delhi - National HRD Network

ISSN-0974-1720 

Vol - 24 March 2009 Issue - 12 

Editor 

C. Balaji, 

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NHRDN Leadership Team 

AQUIL BUSRAI, National President 

DWARAKANATH P, Immediate Past President 

MADHUKAR SHUKLA, Regional President (East) 

GOPALKRISHNA M., Regional President(South) 

SATISH PRADHAN, Regional President (West) 

RAJAN N S, Regional President (North) 

MURTHY P V R DR., National Secretary 

ASHOK REDDY B, National Treasurer 

SATYANARAYANA K, Executive Director 

NHRDN Elected Members 

HARI HARAN IYER, Elected Member 

PRAVEEN KUMAR K, Elected Member 

RAMCHANDER M, Elected Member 

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This journal is on our Website: 

www.nationalhrd.org & www.nhrdn.org 

Features 

6 ............................ President’s Message 

7 .................... Board Meeting Photographs 

8 ......................................... Editorial 

11 ............................... Monster Article 

25 ........ Book Review by Rajesh Walawalkar 

45 ............................. Fascinating Facts 

47 to 58 ........ Chapter News /Photographs 

48 ................ Quiz Corner / Cartoon Corner 

Advertisements 

2 ........................................ Sodexho 

3 ...................... Global OD Summit at ISB 

5 ............................... Academy of HRD 

9 .......... 6th Young HR Managers Conference 

10 .................................. Monster Jobs 

15 ...................................... Alphastar 

17 .......................................... Probe 

19 ....................................... S-Global 

59 ................................... Global Hunt 

Column 

12 ............. Human Process Re-engineering 

Monthly Feature by Global Hunt 

16 ............. Trust — The Act of Transparency 

–– Madan Srinivasan 

Humour Review Department (HRD) 

14 ................... Ayaram Gayaram Dalbadlu 

–– Col. P. Deogirikar 

Lead Feature 

13 ..... Your 'Time Pass' Through Gloom Times 

–– Rajiv Khurana 

Case Study 

46 ............. "Mr. Sridharan, You Are Wanted" 

–– R. Dharma Rao 

Articles 

18 ........ Hiring Freeze - Is it the Most Effective 

Strategy? 

–– Rashi Dubey 

20 .... Right-training and Right-sizing for Survival 

–– Sunder Ramachandran & Sangeeta Singh 

22 ........ Economic Downturn - Professionals' 

lives and Anxieties 

–– Dr T.H.Chowdary 

24 ................ Pink Slip- An Involuntary Exit 

–– Padma Satuluri 

26 .................... Fighting Attrition in Retail 

–– Dr. Pramod Pathak and Dr. Saumya Singh 

27 ....... Academic's Roles Matching With HR 

Managers 

–– Sharad Chandra 

28 ... "Resurrecting Organizations in Turbulent 

Times: An Adaptive Challenge" 

–– Hari Nair 

30 ...... Focus on Strategic Cost Management 

rather than Short Term Cost Cutting 

––Dr. Barnali Chaklader 

31 .................. Scent, Sex Appeal & HRD 

–– Dr. M M Monippally 

32 .......... Diverse Workforce :: Reasons and 

Challenges Ahead 

–– Dr. (Major) Shishir Baraskar 

34 ....... Systems Implementation: Leveraging 

Through Human Capital 

–– Dr. P R K Raju and Mr. Antu Das 

35 .... HR Learning Perspective; The Monkeys 

& the Cap Seller Story 

–– Prince Vijai. J, 

36 ................. One Step Towards Success 

–– B V Sandhya Vani 

37 ................. Strategy For Effective Time 

© copyright of the articles published in 

HRD Newsletter will be with National HRD Network 

Management 

––Dr. I Narsis 

38 ............ Motivation: the key to excellence 

–– Sandhya Mehta 

40 ............................... Zero to Heroes 

–– S. Deenadayalan 

43 ........................ Bottom-up Series - 5 

–– Girinarayanan G 

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| HRD News Letter | March 2009, Vol.24, Issue:12 4

A CADEMY OF H UMAN R ESOURCES DEVELOPMENT 

Admission opens 

FELLOW PROGRAM 2009-12 

ASSOCIATE PROGRAMS 2009-10 

Interested candidates or their organizations may start submitting applications. Last date is March 15, 2009 

The Fellow (Ph.D Level) & Associate (M.Phil Level) Programs in HR & 

OD are designed for working executives, management faculty and 

consultants. These programs enhance research aptitude and inquiry 

mind in areas of HRD and OD. They also update knowledge and 

understanding of the concepts & practices in the HRD, OB & OD 

areas, which prepare the students for improving and realigning 

organizational and human processes. 

NEED FOR THE PROGRAMS 

When organizational experiences are systematically researched and 

analyzed, they facilitate organizational change processes viz. 

restructuring, right-sizing, process improvement, etc. Internal 

research, process analysis, and HRD audit have become essential for 

validating and evaluating the effectiveness of HRD policies, systems 

and interventions in organizations. Those programs create the 

necessary research skills and knowledge for teaching and in-house 

research. 

TITLES AWARDED 

After completion of all the requirements of Fellow program & 

Associate Program, the student will be awarded the title of ‘Fellow, 

Academy of Human Resources Development’ and ‘Associate, 

Academy of Human Resources Development’ respectively. 

National HRD Network 

I am pleased to announce that Mohit Gandhi has accepted the offer to join National HRD Network as 

Executive Director. He will be based in Delhi and will join on February 23, 2009. His initial focus would be 

to organize programmes and events for the Network and assist Region and Chapter leaders of the Network 

in similar efforts undertaken by them. He will report to the National President and will be de facto 

member of the Board of National HRD Network. 

Mohit, who has an MBA degree, has over 10 years of experience with leading institutions and private 

sector companies in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, and corporate communications, with 

specialization in the human resource. He has worked with India’s apex industry association - the 

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - as the Director responsible for Human Resources and Industrial 

Relations national committees, and helped build “Brand CII” through his contribution. At CII, Mohit 

successfully influenced policy making through effective consensus building among various stakeholders. 

After CII, Mohit had a brief stint with Satyam Computer as part of their Global Marketing and 

Communications managerial team. 

Please join me in welcoming Mohit to the National HRD Network team and wishing him a successful 

career with the Network. He can be reached at gandhi.mohit@gmail.com. 

THREE MAJOR PHASES: 

Phase I - Preparatory Phase (Contact Classes in A’ bad) 

Phase II - Study & Project Assignment Phase 

Phase III - Thesis Phase 

THE ACADEMY OF HRD 

The Academy of Human Resources Development is India's premier 

institution specializing in HRD for all organizational forms. Founded 

in 1990 by the National HRD Network (NHRDN), was registered as 

a Trust and a Society. Dr. T.V. Rao, Dr. DM Pestonjee and Dr. Udai 

Pareek the then Professors of IIM-A gave the leadership. Its 

Governing Board, over the years, had been headed by well known 

CEOs/academicians - Mr. M.R.R. Nair, Dr. Anji Reddy, Dr. Udai 

Pareek and currently Dr. Anil K. Khandelwal. Academy’s activities 

consist of running high quality MDPs, Conferences, Seminars and 

Conclaves of practitioners, research and publication, collaborative 

diploma programs and consultancy. 

Prospectus cum application form can be obtained by paying Rs. 1000/-. 

For more information, visit www.academyofhrd.org or contact 

Prof.Hardik Shah - 9275703499, Phone: (079) 29096184/29297325/29086075 

E-mail: ahrdad1@academyofhrd.org,director@academyofhrd.org 

AQUIL BUSRAI, National President 

Mohit Gandhi joins 

National HRD Network 

as Executive Director 

Delhi Chapter Crosses Membership Strength of 2000 

Delhi Chapter has crossed the Membership Strength of 2000 and the occasion was celebrated 

by Delhi Chapter at Gurgaon on 21 st February 2009 in the presence of all the Board Members. 

A giant cake was cut to mark the occasion. 

We congratulate Delhi Chapter on its spectacular performance and crossing one more 

milestone. 


Smarter HR : Deploying Technology to 

Deliver Results 

Many will recollect the vintage Personnel 

Departments where stacks of files and 

reams of forms were stock in trade. The 

Personnel Officers were busy processing 

forms and maintaining records, submitting 

one report or the other almost all day long, 

intercepted by meeting with union 

representatives or few employees then 

again going back to those stack of papers. 

Senior managers too were doing nothing 

very different, except they had Assistants 

to get the reports. Personnel Department 

was considered a support function by 

business leaders who called the 

organisational direction. And those in the 

erstwhile Personnel department took pride 

in calling their function "grease that oiled 

the organisation's wheels". One day folded 

into another, predominantly doing 

transaction work. How times have changed. 

HR function today stands out as a major 

strategic partner to business and HR 

professionals are shaping organisation's 

destiny. 

But has HR become smarter? Has it 

leveraged technology to make a bigger 

impact? And have the HR professionals kept 

pace with the times and become technology 

savvy? And in doing so, have they freed 

themselves from service delivery mode and 

become partners to business? 

HR service delivery will continue to assume 

a greater importance as businesses combat 

challenges of spiraling cost, demands of 

global workforce and processes, need for 

instant and round the clock information, 

flexible and changing organisational 

boundaries and of course rising customer 

expectations. 

Transaction work or, as it is now esoterically 

called, service delivery component, still 

continues to remain as critical component 

of HR function and it would be mistake to 

ignore it as such even though many HR 

professionals are striving to evolve their 

President's Message 

function to a strategic partner to business. 

The moot question is whether HR has 

adapted to technological advances sufficient 

enough and thereby managed to eke out 

extra time that could be spent partnering 

with business. 

HR function has been a late entrant into the 

area of making technology work to its 

benefit. Technology can provide HR 

professionals scope to dramatically improve 

and automate processes and at the same 

time, streamline delivery services, besides 

reducing cost of such activities. Decision 

making process and employee satisfaction 

can improve substantially as the workplace 

embraces higher level of technology. In 

many organisations, HR services delivery 

has been adversely impacted due to 

ineffective use of technology. 

David Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank of 

Michigan Business School have highlighted 

mastery of HR technology as one of the five 

competency domains for HR, along with 

strategic contribution, personal credibility, 

HR delivery and business knowledge. 

According to them, HR professionals must 

learn to leverage HR technology to "provide 

faster services to their internal clients on a 

global scale, reduce the costs per 

transaction, provide centralised services and 

information that will make it easier to 

manage and leverage the total workforce, 

and spend more time focusing on making 

strategic contributions." 

As per Forrester Research, HR 

professionals spend nearly 50% of time on 

administrative activities. Much of this can 

be saved with implementation of HR 

Management Systems which would 

eliminate routine paper work besides 

reducing costs by automating basic HR 

activities. It would also facilitate better 

decision through accurate and timely 

reporting and analysis. 

Hackett Group study found that highperforming 

world-class companies operated 

with 16% fewer HR staff than the others 

mainly by more efficient use of IT. Selfservice 

technology contributed to higher 

levels of efficiency and productivity and 

simultaneous reduction in costs. The study 

also established that HR leaders in these 

companies had a deep understanding of 

technology and made a strong effort to 

derive as much value as possible from the 

technologies they had deployed. 

One area in which technology has made 

quick stride is Recruitment. According to a 

recent study, three out of five job seekers 

use the Internet for job hunting. 88% of job 

seekers read help-wanted advertisement 

posted on line, 61% of them have submitted 

their resume or applied on line, 42% use on 

line job boards to post their resumes. Over 

90% of job seekers view an organisation's 

website to obtain information and post 

resumes. Similarly organisations too are 

using the Internet in new and creative ways 

to attract the talent they need. They are also 

using on line application and assessment 

tests and reducing hiring cycle time. 

Use of Second-Life concept to onboard new 

employees and inducting them into 

company culture has received favourable 

response from tech-savvy generation. 

Besides using technology for basic activities 

like disseminating information on company 

policy, benefit enrollment; organisations are 

now using it extensively for talent 

Management, skill development, self paced 

learning and simulations. It has made 

significant stride in improving 

communication with employees through 

simple yet highly effective techniques like 

e-notice boards, interactive chat forums, 

sharenets, virtual town hall meetings etc. 

Even use of Podcast as means of 

disseminating knowledge or information is 

fast gaining popularity for its simplicity and 

acceptance by younger generation. 

Technology is being leveraged to build 

employees' skills though 'Touch Point' calls, 

or short e-meetings which enables 

employees to discuss business and 

technical topics with experts in a small group 

setting. Use of 'Mail Cast', a five-minute, 

flash based tutorials is a creative way of 

spreading knowledge, convey policies and 

processes and also provide an interactive 

learning platform, it provides good pointers 

in those few minutes. 

Despite current economic challenges, 

progressive organisations are continuing to 

invest and find value in HR technology 

systems. According to a Towers Perrin's 

study of HR service delivery and technology, 

close to a third of the respondents have 

increased their investment in HR-related 

technologies, and 55% are maintaining their 

technology budgets at 2007 levels. For 

organisations to sustain or even increase 

their HR-related technology spend in a year 

of such economic uncertainty and costcutting 

is a testament to the importance 

companies are placing on managing their 

talent and having the right systems and 

capabilities in place to do that well. 

The human resources function in its journey 

of evolution is migrating from an isolated 

back office and occasionally bureaucratic 

function to one that is viewed as a 

competitive advantage helping 

organisations achieve strategic business 

objectives. A little help from technology is 

going a long way … 

Aquil Busrai 

National President 


Board Members reciting code of conduct 

Dr. Santrupt Mishra and Mr. Aquil Busrai 

Mr. N S Rajan, Regional President North, underlying the 

importance of media exposure 


Editorial 

Dear Fellow Professionals 

With this issue, the HRD Newsletter 

completes 24 years of being a 

platform for learning from one 

another. We will sprint to the Silver 

Jubilee year from the next issue. 

We have come a long way from the 

humble beginnings in XLRI. Prof TV 

Rao, Rev Fr Abraham, Mr Baburaj 

Nair and a whole lot of others were 

passionately involved with the 

Newsletter in the beginning years. 

We salute all the people who 

thought of the Newsletter and put 

their hearts and souls during those 

days. They are the pioneers, and 

they laid the solid foundation for the 

Newsletter to sustain and grow. We 

have had hundreds of people 

sharing or wanting to share through 

the Newsletter. We thank everyone 

of them. Thousands of people have 

read the Newsletter during the past 

24 years and have found it useful. 

We thank each one of them for 

keeping the Newsletter alive. 

Hundreds have commented and 

made valuable suggestions. We 

sincerely thank them for their 

commitment to the Newsletter. A 

large number of organisations and 

people have supported the 

Newsletter in the form of 

advertisements, news items, 

publication and so on. Our deepfelt 

thanks to all of them. 

During the next year, we will carry 

select articles from the previous 

issues that can bring back old 

memories. Over time, old gets 

forgotten, though it is quite relevant. 

This attempt will bring the relevant 

articles back into focus. 

We will also carry views of 

contributors, readers, and others 

who have been associated with the 

Newsletter in the past. This gives 

us an opportunity to 'listen' to what 

they have to say, and get us 

connected to these veterans. 

Please see also the announcement 

by the publisher on page 51 related 

to silver Jubilee year. 

Here's being committed to the next 

12 issues being collector's items. 

NHRDN Veteran Chandra is now 

ICF certified Executive Coach 

- C Balaji 

Dr. Sripada Chandrasekhar -life member, longtime associate and invitee to the Board of 

National HRD Network ( Head of HR for Capgemini India) has added another feather to his 

professional cap. 

Chandra- as he is popularly known among NHRDN members- has been recently accredited 

by the world renowned apex professional body in the field of Coaching -International Coach 

Federation(ICF) - as Associate Certified Coach(ACC). 

We understand that he is the first career HR manager in India to be certified by this prestigious body 

Dr Chandrasekhar-over last 18 months pursued the required course work, practiced hours of Coaching and after 

independent assessment by qualified and accredited master coaches of ICF, received this coveted accreditation. 

Asked about this achievement, Chandra( with his usual modesty ) said: 'it gives me satisfaction that I am able to 

continuously learn new skills and keep myself relevant". Coaching, he said ,needs be fully understood and professionally 

practiced in India so that we can help the next generation of Leaders and Executives leap frog their capabilities. 

Coaching he said is not giving advice and telling people what to do. It is a helping process that enables people 

discover their true and full potential. 

Asked if he intends to take to full time professional practice of Executive Coaching, Chandra said that has to wait a 

few more years. 

Meanwhile those interested in Coaching may write to him at csripada@yahoo.com 

NHRDN wishes Chandra continued success and happy Coaching . 


Contributed By: Sunil Goel, 

Monthly Feature 

by Global Hunt 

Human Process 

Re-engineering 

Human Process Re-engineering is a 

strategy that can improve the way your 

organization delivers robust HR services 

and increase employee satisfaction. 

What does it mean to re-engineer? In the 

tradition of Michael Hammer and James 

Champy, authors of Reengineering the 

Corporation, Kaufman defines reengineering 

as "a radical redesigning of 

business processes. 'Radical' and 

'Business' are the operative words." 

Process Improvement 

Process improvement is at the opposite end 

of the process management continuum to 

reengineering. Where reengineering seeks 

radical change through designing whole 

new processes (revolutionary), process 

improvement looks for incremental, stepby-step, 

continuous improvements to 

existing processes (evolutionary). While 

reengineering is implemented top-down, 

Mail us at: corporate@globalhunt.in, Visit us at:www.globalhunt.in 

process improvement is usually a grassroots 

bottom-up approach. Where a single 

process reengineering project sweeps 

broadly across many functions or the whole 

organization, process improvement efforts 

are often within single teams or a few 

functions. While process reengineering 

drives behavior change through structural 

change, process improvement does it 

through training and shifting "the culture" 

(the way we do things around here). And 

where process reengineering throws 

everything out and starts fresh, process 

improvement tries to analyze and 

standardize (get everyone consistently 

using the agreed upon procedures and 

make the process reliable) and improve 

upon the existing process. 

What HR Process Re-Engineering Is Not 

There are many widespread 

misconceptions about the nature of HR 

process re-engineering. 

1. HR process re-engineering is not downsizing 

2. HR process re-engineering eliminates 

work, not jobs; 

background. In a decade in which 

3. HR process re-engineering is Need notfor Change 

"restructuring" - moving boxes around 

an organizational chart; 

4. HR process re-engineering is not 

automation; 

5. HR process re-engineering is not reengineering 

a department but rather a 

process in an organization. 

Reengineering employee recruitment: 

retain the best that remains 

In this age of greater employee involvement 

and fewer employees in a firm's work force, 

it is essential for businesses to find and 

keep the best people available. To 

accomplish this requires a fresh approach 

to recruitment. The recruitment process 

does not stop once a person is interviewed 

and offered a job. 

Recruitment must be thought of as a 24- 

hour, seven-day-a-week job. It is no longer 

the exclusive responsibility of human 

resources departments. Internal, as well as 

external, recruitment is everyone's job. Not 

only must we find better matches between 

new hires and flattened, downsized 

organizations; as managers, we must retain 

the best that remains. That task involves 

finding and keeping the best employees - 

irrespective of their sex or ethnic 

employee involvement is so essential to 

continuous improvement, it is likely that 

finding and keeping quality employees will 

become increasingly important. 

Conclusion: 

Human Process Re-engineering is no doubt 

a tool or mechanism for the entire HR 

department to co-relate with the 

organization. It shows a structural path with 

synchronized approach towards the 

objective and vision of an organization as 

a whole. GlobalHunt says that this process 

would cut short the unwanted task and 

function therefore it certainly speeds up the 

entire business process with top most 

accuracy. 

Contributed by Uthej Kunamneni, 

WORLD FEDERALISM 

from Dallas, Taxas, USA 

The answer to all our problems is a single global government, often referred to as World Federalism. It is a school of thought 

advocating the merger of all sovereign states into a single integrated union. All nations must transfer their loyalty to a supernational 

authority to dismantle the anarchical system of competitive territorial states that produce war. Federalists believe that 

people are good, wise and enlightened and that a world government is the answer. We all know peace is better than war. All the 

people in the world share the same atmosphere and the same oceans. We must all speak with one voice about climate, about 

water, and about poverty. We are one people on one world. You do not see any boundaries from space. We see people every where killing each 

other over some imaginary line that we are even unable to see. The earth is whole. We need a government that can hear all of us. Star Trek, the 

science fiction visualizes not only such a world government by 2120 but even visualizes the United Federation of Planets... 

 


Lead Feature 

Your 'Time Pass' 

Through Gloom Times 

Aman was going 

into the jungle. 

His friend enquired, 

"You are going alone 

and un-armed, what 

will you do if you 

meet the Lion?" The man replied, "What can 

I do? Whatever shall be done shall be done 

by the Lion." Bad times are like that only. 

Doom times and Gloom times keep coming 

and moving out. Their passage is, however, 

quite difficult. In Doom and Gloom times you 

have no options. The Lion has. 

So what should you, as a thorough bred 

professional do if your job accidentally 

moves through the tough patches of gloom 

times? Here are some not so serious 

prescriptions: - 

1. Make the not-working network work: 

Feel comfortable. You 

are not alone. There are 

hundreds, nay, 

thousands like you. 

Create your own 

chapter of ITPA - Indian 

Time Pass Association. 

Your personal membership could be 

temporary but there are millions of others 

who have mastered the art of perpetual time 

pass. You can add some value to ITPA by 

introducing some of the tried and tested 

office techniques of time wasting during 

peak pressure times. 

2. Prove that you are a concerned 

parent: It's high time to 

brush up your math and 

science lessons. Mug up 

for the whole year. Your 

child will start scolding 

you less for making 

'homework mistakes'. 

The 

grade 

improvements of your 

child can bring in some 

family celebrations. You can also use this 

gloom time to provide the quality time in 

quantity to your children. Bring out the child 

in you. You may easily score boundaries if 

your young child is bowling. This is a good 

recipe' to temporary forget the hostile 

bouncers on the corporate pitches. 

3. Be futuristic: The excuses 

you have been using so far are 

quite old and stale. Why not 

create some brand new ones. 

The bloom times and the boom 

times will come sooner or later. 

These new excuses can do 

wonders for you. Keep this as 

one of the conference topics in your next 

ITPA convention. 

4. Mouse over the 

www: No, No, No. Not for 

one more experimentation 

with dot com. This time for 

serious learning. People 

like you would be hovering 

around the chat rooms. Broaden your global 

mindset. Cry on each other's web shoulders. 

The tears will expand linkages and provide 

the FR [foreign returned] peace of mind. 

5. Learn from Bin- 

Bush: Corporate wars 

are similar to real wars. 

Just the tools are 

different. Decide which 

side you are. Simulate 

the maneuvers of Bin 

Laden. This can help you learn to remain 

elusive in the corporate bureaucracy - if ever 

in future the Bush like corporate tries to give 

you the bombarding signal. 

6. Get a slimmer 

look: Thin is in. Even 

though you have 

stopped looking in the 

mirror after those unending 

corporate 

lunches/dinners or 

eating the high on 

calories high on price so called home like 

food served in the star hotels; its time to 

dust-off those sneakers and step out to burn 

the vast reservoir of un-utilized dormant 

energy around your waist. If you want others 

to do it for you, this can immediately make 

the slimming centers rush 

on to the booming path of 

recovery. 

7. Scan the library: The 

air-conditioning in some 

libraries is pretty good. 

– Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC 

Many people sit there to be seen. Make your 

presence felt too. Go through the best-seller 

titles of the last five years. Read the preface. 

Read the index too. This should be sufficient 

to flaunt your label of being a well-read 

professional. Don't forget to remember the 

names of the authors. The trick is not 

knowing what is written but knowing who 

has written where. 

8. Visit God Men: Gloom 

times can be very trying and 

testing. Try spirituality. Take the 

latest mantra from the holy-godmen. 

These days they take 

extra care on building the 

surroundings. The scent of the 

people and the place is quite 

absorbing. Get inspired by the 

pop-Moksha capsule or sit down to work out 

your own strategy of getting initiated into 

this never failing business enterprise. The 

service attachments can be many, if you 

can't find a toe-hole for yourself in the main 

stream. [Excuse me GOD. Please keep 

yourself out of it]. 

9. Do nothing: Why are 

you so hyper. For millions in 

India, the gloom time has 

always been there. They 

have mainly done only one 

thing - nothing. Time passes. 

This too shall pass. Why bother. Just wait 

for the time to pass. 

10. Do what I do: If every thing else fails, 

get on with the past times 

of pseudo-intellectuals 

like me. Start writing. It 

will give you great 

feelings. Write a memoir. 

Write about your tryst 

with destiny, your 

freedom at midafternoon, 

your pride and 

prejudice or else about 

anything. Don't worry if 

readers don't read you. Just write. This is 

the best way to build your image. Don't 

become money minded. Learn to over look 

the peanuts that the newspapers will give 

you. Keep the words of Oscar Wilde in mind, 

"Writing is the only profession, where no 

body ridicules you for not earning." 

Mr. Rajiv Khurana is a Delhi based International Mgt. Trainer, Certified Mgt. Consultant, Author, Columnist, Executive & Career 

Coach. He can be reached at rajivkhurana@vsnl.com. 

 


Ayaram Gayaram Dalbadlu 

– Col. P Deogirikar 

The other day I was discussing my retirement when a friend mentioned, "It is really 

good to be a politician; there is no question of retirement!" And, while reading the 

newspaper that day, I learnt that a major political party was conducting management 

sessions for their ministers. These two things induced a chain of thoughts. 'Would 

there be a management system in a political party'? 'How do they go for recruitment'? 

'Are there any HR systems'? etc. And some interesting possibilities came up. For 

starters, the CV of a 'typical' politician should interest you. 

Name - Aya Ram Dalbadlu 

Father's Name - Gaya Ram Dalbadlu 

Place - I have no place-loyalty. I belong 

to the place from where a parliament ticket 

is available. 

Objective - To ensure uninterrupted 

'power' by continuously occupying 

increasingly 'bigger' chairs. 

Family Background - Our three 

generations have been serving the nation. 

Grandfather was a freedom fighter and 

father a Central Minister. I am the third 

generation. Those who know me well call 

me a 'freedom fighter' as well, but behind 

my back, I wonder why! 

All my siblings are in different national 

political parties. There has not been a 

single day in last 30 years when one of 

us has not been in power. 

Achievements - I have changed parties 

13 times in last 7 years and have 

managed to get minister ship 11 times off 

this. This percentage (85) of conversion 

happens to be a national record. 

86 court cases, out of which 32 are 

criminal, are pending against me for a 

number of years. Despite of such 'active' 

career, I am yet to be convicted once. 

Qualifications - I feel values and 

convictions are more important than mere 

qualifications. I was in the lower 

kindergarten when the teacher punished 

me (she made me stand in a corner) 

merely because I had not done the home 

work. I protested and boycotted the 

classes. I have never climbed the school 

stairs since then, except those numerous 

occasions when I was the chief guest for 

school and college functions. 

I was conferred with an honorary D Lit last 

year for the services rendered to the 

society. 

Language - Money. That is the language 

best known to me. Can read, write, drink, 

eat, speak, listen, dream, smell this 

language 24x7. 

Reference - National VPs of ABC, XYZ, 

MNO, PQR parties. They would vouch 

very strongly for my honesty, loyalty and 

integrity. 

Most of the 'bhais' in metros and other 

important towns would say a good word 

to support me. 

Probable date of joining - With in 2 hours 

of defecting from the other party. 

Strengths - Can speak on a variety of 

subjects of national or international 

importance for hours together without 

having any knowledge about it. Excellent 

with 'caste' mathematics and 'voter' 

chemistry. Specialty in conspiring riots 

and bundhs. 

A strong, very well 'trained' fan club. 

Weaknesses - None. Many political 

parties and media are working very hard 

for so many years to find some. 

Experience - 19 years hands on, in all 

major political parties. Acquainted with the 

cultures of all national parties. 

Responsibilities - To keep chairs intact 

while in power and to topple chairs while 

in opposition. 

Salary expected - I should be allowed 

direct negotiations with property dealers, 

contractors, bhais etc. 

To the best of my manipulation, the above 

information is correct. For any more 

details required, my fan clubs are available 

in all major towns. 

- Aya Ram Dalbadlu 

Most challenging period of my career? 

Well, for whole 23 days, I was not in any 

ministry and that was the most 

demanding period... 

 

Col. P Deogirikar is General Manager with Ruchi Group, Indore. E-Mail: p_deogirikar@ruchigroup.com 


Column 

Trust — The Act of 

Transparency 

The last of the tri-series on Trust takes 

on the lens of trust as the Act of 

Transparency. It looks at what 

organizations and HR can do to increase 

trust during these uncertain times. To 

quickly recap my last two columns, the first 

one focused on how we as individuals need 

to delve deep within ourselves and learn 

to trust ourselves by the Act of Letting Go; 

the second one was about the role trust 

plays in building strong and lasting human 

relationships through Caring and 

Collaboration. 

Let’s revisit the etymology of Trust - 

assured reliance on the character, ability, 

strength, or truth of someone or something 

or dependence on something future or 

contingent — in the context of what 

organizations are experiencing today. 

When one does not know how much the 

Sensex will plummet to, or which 

organization is downsizing its operations, 

or suddenly find their life savings worth little 

more than the paper they are printed on, it 

means the intensity of uncertainty we are 

facing today has grown in magnitude. If 

there’s little out there that one can truly rely 

on, does it mean that trust is slowly losing 

its relevance in today’s world? 

The die-hard optimist — God bless him! — 

would say, ‘Of course not, for there’s not 

only a silver lining for every dark cloud, but 

the cloud itself is a rain cloud and hence 

most welcome.’ We’ll agree with him in 

spirit. The rest of the article discusses how 

organizations can instill a strong sense of 

trust among their employees by an inspired 

leadership style - the Act of Transparency. 

‘Job security’, which never featured high 

in the list of things a prospective candidate 

looked for in an organization, is suddenly 

being looked at in a different light. More 

than any other period in recent times, 

employees today want to be reassured of 

their company’s commitment to their long 

term career development, and the stability 

of their jobs. They’d like to be more aware 

of the specific actions and decisions 

organizations are taking to tide over the 

current global economic crisis. In other 

words, they’d like their organizations to be 

more transparent than they were before. 

‘Transparency’ is a physical attribute of a 

material thing that can transmit light rays 

so that the objects on the other side may 

be distinctly seen. For an organism like an 

organization, it means easily understood 

and recognized, without guile or 

concealment; open; frank; candid. It means 

an open and frank way of communication 

that builds lasting bonds between the 

managers and employees. It means 

moving from opaque to translucent to 

transparent employee communications. 

History and literature are replete with 

heroes undertaking difficult passages — 

Achilles in the Odyssey, Fredo in the Lord 

of Rings, Rama. They have at least three 

things in common: 

1. They had a compelling vision that 

they communicated to others 

strongly and never lost sight of, 

despite facing formidable 

challenges. Achilles’ objective was 

total defeat of the Trojans; for Fredo, it 

was the protection of the world and all 

he loved from the Dark One; for Rama, 

it was the rescue of his wife from the 

clutches of a powerful demon king. 

2. They did not win it alone. Achilles 

was supported by the Greek army, 

Fredo by his fellow Hobbits, Rama by 

the Vanara Sena and several others. 

In all cases, it was the collective 

strength that resulted in victory. 

3. Stand by your conviction through 

thick and thin. All the three faced 

insurmountable obstacles along the 

way, but they persevered right till the 

end. 

The Act of Transparency in employee 

communications means having at least 

the above qualities: 

1. In the light of the downturn, the 

organization should redefine its 

strategic business & people priorities 

so as to improve revenue streams and/ 

or reduce costs. It should then 

translate it into an aspirational vision 

for the short term and long term, by 

when the economic crisis would 

hopefully be over. This would paint a 

– Madan Srinivasan 

more optimistic future, grounded on 

realism rather than empty hope. Then, 

the vision should be communicated to 

its employees in a transparent 

manner. This would include 

articulating the role of the employees 

in the vision and change efforts. 

2. Consider the employees as equal 

partners - as someone who are cotravelers 

with you in this arduous 

journey. Ideas should be sought from 

them; tough choices and decisions 

taken by the organization should be 

communicated to them. HR processes 

like variable bonus plans, goal setting, 

etc requires a review. Personal biases 

should be kept in bay. The unique 

strengths should be leveraged to the hilt. 

The option of down sizing should be 

considered only as the last option, not 

the first. Even when downsizing seems 

inevitable, the whole exercise should be 

managed with care and empathy and 

include provision of services like 

outplacements, counseling, etc. 

3. Provide an enabling work environment, 

so that the employees continue to be 

inspired by the vision and do not drop 

out. When senior members in the 

organization lead these conversations 

with employees, it creates more impact, 

not only because they are closer to the 

pulse of the organization; they are also 

seen as fair and transparent by the 

employees even during these tough 

times. 

A possible happy consequence is that the 

key talent will decide to stay with the 

organization and hence their creative 

energies and execution skills can be 

harnessed towards achieving the vision. 

Also importantly, if they are happy 

employees, their happiness would rub on 

their families, co-workers, etc, which would 

in turn mitigate the negative sentiments 

prevailing at the workplace today. 

In conclusion, Trust —the Act of Letting Go, 

Caring and Collaborating and 

Transparency — may be our best bet yet 

that would help us emerge as winners in 

the long run! 

 

Mr. Madan Srinivasan works with HCL Technologies and can be reached at: Madan.Srinivasan@hcl.in 


Hiring Freeze - Is it the Most 

Effective Strategy? 

How often do you read - "Cisco India 

implements hiring freeze", 

"Recruitment activities put on hold in 

Google", "Hiring freeze policy at Apollo 

tyres" or "Patni, Fidelity, 24/7 Customer 

freeze recruiting budgets" . But why such 

hiring freezes and dramatic recruitment 

budget cuts? Is this the only way out during 

economy slowdown? Will cutting jobs or 

keeping recruitment on hold solve the 

business problems? Or on the contrary, will 

it prove to be a handicap in company's 

growth? 

This is certainly not first or the last 

recessionary cycle. The period of high and 

low growth, which are referred as economic 

cycles are more of a rule rather than an 

exception. These cycles tend to occur every 

three to six years and last for 6-18 months. 

This is one such temporary phase. 

Undoubtedly, times are tough but then 

Indian economy is not sustained by exports 

alone, there is a huge domestic demand 

as well. The large foreign exchange 

reserves, high savings rate and a reservoir 

of management and entrepreneurial skills 

are some of India's strong economic 

fundamentals that insulate her from the 

global financial meltdown. 

There's definitely enough merit for 

companies to see an opportunity in such 

times and gear up to reap greater benefits 

when tough gets going. This could be 

possible only when there is a right kind of 

workforce or exceptional talent available 

within the organization. Perhaps resource 

freeze could be the easiest solution during 

global financial crisis but certainly not the 

most appropriate business strategy. More 

so for large business establishments 

because when there is a hiring freeze 

across the board, organizations' growth 

gets impacted as some business units 

showing a high growth trend, generating 

enough revenue have to face the brunt due 

to lack of talent availability. 

Not only this but there is an adverse impact 

on company's repute as well. When the 

recruitment budgets are cut drastically, it 

leads to understaffing of employees making 

the existent staff work longer hours further 

impacting the quality of products/services 

and in turn affecting the organizational 

brand adversely. So at what price are you 

ready to contain costs? Have you given 

enough thought to the various long term 

consequences that the organization might 

have to face in the future? 

In fact, it is during such times that the 

amount and quality of available talent is 

greater. If an organization is not recruiting, 

it is missing on some exceptional talent. 

Apart from this, 'hiring freeze' sends a 

wrong message to customers, analysts, 

suppliers and people at large that the 

company is in trouble which may affect the 

stock prices as well. 

So how should businesses manage a 

strategic function of the organization in 

such trying times so as to achieve a 

competitive edge? Some of these are: 

Welch-Way 

There is certainly a case for 20-70-10 rule 

given by Jack Welch. This is the right time 

of weeding out non-performers by 

differentiating employees into various 

performance categories of the top 20%, 

middle 70%, bottom 10% and filling the 

vacant positions with competent and skilled 

employees. Cutting jobs to reduce cost and 

hiring freeze to contain costs are not the 

most appropriate measures as this will not 

only put unnecessary pressure on the 

existing staff leading to losing out on your 

organizational talent/asset but also impact 

the brand of the organization when 

economy returns to normal. Thus, rightsizing 

workforce is the way to go. 

The Road Less Travelled 

Times are different so think differently, get 

innovative and work out ways to widening 

the sourcing pool and minimizing 

recruitment costs at the same time. 

Simplest of it could be emphasis on 

sourcing through referrals and modifying 

organizational referral reward policies. For 

instance, instead of paying them bonus or 

cash prize, make the rewards more 

aspirational like dinner with CEO, 

organization-wide recognition during 

annual award ceremony, providing with 

developmental opportunities by sponsoring 

them for some professional course or skill 

– Rashi Dubey 

building workshop which in turn proves 

beneficial to the organization as well or a 5 

day paid leave. 

Since, the number and quality of workforce 

available in the market will be high due to 

lay-offs by competitive organizations, it'll 

be good to look for some such laid off, but 

exceptional talent or spotting the ones who 

survived the restructuring but their loyalty 

towards the organization is at an all time 

low. The other ways of increasing the pool 

of available candidates could be connecting 

with ex-employees and exploring 

possibilities of sourcing them or getting 

further leads or even sourcing talent 

through social networking sites, industry 

specific blogs or discussion forums. 

Other low cost approaches to contain 

recruitment cost could also be hiring 

contract/temporary staff to minimize 

permanent liabilities. Efficient use of interns 

can also prove beneficial. Make interns 

accountable for deliverables and give them 

work best suited to their competence and 

capability. 

Tough times require tough measures 

Make recruitment policies more stringent 

with various levels of ratifications at each 

stage. Limit the hiring freeze to preidentified 

non-key positions only, else 

continually add employees in business 

units which are experiencing growth and 

innovations and release the ones which are 

not performing to the organizations' 

standards. 

Maximize the high-touch, high values-add 

functions performed by the internal 

recruitment staff and outsource the rest. 

This would help in reducing expenses and 

retaining core-recruiting staff without 

overloading them with increased work. 

Also, work out recruitment metrics to 

determine the impact of hiring freeze on 

organizational cost. This will further help 

the organization in deciding the future 

course of action. 

Concluding Thoughts 

Think different and be strategic in your 

approach by making sure that you are able 

to transform the challenges to the best of 

opportunities, else you will always be busy 

catching up with your competitors! 

 

Ms. Rashi Dubey is Training & OD Consultant with Talking Heads, Bangalore. E-Mail: rashi_misra@yahoo.com;rashi@talkingheads.co.in 


Right-training and 

Right-sizing for Survival 

– Sunder Ramachandran & Sangeeta Singh 

An excellent way to determine the state 

of the job market is to count the number 

of pages of leading job supplements every 

week. More pages mean more work 

opportunities and that only translates to a 

growing economic climate. But these days, 

the reverse is true. Diminishing jobs and 

retrenchments, businesses packing up and 

the downfall of formidable companies is only 

creating more uncertainty and fear in the 

country. This, in turn, affects the productivity 

and morale of the employee. 

It is not new that whenever there is a budget 

crunch or as we are experiencing now, a 

slowdown, one of the first things we see 

happening is training cuts in organisations. 

Big mistake for this is the time when all 

employees need to sharpen skills, learn to 

do more with less, get creative and continue 

to commit to sustain the organization. Most 

professionals echo that "When the going 

was good the company pampered them and 

did everything to retain them. Now that the 

economy is slow, they want to throw us out. 

Isn't that really unfair?" 

Why should employees be considered as 

disposable commodities when the profit 

margins start to diminish? Why are they 

considered indispensable and given high 

retention bonuses when the organization is 

flourishing? Are businesses only concerned 

with the bottom line? What happened to 

business ethics and a loyal workforce? Were 

the Team Building and Behavioral Training 

programmes only delivered to employees 

for short term gains? What happened to the 

nice looking values and mission statements 

of companies at their plush receptions? 

These are some of the few questions that 

most employees are asking currently. 

Now, more than ever, is the time for 

organizations to dive deep into the 

ethics of business and review the 

importance of human assets and 

evolution. 

Now is the time for organizations to get 

their house in order and focus on 

retaining and hiring the right talent. 

Now is the time to get employees to 

work together and feel a sense of 

belonging to the organization. 

Now is the time to ask some simple 

questions like "If the economy was to 

stabilize tomorrow, how would I want my 

organization to look like? What kind of 

values will I want my workforce to live 

by?" 

Alok Mittal, Managing Director of the VC firm 

Canaan Partners feels that "Even in a 

downturn scenario, it is important to keep 

training going. Apart from its ongoing value 

to the business, it is also a strong signal to 

the organization that talent development 

remains a key agenda. The first step is to 

figure out which pieces of training are 

optional and which need to be retained. 

Second, training needs to be made more 

cost efficient - this may involve using more 

in-house trainers, reducing off-site trainings 

in favor of at-company, and increasing on 

the job mentoring. Employees are often 

themselves the best source of innovation in 

making training more efficient, and it is 

useful to solicit their suggestions when 

looking to rationalize costs on this front". 

This year's World Economic Forum at Davos 

was dominated by two important issues- the 

dying global economy and business ethics. 

The time has come for organizations to think 

about the long term benefits of training. This 

time is crucial for organizations to invest in 

training interventions that will boost 

employee morale, administer optimism, 

focus on collaboration and develop deep 

empathy for each other. This is also the time 

to coach leaders on the importance of 

honesty and integrity, train leaders to 

empower their teams, prepare leaders to 

face any eventuality and develop leaders to 

work in unity. For this is the time for the 

leaders to tell their teams "We will not only 

get through this together, but we will shine 

together". Imagine how successful an 

organization can be where each and every 

employee lives by the values of partnership 

and collaboration, where there is harmony 

and security in every cubicle of the office, 

where everyone stands united, lives by and 

believes in the importance of ethics and is 

enthusiastic to achieve every target that is 

placed before them, where everyone trusts 

the guidance and direction of their captains 

and finally, commits to sincere and hard 

work. Imagine a workplace where people 

want to stay instead of paying them to 

stay…imagine the affect of all this on the 

bottom line. The key question that most 

leaders are asking is training & development 

interventions takes time and money - two 

resources that are in short supply at the 

moment. How do we incorporate a training 

strategy in the current economic scenario? 

This challenge can be overcome with a little 

creativity. Here are some ideas to make this 

happen. 

Consider informal learning - Often, the most 

valuable learning takes place 

serendipitously, by random chance. Most 

companies, however, focus only on formal 

learning programs, losing valuable 

opportunities and outcomes. Keeping in 

mind, the ever increasing need to ensure 

optimum utilization of both time and money, 

some organizations are promoting the 

culture of informal learning. Informal learning 

includes job shadowing, Sharing best 

practices, peer to peer learning, mentoring, 

stretch assignments and cross team 

projects. Here are some ways to initiate this: 

Ask for employees to share informally 

gathered knowledge with peers in a 

formal way. 

Support informal communities of 

practice. Create others where you see 

there are gaps. 

Look at what your meetings really offer 

from an informal learning perspective. 

Find more opportunities for accidental 

learning and make it a topic of 

conversation. 

Regularly share your best informal 

learning moments and resources with 

your teams. 

Structure all these activities by putting them 

on a common platform i.e. a corporate blog 

or intranet. "The economic situation offers 

companies an opportunity to redraw 

contours of training towards a more 

inclusive, collaborative and participative 

model which has employees as key 

stakeholders right from conceptualisation to 

delivery of training programs" says Kapil 

Murdia, Knowledge Management Executive 

with an Executive Search firm in Gurgaon. 

Meet & Greet 

Something as simple as Meet & Greet where 

executives of the organization can share a 

specific area of expertise with employees 

over coffee/tea break is a method of 

education. 

Lunch & Learn 

A forum where employees bring their own 

lunch. Time frame could be extended by ½ 

hour to cover a specific training topic. It is 

possible to break down a complete training 

Sunder Ramachandran is a Managing Partner and Sangeeta Singh is a Senior Consultant with WCH Training Solutions, New Delhi. 

E-Mails: sunder.ramachandran@gmail.com; ssingh65@yahoo.com; info@wchsolutions.com 


course into manageable chunks to cover off 

during lunch periods. Organizations must be 

careful though...as that break away is 

necessary and so this should not be daily. 

This must be communicated as a voluntary 

training opportunity and evaluated to 

determine impact both on the organization 

and its employees. 

Jo Verde, Senior Director with Jemm 

Consultants, Canada feels that 

"Organizations should at all times be looking 

at their training strategy and plan but 

perhaps redesign of appropriate training into 

self paced modules with online testing for 

knowledge and performance change. 

Another thought is perhaps organizations 

might choose to use attendance at a desired 

external training course as recognition for 

top performers in an organization. This 

person could then come back into the 

organization and share the knowledge with 

others. I have for a long time been a believer 

that an excellent test of training 

effectiveness from a knowledge standpoint 

may be measured by an individual's ability 

to train others. Organizations may be 

missing out on a tremendous opportunity 

here which hits, reduced cost, motivation, 

recognition, commitment, skills development 

and so on" 

Using Web 2.0 & Electronic Learning 

One way many companies have realized 

significant training cost savings is through 

online learning. Electronic learning accounts 

for a smaller part of training today, but that 

is changing. Many experts size the online 

learning market growth from $2.2 billion to 

well over $15 billion. Whether you are talking 

Synchronous or Asynchronous online 

training, the challenge is to engage the 

learner in a style that fits his/her learning 

preference. Obviously there are types of 

training which lend themselves to online and 

others that are better suited to leader led 

for any number of reasons. The key is to be 

able to plan and implement a training 

strategy which incorporates the needs of the 

business and cost related issues as well as 

the needs of the learners, training 

preferences, topics/training objectives etc. 

Leveraging the collaborative power of 

technology, the need is to leapfrog from 

"classroom" to 'web-room", from training to 

"mentoring" and 'peer learning' and from 

"trainer" to "facilitator". This can be a winwin 

as not only it enables organisations to 

accomplish 'more" by committing less 

resources, it also keeps employees involved. 

There are several - webinar, podcast, 

videoconferencing, learning blogs, or even 

conventional phone or mobile systems. 

Learning through digital connections and 

peer collaboration can be significantly 

enhanced by web technologies where 

Users/learners are empowered to search, 

create, and collaborate in order to learn new 

information. 

"In my experience, unfortunately what I see 

is the pendulum swinging all one way or all 

the other. The best organizational training 

strategy and plan uses a variety of 

methodologies from online, to lead led, to 

self paced, to tutorials, to lectures, to study 

groups and so on. They measure ROI and 

learner feedback and are serious about 

adjusting their training continually, making 

sure that results fit the corporate strategy 

and goals and they manage training like 

every other area of the business" says Jo 

Verde of Jemm Consultants. 

A successful general knows that only way 

to win a war is to keep "morale of the 

soldiers" high by involving them, challenging 

them and developing them. The economic 

slowdown is triggering right sizing in many 

organisations, however it will be in their best 

interest if they also look at right training as 

a survival strategy. 

 

Statement about Ownership and other particulars about HRD Newsletter, as 

required under Rules 8 of the Registration of Newspapers (Central) Rules 1956. 

1. Place of Publication : Hyderabad 

2. Periodicity of its Publication: Monthly 

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Nationality : Indian 

Address: 506, Sai Siri Sampada, 7-1-29/23 & 24, Leela Nagar, 

Ameerpet, Hyderabad — 500 016 

4. Publisher’s Name: K Satyanarayana 

Nationality: Indian 

Address: 506, Sai Siri Sampada, 7-1-29/23 & 24, Leela Nagar, 


5. Editor’s Name : Prof C Balaji 

Nationality : Indian 

Address : 506, Sai Siri Sampada, 7-1-29/23 & 24, Leela Nagar, 


6. Name and Address of Individuals who own the Newspapers and 

partners or Shareholders holding more than one percent of the 

total capital: National HRD Network registered under the 

Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 (Regn No. GUJ/1236/A’bad 

dated 6th December 1986) and Bombay Public Trust Act 1950 

(Regn No. AR/1175/Ahmedabad dated 6th December 1986) 

I, K Satyanarayana, hereby declare that the particulars given above 

are true to the best of my knowledge and belief 

Date:February 18, 2009 

Sd/- 

K Satyanarayana 

Signature of Publisher. 

Gwalior HRM Summit News 

ABV-IIITM, Gwalior in collaboration with Agra Chapter of National HRD Network hosted the first HRM Summit on January 24-25, 2009, 

in IIITM, Gwalior with the tagline "Talent Acquisition & Talent Management Trends in Knowledge Economy". 

The Program Committee included Prof S.G Deshmukh , Director, ABV-IIITM (Patron), Dr.Santossh Rangnekar and Dr. Manoj Patwardhan 

as Coordinators and Mr. Jai Prakash Sharma as secretary. 

The summit attracted a galaxy of eminent professionals which included Mr. Aquil Busrai, HR Executive Director HR, IBM & National 

President, National HRD Network; Dr. Upinder Dhar, National President, ISTD & Director, Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; 

Dr Sharu Rangnekar, Guru of Indian management; Mr. C.S. Raju, General Manager (HR), Maruti Suzuki; K.K. Jain, Professor, IIM 

Indore; Mr. K.K. Muthu, HR Expert, New Delhi; Prof.Uma Shankar Vyanketesh, ITM Gwalior; Col C.K. Singh, President NHRD, Agra 

Chapter; Mr. Abhishekh Singhal, Alliance Manager, Planet English; Mr. Madan Srinivasan, HR Director-Transitions, HCL Technologies, 

Gurgaon; Mr. Avinash Mishra, GM (P&A) Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Malanpur; Mr. Manmohan Bhutani, VP, Fiserv, New Delhi, 

Mr. Rakhee Pundir, HR Consultant, Kritikal Security Scan, New Delhi; Mr. Prithvi Yadav, Director, GHSIMR, Kanpur; Mr. A.K. Verma 

(Synergy); Mr. Avnish Tiwari (Innovators) and Mr. V. Swarup (SRF) 

The summit was a grand success. 


A 

n 

specter is 

sweeping 

across the world, 

the specter of 

economic downturn and the consequent 

sense of insecurity of jobs. Mighty global 

companies straddling the world are in 

distress and are requiring to be bailed out 

by governments. First, it was the financial 

companies and banks and then the real 

estate and housing and now even the IT 

companies that are faltering. These are 

sectors which have been employing large 

number of people and paying very well. In 

India, the IT sector has been the most 

sought after for engineers and MBAs and 

human resources personnel. During the last 

10 years Indian IT & Software companies 

have acquired a large number of big 

companies in the US and Europe, as their 

clients for outsourced business operations. 

Andhra Pradesh has, since the later 1990s 

with government encouragement and 

facilitation, become the most attractive place 

for locating IT & Software companies. Over, 

200,000 professionals are employed in the 

more than 1000 IT & Software and ITES 

companies in Hyderabad alone. The number 

of engineering colleges had gone up within 

a decade from 35 to over 530. About 80 of 

them are within a 30 km radius of 

Hyderabad. One third of the intake of 

engineering colleges has been from girls. 

In many a large IT company, girls now 

constitute about 40% of the work force. IT 

companies are paying very well as they are 

competing for the best talents. A few years 

ago, a civil engineer could be had for about 

Rs. 4000 p/m. The minimum an IT / software 

/ECE graduate was getting is not less than 

about Rs. 15,000 p/m. Within two to three 

years, their salary was going up to about 

Rs 40,000/- to Rs.50,000/pm. This applied 

both to boys and girls. High incomes with 

no family and other responsibilities have led 

to a change in the life style. Many have taken 

to luxurious life. They went for flats and cars 

on easily obtained loans; they went for week 

-end parties and late night dinners and 

drinks. They had credit cards, they had week 

-end excursions and entertainment parties. 

2. Malls have come up, selling expensive 

branded goods. The city is glittering and 

streets are cluttered with vehicles. The 

number of star hotels is proliferating. Eating 

out has become fashionable. Conversing 

and interacting with Americans and other 

foreign clients has changed the language 

one uses. Dress has changed. Social mores 

Economic Downturn - 

Professionals' lives and Anxieties 

– Dr T.H.Chowdary 

have changed. How one writes and spells 

her/his name also has changed. Instead of 

traditional names like Suryanarayana Rao 

or Ramabrahmam, monosyllabic, 

meaningless names like Nitin, Jitin, Sonya, 

Tanya, Leenya, Nimesh, Ritesh, Pitesh etc. 

have come. Traditional names given by 

parents are being shortened and the Inti 

Peru (for Telugu people which used to 

appear first, now appears last. Hari has 

become Harry; Ramulu has become 

Remmel; Jaya has become Jay; Syama has 

become Sam and so on. Every one is having 

a cell phone. Fast food counters and week 

end joints had become fashionable. And so 

has become dating - young boys and girls 

spending time out on week ends without any 

inhibitions and the parents not knowing. 

These high-paid, de-Indianised boys and 

girls are marrying after love at first sight. 

Girls are not adjusting to be wives; they want 

to be friends, equals. There is friction. Many 

a girl has come to me, a father figure to tell 

me, "I have divorced the guy". I ask, "So 

soon?". "Yes", she says, "because the guy 

is trying to boss over me. I get as much pay 

as he gets; why should I be subordinate?" I 

then realize the truth; Westerners fall in love 

before marriage and fall out after marriage. 

But Indians fall in love after marriage. De- 

Indianised education, working for the west 

and conversing with them in their language 

are reducing the young to be Indians only 

in colour and blood, but American/Western 

in life-style, marriage, likes and culture. 

3. All this de-Indianised, west, especially 

America-aping life styles will have to change 

with the slump in the economy all over the 

world. IT companies being services-oriented 

and closely linked with global companies are 

the most visibly affected. Recruitment has 

gone down. At the most prosperous period, 

campuses were visited and bright students 

in the penultimate year of their studies were 

recruited. They would be waiting for a year 

to finish college education and get a call to 

join the company. Many so recruited were 

puffed up. They were not caring as to how 

they would do in the final year. Now, they 

find the calls to join the company are not 

coming. Some had rejected certain offers 

and are now regretting why they accepted 

the offer from A and not from B. 

4. One spent away the fat salary on himself. 

Now either there is a cut in the salary or no 

increment or prospect of loss of job. The 

luxurious habits that one has acquired are 

no more affordable. There is stress to adjust. 

Worse; your credit is deflated; the issuer of 

the credit card is advising you of the reduced 

limit of credit. The equated monthly 

installments (EMI) that you contracted from 

the one who financed the purchase of your 

flat are no longer affordable. These who paid 

a few months ago a part of the total to buy a 

flat, are now not paying the next installment 

and are getting into arrears. 

5. It is essential to realise that in a free 

enterprise economy, there are cycles of 

boom and bust. If one gets addicted to a 

life style sustainable only during the boom 

period, then when the bust starts, he will 

feel miserable. A great virtue which Indian 

culture has inculcated in us is to save for 

the rainy day, not spend what all one earns, 

even if it be ever so little. Frugality and 

simple living had always been valued and 

inculcated by our tradition and culture and 

education. Our extended families were 

insurance to look after the not so fortunate 

among us. They came to our aid in times of 

distress. The first thing that the once very 

sought after and very well paid professionals 

should realise and re-adjust is learn not to 

spend away all the salary and not get 

addicted to a luxurious life style. 

6. Our education has been denuded of all 

ethical and moral instruction. Our great 

classical literature our epics and our 

Puranas, our Subhashitas (eg: Bhartrihari) 

and Sathakas (eg: Vemana, Sumathi) 

contain the wisdom that one needs to live a 

stress -free life and a life living which one 

could be proud of. For the Telugu people 

Sumathi and Vemana Sathakas are great 

treasures of wisdom accumulated over 

thousands of years of living experience. 

Similarly, Bhartrihari's Sathakas on vidya 

(knowledge) and neethi (ethics) are great 

guides for us to lead a stress-free and 

achieving life. 

7. In the last 15-20 years there has been an 

irrational and exuberant stress on acquiring 

excellence in examination and not in the 

acquisition of knowledge or real intellectual 

abilities. History and literature have been 

completely relegated as of no consequence. 

It is these two subjects that form the 

character of a person. The following 

observations of Reed Hundt, a distinguished 

former Chairman of the Federal 

Communications Commission (counterpart 

of India's Telecom Regulatory Authority of 

India) in his book, In China's Shadow (The 

Crisis of American Entrepreneurship) are 

cautionary and educative. 

Dr T Hanuman Chowdary is Fellow: Tata Consultancy Services & Satyam Computer Services and Former: I T Advisor: Government of A 

P, CMD, VSNL E-Mail: hanuman.chowdary@tcs.com & thc@satyam.com 


"….Business schools (in the USA) 

burgeoned in the last half of the twentieth 

century. American business schools 

graduated nearly forty times as many people 

in 2000 as in 1950 - an increase that signified 

(and contributed to) the global triumph of 

American firms and the American way of 

doing business. Business schools, however, 

have contributed relatively little to public 

policy discussion. The record-breaking 

ethical lapses and criminal behavior of the 

boom and bust hardly qualified business 

education as the source of reform. Business 

schools trained a generation of leaders but 

discouraged their pupils from considering 

social or cultural problems as part of their 

domain. Their pupils knew organization, 

strategy, and finance. They learned practical 

economics. However, at least until after the 

Enron and WorldCom scandals, business 

schools dedicated almost no attention to 

law, ethics, sociology, or any other discipline 

that would have created a supple 

understanding of culture. The students (in 

Business Schools) learnt how to create 

business and staff, capital allocation, 

recruiting, product development, sales and 

marketing. The firms they staffed did not 

have a functional method for considering the 

legal, technological, and historical patterns 

of the United States. Culture existed outside 

the firm and the market….." 

Students in non-Business Schools are even 

less culturised; they have skills to score high 

in exams and interviews but have no value 

system, no philosophical, intellectual 

curiosity and values. 

9. These stressful times and testing 

situations should make every one introspect. 

This should be a great opportunity to learn 

the real values in life and the way we should 

live. What the young including students, 

should do in these times are: 

Continuous learning is necessary. 

Continuous updating of knowledge is 

essential. Acquiring additional 

Can you believe it? 

Back in early 70’s while 

working for a multinational I 

learnt one of the most 

important lessons of my life. I 

was new to Pali Hill and was 

not very familiar with the 

culture there. While 

withdrawing cash from my bank one day, 

I thanked the gentleman behind the 

counter. As I was walking away while 

counting the money I heard a choking, 

gasping sound. I turned back and looked 

at person on the cash counter. He was an 

elderly, slim and fair person and his face 

was now deep red and tears were rolling 

down his cheeks. I thought he was having 

a heart attack and in that split second all 

sort of thoughts flashed in my mind. On 

hurrying to the window I remember 

stammering “ are you all right”?. His 

reaction left me spellbound. He said, and 

 

 

 

 

 

 

qualifications is desirable. Therefore, 

instead of wasting time in parties and 

other luxury pursuits, one can register 

for distance education programs of 

various universities and acquire more 

qualifications. 

Those who have graduated but not got 

a job or got one which is temporary or 

not good enough, should sign up for 

post graduate courses, different from 

their graduate studies. Engineers may 

take an MBA or Law course; MBA's may 

take law or accounting and so on. 

Read history, culture, and our own 

literature in our mother tongues. 

Mahabharata, Ramayana, the 

Upanishads, neeti sathakas, 

Gunaadhyas Katha Sarit Sagara (Neeti 

Chandirka in Telugu), Sumathi and 

Vemana Sethakas. Try to get the poems 

and passages by heart. Understand the 

meaning and the purport and analyse 

the current issues in the light of the 

suktis, great words of wisdom that these 

literatures contain. 

Build up relationships first with all family 

members and then with friends. It is 

communion with people that gives us 

the ability and fortitude to withstand 

stresses. 

Never mistake physical attraction for 

true affection and love. One should 

control passions like anger and physical 

attraction for the opposite sex. 

Exercise and yoga are essential. A 

regulated life with invariably good habits 

will conduce to mental health which is 

much more important than even 

physical health. 

A rupee earned should be valued more 

than Rs. 5 found or made. As Adi 

Sankara has said "Ellabhase nija 

karmopattham vittam tena vinodaya 

chittam - Delight your self with what you 

have earned by your own toil. 

I am quoting him, “I have been doing this 

work on this counter for the last 25 years 

and this is the first time someone has said 

thank you!” 

This was the time when management was 

only something of administration and the 

business etiquettes lessons were not much 

heard of. 

In the new millennium we have everything, 

management courses, highly trained 

professionals, beautiful technologies, 

employee development, engagement, 

customer driven businesses, but I am afraid 

still no thank yous. We have modules that 

teach us to be a good team member, a 

good leader, a good visionary but I guess 

the most basic of all modules to be 

prepared is how to be a decent individual. 

I wish I knew what it takes to be a good 

individual but I think something’s are well 

known across the management sphere and 

if I may be too generic anybody who uses 

Greed and lust will destroy one. 

Temporary gains may please but do not 

conduce to long term welfare and well 

being. 

Never sell yourself to be involved in any 

wrong-doing. 

If a person decides to marry, then the 

couple must plan for their life especially 

if both are now working. When should 

they have children, how many of them, 

at what spacing should be planned and 

agreed. Should we consign the child into 

a kindergarten, a prep school, and 

Nursery, then to hostels or should the 

mother give up her job until the child is 

able to go to school on her own. The 

greatest gift that parents can give to 

children is time and affection, not 

money, not expensive schools, not air 

conditioned cars and not star hotel food. 

There is no substitute for the mothers' 

affection, caressing and caring. The 

dining table should become the class 

room for transmission of our culture and 

our wisdom through story and poem. 

The wise have said that three things 

form a person; vadi, badi, and gudi, that 

is, the mother's lap, school and temple. 

All these three have to be very healthy 

and all these three must be involved in 

forming a person. 

10. Finally, I would like you to read and 

understand and contemplate on the 

contents of the following. 

Mahabharata and Ramayana 

Upanishads for the Lay Man 

Our Culture. 

All these are by Sri C Rajagopalachari 

Krishnaavatara and Warnings of History 

by Kulapati K.M. Munshi. 

All these are Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's 

publication and are available in good 

bookstalls as well as in Bhavans' offices. 

emails. Remember people by name, smile 

when you pick up a phone, thank an 

individual etc etc. It’s just that our 

deadlines at work and lifestyle pressures 

at home are too much so this set of 

information normally takes a backseat in 

our minds. 

I have learnt that it is always easy to say 

thank you to everyone who has ever 

worked for you and it is simple too. Talk 

about cost effectiveness... it is the best 

way of cost cutting. Just thank everyone 

for their efforts, down to the lowest in the 

hierarchy. I am not saying it makes all the 

difference, but it certainly makes some. 

Try it. 

Ratnakar Misra 

NHRDN Coordinator Patna Chapter 

PGP Coordinator, Chandragupt Institute 

of Management Patna 

ratnakar.misra@gmail.com 


Pink Slip- An Involuntary Exit 

Mobile phone 

g i a n t 

Motorola to cut 

4000 more jobs 

roughly 6% of its 

workforce, in the face of economic down turn 

and warning demand. 

Credit Card Company American Express 

India has handed over pink slips to about 

200 employees and senior executives who 

have been with them for the past 15 to 20 

years. Approximately 7000 jobs are being 

eliminated companywide which translates 

into about 10% of the company's worldwide 

workforce to save $1.8 billion in cost in 2009. 

HSBC laid off 193 staff in India after 

reviewing the prevailing economic 

conditions. 

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the 

country's largest firm, had given pink slips 

to 500 non- performers. IBM too had asked 

about 700 employees in India to leave, citing 

non performance. Patni Computer Systems 

had shown the door to 400 employees. 

Wipro technologies has put about 4-5 

percent of its work force about 2,400- 3,000 

employees, under the scanner for non 

performance. 

Many more companies will continue to 

layoff. With freeze on hiring, downsizing, 

cost cutting, rising efficiencies lay offs have 

been a sore reality and recurring 

phenomena in the last few months. When 

organizations plan to lay off it issues the pink 

slip to its employees. 

What then is a pink slip? 

Pink slip is an American term referring to 

being fired from one's job and the person 

being fired is said to be pink slipped. It is a 

notice of termination- inserted in an 

employee's pay envelops. It is pink in color 

as it stands out from any other paper in the 

envelop. Once the decision to terminate an 

employee has been made, a written notice 

to that effect should be delivered to the 

employee which states the reasons for the 

discharge, in order to minimize post 

discharge disputes and assist the employer 

in the event of litigation. It may be verbally 

communicated, through phone, phone mails 

messages, traditional mail and most recently 

e-mail. 

Reasons for pink slip 

To face economic and financial crisis 

A cost- driven practice 

To reach their ambitious target 

No projects in hand 

A quick fix approach to market 

To retain only the high performers 

Massive restructuring of the 

organization in case of sale or merger. 

A part of disciplinary action 

Its affects on employees 

A layoff procedure leaves a profound 

emotional impact on the work force. It affects 

the person being laid off, the remaining work 

force and the management alike. The worst 

case scenarios are joblessness, home less, 

inability to take care of one's family, potential 

illness. Suddenly a person does not belong 

to a group and is an outsider with loss of 

status. There is a temptation to fight coupled 

with helplessness, rage, sadness and 

frustrating about how to behave in the new 

status. 

It places strain on the surviving employees 

as they feel insecure about their jobs. They 

express the feeling of concern and fear with 

everyone in the organization. 

But the manager or the supervisor needs to 

behave "above" to these feelings. Some 

times he acknowledges his own pain in 

losing trusted colleagues and become 

involved in emotional experience with 

everyone else. Therefore to get a control 

over the situation a manager must maintain 

a professional and detached attitude. 

Warning Signals 

Watch for the warning signals in order to 

avoid the shock of viewing it all of a sudden 

on your table. 

You are recently promoted to a position 

with less responsibility or entrusted with 

a new task with no chance of success. 

You were formally informed about all the 

business related thing and suddenly you 

find the company news from the office 

boy or an accountant. 

You are asked to perform a "new 

company initiative" or "Confidential 

research assignment" or new project 

that takes away from REAL work and 

puts you on something that's either 

mildly important or not important at all. 

You receive a pay freeze or fee cut 

which your boss shows it as a cost 

reduction measure. 

You are being asked to take some time 

off which indicates that in your absence 

there is no interruption to work. 

You find your success and 

accomplishment being glossed over by 

your boss and peer group and in turn 

disrespecting you. 

– Padma Satuluri 

Your co workers are whispering about 

you in a dark corner of the coffee room 

and suddenly stop the conversation on 

your arrival. 

Your office cubical or working space 

recently is downsized which hurt your 

morale 

Your immediate boss or mentor has quit 

the job and you find it difficult to get 

approval for your plan or project 

You are receiving more emails and 

memos from your boss which was done 

earlier with a dialogue. 

You have seen a job posting for your 

company that matches your job 

description. 

Your company recently sold or merged, 

in either of the case you find cost cuts. 

You notice everyone in your company 

hates you, not laughing for your jokes 

or not having lunch with you 

You currently being 'retrained' or taken 

coaching sessions and there is no 

identifiable progress in your 

performance. 

Precautions to be taken by an employee 

Here are some tips to increase employee 

value and to escape pink slip. 

Work harder than you have ever worked 

&show your value. 

Collect some specific examples of 

benefit that your organization will gain 

with your work and the unique way that 

you accomplish it. Write these and use 

them as selling points during your next 

performance review. 

Identify those roles, projects or activities 

that seem to be getting higher level of 

attention or involvement from 

management. If you are not the part of 

such projects try to involve in such 

projects or volunteer for extra duties to 

support these projects or activities. 

Try to reconnect your relationship with 

your friends and colleagues and 

maintain close relations and extend your 

support if necessary. 

Join in professional associations and try 

to build strong community which will help 

later. 

Try to manage your finance and do 

investments carefully. 

Stay away from chronic complainers. 

Try to offer support, advice to them and 

be friendly and possibly make important 

introductions and share job leads. 

Spend more time with family and try to 

relieve them from tensions. 

Ms. Padma satuluri is faculty Member at Magnus School of Business, Hyderabad. E-Mail: satuluripadma@rediffmail.com 


Prepare your resume and get ready for 

the interview. 

Try to find part time jobs and go for 

special coaching classes to update your 

skills. 

Alternatives to avoid pink slip 

There are several alternatives to handling 

the pink slips. Only the organization has to 

decide its commitment towards employee 

welfare and have a long term vision for the 

company. The employer has to consider the 

following alternatives before giving pink slip. 

Reduce the pay by reducing number of 

working hours. 

Slash the bonus and other benefits 

during this time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No promotions and transfers. 

Counsel the employee to improve their 

performance. 

Ask the employees to go for long 

vacation with out pay. 

Encourage the employee to pursue 

higher education. 

Absorbing extra workload by finding new 

alternative projects during this period. 

Conduct more training and development 

programs for employee development. 

Stop all the recreation and fun related 

activities. 

Communicate the employees about the 

present condition and conduct brain 

storming exercise for cost cutting. 

Encourage the employees to spend 

more time for innovation, product and 

process development. 

Pink slip is the buzz word in the present 

global turmoil and it is unwelcome news that 

one is a part of the layoff program. It is the 

forward looking thought people develop and 

the positive out look can minimize the 

damage on the pink slipped employees. 

NO 

Lay offs has become common feature in the 

corporate culture, secured jobs are a passy. 

When cost cutting is the mantra, anybody 

could be given a pink slip. As it brings an 

emotional baggage causes anger, trauma, 

and frustration being prepared helps to a 

great deal. 

 

Book Review – by Rajesh Walawalkar 

Title of the Book: 

F i n a n c i a l 

Intelligence For HR 

Professionals 

Subtitle of the 

Book: 

What You Really 

Need to Know 

About the Numbers 

Authors: 

Karen Berman, Joe 

Knight with John Case 

Publishers: 

Harvard Business Press Boston, 

Massachusetts 

Review 

“Without numerical fluency, in the 

part of life most of us inhabit, you 

are like a one-legged man in an asskicking 

contest.” Charles T. Munger 

Karen and Joe are the founders of the Los 

Angeles based Business Literacy Institute; 

work with some of the world’s best known 

and most respected organizations, 

including American Express, General 

Electric and Southwest Airlines. John Case 

is a successful business book author. 

This book was born out of their financial 

literacy programmes that they have been 

carrying out for the past so many years. 

As we all know, business is run by numbers 

— therefore everyone on in a company 

does better when they understand how 

financial success is measured how they 

have an impact on the company’s 

performance. Authors term this as financial 

intelligence. 

In 21 st century HR professionals are 

expected to become business ally for whom 

the essential competency is to understand 

business of business. What could be a 

better way for this than to develop financial 

intelligence? HR people are known to be 

focusing on the soft side of the business 

when they work with people. To become 

business leader HR professionals will have 

to focus on the hard facts of the business. 

At the moment there are two important 

reasons why everyone associated with 

business irrespective their functions need 

to develop financial intelligence: 

1. Today, the whole world is experiencing 

financial turmoil, leading to slowdown of the 

all major economies. Some of the fortune 

five hundred companies are facing the 

threat of bankruptcy. This is not only going 

to affect the function of HR but entire 

business may get vanished for some of the 

leading companies. On this background it 

is essential for all in the business to develop 

financial intelligence so that they are able 

to read some of the warnings in advance. 

This would help people across the functions 

to work towards their future vis-à-vis 

company’s future. 

2. Secondly, in India we have witnessed 

different financial scams, from Harshad 

Mehta to Satyam saga, to name a few. The 

world over people are watching and reading 

MADOFF scam taking place in United 

States. Apart from other things, scamsters 

take full advantage of financial illiteracy of 

people at large. One of the measures we 

need to take is to increase financial literacy 

by spreading financial intelligence with the 

people across the functions so that it results 

increasing checks and balances in the 

system itself. 

Apart from the above there are many 

other benefits for HR professionals for 

them to have financial intelligence: 

1. This would result in HR to become 

strategic in nature than mere tacticians. 

2. This would provide HR to have right 

tools to understand and evaluate 

company performance. 

3. FI would certainly help HR to 

understand business in better way. 

4. Would help to form close relationship 

with Finance Department. 

5. FI would make HR number driven 

decisions. 

6. This would help HR to understand bias 

in the numbers. 

In this light above authors have done a 

very good job by covering the following: 

Set the context and define Financial 

Intelligence (FI) 

Explain the peculiarities of Income 

Statement (Profit and Loss statement 

as called by us in India) 

How to understand and read the 

Balance Sheet 

Why cash flow statement is very 

important? Why cash matters and how 

to decode the language of cash flow 

statement? 

Reading absolute numbers is not 

enough and therefore we need to do 

what is called ratio analysis. How to 

form relations in different key numbers? 

What do ratios communicate and how 

to get vital and actionable information 

out of important ratios? 

Authors have devoted one full section 

on how to calculate return on 

investment. 

They have very well explained the 

relevance of working capital and how 

to manage it. 

The last section is fully devoted to how 

to create financially intelligent 

department (and organization). 

The book is a must read for every 

aspiring manger who really wants to 

grow in his/her professional life. 

However, being finance and HR 

professional I would have loved the 

following content as a part of this 

impacting book: 

Understanding business environment 

Ingredients of financial system, what it 

contains and its relevance for business. 

Basic frame work of economics, macro 

& micro economics, national income, 

its uses and applications for individual 

businesses. 

Functions of finance 

Planning and control systems for 

example how budgets are made and 

what are budgetary controls. 

In my view above points if included would 

make the book comprehensive. 

The author is the director of TGIM 

Consulting Private Limited and a visiting 

faculty to business schools. 

 


Fighting Attrition 

in Retail 

Attrition today is a major challenge for 

retail industry. Reducing employee 

turnover has thus become a strategic HR 

issue as it cuts both ways. It reduces sales 

and also increases costs. Sales are lost 

because inexperienced employees have to 

be taken in as replacement and cost 

increase due to the fact that the 

organisation has to continuously recruit and 

train new employees. Consider an example 

of a supermarket chain. When an apparel 

department manager leaves the 

organisation the top management 

promotes the apparel manager from a 

smaller store as his replacement and a 

junior department manager to occupy the 

position of this person. Subsequently, a 

working trainee will take this position a new 

trainee has to be hired. This is the 

cascading effect when someone at senior 

level leaves the job. The organisation has 

to train two apparel department managers 

and one assistant manager as well as hire 

and train one trainee. It can be seen that 

replacing one apparel manager is much 

more costly than the apparent replacement 

cost. Retailers, therefore, have to pay 

heavy price for attrition. It is for this reason 

that the problem is now being considered 

at apex level and strategic solutions are 

being sought. 

Big retailers are trying to build an 

atmosphere of mutual commitment in their 

firms so that the bond between the 

employee and the employer remains 

strong. True, the working conditions are 

tough and job opportunities to change are 

ample. But, commitment can create a loyal 

employee. More so, in the turbulent times 

which retailers are facing today. The 

question that arises is how to build this 

'commitment'. Relying on conventional 

wisdom that employee behaviour on the job 

is influenced by supervision, retailers are 

focusing on it. And this is what Global 

quality guru Philip Crosby meant when he 

said "People don't work for companies, they 

work for people." Late Sam Walton, world's 

leading retailer, also held similar views. 

Certainly, then the first step in developing 

commitment is improving the quality of 

supervision. 

The modern day employee is both 

ambitious and impatient. More so, the retail 

employee. Making him work is no easy job 

unless the urge comes from within. And for 

this urge commitment has to be elicited 

without which there can not be the 

motivation to perform over and above the 

call of duty. Rising competition demands 

improved productivity which in turn 

emanates from enthusiastic commitment of 

every employee. How to achieve this is the 

question, retailers are seeking an answer 

too. Retailers, like Nordstorm of US seek 

the answer in a facilitative culture where 

every employee is fully trusted. This brings 

unflinching commitment on the part of 

employee. Commitment is a give and take 

process. You sow what you reap. When a 

retailer proves its commitment by looking 

after his employees well, employees 

develop loyalty to the company. They 

improve their skills and work hard for the 

company if they feel that the company is 

committed to them in the long run and 

through thick and thin. This in fact is an 

age old lesson and even in Valmiki 

Ramayan it is found. When the younger 

brother Shatrughna is going to fight demon 

Lavanasur Lord Rama tells this to him. He 

asks Shatrughna to look after the soldiers 

in his army well because such soldiers are 

committed to their king and are willing to 

lay down even their lives. The chief 

executive's role plays a very important part 

in building loyalty. In this context the Chief 

Executive's philosophy and the company 

management's practices become 

important. A case in point is that of the 

South West Airlines. Herbert Kelleher, 

former CEO of South West airlines who 

made his company the fastest growing and 

most profitable airline in the world, built his 

company's corporate culture on two 

fundamental principles. First is that people 

are important and every person can make 

a difference. The second principle is that 

both the work as well as company culture 

should be enjoyable. Like what Maxim 

Gorky had said "When work is duty, life is 

slavery; when work is pleasure life is joy." 

South West Airlines encourages the ideas 

of frank expression of ideas and feeling 

without making people uncomfortable. The 

importance of people at South West Airlines 

can be found out in the altruistic value of 

the company. The Airlines emphasises that 

– Dr. Pramod Pathak and Dr. Saumya Singh 

its employees must be motivated to help 

others. South West Airlines employees 

treat each other as family members. 

In the absence of dedicated and committed 

employees, particularly the front line ones, 

customer service is difficult to achieve. 

Global Marketing guru Jagdish Seth calls 

these employees the front line touch points 

which happen to be the most important 

employees. They interact most frequently 

with the customers and they relate to the 

customers in the manner in which they 

themselves are managed. Thus, a direct 

linkage is there between proper 

management of employees, their degree 

of commitment to the organisation and the 

quality of customer service. Retail 

organisations have to keep in mind the fact 

that the sales persons are their real brand 

ambassadors. For example, in Shopper's 

Stop the buyer does not know Raheja, the 

owner or even B. S. Nagesh, the MD and 

CEO. He only knows the sales person 

dealing with him at the shelf. It was with 

this in mind that Indian Oil Corporation 

Limited asked the authors of this book to 

conduct behaviour modification training for 

the pump attendants of their extra care 

retail outlets of Jharkhand region. The 

underlying idea was that for the retail 

customer who buys petrol, diesel etc. the 

Indian Oil brand is represented by not the 

marketing manager of the company, nor 

even the distributor who owns the outlet 

but the pump attendant who actually 

delivers the service. 

Some approaches that retailers take to 

build mutual commitment are (1) 

developing employee skills through 

selection and training, (2) empowering 

employees, and (3) creating a partnering 

relationship with employees. Research 

indicates that engaging in these human 

resource management practices increases 

the employee loyalty. Ordinary people can 

achieve extraordinary results if managed 

properly. Management needs to 

understand the importance of these people 

and treat them with extra care. This is the 

reason why there has been a shift back to 

a more personalised approach to 

employees, service award programmes, 

and spot recognition. 

 

Dr Pramod Pathak is Associate Professor and Dr Saumya Singh is Assistant Professor at the Department of Management Studies, Indian 

School of Mines University, Dhanbad. E-Mails: pramod_ism@rediffmail.com;saumyasingh@rediffmail.com 


Academic's Roles Matching 

With HR Managers 

ACADEMICS, it is being a general 

terminolgy used in most of the management 

schools, who deals with all student-related 

issues's and it is mostly referred as Student- 

Concern department. 

My thought-process on this, made me to 

derive a comparison between Academic's 

and HR, and started penning-down few 

words………… 

ACADEMIC'S, the most preferred name in 

most of the Business schools, realted to 

students, faculties and corporate houses. 

ACADEMIC'S role is in management of all 

the student-related issues like:Assisting their 

concerned Manager - in course 

administration, Maintenance of different 

portals, Handling all the Exam 

administration, evaluation and feedback 

processes - exam scheduling; invigilator 

scheduling; administering exams; handling 

the feedback process, Record keeping, 

General administration works. 

ACADEMIC'S play a vital role in managing 

the different activities imparted to them in 

the Management-schools, These 

management schools are engaged in - The 

Full Time Post Graduate Programme in 

Management/Doctoral management 

program's and Executive-Education 

Program's for working professionals. 

ACADEMIC Professionals are inturn 

benefitted a lot, in the sense, apart from 

getting work-experience and salaries, their 

involvement makes them imbibe with 

different new learning models, covering a 

broad-ground with case studies, providing 

a multiple-learning opportunities. 

Management schools hire these 

ACADEMIC'S professionals, from various 

educational and industrial background's. 

ACADEMIC'S role is diverse, they deal with 

all the activities related to student's/ 

Faculties, they are also involved in 

coordinating with Marketing department of 

the schools in Brand initiation and Brand 

positioning at different center's, they are also 

involved in coordinating with Human 

Resourceses department in - Man-power 

planning, Sourcing/Hiring and conducting 

the interviews for the different departments 

like General Administration, Accounts, 

Business development/Marketing, 

IT&System-Admin and Center-Head's. 

ACADEMIC'S coordinate lot of activities 

related to Hiring-up of various Faculties for 

their Business schools with usage of 

sourcing agents like Networking and reading 

thru different Prospectus and Brochure's of 

the various Business schools and also by 

visiting different corporate houses and 

interacting with the HR managers/ Finance 

managers and Operations managers and 

asking them to be a part of their panel, or 

be as a visiting faculty, for their various 

Executive and Management development 

program's. 

A comparison can be drawn, between the 

roles of an ACADEMIC'S in Management 

School with that of an HR in a Corporate 

House, where ACADEMIC'S is with students 

and faculties,while HR is with employee's. 

ACADEMIC'S role in a management school 

is mostly described as a replica of HR role 

in a corporate-house. 

ACADEMIC'S role depict's the role of an 

HR manager, their roles are similar in 

most of the cases like: 

ACADEMIC'S role in coordinating/ 

Hiring of the students and faculties, 

matching with HR's role- as that of in 

Recruitment process , 

ACADEMIC'S role in attendance of the 

students relates to that of HR's role in 

same, 

ACADEMIC'S role in student's reviews 

matching with the HR's role in periodic 

reviews of their employee's 

(Performance management), 

ACADEMIC'S role in conducting and 

finalizing the student exams-related 

issue's relates to that of HR's Rewards 

and recognitions, 

ACADEMIC'S role in coordinating in 

declaring the exam-results relate's to 

HR's role in coordinating /distribution of 

confirmation/promotion/Incentiveletter's 

to their employee's, 

ACADEMIC'S role in coordinating of 

student's end of the program relates to 

that of HR's exit-interviews for the 

employee's. 

ACADEMIC'S paly a vital role in coordinating 

with the different student committee's and 

clubs formed at their campuses. The various 

– Sharad Chandra 

students-Committee's are: Placement 

committee, System's and IT , welfare, PR, 

Sports, and the various student's Clubs are: 

Finance, Marketing, HR, Operations clubs 

etc. They help in coordinating and 

conducting - Seminar's and Workshop's, 

with Hiring of eminent personalities from 

industry and academia in delivering lecture's 

to their students, inturn providing knowledge 

and new insights, to these management 

students. 

As these ACADEMIC ASSOCIATE'S work 

closely with the student fratenity - who are 

from diverse backgrounds with their 

graduations in diferent streams like 

Engineering /Commerce/Science etc and 

who are with their fresh thoughts on 

management, out-of-box thinkings and their 

different-level of mind-sets /innovative 

approach, this close association helps 

ACADEMIC ASSOCIATE'S to develop a 

new ideology, develop new mind-sets and 

make them think differently and develop 

themselves in every angle. 

Their interaction with students, Faculty and 

other research candidate's provides them 

with New Learning, Knowledge and skills. 

It is a win-win approach for Student's as well 

as Academic's in - Sharpening their minds 

with these knowledge-boosters. This unique 

association benefits both. 

Students and Academic's are developed in 

getting - much-needed practical exposure 

to supplement strong theoretical input. 

Comprehensive understanding of the 

content, organization, assumptions, and 

values of a variety of academic areas, with 

hands on training on live cases in an 

industrial setting, Business skills such as 

effective communication, computation, 

analytical and critical thinking, managing 

information, creativity, and aesthetic 

awareness. 

This artilce is an indicative of - 

Benchmarking of Academic's with HR and 

deriving a sense of HR-belonging, while 

working in Academic's in a management 

institute. 

This novel thought-process was arising in 

my mind and I thought, it will be my previlege 

to share the same feelings in form of an 

article with all…, Hence started writing the 

article. 

 

Mr. Sharad Chandra, Academic's - Centaurex Academy of Business Studies, Hyderabad E-Mail: sharadchandra2007@gmail.com 


Resurrecting Organizations in 

Turbulent Times: An Adaptive 

Challenge 

Global Economy and therefore, our 

Economy are facing very difficult time. 

Financial problems in the west have 

resulted in sharp fall of share markets in 

India. This, along with the government's 

efforts to control inflation has caused 

shortage of cash in the market. Economic 

conditions in the country have already 

resulted in drastic reduction in demand; 

most have even cut down even their 

production plans. 

In the present scenario, companies are 

facing the challenge-Adaptive Challenge. 

Adaptive challenges are usually fuzzy and 

hard to identify clearly. It arises when 

fundamental changes in a group's 

environment call for the group to rethink 

basic goals and strategies to thrive or even 

just survive. To adopt any challenge or 

challenges one just need to accept the 

challenge or challenges and change him 

or herself or the organization according to 

the needs or may be even demands of such 

challenge or challenges. Say to anticipate 

change even when things are going right, 

to look at the opportunities that represents 

change fast, realize fast that fear of the 

unknown is natural, not allowing routine 

matters to become complacent, keep 

renewing one self, surround yourself with 

vibes that is positive or get surrounded with 

those who are open to change initiatives. 

Tomorrow is a six letter word CHANGE. 

Change is the only permanent 

phenomenon of life. It spurs, motivates, 

inspires and catalyses movement. It breaks 

from the shackles of mediocrity, 

complacence and indecision to explore a 

new exciting world of growth and 

development. It defines your FUTURE. So 

adapt to changes fast. 

The most commonly faced adaptive 

challenge by the companies in present 

scenario is RECESSION/DOWNSIZING/ 

DOWNTURN/RIGHTSIZING/ 

SLOWDOWN/LAYOFF. Downsizing is 

about reducing the number of employees 

on operating payroll and the belief behind 

it is that an enterprise should really need 

to operate with fewer people. Changes in 

Societies, Markets, Customers, 

Competition and Technology around the 

world is forcing companies to clarify their 

values, , develop new strategies and learn 

new ways of operating in this situation. But 

the greatest challenge is of being worthy 

means. The doing of all actions in a 

dignified manner so that we can resume 

our position fast when conditions are back 

to a state of normalcy. We need to do things 

in such a way that the Brand Image of the 

company do not get disturbed, we can still 

attract the best talent in the market….In 

such situation we need to change the style 

of the working, we need to do more 

Adaptive Work. 

Adaptive Work is required when our deeply 

held beliefs are challenged, when the 

values that made us successful become 

less relevant. We see adaptive challenge 

every day at every level of the workplace-- 

--when companies restructure or 

reengineer, develop or implement 

strategies, or merge business. We see 

adaptive challenge when marketing has 

difficulty working with operations, when 

cross-functional teams do not work well. 

BUT THE MOST COMMONLY FACED 

ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE IN THE 

PRESENT SCENARIO IS: 

1. Downsizing in a dignified way 

2. Survival in the present situation 

We need to handle the above mentioned 

challenges in such a way that the operation 

of the organization does not get affected, 

the motivation level of the employees does 

not get lowered instead we need to try to 

increase the motivational level of the 

employees by using non-monetary tools. 

Downsizing is always painful- both for 

Employees and for the Employers. There 

is a risk of loosing best talents to the 

competitors as we need to think that how 

the impact can be minimized. Asking 

people to leave is not the only solution but 

we need to identify the innovative ways 

which can save the ability of operating 

within a specified system. Targeting the 

number of manpower should not be the only 

focus because Human Resources are the 

most sensitive issues for an organization. 

There are several areas which can be given 

– Hari Nair 

a thought before asking employees to 

leave. Never forget the H (Human) aspect 

in HR and focus on the best utilization of 

the R (Resources) all other resources in 

the organization. 

We need to do lot many exercises while 

calculating the impact in long run. "Neither 

the bad situation nor the good conditions 

lasts long". After a year we may have to 

recruit the more number than what we 

removed and/or Planning to remove. 

Asking employees to leave is not a long 

term strategy, what will happen when the 

situation will be normal?????? We would 

not be able to get good and quality people. 

It triggers fight or flight - escape, avoidance, 

and getting even worse. So in my opinion 

Rightsizing should be done in a stage wise 

manner. 

The adaptive works which is needed in 

such situation are as explained below 

in a stage wise manner: 

● We need to relook at the extra cushion 

provided to the Employees. It may be 

related to the leave structure or may 

be because of some retention strategy. 

An organization needs to look into the 

number of leave days an individual 

employee is entitled for. In many 

organizations, there is a provision 

where balanced leaves get encashed. 

This will help in reducing the liability of 

the Organization. Leave rules should 

be as flexible as possible. Any day can 

be called a working day or holiday it is 

all a must taking into account the Cost 

Imperativeness. 

● The other area which can be given a 

thought before asking employees to 

quit is to look into the benefits in term 

of salary that organization is providing 

to the employees. Benefits like House 

Rent Allowance, Fixed House Rent 

Allowance, Conveyance, Telephone & 

Mobile Reimbursement, Performance 

Pay, Club Membership, Subsidies 

allowed etc. can be reduced. 

Performance Pay can be justified by 

saying that if an organization is not 

making profits, how can you perform 

because ultimately it is the Human 

Mr. Hari Nair is with Sona Koyo Steering Systems Limited, Gurgaon as its Vice President - H R. e-mail hari.nair69@gmail.com 


Resources whose contribution and 

performance that makes an 

organization perform. Promotions and 

Increments can be deferred till the 

situation comes to normal. 

● We need to look into the organization 

thoroughly and should try to find out 

the Non-Value added activities and 

Resources. Departments as well as 

organization needs to take this issue 

carefully and accordingly should either 

reallocate them or just ask them to 

leave. 

● If organization does not show any 

impact by taking above measures then 

the last option should be the Manpower 

Reduction. The objective of this 

manpower reduction is to gain some 

profit as organization is not in a position 

to even pay salary to their employees. 

It should also be done in a step wise 

process like 

● Identify the list of the employees with 

whom we do not have many liabilities. 

It should be done by taking the concern 

of the Department heads. 

● The practice which is being followed 

for the identification of the list is last in 

First Out. The person who has joined 

last in the department can be the first 

one to be moved out. 

● The record for Chronic Absenteeism 

can be taken into consideration 

because it shows how serious an 

employee is towards the responsibility/ 

work/job assigned to him. 

● Performance and Potential Measures 

of the employees can also be taken into 

account while downsizing is being 

followed in the organization. 

Employees need to be rated on certain 

parameters by the reporting officer, 

non-performers of the departments 

needs to be identified and accordingly 

the step should be taken. 

● While downsizing, we need to consider 

the Deadwoods of the organization. 

These are the people who are working 

with the organization since the 

inception of the organization. They 

must have shown the loyalty towards 

the organization but priority should be 

given to the identified cases in this 

category. 

This is not enough because when the 

above stated measures have taken, the left 

out employees must have lost their 

motivational level, they will not be that 

enthusiastic as they were earlier, they will 

not concentrate on their work rather they 

would spend their time discussing the 

above stated measures. In such situation, 

HR needs to be very powerful and effective 

they will have to increase the motivational 

level of the rest of the people. HR needs to 

plan and organize such programs which 

can help them reducing their stress 

because the left outs are very insecure 

about their job. There are certain ideas and 

suggestions which can help an organization 

to deal with left out employees. Employee 

Emotional Engagement, Employee 

Engagement and Involvement is what just 

works and make the organization going. 

They are as below: 

● We need to identify the list of the 

talented people or need to differentiate 

the performers from non performers 

and then talk to them on individual 

basis and can try to resolve their 

problems. 

● This is the time where we need to 

develop the talents from falling out of 

company bandwagon because this is 

the category which requires extra care 

and attention. 

● Need to develop people with cross 

functional skills because this is the 

situation where extra manpower can be 

rotated. This will help in making 

balance between remaining talents and 

deadwoods. 

● There should be a clear communication 

to the employees about all the 

measures that we are taking. A person 

from senior management needs to take 

session for the rest of the employees 

which can ensure them. Sessions 

pertaining to all these should be taken 

on a regular basis. 

Attributes of the Adaptive Challenge 

As there are two sides of a coin, there are 

both Positive as well as Negative aspects 

of Adaptive Challenge. 

The Positive Attributes include: 

● The ability for employees, departments 

and groups within an organization to 

collaborate effectively. 

● The ability for all employees at all levels 

to network with others outside the 

organization, gaining new sources of 

information and helpful perspective in 

the process. 


to innovate and Experiment without 

fear of "Reprisal". 


to be more committed to the 

responsibility, job assigned to them, 

even they are ready for the additional 

responsibility. 

The Negative Attributes include: 

● Credibility issue. 

● There are employees who are involved 

in the above mentioned process try to 

be Safe. They want to maintain Good 

Relations with all the employees across 

the organization. 

● Risk of Lip Services is there. 

● There must be a proper 

Communication channel, through 

which this process should proceed. 

● Employees are ambivalent about their 

efforts and sacrifices required of them. 

They often look to the senior people to 

take problems off their shoulders. 

What the Employer should do? 

In case of a downturn or slowdown, the 

organization impacted should take the 

following steps to mitigate the impact of 

downturn on its People Strength: 

● The management must inform 

employees about the current situation 

in the company through thee best and 

effective means called - 

Communication. 

● Keep employees abreast of the 

company's decisions and future plans 

through communications at all levels. 

Keep the morale and the trust of its 

people strength intact. 

● Avoid any change-in service and 

employment conditions but if 

necessary, give adequate notice to 

employees; change in HR policies is 

must to make it more vibrant and need 

based. 

Conclusion: 

Without such changes, any company today 

would falter. Indeed, getting people to do 

adaptive work is the mark of leadership in 

a competitive world. In order to make 

change happen, executives have to break 

a longstanding behavior pattern of their 

own as well as they need to change the 

minds and hearts of the people around 

them. Solutions to the Adaptive Challenges 

do not reside in the executive but in the 

collective intelligence of employees at all 

levels, who need to use one another as 

resources, often across boundaries, and 

learn their ways to the business. The 

organization needs to take step to cope up 

with the prevailing situation because these 

are the sensitive issues and management 

may feel resistance of the employees. In 

such situation, rather than protecting 

people from outside threats, they should 

be allowed to feel the pinch of reality in 

order to stimulate them to accept. Instead 

of maintaining the norms, management has 

to challenge "the way we do business" and 

help others distinguish immutable values 

from historical practices. 

 


E conomies 

have slowed 

down and 

companies have 

been looking for ways to cut down on 

spending and improve the bottom line. 

Whenever the thought of cost cutting comes 

to the mind of a company's decision makers, 

the people of the organizations get affected. 

Two major steps of cost cutting are to 

retrench people and to cut down on training 

cost. Cost cutting is taken as a step towards 

cost management. The important question 

here is that are they synonymous? Cost 

cutting is a deliberate reduction of resources 

without thinking about strategic 

consequences. This is done to achieve short 

term financial objectives. Firing of a part of 

the work force has a great de motivating 

and low morale impact on the 'left over' 

employees. The fear and insecurity in them 

will have an effect on their performance and 

mental health. These are some of the 

consequences of retrenching people that 

cannot be quantified in either the top level 

or the bottom level of a financial statement. 

Human resource is the main asset of the 

organisation. It is a pity that its value cannot 

be stated in the balance sheet. But 

whenever there is a crisis, the axe of cost 

cutting is on them. People need to know how 

to cut cost without damaging productivity. 

After the employees are fired, the few who 

are still retained in the organisation are 

expected to do wonders and increase the 

wealth of the organisation. The next axe of 

cost cutting is on their training needs which 

are taken as secondary and unnecessary 

expenses. In fact, we need to understand 

that this is the time when the employees 

need to be trained on new innovative 

techniques and concepts. This is the time 

Focus on Strategic Cost Management 

rather than Short Term Cost Cutting 

when their skills should be brushed up and 

upgraded in their functional area from 

different areas such as finance, marketing, 

operation management, information 

technology and human resource 

management. When it is the right time to 

sharpen their existing skills and to add on 

newer skills, companies consider training as 

an unimportant cash out flow and cut down 

on it. The strategic implication of training is 

overlooked. Training is extremely important 

to get more out of less. Consider the fact 

that this measure of cost cutting can 

generate more revenues exceeding what 

one could save through cost cutting. A 

proper cost benefit analysis of all the steps 

of cost cutting should be done before 

initiating cost cutting measures. Different 

training needs should be identified and 

ranked. One may find that training need of 

soft skill is not really necessary but training 

in a particular soft package in IT is needed 

for proper inventory management which will 

reduce the warehousing charges and 

blockage of capital. 

Rather than first targeting the human 

resources, the companies should consider 

cost management techniques which involve 

identification of those factors that are critical 

to the firm's success. It would be better for 

the companies to think and take steps that 

will give the benefit in the long run rather 

than those steps which focus on short run 

financial objectives. 

Some of the cost management practices 

with a strategic focus can be 

Sending employees on sabbatical 

during the recession period rather than 

retrenching them. 

Salary cut of all the employees rather 

– Dr. Barnali Chaklader 

than retrenching a part the work force 

and thus proportionately reducing the 

working hours. This will reduce the 

overhead cost and also now the fewer 

tasks due to less business can be 

shared by the work force. 

Improve operational control by proper 

costing techniques such as activity based 

management that accurately analyses 

cost by improving the tracing of costs to 

products or to individual customers. 

Reengineering. It is a process for 

creating competitive advantage in which 

the firm organizes its operating and 

management function, often with the 

results that the jobs are modified, 

combined or eliminated. 

Go for mass customization rather than 

uniqueness which will reduce the 

marketing and servicing cost. 

Implement Just in Time technique 

Identify the steps in the value chain that 

are not competitive and where costs can 

be reduced or which stage in the value 

chain can be outsourced. For example, 

if servicing is proving expensive to the 

firm then will the firm save costs by 

outsourcing it? 

It is better to keep in mind that overall growth 

of the organisation is the proper combination 

of four perspectives: financial measures, 

customer measures, internal business 

processing and learning and innovation. All 

these four perspectives combined together 

help in achieving the overall objective of the 

organisation. It is suggested that rather than 

cost cutting cost management should be 

focused. 

Dr. Barnali Chaklader is Assistant Professor (Acco & Fina.), Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad E-Mail: bchaklader@imt.edu 

 

BALANGIR CHAPTER 

BALANGIR CHAPTER IN ORISSA 

Mr Biswanath Babu, Life Member of 

Bhubaneswar Chapter who recently moved 

to Balangir in Orissa state is highly 

enthusiastic in starting a Chapter at 

Balangir. He invited professionals for a 

meeting on 20th February 2009 and 87 

participants attended the meeting. After he 

briefed them about the advantages of 

having a Chapter of National HRD Network, 

the participants were highly impressed and 

on the spot he received the consent letters 

for 18 Permanent Institutional Membership 

and 46 Individual Life Membership. They 

plan to do something unique for the 

development of professionalism in their area 

through NHRD Network. Permission is 

granted to start the Chapter and open their 

account with Punjab National Bank, Balangir 

The following members Founder office 

bearers for the Balangir Chapter: 

Mr. Biswanath Babu, Founder President 

Chairman and Programme Facilitator, 

Centre For Awakening Mind Power, Palace 

Line, Balangir, Odisha-767001, Mob 

No. 0-94370-49201 

Email: biswanathbabu@hotmail.com 

Mr. Subodh Nayak, Founder Secretary 

Sr. Agency Manager, ICICI Prudential, Life 

Insurance Co-LTD.Near UCO Bank, 

Balangir, Odisha-767001. Mob. No. 0- 

99370-12187 Email: 

subodh.nk@gmail.com 

Mr. Motilal Agrawala, Founder Treasurer 

Sr. Manager (Accounts), Bijayananda Cooperative 

Sugar Mills Ltd. Nilima Nilayam, 

Palace Line, Balangir, Odisha-767001. 

Mob. No. 0-94372-56144 

Email: motilal_agrawala@rediffmail.com 


Scent, Sex Appeal & HRD 

Ashort article in a recent issue of The 

Economist (December 20, 2008, page 

137*) set me thinking about sex appeal, 

teaching, training, and developing human 

resources. The title, "The scent of a man," 

and the subtitle, "To attract a woman by 

wearing scent, a man must first attract 

himself," were both rather intriguing. So I 

read on. The article is built around the 

results of a research project undertaken by 

Dr Craig Roberts of the University of 

Liverpool and his colleagues. 

One of the conclusions of the study was 

that changing the body odour with a 

deodorant or perfume can improve men's 

self-confidence. We've always known this; 

so there was no surprise in it. Another 

conclusion was that the improvement in 

self-confidence can be so high that women 

who watch them find them attractive even 

when those women don't smell the 

fragrance or know that the men are wearing 

one. Now this was amazing. 

A brief description of the experiment will 

help us make sense of this. As in these 

kinds of experiments, there were two equal 

sets of volunteers - all men. The men in 

one set were given an aerosol spray with 

fragrance and antimicrobial agents in it. 

The others were given an identical looking 

aerosol spray with neither fragrance nor 

antimicrobial ingredients in it. While the 

researchers did not know who was using 

genuine aerosols and who was using the 

dummy, obviously the volunteers 

themselves knew. The ones with the 

genuine stuff could smell the fragrance 

while spraying themselves; the others knew 

that their aerosol contained no fragrance, 

because the spray produced no scent at 

all nor did it reduce their body odour. None 

of the volunteers were told about the 

purpose of the experiment. During the 

experiment, which went on for a few days, 

all volunteers were videoed and 

photographed. 

Psychological tests showed that the 

volunteers who had used the genuine 

deodorant had improved their selfconfidence. 

The improvement was such 

that women noticed it. Women who were 

shown short silent videos of these men 

found the ones wearing the deodorant more 

attractive than the ones who had used the 

dummy aerosol. When still photographs of 

the same men were shown, however, the 

women did not show any such preference. 

It is obvious that those men's sex appeal 

lay not in their looks or indeed in the 

fragrance of the deodorant they were 

wearing but in their self-confidence that 

was signaled by the way they were sitting, 

walking, and generally holding themselves. 

So those ridiculously exaggerated 

deodorant and perfume ads are dead right 

after all. Perfumes and deodorants do 

enhance your sex appeal although the 

credit goes not to the expensive ingredients 

in them but to the confidence that is 

generated and supported by the fact that 

you are wearing a deodorant or using a 

mouthwash that is supposed to make you 

irresistible. 

We know very well that self-confidence 

helps us aim higher and reach higher. It 

unlocks our potential. What struck me was 

that our self-confidence, however 

generated, seems to transform the way 

others look at us and treat us. I was 

reminded of what Eliza Dolittle says in My 

Fair Lady, the film adaptation of Bernard 

Shaw's play, Pygmalion: "…, the difference 

between a lady and a flower girl is not how 

she behaves, but how she is treated." 

Others may find you sexy. Others may find 

you trustworthy. Others may find you 

competent. All because you are selfconfident. 

At least appear to them to be. 

You deliver more because others expect 

more of you. For me this is the most 

interesting takeaway from this experiment 

with scent and sex appeal. 

While the Economist article went on to 

theories of perfume use and the role of 

major histocompatibility complex in the way 

mammals choose mates, my mind was 

churned by a swirl of questions: If selfconfidence 

is so important, are we doing 

everything to enhance it in the young men 

and women who train or work with us? Or 

are we perhaps doing or saying things that 

could possibly dent their self-confidence 

and self-esteem? Do we tend to be 

hypercritical when we correct them with the 

– Dr. M M Monippally 

best of intentions? Are our expectations of 

them so high that nothing they do pleases 

us? Do we keep the bar so high that they 

are bound to fail? Do we have no eyes for 

anything good they do? 

I plead guilty. Recently, I graded a stack of 

decision reports written by my students of 

management, among the brightest in the 

country. I thought I had done my job 

meticulously and conscientiously because 

I had invested a lot of time to give every 

student-writer extensive comments on what 

was good and what went wrong where in 

their reports. When the anonymous written 

feedback from students came, there were 

thankfully many positive comments, but 

there was one comment that shook me. 

"Couldn't you find anything good in my 

report?" asked that student. 

That question is still nagging me. What 

have I done to him or her? It is indeed 

difficult to get excited about a paper that 

has multiple weaknesses - poor structure, 

inadequate data, weak analysis, and errorridden 

language. Most probably, this 

student's paper was one such. But was it 

that there was nothing at all good about 

the paper? Teacher comments are 

supposed to help learners hone their skills. 

But my comments seem to have dented 

his/her confidence in written 

communication. 

When a toddler takes a few steps and falls, 

we applaud her, we encourage her. We're 

delighted that she took a few steps. We 

don't ask her why she fell. We focus on her 

success. Taking a few steps is, in itself, no 

big deal; but for a child who could only lie 

on her back for more than a year, this is a 

great success. When however, we come 

to our young managers, trainees, and 

students, we tend to focus on their fall 

rather than on the few steps that they have 

managed to take successfully. We readily 

forget that we were toddlers once. 

*If you can't get hold of the print version, 

read the article online at: 

www.economist.com/science/Printer 

Friendly.cfm?story_id=12811377). The full 

research report on the study will appear in 

a forthcoming issue of the International 

Journal of Cosmetic Science. 

Dr. M M Monippally is Professor, Communications Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Email address: mpally@iimahd.ernet.in 

 


Introduction : 

Utility in diversity 

has been catching 

line since long and 

the globally India is 

known for it's 

diversity having 31 

states, 1618 

language, 6400 castes, 6 ethnic groups, 29 

major festivals. However in new age the 

organizations are operating on international 

scale and in global market the diversity of 

the work force gives them a competitive 

edge. The diversity is not the ethnicity but 

much broader than that. It is the human 

qualities that are different from our own and 

outside the group. Which they belong yet 

present in other individuals and group. 

According to Loden and Rosever in "work 

force America : managing employee 

diversity as a vital resource. 

Diversity defined : 

In the field of HRM it is defined as the 

"situation that arises when employees differ 

from each other in terms of various 

characteristics thus becoming more 

heterogenous. These diversity dimensions 

widely affect the performance, success, inter 

personal interactions & motivational level in 

organizational environment. 

Diversity not only include the race, grander, 

& physical disability but also difference in 

age, religion, culture, sexual orientation, 

gender identity, economic & social status. 

Work force diversity : 

Heterogenecity in work force can be in terms 

of innumerable variables ranging from country 

to country and in the same country from one 

part to another. The diversity of work force at 

one side add special richness while on other 

side poses special challenges as well. 

In last few years there is tremendous change 

in work force composition in India and young 

skilled professionals are replacing old, 

experienced workers. 

As the longetivity is growing, the number of 

old employee are increasing and big firm 

utilizes their talent, experience, in new 

venture to operate and develop. Diversity 

in Indian working context is some what more 

peculiar due to differences in regional and 

religion's origin, social ethos and cultural 

differences certain sections of the society 

enjoying preferential treatment, in 

workforce, guaranteed by constitution. 

Changing work force structure & work 

values: 

Diverse Workforce: Reasons 

and Challenges Ahead 

In the era of globalization and intense 

migration of work force in every area there 

is obvious tangible change in work values. 

The work force diversity had lead to complex 

organizational society, different levels of 

educational & developmental status as well 

as opportunities. This all in turn created a 

whole new set of employees expectations. 

Today's work force is moving towards. 

1. Quality of life rather than quantity. 

2. Participation rather authority. 

3. Individual rather organization. 

4. Decentralisation rather centralization 

5. Equity & justice for the employees. 

6. Diversity in work force. 

7. Personal conviction over dogma. 

Other Reasons for Changing value 

1. Changing ideas of employees. 

2. Increasing counterproductive behavior. 

3. Alienation from jobs. 

4. Reasons to opt for work force diversity : 

No decision is taken without reason and to 

have diverse work force there are also 

reasons which motivated companies 

whether small or large to opt for work force 

diversity. 

The workforce diversity is to include people 

within the organizational work force who are 

considered to be. 

1. Resource requirement :- 

Due to changing working environment the 

need for effective work force to handle the 

change was felt and companies can not 

afford to neglect the present day 

requirement and best available talent. 

2. Legal requirement :- 

Certain class of people are underprivileged 

and to bring them into social mainstream 

the Govt. makes their inclusion to govt. and 

non govt. organizations as mandatory 

requirement and gives certain percentage 

of quotas to be fulfilled. 

3. Marketing strategy : - 

In today's global economy the world has 

become small village being represented by 

people from all walks of life. Companies 

ensure that their services and products are 

designed to appeal such diverse customers 

base and smart companies hire people from 

different groups of population to be 

Dr. (Major) Shishir Basarkar is a Major from Indian Army based at Indore. E-Mail: shishirbasarkar@yahoo.co.in 

– Dr. (Major) Shishir Basarkar 

represented as marketing for their product / 

service. 

4. Social responsibility : - 

in diverse work force many beneficiaries are 

from group or society of people who are 

disadvantaged and to make then part of 

work force is a good exercise in social 

corporate responsibility 

5. Capacity building : - 

In 21st century's business environment the 

companies which are having competitive 

advantage in the market are having capacity 

to solve the problem effectively, rapidly 

adapt to new circumstances and readily 

identify new opportunities and quickly 

capitalize on them. This capacity can be 

measured by the range of knowledge. talent, 

experience, insight and imagination 

available in the organization's work force. 

6. Business communication strategy: - 

All companies are eyeing on growing 

diversity in the work force around like 

partners, customer, vendors etc. The 

business which are opting to have 

homogenous work force will likely to find 

themselves increasingly ineffective in their 

reaction to external environment & 

communication with it. 

Challenges in diversity management : 

1. How can diversity be effectively 

developed in the organization ?. 

2. How can everyone in diverse HR 

environment have sufficiently clear 

authority & responsibilities ?. 

3. How can diversity be brought into 

balance?. 

4. How can there be guanine democracy 

in working environment? 

5. How can global information & 

communication technologies work to 

every one equally ?. 

6. How can threat of emerging conflicts be 

reduced ?. 

7. How can shared values be analyzed and 

work upon ?. 

8. How can changing Status of woman be 

tackled ?. 

9. How can organized groupism be stopped 

from becoming more powerful ?. 

10. How can ethical considerations 

become more routinely incorporated 


among diverse HR population in the 

organization ? 

11. How job can be made sound and 

appealing to different types of workers. 

12. How can recruitment be effectively 

targeted to the underutilised groups of 

peoples. 

13. How cultural biases be overcome while 

interacting different groups. 

Consequences of mismanaged diversity : - 

If diversity is mismanaged then it costs 

money. efficiency & valuable time of the 

organization. It may lead to unhealthy 

interpersonal relations among people of 

different age, race, gender etc. Diversity 

mismanagement means non retention of 

talent, knowledge and skills in organization 

leading to loss of productivity, increased 

complaints & legal actions and increased 

HR turnover resulting in lost investments & 

training. 

Managing workforce Diversity : 

Managing diversity is defined as planning 

and implementing organizational system 

and practices to manage workforce so as to 

maximize it's potential advantages and 

minimize it's potential disadvantages. In 21st 

century the work force diversity 

management has become an integral part 

of the business specially international, 

multinational and global corporations. No 

company can afford to unnecessarily 

restricts its ability to attract and retain the 

very best of employees available. 

The golden rule is "Treat others as you want 

to be treated". 

According to Dr. Santigo Rodriguez, Director 

of Diversity for Microsoft "hire people who 

are different-knowing and valuing that they 

will change the way you do business. 

In order to manage diversity effectively 

and to its optimum following sets of 

actions are very useful : 

1. Keep honest relationship with every one 

in organization. 

2. Give fair treatment to all. 

3. Be daring to give negative feedback to 

someone who is culturally & ethnically 

different. 

4. Know the motivation level of each 

individual. 

5. Keep recognizing each member's 

achievement and their liking. 

6. Make various committees with diverse 

members to ensure fair & equal 

treatment. 

7. Ensure that opportunities for 

advancement in careers are accessible 

to every one. 

8. Take immediate action against 

nonethical actions & activities among 

different groups. 

9. Keep organizations policies same for 

every one and if they affect differently 

to different people then change them. 

10. When hire a new person orient him / 

her to the organizational culture & 

unwritten rules there in. 

11. Be receptive to criticising feedback from 

staff and give them serious views. They 

might be constructive in many ways. 

12. Whenever possible implement staff's 

suggestion for any improvement and 

recognize their valuable contribution. 

13. Make good efforts to meet affirmative 

action goals. 

What is more important same treatment 

or fair treatment ? 

It is a question which comes in every HR 

managers mind and many a times fair 

treatment is taken synonymous with "same 

treatment" but this is not so because with 

diverse staff when members have different 

skills, educational levels and understanding 

level the same treatment concept may create 

confusion and high level of misunderstanding 

because the 'same' for few may be felt as 

unfair. Hence more & more stress is given 

on fair treatment which is individualised and 

understood by every one in the organization 

fairly and equally and along with fair treatment 

manager should emphasise on affirmative 

actions to acknowledge that diversity works 

for every one. 

Benefits of diverse workforce: 

1. Employees feel more comfortable as 

they are getting more and more 

acceptance in diverse working 

atmosphere. 

2. Employees become capable of 

challenging their own conventions within 

a diverse environment as their 

experience is valued. 

3. Knowledge of diverse team create 

difference for the organization thus 

giving it an edge. 

4. The organization mirror the market 

scenario and work accordingly. 

5. Companies become able to anticipate 

the market changes. 

Conclusion : 

The world's two largest democracies India 

and united states are also world's most 

diverse societies. The demographics and 

structures of their diversities differ sustainably 

however the diversity in work force is being 

adapted by now almost all business whether 

small or large. The present global scenario 

in business makes diversity in organization 

a critical need to have different skills, 

knowledge, talent, experience and ideas and 

it is imperative for organization to know and 

tap the diversity potential. 

Because of constant challenging market 

requirements & customer's expectations 

there is constant pressure for improvement 

and that makes inclusion of diversity policies 

extremely beneficial. Today the 

organizations are making special work path 

for female employees to take break & return 

and also putting policies for having balanced 

gender representation. 

It is the need of the day to have diversity in 

the organization and to realize its potential 

and harness it accordingly if organization 

desires to stand in the international market 

with competitive advantage. 

AGRA CHAPTER 

ABV-IIITM, Gwalior in collaboration with Agra Chapter of National HRD Network hosted the first HRM Summit on January 24-25, 2009, 

in IIITM, Gwalior with the tagline "Talent Acquisition & Talent Management Trends in Knowledge Economy". 

The Program Committee included Prof S.G Deshmukh , Director, ABV-IIITM (Patron), Dr.Santossh Rangnekar and Dr. Manoj Patwardhan 

as Coordinators and Mr. Jai Prakash Sharma as secretary. 

The summit attracted a galaxy of eminent professionals which included Mr. Aquil Busrai, HR Executive Director HR, IBM & National 

President, National HRD Network; Dr. Upender Dhar, National President, ISTD & Director, Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; 

Dr Sharu Rangnekar, Guru of Indian management; Mr. C.S. Raju, General Manager (HR), Maruti Suzuki; K.K. Jain, Professor, IIM 

Indore; Mr. K.K. Muthu, HR Expert, New Delhi; Prof.Uma Shankar Vyanketesh, ITM Gwalior; Col C.K. Singh, President NHRD, Agra 

Chapter; Mr. Abhishekh Singhal, Alliance Manager, Planet English; Mr. Madan Srinivasan, HR Director-Transitions, HCL Technologies, 

Gurgaon; Mr. Avinash Mishra, GM (P&A) Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Malanpur; Mr. Manmohan Bhutani, VP, Fiserv, New Delhi, Mr. 

Rakhee Pundir, HR Consultant, Kritikal Security Scan, New Delhi; Mr. Prithvi Yadav, Director, GHSIMR, Kanpur; Mr. A.K. Verma 

(Synergy); Mr. Avnish Tiwari (Innovators) and Mr. V. Swarup (SRF) 

The summit was a grand success. 


Introduction: 

Competition is the key to survival and a 

proper mix of technology with human capital 

produces competitive edge. In-order to be 

competitive, organizations must improve 

and therefore have a business justification 

for implementing ERP systems. The 

business benefits of ERP include improved 

accessibility of information, real-time access 

to data across the organization, improved 

cycle time orders, decreased financial close 

time, reduced operating costs, and lowered 

inventory levels. Having understood benefits 

of an integrated system, ONGC decided to 

reengineer few of its core business 

activities in the late 90's. Some of the major 

motivations for streamlining and reengineering 

business processes are 

customer sophistication, deregulation, and 

competition on a global level. The challenge 

doesn't lie in automating traditional ways of 

doing work rather acceptability among the 

users emerges as a matter of prime concern. 

Resistance to change is common and 

inevitable during change processes and 

conquering mindset is the biggest challenge. 

What technology is capable of and may 

result in was the question of later part, 

instantly what matters is to change the mind 

set of the people. 

Re-engineering Human Capital: 

Unlike other organizations, affording 

technology was not an issue for the gigantic 

organization called ONGC. Whereas, 

principle obstacles in introducing change 

include the fear among employees that their 

jobs are endangered and that years of 

experience will account for nothing. To 

overcome these apprehensions, managers 

constantly communicate their plans and 

expectations. As the organization is an 

amalgamation of veterans, boomers, xers 

and nexters the strategies have to be 

carefully crafted. Change agents and HR 

champions continuously tried their level best 

to convince employees' to understand, reengineering 

with ERP enables organizations 

to be more responsive to volatile markets. 

Their job is not at stake rather it is an 

opportunity to equipped oneself for the 

global competition. The underlying principle 

behind this change is to survive through 

survival of the organization. 

No reengineering effort will succeed without 

reeducating and retraining the people who 

Systems Implementation: 

Leveraging Through Human Capital 

will ultimately work with the new process. 

User training is important as well as critical 

to ERP success and having understood 

the same company pours in substantial 

amount, for imparting training aimed at 

introducing, eliminating, modifying, directing, 

and guiding processes in such a way that 

all individuals and teams are equipped with 

the skills, knowledge and competences they 

require to undertake in future to handle 

demands of the new ERP system. 

Technological Transformation: 

ONGC has never been late in delivering 

business benefits from Information 

Technology. As far back in 1996 the 

company undertook 'Project KUBER' 

wherein it implemented SAP R/ 3, ERP 

module in order to support financial 

accounting and management accounting 

functions. SAP R/ 3 being a third generation 

set of highly integrated software modules 

perform common business functions based 

on multi-national leading practices. Thus 

financial accounting modules helps 

organizing the activities related to 

management accounting along with 

creating, maintaining and updating financial 

information, for external reporting. 

Thereafter in December 1999, the company 

started with Project SHRAMIK (System of 

Human Resource Automated Management 

Information for KAIZEN), where it 

redeployed SAP R/ 3 for automating majority 

of its HR functions including payroll 

administration. HR management, decision 

making and workforce development are 

among the most strategic areas and the 

process involved within is so timeconsuming 

that it was difficult to use these 

data for decision making. Therefore the 

automation was an attempt to address key 

issues in HRM through comprehensive 

process re-engineering and remodeling HR 

functions to make it more responsive. The 

module supported the activities related to 

HR management, payroll, time, benefits 

administration and labour management as 

well. Among intangible benefits the system 

emerged as blessing because it helps 

determining gap between current workforce 

profiles and future skill sets needs so that 

these skill sets can be developed which 

mean retaining internal candidates, 

acquiring expertise and outsourcing certain 

functions. In macro level the system is 

capable of short and long-term workforce 

development so that human capital can be 

recruited, developed, compensated and 

– Dr. P R K Raju and Mr. Antu Das 

retained to meet overall objectives of the 

organization. 

In order to extend further benefit to larger 

segment of workforce, company thereafter 

implemented SAMPARC (System for 

Automated Management of Personnel 

Activities, Reimbursements and Claims) a 

portal on SAP platform with employee selfservice 

system (ESS) functionality. It's an 

operational- level process which enables 

employees in filing of e-application related 

to various HR activities and helps them 

procuring position, status and placement 

information about several processes. 

Despite earlier implementations the 

company suffered a lack of availability of 

real-time information. And so was born Project 

ICE (Information for Consolidating and 

Efficiency). Other than integrating discrete 

domains the system provides a forum for 

extended application platform, permits the 

integration of Enterprise Services Architecture 

(ESA), unified business processes across 

technological boundaries, integrate 

applications, and access and edit simple 

information easily and in a structured manner. 

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/ 

en/88/166016f2841e45b81854febd76f3dd/ 

content.htmBy January 2005 project KUBER 

and SHRAMIK were also integrated with it. In 

terms of scope, number of end-users and SAP 

modules, project ICE is one of the largest ERP 

implementation projects in Asia and company 

has been successful in its proper utilization. 

Conclusions: 

Systems are not weapon for creating 

efficient managers or effective organizations 

unless accompanied by complementary 

assets such as new business processes, 

organizational culture, restoring values, 

welfare, trainings, far sightedness of the 

company, management behavior and so on. 

System literacy draws on both technical and 

behavioural approaches. The phase wise 

implementation reduces financial as well as 

cultural risk. In order to reap maximum 

benefits out of those systems much before 

implementation and using it, ONGC 

addresses the strategic issues related to 

expected business value from the systems; 

provision of appropriate complementary 

assets to use technology effectively; 

understanding business environment; 

reengineering human asset; creating 

infrastructure that is flexible enough to 

support changing organizational goals and; 

designing system that people can control, 

understand and use in a socially and 

ethically responsible manner. 

Dr. P R K Raju is Dy General Manager - HR with ONGC based at Kolkata. E-Mail: drrajuprk@yahoo.com 

Mr. Antu Das, MBA final yr student of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT, Kharagpur. E-Mail: antudas1@gmail.com 

 


HR Learning Perspective; The 

Monkeys & the Cap Seller Story 

– Prince Vijai. J, 

INTRODUCTION 

Organisations and businesses keep 

changing due to the dynamic nature of the 

business environment. In order to be a 

competent HR champion, we must learn 

new skills and acquire knowledge about 

emerging techniques. Learning is defined 

as the acquisition of skills and knowledge 

through study, practice or experience. In 

order to predict the behavior of people in 

organizations, we must have an 

understanding of the way in which people 

learn. This article examines various 

generations of learning principle through the 

well known story of the monkeys and the 

cap seller. 

THE MONKEYS AND THE CAP SELLER 

What's happened in the first generation? 

There was a cap seller. He went from town 

to town to sell caps. Sometimes he had to 

pass the forest. At night he kept his caps 

and slept under a tree. In the morning when 

he got up, his caps were missing. He looked 

here and there, and heard some noise and 

he looked up and saw, that the monkeys 

had taken his caps. The cap seller threw 

stones on the monkeys and the monkeys 

threw mangoes to protect themselves from 

the cap seller. At last the cap seller became 

frustrated and he took his cap and threw it 

on the grass. The monkeys also threw the 

caps on the grass. The cap seller took all 

the caps happily and went back to his town. 

What's happened in the next generation? 

After few years, the cap seller's son had 

taken the same job. He too passed the 

forest. At night he also kept his caps and 

slept under a tree. At morning he found that 

his caps were being missed. He understood 

that the monkeys were taken his caps. Now 

he knew the strategy to collect the caps from 

the monkeys because he had learnt it from 

his father's experience. So he did what his 

father had done. Lastly he took his cap and 

threw it on the grass. But this time one 

monkey climbed down the tree, took that 

cap, and also gave a slap on his cheek and 

said that they too were learned from their 

father's experience and he couldn't deceive 

us this time as like his father. At last the cap 

seller's son had gone to his town with empty 

hands. 

What's happened in the third generation? 

After some years from this incident, the cap 

seller's grand son had taken his family's 

routine job. At night he too passed the forest 

and kept his caps under a tree but he didn't 

sleep. Early morning monkeys climbed down 

to take his caps. This time the cap seller's 

grand son took one stick, beaten the 

monkeys and said that he too learned from 

his father and not to play with him. At last 

the monkeys climbed up the tree very sadly. 

Prince Vijai. J, is Research Scholar, IRSC, Hyderabad E-Mail: prince.vijai.j@gmail.com 

What's happened in the fourth 

generation? 

After many years the cap seller's great grand 

son had taken his family responsibility. At 

night he too passed the forest, kept his caps 

under a tree and didn't sleep, also was being 

waited for the monkeys' arrival to take his 

caps. But what happened this time, monkeys 

didn't come. Next morning, one monkey said 

when he was moved away from the tree that 

they had made him fool by not taking his 

caps. At last the cap seller's great grand son 

turned back to his town with a drowsy face. 

What's happened in the next generation? 

Think and develop the rest of the story. 

CONCLUSION 

We are being lived in the eight generation 

according to one research, so our learning 

style should be highly different from our 

traditional learning pattern. Hence the HR 

champions should think innovatively to bring 

changes in the organizational development 

context, which will yield fruitful results and 

provide win-win situation. I conclude that the 

principles that govern success remain the 

same; not the actions. So old solutions 

should not be repeated to deal with old 

problems, every solution has expiry date. 

Therefore HR champions should be in the 

look out for solutions in context with the 

latest techniques. 

 

Hyderabad Chapter Programs Calendar - March & April 2009 

Sl. No Date Time Venue Topic Speaker 

1. 05-03-09 6 PM HRD Hall Are you ready for 2020: Disruption Mr. Abhimanyu Jha, Beautiful Mind Group, Partner. 

that may change the face of HR 

2. 12-03-09 6 PM HRD Hall Philanthropy to Corporate Prof. Manas Ranjan Tripathy, ICFAI Business School. 

citizen ship – A Journey 

3. 19-03-09 6 PM HRD Hall Parivarthan of HR Role Mr. V. Sunder Rao, former VP HR, Saint Gobain. 

4. 26-03-09 6 PM HRD Hall The Basic Managerial Skills- Role Mr. B. Ekambaram, Manager HR, NCS Sugars Ltd. 

of front line Managers 

5. 02-04-09 6 PM HRD Hall Value of training and hire programme Mr. Vijay, V.P. Winzest Edutech Private Limited, 

6. 09-04-09 6 PM HRD Hall You make the Difference-The Dr.Kavitha Gudapati, Orgnizational Psychologist 

scope and impact of HR interventions 

7. 16-04-09 6 PM HRD Hall Management of Meetings Mr. Dharma Rao, Prof, HOD H R, ICBM 

8. 23-04-09 6 PM HRD Hall ROI in HRM Mr. K.Nagesh, Manager, HR, Parker Markwel 

9. 30-04-09 6 PM HRD Hall World Federalism Mr. K. Satyanarayana, Executive Director-NHRD 


Little Harry had 

managed to 

convince his 

teacher that his 

absence from 

school on the 

previous day was 

genuine. Mrs. 

Mehta managed to prepare an elaborate 

dinner in spite of the low ration as it was 

month ending. Mr. Raj managed to buy two 

tickets of the movie on the first day of 

release. 'Manage', is the word most 

commonly people manage to use in their 

daily routine. 

Managing or management is no more 

identified only with professionals but is a 

universal activity, as it is also a very common 

household word these days. In almost every 

context this word is handy. But for what ever 

reasons it is used, the importance of 

management or managing things, is crystal 

clear. Effective and efficient utilization of 

available resources to attain a specific target 

is nothing but management. The knowledge 

of the available resources; the knowledge 

of how to acquire these resources and then 

the knowledge of utilizing these resources 

efficiently are critical. Though Money, 

Materials, Machines and Men are the basic 

things that are to be managed, management 

of men is very crucial and challenging. But, 

to successfully manage things around us it 

is essential to practice the art of 

management right from within ourselves. 

For a satisfied living, managing one self is 

the first and foremost thing to be efficiently 

and effectively dealt with. A person who can 

manage himself effectively only can succeed 

in managing others. As goes the 42nd sloka 

of Chapter 3 in Bhagavad-Gita, 

"Indriyani parani adhurinadriyebhyah param 

manah Manustu para buddhirho buddeh 

partasu saha" 

(Sensory organs are more powerful than the 

physical body; the mind is more powerful 

than the sensory organs; Intellect is more 

powerful than the mind. Soul is a distant 

witness or observer, which is very delicate 

or subtle, yet the most powerful. Hence, 

control your mind with the strength of the 

soul.). 

A person enjoys emotional stability and is a 

better decision maker when he can regulate 

his mind which is very essential for self 

control. Hence, the art of managing 'our self' 

and to have self control is necessary before 

we manage other men. Through this article 

the various facets in the art of managing 

oneself is discussed. 

Managing habits: Habit Cultivation is both 

advantageous and disadvantageous. Habits 

should be developed for our healthy 

One Step Towards Success 

existence. Habits sometimes may land us 

in problems. Hence, it is always better that 

we are flexible with our habits and manage 

them according to the situation. 

Managing hobbies: Every individual has 

something as a personal interest and when 

we try to pursue it regularly in our leisure 

time it becomes our hobby. So the hobbies 

have to be managed properly so that they 

do not become the 'once upon a time 

activities' of our life. Moreover, hobbies 

always enrich and enlighten us with fresh 

energy and life. They help us in developing 

a world of our own where we can find solace 

from the hustle bustle of the competitive life. 

Hence, manage to spare some time for 

pursuing hobbies. 

Managing Behavior: Immense pleasure is 

experienced when people try to follow in our 

foot steps towards satisfaction and 

fulfillment. Before we study and analyze the 

behavior of the people to be managed at 

our work place it is very essential and helpful 

if we study and assess our own self and 

bring about the required changes in 

ourselves, so that we set an example to 

people at our work. We then can easily 

influence and manage the human resources 

at work place too. 

Managing time: Time management is 

'managing the time available at our disposal 

effectively'. Or rather, as it is not possible to 

manage the availability of time as per our 

requirement, I think it is better we think on 

how we manage ourselves to the time 

available. Forecasting the possible 

obstacles and planning the day to day 

activities will surely help us in managing 

ourselves to time and successfully complete 

all our activities of the day with satisfaction. 

Managing energies: Our physical, mental 

and spiritual energies should be managed 

in most productive way so that we attain our 

goals effectively. When we learn to manage 

our energies we can also efficiently manage 

the time at our disposal because we will be 

brisk at our thoughts and actions. 

Managing routine activities: As goes the 

moral of an old story "Never trust a person's 

intention unless he himself stoops to do the 

job", it is always better to see that we 

manage to do our personal works ourselves 

as far as possible to avoid any delay at 

workplace. A person who depends on 

somebody to perform his duties will never 

do them in time or as intended. Like, driving 

our own car or vehicle to the workplace 

instead of depending on a driver assures 

that we reach our destination in time. If we 

stop depending on our family members for 

small things which we can manage to do on 

our own, it helps to create a sharing and 

caring atmosphere at home too. 

Ms. B V Sandhya vani is faculty at Alluri Institute of Management Sciences, Hanamkonda. E-Mail: svksm@yahoo.com 

– B V Sandhya Vani 

Managing Self Discipline: Discipline is one 

of the values which set most of the things 

right in our life. Maintain self discipline 

before we expect it in somebody else. The 

value system that is to be spread across 

our workplace should be originating from 

within us. 

Managing emotions: It is very essential to 

manage our emotions as per the situation 

and should take care that our personal 

emotions do not affect our work 

atmosphere. Especially, self sympathy is a 

negative emotion which would cause 

hindrance to our progress. 

Managing Conflict: Intrapersonal conflicts 

are as common as decision making in a 

person's life. The pros and cons of a 

decision are to be weighed and there exists 

a conflict when the act to be performed, 

clashes with our personal feelings or values. 

It is essential to manage these intrapersonal 

conflicts effectively to decide on 'to do or 

not to do, what to do, where to do, how to 

do, who is to do'. Anywhere and everywhere 

an internal conflict may arise and we have 

to effectively decide on these questions by 

resolving this conflict within us. 

Managing Stress: Stress is a part of 

everybody's life in the modern days. The 

competitive environment is creating stress 

on everybody. This, on the long run leads 

to many disastrous actions. Even school 

children are not an exception now. They 

undergo stress because of the competition 

they are forced to face. The competitive 

environment forces the parents and the 

teachers to create stress on the students. 

Hence, we should learn to manage stress 

effectively by practicing Yoga or meditation, 

listening to music, spending time on our 

hobbies etc which are some of the methods 

available for easily reducing stress. By 

managing stress, decision making at work 

place also is effective. 

Thus, every individual to work effectively has 

to start practicing the art of managing from 

within him and then move on to manage 

others. Guiding and leading ourselves 

towards positiveness by self assessment 

and practicing self control only will help us 

to successfully guide and lead others. When 

both the managers and the people to be 

managed, start managing themselves then 

the people management process becomes 

very simple. When we are well managed 

human beings, we can attain self 

satisfaction. Self satisfaction fills us with 

positive energy and leads us towards 

success. Let us try to practice this art of self 

management as one of the steps towards 

success. 

 


Strategy For Effective 

Time Management 

One of the important aspects involved 

in Organisational Dynamics is 

managing time effectively and efficiently. 

When the people of working class wanted 

to manage their time effectively, the normal 

problem faced by them is the stress in 

managing time. When the people are 

trapped in this stress they will lose in their 

effectiveness and because of it the 

productivity will also be affected. The real 

problem is that they could not understand 

and recognize this stress which is within 

them. Here I have referred many books and 

special journals for the time management 

and I would like to present the following ten 

steps, as tips to reduce stress and improve 

productivity. These following steps are used 

as a check list for their effective utilisation 

of their time in working spot. These steps 

also help them to reduce their stress and 

reclaim their personal life. By managing their 

time more wisely, they can minimize stress 

and improve their quality of life also. 

Plan each day 

Planning is the primary functional of 

Management. Planning your day can help 

you accomplish more and feel more in 

control of your life. Write a to-do list, putting 

the most important tasks at the top. Keep a 

schedule of your daily activities to minimize 

conflicts and last-minute rushes. 

Evaluate how you're spending your time. 

This is a key strategy for effective time 

management. Keep a diary of everything 

you do for three days to determine how 

you're spending your time. Look for time that 

can be used more wisely. For example, 

could you take a bus or train to work and 

use the commute to catch up on reading? If 

so, you could free up some time to exercise 

or spend with family or friends. This strategy 

also reduces the stress associated with 

queuing and tedious tasks. 

Motivation to "get going" 

Motivation is very important to success. 

Focus on your long term goals: make sure 

these are still important to you. Remind 

yourself on the benefits you expect. Set 

short term targets that you can manage, so 

that you get frequent tastes of success. If 

you do not feel motivated, then be active in 

finding a source of motivation or inspiration. 

Ordering your tasks. 

Time-consuming but relatively unimportant 

tasks can consume a lot of your day. 

Prioritizing tasks will ensure that you spend 

your time and energy on those that are truly 

important to you. 

Time tasks 

Time management requires you to know 

how long something takes. This is easier if 

you break a larger project down into smaller 

tasks. Often, one or two of these will take 

longer than you expect. It may be aspects 

of starting and finishing tasks that take 

longer than expected. Plan for all stages, 

and find out how much time you need to 

allocate for each stage. 

Cost your time 

Work out whether the amount of time you 

spend on each aspect of a task is "costeffective". 

Usually the return decreases after 

a certain point. Academic work is hard to 

get perfect, as there is not usually a single 

right answer. If you gain satisfaction from 

the additional study time, that is fine, as long 

as you have calculated what you are giving 

up in exchange. 

Delegate to others 

Identify what lies beneath a reluctance to 

delegate. For example, do you distrust 

others to do the job well? If so, what are the 

effects of this on your own time 

management, stress levels and personal 

efficiency? What would be the benefits to 

you and to others if you delegated more? 

Could you find a compromise where you 

share some tasks in the shorter term? 

Ask for help 

Recognize your own limits, support services 

are set up because it is expected that people 

will need help. Asking friends and colleagues 

for help can contribute to their own personal 

development too. It can build their self 

esteem and problem solving skills. It gives 

them an opportunity to be helpful, which they 

may value. 

– Dr. I Narsis 

Basic starting strategy 

Use a basic starting strategy such as 

brainstorming or writing a list. Start with what 

you can do and work from there. Often a 

problem arises when we focus too much on 

what the end product should be rather than 

building from what we already know. Start 

small, branch out, the idea will come. 

Plan activities out in a logical order 

A diary is an essential life tool. Some people 

prefer electronic organizers. Check it at least 

three times a day. Develop the habit of 

writing everything in it to avoid double 

booking. Enter all targets. Enter deadlines 

on the date of the deadline and the day you 

want to start work on that assignment. Write 

a list of all the tasks you need to undertake 

during the day. Rewrite the list, grouping the 

activities by place. Allow sufficient time to 

move from one place to another. Write the 

locations in your diary. 

Conclusion 

Time management is about getting more 

value out of your time and using it to improve 

the quality of your life. It is not just managing 

your time; it is managing about one relation 

to time. Effective time management is the 

basis of good personal and professional 

habits. Effective time management requires 

us to actively categorize our priorities. This 

brings about peace and balance to our life. 

It is not necessarily about working hard and 

for long hours it is all about how smartly you 

finish your work. It is about getting organized 

and being aware of what is important to your 

work and for your success. It is simply based 

on your attitude and the choices you make. 

Hence, developing positive attitudes 

towards time management improves 

techniques and processes effectively for 

better results. 

"Time is the scarcest resource of the 

manager; If it is not managed, nothing else 

can be managed."- Peter F. Drucker 

When I am getting ready to reason with a 

man, I spend one-third of my time thinking 

about myself and what I am going to say 

and two-thirds about him and what he is 

going to say. - Abraham Lincoln 

Dr. I Narsis is Professor and Coordinator, Dept. of Commerce. Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirappalli E-Mail: E-mail: narsis_8@yahoo.co.in 

 


"If a man hasn't 

discovered 

something he will 

die for, he is not 

fit to live". 

- Martin Luther 

People differ not 

only in their ability 

to do but also in 

what they 'love to 

do'. This 'love to do 

or will to do' is the motivation and it depends 

upon the strength of the motives. Hence 

motivation is an internal feeling, which results 

in persistent behavior directed towards a 

particular goal. People who are motivated are 

driven by a desire to achieve the goal that 

they perceive as having value to them. 

Performance is a combination of 'will' and 

'skill'. Skill we all possess but what about 

'the will'? The will makes all the difference 

& that is what motivation is. Since God has 

created individual differences in us, we need 

'different for different folks' and a same set 

of rules cannot apply to all the individuals. 

In order to understand our people better we 

need to understand their needs well. Once 

we understand our employees well; probably 

our efforts to understand them and motivate 

them will bear fruits. While money motivates 

some, for others recognition, advancement 

and opportunities for growth may be the 

motivator. 

HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR TEAM 

Give people the work they love. Giving your 

employees the jobs ideally meant for them 

shall enable them to derive more job 

satisfaction. Sense of accomplishment gives 

more joy and happiness. Happiness 

motivates them to give their best and to do 

still better. Apart from earning an income, 

the need to feel wanted and be productive, 

to take up challenges, to satisfy one's 

creative urge and to be involved in jobs that 

we love and enjoy are some other motivating 

factors for an individual in a job. 

When people work to satisfy an inner urge 

they may carry on till they succeed, 

irrespective of how long it takes. 

Take care of their needs well. You cannot 

expect to see sense of belongingness in 

your people unless you show the same for 

them. One common key factor in all 

successful companies is the respect, dignity 

and love with which they treat their people. 

They treat their employees not as pawns 

but as esteemed partners. 

See how you can reduce stress and 

distractions from your people's lives by 

reducing their personal work. Organize 

centrally the payment of employees' phone, 

electricity and other personal bills and other 

such issues. Take organization to be a big 

family umbrella where people can come 

together to mutually help each other in 

solving any personal and official problems. 

Motivation: 

the key to excellence 

See to it that you do not compartmentalize 

and specialize so much within your 

organization that individual members are 

excluded from contributing to the larger 

vision. This apart from bringing down the 

stress level of the employees shall improve 

the creativity and thinking skills of the 

employees in a practical way. 

Appreciate them more often even for small 

things. Human beings need love and 

appreciation. Punishment cannot make a 

person's attitude positive. In most of the 

organizations the human need for 

appreciation is grossly underestimated. 

Most of the people starve for appreciation 

and it kills both their motivation and 

creativity. People should be given an 

environment where they can enjoy their 

contribution more than their position in the 

hierarchy. They should always be caught 

doing the right things and be appreciated 

for the same there and then and this should 

be done as often as is possible. Small doses 

of appreciation at regular short intervals are 

more effective than waiting for a real great 

occasion or for the farewell day to arrive. 

Foster transparency in official dealings. This 

is the least any employee would expect., 

The fastest and the surest way of killing 

motivation in people is by showing them that 

in the eyes of the management, some are 

more equal than them. 

An employee should be given a feeling that 

even if there is an inequality somewhere, 

he can discuss it very freely with an open 

mind. In fact in many organizations the one, 

who is getting the feeling of inequality, will 

not care to discuss it because of the highheadedness 

of his superiors; least they may 

further spoil his career as a punishment for 

pointing out their faults. 

No one would like to work sincerely for an 

organization where inequality prevails and 

no organization can afford to get rid of these 

inequalities if an employee pointing these 

out receives not solace but further wrath. 

Such an employee would spend more 

energy finding a new job than on 

concentrating on the present one. 

Keep asking people sincerely, if they are 

happy and are finding the environment 

impartial, caring and loving. 

Appraise people justly. Most of the 

organizations today talk of teamwork but 

assess people only on their individual efforts. 

However, the fact remains that whatever you 

don't assess or motivate a person for shall 

tend to receive the last priority. 

– Sandhya Mehta 

Often organizations appraise employees biannually 

or annually, on one particular day. 

This makes employees work sincerely 

towards the last few weeks only. People 

appraising employees also cannot get rid 

of their prejudices and impressions formed 

completely in that small period. Man too is 

not like a log of wood but more like a flowing 

river, he keeps changing. 

Appraising a person's performance on daily 

or weekly basis not only can give a more 

comprehensive picture of the employee's 

performance, it can also make people strive 

for goals very single working hour of the year 

developing a habit of constantly utilizing their 

time effectively, in the process. With this 

approach the tendency to appraise people 

on stray incidents, prejudices and biases too 

gets taken care of to a great extent. Hence 

let there be formatted diaries and not forms 

for appraisals. 

The system of instant appreciation for 

achievement of goals, innovative ideas, 

sense of oneness, or for high level of 

commitment to corporate values can keep 

the motivation level of employees very high. 

Communicate low performance level in 

private to the person concerned. Instead of 

saying that the other person could not 

perform well, say that it is not up to his own 

usual standards. Sit with the person. Find 

out the reasons for the low performance and 

identify ways and means of overcoming the 

same and developing strategies for 

improvement. Show empathy while doing 

so. The person should get the feeling that it 

is his performance during a particular time 

period that is being evaluated as low and 

not his real worth as a person. 

Help people in identifying their deepest 

desires and how these could be dovetailed 

with the needs of the society as well as with 

the goals and purposes of the organization 

for their mutual fulfillment. Trust that each 

of your people is born to do great things, 

convince him of the same and ensure that 

you facilitate him in doing precisely the 

same. Once you know the feelings, desires, 

needs and temperament of the individual 

people, it becomes much easier to adapt 

your strategies accordingly in order to find 

the right slot for each one of them and to 

inspire them to motivate themselves 

effectively. 

While building teams assess the qualities, 

skills required for accomplishment of tasks 

assigned to them. Search for the right kind 

Ms. Sandhya Mehta (PhD Scholar) is Asst. Prof. Guru Nanak Institute of Mgt & Technology, Ludhiana. E-Mail: mehta_sandhya@yahoo.com 


of people and build teams in such a way 

that a member's weakness in a particular 

area gets offset by the other member (s)' 

strength in it. 

Lead people from front. Find out why you 

yourself feel motivated to accomplish the 

present goal. Employees should see their 

leader as a part of their team, not as a 

coward sitting comfortably in his cozy 

chamber who is merely passing on difficult 

instructions to them without trying to 

understand their difficulties or without caring 

to provide them the necessary assistance 

and infrastructure for carrying out the work. 

Develop a culture where people value their 

contribution more than their hierarchical 

position in the organization. To be truly 

motivated one needs constant appreciation 

for achievements. A label signifying the 

hierarchical status falls too short in providing 

the same. 

Some practical issues in motivation 

A manager may adopt positive or negative 

motivators to keep his team motivated but 

despite all efforts he may not have a fully 

motivated team and hence may not be able 

to achieve the desired results. Some of these 

issues which he may encounter in his day to 

day official dealing with people may be: 

More money being offered by the 

competitor: This may happen many a 

PUNE CHAPTER 

Pune22nd November'2008.At a time when news 

about employee lay-offs is hitting headlines, 

industry experts believe that this situation can 

be viewed as a blessing in disguise.Utilising this 

period as an opportunity to reasses one's long 

term career goals will help smoothen the 

journey.Similar opinions and some common HR 

concerns during the recesion period were voiced 

out by the eminent industry leaders during a day 

long conference in Pune as pat of the Annual 

HRD conference.A day long annual conference 

organised by National Human Resource 

Development (NHRD) Pune chapter brought 

smiles to the delegate companies and 

participants from the HR industry as the panel 

comprising of Dr Ganesh Natarajan - CEO 

Zensar Technologies and Chairman NASSCOM, 

Mr Deepak Ghaisas - Vice- Chairman and 

Director ;I-flex solutions ltd, Ms Anooba Kini, HR 

Head Future Money and Mr Pradeep Bhargava 

- Managing Director - Cummins Generator 

Technologies India Ltd. clearly indicated that 

good companies which have their value 

propositions in place will continue to do well and 

tough times do not last but tough people do. 

Taking forward the panel discussion Dr. 

Natarajan put emphasis on the fact that in trying 

times the role of HR becomes all the more crucial 

and the most important aspect is to understand, 

respect and listen to your work force. Elaborating 

further Mr. Pradeep Bhargava of Cummins said 

that in past few years people have seen 

unexpected growth across all quarters and that 

has raised the aspirations of the people. 

Employers and employees got pampered and 

that is the reason things are looking negative 

now, but it is not all that bad. 

Ms Annoba Kini Head Human Resources -Future 

Money laid more stress on the relationship aspect 

times that the competitor firm may offer more 

money to an equally qualified employee. In 

such a situation, it is the role of the manager 

to counsel his subordinates and share with 

them the rationale behind the salary 

structure and at the same time ensures that 

competitive salary along with good work 

culture one provided to the employees. 

The senior worker who does not wish to 

work: The employee who spends a 

considerable amount of time in the 

organization shall have to be kept motivated 

with enriching job assignment wherein he 

can contribute and the organization can 

benefit from his varied experience. Placing 

a senior employee at the same level as a 

fresh one in terms of job responsibilities may 

be very demotivating for him and hence he 

may loose the desire and the will to put in 

his/her best efforts. 

The junior employees employed on 

higher salary: Depending on the 

organizational needs and requirements at 

time a junior 'specialist' may have to be 

appointed. He may not have many years to 

his credit but may be from a 'highly 

specialized' field; hence it may be 

organizational compulsion to recruit him on 

higher salary. The senior employee under 

such circumstances shall have to be 

involved in such decisions and should be 

made to understand the rationale behind 

such decisions. 

in trying times and slowdown phase. Taking the 

issue of layoffs and salary cuts forward, she said 

that all organizations go through this phase but 

important aspect is the manner in which HR tackles 

the issue of lay-offs and salary cuts. Smart sizing 

and not downsizing should be the core of any HR 

activity in the times of recession. 

The panel clearly mentioned that HR should play 

the role of a strategic partner irrespective of the 

size of the company specifically during recession. 

Its time to look at opportunities for strengthening 

bonds with your employees and recession is more 

of an opportunity for the HR in employee relations 

than a challenge as being presented currently to 

the industry and the academia. 

Other distinguished speakers for the annual NHRD 

conference were Dr. Uma Ganesh -CEO Global 

Talent Track, Ranjan Sinha - CEO and Chairman 

Summit HR India, Priti Rao - Global Services and 

IT Dell International; Pavan Sriram -AVP Sales - 

Global Talent Metrics, Kavita Kulkarni - Head HR 

Pune and Head HR for SI and ES Infosys 

Technologies Ltd. and Bhaskar Das - Head HR 

Cognizant Technologies Solutions. 

The annual conference served as a platform for 

exchange of ideas, experiences, insights and 

perspectives from the distinguished leaders and 

from across corporate India and the academic 

world. The theme for the conference NXG - Next 

Generation HR was rightly picked up as the 

members of NHRD Pune chapter have been 

consciously moving beyond looking at just the 

immediate challenges that the Indian Industry is 

dealing with and instead look at a future that all of 

are going to be a part of and see how the HR 

professionals can play a more proactive and 

impactful role in shaping the future. Highlight of the 

annual conference was the award ceremony by 

NHRD. 

Participating academic institutions were Indira 

The worker who complains that "it's only 

words" and nothing more: In some 

circumstances the worker may feel that 

words of appreciation are not sufficient to 

keep them motivated because they are 

seldom accompanied with money gains. 

Under such circumstances, such people 

shall have to be identified and their problems 

need to be addressed and discussed with 

them. Providing opportunities for training, 

learning and growth can help under such 

cases. 

A boss who seldom appreciates: A 

subordinate may have a boss who does 

doing but ensure that everything goes under 

his/her signatures. It can be a frustrating 

situation but one can help oneself by staying 

self motivated and using one's own goals 

as the motivators. 

Conclusion 

Self-motivation is the best way to stay 

motivated and pursue one's goals. There 

shall never be a perfect set of situations or 

circumstances hence we should try to keep 

our morale high under all set of 

circumstances. Think big, dream big, and 

prepare yourself to face adversities, have 

faith in your capabilities and have faith in 

God. Remember, games can't be won 

unless they are played, and prayers can't 

be answered unless they are prayed. 

 

Group, IBS, Sadhana Group, Bharatiya 

Vidyapeeth and the Vaikunta Group. Participating 

Corporate partners were Zensar Technologies, 

WNS and Suzlon. The award for the best case 

study report went to Bharatiya Vidyapeeth for their 

study on effectiveness of Training Programs in 

collaboration with Suzlon. 

The speakers addressed the forum which 

comprised of participants from a diverse group of 

Indian and Global corporations on critical HR 

issues ranging from the role of HR in current trying 

times to Human Resource outsourcing and the 

role of Public Private Partnerships in creating 

Talent for Corporate India. Over 30 companies 

participated in the annual conference from all over 

India. 

According the President NHRD Pune Chapter, Ms 

Prameela Kalive who is also VP and Global HR 

head for Zensar Technologies; "We at the chapter 

see an opportunity for us to play a critical role in 

bringing together the various stakeholders of 

Corporate India - the Industry which will continue 

to be the prime mover for growth, the talent 

ecosystem which is and will be the backbone for 

Industry and the government and public enterprise 

which have a great role to play as enablers, 

facilitators and catalysts." HR fraternity has a 

critical and impactful role to play in partnering with 

business in these trying and uncertain times. So 

while the flood lights are all focused on the CFOs 

and CIOs, the NHRD Pune Chapter came up with 

this annual conference to be able to go back to 

the Business Leaders and tell them (not ask them) 

to wait as this phenomenon is not just about 

toplines and bottomlines, its about people who 

are core to whatever business the company is 

into .So the way top bosses react now in these 

times can go a long way in shaping the future of 

the organization-from HR perspective there is a 

great opportunity in the form of a serious 

challenges. 


Municipal School to Managers 

Recently I got an invitation from Mahesh 

Ramalingam,Director and Regional Head of 

Talent Acquisition, South Asia, Thomson 

Reuters about the 1995 and students of 

Municipal Schools in an around 

Gummudipoondi - nearly 15 schools - for 

acknowledging these Schools contribution 

in shaping their careers and I must be 

present for the function. I could not make it, 

but he shared the success stories of most 

of them who started as blue collar workers 

in Thapar DuPont, an American Multi 

National company. Nearly 250 of them 

joined as workers and almost all of them 

have become Managers, entrepreneurs and 

have broken the myth that college degrees 

and professional qualifications are 

incidental. Yes all these 250 plus blue collar 

beginners have added rubber stamps, but 

chose a growth route different from many 

others. 

Difficult Social Economic back ground 

and now spread over globally in different 

roles. 

In view of family situation, poverty or failure 

in schools, chose blue collar jobs and by 

pure intrinsic drive and the exposure in 

DuPont - have become senior leaders in 

organizations in India, US, Middle East, 

Canada and some are running their own 

enterprise. They are in HR, Supply Chain, 

Safety, and Production and have no regular 

MBA's or Engineering degrees. 

It is just 14 years after passing 12th std, 

and today they are heroes. I just picked 

some names at random and chose to write 

about two of the blue collar beginners - one 

who stayed in the same organization (Now 

taken over by Sriram Fibres) and another 

who resigned. 

A sample of the 250 and the roles played 

In the words of Mr Sudhakar - About Me 

I am Sudhakar born and brought in a small 

village called Paranambedu, it is 45 Kms 

away from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Currently 

working as Team Leader -Materials (Supply 

Chain) for SRF Limited at Gummudipoondi 

Unit. 

At present this unit operates at the turn over 

of Rs.250 Crores per Year and I am 

responsible for the entire raw material 

procurement from abroad as well as India 

and taking care the customer dispatches and 

maintaining the stores and spares as per 

the business requirements as well as in 

compliance with the statutory requirements 

(i.e. Central Excise, Customs and sales tax 

etc..,). 

About my family 

I have brought in a joint family culture where 

my father has 6 younger brothers and all 

are living together in the same house. My 

Father is a Farmer and mother is a Home 

Manager and I have one elder sister and 

elder brother. Both of them got married. My 

brother is an Advocate. 

We studied in the municipal school located 

in my village till 5th standard. I have 

completed my 10th standard in the 

Government Boys High school at 

Kavaraipettai and it 3 Kms away from my 

house and I had to go by walk everyday. 

Then I had studied in Government boy's 

higher secondary school at Ponneri. It is 15 

Kms away from my house. I used to go by 

bicycle up to Kavaraipettai railway station 

and then catch the train to Ponneri. 

My professional career (Joined as Learner) 

After completion of 12th Standard in 1994, 

I had to take care of the agriculture along 

with my father as he fell sick. It was a very 

memorable period in my life. I did not find it 

difficulty as I used to spend some time every 

day along with my father in the agriculture 

field. I am the one who drove the tractor at 

the age of 8 years. This could have not been 

possible with out my father's support, 

motivation and the liberty. 

Though it was the collective decision taken 

not to continue the study, but I felt that I 

missed something the life by discontinuing 

the studies. Over a period of one year, my 

parents were also felt in the same way telling 

me that we have spoiled life by discontinuing 

studies. 

That was the time, Dec'1995; I had an 

opportunity to attend the entrance exam for 

the selection of Learners Training Program 

conducted by the big MNC called Thapar 

DuPont Limited. Who assured the job after 

successful completion of two years training? 

I got selected in the exam. 

A call letter came on 2nd Jan'1996 saying 

about my two years training program at 

NTTF Dharwad (Karnataka) and asking me 

Zero to Heroes 

– S. Deenadayalan 

to report on 6th Jan'1996 at Madras central 

railway station. 

As we are living in small village and none of 

our family members were aware about 

industrial atmosphere and its culture / 

background. Initially my parents were 

hesitating in sending me to the training 

program. 

After successful completion of two years 

training at NTTF (Dharwad) and PSG 

(Coimbatore), I was moved to manufacturing 

dept and the training not only provided me 

the employment but contextual employability 

Challenges faced:- 

First of all it was a great challenge form e to 

stay away from my family almost 2 years. 

During my on the training program at site, I 

was wondering that as to how to prove or 

get noticed for my good work among the 

200 people. 

During the commissioning of the plant in 

1998, there was a function at Hotel 

Connemara (Chennai) and circular by the 

director saying that except 11 trainees all of 

them had to come to Hotel for the function 

and I am one among the 11 people list. 

Though I felt bad for not calling me to the 

star hotel, it was a pride that I got noticed. 

Then, I moved to take care of MIS, i.e. daily 

reports, monthly reports. During that time 

there was a pressure in implementing ERP 

system and three of us got selected to attend 

the training program (conducted by DuPont 

Singapore) and taking care of Production 

planning module in ERP system called SAP 

R3. 

In Jan'2001, I got selected for the Shift 

Leader position through internal selection 

process. This selection has three tier 

screening process. Till Sep'2005, I was 

taking care of entire shift operation in my 

shift and responsible for QCDSM. 

Mr. S. Deenadayalan, CEO and Architect - Organizational Capability Centre for Excellence in Organization, Bangalore deen@exploreceo.com, 

www.exploreceo.com 


Then I was moved to another challenging 

area called Supply Chain. Stepping in to the 

non manufacturing…, reporting to a Chief 

Manager Supply Chain. 

This was really tough time for me to 

implement the TQM practice to non 

manufacturing, after a struggle of six 

months; people started tasting the result of 

TQM way daily management. Then in 

April'2006, I have promoted as senior 

executive from staff. 

During Nov'2006, there were frequent review 

took place with me by Plant Head on the 

daily management, understanding of the 

process and my confidence level. 

Some times I was wondering why I am 

cornered and tough targets are given. At last 

in end of Dec'2006, again Plant Head called 

and asked me about the confidence level in 

leading the supply and now no looking back. 

Since Jan'2007, I am heading the Supply 

Chain function. It is really a challenging job 

to me. I am also unit coordinator for CSR 

activity which I love to do and the 

responsibility for statutory approval of new 

Projects in addition to the Supply Chin 

management. 

Added to My education: 

After joining the training program, I have 

completed two years course in technical 

skills at NTTF and PSG, during the 

employment I have completed BBA 

(Bachelor of Business administration) and I 

am undergoing MBA. 

About my growth 

I have started my career as learner and 

become a blue collar employee in 1998 and 

become a staff grade in 2001 and moved to 

commercial area in 2005 and become a 

senior executive in 2006 and become a 

Manager and Head Supply chain in 2007. 

My advice to the students of municipal 

school students 

I always tell people to be present to the 

present and aim to achieve great goals in 

near future. To do so, every one has to work 

hard and hard. The more you work hard and 

do challenging job you will enjoy the fruitful 

results. Visualize your future and work 

towards that! 

To have a big building the foundation must 

be strong enough! Same like to grow up and 

soar to new heights one must have good 

attitude and knowledge base!! 

I have married in 2005 and have twin 

daughters. 

If one has read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad 

- Robert Kiyosaki with Sharon Lechter, this 

article can be connected to our ancient 

wisdom and this trait need not be by birth 

but by practice. However he challenges of 

Award received from Mr. Sushil Kapoor 

(President & CEO - SRF) 

Along with my family. (Mrs. Varalakshmi, 

Baby Pratheeka and Baby Prasheetha 

practice are more obstacles focused for 

those who don't have the DNA. The contra 

to this theory could be that not with this DNA 

have succeeded in the business. 

In the words of Mr Mahesh Ramalingam 

Director and Regional 

Head of Talent 

Acquisition, South 

Asia, Thomson 

Reuters 

Originally from a small 

town called Ponneri near Chennai, Tamil 

Nadu, in Bangalore, currently working for 

Thomson Reuters as Director and Regional 

Head of Talent Acquisition taking care of 

TA related activities across South Asia. 

Though I have specialized in Talent 

Acquisition/ Recruitment for the last 8 years, 

I started my career right after my schooling 

(1995) as a trainee with DuPont, learning 

all aspects of Tool and Die Making including 

operating textile machineries like twisters, 

looms, etc., Along with this we were taught 

basics of management, English, Physics, 

Chemistry and what not (!!) with prestigious 

institutions like NTTF and PSG. 

I should step back and explain why I joined 

a non-traditional course/ role like this despite 

having a wish/ push to join traditional course 

like engineering or medicine! 

My father was a visionary and an ambitious 

person too……he ensured that me and my 

siblings study in a school which would equip 

us in English, Hindi and Tamil (our mother 

tongue). It is surely visionary from a person 

who started his career with the government 

as a clerk and grew up in a village especially 

during 1980's! 

I was told by my teachers that I was one 

among the best and brightest student in the 

school and was included in all competitions 

or any school activity! Made school proud 

by scoring 95%+ scores in complex science 

subjects during 10th grade and upped the 

chances for self, family and teachers of 

scoring well and getting into a professional 

medical course. 

What changed my life during 11th and 12th 

Grade - I do not know even now (or don't 

want to reveal now)….I failed miserably, 

repeatedly in majority of term exams which 

resulted in my failure in the final exam as 

well. 

This did come as a shock to my family (as I 

had been hiding the fact of my failures during 

the term exams) and my father must have 

felt like the biggest loser for keeping 

ambitions on me. 

As days passed, shock turned into anger 

and I was literally kept aside…..and dumped 

and that changed my life. 

To keep the anger off - I obliged with all the 

work given to me….and in that process I 

introspected naturally on what to do to keep 

myself away from the house (quite frankly 

that's the truth). 

That's the time - this opportunity came up 

with DuPont who was hiring people for a 

Sponsored training program happening 

across various states (Karnataka, Kerela 

and Andhra) which guaranteed an 

employment at the successful completion 

of this program, in their factory in a nearby 

town called Gummudipoondi. 

I immediately jumped upon the opportunity 

and applied….there were gruelling tests and 

interviews and finally It was a joyous 

moment…a moment I had never had in my 

life time and I went with pride to inform my 

parents that I was successful again and 

wanted to pursue my career this 

way….expecting an equally positive 

reaction. 

This was my first experience of coming out 

of failure….but this gave a rich experience 

to the rest of my career and made me a 

seasoned man in the corporate world. These 

6 months gave enormous amount of 

courage and confidence which keeps me 

running even now. 

After successful completion of this program 

- I was handpicked by the HR at DuPont to 

work in the HR Team itself managing Site 

Administration, Transport, Library, 

Recruitment, Training, etc., and that was a 

fortunate (not accidental) start to my career 

in HR! 

Then I moved on to the IT Industry in the 

midst of various challenges the factory was 

facing and got a job in Bangalore during 


2000….when the dot com burst 

happened….innumerable jobs lost… but 

incident I got a job with Oracle….guess 

fortunate. It was a challenging time as IT 

and ITES recruitment was Greek and Latin. 

I slowly learnt the ropes of the same through 

the team and by putting efforts beyond what 

is required….at-times 24 hours of work 

continuously and without week-off for 

continuous 4 months. 

Post this I worked with great brands of the 

IT world like Microsoft, Computer Associates 

(now CA), Hewlett-Packard and joined 

Reuters, which later became Thomson 

Reuters by Thomson's acquisition. 

The journey so far has been a real 

rollercoaster ride but with enormous 

amounts of experience gaining and 

knowledge sharing. I have also been 

fortunate to grow up the ladder as my mentor 

says….."Blue collar to Gold collar 

job"…..obviously not without hard work! 

Surely, I am a happy man now after seeing 

that pride in my father's eyes and I can 

confidently say that he was definitely not 

wrong and his ambitions were realistic. 

More than 1000 Municipal School 

Students have become Managers before 

the age of 30 

Carried from page 43 Bottom-up Series - 5 

are still in touch with him. "What we do is 

not important but how we do is important, 

is the big lesson I have learnt" says SV. 

Member of Chief General Manager's 

Club - A prestigious award 

After the inspection assignment, SV took 

over the responsibility of an Industrial 

Estate Branch in Bangalore, which was in 

dark for a long time. Within 3 years he 

rebuilt the branch with enormous business 

growth through many innovative ideas, 

including introduction of an internal 

magazine to strengthen the team. The 

branch got an award for Customer Service 

Excellence and highest business growth 

scoring highest mark of 92.9% from the 

Corporate Inspection team and created a 

record. This paid a rich dividend. Yes SV 

was recognized as the best performer and 

was made a member of prestigious CHIEF 

GENERAL MANAGER`S CLUB and was 

promoted as Asst. General Manager. He 

was made Regional Head with branches 

spread across 7 districts. During his tenure 

his region achieved highest growth rate in 

business, income, and profit and reduced 

the stressed assets by half. His 

performance as the Regional Head 

enabled him to get recommended for the 

best AGM. 

Working together 

SV says "The only way to achieve the 

business goal is to take the people along 

with you". He freely communicates with all, 

at the same time a good listener and 

encourages people to communicate 

And these people are creating wonders and 

similarly people who joined DR Reddy Labs 

in Yannam near Kakinada in 2001, just after 

completing 12th std have all become 

Executives in R&D, Quality in Dr.Reddys 

and other Pharma companies and most of 

them have completed their MSC's. They all 

started as blue collar team members 

without any inhibition. However, he hates 

dishonesty and negative attitude. He 

practices YOGA regularly to manage 

stress. He also strongly believes in GOD 

and takes things philosophically, instead of 

taking deep into the heart. 

Expectation of HR: It's all about People 

Management 

SV says his basic expectation of HR's role 

is to build Cordial interpersonal 

relationships and this should be embedded 

in HR practices. HR should facilitate and 

support people to own up their role in 

Organization for its success. Accepting the 

people as they are and strengthen the team 

with proper management style is HR 

requirement today. 

Boss Speaks 

R. Karthikeyan, General Manager says "SV 

is an epitome of diligence; one who is 

focused on the goals set by the 

organization and has demonstrated 

leadership quality through team building. 

A great asset to have" 

Colleague Speaks 

S. R. Panduranga, AGM at SBI says "SV 

has come up in life from scratch undergoing 

ordeals and took over the responsibility of 

the family at very young age. I found SV 

very hardworking, committed accepting 

challenges for accomplishment. His 

sincerity, hard work and determination 

demonstrated in achieving the distinction 

in B Com realizing gold medal. I am pleased 

to know that his achievements are going 

(traditional titles) to highly value adding 

heroes for the Pharma Industry. This is the 

sample of success stories of more than 1000 

Municipal schools students who have broken 

the Educational and functional silos and 

many MBA's are reporting to them. All - 

below the age of 30 and in the down trend 

time 

Appeal to HR fraternity. 

HR in the down trend should provide 

LADDERSHIP (GROWTH) BY PROACTIVE 

LEADERSHIP - AND the word blue collar 

will disappear. It is a win-win for business 

(in view of company sponsored continuing 

education as retention Carrot.). 

Such youths will stay for minimum of five 

to seven years and then look to grow with in 

or out side the organization. The business 

gets replacement at half the cost and the 

Country gets best talents with better 

understanding of business. It is not 

Japanese who can do, but Indians can do 

wonders and these 1000 kids all over India 

have demonstrated this in the last decade 

plus. The beneficiaries of this model are not 

only DuPont or Dr Reddys but Pepsis, 

Microsoft, Oracle, HCL and many other 

Indian companies and global companies. 

Passion plus is the trick for this success. 

 

to be published in the esteemed journal 

~BOTTOM UP~ and I wish him all the best 

and Godspeed. 

Family Man 

SV Says "My elderly mother is with me 

blessing daily for all my endeavours. My 

wife, fully devoted to devotional music is 

my backbone. Her patience and smile are 

two factors I wish to inculcate within me". 

SV is blessed with two children. His 

daughter is a Cost Accountant with MBA is 

married and stays in US. His son is a Senior 

Software Engineer in a MNC and currently 

pursuing MBA at IIM, Bangalore. He says 

"Our family is well knitted with strong bond 

of love and affection". 

Future Plan 

SV has a passion towards educational field 

and post retirement he would like to share 

his experience, and knowledge with 

younger generation. Learning a musical 

instrument has been his childhood dream 

and he hopes to fulfil the same. Increased 

participation in societal activities is also in 

his mind. 

Bottom up 

"We want leaders who are credible. We 

must believe that their word can be trusted, 

that they are personally excited and 

enthusiastic about the direction in which 

they are headed". So say authors James 

Kouzes and Barry Posner. 

I am sure SV's success story will inspire 

many people and will enable organizations 

to create more such leaders. 

 


Bottom-up Series - 5 

"What we do is not important but how we 

do is important" 

– Girinarayanan G 

S. Vaidyanathan (SV) 

This article features a very senior banking 

professional. SV currently works as 

Assistant General Manager in State Bank 

of India (SBI). He is heading the Trade 

Finance Cell, which is a specialized outfit 

extending International Banking Trade 

services to all the branch customers to set 

high benchmark for productivity and Turn 

Around Time (TAT), efficiency level etc. 

I had known SV right from 

my childhood. He hails 

from a lower middle class 

family from one of the 

village in Tanjore Dist.. 

He lost his father when 

he was hardly a year old 

and both his sisters were 

less than 10 years. 

Except for his maternal grandfather, 

nobody else stood by the side of his 

widowed mother. Being born in a Brahmin 

family with agricultural land in a tiny village 

at Thanjavur Dist. was the only source of 

sustenance for the family. 

Blessings of Goddess Saraswathi 

The village which SV was living did not have 

a school and he had to walk miles to reach 

his school. SV always stood FIRST in 

school, including final examinations of 

SSLC. However, the family financial 

position did not permit him to continue 

college education nor he could look for a 

job as he was under 18 years of age. For 

his academic performance, the government 

awarded him merit scholarship and he 

could continue upto Pre-university. SV 

records his gratitude to a noble soul, who 

extended free boarding and lodging at his 

house during his PUC days. Remembering 

the old cherished memories, he is still 

grateful to the Goddess Saraswathi with 

whose blessings; he was standing high all 

through his education. 

Grandfather- a great godfather 

Under the circumstances, by selling few of 

the lands and ancestral house, his two 

sisters were married. As the agricultural 

income was receding, his grandfather took 

a job in a shop as a clerk to support family. 

This nobleman was the real source of 

inspiration and was a godfather to the family 

and taught moral values of life. The most 

important factor was his physical, emotional, 

financial and affectionate blessings. 

Sojourn to SBI 

SV discontinued his education due to 

financial difficulties and moved to 

Bangalore. Life was not easy for this village 

rustic at the Garden City. He joined a 

Printing Press Company for daily wages. 

Subsequently found a job in a SSI unit. 

Nearly after two years of struggle, he 

secured a temporary Clerk job at SBI. It 

was the beginning of new era. Since then, 

there was no looking back. SV got his 

permanent posting as a Clerk at SBI in May 

1972. 

Winning a Gold Medal: a Gift dedicated 

to Grandfather 

Though SV discontinued his studies, he did 

not forget the promise that he made to his 

grandfather. He continued B.Com course 

and attended the evening classes after the 

regular bank job. Thanks to his hard work, 

sincere efforts and his grandfather's 

blessings, he competed with regular day 

students and stood FIRST in Bangalore 

University in Final B.Com. and was 

awarded a GOLD MEDAL which was 

dedicated to his grandfather. 

SV Receiving an award from Smt. Varalakshmi 

Gundurao and Late Mr. Gundurao, former Chief 

Minister of Karnataka looks on. 

Hard work and Sincere efforts will take 

you to Top 

Having excelled in graduation, his quest for 

learning did not stop. SV successfully 

completed Law Graduation and also 

completed professional examinations, 

conducted by Indian Institute of Bankers 

(IIB). He secured very high marks and 

became a Certified Associate of IIB 

(CAIIB). With this, he appeared for the 

competitive examinations and got 

promoted by Aug. 1978 as an Officer. 

Meanwhile, SV pursued his Post 

Graduation in Commerce and due to official 

pressure, he appeared for both first and 

final M.Com examinations. Hard work and 

sincere efforts paid dividend and he passed 

out M.Com in FIRST class. 

His Mantra of success: 

His mantra of success was to build 

capabilities and achieve success 

consistently. For SV, every assignment at 

different branches of SBI was with more 

challenges and proved to be a stepping 

stone in career. To quote an instance SV 

was posted as a Trainer in SBI's Staff 

College. This assignment did help in 

enhancing his training skills and provided 

sufficient opportunities in imparting training 

for transfer of knowledge and train many 

in transformation of attitude. To quote 

another instance, he was posted as a 

Branch Manager, which had history of 

problems created by the local Trade Union. 

Building cordial relationship and being 

transparent with the Union helped SV to 

achieve a positive result. Needless to say, 

the branch after ten years, achieved net 

profit for the first time 

Planning and Systematic Approach for 

achieving result 

He was working as a Chief Manager in a 

branch which was catering to a giant Public 

Sector. This branch had history of frequent 

frauds. His planning and systematic 

approach enabled to track and have a close 

monitoring on all issues and helped the 

bank to corner the black sheep and 

facilitated the authorities to nab the 

criminal. Since then, the branch was devoid 

of that stigma and has progressed well. 

"What we do is not important but how 

we do is important" 

SV was away from his family for over 4 

years as a Chief Manager (Inspectionmobile 

duty). He had inspected over 65 

branches spread across West Bengal, 

Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Travelling 

and meeting new people with different 

culture taught him Self-discipline and 

organising oneself. He treated people with 

grace and talked to them with ease to 

garner their support for completing the 

inspection smoothly with mutual benefits 

for the improvement of the branches. Many 

branches were happy for his positive 

outlook and helpful attitude. The footsteps 

he left were so strong that even after 15 

years, few colleagues from these branches 

Contd.. on page 42 

Mr. Girinarayanan G is Head - HR, TACO-Sasken Automotive Electronics Ltd. (TSAE). E-Mail: E-Mail: g.girinarayan@gmail.com 


Preview 

An effective Training Program depends largely 

on the Trainer’s ability to engage his audience, 

and understand the various learning styles. The 

trainer has to employ different training methods 

to cater to the diverse ways in which individuals 

assimilate information and acquire knowledge 

or learn new skills. Keeping this as a back-drop, 

we had Marc Ratcliffe and Aaron Smith 

(associated with MRWED International) 

provide an insight into the various learning 

styles exhibited by people and the learning / 

information processing abilities observed 

across generations. 

Learning Styles 

Learning is reflected in the way we respond to 

environmental, social, emotional and physical 

stimuli, to understand new information. 

Learning style is defined as the way that 

information is processed. Most people show a 

preference for one of the following basic styles: 

visual, auditory, kinesthetic. It is common to 

combine the primary and secondary learning 

styles. 

Illustration: 

A question is posed to the audience: What is it 

that comes to your mind when you hear the 

word “Dog”. 

Some people see a picture of the animal, hear a 

bark, while others remember the feeling of the 

dog’s soft coat. Those who see a picture of a 

dog in their mind eye are probably visual, those 

who hear the bark are probably auditory and 

those who feel the soft fur of a dog are probably 

kinesthetic. 

This simple analogy suggests that each person’s 

interpretation is different, we communicate and 

process the information differently. Thus, the 

trainer has to consider the audience’s needs and 

expectations. He is required to adapt to the 

audiences’ learning styles for messages to get 

across. A “One size fits all” does not hold true. 

Learning — Conceptual Understanding: 

Learning is a process of acquiring Knowledge, 

Skill-sets and Attitude. 

Visual Learners: 

Characterized by learners who need to see what 

is going on. They like reading and watching 

television and enjoy looking at photos, plans 

or cartoons. Visual learners learn by watching. 

They recall images from the past when trying 

to remember. In addition to this, they picture 

the way things look in their heads. 

They would be attracted during learning to 

words like “see, look, appear, picture, make 

clear, and overview”. They are likely to have 

strong spelling and writing. A visual learner can 

be taught best by using: 

Posters, charts and graphs 

Visual displays 

Booklets, brochures and handouts 

Variety of colors and shapes 

 

Pune Chapter - Learning Styles: Understanding the language of the Learner 

Clear layout with headings and plenty of 

white space 

Aural / Auditory Learners: 

Learners who learn by listening. Auditory 

learners can be identified because they love to 

talk, are attracted to sound (and distracted by 

noise), and prefer to hear things rather than read 

them. They may read in a “talking” style, 

hearing the text as they go and may appear to 

daydream whilst “talking” inside their head. 

They often enjoy the telephone and listening to 

music. 

Auditory learners tend to spell phonetically. 

They can sometimes have trouble reading, 

because they don’t visualize well. They learn 

by listening and remember facts when they are 

presented in the form of a poem, song or 

melody. An auditory learner can be taught best 

by using: 

Question and answer 

Lectures and stories 

Audio tapes 

Podcasts 

Discussion pairs of groups 

Voice Modulation: Variety in tone, rate, 

pitch and volume 

Music or slogans 

Tactile / Kinesthetic learners: 

These are learners who often learn by doing. 

Kinesthetic learners can be identified because 

they move around a lot, tap pens of shift in their 

seat. They enjoy games and do not really like 

reading. Kinesthetic learners learn best through 

movement and manipulation. They like to find 

out how things work and are often successful 

in the practical aspects of art, design and 

carpentry. Additionally, they will remember 

most effectively through practice. A Kinesthetic 

learners can be taught best by using: 

Team activities 

Hands-on experience 

Role-plays 

Note taking 

Emotional discussions 

Knowing your student’s preferred learning style 

can help the trainer maintain interest and 

promote reinforcement of new material. 

Another consideration is the environment in 

which people learn best. While tradition tells 

us to have a quiet room, well lit with a straight 

back chair, some children learn best in a more 

chaotic environment. 

Trying different methods of learning may 

prevent the students from feeling frustrated and 

inadequate when they are not able to work up 

to their potential. Experimenting with different 

learning styles and environments may improve 

the student’s accomplishments and feelings of 

achievements. 

Generational Learning 

Generation — Definition 

Birth years within 15 year range, who share 

similar experiences, common beliefs and 

behavior and self-perceived to be a generation. 

Generation Labels: 

Before 1945 - Silent (Mature) 

1945 — 1964 - Baby Boomers 

1965 — 1979 - Generation X 

1980 — 1995 - Generation Y 

– By Marc Ratcliffe & Aaron Smith 

1996 — now - Generation Z 

Silent Generation: 

This is the group that is considered wise, and 

have been the fighters / survivors. Most of the 

people in this group have now retired. They are 

not generally very adept at learning new 

technology. 

Average time in which information is processed 

to make a decision is 20 — 30 seconds. 

Baby Boomers: 

This constitutes the largest population, and 

exhibits the greatest stability. This is also the 

generation where the media had a lot of power 

and wide reach. The average time in which 

information is processed to make a decision is 

10 — 15 seconds. 

Generation X: 

This is the generation that saw evolution of 

technology. This is also the generation that 

recognized “Kids as a Market”. This group 

income leap-frogged in terms of the income 

level, as compared to any other generation. The 

average time in which information is processed 

to make a decision is 5 - 10 seconds. 

Generation Y: 

The generation that is the easiest with 

technology — they have an ardent need to be 

“connected”. They associated brands with 

personal identity. The average time in which 

information is processed to make a decision is 

3 - 5 seconds. 

Generation Z: 

Aptly labeled as the “.com” kids, they are adept 

at multi-tasking and have been instrumental in 

inventing a world-wide new language. They 

generally exhibit very low attention spans. 

Cross-over generations: 

It is important to note that the temperament and 

learning abilities, values of people belonging 

to various generations have been described are 

only generalizations. There are several cases of 

“Cross-over generations”, where one may not 

conform to the norms / constructs. There are a 

lot of people who belong to the “Silent 

Generation”, but have exhibited traits / learning 

abilities comparable to those belonging to 

Generation X / Y, and vice versa. 

On a parting note… 

We need to understand what motivates our 

learners, and be flexible to cater to all learners. 

It’s also important to create open channels for 

communication. It is very likely that there could 

be a varied audience, having different learning 

styles and belonging to different generations. 

It is important for a trainer to conduct a formal 

training needs assessment to determine the 

underlying training needs, understand the 

audience’s background and know their 

expectations / outcome of the training. The 

trainer is then to reconcile all such variations 

by employing different training methods to 

deliver the training, and also conduct evaluation 

at different stages, to reinforce the concept. 


Fascinating Facts 

– K. Satyanarayana 

248. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton 

Addresses Students Of Pace University 

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton told 

graduating students at pace University that 

America must continue to make sacrifices 

to ensure a better future. "Future preference 

is what in large measure brings this class 

here today - families who sacrifice so that 

their children can have better opportunities, 

people who do a good day's work in order 

to build something, to make their job mean 

something, people who start businesses in 

order to employ and create profit that can 

be recycled back into the society and people 

who understand that if we do not keep future 

in mind, we impoverish the present and we 

dishonor our past," she said. 

(Source: The New York Times, 

May 20, 2003) 

249. Einstein's Thoughts Are Now On The 

Web 

The Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew 

University in Jerusalem and the California 

Institute of Technology, where the Einstein 

Papers Project has its headquarters started 

a new web site. It contains digitized images 

of some 900 Einstein papers as well as a 

searchable list of 43,000 documents in the 

archives. Those interested can visit 

www.alberteinstein.info (Source: The New 

York Times, May 20, 2003) 

250. Ten Year Plan To End Homelessness 

All across America, major cities such as 

Chicago, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis are 

adopting and implementing practical plans 

to end homelessness in ten years. They are 

working in partnership with public agencies, 

homeless specialists and community 

organizations. All these efforts are based 

on one key idea - homelessness is a 

solvable problem. Research shows that 

permanent housing is more cost-effective 

than shelters, jails and other temporary 

housing solutions. For more information 

please visit www.endhomelessness.org 


May 19, 2003) 

251. Canada's Policy On Drugs - Treat 

rather than Punish. 

Larry W. Campbell was elected as mayor 

of Vancouver on a promise of more 

treatment for addicts and regulated injection 

sites. He has not yet received federal 

approval to open the centers but a privately 

financed center has started functioning. Up 

to 25, drug users come to this center every 

night to shoot heroin or cocaine into their 

veins. They are supervised by a registered 

nurse, who dispenses fresh needles, swabs, 

sterile water to cook the drugs and advise 

on how to maintain veins. The injection site, 

modeled after similar facilities in Australia, 

Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands 

is the only one to operate openly in North 

America. Its presence is just one sign that 

Canada's drug policies are moving in a 

direction that diverges sharply from those 

in the U.S. - to treat drug addiction more as 

a medical issue and less as one of law 

enforcement. 


May 19, 2003) 

252. French Government Controls The 

Excesses Of Modern Life 

At the turn of the 20th century France's 

infant mortality rate was so high that it 

provoked scorn from other European 

nations. In 1904, the French Public Health 

Act gave the central government authority 

to compel local governments to take actions 

to improve the birth rate. One important 

response was a movement known as 

puericulture. Intent on improving prenatal 

and maternal health, puericulture advocates 

set up clinics all over the country to teach 

young mothers how to breastfeed. They also 

taught mothers that overfeeding was as bad 

as, if not worse than underfeeding. Thus 

early in its modern history, the French 

government lectured mothers on the medical 

value of dietary control. By 1920 not only 

child mortality was dropped significantly 

through out France, but first cases of child 

obesity began to appear. The government 

insisted that children should always eat at 

set times. Each meal should be moderate. 

All the meals of the children should be 

supervised by adults. Snacking was 

forbidden. Such boundary-setting continues 

even today. You will not find Coca-Cola in a 

French middle school. 

In spite of all these the French are eating 

more like Americans these days. Betweenmeal 

snacking, fast food and conveniencefood 

consumption are up, particularly among 

children in big cities. The government is 

concerned. The influential institute of 

National Health and Medical Research in 

Paris has declared childhood obesity an 

epidemic. 


May 20, 2003) 

253. North Korea Gives Russia Cheap 

Labor 

North Korea is now the poorest nation in 

Northeast Asia. It provides cheap labor 

under tight controls to the Russian Far East, 

which is short of labor. 10,000 North 

Koreans work in Russia. While Japan, South 

Korea and Russia lack workers willing to 

do dirty and dangerous jobs, only Russia 

has been willing to accept North Koreans 

as guest workers. They often work 16-hour 

days. All of its neighbors have contingency 

plans to block sudden inflow of migrants in 

the event of a collapse of the communist 

government. The workers realize that they 

are the prisoners of the system. The workers 

come here on three-year contracts, but their 

wages are collected by the North Korean 

state companies, that bring them here. A 

worker is allowed to retain $100. North 

Korea's worker control system is especially 

harsh in remote Siberian logging camps, 

which according to Amnesty International, 

are directly run by North Korea's ruthless 

Public Security Service. Escapees 

interviewed in Moscow in recent years have 

told human rights researchers that the North 

Korean camp authorities maintain private 

prisons and prevent escapes by rationing 

food and punishing would-be escapees with 

torture and sometimes execution. During the 

Soviet era, most logging in Siberia was done 

by prisoners in forced labor camps. (Source: 

The New York Times, May 18, 2003) 

254. Portable Church Is The Latest From 

England 

Visitors tested the pews of an inflatable 

church in Sandown Park Exhibition Center, 

20 miles west of London. It is 47 feet high, 

and includes a blow up organ, altar, pulpit, 

pews, candles and stained glass windows. 

The Church can hold about 60 worshippers. 

Its creator, Michael Gill of Innovations UK, 

said he recognized its potential for 

weddings, christenings and the like. He now 

has plans for a mosque and a synagogue. 


May 16, 2003) 

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


CASE STUDY - 29 

"Mr. Sridharan, 

You Are Wanted" 

This is a case of over 45 years back. 

P.Sridharan was an administrative 

officer in Malhotra Motors in their branch 

office at Salem. Their head office was at 

New Delhi. His qualification was B.Com. He 

had attended an interview at Delhi six years 

back and was selected as accountant since 

he had eight years of experience. He had 

produced a certificate from a private limited 

company which mentioned that he had full 

knowledge of accounting procedure with 

regard to maintenance of accounts; cash 

book, petty cash, bank transactions, bank 

reconciliation, ledger postings, trial balance, 

profit and loss account, preparation of 

balance sheet, etc. He impressed the 

interview board with his practical knowledge. 

He was short in height, black, but had 

attractive eyes. They wanted this person for 

their newly opened branch office at Salem. 

Their products were pumps and motors. 

They wanted to expand their business in 

South and opened a branch office at Salem. 

Their Salem office had one assistant 

administrative officer, a sales officer and an 

accountant. 

Prior to this, Sridharan was working as head 

assistant in a cooperative credit society for 

over seven years. Here, Mr.Bodra, was the 

Secretary in charge of the office. He was a 

retired senior accounts assistant in their 

main organization. There were 320 

members in the society. The committee of 

management appointed him as they all knew 

him very well as a sincere, honest and loyal 

employee who had put in over 40 years of 

service. In the credit society, only Bodra and 

Sridharan were full time employees and 

were managing the office. The committee 

of management was regularly meeting every 

month with an agenda to sanction loans to 

eligible employee-members, allotment of 

shares to those employees who were 

admitted as new members, etc. During 

those days, each employee-member was 

eligible to receive a maximum loan of 

Rs.6000 to be recovered in equal 60 

installments. A member should possess 10 

shares; the value of each was Rs.10, for a 

loan of Rs.1000 and should obtain one 

signature of an employee-member as 

surety. The employee-members should also 

contribute compulsorily every month a sum 

of Rs.10 minimum and Rs.50 maximum 

towards a personal fund. The accumulated 

amount under this head would remain with 

the society as long as he was a member 

and would be refunded to the concerned 

member if he resigned from the society or 

retired from the organization. The society 

was paying eight per cent as interest on the 

accumulated fund. Non-employees would 

not be admitted as members. There was 

another person, Das, a Time Checker in the 

company, who was working as part time 

employee. His main job in the society was 

to collect the recovery sheets from their 

accounts department, posting of loan 

installments and personal funds in the 

individual ledgers. Further, he was also 

responsible to update the individual pass 

books of the members. Their monthly 

salaries were Rs.300 to Bodra, Rs.150 to 

Sridharan and Rs.50 to Das. 

Bodra was now 65 years and was not 

keeping good health. He was frequently 

falling sick and slowly Sridharan started 

managing the affairs of the society and had 

gained full knowledge of the rules and 

regulations, maintenance of all accounts 

including transactions with the bank, etc. 

The committee of management authorized 

the chairman and secretary to sign all 

documents of the society. The signatories 

for the cheques were the chairman and 

secretary. In the absence of Bodra, 

Sridharan used to prepare cheques, 

maintain cash book, monthly trial balances, 

etc. Bodra, who completely depended on 

Sridharan, was signing all papers including 

cheques as Secretary prepared by 

Sridharan. He gained full confidence of 

Bodra. Sometimes, Bodra used to sign two 

or three blank cheques whenever he could 

not come to office. Sridharan once required 

Rs.1000 urgently for his personal purpose. 

It was beyond his capability to raise this 

much of fund from anywhere. He thought of 

taking full advantage of his position. There 

was a requirement of Rs.5000 for official 

work on that day. He had one blank cheque 

signed by the secretary. He wrote Rs.6000 

on the cheque and Rs.5000 on the 

counterfoil. Since it was signed by Bodra, 

the chairman also signed. The chairman was 

BP Tiwary, a General Foreman in the 

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

– Prof. R. Dharma Rao 

company, had hardly any time to devote for 

the society. He was, however, being elected 

as chairman by the general body and this 

was his sixth consecutive year. Sridharan 

posted in the cash book Rs.5000 as receipt 

and kept Rs.1000 for himself. When the 

monthly bank statement was received, he 

prepared the reconciliation statement and 

got it tallied by wrong total. This mistake was 

not noticed by any one. Bodra became very 

sick and was almost not coming to the 

society for months. The chairman had a soft 

corner towards Bodra and gave him all 

facilities. His absence did not affect much 

on the society as Sridharan was managing 

it. Gradually, Sridharan gained more 

confidence and his wrong withdrawals were 

more than Rs.50000 in the past six months. 

He closed all the accounts and prepared a 

balance sheet by manipulation with wrong 

totals on the individual pages of loan ledger 

balances. The accounts were audited and 

the auditor signed on all documents 

including the balance sheet. After the 

general body, it was noticed by a few 

members that their loan balance shown in 

their pass books was not the real one and 

the actual balance was much more. When 

they confronted Das, he was confused and 

could not explain to them properly. 

Sridharan, who was observing this 

conversation, went out on some pretext and 

absconded. 

Sridharan was promoted by Malhotra Motors 

as assistant administrative officer when the 

incumbent had resigned. Here also 

Sridharan surreptitiously and fraudulently 

managed over two lakh rupees and had 

absconded again when his management 

came to know on the defalcation of cash. 

The management gave an announcement 

in the daily papers, with his photograph, that 

'he is wanted'. 

Q.No.1 In what way, this is related to HR 

topic? 

Q.No.2.What is the behavioral pattern of 

Sridharan? 

Q.No.3.How the loan balances of individual 

members got inflated? 

Q.No.4 Sridharan was a deceit or unethical? 

Q.No.5.What is business ethics? 

 


Chapter News 

AGRA 

"See page No. 33" 

BALANGIR 


DELHI 

"Delhi Chapter Crossed 2,000 Member 

Mark, another land mark Achievement."See 

also Pages 5, 7, 9, 49 and 52" 

GWALIOR 


HOSUR 

The NHRD Hosur Chapter Year End 

meeting was held on 27th December 2008 

at Ashok Leyland Management 

Development Centre. Being the annual 

dinner meet, there was a large gathering of 

members from both industry and academia. 

After Prayer and Welcome address, the 

meeting started with Special Cultural 

Program by School Children which was very 

impressive and entertaining. 

Then Dr. SK Prasad of New Horizon 

Leadership Institute and Lt.Col (Retd.) 

Govind Rajulu of SMEI addressed the 

gathering on the "ROLE OF MARKETING 

IN HR PROFESSION". With their vast 

knowledge and practical oriented ideas, they 

made the audience especially HR 

professionals to think seriously about 

aligning their function with the business 

goals of the organization. They also 

highlighted the need for HR professionals 

to develop business sense and make their 

work measurable in terms of value and 

overall profitability of the organization. 

Another important aspect of this meeting 

was Mr. G Alphonse-Group Manager 

Employee Relations of M/s Titan Watches 

taking over as the President of the Hosur 

Chapter. Mr Rajaram the outgoing president 

introduced the new president to the 

audience. 

This was followed by Flute Recital by Mr 

Ravindran the treasurer of the Chapter. 

The program ended with vote of thanks by 

Mr Anbarasu, Secretary of the Chapter and 

National Anthem thereafter. 

M/s Hirezon Technologies (P) Ltd, Chennai 

and M/s Terra Tree Properties, Bangalore 

have sponsored the meeting and hosted 

dinner for the participants.. 

The NHRD Hosur Chapter, Monthly evening 

meeting was held on 30th January 2009 at 

the Conference Hall of Titan Industries 

Limited, Precision Engineering Division. Mr. 

Ramesh Bhaskar Rao, GM-Operations, TTK 

Prestige Limited addressed the gathering on 

the topic "CEOs perspective of HR". 

Mr. Israel Inbaraj introduced the speaker to 

the audience. 

Mr. Bhaskar Rao empathized with the HR 

professionals on the difficult role they are 

playing to meet the expectations of the 

Management and at the same time manage 

good relations with work force. He advised 

them to act proactively and align their role 

to the business perspective and overall goals 

of the organization so that they can earn 

their rightful place. He also emphasized that 

based on his experience in Public Limited 

and Private companies and also interaction 

with academia, he is confident that HR 

people are capable of occupying the top 

chair in the organizations provided they 

equip with few more skills and able to 

present themselves properly. 

The session was very interactive and well 

received by the participants especially for 

the speaker's empathy with the HR 

Profession, he being an operations head. 

Mr. Alphonse, Chapter President summed 

up the proceedings, followed by vote of 

thanks by Mr. Nagarajan, Chapter Vice 

President and few announcements by 

Secretary Mr. Anbarasu. 

Mr Bhalajie, Co-ordinated the arrangements 

and anchored the proceedings of this 

meeting. 

The program ended with National Anthem. 

HYDERABAD 

Employer Employee Relations - by Surya 

Prakash - 5.12.09 

The speaker outlined various factors outlining 

the Employer Employee Relation 

Supervision, Team Work .Personality, 

Analysis, Performance Evaluations, 

Feedback , Motivation, Corrective Measures. 

The speaker also elucidated the impact of 

the various policies on Employer employee 

relations . The employee health assessment 

questionnaire was administered for all the 

audience. Communication is the key for 

better employee employer relationship. 

Recession its impact on HR -by Col VRK 

Prasad - 12.02.09 

The speaker started by sharing that he had 

written his first article in HRD News letter in 

and had written 60 articles in various books 

and journals. The speaker had shared 

various definitions of recession on one of 

the being A Significant decline in economic 

activity spread across the economy, lasting 

more than a few months, normally visible in 

real GDP growth, real personal income, 

employment (non-farm payrolls), industrial 

production, and whole-sale retail sales. The 

lecture proceeded by indicating the various 

implications of recession and the impact on 

the job cuts etc. . Cost cutting maintaining 

a work life balance, Managing change , 

counseling were few of the challenges faced 

by HR. The speaker spoke of innovation as 

a key to beating recession and explained 

some of best practices adopted by various 

organizations. 

Positions and Titles - The needed shift in 

Paradigms By Chandu Sambasiva Rao - 

19.02.09 

The speaker shared with the audience about 

the various organization structures and how 

the matrix organizations evolved from the 

World wars and even till today we are having 

multiple layers and how flatter organizations 

are a need of the day. The speaker spoke 

of the various types of power Viz: coercive, 

reward, legitimate, expert, referent. The 

speaker also spoke of Mechanistic and 

Organic Organizations. The Speaker 

emphasized that the definition of 

stakeholders was to narrow and it has to be 

broadened. The various flaws in today's 

organization were discussed and the 

remedies were suggested. The speaker also 

suggested that every organization must 

have an officer to mange the emotions of 

employees. The speaker also emphasized 

that we should move well being to wellness 

of the society at large. 

Welcome to New Members 

Life Member 

Satya Sesha Sai P - Trainer - ING Vysya 

Life Insurance 

Srinivasa Rao T, Asst.Manager - HR, TCS 

Annual Member 

Edward Herald K, Asst.Manager - HR, TCS 

Sekhar C, Admin Asst, IAF 

Raghu Ram K, Dr, Associate Prof. Kottam 

Instt of Advanced studies 

Vasu Deva Gridhar S, H R- Executive, 

Transgel Industries 

JAIPUR 

"See page No. 50-51" 


NAGPUR 

NHRDN NAGPUR CHAPTER EVENT ON 

CONVERSATION BY PROF BALAJI C 

On 27 & 28 Jan 09 NHRDN Nagpur Chapter 

in association with Central Institute of Business 

Management Research & Development & 

NYSS Institute of Business Management 

Nagpur organised two days programme by 

Prof Balaji C , Editor, NHRDN News Letter 

and AVP, Symphony University, Bangalore at 

F.W. Taylor Hall at CIBMRD Nagpur. 

Day I -SESSION- I ("POWER THROUGH 

CONVERSATION") The session was 

inaugurated with welcome lecture by Dr. 

Amishi Arora, Director, CIBMRD. Prof Balaji 

C & Prof Rangarajan Director NYSS were 

sharing the dais with Dr. Amishi Arora. Prof 

Rangarajan introduced Prof Balaji C to 

audience. Prof Balaji C, AVP Symphony 

University , Editor, NHRDN News Letter, an 

IIM Ahmedabad Alumni, an author of the e- 

book "Goading to go beyond" opened his 

lecture with three orders of conversation i.e, 

Order I :How do we know the particular 

object, Order II : How that particular object 

is known by authorities of the particular field 

and Order III : Kinds of Conversation i.e, 

Committed Conversation, Ownership 

Conversation, Assured Conversation, Action 

Conversation, Disbelief Conversation 

Prof Balaji emphasised that we should 

inculcate the habit of committed 

conversation in our life to get what ever we 

desire or want to achieve. He also brought 

it out how to change our belief into de-belief 

to make it more pragmatic as per the current 

situations. Vote of thanks proposed by Prof 

Shyam Shukla. 

Day II -Session -II ( "CONVERSATION 

THAT STOPS US IN LIFE") 

Session started with Vande Matram by the 

CIBMRD students of MBA Sem IV. Mr. 

Arvind Jain VP-HR Indorama Synthetics (I) 

Ltd welcomed all the participants. Mr. 

Ramesh Sangare President HRDC, Nagpur 

shared the dias with him. Mr. Shyam Laddha 

CEO, Vasundhara Dairy & patron Nagpur 

Chapter, joined the session subsequently. 

Mr. Jain invited Prof Balaji to share his 

thoughts. Prof Balaji brought it out his 

journey for bringing out the e-book "Goading 

to go beyond" . He shared his journey in 

publication of his book, when he was 

through with the conversation with so many 

people, however, nothing materialised. He 

could achieve his goal only when he 

focussed on committed conversation and 

after changing his beliefs into de-beliefs. He 

nullified the concept of so much work. He 

said this so much can be changed in to so 

little by breaking down in to number of lines 

& words. He brought it out his way of 

success in achieving the target of the life. 

Mr. Arvind Jain( VP- HR) Indorama 

Synthetics (I) Ltd welcomed Prof Balaji. Mrs. 

Vinda Warhadpande Secretary Nagpur 

Chapter welcomed the guests. Prof. Shyam 

Shukla Executive Director Nagpur Chapter 

HR QUIZ – 9 

Quiz Corner 

1. Who said this? "Conventional MBA programmes train the wrong people in the 

wrong ways with the wrong consequences' 

2. Who is reported to be the current richest woman ? 

3. Which large global company first used Scenario Planning, to improve their Strategic 

Business Planning process? 

4. Who is referred to as the 'Father of Carbon Trading'? 

5. Who is referred to as the ' Grandfather of the Chinese 

Internet? 

6. While ISO 14001 refers to Environment Management 

standards, what is SA 8000 ? 

7. Meaning of 'Volkswagen', in English? 

8. What is the concept of deskilling? 

9. What is 'Cubicle rage'? 

10. What is the Equator Principle? 

Quiz Master: 

Mr. P Vijayan, Director-HR, CHEP India, Mumbai 

E-Mail: vijayan.pankajakshan@chep.com 

Answers to Quiz – 8 

1. It is the minimum number of hours required to master a diifcult skill. This is based on 

primary research done with musicians in a German Orchestra, 2. Thirukkural, 

3. Mr Navin Jindal, 4. Parliament House Cafetaria- New Delhi, 5. 1993, 6. Thyrocare 

Corporation, 7. Satchidananda, 8. A strike called by a union, without adhering to due 

course of law , in terms of notice etc, 9. Workers move from place to place, within the 

plant, on roller skates, 10. Mumbai and Ahmedabhad 

convened the session along with the volunteer 

student members. 

Day two -SESSION III :(" COMPETENCY 

MANAGEMENT") Prof Vaishali Rahate 

facilitated this programme. Prof Balaji took this 

session for students . Prof Balaji brought the 

competencies which are required by an 

organisation. He gave the live example of 

competency management at his organisation 

i.e., Symphony University Bangalore. He said 

the organisational competency can be raised 

through training once the need is established. 

SESSION IV : ("CONVERSATION ON 

TEACHING FOR WHAT")This session was 

meant only for faculties. Prof Nagrajan 

facilitated this session. The faculties from 

CIBMRD, NYSS and DBM were present at this 

occasion. Prof Balaji brought out that we need 

to understand what we are teaching and what 

for we are teaching. We need to inculcate a 

fertile soil first and then put the seed into it. 

Dr. Amishi Arora Director CIBMRD & Dr. 

Rangarajan, Director NYSS-IMR were present 

through out the session. 

This kind gesture of Prof. Balaji C has 

empowered the student members, faculties & 

Nagpur Chapter members , with the power of 

conversation. 

PUNE 

"See page No. 39 and 44" 

RANCHI 


CARTOON CORNER 

Col. P Deogirikar, Indore 

p_deogirikar@ruchigroup.com 

Sir, three more have resigned 

today, also to join our competitor. 

Actually, they cannot attract 

freshers and we can't retain our 

persons. So, we are reduced to 

training guys for them. Why don't 

we merge and our company work 

as their training wing? 


1. CSR initiative with USAID 

Northern Region: An Update 

Delhi Chapter had initiated a dialogue 

with USAID to partner with them in light 

of “ beyond business” synergies. As 

part of this, we received an invitation 

to join a CSR Study Tour to the USA 

from USAID, supported by the US 

Government, starting 16th Feb till the 

25th. This program is called IVLP 

(International Visitor Leadership 

Program). There will be about 10-12 

participants (blue chip Indian 

organizations and their respective CSR 

heads) form India. Pankaj Bansal has 

been requested, and has accepted to 

join the tour to represent NHRDN 

Northern Region. Tour expenses shall 

be picked up by People Strong and 

local arrangements are being made by 

US Government. This is indeed a 

prestigious association with a reputed 

organization like USAID, and we would 

also benefit from the insights and 

learnings that Pankaj would be able to 

bring back on CSR practices. It is 

believed that there would also be future 

opportunities of leveraging our 

association with USAID and jointly 

working on some noble goals. 

2. DELHI scales new heights 

Under the dedication, commitment and 

inspiring leadership of Saqlain Siddiqui 

and his able team, Delhi Chapter has 

logged in some remarkable milestones. 

Delhi Chapter is the first chapter to have 

breached the 2000 membership barrier, 

which is clearly a remarkable 

achievement. You would also note that 

Delhi has contributed the highest sum 

of Rs 71 lacs ( as of 31st Dec 2008) . 

This is a reflection of the ability to 

continue building on the strong base, 

and managing to take the special events 

to a new level. Kudos to the Delhi team. 

3. Learning Centre - National HRD 

Network 

1. The idea of learning center is being 

conceptualized to provide the local 

corporate and business community 

with high quality, economical, 

customized research based 

programmes and accreditations. It will 

set up a variety of programmes which 

will be need based to make the 

available workforce highly employable. 

2. The Learning Centre of National HRD 

Network will be a learning organization 

to support the national cause of 

developing skills in order to increase 

employability in the country. 

Representation for land for 

establishment of Learning Centre in 

Gurgaon has been made to the Haryana 

Urban Development Authority, Haryana. 

3. The institutional plots are available at 

Sector 32 & 44, Gurgaon. 

4. Details of the Events organized by 

NHRD-N Delhi Chapter 

NHRDN Delhi Chapter’s AGM and 

Special Event “A Dialogue with HR 

Thought leaders” was held on the 30 th 

April 2008 

Special Event on 2nd of July had a 

discussion on “ Compensation 

Demystified”. Around 250 professionals 

participated in the event were Senior 

Professional from the Industry Mr. Aquil 

Busrai, IBM, Mr. P Dwarakanath, Max, 

Mr. Sandeep Chaudhary, Hewitt & Mr. 

A Sudhakar, Dabur shared their 

thoughts. 

Address by Dr Santrupt Mishra on 

Independence Day celebration on the 

topic “60 years of independence – 

Contribution of HR & Way Forward’ on 

the 19 th August 2008. Dr. Santrupt 

Mishra addressed a well attended 

audience of HR heads from the NCR 

region. Dr. Santrupt gave a highly 

motivating and inspirational speech on 

Post Independence – HR Scenario, 

which was really well received by all 

the participants 

The special event on the 15 th 

September 08 on High Performance 

Leadership was organized. Eminent 

personalities like Mr. Vineet Kaul, 

Philips, Mr. Amin Saigal, GSK, Mr. 

Tony Cockerill, Centre for High 

Performance & Mr. Rajan Kalia, Max 

New York life shared their thoughts. 

More than 200 members participated 

in the event. 

Global Economic Recession & Counter 

Business Strategies was the topic for 

panel discussion for the event on 18 th 

Dec 08. A panel of speakers a CEO, 

HR Head & CFO viz. Dr. Sanjeev K 

Chaudhry, CEO, SRL, Mr. Inder Walia, 

Head HR, Bharti Enterprises & Mr. Ajay 

Seth, CFO Maruti Suzuki India Limited 

representing different segments of the 

corporate shared their thoughts. The 

panel discussion was coordinated by Mr. 

N S Rajan, Partner E& Y; More than 225 

members were present during the event. 

Felicitation of change Masters and 

thought sharing on Preparing 

Organization to move to the next orbit 

was the agenda for the January Special 

event held on 22 nd Jan 09 at NCUI, 

August Kranti Marg. More than 350 

members and non members were part 

of the felicitation of Mr. S K Roongta, 

Chairman SAIL, Mr. S K Chaturvedi, 

CMD Powergrid and Mr. Manoj Kohli 

CEO & JMD, Bharti Airtel Limited. 

In order to increase the reach of Delhi 

Chapter to NCR an event has been 

planned on the 27 th Feb 2009 at Noida. 

Coming up next ….. 

Young Manger’s Conference (YMC’09) 

has been planned to be held on the 8 th 

& 9 th of May 2009. 

5. Road Map & Future Plans 

1. Plan For Contributory Dinner - with 

Spouses at the weekend 

2. All Women Conference – 1~2 days HR/ 

FIN/ IT professional. Career 

Perspective Women in Management 

Hierarchy 

3. Campus Connect Initiative- One day 

programmeMDI- FMS-IMT-IMI. Moods 

and Thoughts of Students. Feedback 

to HR Fraternity 

4. One Special Monthly Event - Featuring 

Dr. Pritam Singh 

5. Maruti Suzuki Plant Visit- Saturday (1/ 

2 day programme) - Select HR Head 

with spouses. Quiz on MSIL/ Cricket/ 

Films followed by Lunch 

6. Mega Asia Pacific Conference 

(Sept’09) - Lead by Dr. Pritam Singh 

7. Membership Enhancement-5000 NOS. 

8. Membership Connect- It Software - 

Quick Response and Suggestions 

9. Maruti Suzuki Discount to all Members 

- On purchase of any Maruti Car. 

6. Details of Contribution made by 

Delhi Chapter 

Total Contribution: Rs. 71, 89,612 

Contribution Breakup item wise 

1. Membership upto 31.03.2008: 

Rs. 16, 69,183.00 

2. Membership upto 2008-2009: 

Rs. 3, 81,504.00 

3. Share of Local/ National Events: 

Rs. 51, 38,926.00 

We invite each Chapter and Region to submit news about their activities 

and achivement for future issues. 


JAIPUR CHAPTER 

MDGs 3rd State Level Workshop on 'Maternal Health' 

National HRD Network, Jaipur Chapter & 

IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Jaipur 

in collaboration with SID and UNICEF 

organized a workshop on MDGs Goal 5 

"Improve Maternal Health" on 22nd 

January, 2009 (Thursday) at Hotel Clarks 

Amer, Jaipur. The workshop was presided 

over by the Chief guest of the occasion MR. 

Aimaduddin Ahmed, Hon'ble Health 

Minister, Government of Rajsathan. 

This occasion also marked the launch of 

"The State of the World's Children Report 

-2009" by the Chief Guest in the presence 

of Mr. Samuel Mawunganidze, Chief - 

Unicef Rajasthan. 

Dr. Ashok Bapna, 

President, NHRD, Jaipur 

Chapter & Director, IILM 

Academy Jaipur, while 

welcoming the guest, 

said that there is a great 

need to generate 

awareness and action on 

the issue of maternal health. He further said 

that management students should apply 

their theoretical knowledge to field 

practices. 

Mr. Aimaduddin Ahmed, 

Hon'ble Health Minister 

Rajasthan while 

addressing the house 

said health of mother & 

child is reflection of the 

health of the society. The 

state needs special attention in the 

maternal health. Participation of community 

& family is required at the same level. 

ASHA, ANM, Aganwadi - all these three 

functionaries should work together as a 

single entity. In the end, he talked about 

continuum of care which means care during 

pregnancy, birth of child and till a later 

stage. He also said that there is lot of scope 

of public-private partnership in improved 

maternal health. 

Mr. Yaduvendra Mathur, 

Secretary Planning, 

Govt. of Rajasthan, while 

stating government's 

concerns said that IILM 

Academy 

is 

appropriately focusing 

on MDGs as far as 

measuring the crucial values are involved. 

We have lot of qualitative data which can 

be analyzed and interpreted in a better way. 

Management students and interns can play 

an important role in achieving MDGs. He 

also said that UN systems has identified 

certain districts for conversion in Rajasthan 

including Sirohi, Sawai Madhopur, Barmer, 

Pratapgarh. 

Mr. Samuel Mawunganidze, Chief, Unicef 

Rajasthan while presenting 'The State of 

World Children's Report 

2009' said that delivery 

timing death has been 

reduced drastically over 

the years in Rajasthan. 

Around 50% of child 

mortality reduced in the 

state is pre-natal in 

nature. This quantum shows that 

interventions should be integrated & 

coordinated and greater efforts are required 

at the govt. level. He further said there is a 

need to improve the emergency 

transportation, finance schemes, skilled 

care, institutional delivery, clean delivery, 

warmth and early initation of breast feeding. 

Ms Anuradha C. 

Maharishi from Unicef 

Rajasthan, formally 

introduced the subject of 

workshop and said that 

more focused planning is 

required in the area of 

maternal health 

Dr A.S. Dua Assist. 

Professor, Dept. of 

Preventive & Social 

Medicine, SMS Medical 

College Jaipur while 

presenting his views on 

the status of maternal & 

child health in Rajasthan 

& India said that we have to build the 

bridges and road maps to improve maternal 

health. There is need to improve the 

institutional deliveries, reporting of maternal 

health and referral system and the 

challenges ahead are regarding 

commitment, manpower, MIS. 

Dr. M.L. Jain, Director, 

Family Welfare, Govt. of 

Rajasthan while talking 

about interventions on 

maternal health in the 

state said that the 

intervention delays take 

place at three levels i.e. 

community level, 

transportation and facility. He also talked 

about public-private partnership while 

emphasizing the accreditation of private 

hospitals and hiring of services of the 

professionals from the private sectors in the 

form of gynecologists, anthesist, 

pediatricians. 

Dr. Pooja Talikoti- 

Associate Professor, 

Home Science 

Department, University 

of Raj. discussing the 

millennium development 

goal 5: Improve Maternal 

Health, she said women 

are not taking advantage of ICDS services 

and there is need to motivate women to 

enhance consumption of folic acid & iron. 

Towards the end, she said the data 

available at the grassroots level is not 

utilized for the decision making process at 

the upper strata and therefore there is need 

to hire the professionals who can analyze 

& interpret this data in a better way. 

Ms. Alka Kala, Addl. 

Chief Secretary, Women 

Empowerment and 

Welfare, Govt. of 

Rajasthan while 

addressing the house 

said Rajasthan is known 


as state of initiatives and people in villages 

are now becoming aware of the health 

programmes administered by the state. In 

the end, she said women are a very 

important part of healthy family. 

Mr. R.K. Meena, 

Principal Secretary, 

Health & Family Welfare 

Department while 

discussing the 

perspective of health 

department on maternal 

and newborn care said 

breast feeding should be taken as 

important aspect of maternal health. 

Rajasthan is the only state which has 

launched Gram Swasthya Yojana and where 

we have combined health & sanitation 

facilities available. Rajasthan has progressed 

a lot in health and its going to be a developed 

state soon. 

Dr. Praneet Kumar, 

COO, Fortis-Escorts 

Hospital while talking 

about the role of private 

sector in achieving 

MDGs said that by 

enhancing the role of 

Dear Members, 

HRD Newsletter is completing 24 years with 

this issue and the next issue of April 2009 will 

be the first issue in its 25 th year — Silver Jubilee 

Year. 

It is time we pay our gratitude to the founders 

of National HRD Network starting with the 

Founder President Dr T V Rao, currently 

Chairman of T V R L S, Ahmedabad, First 

Editor of HRD Newsletter Fr. Abraham, 

currently Director, XLRI, Jamshedpur, Dr. 

Udai Pareek, our constant guide and 

philosopher, signatories to the Memorandum 

& Articles of Association Dr. T V Rao, Fr. 

Abraham, Dr. K K Verma, Dr. Anil K. 

health sector & health education, the 

private sector can play a major role in 

realizing MDGs. Child marriages, domestic 

violence, and discrimination between male 

& female partners is the main cause of 

maternal death. Towards the end he said, 

IT can play a major role 

in rural sector in 

achieving MDGs. 

Dr. Pritam Pal, Director, 

Sandhan said that the 

role of skilled birth 

attendants is very 

important because rural 

women prefer to deliver a child in the village 

itself. There are three important S's for 

skilled birth attendants i.e. skills, support 

system and self-esteem. 

Dr. Anil Agarwal, Project Officer Health, 

Unicef Rajasthan talked about the 

challenges which are in 

the way of achieving 

MAPADI, lack of 

involvement of women in 

decision making process, 

inaccessibility towards 

health facilities and lack 

of exposures. 

HRD Newsletter is Entering Silver Jubilee Year 

Khandelwal, Dr. D M Pestonjee, Mr. G K 

Ghosh, Dr. Kakoli Saha and Mr J K Parikh. 

It is also time to thank organizations like XLRI, 

Jamshedpur, IIM, Ahmedabad, L & T, Bank of 

Baroda, TVS Group, SAIL and many other 

organizations who have supported and 

nurtured the National HRD Network in its 

infant years. 

We also need to recollect and remember the 

great contributions of our Past National 

Presidents Dr T V Rao, Dr. M R R Nair, Dr Udai 

Pareek, Mr. V S Mahesh, Mr. Rajesh Vidyasagar, 

Mr. Debashish Mitra, Mr. Arvind Pande, Mr. 

Arvind N Agrawal, Dr. Santrupt Misra, Mr. P. 

Dwarakanath, Past Regional Presidents Mr. G P 

Dr. R.S. Goyal, Prof. & 

Dean, IIHMR said the 

factor responsible for 

increasing maternal 

mortality rate are lack of 

pre-natal & post-natal 

care, institutional delivery 

and lack of skilled birth 

attendants. 

The discussion was 

followed by an 

interesting interactive 

session in which querries 

were raised by the 

participants which was 

answered by the learned 

speakers. Ms. Shikha 

Wadhva, Programme Manager, Unicef 

Rajasthan proposed a vote of thanks. 

The programme was 

compeered by Mr. 

Vikramjeet Singh, 

Assistant Professor 

(Management), IILM, 

while it was coordinated 

by IILM faculty Mr. Sudhir 

Upadhyay. 

Rao, Mr. Marcel Parker and Mr. Anand Nayak. 

Past National Secretaries Mr. G P Rao and Mr 

S. Varadarajan, Past National Treasurer Dr. Y 

R K Reddy and Past Executive Director Mr. 

Baburaj Nair. 

Members are requested to send write ups 

and scanned photographs covering the 

journey of the last 24 years to my e-mail 

address ksnhrd@gmail.com and we will try 

to publish them in the course of the next 12 

issues during the silver Jubilee year from April 

2009 to March 2010. 

We seek your kind support and cooperation to 

make the silver jubilee year a memorable one. 

Publisher 

RANCHI CHAPTER NEWS 

National HRD Network , Ranchi Chapter in its new initiatives under the President Shri Satyaprakash Patnaik organised an evening 

guest lecture on Interaction between Academic Intitutions and Industry in USA at Management Training Institute, Ranchi on January 

6, 2009. The Key Speaker was Prof Devender Kumar Das from University of Alaska, USA. National HRD Network , Ranchi Chapter 

had the honour of welcoming one of the greatest luminaries in the field of science and engineering. Prof Das has the distinction of 

innumerable accolades from all the biggest institutions of the World. Under the banner of National HRD Network, Prof Das interacted 

with the technocrats of Jharkhand. Shri Satyaprakash Patnaik, President, NHRD Network Ranchi Chapter and Executive Director 

(HRD), SAIL spoken on this occasion about the significance of constant interaction between the researches in the universities and 

its application for industries in developing new products and processes. Prof Das elaborated on the wide application of Nanotechnology 

in Engineering while interacting with the participants from RDCIS, CET, MTI,SSO of SAIL, MECON, HEC and NIFFT and Shinivas 

Bhaskar from NHRDN, Hydreabad. He stressed that major cost reduction initiatives in industrial processes can be effected through 

this technology. Nanotechnology is the branch of engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometres.....especially with 

the manipulation of individual molecules and it has immense application in medical sciences and industry. At the end of the 

programme while offering the vote of thanks Shri Bishwajit Chowdhury, Secretary, NHRD Network stressed at the multiplier function 

of modern technological interventions in reversing the economic downturn. 



Dr. Santosh Rangnekar, Dr. Upender Dhar, 

Prof. S G Deshmukh, Mr. Aquil Busrai and Mr. Sharu R

delhi - National HRD Network

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