the new hr

novemBER 2015 VOLUME 54 ISSUE 11 PAGES 92 r60 

the new hr: 

PEOPLE ANALYTICS: 

Making sense of 

numbers 

INNOVATION: 

Driving collaborative 

culture 

REVERSE MENTORING: 

A two-way 

street 

RETRENCHMENT: 

Downsizing 

with diligence 

MILLENNIAL EMPLOYEES: 

Looking at the 

big picture

THE JOURNAL OF THE 

ALL INDIA MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION 

VOLUME 54 I ISSUE 11 I NOVEMBER 2015 

THIS ISSUE 

12 

COVER STORY 

the future of HR 

People Analytics 14 

Jyoti Pant, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research 

REVERSE MENTORING 20 

Sanghamitra Chaudhuri, University of Minnesota 

Retrenchment 24 

Mohit James, L’Oreal India 

HR and Innovation 28 

Dr Prince Augustin, Mahindra & Mahindra 

Dr Santrupt Misra, Aditya Birla Group 

MilleNnial EMPLOYEES 36 

Abhijit Nimgaonkar, ZS Associates 

DECISION-MAKING 

Think macro 40 

Myopic decision-making should not hinder 

long-term sustainability. 

- DEBASISH BISWAS 

INTERVIEW 

Survival of the nimblest 44 

Even giant players need to be agile when walking 

the tightrope. 

- BABA PRASAD 

MARKETING 

Telling a tale 56 

Companies need to create a brand story for better 

recall value among customers. 

- Suresh Eriyat

“The important mind shift is 

to recognise that agility is a 

blanket term—it signifies 

all kinds of flexibilities.” 

OFFICE DESIGN 

Through the workplace prism 60 

Discover the connect between leaders and 

workplace designs. 

- Aparna Piramal Raje 

INNOVATION DILEMMAS 

Co-creation mantra 70 

Organisations should make garnering customer 

feedback a part of the creation process. 

- Dr Rangapriya Kannan-Narasimhan 

and Dr N G Kannan 

STARTUP 

The virtual caller 75 

Why and how cloud-based telephony is the future 

of business communications. 

- Ambarish Gupta 

LEADERSHIP 

Building tomorrow’s leaders 84 

For b-schools, character building should be as 

important as leadership development. 

SPEED LEARNING CAPSULE 

The India they did not tell you about 50 

It is high time businesses dispelled myths about 

the Indian consumer. 

- DHEErAJ SINHA 

Peels and meals 66 

Taking your employees’ views into consideration 

will help identify and solve problems. 

- SURESH LULLA 

The six commandments 80 

Organisations should bring about management 

innovations that enhance productivity. 

- Nicolas Arnaud and Thibaut Bardon 

BOOK EXTRACT 

Customer is king 88 

Speaking your customer’s language can boost an 

organisation’s performance. 

- J Philip

president’s 

message 

New HR for winning the war for talent 

Firdose Vandrevala is President, AIMA and Executive Vice Chairman, Essar Steel India Limited. 

The 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total 

Recall has a scene that typifies conventional 

HR wisdom. It involves an exchange 

between the boss and his employee, which 

goes like this: 

Employee: “But I thought…” 

Boss: “Who told you to think? I don’t give you enough 

information to think. You do what you are told. That’s 

what you do!” 

Employee: “Yes, sir!” 

The employee rebels anyway and bad things happen 

to the organisation. 

The takeaway is quite obvious: to utilise and keep 

talent, you have to empower people instead of throwing 

tantrums. Too many companies lose their best people 

and do not get the right talent for future success 

because they cannot get over the fetish of hierarchy. 

In the new, knowledge economy, brute capital is not 

enough to buy performance or loyalty. Companies have 

to now rely on the voluntary excellence of the talented 

to innovate and compete. Setting targets and flogging 

do not make the talented give their best. Even the most 

commoditised of industries can no longer maximise 

output by slave driving. There is a war for talent out there 

and talent has to be charmed. 

Moreover, capital is chasing talent now and the 

most talented people are turning their backs on jobs 

and setting up firms that make their former employers 

irrelevant. This new balance of power between capital 

and talent is shaping the new HR. 

The new HR is about creating employer brand and 

persuading talent to play for your team. The new 

HR is helping improve the company’s earnings and 

market share through employee initiatives and not just 

maximising output through hard labour. 

As talent becomes the main input and differentiator, 

HR is turning into a strategic function with responsibility 

for business outcomes. In any business wherein buying 

and consuming experience matters as much as the 

price, HR is critical to success. In services businesses, 

such as IT, banking and finance, media, entertainment, 

retail, consulting, etc., HR determines the productivity 

of the capital. Some CEOs have gone to the extent of 

propounding the idea of putting the satisfaction of the 

employees ahead of that of the customers. 

Building an employer brand is particularly vital to 

get talented millennials on board, as they are spoilt for 

choice in the global market. Companies now have to vie 

with one another to secure a top slot in the numerous 

lists drawn up by media and consulting firms. They 

have to market themselves to top education institutions 

and students. They even have to go social to make 

themselves appealing to the youth of the digital age. 

Using recruitment websites is now generic and the 

smarter HR is mining social media for finding talent 

and conversing with relevant professionals. They are 

also managing employer brands primarily through 

social media. Nowadays, employees tend to share 

their workplace experiences more on social media than 

with their colleagues or bosses; and their reviews and 

information leaks can make or break an employer brand. 

In fact, digital technologies are transforming HR in 

many more ways than just recruitment and branding. 

HR can now set data points for employee attributes and 

performance, collect and analyse employee data, and 

correlate it with the firm’s performance. Thus, HR can 

now measure the return on investment on hiring and 

training on a daily basis, and identify talent gaps and fill 

those quickly. 

Digital technologies also offer the HR tools for training 

and deploying employees faster and cheaper. Digital 

tools allow anytime, anywhere instruction and testing. 

They also facilitate remote collaboration that helps 

optimise the talent distributed in different divisions and at 

difference locations. 

The new HR is changing the way firms look at 

employees. People are no longer an inevitable cost. 

Rather, they are the most important value creators. 

The opinion expressed is personal. 

6 INDIAN MANAGEMENT NOVEMBER 2015

I NDIAN MANAGEMENT NOVEMBER 2015 7

editor s 

note 

A SPENTA MULTIMEDIA PVT LTD PUBLICATION 

NOVEMBER 2015 VOLUME 54 ISSUE 11 

Dear Readers, 

The role of HR professionals has evolved over time to encompass 

duties well beyond their traditional responsibilities. In this era 

of constant change, the HR department has to be seen less as an 

administrative unit and more as a strategic partner. 

Many companies realise the potential impact human resources can 

have on the organisation’s future, and are investing heavily in HRM to 

unlock that potential. From hiring the right individuals to getting the best 

out of them, the HR department holds the key to building a workforce 

that combines present-day success with long-term sustainability. HR 

professionals are equipping themselves with new skill sets in order to give 

their organisations a competitive edge—imperative in the startup era 

where the talent pool has a wide 

The HR department has range of choices as far as career is 

to be seen less as an 

concerned. Consulting firms such 

administrative unit and more 

as a strategic partner. 

as Infosys have introduced HR 

practices that at one point may have 

seemed radical, but have now become essential to deliver enduring results. 

Some of the changes in modern HRM strategies may not be obvious right 

away, but do not let the covert nature of these innovations undermine 

their significance. 

In this issue, we explore some key topics influencing modern-day HR 

game plans. The effect of millennials joining the workforce, applying 

analytics to better understand recruiting needs, using reverse mentoring as 

a learning tool, and invoking strategies that drive workplace innovation are 

just some of the issues keeping HR professionals on their toes. 

We would request some interaction in the form of your feedback. 

Do write in to imeditorial@spentamultimedia.com. 

Maneck Davar 

Editorial Advisory Board 

S L Rao 

Firdose Vandrevala 

Rekha Sethi 

Prof. J K Mitra 

Maneck Davar 

N Radhakrishnan 

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executive summary 

cover story 

DEMYSTIFYING PEOPLE 

ANALYTICS 

It may seem difficult to reconcile 

data and numbers with the human 

factor, but ‘people analytics’ 

is paving the path that allows 

organisations to do just that. 

While there is much to be said 

about the value of intuition, few 

organisations are willing to let 

chance play a role in the outcomes 

of decisions. Common wisdom 

in the corporate world is leaning 

towards the argument that if 

data and number crunching can 

provide the right solutions to aid 

business decisions, can the same 

not be done for employee relations 

as well. If HR personnel want to 

be proactive rather than reactive, 

people analytics is an essential tool 

in their arsenal. 

INTERVIEW 

SURVIVAL OF 

THE NIMBLEST 

We live in times where ‘growth’ 

and ‘survival’ in the business 

world have become synonymous. 

While organisations may be taking 

the right steps towards achieving 

growth, myopic decision making 

can limit the progress possible. 

Dr Baba Prasad, author of Nimble 

–How intelligence can create agile 

companies and wise leaders, discusses 

some key strategies that can help 

organisations take the next big 

step, while reaping maximum 

benefits. Strategic agility and 

visionary intelligence not only 

enhance decision-making, but also 

provide a firm platform on which 

an organisation’s management can 

build a concrete strategic plan for 

the long term. 

MARKETING 

TELLING A TALE 

In an increasingly congested 

marketplace, brands seem to be 

locked in an eternal battle to vie 

for consumer’s attention. This 

leads to organisations adopting 

all kinds of novel approaches in 

order to give their respective 

brands the upper hand. While 

adopting new approaches is always 

encouraged, sometimes it can 

lead to proven techniques being 

overlooked. A case in point is the 

art of storytelling. Suresh Eriyat, 

Founder and Creative Director of 

Studio Eeksaurus, delves into the 

world of advertising and marketing 

to highlight the importance of 

storytelling for brands. Creating 

an emotional connect with the 

consumer can pay big dividends 

in the long run; storytelling 

can help brands establish that 

emotional connect. 

page 14 page 44 page 56 


OFFICE DESIGN 

INNOVATION DILEMMAS 

THROUGH THE WORKPLACE PRISM 

CO-CREATION MANTRA 

“I was going to have cosmetic surgery until I noticed that Building a culture around innovation is something that 

the doctor’s office was full of portraits by Picasso.” That 

organisations strive for, but only a few can pull it off 

observation by American comedian Rita Rudner sums up an successfully. A major cause for this is organisations adopting 

important fact: the design of an office speaks volumes about a narrow approach when establishing conditions for 

those who inhabit it. CEOs and leaders of some of the world’s advocating innovation. In the race to bring the next big 

biggest organisations are often quizzed about personality thing to the market, companies overlook the big picture. 

traits that define them; an even better way to determine this As a result, sources of inspiration that are right in front 

would be to have a peek into their offices. Aparna Piramal of the organisation end up getting ignored. Consider 

Raje, author of Working Out of the Box: 40 stories of leading CEOs, consumer feedback for instance—many see it as a tool 

explains why a CEO’s choice of having a standardised or for improving customer experience, but not all are able 

personalised workspace reflects his or her approach 

to comprehend the fact that the feedback can actually be 

to leadership. 

used to shape future products and services. Companies 

that used customer feedback to co-create are often the 

ones most likely to develop a reputation for delivering 

quality consistently. 

page 60 page 70 

dilbert 

BY scott adams 



Changing 

Role of HR 

The rapidly evolving business landscape, 

changing demography of workplaces, and 

unprecedented focus on innovation have 

catapulted the HR function into a more 

strategic position. But are HR managers ready 

for the challenge? 

PEOPLE ANALYTICS 

JYOTI PANT 

REVERSE MENTORING 

SANGHAMITRA CHAUDHURI 

RETRENCHMENT 

MOHIT JAMES 

INNOVATION 

DR PRINCE AUGUSTIN 

DR SANTRUPT MISRA 

MILLENNIAL EMPLOYEES 

ABHIJIT NIMGAONKAR 

INDIAN MANAGEMENT NOVEMBER 2015 13

Demystifying 

people analytics 

People analytics is complex, difficult to comprehend, and requires specialised knowledge and 

training. No longer. 

Jyoti Pant, Welingkar Institute of Management Development 

and Research 


Cover 

story 

People analytics, in simple words, 

refers to people management 

where decision-making is backed 

by data rather than intuition 

and hunch. It involves a highly 

evidence-based decision-making 

process. If done in the right way 

and with the right intentions, it can definitely 

give more credibility to the actions—backed with 

data—taken by HR managers. 

People analytics has evolved in three stages: 

descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and 

prescriptive analytics. Though the words seem 

complex, in reality the concepts are fairly simple. 

Descriptive analytics is based on descriptive 

statistics where analysis summarises patterns in 

the data in a meaningful way. Based on current and 

historical data patterns, it describes relationships 

between different variables. Traditional HR 

metrics such as rate of employee turnover, 

number of people hired, trained, percentage of 

high performers, average numbers of days to 

hire, etc. are all examples of descriptive people 

analytics. It uses statistical measures of central 

tendency—mean, median, and mode—or 

measures of variability—standard deviation—to 

describe employees and employee behaviour. 

Most organisations have tracked these traditional 

measures. The process looks at past data for 

various HR activities such as sourcing, recruiting, 

training, attrition, etc. and reports HR metrics 

as well as looks for trends. For example, tracking 


Organisations are 

the rate of employee turnover 

and benchmarking it against the 

moving from just 

industry will describe and give 

descriptive reporting 

insights into some important 

to more predictive and employee behaviours. The primary 

prescriptive analytics. 

aim has been to either reduce HR 

costs or improve people processes. 

Therefore, descriptive analytics 

tells us more about what has been happening in the 

past and what is happening now. At some level, all 

firms have been engaging in descriptive analytics— 

people analytics at this level is not a completely 

unknown territory. Does it then mean that it is 

merely old wine in a new bottle? 

Predictive analytics uses current and historical 

facts to make future predictions by using statistical 

techniques of probability. Examples of this include 

finding out the probability that an employee will 

remain with the organisation for a period of 3-5 

years, thereby increasing the probability of selecting 

the right people during the hiring process. Some IT 

companies predict the future performance of new 

engineering graduates based on their performance 

during the training period. In short, predictive 

analytics tells us why things are happening and 

where things are likely to lead in the future. 

Prescriptive analytics is far more sophisticated 

and goes beyond prediction. It analyses complex 

©shutterstock.com 

sets of data and provides managers with various 

decision options along with the business impact 

for each alternative. For example, how different 

types of training programmes and learning 

methodologies will impact business outcomes. 

Based on this, the manager can make a more 

informed choice of selecting the appropriate 

learning programmes for the employees—would 

a classroom training on leadership be more 

effective and useful than an e-learning module? 

Is it more profitable for the organisation in the 

long run to hire academically brilliant candidates 

from a tier-1 engineering college who will stay 

for 2 years, or students from a tier-2 engineering 

college who will stay for 5+ years? Prescriptive 

model shows the impact of decisions on business 

outcomes such as ROI, profitability, top line, and 

bottom line. This enables managers to analyse 

scenarios, see the business impact, and then take an 

appropriate decision. 

Today, organisations are moving from just 

descriptive reporting to more predictive and 

prescriptive people analytics. 

A strategic business partner 

Traditionally, the HR department has included 

processes spanning the entire employee lifecycle, 

from hiring to compensation, performance 

management, learning and development, 

retirements, layoffs, and labour relations. It has also 

managed intangibles such as employee engagement, 

organisational culture, and change management. 

Time and again, debates have been raised on the 

contribution and existence of the HR department. 

Prof. Ram Charan, in his 2014 article It’s Time to 

Split HR, spoke about the need to say goodbye to 

the HR department and spilt it into HR-admin for 

compensation and benefits, and HR-LO (leadership 

and organisation) to focus on talent improvement 

and development. He proposed that HR-admin 

should report to the CFO while HR-LO, which is 

more strategic, should directly report to the CEO. 1 

Many well known global organisations like Bayer 

AG, Monsanto Company, Unilever, Accenture, 

IBM, Hewlett Packard, GE, Schneider Electric, 


PEOPLE 

Analytics 


With the support of 

as well as Indian companies like 

facts and data through 

Infosys Technologies, Wipro 

Corporation, and People Strong 

people analytics tools, have already split HR into 

HR managers can make transactional and transformational 

more informed decisions. activities through the HR Shared 

Services model. Some are even 

offering it as a successful business 

model and advocating it to their clients. The 

transactional HR Shared Service model automates 

and standardises HR processes to create a oneemployee 

experience. It centralises repetitive and 

administrative HR tasks leading to low process 

cost. The bigger benefit lies in the simplicity of 

administrative tasks performed by HR departments 

with this model in place. It creates a call centre 

approach to solving employee’s queries and issues 

over phone or emails using a single Human Capital 

Management platform. As a result of HR shared 

services, the employee is treated like an internal 

customer and matters are resolved within specified 

time deadlines. This has led to greater employee 

satisfaction and more efficient delivery of HR 

services. But that is not the sole reason why many 

MNCs are rapidly adopting this service delivery 

model. The transformational HR shared services 

deal with the HR activities that are non-routine 

and non-administrative. These include creating 

new culture and implementing HR strategies to 

accomplish business goals. The transformation 

activities are clubbed under centres of excellence 

(COE), which comprise people having expertise on 

HR areas like staffing, development, compensation, 

organisation effectiveness, communication, 

organisational design, and employee relations. HR 

professionals in these COEs consult with businesses 

to transform their company-specific issues into best 

practices. COEs require HR professionals to have 

good technical knowledge. The result of this split 

is that it gives HR professionals time to focus on 

strategic endeavours and provide strategic input in 

talent management and workforce planning, rather 

than administration of routine tasks. This has also 

enabled HR to shed its image from a generalist to 

a technical function, where HR professionals need 

to develop deep domain skills and technical craft 

to succeed. 

People analytics as a game changer 

Emerging debates and trends indicate the change in 

the role of HRM from being a support function to 

a business partner. With the use of more predictive 

and perspective people analytics, companies can 

operate in a VUCA world with more confidence. 

The future is complex and uncertain where global 

interdependency among stakeholders is quite high. 

Devising people management policies and taking 

decisions in such a scenario cannot be based on 

intuition or past organisational norms. In these 

turbulent times, with the support of facts and data 

through people analytics tools, HR managers can 

make more informed decisions. They can preempt 

various scenarios and see the impact of these 

alternative decisions on the business. Through 

people analytics, the perception of VUCA can be 

changed from being threatening for organisations 

and HR managers to one where organisations 

have more opportunities to make sound decisions 

backed with data. 

People analytics can be a game changer, enabling 

HR professionals in centres of excellence to 

pre-empt and raise valid questions and problem 

statements in their HR domains. With the use of 

analytics, relevant employee data can be gathered 

from within the organisation and analysed to 

uncover interesting patterns, new relationships 

among variables, and predict future outcomes. 


PEOPLE 

Analytics 

It requires maintaining 

a fine balance between 

data analysis skills 

and the knowledge of 

human behaviour. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Jyoti Pant is 

Faculty - HR at 

Welingkar Institute 

of Management 

Development and 

Research. 

These will enable the recruitment and selection 

team, compensation and benefits department, 

learning and development function, employee 

relations executive’s organisations to find solutions 

to some critical people issues. 

In the words of Peter Cappelli, HR leaders need 

to “set the agenda rather than waiting for the CEO 

to tell them what to do”. HR leaders must seek 

excellence in every people process, from recruiting 

to performance management to exits. With the aid 

of people analytics, the impact of HR processes on 

business outcomes like ROI and profitability can 

be calculated, and will give more credibility to the 

words the CHROs; CEOs will seek their strategic 

inputs, and HR will transform 

into a true business partner in 

the growth and profitability of 

an organisation. 

People analytics and a caution 

for its mass appeal 

However, like other management 

fads, people analytics does not 

present itself as a panacea for 

all woes—it must not be blindly implemented 

because everyone else is doing it. People analytics 

is a tool that can be leveraged to the advantage 

of the business in the long run and also against 

the competitors. 

There are some critical factors that will 

determine the role people analytics will play in 

an organisation. Statistical tools and techniques 

can only process data and give results. But it is 

the sound knowledge of HR professionals which 

will enable data to be read and examined in the 

right perspective and context. An HR manager’s 

ability to ask quality questions and collect the right 

employee data, coupled with the use of right tools, 

has enabled HR professionals in IBM, HP, Wipro, 

Accenture, Infosys, 3M, and Towers Watson to 

leverage the true power of people analytics. 

People analytics and the skills needed 

Many HR aspirants have questions in mind 

whether the growing popularity of people analytics 

requires HR executives and managers to develop 

statistics and math skills. This may be difficult 

considering that many HR professionals develop 

affinity with the discipline due to their dislike 

for quantitative subjects. Will they need to gain 

mastery over numbers and move away from being a 

people’s person? 

Well the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. As rightly 

mentioned by Cappelli, HR leaders need to either 

deepen their own knowledge of analytics or partner 

with those who are experts in order to ‘help 

companies make sense of all their employee data 

and get the most from their human capital’. 2 More 

than the need to learn statistical tools and packages, 

HR professionals need to cultivate a mind which 

can see through data, see patterns in numbers, 

identify trends, and make sense of it. However, they 

must also be able to go beyond data and empathise 

with the employees. They must be able to look at 

numbers, but keep in mind that employees affected 

by the decisions are all human beings. It requires 

maintaining a fine balance between data analysis 

skills and the knowledge of human behaviour. 

This will ensure that the orientation of the HR 

function will not get reduced to a mere number 

game. Lastly, with data-backed decision-making, 

HR professionals need to learn the art of marketing 

themselves before the top leadership. Without 

this, even the best of people analytics cannot be 

implemented in an organisation. 

Successful HR professionals of the future 

will need a combination of five skill sets: sound 

knowledge of business, deep HR domain 

knowledge, empathy, ability to market themselves, 

and comfort working with numbers and data. This 

will enable HR managers help their organisation’s 

top management and leadership take a long-term 

sustainable view as opposed to a short-term opinion 

based on immediate data and facts. Armed with 

these five weapons, future HR professionals will not 

merely survive, but also thrive in a VUCA world. 

1. Charan, Ram. It’s time to split HR. Harvard Business Review. 

July-Aug 2014. 

2. Mcilvaine, Andrew. It’s time to Blow up HR. June 25, 2015. 

http://blog.hreonline.com/2015/06/25/hbr-its-time-to-blow-up-hr/ 

Fitz-enz Jac and Mattox, John II. 'Predictive Analytics for Human 

Resources', John Wiley & Sons, 2014. 



From a one-way 

to a two-way street 

A well-structured reverse mentoring programme can rake in benefits in terms of increased employee 

collaboration and productivity. 

dr sanghamitra Chaudhuri, University of Minnesota 


Cover 

story 

traction in the past decade is the process of 

reverse mentoring. 

It was Jack Welch who introduced a structured 

reverse mentoring programme at GE when he was 

CEO, in 1999. Senior executives including himself 

were offered lessons on the internet by younger 

employees. The success of this programme made 

it so popular that many organisations such as Time 

Warner, Citibank, Procter & Gamble, Ogilvy & 

Mather, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Hartford 

Insurance, and many more jumped on the reverse 

mentoring bandwagon. 

Reverse mentoring is an inverted type of 

mentoring, wherein junior employees are paired 

with senior, experienced staff. It is truly a social 

exchange tool between two generations—senior 

members of an organisation will acquire new 

learnings in the areas of technology—mobile 

computing, social media, cloud technology, etc.— 

and research, work-life diversity, work-life balance, 

latest professional trends, and glean a more global 

perspective on the concepts of openness and 

diversity. The younger lot will find in it a chance 

to hone their leadership skills and garner insights 

on organisational structure—all of which 

ultimately leads to increased job satisfaction and 

employee engagement. 

We are gradually 

transitioning 

from a knowledge 

economy to a 

learning economy 

and globally, 

workplaces are 

becoming more conglomerated and democratic 

in nature. Four generations—baby boomers, 

generation X, millennials, and generation Z—are 

contributing simultaneously to organisations, 

each with its own unique skill sets. A responsible 

HR should not let go of this wave of opportunity 

and should make concerted efforts to make 

the best of all the worlds. One of the cuttingedge 

intervention tools that has been gaining 

Dos and don’ts 

Reverse mentoring leads to a win-win situation, but 

it comes with its own set of glitches, as with any 

other process. HR should see this as a strength and 

capitalise on the situation they are presented with. 

On the one hand, there are youngsters who would 

soon take over the reins of an organisation and be 

next-generation leaders. On the other, there are 

boomers and traditionalists getting ready to retire. 

HR has to take cognizance of this fact and ensure 

their vast pool of knowledge is cashed in on. One 

way to do this is to foster reverse mentoring; it is 

an innovative way of getting young employees into 

a mentoring relationship and giving them access to 

leadership right at the entry level. 

One of the basic tenets of social exchange theory 

is a meaningful exchange of resources that ensures 



Training is often ignored, 

but it is an absolute must 

to ensure the sustained 

success of a reverse 

mentoring programme. 

that the benefits outweigh the cost. This perspective 

makes it compelling to first find out the objective of 

a reverse mentoring programme. 

For a successful reverse mentoring programme, 

it is pivotal to define its underlying purpose— 

the business purpose which calls for it. It should 

be closely tied with an organisation’s business 

objective: if the senior leadership understands 

well where the business is heading and the areas 

that demand improvement—say, technology or 

advances in other fields—and becomes aware of the 

value the younger generation could bring, then the 

goals are clear and the buy-in becomes easy. 

The biggest HR challenge lies in changing the 

mindset of the people—convincing the senior 

management who may constitute the organisation’s 

think tank about the need to be 

mentored. It is the responsibility 

of HR to help them make the 

culture transition from ‘more 

talking’ to ‘more listening.’ One of 

the ways to address this problem 

is to pay special attention to 

personality differences—attitudes 

and preferences—while pairing 

the mentors and the mentees. 

For this, HR personnel could rely on their own 

experience of interacting with the participants, ask 

them who they think would be the best possible 

partner, or employ standard assessment tools to 

measure and match personalities. 

Trust and transparency are the cornerstones of 

a reverse mentoring relationship and these can be 

developed by fostering high levels of interpersonal 

comfort. Many organisations let the employees 

spend time socialising before embarking on a 

formal relationship. Being open to the concept of 

reverse mentoring comes from an understanding 

that the relationship is beneficial. If both sides 

overcome their egos and convey their development 

needs openly, it would lead to a lot of collaboration. 

Training is often ignored, but it is an absolute 

must to invest a lot of planning and energy in 

it to ensure the sustained success of a reverse 

mentoring programme. An in-depth training and 

coaching session for the participating pairs would 

help in not only kick-starting the programme 

smoothly, but also making them aware of their 

roles and responsibilities, and be clear about their 

expectations. It is recommended to start with a 

small pilot group, and then implement it across 

the organisation. 

Leadership buy-in 

Reverse mentoring can effect results irrespective 

of the kind of organisational structure or work 

culture, provided there is a certain degree of 

flexibility. Research suggests that the support of the 

top management and their active participation are 

key features of a successful mentoring programme. 

Getting leadership support at all levels sends 

positive signals across the organisation about 

the impact and seriousness of the initiative. In a 

recent study published in 2014, a large Australian 

government department started a programme with 

just five mentors and five mentees. The idea was to 

start at a low scale and then spread it to a bigger 

population. The head of the department was one of 

the first mentees, and this involvement helped raise 

the status of the programme and ensured adequate 

resourcing. Once it was successful, it was extended 

to 22 pairings. In India, reverse mentoring has 

picked up despite its tradition of predominant 

hierarchy. Bharti Airtel was one of the pioneers, and 

many organisations including Hindustan Unilever 

and Accenture have jumped on the bandwagon. At 

Bharti Airtel, the senior management was educated 

on downloading apps, use of latest gadgets, fashion 

trends, and also on how young consumers utilise 

free time. 

Nitin Paranjpe, former Hindustan Unilever CEO 

and current global President of Home Care Business 

for Unilever, had concurred in an article that the 

skills he grew up with as a marketer were vastly and 

starkly different from those needed in the future. 

He considered reverse mentoring as probably one 

of the avenues to remain in touch with the future. 

All of us have to keep in mind the reality that it is 

not only the workplace that is going to be swamped 

by millennials, but also the consumer or customer 


everse 

mentoring 

Although the ROI is not 

that immediate, it is one 

of the vehicles to transfer 

knowledge across 

the organisation and 

boost productivity. 


Dr Sanghamitra 

Chaudhuri 

is Lecturer, 

Department of 

Organizational 

Leadership and 

Policy Development, 

University of 

Minnesota, and 

visiting professor, 

Drexel University, 

Philadelphia. Her 

research interest is 

focused on aspects 

of HR practices 

and its impact 

on organisational 

outcomes. 

base. To get ahead of what the 

millennial customers are thinking, 

utilising a millennial’s piece of 

mind during strategy formulation 

could be useful. 

The future 

Reverse mentoring is certainly 

the way for future businesses, 

considering the increasing number of millennials 

joining the workforce. In the US, they account for 

the largest share of the workforce; their numbers 

surpassed that of Generation Xers and boomers 

in the first quarter of 2015. Globally too, the 

demography of the workplace is changing by the 

day. And they will sure have something new to 

offer and share with senior employees, which could 

invariably result in business process improvement. 

The benefits of reverse mentoring definitely go 

beyond technology. It is just a catalyst to start such 

a relationship—one of the premises to get two 

generations talking to each other. The mentees 

would come to know about subject matter advances 

and latest trends in the market, about which 

juniors who are fresh out from college will know 

better. Procter & Gamble conducted a programme 

‘Mentoring Up’, wherein junior female employees 

were paired with older male employees. It was an 

effort to make the latter develop more openness to 

the paradigm of diversity. 

Also, there is a definite connect between 

increased productivity and reverse mentoring. 

Although the ROI is not that immediate, it is one 

of the vehicles to transfer knowledge across the 

organisation and it boosts productivity over a 

period of time. For instance, senior executives at 

Hartford Insurance noticed a change in the buying 

habits of consumers who were well-versed in 

digital technology. In order to cater to changing 

preferences, they had to drastically overhaul their 

business model. This sent an alarm to the senior 

management, which then decided to embark on a 

reverse mentoring programme. They started with a 

small group of millennials who were already using 

social media for business development purposes— 

the leaders knew they had to rethink their business 

strategies and therefore younger employees were 

tapped in as potential mentors who could help 

seasoned managers with tele-marketing techniques 

and advanced use of social media. 

At Deloitte, the initiative started with teaching 

the older employees how to use email and Outlook. 

Soon the relationship crossed boundaries, led to 

many more meaningful joint collaborations, and 

impacted ROI. 

Reverse mentoring should be a structured 

programme, with deliverables clearly 

chalked out for each of the steps involved. 

Organisations should be sure of the business 

logic and rationale to launch such an initiative, 

and a strong foundation should be laid by way 

of proper planning and adequate leadership 

support. And more importantly, care should 

be taken to not force anyone into a reverse 

mentoring relationship. 

Having said that, traditional mentoring 

would still continue to exist. But what it would 

essentially become is a two-way street—otherwise 

called as reciprocal mentoring where both the 

parties can serve as a sounding board to each 

other’s ideas. The gamble is to extract the fresh 

ideas from the newcomers before they get used 

to the organisation’s old way of thinking. Reverse 

mentoring is here to stay and it is definitely more 

than a corporate buzz or a fad. In fact, the practice 

was always there but it was never really coined or 

formalised in our lexicon as reverse mentoring. 

(As told to Anitha Moosath) 

References 

Burdett, J. (2014). Reverse mentoring becomes a two-way 

street: case study for a mentoring project for IT competence. 

Development and Learning in Organizations: An International 

Journal, 28(3),13 - 16 

Chaudhuri, S., & Ghosh, R. (2012). Reverse mentoring a social 

exchange tool for keeping the boomers engaged and millennials 

committed. Human Resource Development Review, 11(1), 55-76. 

Kwoh, L. (2011). Reverse mentoring cracks workplace, Wall 

Street Journal. 

Marcinkus Murphy, W. (2012). Reverse mentoring at work: 

Fostering cross-generational learning and developing millennial 

leaders. Human Resource Management, 51(4), 549-573. 


Downsize with 

diligence 

Cutting down on headcount without jeopardizing employee engagement and productivity is a 

tough challenge. 

Mohit James, L’Oreal India 


Cover 

story 

Stiff competition and changing market 

dynamics invariably leave organisations 

grappling with new challenges. While 

striving to catch up with the pace of 

market flux—wherein they realise that 

change is imperative—reorganisation 

becomes the most plausible option. 

Management tools such as TQM are employed by 

companies on a path of revamp. 

However, being reactive can bring in its own set 

of problems—the financial core could be at stake in 

the scramble to redraw business strategies and stay 

ahead in the race. And then to manoeuvre a tradeoff, 

companies may have to resort to least-favoured 

tools of cost cutting, such as retrenchment. 

It is a seemingly diligent business tactic for 

companies in distress, but think twice before 

setting out since the efficacy of retrenchment in 

improving financial performance is still a matter of 

much contention. It is a short-term measure and, 

as many studies point out, has a negative fallout 

on employee performance, thereby hindering 

productivity and growth. Consider whether it is 

worth the risk or it is well-timed to bring in the 

desired benefits. 

Retrenchment has been carried out by companies 

worldwide, but it ideally should be the last resort, 

considering the overwhelming human aspect 

involved. If driven to a situation where it is absolutely 

necessary, HR managers should follow a set of 

stringent dos and don’ts. Otherwise, the company’s 

brand image will be at stake, and its employer value 

proposition will take a beating. 

From deciding the criteria for downsizing to 

choosing the right people to be laid off to reassuring 

those who are left behind, the entire process 

has to be based on fair principles. Transparency 

should constitute the core of any retrenchment 

programme. During the series of events leading up 

to it, communication has to be open and visible. The 

grounds for retrenchment should be clear across 

the board and the explanation offered to employees 

convincing enough. A company should not paint 

a rosy picture of its finances a few weeks before a 

retrenchment exercise. Then it would appear as if the 

bastions are falling all too suddenly. Competitive data 

has to be shared on a regular basis so that it would 

become apparent to the employees that layoffs, if 

they are coming, are a logical conclusion. 

Drastic step 

At L’Oreal, we ensure free flow of information— 

every quarter, the global CEO sends a statement 

highlighting the company’s performance, which 


etrenchment 


Diligent organisations promptly reaches all the 

who value their 

employees. We genuinely value 

their talent and potential, and 

employees try to 

hence consider retrenchment as 

avoid retrenchment to a drastic step. For a long time 

the maximum. 

now, we have not faced any 

stressful situation that demanded 

a reduction in workforce. But if 

we see any negative signs, we start looking at areas 

where we can cut costs without jeopardising our 

employee wealth. As a first step, we would then 

stop hiring and make do with those on the rolls. 

Maintaining and managing the right size of human 

capital is a critical piece of business diligence that 

helps fend off a situation in which one has to tamper 

with human resources. 

Any layoff strategy should factor in the danger of 

dumbsizing—a drain of personnel with knowledge 

in niche areas—which could impact productivity 

adversely. The criteria should be carefully chosen— 

it could be either people who have served the 

organisation for long and hence have a fair degree of 

financial stability, or youngsters who can easily find 

new jobs. Also, the process should not be individual 

centric, one that amounts to pinpointing a person’s 

shortcomings/inefficiency. Due respect should be 

attached to the dignity of individuals; it is a difficult 

moment surfeit with emotions and care should be 

taken to not dent their self-confidence. 


Mohit James is 

Director, Human 

Resources, 

L’Oreal India. 

The downside 

Whatever the reason may be, a downsizing exercise 

often reflects badly on the image of the company 

involved. It causes a lot of resentment among 

employees—fear psychosis spreads and many feel 

they could be the next target; voluntary turnover 

rates too could go up considerably. It is then the 

responsibility of HR to spread a sense of procedural 

fairness and justice, and reassure employees of the 

security of their jobs and to boost their morale. 

The retrenchment strategy should be structured 

in such a way as to avoid any feeling of ill-will 

among those who are forced to leave as well as 

those who have been chosen to continue. For 

example, VRS could be a logical step for a factory 

facing the problem of significant overstaffing due to 

technology adoption. Planning a decent severance 

package and sharing savings with those who 

remain with the company could make both sides 

happy. Such measures go a long way in reassuring 

employees of their relevance to the organisation 

and the value attributed to their skill sets. 

Diligent organisations who value their 

employees try to avoid retrenchment to the 

maximum. One way to do this is to streamline 

work—for instance, outsourcing a function to a 

partner who can do it better and scale it up. At 

L’Oreal, handling customer care is a herculean 

task since we operate in the beauty products 

segment. Instead of adding to our headcount, we 

have tied up with a call centre specialised in the 

area. Most queries get answered at that level while 

a small team at our end manages communication 

that demands more expertise. 

‘People’ are the most important resource of an 

organisation, the firm foundation of competitive 

advantage. So tread cautiously while downsizing— 

missteps could deplete your employee wealth and 

dent your brand image. 

(As told to Anitha Moosath.) 



Building an 

innovation culture 

HR must hire and develop leaders who can serve as catalysts for progressive thinking and positive 

change in the organisation. Edited excerpts from a conversation with Dr Prince Augustin, 

EVP - Group Human Capital and Leadership Development, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited. 


Cover 

story 

When we 

speak about 

organisational 

culture, it is 

all about the 

thoughts, the 

actions and the 

behaviour in the organisation. Thoughts come 

in through learning interventions, discourses, 

conversations with leaders, and various other 

forms of communication—verbal, non-verbal, 

online, and offline. Action comes from following 

leaders established as role models. Behaviour comes 

from identifying conduct which is conducive to 

innovation and providing a behaviour re-enforcing 

mechanism with appropriate rewards. 

Company culture and innovation 

At Mahindra Group, we have created the Mahindra 

Leadership University (MLU), where we have 

brought together different forms of learning 

from various academies. At MLU, there are three 

philosophies of life that drive innovation: accepting 

no limits, alternative thinking, and driving positive 

change. The core purpose of the organisation 

is that we will challenge conventional thinking 

and innovatively use all our resources to drive 

positive change in the lives of our stakeholders 

and communities across the world, to enable them 

to ‘Rise’. Challenging convention thrives when 

people are encouraged to take well-reasoned risk 

and think beyond their boundaries; only if they 

can do this, can we say that the individuals have an 

innovative mindset. 

We have an academy for innovation headed by 

SP Shukla, Group President. It motivates team 

members to ensure that thought leadership is 

brought in. We also have partnerships across 

businesses to ensure that from a transition point of 

view, we are able to translate innovative thoughts 

into reality using the 3E approach of ‘experience, 

exposure, and education’. We believe that 

knowledge has to be shared. If you try to conserve 

knowledge, it cannot act as a multiplier. This is 

one of the key characteristics that we look for in a 

Mahindra leader—whether she/he is a multiplier. 

Hiring leaders who can promote change 

At Mahindra, the base on which we build 

anything, including the drive for innovation, is 

the core values. We call this the ‘character of the 

organisation’, and we look for the same character 

in the people we are hiring. We also look for 

people who manifest the three aforementioned 


These leveraged failures 

are considered stepping 

stones and there is no 

punishment or negative 

consequence for failures. 

Rise philosophies, ensuring we can hire those 

individuals who believe in the employee value 

proposition of accepting alternative thinking and 

driving positive change. All of it is interrelated to 

our core purpose. We have identified five levels 

of leaders—contributor, team leader, manager of 

team leaders, manager of managers, and enterprise 

leader. Firstly, we are clear about the level of people 

we are looking for. Once we decide on it, we have 

to consider leadership competencies, which form 

an integral part of desired behaviour. We also 

expect the person to bring a ‘whole brain thinking’ 

approach to the organisation. We want leaders who 

can connect with people, manage 

them, transform potential into 

performance, and can create 

an atmosphere in which there 

is joy at work. For that, people 

need to be multipliers and 

possess mindfulness in this age of 

distraction—critical for ‘whole 

brain thinking’. Authenticity and 

trust are also factors we consider 

for developing behaviour intervention techniques. 

The leaders at Mahindra Group are trained to ask 

questions to their role models, and interventions 

by skilled managers help people ask different types 

of questions that provide maximum insight. We 

employ psychometric instruments such as the 

Harrison’s Paradox Assessment. It is also important 

to set up checks that enable us to identify people 

who have the right behaviour and the cultural 

framework we are looking for. So, it is imperative 

that we have the art and science of hiring people 

who follow our philosophies. 

Better leaders for better HR 

We train people in ‘whole brain thinking’—in 

order to ensure that it is driving positive change, 

and we link it to our core purpose, which is all 

about what difference we make in the lives of 

people. There is also a reward mechanism in place 

that encourages individuals to rise, right across 

the organisation. Innovation awards in different 

categories—products, purpose, services, ideas, 

and field innovations—inspire our leaders to 

help people manage fear and leverage failure. 

These leveraged failures are considered stepping 

stones and there is no punishment or negative 

consequence for failures. What lessons have you 

learnt from the innovations or failures, which you 

have come across in your day-to-day actions? That is 

the question we like future leaders to ponder. After 

all, each top management executive and each line 


Innovation 

Culture 

Rituals and processes in manager is also an HR manager. 

the organisation have to 

A good experience for employees 

can be created by ensuring that 

be alike for collaboration HR professionals are managed 

to take place. 

by the top management and line 

managers. The HR’s role is to be a 

coach, asking powerful questions 

and planning appropriate interventions so that 

the organisation’s thought process is strategically 

implanted in the minds of the employees. Overall, 

there are different roles an HR manager needs to 

play—a business partner, a strategic change analyst, 

and an employee champion. The modern HR 

manager takes many forms, all equally important 

for the employees and the organisation. 

Collaborate to innovate 

Rituals and processes in the organisation have to be 

alike for collaboration to take place. Organisations 

need to have faith in the processes and there are 

powerful stories which speak for the potential of 

collaboration. The first thing to do is to ensure 

that all collaboration leads to innovation for the 

customer. At Mahindra Group, all our products 

and services are developed by cross-functional 

teams. Working with a cross-functional team is a 

key asset that every manager looks for. When we 


hire, train, and develop employees, we inculcate the 

cross-functional team mentality, with collaboration 

positioned as key to the whole process. As far 

as behaviour for collaboration is concerned, 

employees need to tell themselves, “I should be 

a caring person, I should be sensitive, I should be 

open to possibilities, I should be able to challenge, 

I should be powerful, and at the same time I should 

know the boundaries within which I need to 

operate.” We ensure that these attributes are present 

in our people; we train our line managers to look 

for these attributes and ensure that we reward 

people who promote breakthrough thinking by 

practising these behaviours. 

Driving innovation forward 

The biggest obstacle to innovation is the mind. 

In order to combat this, it is important to help 

people create a dominant mindset. The entire 

process of creating a dominant mindset is a 

continuous journey of dialogue, and powerful 

intervention tools can be used for what we 

define as ‘reflective conversations’. Each manager 

and each leader is a player in terms of having 

reflective conversations. When we reflect on the 

components of innovation, it helps create a culture 

that enables employees to overcome any fear they 

may harbour. Employees and leaders are then able 

to appreciate and better understand the needs of 

others. This enables them to connect to and create 

delight for the people they care for. Drivers of 

innovation need to have curiosity. They should 

have the ability to observe and analyse trends as 

the business necessitates, and to transform their 

thoughts into actions. They should also be able 

to handle multiple roles with equal ease. On the 

one hand, the individual has to be a champion 

and a strategic change cavalier, and on the other, a 

thought leader and someone whose work connects 

people across the organisation. 


Innovation 

Culture 

‘No room for 

complacency in a 

competitive world’ 

HR can lead innovation by fostering a culture of diversity and openness, and by exploring 

out-of-the-box thought paradigms. 

Dr Santrupt Misra, Aditya Birla Group 

How do you perceive the strategic role of 

HR in nurturing a culture of risk-taking 

and innovation? 

HR plays a very critical role. HR is tasked with 

creating a people-centric culture, that not 

only proactively manages talent but creates an 

environment which encourages risk-taking and 

innovation. At the basics, a culture of openness, 

tolerance and respecting alternate perspectives is 

integral to spawning innovations. It has got to be in 

the DNA of the organisation and its HR orientation. 

That is the core. And I shall come back to this later. 

One has to look at factors that stoke innovation and 

risk-taking. 

I believe volatility and uncertainty are good 

stimulants for innovation. Yet another equally 

important catalyst is diversity—of people, 

backgrounds, perspectives, and experience. And it 

is HR that is responsible for creating that kind of 

diversity. Diversity is no longer an option. 

The recruitment strategy can be purposefully 

structured so as to ensure that diversity is not left 

to chance, but created by design. If it delivers on 

this paradigm, then HR significantly contributes to 

the process of innovation. 

A vibrant source of innovation is invariably 

organisational culture. Is it empowering? 

enabling? encouraging voicing of multiple 

views? and embracing non-standard perspectives 

and mavericks? 

HR is the custodian of an organisation’s culture 

and values. It plays a pivotal role in building an 

inclusive environment—one where innovation 

can thrive. At the formal level, this is achieved 

through innovation-specific training programmes, 

knowledge sharing among people, putting in place 

processes to recognise conformity to company 

culture, or counselling those who do not imbibe 

it. HR plays a significant role in recognising and 

rewarding innovation and career planning too. 


Training also entails 

encouraging people 

vis-a-vis strategic 

thinking—guiding them 

to discover their own 

thinking patterns. 

If those who are innovative move to significant 

positions in an organisation, then it emits positive 

signals across the board. HR leaders themselves 

have to be innovative. 

How best can HR harness people’s power 

vis-à-vis innovation? 

Here HR’s responsibility pans out in the areas of 

hiring, creating a culture of innovation, training 

and rewarding out-of-the-box thinking, and 

providing exposure to innovative 

organisations and processes. 

At the Aditya Birla Group, 

there are a host of processes 

through which we leverage our 

HR mechanisms and business 

processes to build in innovation 

as a natural component of our 

culture and processes. 

During recruitment, we 

assess abilities we have as an 

organisation, identify the gaps, and identify areas 

that need a different perspective and use this to 

our advantage. It is for an HR leader to encourage 

people to think about the ‘big idea’ they would 

like to pursue. For example, if the CHRO of the 

Group’s cements business recruits sales people with 

an FMCG background, then he is pursuing a big 

idea and trying to bring in diversity. 

We have invested immensely in innovationspecific 

skills training and set up several platforms 

to spark innovation. Workshops and knowledge 

integration programmes showcase innovations. 

There are internal competitions as well. To cite an 

example, the Aditya Birla Awards for Outstanding 

Achievement recognise individual as well as team 

innovations. Presently, a competition is underway, 

where we are goading our younger workforce to 

outline ways in which the entrepreneurial spirit can 

be promoted in the organisation. 

Training is not just about enhancing innovation 

skills. It also entails encouraging people vis-a-vis 

strategic thinking—guiding them to discover their 

own thinking patterns, and encourage positivity. 

Some time back, to encourage lateral thinking we 

had conducted a workshop series on Edward De 

Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. It was very interesting and 

insightful because we had Prof. De Bono actually 

encouraging people to discover their pattern of 

thinking. At a different level, we tried to build 

the flavour. 

Of course such efforts may not be necessarily 

referred to as ‘innovation’. You know labelling does 

not always elicit a positive response and create the 

desired impact. Our idea is to cash in on different 

experiences and capabilities. Let me give you 

an example—we create cross-functional teams 

wherein people from different backgrounds try to 

solve a problem. We recourse to it as a means to 

building innovation as a natural path. 

Furthermore, we also have started many initiatives 

for women, young people, non-Indian managers, and 

in the newer disciplines such as digital technology, 

sustainability, and risk management. 


Innovation 

Culture 

DR SANTRUPT MISRA 

is CEO-Carbon 

Black Business 

and Director-Group 

Human Resources, 

Aditya Birla Group. 

How can HR ensure an atmosphere of 

collaboration and diversity? 

The world over, and especially in the Indian 

context, the younger generation is being far 

more collaborative. Again, organisational culture 

is at the core of a collaborative mindset. The 

Aditya Birla Group encourages leaders to be 

collaborative because we believe the process has to 

start from the top. That apart, we are increasingly 

espousing collaboration not just as an articulated 

value, but as an element embedded in our value 

of ‘seamlessness’. We define seamlessness as 

collaboration and team work. There are task forces 

that promote collaboration, and employee surveys 

gather data on how well we work as a team. 

We are cashing in on technology to encourage 

collaboration, moving talent from one business to 

another, and encouraging different businesses to 

work together. For instance, exploring whether our 

insurance and mobile businesses can work together 

to get a larger share of the customer’s mindshare 

and of course wallet share as well. 

A well-established company with a robust 

foundation is often susceptible to an 

atmosphere of complacency. How can HR 

build a sense of urgency around innovation? 

Plan, budget, and set goals in a manner that sets 

challenges afresh, which in turn makes it difficult 

for people to be content with the status quo. Also, 

a hugely competitive world characterised by new 

products, processes, initiatives, and technology 

allows little room for complacency. We believe 

complacency is death! Again technology is making 

inroads into our daily lives too in an unprecedented 

manner. Stakeholders viz. your competitors, 

customers, and shareholders constantly push you 

to come out with something better, different, 

and newer. 

It is the responsibility of HR to foster 

innovation, but often HR itself gets caught 

in the conformity trap. This points to 

the need for innovation within HR. Your 

thoughts. 

HR is the central function in an organisation and 

hence its initiatives touch people’s lives on a daily 

basis—from the time they join to the time they 

leave or retire. Hence it is extremely important that 

HR itself is innovative. Any HR innovation would 

serve as a source of inspiration. 

In most progressive organisations, HR is being 

innovative and futuristic. 

Our Group has invested heavily in technology to 

bring HR in different forms to people. We have put 

in place many programmes to build high-potential 

talent. Through initiatives such as setting up a group 

of counsellors, we help employees achieve worklife 

integration and also solve any personal issues 

they have. We are constantly seeking newer ways 

of improving their lives to help them serve our 

customers better. Some firms are experimenting 

with radical concepts such as doing away with 

performance review. We do not know how these 

measures will play out, but the fact they are trying 

to demolish well-established processes and creating 

newer ones shows HR managers are thinking of 

future challenges. However, routine HR functions 

and responsibilities would always remain the 

foundation on which we build the rest. In the 

Aditya Birla Group, we talk about ‘brilliant basics’ 

that is delivering the basics brilliantly for us to do 

other better things. 

What will be the future role of HR 

managers? 

What will change is the way the HR function is 

delivered and connected to the business. In many 

organisations, HR managers will function more as 

business managers and lead businesses themselves. 

They will be the conscience-keepers of the board of 

directors and counsellors to the senior management 

team, and increasingly be brand ambassadors of the 

organisation. HR also will be at the centre of creating 

an external network: of experts, academicians, and 

institutions that will create value for the organisation, 

and of course be a custodian of organisational 

culture. And as employees demand more and more, 

HR’s role will scale to a new high. 

(As told to Anitha Moosath and Poornima Subramanian.) 


quiz 

no.38 

1 

Which company is 

buying EMC Corp in a 

deal worth $67 billion? 

2 

Name the fast food 

chain that has 

teamed up with 

hyperlocal company 

Scootsy for home 

delivery services. 

© Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com 

3 

Which French 

corporation has set its 

sights on becoming a 

billion dollar company 

in India by 2020? 

4 

Who won the 2015 

Nobel Memorial Prize in 

Economic Sciences? 

5 

Which phone maker 

has teamed up with 

Foxconn Technology to 

make mobile handsets 

in India? 

6 

How much are the 

Chinese companies 

Sany Group and Chint 

Group investing in 

India’s renewable 

power sector? 

7 

In which US city 

is Tamil Nadubased 

Sakhti Auto 

Components opening 

a new facility? 

8 

Which credit card 

provider will launch a 

‘Pay by Selfie’ method 

of authentication? 

9 

The Uttar Pradesh 

Government recently 

launched a mobile 

app for health workers 

to record maternal 

and infant data in 

real time. Can you 

name it? 

10 

Which online 

platform has real 

estate developer 

Tata Housing 

tied-up with to 

sell its affordable 

homes online? 


Answers: 1. Dell Inc 2. Burger King 3. L’Oreal 4. Angus 

Deaton 5. OnePlus 6. $5 billion 7. Detroit, Michigan 

8. MasterCard 9. mSehat 10. Facebook 


Understanding the 

millennial employee 

A change in company culture is imperative to get the best out of a new wave of young employees. 

Abhijit Nimgaonkar, ZS Associates 


Cover 

story 

Over the past few years, 

workplaces have seen 

a new generation of 

workforce. Each time this 

happens, the workplace 

has to reshape itself and 

adjust its practices to 

ensure a sync between both the sides. As more of 

them enter the industry—at ages younger than 

ever and at positions usually given only to stalwarts, 

many experienced employees look at them 

with scepticism. 

Why millennials matter 

Millennials probably have the most complicated 

tale to tell as compared to their predecessors. The 

global economy is fragile and often teetering on 

the edge of recession. The job market has become 

extremely competitive, resulting in even highly 

qualified individuals working in under-qualified 

roles. However, this new wave of employees has a 

lot more to offer. And by 2030, they will account 

for 75% of the workforce. 

Because of the role of technology in this fastpaced 

era, the younger generation has taken on 

the part of advisor to the older generation. This is 

a reason for the shift in perspective with regard to 

authority, hierarchy, and respect. Millennials do 

not perceive hierarchy or ‘authority’ in the same 

manner as other generations. This generation does 

not require the benefits hierarchy has to offer, and 

comes with clear priorities and timelines. As per a 

study on millennial preparedness for the workplace, 

published by Bentley University early this year, 

70% of those who fall in the older generation group 

think millennials are reluctant to ‘pay their dues’. 

Interestingly, 9 out of 10 millennials think they 

come with a strong work ethic, which conflicts 

with the older school of thought. The new school 

of thought propagated by millennials commands 

respect for knowledge and righteousness, 

irrespective of the hierarchical ‘level’. 

Millennials also possess much positive energy, 

intelligence, and immense capacity to learn. Also, 

they are typically more tech-savvy than their older 

counterparts. Thus, they can be a valuable addition 

to almost any work environment. 

Millennials focus more on building relationships 

at the workplace, which enables them to thrive 

within team-driven work environments. They are 

constantly striving to make work activities simpler, 

more social, and interactive by using technology. 

They are also open to constructive feedback and 


future 

workforce 



Abhijit 

Nimgaonkar is 

Office Managing 

Principal and 

India Capability 

and Expertise 

Center Head, ZS 

Associates. 

harbour a great desire for affirmation. To sum it 

up, we can easily say that they are eager to learn, 

succeed, and please. 

Growing up in the technology-driven era, these 

employees always have answers at their fingertips. 

This group is usually more well-informed and is 

eager to upgrade skills to be more attractive to 

the recruiters. 

Engaging millennials 

• Millennials are very particular about having a 

healthy work–life balance, a work culture that 

matches their style of working, and relies heavily 

on career structure and clarity at the workplace. 

• They appreciate mobility and flexibility. Allowing 

employees to enjoy the freedom of working from 

home or on the go is a major plus point. 

• They are passionate about contributing toward 

society and the environment. Firms that 

have genuine CSR programmes running help 

build a sense of loyalty and appreciation in 

their employees. 

• Work can be interrupted by play, and veice-versa. 

These are not separate entities for Millennials 

and a fine balance is necessary to ensure 

employee engagement. 

• Even the rules of employee engagement are 

being redefined. They may or may not appreciate 

a ‘bring your family to work day’. However, they 

will be pumped to participate in a hackathon or 

even represent their organisation in a cross-city 

marathon. Organisations are slowly observing 

that traditional controls such as compensation 

and incentives are losing value as the main 

motivational factors for employees to join or 

even stay at a firm. 

• Firms have realised that compassion is a two-way 

street. If firms encourage employees to pursue 

their dreams and passions, be it a sport, hobby or 

interest, it often results in a happy employee and 

a happy organisation. 

• Millennials value freedom of thought and 

encouragement from the firm to take charge. 

A lot of firms have taken steps to ensure that 

newbies are assigned to seniors who would help 

fast track their learning curve. 

• Providing a conducive work environment: casual 

clothing is a growing trend in the corporate 

sector. It is yet another way to make employees 

feel comfortable at work and focus on the 

important things. 

If an organisation is able to win the trust of a 

millennial, they are sure to benefit greatly from 

their commitment. 


Recruiting reinvented 

statistics 

Social networking 

sites used by 

HR for recruiting 

95% LinkedIn 

58% Facebook 

42% Twitter 

23% Associational 

networking sites 

17% Others 

Top reasons for using social media sites for recruiting 

Infographics: Swati Chakrabarty 

84% 

Recruiting 

passive job 

candidates 

67% 

Less 

expensive 

alternative 

HR professionals who believe social 

networking sites are efficient for 

recruiting at multiple job levels 

Executive / upper management 

(CEO, CFO, etc) 

Other management 

(directors, managers) 

Non-managerial salaried 

employees 

Others (contract, etc) 

60% 

Increasing 

employer brand 

recognition 

50% 

Targeting 

specific 

job levels 

52% 

Targeting 

candidates 

with specific 

skills 

Job levels organisations are 

filling using social networking sites 

82 % 77 % 

52 % 58 % 58 % 52 % 

41 % 

36 % 

Source: Society for Human Resource Management 



Managers should not lose the bigger picture in the scramble to optimise the 

immediate future of their organisations. 

Debasish Biswas, CIMA 

decision 

making 

Think macro 

Managers continuously 

make decisions 

that affect their 

organisation’s future 

cost, revenues, or 

profit. For example, 

they decide on 

investment projects and estimate how the current 

investment cash-out flows will be paid back by 

future cash-in flows. They may engage in costcutting 

operations, with the aim to enhance 

the future margins they earn, in expensive 

marketing campaigns, estimating that the return 

on marketing will eventually be positive and that 

the overall value of their firm is optimised. The 

core feature of such decisions concerns the tradeoff 

managers somehow need to make between 

investments (cash-out flow) now, and returns 

(cash-in flow) in the future. Making such tradeoffs 

is difficult as they essentially come down to 

comparing immediate, relatively certain decision 

consequences with future, relatively uncertain 

decision consequences. 

Unfortunately, in practice, managers often 

fail in this comparison and show behaviour that 

runs against the goals of the organisation. For 

example, they may not engage in an investment 

project because future returns are considered 

too risky; they may cut quality assurance costs 

of their operations to increase their margins, but 

may neglect the future negative consequences 

on product quality and revenue; or may avoid 

expensive marketing campaigns to protect their 

current profits, thereby losing future revenues due 

to underexposure of their products. 

In such cases, managers could be said to suffer 

from a managerial illness called ‘myopia’, a 

term stemming from optometry, which denotes 

people’s lack of ability to see at a distance. In 

management accounting, it denotes managers’ 

tendency to optimise the present, at a cost to 

the future. Managerial myopia is considered an 

important problem, and one that defies many 

proposed solutions. This model, however, is 

not immune to managers’ overestimation of 

immediate cash-out flows, underestimation of 

future cash-in flows, or use of high discount 

factors biased against the investment. 

Moreover, some management accounting tools 

may even aggravate, rather than alleviate, myopic 

tendencies. Budgets and other yearly performance 

contracts may force managers to cut costs, for 

example by delaying marketing efforts that enable 

them to meet their present targets but comes at a 

cost to their future performance. 

Cures for the problem of overemphasis 

on current budgets, such as following the 

balanced scorecard (BSC) logic or value-based 

management (VBM), wrongly suggest that 

myopia is a problem of metric choice. Rather, 

myopia should be considered a behavioural 

problem deeply rooted in the way people 

behave in the social and economic contexts of 

their organisations. 



Why does accountability 

work? When and how? 

Research suggests that 

One fundamental way of accountability systems are based 

on rather simplistic assumptions 

opening the ‘black box of 

of human nature. Slogans like 

human decision-making’ ‘what is measured gets done’ 

is by exploring the 

and ‘what you pay is what you 

neural basis of human 

get’ seem to reflect the basic 

drivers of much of the innovation 

myopic inclinations. 

in practice. Instead, we believe 

that a careful scrutiny of such 

fundamental drivers brings us closer to answering 

when accountability will work or why in practice, 

accountability systems often fail. 

Our study explores these drivers of human 

behaviour, such as the inclination of humans to 

act impulsively (emphasising the immediate, 

neglecting the ultimate), the role of emotional 

attitudes towards decision outcomes and riskiness 

(emphasising what appears right, neglecting what 

may be right after scrutiny), and the existence of 

cognitive limitations (emphasising information that 

is easy, neglecting information that is difficult). 

These basic tendencies hinder a full and objective 

evaluation of future outcomes. While in traditional 

business theory and practice, these factors are all 

seen as examples of ‘irrational decision making’, 

they are not uniform and their resolution 

requires an examination of the ‘black box’ of 

human behaviour. 

One fundamental way of opening the ‘black box 

of human decision-making’ is by exploring the 

neural basis of human myopic inclinations. This 

requires that we deconstruct myopic behaviour 

into more basic components for understanding. 

More specifically, we focus on three human 

characteristics that may explain myopia—the ability 

to exert cognitive control, cognitive effort, and 

emotional stability. 

Our study 

We performed an experimental study in which 

30 financial managers performed three types of 

experimental tasks to test their ability to maintain 

focused attention, effective process information, 

and inhibiting responses to conflicting irrelevant 

and emotionally salient stimuli. All of these socalled 

cognitive control abilities play important 

roles in enabling a manager to resist impulsive, 

emotionally motivated or biased responses that can 

result in irrational, myopic decision-making. 

Task 1: vigilance 

Participants were asked to observe a circle on the 

screen and press the button every time they notice 

a slight change in its brightness. This enables us 

to measure an individual’s ability to maintain 

attention over prolonged periods of time and 

successfully detect faint, infrequent perceptual 

events. In a managerial context, vigilance enables 

individuals to stay in focus, identify, and take into 

account non-obvious but relevant information. 

Task 2: the Eriksen Flanker task 

Participants were asked to provide speeded 

responses on the direction of the centrally located 

arrow (‘

decision 

making 

Accountability provokes 

emotional and cognitive 

responses in the 

brain which affect 

cognitive performance. 


Debasish Biswas 

is India Country 

Head, CIMA. 

Task performance conditions 

These three tasks were performed under two forms 

of accountability—social pressure and monetary 

incentive, which are both valid representations of 

actual accountability conditions in organisations, 

but are likely to have rather different neural effects. 

Combined with the three tasks, these conditions 

enable us to estimate to what extent the two 

accountability pressures modulated both the 

specific cognitive abilities measured by each of the 

tasks as well as the general level of cognitive effort 

devoted to task performance. 

Under social pressure, participants were told that 

their results would be compared to that of others. 

and that the results and their 

ranking within the group will be 

made publicly available. 

In the monetary incentive 

condition, participants were told 

that the speed and accuracy of 

their responses would determine 

the amount of money they earned 

(which would be donated to a 

charity organisation). 

A cognitive neuroscience approach 

When estimating cognitive abilities and the 

effects of experimental manipulation (in this 

case accountability) on them, behavioural results 

provide only coarse information. 

While they can inform us of the presence 

and magnitude of a behavioural effect, the 

mechanisms that generated the effect are not 

known, withholding significant information 

that would allow full understanding and further 

optimisation of any management accounting or 

other intervention. This is an important flaw of 

traditional management accounting views which 

assume that managers are able to consciously 

improve their behaviour. 

To overcome some of the limits of behavioural 

testing, we recorded and analysed brain activity 

during task performance using functional 

magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI has 

become one of the most widely used techniques 

in cognitive neuroscience research due to 

its non-invasive nature, availability, and high 

spatial resolution. 

Key conclusions 

• Accountability affects cognitive and emotional 

control, which are both potential moderators 

of myopia. 

• Accountability pressure improves the ability 

to effectively process information and inhibit 

responses to conflicting irrelevant and 

emotionally salient stimuli, but does not have 

any behavioural effect on the ability to maintain 

focused attention. 

• Managers’ task performance is associated with 

risk and time discounting, which are two direct 

measures of myopia: more myopic individuals 

are more stimulated to improve performance by 

monetary incentive, while social pressure is more 

effective for less myopic individuals. 

• Accountability provokes emotional and cognitive 

responses in the brain which affect cognitive 

performance in dependence of the type of 

task, type of accountability, and an individual’s 

tendency towards myopic decision-making. 

• Accountability enhances the ability to resist 

emotional distractors and automatic responses, 

enabling better control of impulsivity and 

emotional interference, which are important 

precursors of managerial myopia. 




Simplistic understandings of agility can be limiting. Organisations can realise 

its strategic potential by using visionary intelligence. 

Baba Prasad, Author, Nimble 

interview 

Survival of the 

nimblest 

One of the basic principles of Frederick 

Taylor’s Scientific Management was ‘for 

each elemental task of an organisation 

there should be one best way found.’ Does 

this principle still hold true for shop 

floor management? 

Companies benefited from optimisation because 

the world was less unpredictable in the 1980s. 

Today, you have to be flexible in order to handle 

unexpected change. So there is a struggle between 

efficiency and flexibility. To be flexible, you must 

build redundancy—that is, you must have other 

ways of doing things beyond the ‘one best way’— 

which goes against the grain of efficiency. There 

is a trade-off between efficiency and flexibility. 

And so, while efficiency is important, a focus on 

just efficiency will not work in today’s uncertain 

environments. As I see it, the Taylorian model 

should not be discarded, but applied in context. 

Given the need for agility and changing 

benchmarks, how will companies 

understand and zero in on what will work 

for them and give them an edge? 

A key paradigm shift is required for companies 

in these turbulent environments. We need to 

recognise that agility has to be built into the 

organisation holistically—into people, processes, 

and structures. The history of humankind shows 

that our species, Homo sapiens, has weathered 

all kinds of calamities through the millennia; the 

key to its success is the word ‘sapiens’—Latin 

for intelligence, wisdom. Intelligence is the 

driver of agility. And by intelligence, I go beyond 

IQ—intelligence generates the ability to respond 

quickly to change. My research, which began 

when I was at Wharton School and continued 

when I was a faculty member at the business 

schools at Purdue University and the University 

of Minnesota, has shown that we need to develop 

five different intelligences in the organisation that 

drive five corresponding agilities. The intelligences 

framework—discussed in Nimble—comes with an 

associated tool that a company’s senior management 

can use to assess across five dimensions what 

kinds of agility are being demanded from their 

company, and how equipped the company is to 

deal with these demands. The use of this tool will 

help them assess and develop multiple agilities, 

and gain strategic and competitive advantage in a 

turbulent world. 

What are the three aspects that managers 

should definitely expand their horizons on? 

Short-term agility—how to develop capabilities in 

the organisation so that it can quickly respond to 

change, long-term vision—how to make decisions 

that are agile but at the same time are also strategic, 



Baba Prasad is 

president and CEO, 

Vivékin Group. He 

is also the author 

of Nimble - How 

intelligence can 

create agile 

companies and 

wise leaders. 

and culture. Our microeconomics-driven analytical 

approach to strategy has forgotten the critical 

people aspect, which we need to bring back into 

the organisation. 

You say ‘strategy is no longer a plan for a set 

of actions to be performed’. Given this, how 

would you define strategy? 

Since we now work in environments where we 

increasingly have no idea of what will happen even 

in the next few weeks or months, we do not have 

the luxury of multi-year strategic plans. We need 

to be prepared to handle a range of eventualities 

that may occur anytime. Strategy is no longer about 

creating a plan of actions that will be performed in 

the future; it is about planning and building a set 

of flexibilities the organisation can use to handle an 

uncertain future, as it unfolds. 

Define visionary intelligence. 

Visionary intelligence is the ability to quickly 

envision both the long-term effects of a current 

decision—what will be the result of this decision 

a few years from now?—and also to quickly 

determine the width of impact it will have—how 

many people or processes will it affect, and in 

what ways? What could be just reactive kneejerk 

response becomes strategic with the use of 

visionary intelligence. It helps us see the difference 

between killing the goose and waiting for the 

golden eggs. 

Elaborating on the reasons for the failure 

of Nokia, you talk about the need for 

developing ‘multiple agilities’. Please 

elaborate this concept in the Vivékin Agility 

Matrix (VAMTM). 

Nokia made a name for itself with its tremendous 

supply chain flexibility. Its response after a fire in a 

New Mexico factory that made chips for its phones 

is cited as a textbook case of supply chain agility. 

And yet, a few years after this, Nokia’s stock prices 

were kissing the floor. They over-focused on this 

one agility and neglected others—for instance, it 

did not show the communicative agility needed 

to sense that the North American market wanted 

a different kind of handset than the Asian market, 

and it lost out to Motorola there. Companies, and 

leaders, should have multiple agilities and use them 

in context-sensitive ways. 

The Vivékin Agility Matrix is a 2x2 matrix that 

classifies companies based on whether they have 

multiple agilities and whether they are context 

sensitive. Companies that are neither agile 

nor context-sensitive are ‘dinosaurs’—despite 

possessing massive resources, they will die because 

they do not adapt. This happened to computer giant 

Digital Equipment Corporation in the 1990s, at a 

time when IBM also barely survived. Companies 

that are not agile but are context sensitive are 

‘bears’; they know they cannot operate in certain 

contexts, so they withdraw when conditions are 

bad and re-emerge when the context is better. 

‘Cheetahs’ are companies like Nokia that respond 

to everything with a single agility, without paying 

attention to context—just like the cheetah which 

hunts only by running across plains in daytime as 

it cannot climb trees or see at night. Finally, the 

model company in the Vivékin Agilities Matrix is 

the ‘human’ which ranks high on both agility and 

context-sensitiveness—humans have multiple 

agilities, especially visionary agility, and know 

which agility to use in which context. 

How can a company/leader 

programmatically develop and use agility? 

The concept of strategy itself changes when you 

adopt an intelligences-driven approach. We help 

our client organisations implement intelligencesdriven 

strategy through M-A-S-T: ‘mapping’ the 

kinds of flexibilities they anticipate they will need 

in the market space they are in; ‘assessing’ what 

flexibilities they currently have; ‘strategising’ to 

(i) develop the flexibilities they do not have but 

anticipate they will need and (ii) to leverage the 

flexibilities they already have; and since it is an 

uncertain world, ‘testing’ to check whether the 

mapping, the assessment, and the strategising 

have been correct. This returns us in a loop to the 

mapping phase. We call this the MAST loop. Agile 


interview 

companies continuously loop through the four 

phases of strategy, executing the MAST loop. 

You say that ‘knowledge can be dated’. 

Why? 

We have always known that knowledge is 

constantly changing, and as we engage in 

‘learning’, we may have to abandon old 

hypotheses and beliefs. For instance, the 

‘knowledge’ that the earth was the centre of the 

universe had to be discarded with the discovery of 

the telescope. That is why knowledge-bases (KBs) 

in organisations incorporate a Truth Maintenance 

System (TMS) that constantly keeps checking 

whether the knowledge base is still valid as new 

information comes in and learning occurs. In 

order to be agile, organisations must be constantly 

learning. And in the field of artificial intelligence, 

you call a system ‘intelligent’ only if it is able to 

learn. The organisational metaphor in today’s 

turbulent business world is not ‘knowledge’, it 

is ‘intelligence’. Greek philosopher Heraclitus 

of Ephesos said 2500 years ago, “A knowledge 

of many things does not teach one to have 

intelligence.” This is the same Heraclitus to whom 

is attributed the often-used quotation, “Change is 

Agility is not an operational response; it is a strategic choice. 

Defining agility 

Agility is the ability of an organisation to respond quickly to change. In business contexts, the word 

‘adaptability’ is used often, as in ‘adapt quickly or die’. But ‘adapt’ is closely associated with Darwinian 

evolution, in which change happens slowly over millennia. The need for speedy response in today’s turbulent 

business worlds is better conveyed by the term ‘agility’. 

Strategic agility 

In my 15-year study of organisational agility, I discovered that just speed does not guarantee competitive 

success. A headless chicken runs around the yard quickly, but a headless chicken also dies quickly. 

Organisations need to respond quickly while also keeping the long-term in mind. The development of 

what I call ‘strategic agility’ makes the difference between a meteoric burnout and a 100-year company 

that is dynamic. Strategic agility allows a company to adapt quickly, while also focusing on long-term 

consequences of the adaptation. It involves the use of multiple agilities in the organisation in ways that are 

appropriate to the organisation’s context. As a result, a strategically agile leader or organisation makes rapid 

but wise decisions in dynamic circumstances. 

Common myths on agility 

• Agility is one-dimensional. A leader or a company should be agile in five-dimensions—analytical, 

operational, inventive, communicative, and visionary. Different agilities will be needed in different contexts. 

• Agility is all about being fast. In reality, agility is not an operational response; it is a strategic choice. 

Companies that quickly evaluate questions such as ‘which combination of agilities is best in the current 

context?’, or ‘among the options for response available right now, which would be the best weighing both 

the short-term and the long-term consequences?’, and make appropriate decisions are the ones that will 

gain and retain strategic advantage. 

• Agility is only about processes and technologies. As much as in processes and technology, if not more, 

agility is also in the people and the organisational culture. In fact, people factors make the difference 

between agile and static organisations. 


the only constant.” Connect the two statements 

and you realise that it is intelligence, and not 

knowledge, that helps us handle change. 

Why is it imperative to transform from 

a knowledge-based organisation to an 

intelligence-driven organisation? 

In the intelligences-framework, agile organisations 

have to discard the old model of knowledgebased 

organisation that evolved in the 1990s, and 

embrace the new paradigm of intelligence-driven 

organisations. I do not use the word paradigm 

lightly—we do indeed need a paradigm shift. 

When the organisation is driven by intelligence, 

there are two advantages: first, it knows which 

knowledge-base to use under what circumstances, 

and second, even when the organisation does 

not have the ‘knowledge’ needed to handle the 

situation at hand, it can use intelligence to find 

solutions. These two situations are repeated in 

different forms across every size of organisation in 

every part of the world. Thus, the new imperative 

is an intelligence-driven organisation, which 

operates in a business world where knowledge is 

necessary but not sufficient. 

Could you elaborate on the Vivékin 

Intelligences Framework, and its key 

aspects? 

The important mind shift is to recognise that 

agility is a blanket term—it signifies all kinds of 

flexibilities. We need to think of not one agility, 

but five different agilities. In Nimble, I argue that 

a company that wants to be agile should focus on 

developing five intelligences, each of which drives 

an agility—analytical, operational, inventive, 

communicative, and visionary. Further, the use 

of these five agilities should be sensitive to the 

organisation’s current context. For instance, 

in one context, the organisation may need to 

use more analytical and communicative agility, 

and in another, use more operational agility. To 

be an agile organisation, therefore, the senior 

management must pay attention to developing 

the different agilities and also enhancing the 

context-sensitivity needed to best benefit from the 

multiple agilities. 

Sometimes, companies in the midst of 

being ‘agile’ lose sight of the larger picture 

and miss their step. How can this be 

avoided? 

The key to avoid this is to develop visionary 

intelligence. Two central questions must be asked 

each time we make what we think is an ‘agile’ 

response: (i) long-term—what do we think will 

be the effect of this response three or five or ten 

years from now? and (ii) width of impact—how 

many people or processes will be affected by 

this response, and in what ways? For personal 

leadership decisions, these questions are asked 

and answered by an individual, and for team or 

organisational responses, a team needs to weigh in 

on these questions. 

Given the need for agility across the 

company, is culture sacrosanct or 

contextual? 

I would say that an agile culture, which is 

contextual, is sacrosanct. In a truly agile company, 

agility is not in some pockets, but as you rightly 

say, agilities should be developed and used across 

the organisation. The organisational culture 

should be open, inquisitive, and innovative, where 

people are allowed to take risks, but wisely. Since 

‘wisdom’ is subjective, an agile organisation’s 

culture will tolerate failure and constantly 

learn, not only from its own mistakes but also 

from those of others. But above all, the most 

successful and long-lasting companies are those 

that truly use multiple agilities and are firmly 

guided by visionary intelligence. Such companies 

are tremendously nimble, but also think ‘beyond 

top- and bottom-lines’ and ‘beyond the company’. 

As a result, truly agile companies create benefits 

for themselves, for their people, and most 

importantly, for the world at large. 

(As told to Poornima Subramanian.) 


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Businesses need to reset their perception of the Indian consumer to best leverage 

opportunities in a fast-changing economy. 

Dheeraj Sinha, Grey 

speed 

learning 

Capsule 

The India they did 

not tell you about 

During the last two decades 

of the free-market regime 

in India, businesses 

have followed certain 

assumptions about its 

consumer market. Yet they 

have met with mixed results. 

India was seen as a huge market, delivering what 

was popularly termed the ‘demographic dividend’. 

While the demography is still there, the dividend 

has been missing. It was said that while deciding 

the cost of a product in India, you need to set a 

price that consumers are willing to pay, rather than 

the other way round. However, the so-called poor 

consumer has rejected the stripped-down models of 

cars and mobile phones made especially for them. 

There is something amiss in our understanding 

of and approach to this market. Or, it could be that 

after two decades of free-market experience, we 

are wiser about what works here and what does 

not. During these two decades, businesses have 

struggled, fumbled, learned, and improvised. While 

many of them have succeeded turning themselves 

into case studies, many have met with failure. There 

is a lot to learn from the successes and failures of 

the last two decades in the Indian market. This 

is also the time to address some of the long-held 

beliefs about the Indian consumer, which may not 

all be true. India is known as the land of elephants, 

and cows are holy animals here. However, it is time 

that we addressed the elephant in the business room 

and the holy cows of marketing. Here are some 

myths we must bust: 

The myth of 1.2 billion 

India is not a market of 1.2 billion people, and 

certainly not a middle class sized 300 million, as has 

been touted. In fact, according to the 2011 census, 

around 600 million do not have access to toilets and 

clean drinking water. This does set up a big task for 

the government and its social development agenda. 

But it subtracts almost half the population from the 

projected consuming class. Furthermore, only 56 

million people own four-wheelers and the number 

of two-wheeler owners stands at 254 million. This 

analysis brings to the fore the overestimation that 

has misled most of India’s entry and expansion 

strategy for the last two decades. Buoyed by 


projections of a large middle-class population 

and an even larger bottom of the pyramid, most 

brands and businesses in India set up for a volumedriven 

strategy. 

The promise of large numbers itself was highly 

exaggerated. In the effort to reach out to millions, 

resources have run thin and led to high-debt and 

low-return operations. Stripping down products 

and services to attain a certain price has led to 

undifferentiated, uninspiring products and services, 

which have no takers. The biggest mistake of massmarket 

thinking is its obsession with affordability 

without the context of aspiration. 

India needs upgrade-market not mass-market 

thinking. This thinking obsesses not over the 

price, but the equation between affordability and 

aspiration. It allows brands to do exactly what the 

mass game did not. It aims at giving more for less, 

not less for less. Most critically, it allows brands to 

build a superior consumer experience and upgrade 

the consumer from their current lifestyle. In this 

case, businesses are not obliged to reach out to 

everyone; they can choose profitable segments 

and grow with the market. Upgrade-market 

thinking is about focus, not carpet bombing. This 

thinking cautions against blindly chasing a market of 

a billion people. 

upgrade-market thinking versus 

mass-market thinking 

Mass-Market Thinking 

Inspired by the bottom of the pyramid 

‘Less for less’ innovation 

Price obsession 

High cost of reach out, low returns 

One size fits all, subsidizes premium 

customers 

Tata Nano, Maruti Suzuki, Nokia 

Upgrade-Market Thinking 

Inspired by consumer desire for 

upgrade 

‘More for less’ innovation 

Desirability and affordability equation 

Value added products, better 

profitability 

Opportunity for segmentation, rising 

premium segment 

Micromax, M&M Utility Vehicles, 

Samsung 

The myth of diversity 

India is a country of more than 1.2 billion 

people, who live across 28 states and seven union 

territories, practise one of eight major religions, 

and speak any of the 30 languages in more than 

2,000 dialects. It does not require much effort 

to establish it is a diverse country, but indeed 

too much has been made of its diversity. It is 

fashionable to talk about how dialects change every 

100 kilometres, as do cuisines and many other 

preferences. All of this presents the country as a 

complex collection of many markets, rather than 

one market. It is true that India is diverse, but 

the more we break up, the more we defeat the 

idea of scale that the country offers as a market. If 

marketing in India is equivalent to marketing to a 

group of 20 countries, then the promise of a big 

unified market is illusory. 

It is easy to say that India changes every 100 

kilometres, but difficult to build products and 

services that cater to these variations. While 

diversity is the country’s inherent characteristic, 

what is exciting is the universality that is emerging. 

There is increasing evidence that people are 

coming closer in terms of their motivations 

and preferences. It is time for marketers to 

take a serious look at the emerging unity, and 

its implications for businesses and brands; 

understanding these commonalities can be of great 

use to them. If we were to look at interactions 

across the various geographical and cultural 

divides, we would realise that these cultural 

exchanges are becoming significant. The collisions 

©ommaphat chotirat/Shutterstock.com 


consumer 

behaviour 

Brands can gain by 

between cultures are leading 

understanding the 

to crossovers—ideas, people, 

content, and products are 

interdependence of 

jumping the hardened divides, 

consumption and 

and are being embraced across 

culture in India. 

India with enthusiasm. 

The new national culture is one 

big collage of several experiences 

from various parts. Dosas, vada pav, momos, 

salwar kameez, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Rajnikant, and 

karwa chauth—scraps of culture that were hitherto 

confined to the regions have now become a part 

of the national culture. Adding spice are chicken 

Chettinad pizza (Domino’s), Bollywood Sufi rock, 

and denims with Indian embroidery. In this collage, 

universal, international influences have been made 

interesting, with a dash of Indian regional flavours. 

It is time businesses tapped into this diversity for its 

national appeal. 


Dheeraj Sinha 

is Chief Strategy 

Officer, South & 

South-East Asia, 

Grey. He is also 

the author of India 

Reloaded - Inside 

the Resurgent 

Indian Consumer 

Market and 

Consumer India - 

Inside the Indian 

Mind and Wallet. 

The myth of Maslow 

Simply put, Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ states 

that the poor should only be bothered about basic 

functional needs, and it is only the rich who should 

care for higher-order needs such as self-actualisation. 

However, in India, the poor want purpose. 

Baba Ramdev and his ventures are examples 

of how India’s consumption narrative seamlessly 

weaves together social, spiritual, and material 

content. Baba Ramdev, a spiritual guru, preaches 

yoga at public gatherings and on television shows 

on religious channels such as Aastha (faith). He 

also supports the Patanjali group of institutions, 

which among other activities sells a host of health 

and wellness products based on Ayurveda. On the 

one hand, people receive spiritual knowledge from 

him. On the other, they buy herbal anti-dandruff 

shampoo from a chain of stores endorsed by him. 

Patanjali Yogpeeth, the consumer goods company 

owned by a trust founded by the spiritual guru, is 

reported to achieve sales of R2,000 crore in 2015. 

Baba Ramdev is an example of a spiritual brand 

that has immense commercial value. He teaches us 

how consumption is intertwined with spiritual and 

cultural narratives. 

Indeed, there are many examples of how 

consumption has traditionally carried a larger 

meaning for the masses as well as the elite or 

the intellectual classes. The greatest example of 

a mass product imbued with a highly evolved 

meaning system is khadi, which embodies the 

Gandhian principles of swadeshi and swaraj. Mahatma 

Gandhi believed that boycotting international 

products and promoting India-made goods was 

a step towards attaining self-dependence. Khadi 

products, especially handwoven cloth, combined 

the functionality of fine cotton and this larger 

purpose. In its conception, Gandhiji intended khadi 

to be everybody’s brand. Khadi could have been 

promoted merely as affordable clothing for hot 

Indian summers, but without its larger symbolism, 

it would not be the brand it is today. 

Brands can gain by understanding the 

interdependence of consumption and culture in 

India. The functional and emotional aspects of 

consumption here are not as delineated as western 

marketing principles deem them to be; in fact, 

consumption is a complex interplay of functional, 

emotional, social, and cultural influences. What 

is more, the principle applies across social strata. 

Brands can play on the needs of the masses, for 

a larger meaning. This is counter to conventional 

marketing principles, which reserve emotional 

benefits for the evolved and functional ones for 

the masses. 



consumer 

behaviour 

The myth of the challenger 

Popularity is a big selling point in India; it is a 

surrogate for good quality. Natural Ice Creams is 

a popular chain that started out in Mumbai with a 

small outlet in Juhu. It now has over 100 outlets, 

but their slogan refers to the popularity of its first 

outlet, which opened in 1984: ‘Natural Ice Cream 

of Juhu Scheme.’ Guptaji ki mashhoor kulfi (famous 

ice-cream from Mr. Gupta) is a roadside stall 

near my house that does brisk business. Guptaji, 

the ice-cream vendor, has cleverly referenced his 

popularity in the branding of his shop. People who 

do not know him are assured of quality because 

of the reference to his popularity embedded in 

the name of his shop. Both Natural and Guptaji 

understand that India’s way of assessing quality is 

through popularity. If it is so popular, it must be 

good; in fact, ‘popular’ is an oft-used name by local 

brands and shop owners. 

In this India, people buy you because they 

see other people buy you. There is a comfort in 

numbers. Since so many people are buying a Maruti 

or a Hyundai car, they cannot be wrong. Hence, 

more people go out and buy them. Typically, most 

people would wait and watch until a brand or a 

product has proved itself in the market before 

they jump. Even the early adopters here need the 

assurance that the new launch will be a success. This 

behaviour may change as the market matures and 


people have more experience with consumption. 

But as of now, India is a market for conformity, not 

standing out. 

Such patronage of size and scale on the part of 

the Indian consumer has a flip side. It leaves very 

little room for challenger brands. Smaller players 

do not make the cut on the conventional criteria 

of size and scale. The values of being small and 

nimble-footed mostly fail to inspire confidence in 

the consumer. Across categories such as FMCG, 

automotive, telecom, and even insurance, smaller 

players have not been able to make any significant 

dent in the market. For instance, Maruti Suzuki 

rules the roost with 49.24% market share, followed 

by Hyundai, Honda, and Tata Motors with 21.44%, 

6.56%, and 6.18%, respectively. Most other players 

have had to contend with 1% or 2%. Players such 

as Fiat, Nissan, and Skoda have 0.6%, 1.24%, and 

1.19% share of the market, respectively. 

How do you win in a market where underdogs 

are seen as weaklings? The consumer today may 

have little regard for challenger values. But all is 

not lost for new entrants to the Indian market. 

Challenger brands need to display leadership values 

if they want to become players of significance. 

There are no gains in hiding behind small 

ambitions, taking tentative steps, and being invisible 

under the garb of being a challenger. The consumer 

sees small play as a lack of conviction, boldness as a 

sign of success. You need to position scale internally 

in your mind, and externally in the marketplace. 

You might be a new entrant, you might be unsure 

of the market, you may even have meagre resources 

compared to the competition, but you must think 

dominance if you want to win the game. If you are 

low on resources, choose your segment wisely: a 

smaller playground is relatively easy to dominate. 

It allows you to dominate a chosen media, making 

you look like the biggest guy in the segment. Front 

load your launch and make it look bigger than 

you are. 

(Based on the book India Reloaded – Inside the Resurgent Indian 

Consumer Market.) 




Storytelling can help a brand connect to the audience on a deep level. 

Suresh Eriyat, Studio Eeksaurus 

Marketing 

Telling a tale 

Some of the fondest stories that 

we remember are those which 

we heard as children, sitting on 

our grandparent’s lap—stories of 

fantasies and knighthood, with each 

one providing a lesson or takeaway 

that in all possibility stayed with 

us for life. The purpose behind it was clear: if 

one has to ensure that others remember what 

one has said, ensure that it is told to them in the 

form of a story rather than a series of facts. That is 

the magic of stories—they are packaged so well 

that they linger in our memories. In the startup 

economy of today, with cut-throat competition, 

it has become all the more important for brands 

to tell their stories effectively. Stories, therefore, 

can be seen in different lights. They could be that 

of the founders of the company, of statistical data, 

or even of personal experiences of those who have 

come to use the product, or sometimes stories of 

the product itself. Whatever method may have been 

employed, the end objective is to get through to the 

consumer, engage him, and spread awareness about 

the brand. What are the factors that brands should 

keep in mind while creating an effective narrative? 

The art of storytelling 

The first and foremost factor is the art of telling a 

story. When using visual communication mediums, 

it is easy to get lost amidst a variety of plots, 


till date. It may be a tacky production, but it gives 

the story enough time to progress, and there is no 

rush to tell the story quickly. Even the ‘Pledge to 

Vote’ campaign by Google does not work hard to 

have Google’s branding all over it. It leisurely tells a 

story, ensuring that the consumer does not skip it. 


Brands need to ask 

thereby creating recall for the 

themselves what the 

ad but losing the purpose of the 

brand recall. With the advent of 

call to action is, once the internet, many brands have 

a consumer has seen come to recognise the power 

their story. 

of stories that last beyond a 

30-second window. Sadly, many 

get it wrong; the entire storyline 

is askew, without an efficient 

connect, and the product's story 

not woven into the story. This can lead to a short 

spurt of recall, but may not last for long. On the 

other hand, films that have given a fair share of 

attention to the product as well as the storyline 

are still remembered. Dhara’s jalebi campaign— 

designed to pull at the audience’s heartstrings 

while beautifully capturing the product as part of 

the story’s sequence—is one that is remembered 

Maintaining the balance 

The second factor towards creating an effective 

brand story would be to ensure there is adequate 

data to support the story. Is your brand still taking 

baby steps? Is the product even ready? Are you 

catering to businesses or directly to consumers? 

Timing also plays an important role as, at the end 

of the day, the product will need to stand strong. It 

is only when you are confident that you can begin 

the process of telling a story. From my experience, 

many-a-times when the client overcommits in 

terms of product offerings, it becomes a huge 

issue. When their consumers, enamoured by the 

campaign, go to get the product/service and realise 

that it is of poor quality as compared to what the 

campaign promised, they become so antagonised 

that they will never ever believe in that company’s 

advertising, even if the story is earnestly told the 

next time around. Paper Boat is one company that 

spreads their brand philosophy as a seed to their 

advertising stories, and they have struck balance 

by creating products that stand by the stories in 

terms of quality. There were many good startups 

who could not sustain their production pipelines 

even though they created waves through their 

advertising stories. 

Engaging the audience 

Advertising should be seen as a tool and not as 

a medium for creating a stream of customers. 

Many brands tend to go overboard and end up 

overspending, which is not required. What is 

missing is the brand’s ability to create any point 

of engagement for the consumer. Brands need to 

ask themselves what the call to action is, once a 

consumer has seen their story. The Fortune Ghar 

ka Khana campaign led to many people calling up 

their grandmothers and remembering the years 


Marketing 

When a consumer 

propagates the product 

story, there is a lot 

more authenticity 

attached to it. 


Suresh Eriyat 

is Founder and 

Creative Director, 

Studio Eeksaurus. 

©lev radin / shutterstock.com 

gone by. Wait for the festive 

season and you will see a spurt in 

ad campaigns that get people to 

remember home if they are far 

away. Today’s consumers are not 

looking at becoming receptors of 

information, but are one who are 

open to sharing their opinions in 

terms of feedback. A few tips to 

telling an effective brand story are: 

• Create your mascot/central character: 

Is there any character that you would like your 

brand to be identified with? Like what the pug or 

the ZooZoos did for Vodafone, choosing a lovable 

character can help create an identity that can 

resonate across age groups. And mascots need not 

necessarily be animated. This is proven time and 

again. Old Spice also uses such a character, as did 

Volkswagen with the kid dressed as Darth Vader! 

Even the Air India Maharajah was a much-loved 

character of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, until 

Air India themselves killed him off. Similar was 

our experience with ICICI Chintamani, who was 

used a lot in the beginning of the campaign for 

4-5 years, and then ICICI themselves decided to 

pull the plug on it as the ideologies of their brand 

managers changed. Pillsbury, Michelin, and Asian 

Paints still connect to the audience with their 

animated mascots. 

• Take feedback: Stories that are heard always 

have an opinion or something to share back; 

in the early stages of your brand, this becomes 

all the more important to polish and look 

into. Like movies getting reviews at the end of 

the premier, so do ads. The likes, shares, and 

comments on social media platforms serve as a 

good analysis. In addition, see if these are being 

shared with friends and family members as a 

topic of relevance. Keep an eye out for these as 

they help you evolve your story. Recently, I have 

seen a lot of ads getting circulated on WhatsApp. 

This is a good way to market when end users 

share it with conviction to other potential users. 

When a consumer propagates the product story, 

there is a lot more authenticity attached to it. It 

works in the same manner the other way around 

as well. If consumers spread the message saying 

they have found an insect in the product of a 

big food brand, there will be a mass rejection of 

the product. 

Like every story has a beginning, middle, and an 

end, every brand should also be able to individually 

showcase the same through their product. The 

end in a brand’s story, however, will face constant 

evolution and the storytellers behind it will have to 

rise up to the challenge in terms of sustaining the 

stories in the right direction. While the initial few 

years for brands may be quite difficult, it is also a 

great time to learn and experiment. Brands in the 

startup space should also look at communicating 

their stories through different mediums, while 

being true to their core values and messaging. 

Through constant introspection and coming back 

to the message they started with, brands can help 

build a strong foundation for years to come, while 

keeping the audience engaged throughout. 



Workspace designs may seem inconsequential, but they speak volumes about 

the leaders who inhabit them and their ways of functioning. 

Aparna Piramal Raje, Author, Working out of the box 

Office 

design 

Through the 

workplace prism 

Business leaders are often 

assessed in terms of the big 

picture—their business strategy 

and vision, and their ability 

to drive change and deliver 

results. While these ‘outside-in’ 

descriptions may give an insight 

into their capabilities, they do not always capture 

their personality, their individual ways of working, 

or the everyday nuances of their leadership 

abilities. I came across this insight while writing 

Head Office, my monthly column in a leading 

business daily (which grew into my first book, 

Working Out of the Box: 40 stories of leading CEOs). 

Inside-out portraits 

The column began five years ago in an attempt to 

distill how chief executives work—what they read, 

how they use technology, how they interact with 

their colleagues, and what motivates them—and to 

explore the connections between their work styles 

and workspaces. 

I was keen to profile business leaders from the 

‘inside-out’ and the goal was to present them at 

a human scale, where readers feel as though they 

were standing next to us, in the corner office. 

It is apparent that India’s business leadership is 

changing in visible ways. One size no longer fits 

all: the stereotypical image of a chief executive 


For most chief 

executives, the C-suite 

is an anchor to nourish 

their personal energy. 

in a secluded corner office, disconnected from 

employees, is receding. Instead, a wide range of 

workplaces and work styles can be seen, including 

progressive leadership traits such as agility, 

craftsmanship, and portfolio lives. 

Over the course of 50 columns, companies of 

different scales—major to minor, across sectors and 

geographies—run by chief executives of differing 

ages and temperaments have been featured. The 

qualifying criteria included having a distinctive 

space, a unique way of working, and a compelling 

and credible business story. 

A few caveats: from the original set of 50 

interviews, I was unable to include in the book 

all those who were interviewed (although all are 

available online). Also, some cities are underrepresented 

(not for lack of trying, in many cases). 

Connecting business and design 

A workplace represents a significant investment of 

financial and physical resources, 

and human capital. This 

investment in tangible assets— 

furniture and technology—is 

meant to enhance intangible 

assets—company culture. 

I wanted to interview chief 

©HT Media 

executives in their personal spaces to decipher 

how tangible assets related to intangible assets, and 

perhaps even to provide a simple framework for 

business leaders and architects to communicate 

better with each other. 

During the course of the series, two important 

findings emerged, which shed light on the 

connection between business and workplace design: 

• What your office says about you: I noticed it 

was possible to classify C-suites into four distinct 

workplace archetypes, based on their design, 

usage, and primary purpose. These workplace 

archetypes provide insight into a CEO’s business 

priorities and personality. 

• How to manage intangible assets: It was 

also apparent that some CEOs were using 

workplace design as a tool to manage their 

most importable intangible assets in specific 

ways, namely through 15 workstyles, or ways of 

working. These workstyles capture nuances of 

their leadership traits and personality. 

What your office says about you 

As I conducted my interviews, I discovered 

that chief executives generally use their private 

workplaces (or C-suites) in one of four ways, 

depending on their primary purpose, usage, 

and design. 

For most chief executives, the C-suite is an 

anchor to nourish their personal energy. For many 

others, it is a tool to build organisational capital, 

i.e., workculture, structure, and processes. Others 

leverage it as a platform to communicate brand 

values. And finally, some have begun to think of 

workplaces as a resource, in terms of sustainability 

and the environment. Thus, each C-suite can be 

categorised into a specific ‘workplace archetype’, 

based on which of the four intangible assets 

it supports. 

Of course, there is substantial overlap for any 

given C-suite, as most chief executives will be 

interested in managing most, if not all, of these 

intangible assets. For example, several C-suites that 

I feel serve mainly as ‘tools to build human capital’ 

are also ‘anchors to nourish personal energy’. What 


office 

design 

Standardised 

Design 

Personalised 

the grouping highlights is the primary purpose 

for a given C-suite and which intangible assets it 

primarily enhances. 

A C-suite’s primary purpose is expressed 

through its workplace design, as shown in Table 1. 

For example, chief executives who are using their 

workplaces as a tool to build organisational capital 

or to sustain the environment, tend to have more 

standardised workplaces. Those who are using it to 

nourish personal energy, or to communicate brand 

values, tend to have more personalised workspaces. 

Each workplace archetype is thus an expression 

of both the design characteristics and the business 

needs of a C-suite. In other words, the more we 

know about workplace design, the more we can 

learn about chief executives, their workstyles, 

leadership traits, and their business priorities. 

Or, turning the argument on its head, if we know 

our business priorities, we can configure our 

work environments to support them. Thus, the 

primary purpose of each C-suite has significant 

design implications. 

Table 1 - Four workplace archetypes 

2. Tool to Build 

Organisational Capital 

Often open-plan 

Highly democratic 

Connected 

Multi-work settings 

Formal and informal settings 

Emphasis on shared 

infrastructure 

1. Anchor to Nourish 

Personal Energy 

Classic corner office 

Enclosed and private 

Dual work-setting 

(desk and management space) 

Some personalisation 

4. Resource to Sustain 

the Environment 

Frugal 

Energy-efficient 

Standardised 

Monitored consumption of natural 

resources 

3. Platform to Communicate 

Brand Values 

Highly expressive 

Contemporary 

Personalised 

Internal Assets External 

©HT Media 

How to manage intangible assets 

Tangible assets, such as workplaces, account for 

substantial capital expenditure for any organisation. 

Intangible assets, such as corporate culture or 

brand values, often account for a greater part of 

company valuation. Yet there is little research on the 

relationship between the two entities. 

During the course of the series, I identified ‘15 

progressive work styles’, based on my observations 

of how CEOs managed the four intangible assets 

mentioned above, and used workplace design as a 

tool to do so. Each of these is validated by business 

management literature, as well as by current 

international research on workspaces. 

Each business leader featured in the book has 

thus been categorised into one of these 15 work 

styles, based on what I felt was the best fit, i.e., 

the way of working that sets him or her apart from 

others. Please note that these classifications are not 

exhaustive or exclusive. Each individual exhibits 

more than one working style, of course, but has 

been classified based on the particular way of 

working that differentiates him or her from others. 

These work styles tell us what chief executives 

are like when they are at work, and how spaces 

have been configured to reinforce their ways of 

working. Each of these ways of working—and their 

corresponding leadership traits—is discussed in 

more detail in the book. 


office 

design 

Standardised 

Design 

Personalised 


Aparna Piramal 

Raje writes Head 

Office, a popular 

monthly column 

in the Mint. She is 

also the author of 

Working Out of the 

Box: 40 stories of 

leading CEOs. 

Table 2 - Workplace archetypes and work styles 

Build Organisational 

Capital 

Collaboration 

Craftsmanship 

Purpose 

Agility 

Integrative Thinking 

Nourish Personal Energy 

Accessibility 

Learning & Renewal 

Partnerships 

Portfolio Lives 

Resilience 

Spirituality 

Sustain the Environment 

Sustainability 

Communicate Brand Values 

Personal Branding 

Story Telling 

Innovation 

Internal Assets External 

But since the title of this journal is Indian 

Management, I would like to highlight one workstyle 

in particular: spirituality. 

Spirituality is not commonly construed to be a 

business tool, as it is associated more often with 

philanthropy, or as a retirement vocation. Yet, it is 

an element of daily business practice for several 

business leaders, including Kumar Mangalam Birla, 

chairman of the Aditya Birla group of companies, 

and Ajay Piramal, chairman of the Piramal group 

of companies, both of which are diversified 

industrial conglomerates. 

Birla and Piramal draw on the Bhagavad Gita 

for business inspiration in several ways, which 

include developing greater mindfulness and 

equanimity during business negotiations, as well as 

cultivating a sense of legacy through the notion of 

long-term trusteeship. 

These workstyles are echoed in contemporary 

business management literature, which emphasises 

emotional intelligence as an essential leadership 

trait. For example, renowned psychologist 

Daniel Goleman, writing in ‘What Makes A 

Leader?’, published in 2004 in the Harvard Business 

Review, explained that emotional intelligence 

comprised five specific skills: self-awareness, 

self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and 

social skill. Many of these skills, including selfawareness, 

self-regulation, and motivation in 

particular, are just as central to ancient Indian 

notions of spirituality as they are to business 

management literature. 

These values are reflected in their physical 

work environment. The C-suites of both Birla and 

Piramal are archetypes for contemporary ‘spiritual 

business retreats’—luxurious and refined in form, 

while calm and peaceful in mood and atmosphere. 

I hope this example illustrates how workspaces 

reflect workstyles, and how workstyles in turn 

underline leadership traits. 

I am usually asked one question in particular, 

so I would like to take the liberty of pre-empting 

it: What is the business impact of an effective 

workplace? There is no short answer, unfortunately, 

since workplaces impact intangible assets that are, 

by definition, hard to measure. 

Many companies, especially multinationals, 

regularly assess employee satisfaction at work. This 

serves as a proxy to gauging employee productivity 

and is especially helpful to understand if a new 

facility is successful. 

The Head Office series highlights that there is little 

doubt that chief executives are closely involved 

with decisions relating to their spaces, and that 

they adopt different strategies to create an effective 

workplace. Rather than trying to identify if and 

how much the workplace can contribute to business 

success, my goal is to present tangible ways in 

which it can do so (and why). 




Solving problems can sometimes be as easy as listening to employees. 

Suresh Lulla, Qimpro Consultants Private Limited 

speed 

learning 

Capsule 

Peels and Meals 

Once upon a time, officers 

had separate canteen 

facilities to that of 

workers. Two decades 

ago, the earthmoving 

equipment plant of a 

major auto unit in South 

India was no exception. A large workers’ canteen 

was operational, on a three-shift basis, on the 

ground floor and a neat compact officers’ mess 

was designed for the floor above. The latter was 

also the regular venue for entertaining national and 

international visitors. 

So what was the problem? The staircase leading 

to the officers’ mess was a challenge for the 

nasal system of the sophisticated visitors! Polite 

handkerchiefs partially came to the rescue. Why? 

The garbage containers were placed under the 

staircase and they chronically overflowed! Quality 

was certainly not a way of life in the vicinity of 

the canteen. 

The new President of the plant, who was a 

quality enthusiast, questioned the volume and cost 

of garbage. A key piece of information was that the 

local municipality refused to shift all the garbage, 

resulting in the daily rental of private dump trucks. 


These dump trucks cost the plant R7,000 per 

day. Over and above this was the cost of wasted 

food. Collectively, we refer to this as Cost Of Poor 

Quality (COPQ). 

A management team was appointed by the 

President to solve the problem. In order to 

understand the situation, the team set up two types 

of bins; one for avoidable waste (such as cooked 

food) and the other for unavoidable waste (such as 

peels and packaging). Avoidable waste accounted 

for two-thirds of the total canteen waste. 

The team then embarked on a diagnostic journey, 

interviewing workers at meal time (remember, 

the plant worked three shifts). Here is a flavour 

of responses to the question “Why do you 

waste food?” 

“We are in South India and you serve us North 

Indian food.” 

“The meal break is only 30 minutes, and the lines 

are too long. So I pile up food.” 


STEPS OF PROBLEM SOLVING 

PROBLEM 

DEFINITION 

PROBLEM 

DIAGNOSIS 

PROBLEM 

REMEDY 

LOCKING THE 

IMPROVEMENTS 

1. List and prioritise 

chronic problems 

3. Analyze symptoms 

7. Evaluate alternative 

solutions 

11. Check performance 

2. Identify the project 

team 

4. Formulate hypotheses 

of causes 

8. Develop solutions and 

controls 

12. Monitor control 

system 

5. Test hypotheses 

9. Address resistance to 

change 

6. Identify root cause 

10. Implementation and 

controls 


Quality 

Fables 

“The ladles are too large. I could do with smaller 

servings.” “The thalis are much too large. So I pile 

up food.” 

The remedial actions involved: 

1. Inviting a team of wives, by rotation, to set the 

menu and supervise the same. 

2. Scrapping the large ladles and thalis, and 

replacing them with smaller ones. 

3. Investing the saved COPQ into worker welfare. 

The workers’ canteen now doubles up as a 

recreation club with facilities for table tennis 

and carom. The walls are sparkling white and 

adorned with paintings done by the children of the 

workers. In fact, they even published a calendar that 

showcased 12 of the best of these paintings. 

Lessons learned: 

1. Chronic problems tend to become culture issues 

2.Challenge every norm 

3.See the problem with your own eyes 

4.Listen to the ‘Voice of Workers’ 

5.Treat the workers with dignity 

6.Earn the trust of workers through 

leadership actions 

This fable aims to demystify the key types of 

problems. A ‘problem’ is a specific and visible 

performance deficiency in any manufacturing, 

service, or business process; and the 

corresponding product, service, or document. 

Problems come in two avatars: sporadic 

and chronic. 

Sporadic Problems 

A sporadic problem is a sudden negative deviation 

from the standard or status quo. The remedy lies 

in restoring the standard. Example: a house on 

fire! Put the fire out through firefighting. 

In quality control, problem-solving means 

detecting a sudden change, identifying the cause 

of the change, and returning the process to the 

original standard. 

Chronic Problems 

A chronic problem is a long-standing negative 

situation which requires remedy through 

challenging and changing the standard. Example: 

recurring house fires! Fix the cause of the fire 

through fire prevention. 

Chronic problems are often difficult to 

solve and are accepted as inevitable. They must 

be addressed through quality improvement. The 

goal of quality improvement is to challenge the 

standard and achieve a level of performance never 

before achieved. 


Suresh Lulla 

is Founder and 

mentor, Qimpro 

Consultants Private 

Limited, a focused 

quality management 

consultancy. He 

is also the author 

of World-Class 

Quality: An Excutive 

Handbook and 

Quality Fables. 




Factoring in customer insights will sure enhance the value quotient of product design 

and strategy. 

Dr Rangapriya Kannan-Narasimhan, University of San 

Diego and Dr N G Kannan, Former Director (Marketing), 

Indian Oil Corporation 

Innovation 

Dilemmas 

Co-creation 

mantra 

A 

study presented by Forrester 

Research at the recent 

CMO+CIO Summit in 

Mumbai suggested that 

improving customer 

experience is a top priority 

for 71% of Indian businesses. 

Although most organisations had some sort of 

market intelligence system for understanding 

and mapping the minds of customers, none of 

them earned an ‘excellent’ rating in the customer 

experience ranking. The survey showed that 

9% of organisations fell in the ‘good’ category, 

60% struggled to deliver mediocre customer 

experience, 28% fell in the ‘poor’ category, and 3% 

in the ‘very poor’ category. It ranked the quality 

of the customer experience by assessing three key 

dimensions: effectiveness, ease, and emotion. The 

question that arises for Indian businesses is how 

to design innovative products and services that 

enhance customer experience? 

Companies are under mounting pressure to 

continuously innovate and introduce new products 

and services with faster ‘time-to-market’ metrics. 

Consumers expect the next thing to be the next 

‘big’ thing, and when the product or service does 


One exemplar for 

successful innovation 

based on customer 

needs and perceptions 

is in the arena of 

rural marketing. 


Dr Rangapriya 

(Priya) Kannan- 

Narasimhan 

teaches Strategic 

Management 

and New Product 

Development at 

the University of 

San Diego. 

not meet their expectations, 

they do not hide their 

disappointment. Companies 

are realising that traditional 

methods of innovation such as 

developing new product ideas 

in-house, conducting focus 

groups, and customer research 

to determine feasibility 

and market potential does not always accurately 

reflect customer’s actual needs and desires. To 

address this issue, firms are increasingly placing 

customers at the heart of their innovation efforts. 

Businesses are attempting to connect with them 

and seeking their inputs earlier in the new product 

development lifecycle. 

The importance of incorporating the voice 

of the customer has been well documented 

in marketing literature at least since the early 

1990s. Traditionally, voice of customer analysis 

was based on identifying customer needs, 

structuring and prioritising them, and finally 

comparing perceptions—figuring out how 

well the organisation’s current products and 

services fulfil customer needs. One exemplar for 

successful innovation based on customer needs 

and perceptions is in the arena of rural marketing. 

Companies took the affordability constraints of 

© Bloomua / Shutterstock.com 

rural customers into consideration and began 

introducing their products in mini sachets, costing 

R1 or R2, replacing the more expensive standard 

packages of 50 ml or 100 ml. Although sachet 

marketing started with shampoos such as Sunsilk 

and Chik, today many products are available at 

nominal prices varying between R1 and R5. 

These include products such as instant coffee, tea, 

beverage, chocolates, snacks, noodles, soaps, and 

detergents. Although affordability was the initial 

driving factor for sachet marketing, it addressed 

several issues beyond affordability such as single 

use travel pack, economy, convenience, and ease 

of handling. 

The rise of internet use in the late 1990s and 

early 2000s facilitated customers and manufacturers 

engaging in active and explicit dialogues, ushering 

in the next wave of how the voice of customer was 

heard 1 . This trend continues today where businesses 

are increasingly moving towards incorporating 

customer feedback as they design the customer 

experience. While the traditional practice was 

for firms to take the lead and ask customers for 

information on what they desired, the roles flipped. 

They could now initiate the dialogue with the 

firms and co-create the product or service with 

the producers. Technology such as social media 

enables consumer feedback to be heard at earlier 

stages—idea generation and design—rather than at 

later stages such as product testing. Organisations 

can now develop new products and services more 

quickly and cost-effectively, while minimising the 

risk of underperformance or failure. 

Firms in some industries such as software and 

technology have been more successful than others 

in co-creating with customers. For example, Gmail 

was in beta testing for five years, giving it adequate 

time to co-create the product with its users. 

Microsoft is now working on a standalone Skype 

messaging app for India—the app is optimised for 

2G and 3G networks. Taking bandwidth issues in 

India into consideration, this app allows customers 

to make video and voice calls on slower networks. 

Another example is the tag line for Philips, 

‘Innovation and You,’ involving customer feedback 


Innovation 

Dilemmas 

© Buschmen | Dreamstime.com - Miele Gallery On Unter Den Linden Photo 

The challenge of using 

as a tool for innovation in their 

canned questionnaires 

marketing efforts. 

Despite the advances 

is that customers 

in technology that enable 

struggle to articulate 

companies to co-create 

their needs. 

personalised experiences 

with customers, the nontechnology 

sectors still face 

some challenges. For example, how does Tata 

Motors or Maruti Suzuki co-create an automobile 

with customers? A key article by Goffin, Varnes, 

van der Hoven, and Koners (2012) highlights these 

challenges. One of the main methods organisations 

employ to understand customer needs are survey 

questions and focus groups. The challenge of using 

canned questionnaires is that customers struggle 

to articulate their needs 2 . They are not aware of 

the limitations of the current products, and cannot 

imagine what future possibilities are. Furthermore, 

they are prompted to think about existing products 

rather than probing for unresolved issues and 

unmet needs. Although using focus groups alleviates 

some of these challenges, two still remain. Firstly, 

customers behave differently when in their own 

environments. Secondly, when they are outside 

their own environments, market researchers miss 

out on seeing valuable contextual clues that give 

designers potential ideas. These authors suggest that 

using ethnography to understand customer needs 

enables organisations to tap into unrecognised as 

well as unarticulated customer needs. For example, 

they refer to Miele, a German manufacturer of 

high-end domestic appliances, who used ‘listen and 

watch’ teams to observe the cleaning practices of 

parents who have children suffering from allergies. 

Home visits suggested that parents of children with 

allergies vacuumed a mattress several times a day 

to know that it is clean. However, these parents 

did not complain about the extra time or amount 

of intense cleaning because they were used to 

regular intensive cleaning. The ‘listen and watch’ 

teams recognised this hidden need and developed 

a vacuum cleaner that indicated if an item being 

cleaned is dust-free. They included a hygiene 

sensor that turned from red to amber to green 

as the cleaning progressed. This sensor became a 

breakthrough feature for people who have allergies 

to know when a room is free of dust. 

Thus, there are several ways through which 

organisations assess customer needs and 

incorporate the voice of the customer when 

developing innovations. These include several 

quantitative and qualitative approaches such as 

field surveys, qualitative interviews, key informant 

approach, and frameworks that result from them, 

including ‘the customer-centered innovation map’, 3 

‘customer journey mapping’, 4 and ‘jobs-to-bedone’. 

5 To understand whether you are simply 

‘hearing the voice’ of the customer or ‘co-creating’ 

with them, here are some questions to consider 6 . 

1. Is the conversation end point clear? The end 

point emerges as a result of a dialogue between 

the firm and the customer in a co-creation 

framework, whereas in traditional market 

research the end point is clearly defined. 

2. Do the firm and the customer build off of each 

other’s comments? One idea from a customer 

triggers ideas that the firm could build upon and 

vice-versa, where both the firm and customer 

explore and jointly create new ideas. 

3. Is there a willingness to explore the assumptions 

that underlie the dialogue? Both the firm 

and customer must identify and explore the 

assumptions such that they understand their 


Innovation 

Dilemmas 

© Shutterstock.com 

The toughest part of 

innovation is determining 

consumer preference 

for the value created by 

the innovation. 


Dr N G Kannan is 

a retired Director 

(Marketing) 

of Indian Oil 

Corporation 

Limited and MD 

of IBP Limited. 

He also retired 

as Chairman of 

Lubrizol India 

Limited, Indian Oil 

Mauritius Limited, 

and Indian Oil 

Petronas Limited. 

mutual perspectives better. 

4. Is the conversation 

exploratory? This suggests that 

no topic is off-limits between 

the firm and the customer. 

The depth and breadth of the 

ideas increase, and enables 

identifying the best course of 

action for both. 

5. Is there an eagerness for new ideas? The most 

productive dialogues are those that exhibit 

extreme openness to new ideas, regardless of the 

firm’s capabilities, competition, and other factors. 

6. Do the customer and firm shape the structure 

and content of the conversation? Both parties 

should have process checks in place to ensure that 

the dialogue is not a one-way conversation, but a 

two-way flow of information. 

Co-creating with customers involves high levels 

of trust between both parties, a willingness to place 

value on each other’s insights, complementarity 

of skills between the firm and the customer, 

depth of knowledge and experience, an adventureseeking 

attitude to enjoy the thrill that comes from 

exploring these ideas, and creating a setting where 

both parties can have uninterrupted conversations 7 . 

Although firms benefit from co-creation, they 

have to figure out when it is optimal to co-create 

with customers versus when to just listen to 

their voice. For example, if it is an incremental 

tweak to an existing product, then firms might 

not have to engage in extensive co-creation. Thus, 

managers have to determine the products that they 

are interested in innovating, before determining 

the best way to incorporate the voice of the 

customer. In sum, the toughest part of innovation 

is determining consumer preference for the value 

created by the innovation. Co-creation enables 

firms to determine this value and then provide 

them to customers. However, co-creation is not a 

one-time solution. It is a philosophy, a mindset that 

organisations have to consciously work on in order 

to effectively leverage the voice of the customer for 

designing successful innovations. 

1 Prahalad, C.K & Ramaswamy, V. (2000). Co-opting customer 

competence 

2 Goffin, K., Varnes, C. J., van der Hoven, C., & Koners, U. 

(2012). Beyond the voice of the customer: Ethnographic market 

research. Research-Technology Management, 55(4), 45-54. 

3 Bettencourt, L. A., & Ulwick, A. W. (2008). The customercentered 

innovation map. Harvard Business Review, 86(5), 109. 

4 Richardson, A. (2010). Using customer journey maps to 

improve customer experience. HBR Blog Network, posted, 8(05). 

5 Christensen, C.M., Anthony, S.D., Berstell, G., Nitterhouse, 

D. (2007). Finding the right job for your product, MIT Sloan 

Management Review, 48, 38-47. 

6, 7 Jaworski, Bernard J. and Ajay K. Kohli (2006), “Co-Creating 

the Voice of the Customer,” in Robert F. Lusch and Stephen L. 

Vargo (eds), Toward a Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing: 

Dialog, Debate and Directions, M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Armonk: NY. 

(We shall cover more on innovation-related issues in our 

forthcoming issues. If you have a question on innovation, send 

it to us along with your title and company name to imeditorial@ 

spentamultimedia.com. We will also credit you for the questions 

when we respond to it in our article.) 


Why shifting to cloud telephony will help businesses streamline and coalesce 

their communication processes. 

Ambarish Gupta, Knowlarity Communications 

STARTUP 

The virtual caller 

He graduated from IIT Kanpur, worked for three years in Silicon Valley, and came back to India where 

he started an online real estate brokerage company, Inventica. Unfortunately, it did not take off as it 

was not an ideal time for online businesses and no venture capitalist was ready to invest. But failure 

did not deter him from pursuing his entrepreneurial dreams. After a few years, he started his own cloud 

telephony-based startup—Knowlarity, which is now the market leader in the country. In this exclusive 

interview to Indian Management, Ambarish Gupta highlights how cloud telephony will pave the 

path for more efficient, affordable, and easy management of business communications. 


STARTUP 

We provided AAP with Initial journey 

the tools to spread the In 2009 while I was pursuing MBA 

in the US, the developed market 

word through a massive was going through a massive 

phone campaign, 

recession fuelled by the mortgage 

reaching out to more crisis. The GDPs of developed 

markets was around 0-1% while 

than 12 lakh voters in a 

emerging markets were growing at 

span of two months. 8-9%. Telecom in India at that time 

had an unprecedented growth rate 

of 100%—consumers in emerging 

markets including India, South 

East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa were buying 

mobile phones. This planted a thought in my mind 

that if consumers are buying mobile phones, then 

they would eventually use it to call businesses, 

creating a need for comapnies to have more than a 

mobile phone to handle the plethora of calls. They 

would need a system which could be integrated 

with their phone number and would help answer, 

route, and record calls, and push call details to 

customer relationship management (CRM) teams. 

This was the insight which pushed us to start 

Knowlarity. India is my home country and a large 

market, and hence looked like the right place to 

start the company. We started catering to small 

businesses as well as large enterprises, and since 

then the business has really taken off. 

Political and social campaigns helped 

gain a foothold 

Our first break came when Odisha Chief Minister 

Naveen Patnaik used Knowlarity’s Enterprise 

Telephony for his campaigns and promotions. 

We earned about a crore for calling up 70 lakh 

people in Odisha, asking them to vote for Patnaik. 

And that is how we got our seed money for 

Knowlarity Communications. 

Recollecting those days, I believe it is always 

better to work with an industry that is growing 

because it gives you a lot of opportunities to move 

up the ladder, even when you are at your worst. The 

objective is to keep looking for that one idea which 

would lift the business—to use creativity as much 

as one can to improvise and find a fighting chance. 

We reached the next milestone in our journey 

during the Delhi elections. Because the target 

segment was the common man, Aam Aadmi 

Party (AAP) used a medium that could connect 

users across the digital divide—the phone, and 

Knowlarity was the platform they used to make this 

connect. We provided AAP with the tools to spread 

the word through a massive phone campaign, 

reaching out to more than 12 lakh voters in a span 

of two months. A toll-free number provided by us 

was circulated through social media and elsewhere. 

Influencers called on the toll-free number to 

listen to the party’s manifesto, get the facts and 

to know how to participate in the campaign. The 

next time they called, they spoke to a tracker who 

verified that the influencer was not an imposter. 

Once the tracker gave his go-ahead through an 

Integrated Voice Recording (IVR) system, the 

influencer was free to call on the toll-free number 

to speak to a voter. How did that happen? When 

an influencer called on the toll-free number, the 

system made another call to someone from its 

database of 12 lakh numbers. The two calls were 

patched and the influencer talked about why 

s/he believed in Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership. The 

campaign took off and we found one influencer 

had spoken to almost 2900 voters. At its peak, 

more than 250 calls were made simultaneously on 

the toll-free number. This highly scalable system 

was built by Knowlarity’s internal team to AAP’s 

specification, using our platform, Knowlus. 

During this year’s Kumbh Mela, we facilitated 

a helpline through our flagship product, 

SuperReceptionist, a virtual IVR solution, 

through which visitors can instantly connect and 

search for various facilities such as emergency 

services, hospitals, chemists, hotels, and also seek 

information on the mela timings, routes, and 

important rituals like shahi snana. 

Overcoming roadblocks 

Initially, the biggest problem we faced was 

paucity of funds. Investor confidence was at an 

all-time low, markets were depressed, customer 

acquisition was difficult, and we had to struggle 


Flexibility is the USP of to keep our dreams alive. India 

cloud-based telephone 

is home to over 14 million small 

and medium businesses operating 

solutions and this 

in tough conditions characterised 

is the reason why it 

by lack of infrastructure, funding, 

can accommodate all and market opportunities. The 

biggest challenge so far has been in 

legacy communication 

weaning SMEs off manual systems 

systems. 

and convincing them to shift to 

automotive systems. Regulatory 

frameworks too have posed a 

problem. Until now, there was 

little market awareness on the various benefits 

of cloud. Going forward, globalisation will be 

the biggest challenge from both the product and 

workforce perspectives. We need to understand 

and bridge cultural differences to get a toehold 

in markets abroad. We should also identify the 

right talent at the right place and the right time to 

succeed internationally. 

Why cloud telephony is the future 

Cloud telephony service providers understood 

that a one-size-fits-all approach will no longer 

work; so they have developed flexible plans based 

on the needs of the industry and its business 

elements. Today, Knowlarity cloud telephony 


service is available in the hospitality and healthcare 

sectors, financial institutions, and so on. Real-time 

collaboration is possible by incorporating cloud 

telephony in mobile apps, CRMs, helpdesks, and 

so on. 

These are three important benefits of a cloud-based 

solution: 

• Cost savings, driven by reducing phone and fax 

charges, eliminating the need for PBX hardware, 

and reducing administration costs, which is 

in line with the largest cost components of a 

premise-based telephony solution. 

• It serves as a single solution deployed across 

multiple locations, giving the company 

corporate-wide phone system features and 

extension dialing, one provider to manage, and a 

single view to its customers. 

• The flexibility inherent in a cloud-based phone 

system, including system functions such as 

moves/adds/changes and easy adaptation of call 

routing, having voicemail to e-mail capability, and 

access to call logs, which have impacted day-today 

operations. 

The increase in the number of communication 

channels and tools has proved to be a huge 

challenge for any company to manage. Thus, 

business communication systems will fast switch 

to a unified communication system, which 

inadvertently is based on the cloud telephony. 

Flexibility is the USP of cloud-based telephone 

solutions and this is the reason why it can 

accommodate all legacy communication systems. 

Hence, companies that used to have their PSTN 

telephones can make use of the cloud with simple 

changes to their existing infrastructure. In terms of 

scalability, users can upgrade and downgrade their 

subscription packages. An increase in operations 

would mean adding more telephone lines and this 

can be accomplished with a few clicks when using 

cloud telephony. 

Mobility at workplaces can be easily achieved 

by migrating to cloud. Majority of the bigger 

companies are now contemplating the use of BYOD 

(Bring Your Own Device) and CYOD (Choose 

Your Own Device), and cloud telephony is the 


STARTUP 

IVR services are a 

must for any modern 

enterprise looking to 

make the best of their 

limited resources. 

technology that can promote and 

accommodate both these trends. 

Products and services 

We have three main products: 

SuperReceptionist is our best-selling 

product. This is a virtual assistant, 

front office receptionist, lead manager, 

and CRM rolled into one. 

SmartIVR creates the impression of 

a professionally managed company at 

a low cost. It can help create multiple 

departments within 

your company. IVR 

services are a must for any modern 

enterprise looking to make the 

best of their limited resources. It 

provides an option for afterhours 

or holiday customers by routing 

calls to voicemail or night support. 

Unlike conventional IVR systems 

that are expensive to install and 

maintain, Knowlarity’s SmartIVR is affordable 

as you spend for what you use and there is no 

excess capacity. 

SuperConference is a conferencing system on the 

cloud that gives a high-quality sound experience 

connecting teams anywhere, any time. It is secured 

with a unique PIN and ID number. 

Knowlarity’s flagship products, SuperReceptionist 

and SmartIVR, can process over two million calls 

an hour. We are a SaaS (Software as a Service) 

company with a pay-as-you-go subscription model. 

use it to reach out to businesses. 

Businesses too would need some kind 

of telephony solution to handle these 

calls, and they have a choice between 

on-premise and cloud telephony. 

Cloud telephony has no downtime, 

automatically scales up and down, and 

gets updated quickly. 

Many players have entered the 

market after we got funding from 

Sequoia Capital in 2012. Among 

the prominent players in the cloud 

telephony space, there are firms 

such as Exotel, Ozonetel, Unicom, 

SMSlane, and VMC Technologies, to name a few. 

But in terms of competition, Knowlarity has 

around 95% of the market share. However, the 

Indian cloud telephony market is extremely tough 

to survive and many players will either shut shop 

or merge. 

Future plans: gaining global presence 

Knowlariy is bullish on the emerging markets of 

Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, 

where it sees a lot of growth opportunity for 

cloud telephony. 

We are at present working on improving our 

mobile platform and user experience. Our aim is 

to provide the power of a mini call centre in every 

smartphone. We expect to grow five fold over the 

next three years and achieve our interim goal of 

becoming a billion-dollar company. 


Ambarish Gupta 

is CEO and 

Founder, Knowlarity 

Communications. 

Indian cloud telephony market 

Cloud industry is specially suited for entrepreneurs 

in emerging markets which lack proper 

infrastructure unlike developed economies. They 

need not be concerned about taking care of and 

maintaining hardware. They would have a hasslefree 

software, managed on the cloud which is 

1/10th cheaper than installing it on premise. 

Owing to these reasons the cloud industry is 

growing in leaps and bounds. 

Today, almost everyone uses a phone, and many 

Customer base: The number of customers 

grew from 6,500 in 2014 to 12,000 in 2015. 

Funding: The startup received a seed funding 

of $400,000 in 2009, and angel investment of 

$1.6 million the next year. Sequoia invested in 

Knowlarity in 2012, and they raised $15 million 

from Mayfields in 2014. 

( As told to Titash Roy Choudhury) 



A lot of diligent planning goes into managerial innovations that create value for 

multiple stakeholders. 

Nicolas Arnaud and Thibaut Bardon, Audencia Nantes 

School of Management 

speed 

learning 

Capsule 

The six 

commandments 

Liberation management, holacracy, 

lean management, self-managing 

teams, and communities of 

practice—innovation at any 

cost seems to be one of the new 

mantras of business. What is new 

is often considered to be best 

simply because it has not been done before, and can 

allow a firm to steal a march on its competition. 

For the past two decades, we have observed a 

counterproductive craze for what appears to be 

management fashion rather than carefully thoughtout 

managerial innovations. However, managers 

would be well-advised to temper their taste for 

the new with the need to keep in mind the human 

aspect of these changes. In this way, management 

innovations should become vectors of meaning that 




Thibaut Bardon 

is Associate 

Professor, Audencia 

Nantes School 

of Management, 

France. 

profit both those in charge and the workforce. They 

have to make sense from the bottom to the top. 

To achieve such a state of affairs, there are six 

commandments any manager keen on managerial 

innovations would do well to respect: 

1. Do not use ready-made solutions 

It would be foolish to think that off-the-shelf 

answers exist to challenges found within a firm. 

Gurus and consultants tend to propose readymade 

solutions and present them as sure-fire 

recipes for success. These products are therefore 

sold as techniques that have proved their worth 

in countless major groups. Their references are 

impressive, making them credible in the eyes of 

business leaders. The problem with this approach 

is it does not incorporate the fact that each firm 

is unique. To seek an answer without keeping 

in mind an organisation’s past, its culture, or its 

way of working would amount to short-sightedness. 

2. Practise what you preach 

Sadly, there are too many managers who bring to 

mind the expression, ‘do what I say, not what I do.’ 

Such contradictions can take on many forms. A 

business leader may make a plea for responsibility 

within the firm and then fail to adhere to those 

values. In the same way, a conservative manager 

who sings the praises of innovation will not pass the 

test. There is also the case of authoritarian directors 

who call for management participation for all. 

These gulfs between the message and the action can 

create conflicts of meaning among the employees, 

which translate into a lack of understanding, a 

reduction in engagement, and even a resistance 

to change. 

3. Be aware of paradoxical prescriptions 

It is worth stressing that managerial innovations 

always take place in an existing structure. 

This means that a certain company culture and 


strategy 

Those who lead plans functioning method are already 

of change tend to have 

present. It would not be a good 

idea to neglect this fact and 

a global vision of what announce a new era in one fell 

is required and the 

swoop. There is a clear need to 

stakes involved. 

take into account the current 

context and to build on it so that 

the newly introduced aspects do 

not produce paradoxes. Should these occur, they 

could destroy economic value for the firm and have 

a negative impact on the workforce. 

4. Respect that not everyone is an 

entrepreneur 

Beware of innovations that seek to make every 

person within the firm act like an entrepreneur; 

experience shows that this is simply not possible. 

Each person has a certain potential, and harbours 

different aims and desires. For example, it is not 

uncommon for some employees to want to avoid 

being any kind of leader on new projects, or to 

enter into a philosophy of constant and targeted 

improvement. This does not mean they do not wish 

to work well, but simply that they do not feel the 

need to lead. Alongside these non-entrepreneurs, 

we also find those who are very keen on change 

but do not possess the profile needed to oversee 

it. Others may favour their own interests before 

those of the firm. With such a mix within a 

company, it seems of little use to try to impose an 

entrepreneurial approach on the workforce. No 

firm requires 100% leaders among its staff. 

strict operating rules seldom in-line with unknown 

quantities, exceptions, or a new-look management 

ethos, these technologies can make a firm less 

agile, decrease creativity, and suppress the will 

to innovate. 

6. Accompany the changes 

Periods of change within a firm are always delicate, 

not only for the people who feel the daily impact 

of the new measures, but also for those who 

implement them. During such a period, the 

success of innovations can be closely linked to the 

level of support and accompaniment given to the 

personnel. Those who lead plans of change tend 

to have a global vision of what is required and the 

stakes involved. This means they can easily fail to 

take into account a more specific, ‘local’ reality. 

Perhaps, the best solution is to call on middle 

managers. Well-placed to translate innovation 

aims for the workforce, they can help ensure that 

the main goals are not out of touch with the daily 

activity of a service, department, or business unit. 

It is then up to those who lead such plans to give 

middle managers room to manoeuvre. 

What these commandments show is that it is 

vital for managers to take care when adopting and 

implementing a managerial innovation. They serve 

as an invitation to managers to ask themselves 

key questions about the social impact of their 

own practices. 


Nicolas Arnaud 

is Associate 

Professor, Audencia 

Nantes School 

of Management, 

France. 

5. Recognise that technology is not always 

the answer 

Today, it is clear that too many business leaders 

see the hi-tech/digital route as the only one to 

take in all circumstances. To question this is not to 

play down the role of technology, as it can often 

help to find a path through the complex context 

of firms in an ever-shifting world. However, if 

technology can provide answers, it can also create 

headaches. Indeed, it would not be going too far 

to label hi-tech initiatives as part of the problem 

rather than part of the solution. Because of their 




Inculcating leadership skills is what b-schools do best. Can they do the same 

for building strength of character? 

J Philip, Xavier Institute of Management and 

Entrepreneurship 

Leadership 

Building tomorrow’s 

leaders 

“A 

fields, where the leader’s task is to provide a new 

leader is a dealer in 

hope”, said Napoleon 

Bonaparte. It is a terse 

but apt description 

of the rationale 

and legitimacy for 

leadership in many 

vision and make followers aspire and work for it. 

This is especially true of fields like trade unionism, 

politics, and religion. Trade union leaders keep their 

members motivated by instilling in them a hope for 

a better work-life. Politicians do the same for the 

country, promising better lives for all. It is, perhaps, 

religious leaders who make maximum use of hope, 

as they deal with the other world about which 

nobody knows anything for certain. 

In essence, therefore, a leader’s real job is to 

create that hope for something better, convert it 

into a vision for tomorrow, share it with followers, 

and make them transcend their individual desires 

and work to the fullest of their capabilities 

to accomplish that superordinate goal for the 

common good. 

In a resurgent India—a competitive, confident, 

and young India, driven by dynamic leaders in every 

sector—we need to create effective leadership at every level, in every 

institution, and in every sector. We need a wide range of leaders—from 

the panchayat to the national level; the shop floor to the CEO; the school 

headmaster to the Vice–Chancellor; the primary level social worker to 

the head of an NGO, and so on. 

India is estimated to occupy third position among nations in terms of 

their GDP by 2030. To make this projection a reality and for continued 

and accelerated growth, the country needs leadership at every level, just 

as we need the latest technology. The primary responsibility of developing 

leaders lies with our education system, which is not well-equipped in 

this regard. ‘Leadership development’ needs to be included as a critical 

component of b-school curriculum since these institutions shape the 

leaders of the country. 

Definitional diversity 

While the word ‘leadership’ is part of everyone’s conversation, it is 

understood differently by different segments of people. Also, there is no 

complete agreement on its definition, even among scholars. 

John Kotter, the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, 

Emeritus at the Harvard Business School says, “Leadership is about 

coping with change”, and adds that the leader develops a vision and then 

aligns the followers to it. According to Robert House, former professor 

emeritus of management at the University of Pennsylvania, leaders are 

builders of strategies and vision. Stephen Robbins, professor emeritus of 

management at San Diego State University, uses a simple definition— 

“leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of 


The need for developing a vision or a set of goals”. These 

appropriate vision and 

definitions highlight the role of 

the leader as a change agent, who 

values is a perennial 

accomplishes change by setting a 

concern for leaders of vision for the followers, and then 

all times. 

inspiring and persuading them to 

work for it. The mechanism for 

accomplishing this is to develop 

leaders among the followers—by 

empowering them and giving them the autonomy 

to perform routine activities so as to enable the 

leader to focus on the higher tasks of leadership. 

The role of leaders as change agents who create 

the relevant kind of vision, values, strategies, 

inspiration, and motivation for the followers is 

illustrated by the lives of many a great leader. 

However, the need for developing appropriate 

vision and values is a perennial concern for leaders 

of all times. 

Modern India is a case in point. Very many of 

our organisations are visionless; most of them 

live day-by-day and not in the long term. Also, 

corruption is rampant in many institutions. Most 

of our government institutions just limp along and 

there have been lapses in many of India’s projects 

due to corruption and inefficiencies among its 

leaders. There are, however, a few silver linings in 

its leadership horizon. 

Leadership development 

A question often asked is how individuals develop 

leadership competencies and attitudes. One of 

the dominant perspectives is that leaders are born 

and there is no need to develop them. It is logical 

to suggest a role for the genes in the making of a 

leader, but the environment plays a large role in 

developing leadership qualities in individuals—the 

family, the community in which one grows up, 

and education. 

Role of families 

American psychologist David McClelland had 

observed that the development of achievement 

orientation is initiated by the nurturing of 

independent thought and action provided to a 

child by the family. It is logical to argue that the 

same would be true for leadership development 

as well. The experiences of early childhood make 

a major contribution to the development of one’s 

personality, and impact a child’s development as 

a future leader. There are three specific attributes 

required for a family to be able to nurture their 

children towards leadership: godliness, love, and 

caring for one another. The process started in the 

family may be further strengthened in the school 

and the community, provided they have supportive 

culture and systems. 

Role of the community 

The culture of a community and the behaviour 

of its leaders, especially the political ones, have a 

significant influence on the value system developed 

by the next generation. Corruption, communalism, 

and casteism have become the bane of the country, 

and ethics has taken a backseat. 


Role of schools 

There has to be focus particularly on early-stage 

education, as this is the most impressionable period 

in the life of individuals, when they would acquire 

values. There is hardly any disagreement among 

various schools of thought in psychology in this 

regard. Transactional analysis believes that the 

personality of a child is almost made by the time 


Leadership 

Schools are the right 

she reaches nine. What they refer 

place to start leadership 

to as personality must include 

leadership skills and orientation, 

education, where the 

which may be latent in the 

student should be 

individual. It is, therefore, obvious 

helped in identifying, that schools are the right place 

to start leadership education, 

nurturing, and building 

where students should be helped 

their leadership traits in identifying, nurturing, and 

and talents. 

building their leadership traits 

and talents. 

One of the issues in which private schools score 

over government ones is in incorporating an 

inclusive concept—imparting knowledge as well 

as developing personality. But the percentage of 

children who get an opportunity to study in such 

schools is rather small. While it is a good idea to 

steadily keep building and supporting such special 

schools, they are far too inadequate for serving the 

needs of the burgeoning population of the country. 

Therefore, we should give the private sector 

a dominant role in managing our primary and 

secondary school education. 

What will really take us far and above will be 

high-quality primary and secondary level education 

that focuses on academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular 

activities. Alongside this, we should also 

create a strong parallel stream of technical schools 

focusing on skill development. 


Prof. J. Philip 

is President, 

Xavier Institute of 

Management and 

Entrepreneurship, 

Bangalore. 

Role of corporate/governmental initiatives 

Before taking up the issue of leadership 

development in business schools, it would be 

worthwhile to review experiences of leadership 

development for public servants. Such initiatives 

are available in many countries, whereby they try 

to develop leadership at every level and in every 

rung and sector of administration. 

India too has a few institutes created for 

the purpose of developing leaders at various 

levels of administration. Two such institutes for 

top-level administrators are the Lal Bahadur 

Shastri National Academy of Administration, 

Mussoorie and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 

National Police Academy, Hyderabad. These 

two institutions together are expected to 

develop administrative leaders and provide 

the steel frame of administration and law 

enforcement. Unfortunately, the critical aspect 

of ethical leadership—character, conscience, 

and compassion—is apparently missing in 

their programmes. 

Role of business schools 

Just as we need leaders for the government 

sector, we need them for the corporate sector 

too. It is in developing leaders for the corporate 

sector that business schools have a special role. 

Like the administrative services, MBA attracts 

the best talent of the country, including about 

30% of the output of the IITs. These graduates 

are extremely competitive. But MBA education 

in the country does not give the kind of attention 

it deserves when it comes to character, values, 

or ethics. In other words, the MBA courses focus 

too much on the ‘doing’ part, with the neglect 

of the ‘being’ part.Many students do not even 

look at the company or the job profile, but only 

at the salary package. In this great scramble for 

money what gets sacrificed is the development of 

ethical leadership. 

The top 10%—around 350 b-schools—produce 

over 60,000 MBA graduates a year. This will 

be more than the combined MBA strength of 

the G4 of Europe: England, France, Germany, 

and Italy. Assume that these and another 50,000 

of our MBA graduates were trained well in 

character, societal concern, and leadership; think 

of the difference it would make for the country. 

Unfortunately, b-schools which give attention to 

these three aspects could be counted in tens. 

If we do not bring in these higher order values 

into the system, there is no sense in running 

business schools. This is an aspect that concerns 

many of us who have devoted almost our entire 

lives to the cause of management education. 

The onus lies with Indian management educators 

to inculcate the values of character, social 

concern, and ethical orientation—the hallmarks 

of leadership. 


Book 

extract 

“Everyone agreed that for a successful sales call, one must collect all relevant 

details of the customer beforehand.” 

Customer is king 

WINNING 

LESSONS: FROM 

CORPORATE LIFE 

Author: 

O P Khetan 

ISBN: 

9781482845211 

“A 

customer is the most 

important visitor on 

our premises. He is 

not dependent on us. 

We are dependent 

on him.” - Mahatma 

Gandhi 

In those days I used to conduct most of my 

HRD Centre’s management training programmes 

at Delhi’s Maurya Sheraton Hotel. In one of the 

programmes for top managers on ‘Leadership & 

Teambuilding’ I invited Mr. Nakul Anand the Vice 

President of ITC in charge of the Maurya Sheraton 

Hotel for a guest lecture. I understand he is 

presently an Executive Director of ITC Limited. He 

readily agreed and delivered an excellent talk. At 

the end we had a question answer session. One of 

the participants asked: 

“Mr. Anand what are you looking for to achieve in 

this hotel, I mean what is your goal” 

Nakul Anand paused for a while and then said 

“This is a good question. Well I am looking for 

simple ‘Wows’ from my clients”. 

“Sir what does that mean”. Another participant 

quipped. 

“I will explain it” said Nakul Anand. 

“When the client disembarks from his limousine 

in my porch and looks around I want to hear him 

exclaim ‘Wow’, when he enters the hotel lobby and 

looks around I want to hear from him ‘Wow’, and 

when he goes up the elevator and enters his suite, I 

again want to hear ‘Wow’, This is my goal and this is 

what I constantly try to achieve in this hotel”. 

These words keep ringing in my ear even after 20 

years. In these three ‘Wows’ Nakul Anand summed 

up the whole theory of customer satisfaction, 

customer delight and customer surprise. 

To be true to this aim whenever I rang the 

Maurya Sheraton Hotel reception or the banquet 

sales the telephone was always lifted on the first 

ring, never the second. I must have rung them 

over 200 times during those seven years and not 

even once do I remember waiting for the second 

ring. Recently I read in the newspapers that 

President Obama of USA, after two nights stay 

complemented the hotel staff “Awesome hospitality 

ITC Maurya”. 

The same lesson “Customer is King” I learned 

during my days in ICI. We had started a new 

plant at Ennore near Chennai to manufacture 

the herbicide ‘GRAMOXONE’. (This brand is 

now with Syngenta Corporation.) The sales team 

was recruited and they were to be given focused 

training to sell GRAMOXONE to farmers. We had 

asked Makhija, one of the famous trainers from 

Mumbai to conduct the training programme for 

our sales team. The programme was conducted at 

Taj Coromandal Hotel, Chennai and as Head of HR 

I went to oversee from the Kolkata Head Office. 

Makhija organised a role play. He selected two 

participants at random to act as salesmen. One 

was to behave as he would do normally. The other 

participant was trained and briefed by Makhija in 

a separate room for around 15 minutes. A third 


participant was also briefed by Makhija separately 

to act as a wealthy farmer near Bangalore interested 

in horse racing and was in a hurry to leave for the 

race course that evening. The stage was set. 

The first Salesman approaches the farmer. 

“Sir I am from ICI. We make excellent herbicide 

GRAMOXONE, very good for your crops”. 

“What ICI and what GRAMOXONE, I am in 

a hurry to leave for the race course. Don‘t waste 

my time”. 

“Sir please five minutes. I will explain the 

benefits” tried the salesman. 

“No no I have no time now, come some 

other time”. 

“Sir please, I have come all the way from 

Bangalore for you”. 

“So what? Did I tell you 

to come and see me? No 

more talk”. 

Makhija clapped and the 

role play was over. 

The next salesman walks 

in. He has been briefed by 

Makhija to study the back 

ground of the farmer, his 

interests and his routine 

that day. Remember that 

the farmer was to behave as 

naturally as the real farmer 

would do in similar situation. 

The next salesman starts 

exactly the same way. 

“Sir I am from ICI. We 

make excellent herbicide 

GRAMOXONE, very good 

for your crops”. 

“What ICI and what 

GRAMOXONE. I am in 

a hurry to leave for the race 

course. Don’t waste my time”. 

“Race course! That’s great I am also going there 

after meeting you and I have got some tips as I 

know some people”. 

“What tips? You are just boasting to please me”. 

“No sir, as you know, in the last race that 

particular jockey was the favourite but he lost 

because of .... This time the most favourite jockey is 

such and such which is being kept secret”. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Sir I am not 100% sure but the inside news is....” 

“OK OK how are you going to Bangalore”. 

“Sir I will hire a taxi although it is a big drain on 

me but it is my passion”. 

“Why don’t you come with me in my car? 

We can also discuss your so called tips and 

your herbicide”. 

This time Makhija kept quite but all the 

participants clapped instantaneously. 

The role play was a hit. Everyone agreed that for 

a successful sales call, one must collect all relevant 

details of the customer beforehand, such as his 

background, his interests, and his routine that day. 

My next experience took place in Kolkata. I had 

gone to the New Market to buy some toiletries. 

It was a small shop and the salesman looked like 

a middle aged modern owner. I asked in English 

“Can you show me some good 

shaving creams?” “Sure sir” he 

replied and spread about half 

a dozen on the counter. While 

I was looking at the spread, 

I overheard a feminine voice 

in chaste Bengali and saw 

a lady speaking “Lakmer 

bottereesh namber lipstick 

aache ki?” (Do you have 

Lakme no. 32 lipstick”. I 

also heard the reply in chaste 

Bengali. “Hain, aekhuni 

dekhachee aapnake” (Yes, I 

will show you just now). A 

few minutes later I saw an 

old person in dhoti and kurta 

entering the shop. He asked 

“Bhaya ek lux sabun ke tikki 

dena” (brother give a cake 

of lux soap). The salesman 

replied “Babuji yeh lijiye”. (Sir 

here it is). Whatever language 

the customer spoke the salesman replied in the 

same language! 

These three real life episodes taught me the 

following lessons: 

1. Customer is King. 

2. Speak the language of the customer. 

3. Talk in terms of his interests rather than 

your own. 

(Winning Lessons: From Corporate Life is published by Partridge 

Publishing India. All rights reserved.) 


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