

deliver 'employee experiences', mass 

customize our responses to employee 

needs and yet keep employee costs under 

control? No more do we have the luxury 

of anchors like 'either', 'neither', 'or ' . It is 

the age of AND. 

Let us shift gears and move to the 

emphasis placed by a company/ 

organization in ensuring that it has a robust 

pipeline of interesting and useful products/ 

services to meet customer needs of today, 

tomorrow and the day after. In fact, many 

companies are mandating that a certain 

percentage of their revenue should be 

generated from launched products/ 

services in recent years eg 3M(obviously 

this focus will differ based on the 

Technology,Market and customer t life 

cycles). 

When one looks at the products and 

services, we HR professionals offer, the 

story is starkly different. We prefer to hold 

on to dated policies and practices and tend 

to come up with new policies, which are 

actually patches stuck on old polices. New 

policies and programmes happen only when 

the assumptions behind existing ones are 

questioned. For example, how relevant is a 

Pension benefit to the largely emerging Gen 

Y workforce of today and tomorrow? How 

relevant is the process of continuing to give 

long service awards of watches/suitcases 

to employees? We seem to be frozen in a 

time warp, and the line leaders are also wary 

of breaking from the past.. 

Lastly, how many of us are aware of the TQM 

concept of fool proofing or in the Japanese 

language called Pokayoke. The principle is 

that , even an uniniated customer, should 

not make a major mistake while using a 

product/service. The earliest example of this 

is the visual control of a ' King " and a " 

Queen" on the doors of comfort rooms in 

hotels, airports etc. This is a brilliant 

example of how to design error proof. In a 

similar vein, how many of us take the pains 

of designing forms, policies, systems, that 

are well thought through for all major 

eventualities and would result in minimal 

come backs from the customers of the 

same. We lose a lot of good will from our 

internal customers because we have not 

idiot proofed new initiatives/supplemental 

ones. 

In conclusion, TQM constructs, 

philosophies, techniques, systems offer 

tremendous inspirational points for HR 

professionals to retool ourselves and the 

attitudes/belief systems of the leaders of 

those organizations, we are associated 

with. 

TQM emphasizes the 'whole', 'total' 

,'whole system'and hence represents the 

best view of the need to lead a Total 

Quality Life , in simultaneity with being a 

Total Quality led HR professional. 

u H 


Thinking 'Integrated Space' 

-TQM and HRM 

– P. Vijayan 

Most often, TQM is rarely seen as an 

important and integral element of an 

organisation's Human Resource Strategy, 

policies, thought processes. Most often, 

TQM is on the agenda of Manufacturing, 

Operations, and Supply Chain and at times, 

finds its rightful place, along side Business 

Excellence. HR professionals tend to 

possess very little appreciation of this 

important body of knowledge and, hence, 

are not at the table, regarding their 

organisation's Quality Strategy and 

integrating with the People strategies and 

approaches. 

My experiences, over time, has confirmedtime 

and again- that breakthroughs in 

thinking, frameworks and in the end superior 

performance of a process, system, 

company, industry, country happens when 

two disciplines meet each other creating 

new and unique ' space". As an eg, 

Employer Branding is an important example 

of the coalescing of Brand Management, 

Communications and HR. Another example 

is the inter disciplinary breakthrough of IT 

and Medicine, where many many years 

back, Medical transcription became an India 

advantage- much before the 'formal 

outsourcing wave' became aware to most 

of us. 

I intend exploring the space where TQM 

interacts with HR process/system/practice 

and would like to share what new 

possibilities could emerge. I would be 

exploring a couple of linkages of a TQM 

process/principle/philosophy with a HR 

process/system/practice. This by no means 

is exhaustive but should inspire you, the 

readers, to deep dive and explore more 

insights for common good of TQM and HR 

professionals. 

Let us kick off the exploration with Talent 

Attraction, a major challenge for India Inc 

and even the world. 

What does TQM postulate on a parallel 

process like Customer acquisition? Isn't 

customer acquisition and potential 

employee acquisition fundamentally 

representing the same'process' and could 

learn from each other? Do we, HR 

professionals in the recruitment and 

selection vertical, understand potential 

employee characteristics, availability pools, 

substitutable skills etc, as well as the 

organization and the Marketing/Sales 

professionals understand the end customer/ 

intermediate customers? How much 

research do we do to test the effectiveness 

of our talent acquisition strategies- in terms 

of efficiency, effectiveness and reinforcing 

the employer brand? Is our potential 

employee search focused on the right 

segments of availability? Do we know, 

globally, the demand supply flows of skillscurrent 

and likely into near future? While 

Product Development and Marketing 

professionals use advanced TQM based like 

Quality Focus Deployment, Taguchi 

experiments etc, why are HR professionals 

not giving more care to understanding the 

potential employer better- in terms of 

psychographic profiles, motivation to work 

and rewards etc? Are we in sync with 

changing demographics and the values of 

the emerging work force? 

Let us look at the selection process a bit 

more closely. Most of us, HR professionals, 

tend to give search assignments and we are 

psychologically happier when the search 

firm generates quantity- a number of CV's. 

We believe that gives us the widest choice 

and hence would lead to a better shortlist 

for initiating the testing processes. This most 

often is not true at all. When you study the 

TQM principles, it is clear that more is not 

necessarily good. That is why TQM treats 

inventory, excess production, warehouses 

as waste. Inventory hides inefficiencies in 

the supply chain in terms of demand 

forecasting, placing timely, the right orders 

with vendors and the latter's capability to 

deliver right numbers of first time right 

quality. Infact, Vendor Performance 

Improvement programmes almost always 

are accompanied with dramatic reduction 

in inventories, warehouses and even the 

ratio of vendors to components. Then, why 

are HR professionals, and even Line 

Managers, insisting on number of cv's? Why 

do we not transfer accountability to the 

search partner to do the funneling in from 

many to a few and we spend more time on 

the few candidates??? Seems elementary, 

however not experienced in practice. 

TQM has at its corner stone, the satisfaction 

of the customer. Whatever is done in an 

organization- big or small- has to result in 

customer satisfaction/delight, leading to 

loyalty which in turn leads to the 

organization succeeding more, vis a vis 

other stakeholders. In the same vein, very 

few organizations have the courage to 

measure employee satisfaction and even 

fewer who are ready to see employee 

satisfaction as one of the most important 

indicators of organisational success, 

alongside customer and financial success. 

Many companies conduct employee 

satisfaction studies but the action planning 

of the outcomes are weak and sporadic. 

There is a tendency of many organization's 

to believe that employee satisfaction 

improvement is the baby of the HRD 

department while on the other hand, the 

entire organization -rightfully so- is involved 

in enhancing satisfaction of the external 

customer. How can not so satisfied 

employees continue to add value towards 

enhancing customer satisfaction? 

Staying with employee satisfaction, I have 

observed that there is a gap between what 

the senior leaders of a company wants/feels 

is necessary to improve employee 

satisfaction and the 'real' need of the 

employee. There is still the tendency for 

thinking on ' we exactly know what the 

employees want and what we should give/ 

not give." For egg, if the employee 

satisfaction scores around reward and 

recognition are low, the typical responses 

would be from the following set of 

diagnostics- market benchmarking tells us 

that we are paying one of the highest and/ 

or employees will never be happy with 

whatever salary and benefits that we offer 

etc. The 'real' voice may not be around 

quantum of reward but around the process, 

criteria, 'employee experiencies' in terms of 

his/her voices are being factored into Policy 

and programmes. The point I am trying to 

make is that we, HR professionals tend to 

over simplify when not appropriate and 

complicate when not needed. The one size 

Contd.. On page 20 

P. Vijayan, he can be reached at E-mail: latika_vijayan@yahoo.com and vijayan.p@mahindra.com 


Learning and Failure in 

Human Organizations 

Introduction: 

It looks at the role of learning in 

organizational behavior in terms of response 

to identified problems viewed from the 

perspective of action research. If normal 

action entails making decisions, obstacles 

stopping decision makers provide a learning 

opportunity. The reflection that results from 

identifying a problem facilitates the learning. 

Different learning strategies invoke the 

difference between simple and complex 

feedback systems with implications at the 

personal, as well as, organizational levels. 

Development of new systems therefore 

requires consideration of how, and where, 

learning is likely to take place so that 

adaptation in the light of problems becomes 

possible. 

Learning in Action: 

The continuous accumulation of knowledge 

and skills is conducted through the process 

of learning; a relatively permanent change 

in attitudes and behavior that results from 

practice. Action researchers focus on the 

results of action, which is viewed as 

decisions and learning. 

Ø Learning is the process of detecting and 

correcting error, where error is any 

feature of knowledge or knowing, that 

makes action ineffective. It is crucial to 

theories of action. 

Ø Dealing with errors results in learning, 

as action implies a problem with 

previous perceptions. 

Ø Learning is the act of repunctuating 

continuous experience. 

Ø Understanding of learning is 

fundamentally associated with detection, 

diagnosis and correction of errors. 

Ø Learning often starts with the 

experience of an event or stimulus, 

which the individual reflects upon in 

trying to make sense of it. 

Ø Reflection enables practitioners to deal 

with troublesome divergent situations of 

practice that do not conform to normal 

expectations and procedures. 

Ø Learning takes place when a mistake or 

mismatch is acknowledged, its producers 

are identified, and it is corrected. 

Ø 

It was better to do the right thing wrong 

than the wrong thing right as the former 

led to learning while the latter simply 

reinforced an error. 

Ø Detection and correction of errors equates 

with learning and provides the core activity 

of any organization or system. Individuals 

engaged in that activity in an 

organizational capacity, become agents 

of organizational action and learning. 

Comparing Learning Strategies 

Organizations do not produce the behavior 

that leads to learning as this is done by 

individuals acting as agents of the 

organization. Surprise or unfulfilled 

expectations lead to interruption of ongoing 

activities as part of the need to find an 

explanation. The move from error detection 

to error correction entails learning, as the 

sources of error must be discovered prior 

to action. 

When the process allows an organization 

to maintain its current policies, the 

organization employs a basic, thermostatlike 

single-loop learning procedure. 

Ø 

Ø 

Ø 

Ø 

l 

Single-loop feedback is essential for 

focusing on operational effectiveness, 

norms and performance issues. 

Simple learning becomes concentrated 

on the adjustment of parameters to 

correct performance without examining 

the assumptions and theories that 

underlie performance deviations. 

The approach relies on the assumption 

of rationality as the model strives for the 

most satisfactory solution. 

The four basic values shared by people 

operating in the mode are to: 

Achieve their purposes through 

controlling the environment 

Stimulus from 

Environment 

Governing 

Variables 

Actions 

M. Sreenivas, Assistant Professor, Alluri Institute of Management Sciences, Hunter Road, Hanamkonda - 506001. 

E-mail: allurimaster@gmail.com. 

– M. Sreenivas 

l Maximize winning and minimize losing 

l Utilize defensive norms in order to 

minimize negative feelings 

l Emphasize intellectual rationality and 

objectivity and minimize emotions. 

Ø The value of single-loop feedback is in 

the immediate response that enables 

the system to maintain unadjusted 

performance levels and optimize their 

performance in the short-term through 

progression and Control the present 

towards an optimized (and fixed) goal. 

Ø Computing technology is particularly 

amenable to implementing single-loop 

simplification, which aims to offer a 

satisfying alternative to radical change. 

Ø Learning is limited to satisfying and the 

replication of previous successes and 

trends as control parameters. 

Ø A double-loop procedure enables an 

organization to question the underlying 

goals, objectives and policies (Figure 1). 

l Learning is dynamic and recognizes the 

need to alter performance norms rather 

than purely focus on maximizing them. 

l It enables utilization of new ideas, 

exploitation of emerging opportunities 

and reflection about past performance. 

l It enables the evaluation of 

organizational assumptions in order to 

improve capabilities. 

l The values focus on: 

m Helping to produce valid information as 

basis for action 

m Making free and informed choices 

m Combining commitment with constant 

monitoring of the implementation and 

preparedness to change. 

Consequences 

Single Loop Feedback 

Double Loop Feedback 

Outputs to 

Environment 

Figure 1: Interpretation of Double-Loop Feedback and Learning 


Acceptance of the inevitability of change leads 

to realization that goals are not stable and 

strategies need to be continuously invented, 

shaped and modified. The key emphasis is 

on responsiveness. Monitoring environmental 

feedback contributes to the determination of 

the need to redefine rules and norms in order 

to cope with change and bring about 

adaptation and self-organization that are 

critical to the survival of any open system. 

This facilitates a bi-directional exploration 

capable of spotting opportunities, and 

actively monitoring the gap between 

dynamic objectives and a fast altering 

present. Such true learning occurs not when 

a problem is identified or a solution 

proposed, but when the solution is 

implemented and performs against the 

standard. It requires the active interaction 

of problem, solution and expected results 

¾ a far greater challenge for developers. 

Selection: 

Many organizations apply single-loop learning 

procedures by focusing on the status quo and 

correcting serious deviations. Application of 

double-loop learning under these conditions 

will only occur as a result of: 

Ø 

Ø 

An external crisis in the environment 

A revolution from within; or, an internal 

crisis precipitated by management. 

The delay in establishing organizational 

response frames in response to crisis 

situation serves to escalate the crisis. Even 

following prolonged success is likely to give 

rise to the 'stuck ness problem', where 

success leads to failure as organizations get 

trapped by the patterns that created success 

in the past. 

Management is faced with multiple problems 

they need to address which enable them to 

ignore and suppress certain dilemmas. But, 

at some point when the system becomes 

better established, ignored problems will 

catch up with participants. 

Implications for Computer Systems: 

Ø Computers typically rely on single-loop 

feedback. 

Ø Computational techniques may be used 

to supplant human decision makers when 

the contextual system is relatively closed. 

Ø 

Ø 

l 

Ø 

Ø 

Ø 

l 

l 

Ø 

Ø 

Ø 

Relatively closed systems are good at 

ignoring the impact of the numerous 

environmental factors and avoiding the 

focus on human involvement within the 

system. 

Potential inabilities of humans to 

disaggregate situations into 

components and to analyze them place 

severe limitations on the application of 

computational techniques to open 

systems. 

Open systems, such as complex 

ambulance dispatch systems or air 

traffic control systems, with their 

inherent imperfections and unknown 

factors, need to rely on more judgmental 

approaches and hence the process 

cannot be programmed explicitly. 

Rule based analytical approaches 

cannot deal as an experienced operator 

with the small minority of difficult cases 

- i.e. the exact situations that are likely 

to generate reflection in humans. Such 

approaches wrongly reduce the 

influence of the operator. 

Over reliance on technology often 

results in ignoring the need for doubleloop 

learning and the ability to intervene. 

Design, in systems involving reflection 

and experience, should come from the 

individual people outwards. 

Human ability and limitations need to 

be understood and designed into the 

system as part of the learning process. 

This offers the opportunity to work to 

the strengths of current resources, using 

the enabling technology to magnify 

these assets while taking care not to 

magnify the limitations so as to cripple 

the system. 

Information Technology must be seen 

as part of the whole and adjusted to. 

With very little time for feedback, 

learning, and correcting, the 

arrangement of information needs to be 

accompanied by training and 

experience in dealing with feedback and 

recovering from disaster. 

As safety critical, mission critical and 

security critical systems become more 

common; reflection and learning 

Ø 

l 

l 

l 

l 

l 

Ø 

Ø 

Ø 

Ø 

Ø 

considerations are likely to become 

more important. 

The following implications should 

therefore be addressed whenever new 

systems are designed: 

The Need for learning arises from the 

requirement to adjust knowledge in light 

of observed deviations. This should be 

built into systems to allow for double 

feedback loops. 

The process that is utilized in building 

new systems should likewise allow for 

learning to take place prior to 

implementation so that users and 

operators are not forced to conduct all 

the learning in 'real-time' while working 

on the new system. 

Learning often comes down to whether 

the willingness to learn and to dedicate 

resources to addressing a mismatch 

exists. 

From an economic perspective, it makes 

sense to facilitate learning early on and 

to allocate resources to the task to 

reduce the need for 'emergency 

learning' imposing a new working 

environment is likely to lead to a variety 

of adjustment problems. 

Involvement can alleviate some of the 

tensions while providing an early 

opportunity to experience some of the 

implications. 

Organizational ability to learn results 

from individual learning. 

Operators and users need training in 

how to reflect and learn effectively 

(rather than encouraged to hide and 

disconfirm and conform). 

The culture and perceived openness of 

an organization dictate the type of 

defensive routines those are likely to be 

adopted. 

To facilitate learning, an organizational 

attitude that is more open towards 

mismatches and challenges is required. 

Reflection is the key to learning in 

practice. The ability to reflect is a key 

skill that may enable professionals to 

deal with challenges and improve. 

u H 

K. Satyanarayana, Executive Director NHRD Network addresses Managers of Essar, Vizag on the topic "Are you an effective Manager?" on 3rd December 2007. 


HR Managers & 

a Green Industry ? 

That we are destroying our delicate eco 

system is a truth that cannot be refuted. 

Only the most callous would ignore the fact 

that our consumption patterns have gone 

so far overboard that the ecological system 

that we dwell in and to a larger extent the 

earth as such cannot sustain our greed 

anymore. 

The world over, arable land is being 

destroyed, forests are being denuded and 

animals driven to extinction. 

There has been a volatile and long-standing 

debate about whether it is a corporation's 

duty to become more sustainable and 

socially responsible beyond complying with 

the law, or whether its sole duty is to legally 

maximize profit, no matter the long-term 

societal cost. Ultimately, the assessment 

drives home the point that there is little 

choice: either corporations become more 

sustainable and responsible, or the quality 

of life on Earth-and corporations' bottom 

lines-will inevitably decline. Ecosystem 

deterioration will intensify many of the risks 

and costs of doing business: it will make 

key resources and ecosystem services, 

such as fresh water and climate regulation, 

less available; it will heighten regulatory 

oversight; it will alter customer and investor 

preferences; and it will jeopardize the 

availability of capital and insurance. 

While the business sector must become 

more responsible and lead the drive to make 

society sustainable, without the right 

incentives and pressures, corporations will 

not do this quickly enough. Consumers, 

citizens, and employees must support 

corporate leaders who step up to the 

challenge, and punish those who do not. 

Such basic actions as deciding which bank 

to have a savings account in, which shoes 

to buy, which companies to work for, and 

which political efforts and candidates to 

support will help reshape the market. But to 

succeed, these incremental efforts will need 

to be supported by aggressive actions by 

NGOs, policymakers, and savvy business 

leaders-actions that will make all 

corporations recognize that their long-term 

financial success depends not just on 

pursuing the bottom line, but on doing so in 

a socially and environmentally responsible 

way. 

How can the HR Manager contribute? 

Though most green industries have 

environmental engineers, it would be the 

task of the HR Manager, to facilitate, the 

process. 

A few likely scenarios would be: 

l Every ton of recycled paper saves 380 

gallons of oil. 

Think Quest, 2006 

Paper and its use is one area where we 

can make a definite difference. Try and 

create a paperless office by reducing 

memo's and files. Use technology and 

archive files in a soft format. If paper has to 

be used use recycled paper, though in the 

short term, it would affect your bottom line. 

l 

Every 20 minutes, the world adds 

another 3,500 human lives but loses one 

or more entire species of animal or plant 

life-- at least 27,000 species per year. 

Overpopulation.org, 2006 

Counsel employee's against having large 

families. Create incentives for people with 

only one child. 

l 

We are consuming the earth's 

resources 20% faster than they can be 

sustained. 

Scripps Howard News Service, 2006 

Cut the number of vehicles that your 

company uses. Plan better and use pool 

cars, to save on fuel. It could significantly 

add to your bottom line as well, by saving 

on resources. Discourage employees 

traveling large distances to work. 

l 

The energy saved by recycling one, 

aluminum can, will operate a TV set for 

3 hours. 

ThinkQuest, 2006 

Think and use recycled items. Basic things 

like waste bins and paper can be made of 

recycled board or paper. 

Capt.A.Nagaraj Subbarao is Chief Officer, Vanoord India, Bangalore and E-Maila; cap.nagaraj@gmail.com 

l 

– Capt A Nagaraj Subbarao 

1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can 

contaminate 20 acres of a lake, making 

the fish unfit to eat. 

Computer TakeBack, 18 Aug 2005 

What industry, in most areas, does not do 

today is to segregate garbage. Garbage 

disposal is a key to pollution and can be 

easily done with a little discipline. It would 

also show clearly, as to what kind of garbage 

is being generated and then probably 

suggest a mechanism to cut this down. 

l 

If everyone in the world consumed like 

the average U.S. citizen, we would need 

at least four more planet Earths. 

Purchasing Power: World Watch Paper 

166 

Remember that in many areas our earth is 

non renewable, if we continue to consume 

at the frenetic pace that we do today. Despite 

our individual purchasing power and 

increased aspirations remember that this is 

a world that belongs to our future as well 

and we need to preserve it for our children. 

One area where different resources are 

used widely is in the field of training and 

development. On occasions a mass of 

people are moved great distances to impart 

training to them, utilizing resources like 

transport and accommodation and the 

logistics of moving such a mass of people. 

This can be dealt with by the HR Manager 

by using web based training, where the 

training material can be delivered to the 

trainee, at his/her door step. The idea is not 

simplistic but can be looked at very 

seriously. 

This is an area in India, which HR has not 

focused on. HR could play a major role in 

facilitating a greener industry and work with 

design and environmental engineer's in 

deploying technology where consumption of 

resources is reduced and the production 

process is a closed loop, where generated 

waste is recycled. 

u H 


Globarena Add 


Telecom, IT, ITES / BPO, FMCG, finance, 

automotive, pharma, retail, heavy 

machinery, petroleum and now even the most 

prestigious power sector, irrespective of the 

industry domain you and your employer 

belong to, Millennium India is facing the 

highest employee turnover ever in the history 

of machine revolution. Employees are geared 

up to join any industry whether they have 

the related exposure in the past or not. The 

30-35% score for ITES and Telecom, 15-20% 

for automotive and 5-10% now for oil and 

power sectors, the attrition has snatched 

away the sleep out of the eyes of HR 

managers and CEOs. 

So, what next? Of course the HR heads and 

the plant managers need to take a call 

before they end up with all their top talent 

drained away by their next door competitor. 

Employees are getting sensitive and thinskinned 

day by day. The trigger for the 

decision of hopping is as basic it could ever 

be. Tick off your subordinate even in an 

obvious tone; and be ready for a job posting 

to be done the very next day. The condition 

is even worse with the young generation. 

They start looking for a change on bad odour 

in the washroom or get irate on the security 

guard at the main gate who asked for 

frisking! Yet it's factual. We have in our 

organisation recorded roughly 12% of left 

employees quoting frisking as a factor during 

their exit interviews. 

Now how to get into the gravity of "What 

Employees Want"? There are three different 

ways that we follow at Sona: 

1. EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION 

SURVEYS: A proactive traditional method 

to map the satisfaction of employees on predetermined 

parameters mentioned in the 

survey sheet. At Sona the survey sheets 

are revised every year with fresh parameters 

based on the proposals from employees. 

The sampling process is based on the 

Control Grouping with Randomized Block 

Design of the non-conventional human 

characteristics. To know more and get into 

the process specifications, you may get in 

touch with the authors. 

2. STAY INTERVIEWS: Yet again a 

proactive tool, but virtually a nonconventional 

one. SI rises above the 

fundamental weakness of the ESS, the 

responses being on limited parameters. SI 

is an open one-to-one conversation with the 

new employees, ideally in the range of 18 

The Fundamentals of 

Effective Employee 

Satisfaction Mapping 

to 36 months of service at Sona. The voice 

is captured on blank sheet, later used for 

Language Processing to identify the 

parameters. 

3. EXIT INTERVIEWS: Exits are the 

reactive tool that comes into action after the 

employee has put in his papers. The longestablished 

means to get into the insights 

of why employees are parting. Although 

Exits turn out to be a major malfunction 

when employees wish to save their goodwill 

with the employer and articulate fancy words 

in praise of the company, thus hiding out 

the real cause of their detachment. 

Dedicated and faithful employees are the 

most significant factor in becoming an 

employer of choice, but it's no bolt from the 

blue that companies and organizations face 

significant challenges in mapping the levels 

of energy and engagement in their 

workforces. Factors such as a booming 

SENSEX of Indian economy is thus creating 

an environment where proficient employees 

who are discontented in their present 

situations can easily find a new place to 

"hang their hats." In fact in a study done by 

our 2007-08 internship batch students 

illustrate that only 21% of Indian employees 

feel fully committed to their employers and 

only 12% of them agree that their employers 

are wholly committed to them. It's not at all 

surprising; still, the level of commitment amid 

employees and employers is directly linked 

to the level of satisfaction at a place where 

they are spending more than half of their lives. 

The human psychology specialists lit a 

spark of hope to the HR Managers. It is 

vitally important to make out that all 

employees normally give signals or hints, 

those which need to be captured at the 

precise time. This means that attrition can 

be predicted through survey measurement. 

This gives employers an imperative window 

of opportunity to foresee and address talent 

loss within specific departments so as to 

change the environment that is causing 

employees to leave. When two people get 

into a relation, let's say the marriage, trust 

and consideration of the needs and opinions 

of each other are being considered as prime 

traits that keep the commitment strong. At 

work, these qualities can be even more 

important than the value of monetary 

compensation and rewards - in fact, 

emotional rewards can actually have a larger 

impact than monetary rewards on overall 

– Hari Nair, Abhishek Gavane 

employee satisfaction. You need to actually 

trace this satisfaction level. 

Employee Satisfaction Surveys provide 

clear data picture for problem solving. If the 

ES Surveys are effectively monitored, they 

can actually identify critical problem areas 

and can help to devise the most optimal path 

to solutions. This information provides a road 

map and priority list for dealing with 

problems in all areas. However the priority 

in which problems are solved is not always 

decided by the ones employees feel worst 

about. Yet, ranking the issues puts some 

reason into the system of designing a PDCA 

plan for attacking employee problems. Also, 

the ES survey results provide a snapshot 

of employee attitude. Starting from this point 

the company can later identify, in an 

objective and scientific way, whether the 

company is making growth or slipping back. 

While monitoring a survey is not the only 

method of providing this benchmark, the 

information gained provides a background 

with which to interpret other essential data 

such as attrition information. 

The following are few benefits of an 

Employee Satisfaction mapping process: 

1. Employee's standpoint: Organizations 

attain a truthful sight of current policies and 

a more obvious perspective of issues that 

are of top priority to employees than others, 

such as welfare measures, career 

development, and compensation benefits. 

2. Increased Employee Loyalty: By 

quantifying and analyzing employee attitudes 

and opinions, enterprises can identify 

problem areas and solutions to create a 

supportive work environment encouraging a 

motivated and loyal workforce. 

3. Training Needs Assessment: 

Employee Satisfaction Surveys aid in 

developing individual goals and career 

potential. With more insight into their opinions 

and attitudes, management can establish 

professional development initiatives. 

4. Improved Customer Service: 

Because motivated employees are critical 

to improved organizational initiatives, such 

as increasing customer satisfaction, 

enterprises that value and strive for greater 

employee satisfaction ultimately create 

higher customer satisfaction. 

To conclude, wide-ranging Employee 

Satisfaction processes can be keys to a 

more motivated and loyal workforce leading 

to increased customer satisfaction and 

overall profitability of an enterprise. 

u H 

Mr. Hari Nair, is Asst. VP - H R at Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, Gurgaon e-mail-hari.nair@sonagroup.com or hari.nair69@gmail.com 

Mr. Abhishek Gavane, is Senior Executive - HR Strategy, Gurgaon, e-mail abhishek.gavane@sonagroup.com or abhishekgavane@gmail.com 


In a world plagued by failures and 

frustrations on several fronts such as 

Economics, Politics, Governance, 

Judiciary, Corporate Social Responsibility, 

etc., it was felt that an International 

Dialogue should be organized to elicit the 

views of eminent thinkers and experts so 

that a better world may be created in due 

course of time in which there may be 

greater emphasis on peace, culture and 

ethical values. Such Second International 

Dialogue was held at Udaipur on 

November 1-3, 2007 under the kind 

patronage of Acharya Shri Mahapragyaji, 

who has given innovative ideas on the 

Background 

The first dialogue on “Economics of Nonviolence 

and the Vision of a Sustainable 

World” was organized at New Delhi on 

December 5-7, 2005 under the auspices 

of Acharya Mahapragya and one session 

of the conference was addressed by the 

then President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul 

Kalam at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 

December 6, 2007. In the conference, 

scholars from various parts of the world 

put their heads together to develop a new 

and deep insight into the problems of 

rampant violence and poverty and devise 

practical and workable solutions in order 

to establish a sustainable world order. 

The Second International Dialogue which 

was held at Mahapragya Vihar, Bhuwana, 

Udaipur from November 1-3, 2007 was in 

continuation of the first one and touched 

upon the various issues related to ethics, 

culture and non-violence in the context 

of an alternative model of economics 

which has been designated as ‘Relative 

Economics’ by Acharya Shri Mahapragya. 

Before the organisation of the Second 

International Dialogue, a curtain-raiser 

symposium was held on October 12, 2007 

at IILM Academy of Higher Learning, 

Jaipur with Dr. Ashok Bapna, Director, 

IILM in the chair, where Prof. V.S. Vyas, 

PROLOGUE 

relationship between Economics and Jain 

thinking, based on non-violence, nonpossessiveness, 

peace and prosperity for 

all. 

In the vast gathering attended by people 

from home and abroad, particularly, from 

USA, UK, Canada, Sri Lanka, Singapore, 

etc., there was free and frank exchange of 

views, on the theme of conference, and 

there was unanimity on one fundamental 

issue – that is the ‘Eradication of Violence 

and Corruption’ should be the top-priority of 

all nations, and for this an alternative model 

of development should be devised, adopted 

and implemented vigorously in this new age 

of turbulence and torture prevailing in 

different parts of the world. 

Acharya Shri Mahapragyaji pleaded for the 

view that Modern Economics should change 

its emphasis from Absolute Economics to 

Relative Economics so that the disparities 

and divides between the rich and the poor, 

between the urban and the rural, between 

different regions of a country, between 

backward and forward communities, 

between males and females, between 

Shri L.N. Nathuramka, Dr. S.L. Gandhi, Prof. 

Dayanand Bhargava, Shri S.R. Bhandari 

and Dr. Vivek Bhandari expressed their 

views on ‘Economics of Non-violence: 

Cultural Values and Ethics’. 

There was a consensus among scholars 

both at the curtain raiser symposium and 

later at the conference at Udaipur that 

humanity is at crossroads today. With 

enormous achievements in the domains of 

knowledge, politics, diplomacy, economics, 

culture, science and technology, human 

beings are surrounded by the threats and 

problems of terrorism, insecurity in their 

lives, deep frustrations and lurking fears of 

even ultimate destruction of mankind in case 

the nuclear arsenal falls in the hands of 

unscrupulous extremists and hard-headed 

fundamentalists, who do not respect 

‘swadharma’ or ‘adhyatma’ or ‘selfrealization’ 

at all. 

There is a growing feeling amongst the right 

thinking persons today that something is 

gravely missing in the lives of all human 

beings today. That sole missing factor is 

ignorance about ethical norms, ethical 

conduct, ethical behaviour and ethical 

principles. Ethics can be regarded as the 

first step towards the path of ‘spirituality’. 

One need not go into deep philosophical 

precepts to understand the ground realities 

literate and illiterate people and in several 

other possible forms, are reduced, and 

finally removed altogether. 

Yuvacharya Mahasharman gave a novel 

idea, related with non-violence, when he 

suggested that non-violence should 

enter not only in the domain of 

Economics, but should become an 

essential part of politics, governance, 

judiciary, and even war, etc. so that finally 

there is a total transformation of human 

society, but for this work, extensive and 

intensive studies and surveys would be 

needed to give a concrete shape to this 

new world order. It was agreed that an 

International Centre for Studies in Nonviolence, 

Peace, Ethics and Culture 

should undertake this onerous task of 

social reconstruction for the future, based 

on Jain Philosophy, and more such 

international dialogues should explore in 

depth, the feasibility of such vital 

changes for the betterment of mankind 

and lasting peace in the world. 

Ashok Bapna 

Convener 

and rules of basic moral values and moral 

behaviour, because normally everybody, 

men & women, old & young, literate & 

illiterate, rich & poor, rural and urban, can 

understand ‘what is right and what is 

wrong’, ‘what is just and what is unjust’, 

what is dharma and what is adharma’ on 

the basis of the prevailing good social 

conduct and behaviour and his/her 

philosophical and religious beliefs. 

Today, we find that modern globalised 

world has given rise to more problems 

than it has solved. The society is always 

in a state of fundamental disequilibrium 

due to the pursuit of self-interest by some 

groups in society. 

The time is now ripe to introduce ethical 

norms in resolving problems in various 

fields, more particularly, in the economic 

domain, which affects directly and 

profusely lives of the teeming millions of 

the people across the world. Ethics 

propels and promotes economic activity 

and economic activity reactivates and 

refines ethical modules & models. 

Therefore, convergence and confluence 

of Ethics and Economics alone can save 

humanity from impending disaster in 

human affairs. That is the message of Jain 

thinking, which has, of course, been 

shared by other religious as well. 


7 Steps to Implement Balanced 

Score Card Concept 

A Ajaya Shankar Gupta 

BSC Concept: 

Management Commitment & Drive. If there These SMs/KPMs should become the 

The Balanced Score Card is a 

is no proper understanding of the concept, parameters in CEOs BSC. For each SM/ 

multidimensional framework that gives top it is implemented in wrong way and also it KPM the organisation has to identify the 

managers a fast but comprehensive view sends wrong signals. 

Targets, Comparisons/Benchmark and the 

of the business. The BSC allows CEO's to 

process owner. 

Many companies by modifying their PMS 

look at the business from four important to cover Financial and Non Financial To achieve the targets the organisation has 

perspectives: 

Measures claim that they have implemented 

to identify the initiatives. 

1. Financial Perspective- To satisfy BSC. People should understand that BSC Step 4: SBU and Deptl. BSC preparation 

shareholders, what financial objectives is much above PMS and PMS is by product For the successful implementation of 

must we accomplish.? 

of BSC implementation or you can say BSC Strategy, every SBU /Department has to 

2. Customer Perspective-To achieve Methodology can be used to develop PMS. align their Strategies/ Processes in line with 

Financial objectives, what customer A Core Group consisting of Senior corporate BSC. 

needs must we serve? General mission Executives from all Departments/ Functions Step 5: Individual Score Cards 

statement on customer service to be 

to be formed with MD as Chairman and preparation 

translated into specific measures that 

Strategy Officer/ TQM Head as Project 

reflect the factors that really matter to 

Once the Departmental BSCs' are prepared 

Manager(full time initially for 1 year).This 

customers, like lead time measures, 

the Individual Score Cards (ISCs) of 

quality measures, performance and 

Team has to prepare the detailed plan. executives/officers in each department are 

service measures etc. 

Step 2: Strategy Map Finalisation to be prepared in line with individuals 

responsibilities/activities. 

3. Internal Process Perspective- To satisfy There is fixed structure to present Financial 

shareholders and customers in which information/ Balance Sheet, but there is no 

Step 6: Gap Analysis and Stretching 

internal processes must we excel? The 

Targets 

such structure to present Strategy. This 

internal measures for BSC should stem concept has provided a structure to present The targets in BSCs/Individual Score Cards 

from business processes that have the the strategy in one page as a Strategy Map. are to be fixed in a logical/ systematic 

greatest impact on customer 

manner. Many times it is a GOLY process 

satisfaction like process capability, cycle What ever Methodology Company adopts (Growth Over Last Year - Production Target 

time, quality, productivity, cost, etc. to develop Strategy, but it has to validate it at 5% higher than last year/ Cost Target 2 

by putting them into BSC perspectives and 

4. Learning and Growth Perspective- To 

% reduction over last year etc.). The author 

establish Cause and Effect relation among 

achieve our goals, how must our 

suggests for GAP Analysis process to 

these Strategies. In this process company 

organisation learn and innovate? 

stretch the targets. In this process one has 

has to identify new strategies (The author 

Intense global competition requires that 

to analyse different gaps like Gap Over 

has conducted more than 25 workshops on 

companies make continual 

Standard, Gap Over Internal Best 

BSC in which more than 100 teams 

improvements to their existing products, 

Performance, Gap over Benchmark, Gap 

formulated strategy by doing SWOT analysis 

processes and have the ability to 

over Customer requirement etc and stretch 

introduce entirely new products with 

and taking into account the different the target around these gaps. 

expanded capabilities. 

Stakeholders requirements etc, but every 

team had to identify few more strategies and 

Step 7: Review Process 

Though the concept initially was talking drop few strategies to Balance it and The effectiveness/ real benefit of BSC is 

about 4 perspectives stated above, the Prepare Strategy Map) 

achieved through efficient review process. 

organisations started having 5th / 6th 

perspective depending on their focus/ Step 3: MDs Balanced Score Card 

The review process helps in fine tuning the 

strategy. Some companies have taken Preparation 

SMs/KPMs and initiating corrective actions/ 

new initiatives. The author rates the BSCs/ 

Safety, Corporate Social Responsibilty etc. The Strategies are mostly stated in the 

ISCs quality at 40% to 50% in first go and 

as fifth perspective. 

words/statements and the meaning/ intent 

the quality will improve to 60% after 3/ 4 

Implementation: 

of the strategy are not translated into 

reviews and finally to 80% at the end of the 

operational language. Different Executives/ 

Step 1: Training and getting executive 

annual review. 

Employees interpret it in their own way, 

commitment: 

which may lead to miss alignment. Hence The daily, monthly and Quarterly review 

For the successful implementation of any the Strategy has to be translated into systems are to be integrated with BSCs/ISCs. 

Concept the minimum requirement is the operational language as Strategic Organisations can use BSC Softwares 

Clear Understanding of the Concept and Top Measures/ Key Performance Measures. deveoped in line with BSC methodology. 

A.Ajaya Shankar Gupta is a freelance consultant based at Hyderabad. E-mail: ajaygupta@ainapur.com or ajay2521960@rediffmail.com 


BSC 

Perspective 

Financial 

Perspective 

Customer 

Perspective 

Internal 

Processes 

Perspective 

Learning 

and Growth 

Perspective 

Strategy 

MD's 

Measure 

Improve profitability ROCE 

Increase Turnover 

Increase Exports 

Increase Customer 

Satisfaction 

Improve Quality 

Compliance 

Improve Process 

Capability 

Enhance Overall 

Equipment 

Efficiency 

Reduce the 

Production Cost 

Improve safety 

standards 

A Sample BSC of a HR Department in Mines: 

Implement CRM 

Improve Employee 

Satisfaction 

Enhance employee 

skills andDevelop 

multi-skilled 

employees 

Increase 

Employees 

Participation in 

Continuous 

Improvement 

Total Turnover 

Total Exports 

Customer 

Satisfaction 

Index 

Avg. Alumina 

content in Ore 

Oversize in 

Despatches 

Variance in 

Alumina level 

Variance in 

Undersize level 

OEE of Plant 

Avg. Cost of 

Production 

Inventory Value 

Accident 

Frequency 

Rate 

Number of 

Customer 

Meets 

Organised 

Employee 

Satisfaction 

Index 

Executives 

Covered in 

Competency 

Mapping 

Training 

Provided 

Employees 

Involved in 

Improvement 

Initiatives 

HR Departmental 

Measure 

Profit per employee 

Savings through 

Improvement Projects 

Turnover per employee 

Internal Customer 

Satisfaction Index 

Special Training to 

Sampling Team 

Availability of Skilled 

Manpower in QC Dept. 

Availability of Skilled 

Manpower in Operation 

& Maintenance Dept. 

Wage Cost as 

Percentage of Turnover 

Men on Roll 

Compliance to Statutory 

Training 

Employee Satisfaction 

Index 

Employees Recognised 

under different Rewards 

and Recognition 

Schemes 

Employee Grievances 

Implementation of JDC 

Meeting Points 

Executives Covered in 

Competency Mapping 

Employees Job rotation 

Training Provided 

Training Effectiveness 

Index 

Employees Involved in 

Improvement Initiatives 

Quality Circles Active 

Quality Improvement 

Projects 

UOM 

Rs/ Emp/ Yr 

Rs Lakhs 

Rs/ Emp/ Yr 

% 

Mandays/ 

Emp./Yr 

% 

% 

% 

No of 

Persons 

% 

% 

% 

Nos 

% 

% 

% 

Mandays/ 

Emp./Yr 

% 

% 

Nos 

Nos 

Target 

XX 

YY 

ZZ 

80% 

3 

95% 

95% 

C 

M 

70 

0 

70 

5 

6 

40 

25 

15 

Benchmark 

X1X1 

Y1Y1 

Z1Z1 

90% 

NA 

100% 

100% 

C1 

NA 

75 

0 

100 

10 

8 

80 

120 

45 

New HR 

Initiative 

Starting 

Quality 

Improvement 

Projects 

Training on 

TPM 

Implementation 

of VRS 

Revise the 

Rewards 

Scheme 

Implementation 

of 

Competency 

Maping 

Implementing 

Kirpatrix 

Model Level3 

Methodology 

u H 



Centre Spread National HR 

Sumit 2008

Centre Spread National HR 

Sumit 2008 


Second International Dialogue on 

“Economics of Non-violence: Cultural Values & Ethics” 

November 1-3, 2007, Udaipur, Rajasthan (India) 

R E P O R T 

A three-day International Dialogue on 

“Economics of Non-violence: Cultural Values 

& Ethics” was organized by IILM Academy 

of Higher Learning, Jaipur in collaboration 

with ICCR, SID, NHRD Network and 

Acharya Mahapragya Chaturmas Vyastha 

Samiti at Mahapragya Vihar, Bhuwana, 

Udaipur from November 1-3, 2007. The 

following is the summary report of the 

conference. 

The Second International Dialogue on 

“Economics of Non-violence: Cultural Values 

& Ethics” was inaugurated on November 1, 

2007 at 9:30 a.m. at Mahapragya Vihar by 

Shri S.K. Singh, Governor of Rajasthan in 

the presence of Acharya Shri Mahapragya 

and Yuvacharya Mahasharman and 

participants and guests from India and 

abroad. Going into the rootcause of the 

issue of violence, Shri Singh said that the 

system of production and distribution of 

wealth has evolved over the centuries and 

its original purpose was to produce good 

human beings and sufficient agricultural 

wealth. Though the scenario has changed 

in the present times even now we can enrich 

our economy by providing good education 

and ensuring good health. The more love 

and Ahimsa and joy there is in the family 

unit, and respect for women in society, the 

more economically productive that society 

is likely to be. Calm contemplation and 

calmer non-violence calculation and the 

teachings of Mahavira, Budha and Gandhi 

are very relevant today. We need to pay heed 

to the message given by Gandhi about the 

philosophy of truth and non-violence, or nondamage 

and non-hurt, and therefore, nonmurder 

and non-hatred. That alone is the 

recipe for fruitful productivity, which creates 

joy and not merely greed in the fractioning 

of societies. 

Dr. Singh emphasized that economics is not 

an end in itself, but a means for building 

peace and a base on which may be 

developed a more satisfying life for peoples 

and individuals. 

Speaking on the occasion Acharya Shri 

Mahapragya said that just as violence and 

possessiveness go together, similarly, nonviolence 

and non-possessiveness are 

concomitant, the non-possessiveness being 

the cause and the non-violence its outcome. 

Acharya Shri said that present-day 

economics too is centered more around the 

prosperity of an individual rather than that 

of the society. He advocated that the 

principle that ‘the minimum basic needs of 

the entire society should be fulfilled first’ can 

serve as a great fundamental principle of 

economic system. He said we can conceive 

the idea of ‘relativistic economics’ or the 

‘relativistic system of economics’ in which 

there would be scope for growth of business 

and industry, but at the same time the 

system for providing everyone the primary 

needs of life. Only then can we prevent the 

reactionary violence that erupts due to the 

dearth of bread for all human beings. 

Prof. Muni Mahendra Kumar said that nonviolence 

and economics may seem to be 

incongruous at the surface, but without the 

association of non-violence, cultural values 

and ethics with economics, we cannot have 

a sustainable and hunger-free society. He 

said Acharya Shri Mahapragyaji’s Ahmisa 

Yatra is a constructive step in this direction 

and is bringing about change in the 

consciousness of the people. 

In the beginning, while welcoming the 

guests and introducing the subject Prof. 

Ashok Bapna, Convener of the conference, 

said that the presence of several 

international delegates in the conference 

was an evidence of the concerns of the 

world society about the prevalent violence 

and the need for non-violent economic 

growth. 

The keynote speaker Prof. L.N. Nathuramka 

said that to ameliorate the situation the four 

basic principles of Jain philosophy can form 

the basis of an alternative system of 

economics. These principles are: 

1. Man to be at the center, 

2. Preservation of Environment, 

3. Decentralization and, 

4. Self Restraint. 

These principles with inclusive growth will 

eliminate violence automatically. 

On this occasion, Dr. Ponna Wignaraja from 

Sri Lanka, Sister B.K. Jayanti from London 

and Prof. Michaela Hynie from Canada also 

expressed their views. 

Dr. Wignaraja said that cultural values 

applicable to conflict resolution / 

transformation in a multicultural, 

multireligious and multi-ethnic societies 

show that political and economic democracy 

must go head in hand. Prof. Michaela Hynie 

discussed the different cultural concepts of 

peace from the perspective of psychology. 

Sister Jayanti said while money is absolutely 

essential, it is heartening to note that 

corporations all over the world are becoming 

aware of their social responsibility. She 

emphasized the need for environmental 

protection. She said spirituality was the 

answer to all our problems. 

Prof. Marcia Rioux from Canada pointed out 

that the influence of economic globalization 

in the subordination of social justice; 

equality, basic rights and human dignity to 

the narrow constraints of economics are 

quite evident in the modern societies. 

During the open discussion that followed a 

large number of pertinent questions were 

asked and a lively interaction was 

generated. Prof. Udai Pareek, Prof. 

Dayanand Bhargava, Prof. Ezra Zubrow, Dr. 

Arun Chaturvedi, Manish Tiwari and several 

other scholars participated in the 

discussion. 

Summing up the discussion, Dr. Ved 

Prakash, Consultant, IILM said that we need 

to bring about a quick shift in our economic 

system, policy and perception and think in 

terms of happiness for all human beings. 

The International Dialogue on the 

“Economics of Non-Violence: Cultural 

Values and Ethics”, continued on the second 

day in the Prangan of Acharya Shri 

Mahapragya, Vihar, Udaipur. The first 

session of the day was on Cultural Values, 

Ethics and Peace which began with the 

blessings of H.H. Acharya Mahapragya. He 

expressed the need for intellectual and 

spiritual consciousness for human and 

related economic development. He 

suggested that Non-Violence is an effective 

medicine for deadly prevailing disease of 

consumerism. 

Dr. Ashok Bapna, Chaiman of ICENS and 

Director of IILM Academy of Higher 

Learning, Jaipur, presented the theme of the 

conference and welcomed the guests. He 

told that values identify our deeds and acts. 

He stressed on the fact that values are 

required to become good human beings. 

Prof. A. K Sinha of IILM Academy of Higher 

Learning introduced the speakers of the 

session. 

Prof. Dayanand Bhargava said that giving 

and sharing and caring are the whole 

essence of qualitative life. He reiterated what 

was said by Acharya Shri Mahapragya that 


“Man Can Change” and become a better 

human being. 

Mr. N.K. Singhi of Indian Economic Service, 

while speaking on the theme, said that there 

is a need for incorporating religion in 

economic development and the principles 

of Jainism of non-possessiveness and 

compassion should be included in the 

concept of economic development. He also 

stated that there is a need for research as 

to why Jains are more developed 

economically. One factor that he identified 

was their adherence to Mahavira’s principles 

of Jain Culture. 

A copy of the translation of the book written 

by H.H. Acharya Mahapragya, titled 

“Philosophical Foundation of Jainism” was 

presented by Prof. M.P. Lele. Prof. Lele also 

narrated the basic contents of Jain 

Philosophy highlighting the virtues of 

Ahimsa, Anekant and Aparigraha. 

Prof. Prem Suman Jain also presented a 

book “ Bhagwati Aradhna” to Acharya Shri. 

In the end of this session, H.H. Acharya 

Mahapragya gave his blessings by giving 

the eight fundamentals of Non-violence, 

Peace and Relative Economics. He said that 

there is a need for training in Non-Violence, 

mere intellectual deliberation would not be 

enough to provide the solution. 

In the next session, Prof. Ashish Bose, an 

eminent demographer and Advisor to the 

Prime Minister wished for more participation 

of political leaders in such conferences so 

that issues concerning development provide 

practical solutions. 

Sister B.K. Jayanti, in her key presentation, 

told that there is a need for value education 

in schools. For this, they have started a 

project named “Touch the Light”. She also 

emphasized the need of Holistic 

Development and for that they have started 

“Sampurna Gram Vikas Project” with the 

objective of imparting education and all 

round development. 

Professor Michaela Hynie, York University, 

Canada, stressed on the need for research 

in the domain of peace. She talked about 

peace in terms of never-ending and 

multidimensional aspect starting from within 

and flowing outside. She gave a definition 

of peace in terms of Non-Violence, absence 

of war or conflict, central positive values and 

inner harmony. 

Professor Ezra Zubrow, renowned 

Anthropologist from USA, spoke about two 

views of cultural values, one as an individual 

or as private right and the other as a group 

or community right. He also said that in many 

countries ethnic groups dominate the 

cultural heritage of their regions, which 

becomes the major cause of conflict. 

Prof. Arun Chaturvedi, while speaking on 

the theme of the session expressed that the 

position and place of peace studies in Indian 

Universities are ignored to a great extent. 

He said that there is a need for peace 

studies for greater development and peace 

action should become an essential part of 

education. He stressed that Non-violence 

and peace will start by inculcating emotions 

and feeling of understanding in society. 

The theme of the next session was 

“Corporate social responsibility and Ethics 

– Dialogue with Acharya Mahapragyaji”. 

While speaking on the theme, Mr. Anupam 

Martin, from Singapore, spoke about ethical 

consumerism, decentralized economy, 

sustainable growth and explained the 

concepts with examples. He defined success, 

not only as attaining power and money, but 

also as happiness, appreciation by the critics 

and the ability to appreciate beauty. 

Prof. Ezra Zubrow, from USA, explained the 

principle of Equity, and suggested that 

companies should understand the concept 

of Corporate Social Responsibility and not 

as Corporate Social Charity. 

This was followed by an interactive open 

discussion on the theme. Summing up the 

discussion, Dr. Ved Prakash, Consultant, 

IILM Academy of Higher Learning said 

cultural values and ethics can act as a bridge 

for materialism and spiritualism. The vote 

of thanks was presented by Dr. Y.S. Kothari. 

After this, Dr. G.L. Jain conducted a session 

on Preksha meditation. In the slide show, 

he explained the steps of meditation and 

the advantages of practising it. It was 

followed by a 30-minute practical session. 

In the end, a short film produced by IILM 

Academy, Jaipur entitled “Towards a Nonviolent 

Model of Development” was shown. 

The programme was coordinated by Mr. 

Sudhir Upadhyay and Mr. Rustam Bora, 

Faculty, IILM Academy and was compered 

by Sunil Devjani and Amoli Mehrotra, 

students of IILM Academy, Jaipur. 

The International Dialogue on the 

“Economics of Non-Violence: Cultural 

Values and Ethics”, concluded on its third 

day in the Prangan of Acharya Shri 

Mahapragya Vihar, Udaipur. 

The first session of the day began with a 

Business session chaired by Prof. Muni 

Mahendra Kumarji. The session began with 

a Presentation on “Poverty Reduction and 

its impact on Non-violence” by Mr. B.Raj 

Bhandari from Geneva. He defined poverty 

not only in economic terms but also in terms 

of Non economic factors like denial of 

services like health, education, 

infrastructure and medical facilities etc. 

While throwing light on world poverty 

reduction he said that only certain counties 

like China have succeeded in achieving the 

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He 

also tried to relate poverty reduction with 

economic development. On speaking in the 

context of India he said in absolute terms, 

poverty has been reduced but the 

distribution of people below poverty line in 

different states is not proper. He also related 

poverty with globalization which has resulted 

in increasing our needs and also resulted 

in increasing violence in society. He said that 

globalization has not increased poverty, but 

it has increased inequality in income 

distribution. He also wished that the 

conference would make substantial 

contribution towards reduction in violence. 

The session was followed by open 

discussion by the panelists. 

On this occasion, a ten point Udaipur 

declaration was proposed based on new 

Non-violent economic concept on balanced 

spiritual and material development, new 

concept of relative economics, corporate 

social responsibility, change in education 

system including Spritualism, Morality, 

development & society, emotional control for 

saving the society from conflicts, tensions, 

protection of environmental pollution. The 

detailed ten points, which were proposed, 

are enclosed with the report. 

In the valedictory session, Prof. Ashish 

Bose, an eminent demographer and Advisor 

to the Prime Minister, said that the 

conference has helped the students of IILM 

Academy of Higher Learning, Jaipur in 

becoming value added managers. He 

identified two problems that are present in 

the world as Fundamentalism and 

Corruption. The solution to these problems 

lies in Non-violent economics as a new 

model of economics. 

The chief guest of the valedictory session, 

Mr. Gulab Chand Kataria, Home Minister, 

Government of Rajasthan, said that in India 

Ahimsa is in our culture. He identified the 

root cause of violence in our society as 

growing disparity between the rich and the 

poor. The solution to the problem is that 

those who are rich should spend a part of 

their income in reducing poverty. 

The conference was formally concluded with 

the blessings of Acharya Mahapragya. He 

expressed the need for practicing 

spiritualism in our life. He said that one 

should work with inner-consciousness and 

one should curtail needs. He stressed the 

need for training in Non-violence for 

intellectual and spiritual consciousness for 

human and related economic development. 

He suggested that Non-Violence is essential 

in the making of a good human being. 

The valedictory session was compered by 

Sunil Devjani and Amoli Mehrotra, students 

of IILM Academy, Jaipur. 



Glimpses of Udaipur

Glimpses of Udaipur 


Facelift To Human Resourcees 

Accounting- Liabilities Approach 

FACELIFT TO HUMAN RESOURCEES 

ACCOUNTING- LIABILITIES APPROACH 

Abstract 

In the 21st century, HR has undergone 

paradigm shift and new and sensitive issues 

such as competency mapping, emotional 

intelligence, and talent management have 

been dominating the current scenario. 

Despite HR's renaissance, HR researchers 

have not still convinced the accounting 

professionals and researchers that 

spectrum of issues can be recorded in 

finanancial statements adopting accounting 

principles. There is still a bone of contention 

regarding Human resources accounting 

models propounded by the researchers 

based on the assets approach due to the 

fact that measurement of human resources 

continue to pose a challenge. Moreover, 

these models do not meet the some of the 

accounting parameters set by the 

accounting professionals. In this context, 

Professors Herman A. Theeke and Mt 

Pleasant of USA have made an innovative 

attempt to record HR based on liabilities 

approach. This article details HR accounting 

using three methods i.e. Demand deposits 

liabilities method, lease method and 

contingency liability method. The 

researchers are of the opinion that 

contingent liability method might be 

accepted by the accounting professionals. 

Shankari Parivallal, Faculty, Sona school 

of Management, Salem. 

Introduction 

For a few months I have been just reading, 

browsing through different spectrums of 

accounting such as Environmental 

Accounting,HR Accounting and Forensic 

Accounting that are emerging as new areas 

in the field of accounting. All of a sudden I 

started to show keen interest in reading 

research articles related to HR accounting. 

All these fascinated me a lot. One fine day, 

I accidentally came across an article which 

showcased a different approach to include 

HR in accounting records i.e. based on 

liabilities approach. That made my thinking 

hat to probe in to the details; the result is 

culminated in this article. 

In today's cut throat competitive scenario, 

success embraces those organizations 

L. Shankari, Faculty,Sona school of management, Saelm. 

whose employees perform excellently. There 

is no second opinion about this. But how 

many organizations are prepared to 

incorporate HR in to their accounting 

records and statements. The answer is very 

few because the accounting professionals 

have not still identified the acceptable 

method of recording HR. 

Flash back of HR accounting research 

Research in HR accounting has started as 

early as 1960s and continued in to the 21st 

century but no concrete methods have been 

designed by the researchers.Cascio(2000), 

a psychologist not an Accounting 

professional has done extensive research 

in this area and is of the opinion that the 

Historical cost model developed by 

Brummet,Flamholtz and Pyle, Replacement 

cost Method initiated by Flamholtz and 

Present value of future earnings approach 

propounded by Lev and Schwartz all have 

failed to consider the output of HR but solely 

stressed on the input , that is, the investment 

in HR.It is he who pioneered in viewing HR 

through expenses lens. He suggests this 

model to measure the economic effects of 

employees'behaviour.The assets models 

have been rejected on the ground that HR 

does not fit into accounting definition of 

asset. In accounting parlance, an asset is 

the one that must generate income streams 

and be owned and controlled by the 

organization. Though assets models meet 

the first part of the definition, it does not 

satisfy the second part that is ownership as 

HR can not be owned by organizations. 

Employees can leave the organizations at 

any time by giving due notice. The professor 

Herman A. Theeke criticized the assets 

models of HR remarking that they do not 

satisfy one of the accounting parameters 

namely the ownership parameter. His friend 

immediately quipped, why don't you find out 

an alternate method for this? This remark 

kept on ringing in to his ears and this made 

him and his friend to infuse new thinking in 

recording HR in accounting records. The 

professor who advocates the liabilities 

approach hit upon this flash of thought when 

he was contemplating on demand deposits 

of the bank. he met his bank officials and 

had a discussion with the accounting 

treatment of demand deposits. That gave 

him a cue with regard to inclusion of HR in 

– L.Shankari 

accounts. This reminds me of the 

computation of ratio (ratio Analysis)ROI / 

return on capital employed. In this capital 

employed can be found out by using assets 

method or liabilities method. The same 

principle is followed even in case of valuation 

of shares and incase of mergers / 

amalgamations purchase consideration is 

computed using assets method/liabilities 

method. If the approach is quite logical and 

does not defy accounting principles why not 

consider it in case of HR also. 

Before delving deep in to the details of the 

research let us consider the meaning and 

definition for the term liability in accounts. 

The utterance of the very word results in 

frowning/sulking on one's face but 

remember it is not such a negative word/ 

untouchable word. It means any obligation/ 

promise made/created and satisfied/fulfilled 

by the business organization.. Making and 

meeting the obligations is the base on which 

the business is built strongly. To business 

people, therefore, the liability from such 

obligations is not good or bad - it is just a 

fact and a necessary way of life . (Herman 

A. Theeke and Mt Pleasant of USA) This 

forms the basis of HR accounting methods. 

There are 3 methods; they are 1.Demand 

deposit liability method 2.Lease method 

3.Contigent liability method. 

Demand deposit liability method 

The primary functions of a bank are 

accepting deposits and advancing loans. In 

case of deposits there are 2 major types: 

demand deposits and time deposits. Current 

account and savings deposit fall under the 

category of demand deposits and they are 

called so as the bank has to return the 

deposits as and when demanded by the 

depositors. Since they have to be repaid/ 

returned to the depositors they are treated 

as the liabilities in banks. Interest on 

deposits is treated as an expense and 

shown in the income statement. Though the 

deposits are considered as debts, the bank 

is permitted to use the same in revenue 

generating activities that is used for 

advancing loans. The same approach can 

be used in case of human capital-it can be 

considered as the employee loan advanced 

to the organization. This creates 2 types of 

accounts-borrowed human capital, a liability 

and unassigned human assets account. 


Entry to be made in the books is 

Unassigned human assets a/c Dr 

To Borrowed human capital a/c 

When employees are posted to the 

production process, the entry is 

Employed human capital a/c Dr 

To Unassigned human assets/c 

When the organization downsizes the 

number of employees one has to pass a 

reverse entry. The human capital is shown 

as a liability and the unassigned and 

employed human assets appear as assets 

in the balance sheet. 

The demand deposits and human capital 

are similar in respect of ownership 

parameter as both are not owned by the 

organization. But both can be used in 

revenue generating activities. Both differ in 

the following aspects. The initial amount of 

demand deposit is returned and the DD is 

easily recorded in financial statements in 

terms of rupees. But the measurement of 

HR could be difficult to compute, moreover, 

at the time when the employees leave the 

organizations one has to take in to account 

the earning potential of the employees, 

health and pension benefits etc and it is a 

very tough and complex process to 

determine the repayment value of the 

human capital .As far as this method is 

concerned, accounting professionals may 

not find this approach a viable one as this 

method also suffers from the following 

limitation, that is ,difficulty in expressing HR 

in terms of monetary values. The basic 

accounting rule is that only those 

transactions which are capable of being 

measured in financial terms can find place 

in accounting records. 

Lease method 

In case of lease method, there are 2 parties 

invoved, one is called the lessor (owner) and 

the other one is known as the lessee 

(Tenant/Hirer). It is an agreement whereby 

lessee gets the right to use lessor's asset. 

The lease agreement makes the borrower 

to enter in to a liability legally in the form of 

periodic payments and the return of the 

asset in a specified condition at the end of 

the lease period. Sometimes the specified 

condition might be stated as, "The asset 

must be returned in its original condition, 

Carried from Page 38 

Internet and its tools have had a significant 

influence in the way business is done 

through out the world. It ahs brought 

inefficiency, proper utilization of resources, 

quick and better decision making. It has 

opened new ways for the business to reach 

the customer which is significantly cheaper, 

but it ahs also shifted the balance of power 

in the hands of customers, as these tools 

with allowances for normal wear." For 

example, with auto leases some mileage 

amount could be stated and appearance, 

damage to the paint and glass may be 

specified. The arrangement about the 

condition of the returned asset is significant 

to the lessor because it helps him determine 

how much he must charge to make a profit 

on the asset leased. The value of the asset 

at the end of the lease period is called the 

residual value. If the residual value is zero 

then the lessor had received enough 

amounts from the lessee to buy a new one. 

If there is some residual value then the 

payments received should only have 

compensated the lessor for the reduction in 

value. 

In case, the lessee wants to make 

improvement in the asset, the cost will be 

borne by the lessee which he could recover 

from the owner during the lease period itself/ 

before the expiry of it. Claims cannot be 

enforced after the expiry of the lease period. 

But if the agreement does not permit such 

improvement and contains a condition that 

it should be returned in original condition 

that might result in liability on the part of the 

lessee. Most of the lessees claim that they 

can not claim ownership over the asset and 

some times can not even sublease the 

asset. Most of the companies prefer using 

lease method because they can use the 

asset without paying the full cash price of 

the asset. 

Accountants are of the opinion that lease 

involves future payments for a specified 

period and it is mandatory for the 

organizations (lessees) to disclose the same 

in the financial statements but generally 

lessees do not do it. Not reporting this 

information in the balance sheet might result 

in overstatement of return on assets or 

understatement of liability which is against 

the accounting convention of disclosure and 

materiality. 

In case of human capital, one can not claim 

ownership over them as in the case of lease. 

Residual value of the human capital can 

never be equal to zero but can be more or 

less than the human capital borrowed. 

Residual value is real but determination is 

a difficult process. Even this method would 

be discounted by the accounting 

professionals due to this reason. 

Knowledge Manager and Tools for Excellence 

give them the ability to interact, have 

information, instantly to the customer. 

These tools give minority, though how small 

in number an equal footing, which 

theoretically should lead to a better world 

and better decision making. But we have to 

also live by the fact that every individual can 

not possess complete knowledge, some 

Contingent liability method 

In accounting language, contingent liability 

is an anticipated liability that may or may not 

become real and it depends on the occurance 

of a particular event. Accountants classify the 

possibility making such payments: 

l Probable-The future event is likely to 

happen. 

l Reasonably possible-the chance of 

occurance of the event is more than 

remote but less than likely. 

l Remote-the chance of the occurance of 

the event is almost negligible. 

"The accounting standards say a liability 

should be recorded and charged to expense 

if two conditions are satisfied: There is 

information that makes it probable that a 

liability has been incurred; and the amount 

of the loss can be reasonably estimated. 

For example, a wrongful death suit of an 

employee has been filed against your 

company and you know that your policies 

and practices for safety were not safe 

enough such that you would have difficulty 

defending against the suit, then you will 

need to estimate the total value of that 

employee, which will include the employee's 

earning potential, the value of lost emotional 

relationships and guidance, and report that 

as a liability. The so called Best HR 

practices" are crafted in such a manner to 

shift the contingent liability from a 

classification of probable to remote. The 

method for determining the amount of 

human capital loaned to the company and 

the method for calculating the borrowed 

human capital liability account will be 

determined by accounting convention The 

imputed amount of human capital that the 

employee loans the employer could be used 

to calculate the potential amount of the 

contingent liability in many cases. Proper 

HR programs for recruitment, training, 

safety, compensation, adaptation, 

termination and benefit administration are 

not prevalent in the organization, the 

classification of the contingent liability 

moves from remote to probable. Better HRM 

practices are designed to move the 

contingent liability toward the remote or zero 

probability. In the absence of excellent HR 

management programs, an accountant 

should be forced to establish and report 

some contingent liability. 

u H 

times choices have to be made from among 

the least worst of the options available. 

The answer lies in the ability of human race 

to transform it self to the next level, the level 

of objective thinking. So these are not tools 

for freedom or for spreading anarchism. 

They are simply tools how we use and 

respond to. 

u H 


After the invention of the transistor, the 

world has moved at a very fast pace. 

We humans have discovered more about 

our self's in the past half a century, than we 

did in the thousand years of our existence 

on this planet. Computers today play a far 

more critical role in our life's, and internet 

or the world wide web (a network of 

computers on the world wide scale) is 

playing even a more critical role. 

Life today runs on 1 and 0. Bits running at 

the speed of light, from one computer to 

another, from one memory device to 

another, an endless run that seems to 

stretch to infinity. The various sciences now 

seem to be combining more frequently than 

ever before. The concept of quantum 

computers, at least in theory makes 

redundant today's security algorithms. The 

task that seemed impossible yesterday 

would become a child's play for these 

machines to solve. A single desktop 

quantum computer would pack in more 

power than the power of many 

supercomputers combined. 

The internet today is no longer a 

combination of computers; it has taken a 

life of its own. Scores of coders are writing 

applications that are changing our life 

dramatically. Programs today enable us to 

access information from remote locations, 

applications that are getting more and more 

artificially intelligent. The world is getting 

more and more wired and interconnected. 

Knowledge and information sharing 

applications are making us share 

information and question the very 

foundations of the so called modern world. 

Keeping the context in mind we will try to 

understand the concept of some of the latest 

knowledge and information sharing 

applications and how are they shaping 

applications are making us share 

information and question the very 

foundations of the so called modern world. 

Keeping the context in mind we will try to 

understand the concept of some of the latest 

knowledge and information sharing 

applications and how are they shaping the 

future our civilization and making us 

question the fundamentals themselves. 

Before we discuss it is important to 

understand what these terms are, they 

techniques, algorithms, software's or a 

combination. 

Knowledge Manager and 

Tools for Excellence or 

Wikipedia, Blog, Social book marking, IM, RSS and Podcasting: 

Are they tools of freedom or anarchy for Managers? 

Wikipedia: Wikipedia is the world's newest, 

largest, most varied, most participatory, and 

most controversial encyclopedia. It is 

composed and edited entirely by volunteer 

netizens Wikipedia was co creator by Larry 

Sanger, a professional epistemologist. The 

site's massive archive, including 380,000 

articles in English alone, puts even 

Britannica to shame. 

Blog: A weblog, which is usually shortened 

to blog, is a type of website where entries 

are made (such as in a journal or diary, 

displayed in a reverse chronological order. 

Blogging indirectly started when Tim 

Berners-Lee at CERN begins keeping a list 

of all new sites as they come online. 

Social book keeping: The general idea 

behind social bookmarks is that rather than 

saving a bookmark for a web page in a 

browser such as Internet Explorer, users 

instead save the bookmark to a publicly 

accessible web site. Other people can then 

see your bookmark and ideally be exposed 

to something that you wouldn't otherwise 

encounter. 

IM: Instant messaging or IM is a form of realtime 

communication between two or more 

people based on typed text. The text is 

conveyed via computers connected over a 

network such as the Internet. 

RSS: Defined in XML, the Rich Site 

Summary (RSS) format (aka "Really Simple 

Syndication"), previously known as the RDF 

Site Summary, has quietly become a 

dominant format for distributing news 

headlines on the Web. 

Podcasting: describes the process of using 

audio files to deliver syndicated website 

content to a digital audience in podcasting, 

you create audio files that are available on 

your website, which people can then 

download to their iPods or MP3 players. 

"Podcasts" are delivered through RSS (Rich 

Site Summary) feeds. A podcast is 

distinguished by its ability to be downloaded 

automatically using software capable of 

reading RSS or Atom feeds. Before we try 

to analyze the impact of these applications 

a few examples would be worth studying: 

a) In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis quit his 

job at IBM after his posts exposing the false 

claims of a management school, IIPM, led 

Dr Gunmala Suri, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh, g_suri@yahoo.com 

Dr. Gunmala Suri 

to management of IIPM threatening to burn 

their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against 

him. 

b) Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas 

Mavericks, was recently fined during the 

2006 NBA playoffs for criticizing NBA 

officials on the court and in his blog. 

c) Blogs were an important source of news 

during the December 2004 Tsumani such 

as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which used 

SMS text messaging to report from affected 

areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India. 

After gaining an understanding of what the 

various terms stand for, it becomes clear 

that they are software tools that are a part 

of the internet itself. But are they leading to 

freedom or a state of anarchism, is the 

question that comes to our mind. As is clear 

the tools above give individual a power to 

put forth his view, and to be counted in the 

real sense. They have more freedom to 

express, shares information, distribute it, 

have access to information on the go, 

leading to a world where the concept of 

dynamic information becomes real. 

There is a natural tendency for individuals 

and groups to shield the world from points 

that are in opposition to their own. The 

contradiction is that those who try so hard 

to silence the voices opposing them wish 

to, at the same time, maintain their freedom 

to speak for their own causes. 

If we take into account the basic premises 

on which the structure of globalization 

stands, the idea of "free flow", whether of 

capital, labor, intellect, and then it can be 

safely assumed that this should apply to 

internet and its tools also. But in case of 

globalization the concept of nation states 

still stands, meaning that the government 

is still the enabling force. 

The internet instead has its roots in various 

places, though indirectly in hands of US 

government, but still it is a medium over 

which no single individual, or government can 

stake its claim. This singular fact and the 

various tools make internet a dark place in 

the eyes of the government. Here an 

individual has equal power to that of the 

government, and the various tools help 

spread the information with the speed of light. 



I 

felt bringing to the notice of the readers 

about the interaction with my friends 

working across India & Abroad working for 

MNCs and software firms. Other than our 

routine yak much of our sensitive yet 

grueling chat clusters around work place 

and the people with whom working. 

Astonishingly I found most of them are 

weary, frustrated, unhappy, and demotivated 

when discussion hinges on their professional 

caretaker. Let me share their feelings here: 

interaction with our boss leaves us cold. He's 

a bully, intrusive, controlling, picky and petty. 

He takes credit for our work, never provides 

positive feedback and misses each meeting 

he schedules with us. One of my expatriate 

friend say's, He's a bad boss, bad to the bone. 

2 Sides of the Same Coin: 

Discussing with my software HR colleagues; 

conceited yet deterministically they 

reiterates, the main reason organizations 

have some toxic managers are because 

they tolerate the behaviors from them. 

Should HR worry about bad bosses? A 

million dollar question and most of them 

says: Absolutely. Bad bosses destroy 

employee morale and hurt your workplace. 

While browsing a front page column article 

reflected in Careers-The Hindu June 06 

Edition, surprisingly I found a similar write 

up where the author is trying to aware the 

readers to exercise a few traits you will be 

able to think of ways to deal with 

them(bosses). Let's know a few tips who 

are they and how they be handled. 

Hues & Colors of white collar Clan Boss: 

It has been heard about those bosses who 

bullies, the one who is a dictator or the one 

who lives in an ivory tower in grand isolation 

cut from his/her subordinates. There are 

bosses who are perfectionists and expect 

others to be the same. Then there are those 

who are inexperienced, ineffective and bad 

communicators. Some tend to be abusive 

or manipulative while others micromanage. 

Hope with this I am trying to unearth a brief 

sketch of this spectacular clan in front of 

you using all types of vocabulary. But after 

all the essence of my discussion is having 

an insecure boss can do more damage to 

one's career than anything else. With such 

a boss the feeling of insecurity will affect 

the organization's growth and, more 

It takes all kinds to make the world and it takes 

all kinds of bosses to make up the workplace. 

Defying the Workplace 

Difficulties: 

Dealing with Boss 

importantly, jeopardize the careers of those 

working under him. 

Solution lies in Solving the Situation: 

From Secrets to Winning at Office Politics 

by Marie G. McIntyre, Ph.D says whatever 

it may be but the more effectively you can 

manage your boss, the more pleasant your 

days are likely to be. 1st and foremost let's 

see if any of these underlying statements 

might apply to our relations with our 

professional caretaker: 

l I tend to get into power struggles and 

control battles with my boss. 

l I resent the fact that my boss has the 

power to direct my activities. 

l I sometimes intentionally fail to do 

something that my boss asks or 

expects. 

l I tend to feel somewhat anxious when I 

am with my boss. 

l I am very hesitant about expressing 

disagreement to my boss. 

l I often keep my ideas and opinions to 

myself instead of sharing them with my 

boss. 

Mclntyre says, If you see yourself in any of 

these descriptions, you may need to do a 

better job of managing your boss. Let's 

consider these suggestions for improving 

that relationship: 

1. Accept the fact that your boss has been 

given the power to direct your activities. This 

is true even if you are much smarter than 

he is, even if you should have been given 

her job, even if he is the most obnoxious 

loudmouth on the planet. You are stuck with 

this boss for the immediate future, so 

becoming rebellious will only make a bad 

situation worse. Accepting reality and 

working to increase your influence will 

produce better results. 

2. Don't expect perfection. Managers are 

people, not androids, so they have an 

endless variety of quirks and eccentricities 

and odd little habits. Recognize your boss' 

hot buttons and for heaven's sake don't push 

them! There's a name for people who annoy 

their managers on purpose - masochists. If 

you have a wonderful boss who is a pleasure 

to work with, celebrate! Be grateful every 

day for as long as it lasts. If not, lower your 

expectations. 

Mr.L.K.Jena 

3. Study your boss' management style and 

figure out what makes her happy. Look for 

clues that tell you how he/she likes work 

done or how he/she prefers to get 

information. If you're not sure what your 

boss expects from you, in terms of results, 

work habits, communication style, or 

anything else, then don't try to guess - ask!. 

Any reasonable manager will gladly answer 

these questions and, in fact, will be pleased 

and surprised by your interest. 

4. Try to make your boss look good. 

Produce quality results, meet deadlines, 

stay within your budget, respond to people 

quickly. Find problems that need solving 

and address them. Contribute new ideas 

and suggestions. Share useful information 

with your boss. And your own political power 

will grow when your manager tells 

everybody how wonderful you are! 

5. Never, never, never complain to others 

about your boss - especially to people 

outside your department or to your 

employees (if you are a manager). 

Strategizing with trusted peers about how 

to handle your manager's more challenging 

peculiarities is one thing - kind of like a group 

therapy session - but trumpeting your 

unhappiness far and wide will only get you 

in trouble. 

6. Give your boss a sincere compliment 

from time to time. Managers hear lots of 

complaints, but few employees ever bother 

to give their boss a kind word. Unless your 

manager resembles Adolph Hitler, you can 

surely find some quality worth praising. 

Mention it at some appropriate point. But 

let's be clear - paying a sincere compliment 

is not the same as groveling or sucking up. 

Concluding Remarks: 

No one is perfect, and everyone is entitled 

to a bad day now and then. But if one has a 

difficult boss, he/she may feel like having to 

walk on eggshells every day to prevent 

problems. The tension of waiting for 

something to go wrong can sap the belief in 

one's own abilities -- and combined with the 

symptoms of mental illness, it can make 

every workday feel like a waking nightmare. 

I anticipate reader's facing similar dilemma 

can give a second thought through those 

doable advices and getting themselves in 

WIN-WIN. 

u H 

Mr. L.K. Jena is currently working as Personnel Officer with HAL Management Academy, the corporate learning center of Hindustan 

Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore. He can be reached at:lkjena@inbox.com 


Virtual Teams 

- Challenge for HR 

"We can't solve problems 

by using the same kind of 

thinking we used when we 

created them." 

- Albert Einstein 

Globalization of the organizations and 

telecommunications revolution has 

enabled employees performing their job in 

different shifts and different time zones team 

up to achieve the goals. The development 

of faster communication systems, more 

powerful processors, and a new family of 

software has allowed organizations to enter 

the era of virtual connection1 enabling 

organizations to enter the era of virtual 

teams. Virtual teams allow organizations to 

build effective teams that might not 

otherwise be possible to work together due 

to constraints like time and travel cost 

restrictions, involving high costs of 

manpower, requirement of experts in the 

field, etc. Process Outsourcing has further 

given the boost to Virtual teams with teams 

from various companies work as teams to 

deliver the results. 

Virtual teams allow corporate entities to 

continue the work of a team 24 hours a day 

by crossing the traditional time barriers. 

Virtual teams enhance the availability of 

resources, the problems that can be 

associated with gaining access to experts 

or people with domain knowledge. This has 

created a new challenge to HR in 

comprehending and fostering virtual teams 

towards achieving the organizational goals. 

Responsibility lies with HR in helping the 

virtual teams deliver the results. 

Virtual team is defined as "Teams that 

operate across space, time, and 

organizational boundaries, communicating 

with each other only through electronic 

technology". 2 'A group of people 

geographically different brought together by 

a common goal that uses communication 

technology to achieve common goal.'3 

Virtual teamwork is opposite to the 

traditional teamwork lies in the large cross 

boundary co-operation, high flexibility of 

work with links strengthened by webs of 

communication technology. Team members 

have complementary skills and are 

committed for the common purpose, have 

interdependent performance goals, and 

share an approach to work for which they 

hold themselves mutually accountable. 

Knowledge, skills and experience are most 

vital for virtual teams. Virtual teams are also 

called as Geographically Dispersed Team 

(GDT). 

Virtual teams are not a phenomenon but 

rather a permanent off shoot of the creation 

of technology that supports them. As the 

technology expands, the role of virtual team 

will increase. New technologies and 

electronic commerce are here to stay and 

are changing the work environment virtually 

in some cases. As forces of change, new 

technologies are a double edge sword that 

can be used to improve job performance or 

to create stress. On the positive side, the 

modern technologies are revolutionizing the 

jobs and are designed in a way that work 

gets done and on the otherside these teams 

are creating stress where employees have 

to work defying the biological clock. Virtual 

offices are mobile plat forms of computer, 

and the telecommunications services allow 

Myths 

Virtual teams are not as 

affective as traditional 

teams 

Team dynamics in both 

traditional and virtual teams 

are same 

It is difficult to create trust 

among the team members 

who cannot see one to one 

Accountability is difficult 

Traditional teams are 

preferable over virtual 

teams 

There is no difference in 

roles between traditional 

teams and virtual teams 

B. Sivarama Krishna & Perni Srinivasa Rao 

mobile workforce members to conduct 

business virtually anywhere, anytime 

globally. This is known as law of telecosm - 

the idea that as computer networks expand, 

distances become irrelevant. 4 

Organizations are looking at various ways 

to leverage the strengths of virtual teams. 

AT&T has adapted Virtual Resources where 

there are no staffs dedicated to particular 

customers but employees would float from 

one account to another as needed.5 

There are always Myths which are 

associated with the concepts and realities 

of Virtual teams are as given 

Challenges to HR are in terms of 

l As the case of any team-based 

organizations, Human Resource 

professionals are expected to provide 

leadership in forming and nurturing 

virtual teams. 

l Virtual team members require high 

degree of training on communication, 

since it's the key for efficiency and 

effectiveness of the team. Since the 

team members may involve people from 

Reality 

Virtual teams can be effective and has more advantages 

than traditional teams in terms of harnessing skills, time, 

technology and people. 

Virtual teams have different team dynamics due to the 

nature of the team formation and the group of people 

associated with the team 

Trust can be developed in the team since communication 

and interaction is of high focus. Trust is of high focus by 

nature in virtual teams 

Out-of-sight does not mean unaccountable. Achieving the 

goals is the prime criteria. Virtual team works on completion 

of tasks as per the time span and there is complete 

monitoring of the schedules 

Corporations worldwide have to leverage on the economies 

of scale and competitive advantage which is difficult in the 

traditional teams and hence virtual teams are to stay 

Nature of roles of team leader and member are different 

like disciplined interaction, communication, etc. The skills 

required by team leader are different to that of traditional 

teams 

B. Sivarama Krishna, General Manager - HR, Frontline Group of Companies, Ahmedabad, email sivaramakrishnab@hotmail.com 

Perni Srinivasa Rao, AGM - HR & Admin, IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects Limited, Hyderabad, Email srinivas@ivrinfra.com 


across the cultures there might be 

issues of cross-cultural communication. 

l Teams must be trained to adapt to the 

new teams or assignments, whenever 

new teams are formed so as to ensure 

continual continuity. For example an 

organization serving various clients can 

ask the employee to switch between the 

teams to achieve the adhered 

schedules. 

l Right kind of empowerment to the teams 

to deliver the goals. 

l To resolve the cultural boundaries, solve 

conflicts, interpret outside influences 

and decide on consensus method with 

virtual team approach. 

l To operate cultural differences, which 

range from unique communication style 

to complex value systems, complicated 

by language barriers can be worked out 

with virtual team. 

l Finally, employees are under 

tremendous stress to deliver, adhere to 

schedules, adapt to the changes in the 

teams, learn new technologies, may 

involve wide traveling, work at odd hours 

(defying the biological clock), etc. 

Addressing the issues HR need to 

optimize the human resources to attain 

the organizational goals. 

HR cannot use the same yardstick to what 

it has been using for traditional teams. HR 

Carried from Page 42 

Selecting the potential competencies 

The HR Department uses suitable tests 

and interview techniques to evaluate 

whether the potential competencies are as 

per the requirement and would fulfill the 

needs of the internal customers. Ensuring 

this is very important. Though it takes lot 

of time and effort, it will help to deploy the 

needed competencies fulfilling the needs 

of the internal customers. 

Induction and Socialization 

The process of induction and socialization 

would help the HR Department to provide 

the human resources as needed by all the 

internal customers. The cultural shocks 

can be avoided and it prepares the human 

resources to adapt to the organization's 

culture and value system. Ultimately the 

customers have to be satisfied and all the 

activities of the HR department would 

focus on that. 

Decide the performance metrics for 

different levels /functions 

A system to monitor whether the needs of 

the internal customers are fulfilled has to 

needs to strategize to address the 

challenges. It has to be proactive and be 

ready to embrace the challenge rather than 

wait for the situation to arise and react to it. 

Success of virtual teams depends on 

1. Building trust: People can be trusted in 

a virtual environment. 

2. Ground rules and norms are important 

for teams to establish. They are useful 

in determining how team members 

interact and what kind of behavior is 

accepted. 

3. Adequate resources to be made 

available to foster the performance, if 

not it hinders the performance and 

questions the existence of virtual teams 

itself 

4. Collaboration culture needs to be 

brought in as the virtual team functions 

autonomously and the roles are 

independent. 

5. Agreeing on goals and schedules, 

project specific and performance 

metrics enables single platform for 

discussion and deliverables. 

6. Encouraging participation especially 

during the meetings, as certain members 

may be reluctant to participate. Different 

personality types due to change in 

cultures and language will naturally 

'speak up' in different ways, and ensure 

there are team members but not lurkers. 

be devised. The Performance metrics for 

each individual employee in line with the 

department's objective which will be in line 

with the organization's vision has to be 

developed. This performance metrics will 

vary according to the levels and functional 

area. The performance metric system will 

be devised with full support from the internal 

customers. 

Communicate 

The performance metrics designed has to 

be communicated clearly to the human 

resources scattered in various departments. 

Only if this is done properly, the needs of 

the internal customers will be met. The 

system for evaluating the performance 

metrics, what metrics they have, who would 

evaluate them, what rewards would they get, 

etc., has to be communicated clearly. 

Evaluate, Provide feedback and Skill 

Development 

Periodically evaluating the performance and 

providing feedback has to be undertaken 

by the HR department. The performance 

management system must be in place to 

provide regular feedback to the employee 

7. Providing a private space can be 

created to allow members to share 

thoughts outside the scope of 

assignment and such measures 

minimize coordination problems and 

promote social exchanges among 

members. 

8. Coaching or helping team members to 

adapt to the new environment and be 

part of the team 

9. Rewards and recognition shall be 

followed at every milestone being 

achieved, which reinforces the virtual 

teams. 

10. Continuous Communication is vital for 

the success 

Virtual teams are effective and they achieve 

the difficult tasks that have been hitherto 

difficult to handle. Sun Microsystems 

developed a new electronic customer 

ordered system with a virtual team 

composed of 15 engineers from three 

different companies from three different 

countries.6 

Virtual teams may look futuristic today, they 

will probably common form of work in the 

organizations in the years to come. There 

is tremendous opportunity for HR 

professionals to strategically position their 

organization towards sustained competetive 

advantage and also positioning the firm for 

virutal team success. 

u H 

Quality Function Deployment (QFD): An Alternative Context 

for improvement. Not only that, decisions 

regarding advancement in his/her career 

has to be taken at the appropriate time 

and evaluating the performance would 

help. Apart from all this, HR department 

has to constantly be on the vigil to satisfy 

the needs of the internal customers. The 

system of evaluation would help to identify 

the need fulfilled, the gap existing and the 

remedial measures (skill development) to 

be taken to further satisfy the internal 

customers of the HR Department. 

Conclusion 

Thus the existing functions of the HR 

Department can be looked from the 

Quality Function deployment dimension. 

Ultimately, it is the quality of human 

resources that matter for the effective 

operation of the organization. An 

organization has to give high priority to the 

quality of human resources who get inside 

the organization because they are the one 

who determine the quality of other 

components in the organization. In other 

words, the quality has to start from human 

resources. 

u H 


Quality Function Deployment 

(QFD): An Alternative Context 

– Sumathi Annamalai 

What is QFD? 

QFD is used to translate customer 

requirements to engineering specifications. 

It is a link between customers - design 

engineers - competitors - manufacturing. 

There was a time when individuals could 

order a pair of shoes directly from the 

cobbler. The Cobbler by measuring the foot 

himself and personally handling all aspects 

of manufacturing could assure the customer 

would be satisfied. The increase in the 

distance between producers and users is 

the problem that concerns Yoji Akao, one of 

the founders of Quality Function 

Deployment. QFD links the needs of the 

customer with marketing, design, 

development, engineering, manufacturing, 

and service functions. It can be used for 

service and software products, as well. 

Benefits of QFD 

l Improved communication and sharing 

of information while developing a new 

product. 

l Creation of an informational base which 

is valuable for repeated cycles of 

product improvement 

l Product success in the marketplace, 

due to the precise targeting of key 

customer requirements 

Planning 

Define and 

Determine 

customer needs 

Determine the 

competencies 

required 

Analyze the 

labour market 

Identify the 

source of 

recruitment 

Four - phase QFD Model for HRM 

Deployment 

Selecting the 

potentials 

competencies 

Induction and 

Socialization 

Deployment to 

the internal 

customers 

l Reduced overall design cycle time, 

mainly due to a reduction in timeconsuming 

design changes. 

l Reduced overall cost due to reducing 

design changes, which are not only time 

consuming but very costly, especially 

those which occur at a late stage. 

l Reduced product cost by eliminating 

redundant features and over-design. 

Application of QFD in HR Department 

Can we apply the concept of QFD in the 

area of Human Resource Management? 

This article focuses on the applicability of 

QFD approach in identifying, procuring, 

retaining and evaluating the human 

resources in an organization. An attempt is 

made to apply all the functions generally 

performed by the HR Department, from the 

QFD perspective. This helps in viewing the 

HR department as a resource provider and 

facilitator for all the other departments, who 

are the internal customers. 

Quality is the back bone of QFD concept 

and quality without human resource is 

impossible in an organization. Hence the HR 

Department has to take care of the quality 

of the human resources procured, deployed, 

utilized and managed in the entire 

organization. 

Determining 

the metrics 

Decide the 

performance 

metrics for 

different levels / 

functions 

Design the 

Performance 

Evaluation 

System 

Communicate to 

the human 

resources 

Evaluating 

and 

Controlling 

Evaluate the 

human resources 

at their 

individual levels 

Provide 

feedback for 

Improvement 

Skill 

Development 

Planning: 

The QFD for human Resource Management 

starts with planning function. This planning 

has to undergo the following sequence. 

Define and Determine customer needs 

Who are the customers for HR Department? 

Deployment of human resources has to be 

specific to the customer needs. All the 

departments which depend on the HR 

Department for its human resources are its 

customers. Specifically they are all internal 

customers. The need for human resources 

varies according to the department and the 

levels. Hence the customer needs have to 

be studied carefully before designing a 

system 

Determine the competencies required 

Based on the needs, the competencies 

demanded by the internal customers have 

to be determined in a clear-cut manner. 

Once when these competencies are welldesigned, 

the HR Department will be able 

to satisfy the needs of its internal customers. 

The companies adopt competency mapping 

to determine the specific requirements of 

their customers. The customer has to be 

involved in determining the required 

competencies since it is they who are 

utilizing the resources and the HR 

department would just be facilitators. 

Analyze the labour market 

A consolidated report comprising of the 

competencies needed versus the various 

sources available for procuring has to be 

prepared. The demand and supply position 

for such competencies, the problems 

associated with their procurement, legal 

proceedings, etc have to be dealt at this stage. 

Identify the source of recruitment 

After analyzing all the sources, the right 

source to procure the competencies has to 

be determined. The sources can be 

colleges, universities, competing 

companies, from the labour market, even 

internal from own concerns. Hence this 

systematic approach of meeting the needs 

of the customers would eradicate the 

problems arising of mismatch later. 


Sumathi Annamalai is Assistant Professor, PARK Global School of Business Excellence, Chenna. E-Mail: swahini_a@yahoo.com 


Holistic Assessments 

- A Three Dimensional View 

Its been quite sometime that I wrote an 

article on assessment. My last article for 

NHRD magazine was the one of B-learning 

titled "Welcome to B-learning!". 

Out of the blue, this picture (see Figure 1) 

virtually flashed in front of me. The impulse 

generated inspired me to write an article on 

it. How is that! Here we go… 

Like I discussed about a new jargon called 

"B-learning" in my previous article, this time 

I have come up with another one named 

"3DAC". It stands for 3 dimensional 

assessment cube (See Figure 1). 

human being basically possesses seven 

types of intelligence components. They are 

linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, 

spatial, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal and 

intrapersonal intelligence. The degree of 

intelligence on each component may vary 

within and among individuals. The aggregate 

composition determines the overall 

"cognitive ability" of an individual. Also, the 

dominant trait(s) would determine the 

field(s) in which an individual would excel 

(e.g. If a person has interpersonal 

intelligence as a dominant trait, it means that 

he can be a good marketing guy or a 

teacher). This should give you an idea about 

Cognitive Abilities. If you are curious to know 

more about this, there are abundant 

resources available on the net for your 

reference. 

Now, to Skills… 

A Skill by definition "is something you learn 

or acquire over a period of time". Again Skills 

can be two types viz. Hard and Soft. Hard 

Skills pertain to something that a person can 

perform or demonstrate. Examples of such 

skills are driving a Car, flying an Aeroplane, 

assembling/Troubleshooting PCs, etc. 

Soft Skills have more to do with behavioral 

traits of a person. Attitude, inter-personal 

skills can be cited as examples for this. Of 

course, in a way soft skills can be 

considered as a sub-set of Cognitive 

Abilities. But you can treat it as a discipline 

too. Since hard skills are tangible, it is easy 

to demonstrate and assess. On the contrary, 

soft skills are more often than not dormant 

and also human behavioral patterns are very 

– G Ravi Kumar 

erratic and circumstance dependent (e.g. 

the way an individual behaves when he is 

calm is different from when he is under 

pressure or disturbed). Hence a soft skill is 

a grey area and hence assessments here 

are very subjective and often debatable, 

sometimes contentious too. 

Holistic Assessments - The 3DAC way 

Finally, let us look at ways by which we can 

assess abilities and skills that we discussed 

till now. 

A couple of well known tests for assessing 

cognitive abilities is CAT3 and CogAT. You 

can check their official websites for more 

information about these tests. 

There are several personality test batteries 

available for Soft Skills assessments or 

behavioral assessments. Some of the noted 

ones are 16PF, FIRO-B and DISC based 

tests. 

Hard Skills would mean anything from 

driving a car to flying a space shuttle. Here, 

the context is Software or Programming 

Skills assessments. Again here, we have 

Objective assessments and Performance 

based assessments. In objective 

assessments candidates are tested more 

on concepts pertaining to software 

programming. Some of the renowned 

players in objective assessments are 

Brainbench, MeasureUp, QuestionMark and 

Professional Aptitude Council (PAC). The 

latter is the most effective, but the most 

challenging kind of assessments. Prominent 

companies in this area of assessments are 

SkillCheck and DevSquare 

(www.devsquare.com). 

u H 

3 dimensional assessment cube 

Abilities and Skills - complement each other 

Before I explain about "3DAC", let me first 

give you some dope on Abilities and Skills. 

If you analyze, the implied meaning of the 

word "Abilities" translates to "Cognitive 

Abilities". There are many schools of 

thoughts on this subject and several 

definitions / connotations that exist for this 

word. According to me, one of the notable 

ones is the seminal work by Dr.Howard 

Gardner called "Theory of Multiple 

Intelligences". According to him, every 

G. Ravi Kumar is an IT professional based at Bangalore. E-mail: ravi@devsquare.com; rk1601@hotmail.com; rk1672@gmail.com 

Fundamentals of Non-violence, infused with consciousness of consciousness and spiritual 

Peace and Relative Economics spirituality or consciousness of consciousness are developed in a 

emotion. 

balanced manner. 

- Acharya Mahaprajna 

4. If only intellectual consciousness is 7. Stopping the reactive violence is 

1. That activity cannot attain success, developed and if only economic possible only when the disease of 

which is devoid of the process of development takes place, then bread consumerism that grows with the 

transformation of consciousness. 

cannot go together with non-violence economic development is treated and 

2. The system for controlling 

and peace. 

consciousness of self-restraint 

possessiveness or individual 5. If mere consciousness of spirituality is reaches the higher level. 

ownership cannot attain success developed, then both Ahimsa and 8. The solution to this problem is Training 

because it lacks in the technique bread cannot go together. 

in Non-violence; mere intellectual 

of transformation of consciousness. 

6. Ahimsa, peace and bread can go deliberation would not be enough to 

3. The mission of non-violence can together only when intellectual provide the solution for human 

become successful only when it is consciousness, economic problems. 


A new revolution: 

What employees hear is that "people are 

our most important asset," what they see is 

that people are the most expendable asset 

--- Gary Hamel & C.K..Prahalad (competing 

for the future -Harvard Business Review, 

July/August 1994) 

The renaissance is about re-discovering the 

values - energy, innovation and 

responsiveness. An organization can 

achieve these values by allowing itself to 

EXCEL in every aspect. Here the acronym 

EXCEL refers to 

E---Empowerment 

X---eXperience 

C---Customer focus 

E--- Enterprise 

L----Leadership 

Organizations reflect the societies and 

markets in which they operate. As these 

evolve, so should organizations. The 

situation in which many organizations find 

themselves might be called the consistency/ 

inconsistency dilemma. 

CONSISTENCY INCONSISTENCY 

Control 

Autonomy 

Integration Diversity 

Centralization Localization 

Roles 

Individuals 

Function-led Customer-led 

Every dimension of this dilemma requires 

an organization to find its own place in 

response to the market conditions it faces 

and its strategic response. 

Organizations are no longer able to tell 

people what to do - people have to do what 

the market tells them rather what a particular 

part of the organization expects and predicts 

what sort of people are needed to work in 

organization? For a start, they are unlikely 

to be blindly complaint, working to tightly 

defined role specifications and job 

descriptions. The need for integrated 

diversity makes impossible Taylor's vision 

and instead requires a very different sort of 

individual who is prepared to commit a lot 

more of him or herself to work. 

What are organizations doing to cope better 

with these levels of change and the 

Employee Commitment 

A Way To Renaissance 

Management 

consequent need to balance more 

successfully the forces of integration and 

diversity, consistency and inconsistency, 

control and autonomy? 

Renaissance is about the rise of the 

individual and developments in learning. The 

same factors apply to renaissance in 

organizations - individuality will be an 

increasing exception within a work force and 

learning will be a key process. 

Employee commitment is key factor of 

renaissance. Employee commitment 

embraces both motivation and selfmotivation 

or empowerment. 

Key questions to check employee 

commitment: 

1. Are your employees directly involved in 

the important decisions that affect their 

jobs? 

2. Have they the knowledge to do their jobs 

properly? 

3. Is two-way communication between 

management and your workforce as 

effective as possible? 

4. Are your people excited about their 

futures within your organizations? 

5. When formulating a new strategy, do 

you consider the needs of your people? 

Ten don'ts of employee commitment: 

1. Don't forget that your employees are 

human beings with feelings. 

2. Don't ignore people - listen to their 

options. 

3. Don't be racist 

4. Don't automatically blame the workers 

5. Don't underestimate people's potential 

6. Don't be secretive 

7. Don't rely on your position for authority 

8. Don't believe there is one rule of 'us' 

and another for 'them' 

9. Don't break the link in people's minds 

between reward and effort. 

10. Don't forget the equation: Performance 

= Ability * Effort (motivation) 

A new relationship: 

'The single hardest thing to do is to make 

people interested in coming to work on 

Mrs. P Gowri Kusuma is Faculty at Bharat P G College, Hyderabad E-Mail: kusumajana@yahoo.co.in 

– P Gowri Kusuma 

Monday morning', - Ricardo Semler 

The organizations will need to examine 

closely the basis of the relationship that they 

have with the individual's who work for them. 

The impact of change driven by technology 

will almost undoubtedly require continuous 

development from a workforce and as 

organizations change and development 

there will be a far higher degree of mobility 

between jobs. It means your current 

organization will be actively helping you get 

a job in your next one. 

Organizations need to examine other hidden 

clauses that are often not aired. These 

expectations will include the following: 

l Being treated with fairness, individuals 

need to feel that their views and opinions 

have been heard. 

l Feeling fulfilled and motivated about the 

current job, as well as being prepared 

for the next one. 

l Being trusted and respected working in 

an environment in which the individual 

can express him or herself without fear 

or threat. 

All the above will make people inspired and 

proud of the organization for which they 

work. 

Organizations are therefore facing a number 

of related drivers for change to which they 

must respond if they are to survive. 

l They have to respond to an increasingly 

competitive and uncertain market place 

with brilliant positioning achieved led by 

innovation and responsiveness. 

l They have to find a way of balancing 

the opposing forces for consistency and 

inconsistency if they are to maximize 

their impact in their market places. 

The cleverest organization will not try to 

resist this tide of change but will find the 

value and potential in it. They will be those 

organizations that realize that an increasing 

individual contribution gives them powerful 

strategic options. It builds responsiveness 

to market conditions and taps into a 

reservoir of creativity and energy and this 

contribution allows for true strategic 

differentiation. 

u H 


Fascinating Facts 

– K. Satyanarayana 

189. Battle For Civil Rights In 

Birmingham In 1963 

Birmingham in the state of Alabama was 

the most segregated city In U.S in the year 

1963. Dr. Martin Luther King, the civil rights 

leader of U.S. was unable to cajole more 

than 20 adults to volunteer into his no holds 

barred campaign of civil disobedience on 

the lines of Mahatma Gandhi's struggle for 

Indian independence. It was mostly children 

as young as 6 years old that marched, 

picketed, jammed the jails and juvenile halls, 

shut down the city's shopping district and 

at last broke the back of the segregation in 

the city. Around 2,000 children of 1963, now 

in their 50s are celebrating the 40th 

anniversary of the epochal battle they fought 

in the civil rights movement. For the children 

of the protests, now grown up, looking back 

remains a source of pride. Most of them feel 

that their children and grand children do not 

understand or appreciate enough the 

sacrifices of so long ago to get where we 

are today. Most of the elders did not take 

part in the movement for fear of losing their 

jobs but the children had their strong 

reasons for taking active part. One lady 

recalled, "I wanted to know why I could not 

ride the train, why I could not see a duck in 

a park, why I cannot drink water from a 

fountain, why I cannot try an outfit before 

buying it or why I could not eat from a lunch 

counter." 

(Source: The New York Times, 

May 2, 2003) 

190. Graduate Students Reject The Idea 

Of A Union At Yale University 

The group of graduate students under the 

leadership of Ms. Anita M Seth, seeking to 

unionize 2,100 graduate students at Yale 

University faced a stinging defeat with 594 

votes against and 651 in favor. Labor experts 

said that this vote would send signals 

nationwide that graduate teaching and 

research assistants would not necessarily 

flock to join unions. In a similar vote during 

2002 at Cornell University, graduate 

students voted 1,351 against and 580 in 

favor of unionizing. The reasons given by 

those opposing are that the union leaders 

are too aggressive, its leadership too 

undemocratic and some said they had 

developed negative feelings about 

unionization because Yale's main unions 

had engaged in so many strikes and fights 

with the university affecting the reputation 

of the institution and also the quality of 

education. Several graduate students voiced 

fears that if GESO became their union, it 

would be dominated by Yale's two other 

union locals, which helped finance the drive 

for unionization drive. Those locals represent 

2,900 clerical workers and 1,200 cleaning, 

dining hall and maintenance workers and 

are part of the Hotel Employees and 

Restaurant Employees Union. Yale, 

Columbia and Brown Universities are 

seeking to over turn a two-year old labor 

board ruling that graduate students at 

Private Universities had the right to unionize. 

This vote and vote at Cornell last October 

supports their contention. 


May 2, 2003) 

If similar fair polls are held at Indian 

Universities, most of the students may 

oppose unions in educational institutions 

including teaching hospitals. 

191. Nestle Closes Its 104 Year Old First 

U.S. Factory In Fulton, New York State 

Way back in 1899, leading citizens of Fulton, 

north of Syracuse in New York State raised 

$2,700 (no mean sum at that time) to buy a 

chunk of land that Nestle could use as a 

site for their chocolate factory. The incentive 

and the fact that there were so many cows 

around proved irresistible to Nestle. Over 

the next century, it grew to cover more than 

30 acres. But on May 2, 2003, the company 

closed its plant, the chocolate works, as the 

locals call it, the birthplace of Nestle's quik, 

the home of the crunch bar, the maker of 

mountains of morsels for chocolate-chip 

cookies. 

Despite all the incentives offered by the city 

or state or anyone else, the company would 

not change its mind and is not even prepared 

to discuss it with any one. 467 employees 

are losing their jobs including the mayor's 

wife, daughter and son-in-law. The average 

age of the plant's workers is 52 and the 

average tenure is 27 years. It is a heartbreak 

for the community as it is worried that if 

Nestle with more than $50 million 

investment in the last decade won't stay in 

Fulton, who will? Fulton was one city that 

missed the great depression according to a 

1936 headline in The New York Sun. But 

during the last 50 years many big factories 

were closed. In 1952, a big woolen mill was 

closed, putting 1,500 out of work. Later on 

paper plants, gun works, brewing factories, 

bottle manufacturers, can factories were all 

closed one after another. The final blow 

came when Nestle sold its bulk chocolate 

business to Cargill. Rather than spend a 

fortune renovating the Fulton plant, the 

company decided to move most of the 

production to another underutilized but 

younger plant in Wisconsin and a fraction 

of the Nestle's crunch business is going to 

Brazil. There is no fault of the people who 

live there or people who worked so hard for 

generations. Production workers earning as 

much as $20 an hour are finding it difficult 

to find jobs at half or one third of that rate. 


May 2, 2003) 

192. Close Link Between Fat And Cancer 

Researchers for the American Cancer 

Society after spending 16 years evaluating 

900,000 people who were cancer free when 

the study began in 1982, concluded that fat 

is linked to cancer more convincingly than 

ever before and that losing weight could 

prevent one out of every six cancer deaths 

in U.S. more than 90,000 each year. This 

study and earlier studies have found that 

excess weight contributes to cancers of the 

breast, uterus, colon, rectum, kidney, 

esophagus, gall bladder, cervix, ovaries, 

multiple myeloma, non-hodgkins lymphoma, 

pancreas, liver and in men, the the stomach 

and prostrate. The researchers have 

however found that there is no link between 

fat and cancers of the brain skin and bladder. 


April 24, 2003) 

K. Satyanarayana, Hon. Executive Director on behalf of National HRD Network. He can be reached at: ksnhrd@gmail.com 


Bosco, What Is The Solution? 

Case Study - 24 

One day, in the Hospital of the Company, 

John Bosco, Executive Assistant, was 

waiting anxiously outside the Labour Room. 

He identified the voice of his wife shouting 

for help. She was awfully crying. Bosco 

immediately rushed inside the labour room. 

Mrs.Bosco was admitted into the hospital 

for her first delivery two days before. Inside, 

two more women were also suffering with 

their advanced pains. The Sister-in-Charge 

objected Bosco and shouted at him to go 

out immediately. Otherwise, she would call 

the Security. As he was not going out, she 

called a Security Guard who whisked him 

away. Bosco rang up Viswanath, Manager 

(HR & Administration), his boss, and 

informed him in an angry tone that a Sister 

insulted him and told him to come down 

immediately to the Hospital. Viswanath 

reached there and found Bosco sitting on 

a sofa in a happy mood. He was blessed 

with a son. He received Viswanath with an 

unusual and blissful face and gave him the 

good news. Viswanath congratulated and 

asked him why he was called. Bosco said 

that the Sister in Charge created a problem 

for him in the labour room and had therefore 

called him. After two days, Viswanath 

received a letter from Hospital authorities 

complaining against Bosco and demanded 

a severe action against him with intimation 

to them. The hospital staff unanimously 

condemned the ugly behaviour of Bosco. 

Viswanath went to the Hospital and 

explained his difficulty to take any action 

against Bosco as his appointment was a 

special nature. 

In Maharastra, there is an engineering 

industry performing excellently well. For the 

last over six years, their turnover was very 

remarkable, breaking their own previous 

records. The CEO decided to improve 

further and applied to the Ministry of 

Commerce to sanction an export permit for 

some of their products, which had a high 

demand abroad. After sending the 

prescribed application, he started going to 

Delhi for follow-up with the concerned 

officials. During that time, one of the top 

Officials requested the CEO to employ his 

only son, John Bosco, who passed MBA. 

The CEO said that there was no immediate 

vacancy but would accommodate him. 

Bosco was employed with a good salary as 

an Executive Assistant. He was also allotted 

a small bungalow, reasonably furnished. He 

was posted in their Head Office under 

Viswanath, a strict disciplinarian and 

Manager (HR & Adm). Bosco, without any 

previous experience, had least interest in 

his job. Further, his behaviour was 

unbecoming. Viswanath requested the CEO 

to transfer him to some other department 

as he was wasting his time on Bosco. The 

CEO, in his next trip to Delhi, informed the 

Official about Bosco's bad conduct and 

behaviour. The official gave a detailed 

account of his son who was a spoilt child. 

He was involved in a bad association and 

completed MBA some how or other. He 

thought Bosco might change if he was 

married. The wedding took place last year. 

There was no any remarkable change in 

Bosco. The Official therefore requested the 

CEO to employ and transform him as a good 

person. He also told the CEO to bear with 

him and excuse him for any misbehavior. 

The CEO narrated all these points to 

Viswanath, on whom he had full trust, and 

told him further that he promised the official 

that Bosco would change himself after 

adjusting with Company's culture. 

On another occasion, Bosco was found in 

his room drinking liquor. Viswanath 

telephoned to CEO and informed on this 

matter. The CEO suggested closing the door 

silently from outside and asking every one 

not to go to him until evening. After 6 p.m., 

Viswanath opened the door and found 

Bosco in deep sleep. He woke him up and 

sent to his house in a car 

Once there was a party in the Officers' Club. 

Bosco, Viswanath and other colleagues 

were enjoying with some foreign liquor. 

Another person, nearby to Bosco's table, 

R. Dharma Rao, Head, HR, ICBM. He can be reached at: ravidharma_icbm@yahoo.co.in 

– R. Dharma Rao 

fully drunk and laughing loudly, was noticed. 

Bosco asked him to shut up and not to 

disturb them. Viswanath and others pacified 

Bosco not to interfere with him. When, in 

the meanwhile, that person laughed like a 

thunder, Bosco went to him and roughly 

punched him. In his anger, he took a chair 

and lifted it to beat him. Viswanath pulled 

him back and all of them went to another 

spot. Within a short time, a police jeep came 

to the Club. The drunken person was the 

son of a Police Officer. The police started 

searching for Bosco whom Viswanath 

advised him to hide somewhere. The police 

then said that if Bosco was not found, the 

entire group would be taken to the Police 

Station for interrogation. Viswanath, 

however, with folded hands tactfully handled 

the situation and avoided a grilling by police. 

After managing Bosco for three months, 

Viswanath phoned to the CEO and 

requested him to listen to him patiently as 

he felt that there were some delicacies and 

difficulties if he expressed in person. He told 

him "Sir, I have lost my fortitude and 

tolerance. Not all my counseling sessions 

brought any fruits. I silently swallowed many 

insults created by Bosco. The discipline that 

I imparted for last several years is 

deteriorating due to Bosco. Only one thing I 

have gained is an experience on how a 

problem employee can generate 

innumerable worries to the Management. I 

tolerated his late coming, indiscipline in the 

office, shabby and ugly dress, misuse of 

telephones, irregular attendance, 

insubordination, etc. Of late, I have not been 

getting good sleep. When you introduced 

Bosco to me, I accepted him as a challenge 

for the progress of our Company. I now admit 

that I have failed. Sir, I request you to grant 

me one month leave or transfer him to some 

other department. Excuse me for reading 

this note on phone." 

After listening to Viswanath unwearyingly, 

the CEO told him that he had no choice and 

Viswanath as an experienced HR 

professional should manage Bosco. 

u H 


Two Great Stories - BOTH TRUE - and worth reading! 

STORY NUMBER ONE 

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually 

owned Chicago. Capone wasn't famous for 

anything heroic. He was notorious for 

enmeshing the windy city in everything 

from bootlegged booze and prostitution to 

murder. 

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed 'Easy 

Eddie.' He was his lawyer for a good 

reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, 

Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big 

Al out of jail for a long time. 

To show his appreciation, Capone paid him 

very well. Not only was the money big , 

but also, Eddie got special dividends. For 

instance, he and his family occupied a 

fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all 

of the conveniences of the day. The estate 

was so large that it filled an entire Chicago 

City block. 

Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob 

and gave little consideration to th atrocity 

that went on around him. Eddie did have 

one soft spot, however. He had a son that 

he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his 

young son had clothes, cars, and a good 

education. Nothing was withheld. Price 

was no object. And, despite his 

involvement with organized crime, Eddie 

even tried to teach him right from wrong. 

Eddie wanted his son to be a better man 

than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and 

influence, there were two things he couldn't 

give his son; he couldn't pass on a good 

name or a good example. 

One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult 

decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify 

wrongs he had done. He decided he would 

go to the authorities and tell the truth about 

Al 'Scarface' Capone, clean up his 

tarnished name, and offer his son some 

semblance of integrity. To do this, he would 

have to testify against The Mob, and he 

knew that the cost would be great! 

So, he testified. Within the year, Easy 

Eddie' life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a 

On walking into the factory, the MD noticed 

a young guy leaning against the wall, doing 

nothing. 

He approached the young man and calmly 

said to him, "How much do you earn?" 

The young man was quite amazed that he 

was asked such a personal question, he 

replied, none the less, "I earn $ 2 000.00 a 

month, Sir. Why?" 

lonely Chicago Street. But, in his eyes, he 

had given his son the greatest gift he had 

to offer, at the greatest price he could ever 

pay. Police removed from his pockets a 

rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and 

a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem 

read: 

The clock of life is wound but once, 

And no man has the power 

To tell just when the hands will stop 

At late or early hour. 

Now is the only time you own. 

Live, love, toil with a will. 

Place no faith in time. 

For the clock may soon be still. 

STORY NUMBER TWO 

World War II produced many heroes. One 

such man was Lieutenant Commander 

Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot 

assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in 

the South Pacific. One day his entire 

squadron was sent on a mission. After he 

was airborne, he looked at his fuel gage and 

realized that someone had forgotten to top 

off his fuel tank. He would not have enough 

fuel to complete his mission and get back 

to his ship. His flight leader told him to return 

to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out 

of formation and headed back to the fleet. 

As he was returning to the mother ship he 

saw something that turned his blood cold: a 

squadron of Japanese aircraft were 

speeding their way toward the American 

fleet. The American fighters were gone on 

a sortie, and the fleet was all but 

defenseless. He couldn't reach his 

squadron and bring the back in time to save 

the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the 

approaching danger. 

There was only one thing to do. He must 

somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying 

aside all thoughts of personal safety, he 

dove into the formation of Japanese planes. 

Does Management know their Staff? 

Without answering, the MD took out his wallet 

and removed $6000.00 cash and gave it to the 

young man and said, "Around here I pay people 

for working, not for standing around looking 

pretty! Here is your 3 months salary, now GET 

OUT and don't come back" 

The young man turned around and was quickly 

out of sight. 

Noticing a few onlookers, the MD said in a very 

Wing-mounted 50 calibers blazed as he 

charged in, attacking one surprised enemy 

plane and then another. Butch wove in 

and out of the now broken formation and 

fired at as many planes as possible until 

all his ammunition was finally spent. 

Undaunted, he continued the assault. He 

dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or 

tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy 

planes as possible and rendering them 

unfit to fly. 

Finally, the exasperated Japanese 

squadron took off in another direction. 

Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his 

tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. 

Upon arrival, he reported in and related 

the event surrounding his return. The film 

from th gun-camera mounted on his plane 

told the tale. It showed the extent of 

Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. 

He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy 

aircraft. 

This took place on February 20, 1942, and 

for that action Butch became the Navy's 

first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval 

Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of 

Honour 

A year later Butch was killed in aerial 

combat at the age of 29. 

His home town would not allow the 

memory of this WW II hero to fade, and 

today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named 

in tribute to the courage of this great man. 

So, the next time you find yourself at 

O'Hare International, give some thought 

to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his 

statue and his Medal of Honour. It's 

located between Terminals 1 and 2. 

SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES 

HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER? 

Butch O'Hare was 'Easy Eddie's' son 

Contributed by Naren Ayyar, CEO, 

Globarena 

upset manner, "And that applies for 

everybody in this company". 

He approached one of the onlookers and 

asked him, "Who's the young man that I just 

fired?" 

To which an amazing reply came of, "He was 

the pizza delivery man, Sir...!" 

Contributed by Naren Ayyar CEO of 

Globarena Technologies, Hyderabad 


Monster Jobs 


Monster 

Article 


HR Thought Leaders’ Symposium by Delhi Chapter 

The “success” of any business relies on 

its execution. Organizations, in the 

past, looked up to functions like sales, 

marketing, R&D, etc, to foster the growth 

of the company, but today, they are also 

looking at HR for the same. It is the creative 

thoughts, approaches and experiments 

that have led the transformation of HR 

function from being a time keeping function 

to a key strategic contributor to business. 

It was NHRDN Delhi Chapter’s November 

Special Event on the special theme ‘HR 

Thought Leaders’ Symposium’, held on 

Friday, November 2, 2007 at PHD 

Chamber of Commerce & Industry, New 

Delhi. This novel initiative was well 

attended by a huge 250+ participants and 

good blend of audience from members of 

academia, young professionals to many 

eminent Chief of HR. Enormous 

participation from a diverse audience 

clearly showed enthusiasm and high sprit 

that prevails in all events of the Delhi 

chapter. 

The session was convened by N.S. Rajan, 

President, Delhi Chapter and Partner 

Human capital, Ernst & Young, which 

commenced with the welcome note and 

recitation of our code of conduct. This was 

followed by the presentation “Road Show 

to National Conference” by Mr. L 

Prabharak, Corporate HR Manager – ITC, 

showcasing The 11th National Conference 

of the National HRD Network will be held 

in Kolkata from November 29-December 1, 

2007. 

The Conference will have as its theme 

“India’s Century: The Challenge for Indian 

Business Leadership”. The focus of the 

Conference will be on understanding what 

successful Indian industry leaders have 

done in the past to transform their 

organizations and make them globally 

competitive and what they see are the 

challenges for Indian business and industry 

in the years ahead. 

Web Launch – The new 2.0 version is up! 

Pankaj Bansal, VP, Delhi Chapter and CEO, 

PeopleStrong facilitated the launch of the 

Delhi Chapters new website. He unleashed 

the new avatar for the website and also 

explained how the web-2.0 would integrate 

the HR fraternity and add value to all 

members. 

Web launch was followed by Panel 

discussion “Evolution of HR”. With the 

presence for eminent HR thought leaders, 

it indeed proved as an immense knowledge 

creation session for the audience. This had 

a positive contribution as a mixture of 

experiences, thoughts and learning were 

brought forward that indeed enlightened 

everyone. 

l Aquil Busrai, Executive Director HR, IBM 

India 

l Madhukar Shukla (Prof.), XLRI 

Jamshedpur 

l P. Dwarakanath, Director - Human 

Capital, Max India 

l S. Y. Siddiqui, Executive Director HR, 

Maruti Udyog 

l T. V. Rao (Prof.), Chairman, TVRLS 

- Eminent participants of the panel 

discussion 

Many speakers consistently reiterated the 

importance of understanding the people. “For 

managing attrition understanding people is 

very important and People are getting 

complex” said T. V. Rao (Prof.), Chairman, 

TVRLS “HR lacks to study people’s mind and 

what they want” he added. 

“HR has to work towards strategy as well 

as HR transactions. We need to learn to 

strick a balance of the two” Said Madhukar 

Shukla (Prof.), XLRI Jamshedpur “HR as a 

function is respected more now” he added. 

A medley of thoughts was contributed on 

certain desirable attributes of HR people 

who represent the HR function, like 

compassion, confidence and courage. HR 

function is about giving, mentoring and 

growing its people, being an HR 

professional we give life to others. 

The program was well received by the 

participants and they congratulated Delhi 

chapter for its constant innovation and 

creating a difference. 

WAQT NAHI 

Har khushi Hai Logon Ke Daman Mein, 

Par Ek Hansi Ke Liye Waqt Nahi. 

Din Raat Daudti Duniya Mein, 

Zindagi Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi. 

Maa Ki Loree Ka Ehsaas To Hai, 

Par Maa Ko Maa Kehne Ka Waqt Nahi. 

Saare Rishton Ko To Hum Maar Chuke, 

Ab Unhe Dafnane Ka Bhi Waqt Nahi. 

Saare Naam Mobile Mein Hain, 

Par Dosti Ke Lye Waqt Nahi. 

Gairon Ki Kya Baat Karen, 

Jab Apno Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi. 

Aankhon Me Hai Neend Badee, 

Par Sone Ka Waqt Nahi. 

Dil Hai Ghamon Se Bhara Hua, 

Par Rone Ka Bhi Waqt Nahi. 

Paison ki Daud Me Aise Daude, 

Ki Thakne ka Bhi Waqt Nahi. 

Paraye Ehsason Ki Kya Kadr Karein, 

Jab Apane Sapno Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi. 

Tu Hi Bata E Zindagi, 

Iss Zindagi Ka Kya Hoga, 

Ki Har Pal Marne Walon Ko, 

Jeene Ke Liye Bhi Waqt Nahi....... 

Always keep smiling and be happy.Life 

is too small to complain. Naren Ayyar 

God is Merciful 

Whatever your cross, 

whatever your pain, 

there will always be sunshine, 

after the rain .... 

Perhaps you may stumble, 

perhaps even fall, 

But God’s always ready, 

To answer your call ... 

He knows every heartache, 

sees every tear, 

A word from His lips, 

can calm every fear ... 

Your sorrows may linger, 

throughout the night, 

But suddenly vanish, 

in dawn’s early light ... 

The Savior is waiting, 

somewhere above, 

To give you His grace, 

and send you His love... 

Whatever your cross, 

whatever your pain, 

“God always sends rainbows .... 

after the rain ... “ 

To get out of difficulty, one must 

usually go through it! 

The Publisher 

HRD Newsletter 

I thank you very much for publishing 

continuously 24 of my case studies in 

our esteemed magazine which are mostly 

my own experiences. I started writing 

these on the inspiration extended to me 

by Mr.S.zarar, principal of my institute, and 

Mr.K. Satyanarayana garu, Hon. Executive 

Director. Iam also thankful to Dr.Mathew 

M.Monippally, IIM Ahmedabad, who had 

guided me on how to write correctly the 

case studies and their approach. 

On the suggestions made by our valuable 

readers, if you approve, I wish to give 

suggested solutions without claiming that 

my solution is the best and wish to start 

from case study 11, (from where I 

stopped) from next month. 

Thanking you, 

R.dharma rao 

Response from publisher 

Thank you for your valuable Case Studies. 

You are welcome to give solutions. 

Publisher 


Delhi 

Photographs 


HR Competency Certification: Assessor Development Programme 

The fourth program of the series of 

workshops on National HR Competency 

Model was held on 22nd to 24th October 

2007 in Mumbai. Dr. Premarajan, Professor 

OB & HR, and XLRI Jamshedpur facilitated 

these three-day programs. Mr. G P Rao, Vice 

President HR, Reliance and Mr. Aquil Busrai 

President NHRDN addressed the 

participants on the first day and highlighted 

the importance of CII, NHRDN and XLRI to 

work as a team for developing the HR 

Competency Assessor Model. . Mr. Arvind 

Agarwal President HR, RPG shared his 

experience with the participants. 

The competitive pressures in the 

environment have radically altered the 

context in which Human Resource services 

are delivered in Indian Organizations. With 

the focus moving towards integrating HR into 

strategic planning of the organization, the 

challenges before the HR profession have 

become even more daunting as neither the 

tools/techniques of HR nor the profile of the 

professionals who deploy these, have 

undergone a Corresponding transformation. 

The HR Competency Model captures the 

range of competencies required to play the 

multiple roles of HR. These have been 

organized in terms of Technical vs. 

Behavioral and Functional vs. Generic 

classification. There are 17 Competencies 

and these are classified as shown below: 

Functional Technical 

l HR Planning and Staffing 

l Performance Management 

l Training and Development 

l Talent Management 

l Compensation and Benefit 

l Managing Culture, Design & Change 

l ER and Labour Laws 

l Building HR Strategy 

l International HRM 

Functional Behavioral 

l Service Orientation 

l Personal Credibility 

l Execution Excellence 

Generic Behavioral 

l Strategic Thinking & Alignment 

l Change Orientation 

l Networking Management 

Generic Technical 

l Business Knowledge 

l Financial Perspective 

Having developed a model consisting of 

competencies required transforming the HR 

Function; the next critical step is to evolve a 

comprehensive mechanism to assess these 

competencies. It is imperative for both the 

HR professionals as well as their HR 

organization, to know where they stand in 

terms of the necessary HR competencies 

required for organizational effectiveness. 

Based on this analysis, competency gaps 

will be identified and practical 

recommendations will be made so that the 

individuals as well as the organizations can 

assess their own situation, take corrective 

actions and better Prepare to meet the 

future challenges that the profession will 

face. 

The workshops proved extremely 

successful as a step towards the 

overarching vision of this association is to 

raise the standard of HR profession in India 

in the lines of work by the Management 

Charter initiative (MCI) or the National 

Council for Vocational Qualification (NCVQ) 

in the UK and the American Society for 

Training and Development (ASTD) or the 

Society for Human Resource Management 

(SHRM) with the help of University of 

Michigan, in the USA. 

Students from Welinker Institute of 

Management joined on first day. HR 

professionals from Crompton Greaves, RPG 

and Reliance joined as Assesses on the 2 nd 

and 3 rd Day of the programme. This special 

set of assesses comprising HR executives 

and students were put through an extensive 

three-day assesses program. Mr.Vivek 

Pranjape Advisor, Reliance Industries ltd. 

formally closed the program by presenting 

certificates to the participants. 

A special dinner was hosted for the faculty 

and participants and joined by Mr.Arvind 

Mehta. The dinner provided a platform to 

the participants to interact at an informal 

level with senior members from the 

committee. 

For more information on 

assessor programs for HR 

Competency Model watch 

out this space in 

forthcoming editions of our 

Newsletter. 

List of Participants of HR Competency Model – 4 th Batch 

S.No. Name Designation Organization 

1. Mr.Marcel Parker President - HR Raymond Ltd 

2. Mr.Balaji Ganapathy Asst Mgr-HR TCS 

3. Mr.Vikas Kaul HR Partner-GBS IBM 

4. Mr.Vijay S Karkare MD Cornerstone India Consulting 

5. Mr Sanjay Ghanghaw Sr.Mgr-Corporate Crompton & Greaves 

6. Mr.Ramesh Kumar Head HR NTF India Pvt Ltd 

7. Mr.Avijit Roy Dy GM Mahindra & Mahindra 

8. Mr.Deepak A Deshpande Sr. VP & Head HR Century communications ltd. 

9. Ms.Rekha Hari Sr. Manager Mahindra & Mahindra 

10. Ms.Sonali Gaikwad HR Manager L&T Finance Ltd. 

11. Ms.Nisha Verma HR Manager Accenture 

12. Mr.Smitha Kumar HR Manager Accenture 

13. Ms.Diana Nariman Asst Manager-HR GlaxoSmithline Healthcare 

14. Ms Ujjwala Singh Sr. Manager TCS 

15. Mr. Harish Purandare HR Manager ITC Grand Maratha 

Globarena Partners with BIMTECH 

Insurance & Risk Management program of 

Globarena Technologies Hyderabad in 

partnership with Birla Inst of Technology & 

Management (BIMTECH) was launched on 

22 nd November 2207 at Hotel Ramada 

Manohar. The inauguration by Shri. N. 

Rangachary, IRS, Former Chairman, IRDA. 


Mumbai / Nagapur 

Photographs 



Bangalore / Hosur 

Photographs

November at Chennai 

The Chennai Chapter had a unique 

double-header in November. The first 

event was an evening meeting with Mr. 

S.V.Nathan, Senior Vice President - 

Human Resources, of Deliotte, on 

November 16, 2007, at Hotel Savera. 

A packed hall greeted Mr. Nathan, who 

was speaking on his experiences in 

Talent Management at Deloitte. Over 

the past 3 years, Deloitte has moved 

from being an 'India story' to being 'The 

Deloitte Story', by consciously creating 

specific differentiators. Leveraging 

both on technology and on globally 

available platforms, Deloitte offers over 

32,000 courses of various duration for 

their employees through their online 

university. Though many of the courses 

are instructor-led, there are still a variety 

of courses available for employees to 

be able to customize their learning. 

Deloitte has deliberately chosen this 

'Customized Learning' to be the key 

differentiator for their employment 

experience. Around this has been built 

a constant messaging that 'Total 

Rewards' at Deloitte includes the best 

of opportunities for both working and 

learning. 

One of the visible manifestations of this 

commitment is the Communication Gym 

at Deloitte. Building on the premise that 

'working out' includes exercising one's 

skills, the Communication Gym provides 

employees with various tools to develop 

those skills at a pace set by individuals. 

While trainers are available to help, there 

is no compulsion to use them, or indeed, 

to use the Gym at all. But where Deloitte 

has been successful is in creating a 'pull' 

factor for the Communication Gym - it 

is now seen as something that is 

personally beneficial and not something 

that is being forced upon the individual. 

Mr. Nathan answered a wide range of 

questions during the interactive session 

that followed his presentation. He also 

picked the lot for an audience gift, which 

went to Mr. Govindaraj Ramachandran 

of RR Donnelley. Mr. Kasinath 

Ramachandran, a senior HR 

professional and a member of the 

Chennai Chapter, presented a memento 

to Mr. Nathan. 

It was probably the first time that a 

Chapter meeting ended with music 

from Aerosmith - 'Sweet Taste of India' 

was the theme song that Mr. Nathan had 

chosen!! 

The 60-odd members of the Chapter 

who came for the second meeting, on 

November 23, found a refreshing 

change: instead of having a guest 

speaker, the audience was divided into 

small groups and each group was tasked 

with setting the agenda for the Chapter's 

activities in 2008. The ideas that were 

thrown up included HR Skill 

workshops, Industry Specific success 

stories of various HR practices, 

Corporate Governance & CSR, Book 

Reviews and ongoing research topics. 

The lively debate and ideas that have 

emerged from this meeting have 

provided significant inputs for the 

Chapter to form the calendar of 

activities for 2008. On this occasion, 

the audience gift went to Mr. Umapathy 

from Tata Teleservices. 


Chapter News 

decided to hold the chapter annual meet 

BANGALORE 

Career Management System'workshop: 

The full day workshop on 'Career 

Management System' was held in Ista Hotel, 

Bangalore on 27th October 2007. Dr.Pallab, 

CPO of Cambridge took the session, which 

was attended by representatives from IT and 

Non-IT organizations. The participants found 

the workshop valuable through 

understanding the entire Career 

Management model from concept to 

implementation level. Dr.Gopal Mahapatra 

and Gopal Gubbi organized the workshop 

for NHRD, Bangalore chapter members. 

Monthly Evening Lecture Program 

October 25, 2007- 6:30 PM @ Hotel 

Chancery 

Mr Ravi Dasgupta, Head – Group HR, 

Biocon Limited made a presentation on HR 

Challenges in the Biotech Industry. He 

started from the basics like: 

HOUSR 

NHRD HOSUR CHAPTER organised 

Monthly meet - cum - Talk on 11 Nov 2007 

at Ashok Leyland Management 

Development Centre. Mr. Halasya 

Sundaram, the OD consultant and 

behaviour trainer spoke on the subject, "Era 

of Change and HR role in it". The saying 

goes that the only thing permanent in the 

world is change. The change is very 

omnipresent in the 21st century and how to 

cope with the change, more particularly the 

HR professional role in the process is 

important. Mr. Sundaram's talk was research 

based and he brought out significant 

differences in people attitudes and 

behaviour prevailing today than in olden 

times. He emphasised that it would no longer 

be possible for HR managers to manage 

and develop human resources in traditional 

manner. No 'one size fit all' solution or HR 

model can be applied in all situations. On 

observation by the Chapter President that 

the new generation appears to be team 

oriented as compared to the older one, he 

opined that appears to be the case, but only 

for the duration of the Project. 

Mr. KS Sridhar of TITAN Industries 

introduced the speaker. Mr. R. Rajaram 

Chapter VP proposed a vote of thanks. 

A meeting of the Chapter executive 

committee followed the talk and it was 

unanimously decided to appoint Mr. KS 

Sridhar as the Chapter secretary. It was also 

during last week of Dec 2007. Prof. 

Janakiramudu offered that Alliance 

Business Academy, Bangalore would host 

this meet. 

INDORE 

Dr. I. C. Gupta, Director of the Prestige 

Institute of Management and Research, 

Indore has been unanimously elected as 

President for Indore Chapter of NHRD on 

28th November 2007 evening. On the 

occasion, apart from life members, Shri 

Ashim Dutta Gupta Asst. Vice President 

NHRD Chapter Indore and Dr. N.K. Totla 

treasurer of the Indore chapter and Prof. R. 

Jangalwa Secretary were present. 

In his maiden speech as President Dr. I. C. 

Gupta thanked the members and discussed 

about the activities and action plan for the 

chapter. 

MUMBAI 

26th October 2007 was an unforgettable 

evening for NHRDN, Mumbai Chapter 

Members and Non- Members. Dr. 

JAMSHED. J. IRANI ( Director on the Board 

- Tata Iron and Steel Limited )was invited to 

speak for their Monthly Evening Lecture 

Meet as a guest speaker. 

Dr. Jamshed J. Irani is a renowned 

personality in the Indian Industry. He is a 

Director on the Board of Tata Steel, besides 

being Director on the Boards of several 

Corporates. He is a Council Member of the 

Indian Institute of Science ( Banglore), 

Member of the Advisory Council of Citigroup 

India and a Trustee of the World Wild Fund 

for Nature - India ( WWF - India ). Dr J. J. 

Irani is one of the most respected, almost 

revered, Icons of the Indian Industry. 

Dr. Irani gave conceptual inputs on the 

subject "AFFIRMATIVE ACTION" . He also 

shared his experiences on the subject from 

TISCO. The session was very enriching, 

lively and was a treat for the HR 

professionals. The program was attended 

by more than 200 HR and Non - HR 

Professionals. 

Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President of NHRDN, 

Mumbai Chapter, introduced the Guest 

Speakr and at the concluding session Mrs. 

Sujatha Patel, Exec. Committee Member 

proposed the Vote of Thanks. 

Mr. Prakash Kunte, Executive Committee 

Member, coordinated the program. 

NAGPUR 

PEOPLES' STRATEGY FOR CHANGING 

BUSINESS SCENARIO 

During November month event Nagpur 

Chapter has organized a lecture in 

association with Ispat Ltd on topic "Peoples 

Strategy for Changing business Scenario" 

by Mr. Prabhat Dhadiwal, Managing 

Director, Consumer Packaging Services (I) 

Ltd, a third party Logistics to Hindustan 

Lever Limited. Mr. Prakash Dhadiwal was 

welcomed by Mr. Manoj Sharma Vice 

President HR Ispat Ltd. Mr. Ramesh S Iyer 

Addl Gen. Manager (HR) Sunil Hi Tech 

welcomed Mr. Yoginder Kumar Sr. Vice 

President (Operations) Ispat Industries Ltd. 

Prof Rajiv Khaire of Kavi Kulguru Institute 

of Technology & Science Ramtek proposed 

the vote of thanks. 

Mr. Prabhat Dhadiwal who has been 

associated with last 17 years with HLL with 

an investment of Rs. 2.5 Crore & above and 

involved with the business of processing & 

packing of detergents & other consumer 

products from 20gms sachets to 500 gms 

pouch has brought out that in this time of 

changing business scenario, organizations 

has to transform their Peoples' Strategy. 

Women have to be part of the todays' 

business. 

CARTOON CORNER 

And this is the final slide ladies and 

gentlemen. Please spell my name, 

Sinha, this way, 'S' for Sincere, 

'I' for intelligent, 'N' for net savvy, 'H' 

for hotshot and 'A' for assertive, whether 

or not you have a offer from a job site... 

Col. P Deogirikar, Indore 

p_deogirikar@ruchigroup.com 


Citations of Awards by Eastern Region of National HRD Network 

Introduction to Awards 

Speaking at the Harvard Commencement 

earlier this year, Bill Gates remarked that 

he had one big regret... 

He said, “I left Harvard with no real 

awareness of the awful inequities in the 

world - the appalling disparities of health, 

and wealth, and opportunity that condemn 

millions of people to lives of despair. 

1 learned a lot at Harvard about new ideas 

in economics and politics. 1 got great 

exposure to the advances being made in 

the sciences. 

But humanity’s greatest advances are not 

in its discoveries - but in how those 

discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. 

Whether through democracy, strong public 

education, quality health care, or broad 

economic opportunity - reducing inequity is 

the highest human achievement. I left 

campus knowing little about the millions of 

young people cheated out of educational 

opportunities… And 1 knew nothing 

about the millions of people living in 

unspeakable poverty and disease in 

developing countries.” 

Extraordinary stories highlight the massive 

social change that is taking place around 

the world today. Millions of ordinary people 

in the non-profit sector are increasingly 

stepping in to solve problems which 

governments and bureaucracies have failed 

to address. What business entrepreneurs 

are to the economy, social entrepreneurs 

are to social change. They are the driven, 

creative individuals who question the status 

quo, exploit new opportunities, refuse to give 

up - and remake the world for the better. 

Along with business entrepreneurs, policy 

makers, investors, academics, and 

journalists, social entrepreneurs and their 

innovations are inspiring a new generation 

of changemakers to create positive social 

change. With determination and innovation, 

even a single person can make a surprising 

difference. 

Today, the Eastern Region of the National 

HRD Network is proud to honour a few such 

extraordinary individuals, who through their 

passion, commitment and concern have 

creatively impacted the lives of the 

dispossessed to build for them a new world 

of dignity and economic independence. 

Vishal Talreja 

Though the number of literate people in 

India has increased over the years, our 

country still has the largest number of 

uneducated children in the world. The 

pitiable conditions of child labour and street 

children, coupled with child abuse and 

poverty, paint a dismal picture. Data shows 

that every second child in the country suffers 

from malnutrition, and almost 60,000 

children are born with HIV each year! Basic 

health care is a distant dream for most of 

our people. The condition of India's youth 

population is no less pitiable. A large number 

of the nation's youth do not have the 

privilege of making education, career or 

lifestyle choices due to lack of finance and 

opportunities. 

For most of us these are alarming statistics; 

troubling perhaps and worrisome maybe. 

But for a group of exceptional people these 

facts and figures called for fundamental and 

far-reaching change. With belief in the power 

to transform lives, and the vision to empower 

and integrate vulnerable children within 

communities, 'Dream a Dream' was born in 

November 1999 when Vishal Talreja quit the 

comfortable life of an Investment Banker and 

chose the road less travelled. 

For encouraging children with HIV and 

cancer; for integrating disadvantaged 

children within communities and enhancing 

public awareness around children's needs 

and issues; for contributing to the welfare of 

the disabled and the elderly; for creating 

awareness on . healthcare, human rights 

and environment issues; but most of all, for 

having the courage to dream big; the 

Eastern Region of the National HRD 

Network is proud to honour Vishal Talreja, 

co-founder and Director of 'Dream a Dream'. 

Gargi Baneriee and Sunil Pillai 

The phenomenon of dispossession is 

neither new nor uncommon. It prevails in 

every state, every society and in every 

strata. The fortunate view the dispossessed 

with compassion and sometimes extend a 

helping hand; others choose not to 

acknowledge this dark presence. 

Only a handful of people have the ability to 

take compassion to a far higher plane; marry 

it with committed concern, address the state 

of dispossession as a solvable problem and 

then proceed to deal with the problem 

professionally. They are driven not by the 

desire for fame or fortune; they are driven 

by the finest spirit that humankind can 

demonstrate: the spirit of humanity. 

The severe deprivation of the indigenous 

communities living in the Indian Himalayas, 

the fast depleting natural wealth, the eroding 

culture and neglected conservation and 

development needs gave birth to the vision 

of Pragya. By applying modern, technical 

and managerial knowledge to development 

issues, Pragya stepped into unchartered 

areas, not only inspiring the local people to 

address these issues, but also drawing the 

world's attention to the problems of the 

Himalayan region and its peoples. Pragya's 

innovative projects include setting. up cooperatives 

for Himalayan medicinal plants, 

providing electricity in remote villages 

through the first-ever Solar Wind Hybrid 

system, establishing snow reservoirs to 

address the crisis of receding glaciers and 

establishing rural museums and education 

facilities in remote areas. 

For forsaking successful corporate careers 

to 'Contribute to the concerns of the 

dispossessed Himalayan mountain 

communities; for adapting management 

systems to create effective grassroots 

institutions; for literally moving mountains 

to show the world how a committed group 

of people can revolutionise mindsets and 

lifestyles in the remotest of areas; for making 

change happen where it is needed the most; 

and for demonstrating the most laudable 

entrepreneurial spirit, the Eastern Region 

of the National HRD Network is proud to 

honour Gargi Banerjee and Sunil Pillai of 

Pragya. 

Sister Cyril Moonev 

Possibly the most beautiful of God's 

creations; but also the most abused, the 

Indian girl child is fated at conception for 

infanticide, abandonment or utter neglect. 

Only a small 

percentage of girl children are welcomed to 

a life that cherishes them and empowers 

them to achieve their full potential. 

It is to this world that Padma Shri Cyril 

Mooney, a Sister of the Institute of the 

Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto), brings hope 

and faith. Picking them up from pavements 

or from poverty stricken homes, she gives 

them a life of security, warmth and 

happiness; restoring childhood into their 

dismal lives. 

The lady behind this massive mission of 

providing education and shelter to countless 

girls of Kolkata has effectively used children 

as agents of change - thus transforming the 

lives of the underprivileged and enriching 

the lives of the privileged. The spirit of 

empathy that she has instilled in young 

students from schools and colleges 

motivated 

her to to go a step further - to village 

outreach programmes and to slums - to 

identify' and teach children who do not go 

to school. 

For her legionary contribution to making 

children agents of change; for her creative 

Rainbow Educational Programme to create 

an education system that is impactful, child 

focused, simple and sustainable; for creating 

an army of Barefoot Teachers to provide 

appropriate education to the deprived; for 

her helping hand in attacking Hidden 

Domestic Child Labour; for bringing street 

children into the security of school buildings 

at night; for her Child to Child programme; 

and for many other path-breaking measures 

across the country that are transforming and 

enriching the lives of our underprivileged 

children, the Eastern Region of the National 

HRD Network is proud to honour Sister Cyril 

Mooney. 


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