NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

HOW HR CAN IGNITE 'HOT SPOTS'
YOGI SRIRAM
Abstract
The 6th National HRM Summit, organized under the auspices of All India Management
Association(AIMA) was held on 19th & 20th October 2007. It brought together the author of HOT
SPOTS - Lynda Gratton (LBS) and other eminent speakers from the Corporate World who spoke
on four themes to discover how HR can ignite HOT SPOTS. In compiling the various ideas from
speakers, the article tries to bring out how change can be brought through HR and leadership to
create and sustain hot spots. The article thus heavily drives on the ideas of the book and the
content of the summit.
Yogi Sriram is currently
at Larsen & Toubro
Limited as Executive
Vice President (Human
Resources &
Administrative Services)
for the E&C division. He
had earlier rich
experience with, Taj
Group (Hotel arm of the
TATA's) , Asea Brown
Boveri , Dabur India,
British Petroleum as
H.R. Director (Africa,
Middle East, Turkey &
South Asia) covering 3
continents and 41
countries.He has a
Honours degree in
Economics from Shriram
College of Commerce,
Masters in Personnel
Management & IR from
the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, LL.B.
from the University of
Delhi and M.B.A. in
Organization Behaviour
from the Faculty of
Management Studies
(FMS), University of
Delhi. He has been
admitted as Fellow of
the All India
Management
Association.
Context
The biggest challenge facing the
HR function today is to create and
sustain an innovative work culture.
With the Indian economy surging
ahead and the Sensex surprising us
each day with unexpected highs,
the expectations from HR has
increased many fold. The shortage
of talent is being seen as the only
big challenge in surfing this big
wave of growth. HR has an
opportunity, like never before, to
attract, develop and retain this
scarce and precious talent. But the
new Gen Y that is represented by
the young faces at the work place,
are the real opportunity for
unleashing potential and triggering
quantum growth. We need excited
people with passion for
collaborating and innovating. HR
has an opportunity to find ways to
trigger this passion and
commitment for innovation and
excellence. Within organizations,
there are periods when innovation
and creativity flows unhindered
and the resulting activity and
positive energy create unexpected
results. These condensed periods
are called "Hot Spots". These can
be ignited and sustained to create
innovative and winning
organizations where people are
self-propelled and feel like giving
their best, and sometimes even
beyond.
Prof. Lynda Gratton from London
Business School , has explained in
her book the people implications
on strategy. Her book "Hot Spots:
Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and
Organizations Buzz with Energy - and
Others Don't", is an international
bestseller
Inspired by her work, the Summit
focused on "How HR can ignite 'Hot
Spots'" with sharing of experiences
and HR best practices and through
dialogue at the Summit, that lead to
new ideas on how to create
excitement in the Work place.
This Summit was designed to focus
the attention of business leaders on
creating Hot Spots that are the key
to the success of human endeavour
within an organization, group and
team. There were also deliberations
on competencies that HR
professionals should develop to
ignite these Hot Spots.
The Take way of the Summit
The Summit triggered plenty of
ideas to ignite Hot Spots that
November 2007 NHRD Journal 33