PRATIBIMB The Reflection Of Management
Finance | General Management | Human Resources | Marketing | Health Care | Systems | Operations
The Bloomberg Story
Disha
FINOMENAL Dialogues with Industry Magnates
TAPMI August - September Issue
A Student Initiative
T. A. PAI MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE Manipal, Karnataka
About TAPMI T. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) is a premier management institute situated in Manipal and is well known for its academic rigor & faculty-student interaction. The Institute has been recently ranked amongst top 1 per cent of B-schools in India & 2nd in the South Zone by The Week Magazine. Founded by the visionary, Late Shri. T. A. Pai, TAPMI’s mission is to provide much needed impetus to the task of building professional management capability in the country. In the process, it has also played a role in strengthening the existing educational and health infrastructure of
Manipal.
Our Mission “To excel in post-graduate management education, research and practice”. Means:
• By nurturing and developing global wealth creators and leaders. • By continually benchmarking ourselves against best in class institutions. • By fostering continuous learning and reflection, achievement orientation, creative interdependence and respect for diversity. Value Bounds:
• Holistic concern for ethics, environment and society. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 2
DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
"Pratibimb", through its elite and lettered articles is rightly focused and forward looking. The write ups included in the issues by the industry experts are thought provoking and give the satisfaction of a good read. I truly believe in the magazine's role and responsibility in eliciting the thought processes of the students and getting them at par with the current market trends. I encourage the students, faculty and industry experts to utilize this magazine in order to gain a greater understanding and better know-how. This special issue is focused on 'DISHA 2014' - The largest HR Conclave in India and 'Finomenal 2014' - The Finance Conclave during which we inaugurated the country's largest Bloomberg Finance Lab here at TAPMI. I'm sure the efforts of the students team and the faculty in materializing the magazine will be appreciated by one and all. May you have a good read
Dr. R C Natarajan Director, TAPMI
PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 3
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK It’s been buzzing activities here at TAPMI all of last two months. Two of our flagship events ‘DISHA’ & ‘FINOMENAL’ saw an influx of some of the brightest minds of the industry with a rich turnover of
experience stories and professional advices! Meet the minds and the teams that made it happen! Our cover stories include two exclusive interviews with Chairpersons Prof. (Col) K J James and Prof Madhu Veeraraghavan. Get to know what drives them and keeps their team motivated while they speak of their respective events.
THE TEAM STUDENT EDITORIAL BOARD
With two very intriguing themes ‘Talent Race in Emerging Economies-will India win?’ – DISHA and “Financial
Innovation:
Sustainability
Vs
Debayan Bhattacharjee
Vulnerability” - FINOMENAL, the only dearth
Debidatta Satapathy
experienced during the two conclaves was that of time! This issue is also dedicated to envisaging the
Deepanwita Nandi Harshavardhan Rajendrababu Pallavi Prasad FACULTY ADVISORY BOARD
thoughts & opinions delivered at the conclaves! We bring you the perspectives and standpoints of 15 experts from a spectrum of industries with an invitation to a gen-broadening and inspiring reading experience!
Prof. Aparna Bhat Prof. Chowdari Prasad
Compliments to the team of editors for their good work as they continue to grow in their efforts to
Prof. R C Natarajan
consolidate and disseminate valuable reading to the
Prof. Seena Biju
family of business scholars!
Keep reading, Keep reflecting!
Prof. Vidya Pratap Prof. Vinod Madhavan PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 4
Dr. Seena Biju Ex-Officio Editor-in-Chief
CONTENTS Cover Story Making Bloomberg Happen
7
with Prof Madhu Verraraghavan
Enabling India’s Largest HR Conclave
10
with Col. P. S. James
The Inside Story 12
Development of Capital Markets in India By Mr Binoy Samuel, CFO. Geojit BNP Paribas
13
Different Elements under Treasury By Mr Ganesh K, SVP - Treasury and Corporate Development, DRL
Employee Engagement and Talent Acquisition in Financial Sector
16
By Mr Mohit Shetty, AVP-HR, Reliance Capital Asset Management
Business Transformation and Change Management
17
By Mr Rajat Jain, Managing Director, Xerox India Ltd.
The Great Debate Will India Win
14
Disha Edition
Regulation v/s Innovation Finomenal Special
PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 5
18
CONTENTS In a Dialogue Karuna Kumar Vempala
22
Head Acquisition, Cigniti Technologies
Raghavendra K V.P. and Head HR, Infosys BPO
Amitabh Kumar Head HR, NEC
Dipti Das Head HR-South Asia, Aramex
Suraj Chettri Head HR, Airbus
Prem Velayudan
24 26 28 29 30
HR Director & Employee Relations Leader - APAC, CISCO
Sridhar Krishnamurthy
32
Co-Founder & Director, Kelsa Solutions
Ranjana Anand
34
Director – HR, Optimal Strategix
Prabhakar Patil Joint Director, SEBI
PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 6
36
Making BLOOMBERG Happen!
Madhu Veeraraghavan Professor and Area Chair (Accounting, Economics and Finance), TAPMI As spoken to Debayan Bhattacharjee Let’s begin by asking you about the TAPMI Finance Lab –the conception of the idea, the story preceding it, the challenges faced in the process and significance of having such a facility TAPMI. The conception of the lab goes back a year, when I joined TAPMI. The Director, on a tour to the US, visited Business Schools where they were equipped with Finance Labs, and we then discussed the possibility of replicating the same at TAPMI. Initially we had a product called Cogenesis, which is a type of newswire. The Trust swiftly approved for Bloomberg. Soon, I coordinated with the experts at Bloomberg to keep the ball rolling here. The architects were identified a room in the second floor of K.K Pai block. Things fell into place by late April and the critical part of the work started in June. Along with the construction team, I set a target of 3 months to complete establishment up of the Lab. The Bloomberg Lab was successfully completed in August. The launch of the Bloomberg Lab was magnificent. Mr. Nayan Mehta, CFO, Bombay Stock Exchange was honored to be the Chief Guest for the launch along with star studded list of industry experts, CFOs, CEOs and Analysts. At Finomenal 2014, Samnidhy was officially floated, a mutual fund envisioned to be run like a business entity with a CFO, a CEO, CMO; it is principally intended to give students an experience of running a corporate show. Samnidhy is a great opportunity for students to learn
PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 7
‘ Finomenal ’ SMIF is actually not unique. There are two schools in India that have it - one is IIM Lucknow, how to handle money. In finance, there always lies a disconnect between the theory and the practice of finance. Hence now at TAPMI, we expect these initiatives to extensively bridge this gap and help us go a long way up. Next, we launched was course, namely SMIC (Student Managed Investment Course), where 36 students were to be involved in it. Each student would be given INR 25000 worth real money to invest in the market - if they lose we adjust it with their fixed deposit and if they gain then they share 50-50 with TAPMI. It goes to an endowment in TAPMI. So a very interesting course outline was drafted and 36 students were picked. There is no final exam for this course, you either burn your fingers or you make money. We wanted this to be a real experience. No other school actually provides this in India. Schools outside India which provide similar platforms to students are Stanford, Monash, HKU, etc. In the forthcoming future, we are planning to get the Bloomberg training team here to train all Finance people and non-Finance faculty members, and bring the real world to the classroom.
Once the lab has been set up what is your continued relationship with Bloomberg? Does it end there? TAPMI has agreed to have an annual subscription worth INR fifty lakh for the Bloomberg licenses. Bloomberg also has a magnificent support team called WebEx. They conduct training sessions. Every Wednesday they have WebEx remote sessions conducted by people who live and breathe Bloomberg. Here at TAPMI, we have two Bloomberg champions, whose job it is to promote the use of Bloomberg across the 95 finance students. They have people who assist faculty all around in designing and integrating Bloomberg into the course, esp. in a courses like portfolio management, security analysis, international finance, capital market courses. Theory is isn’t as much fun alone. But when this is put together, it makes a profound influence. Students enjoy it and understand things better. The Bloomberg database has tons of information. They have used it, internalized it, tailored the information, and then are attempting to sell it to us. Without Bloomberg, they would have researched on the web, made reports, and collect data. But the credibility of the data may be in question or the same may be outdated or not readily available. A Bloomberg subscription serves, you with all the data, some probably we didn’t even know existed. Bloomberg delivers at a high level of reliability, hence foremost players of the financial industry, including banks and schools have a Bloomberg terminal. It’s a win-win situation for TAPMI. The annual investment of INR fifty lakhs may seem huge, but the returns are obtained in the form of brand image it creates and the industry readiness users may experience here at TAPMI. It simply cannot be quantified.
Let us talk a bit more about the SMIF. Where do you draw a line between it being a business versus being an educational experience? Also, what is the level of autonomy that the students get in terms of faculty? How far are they PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 8
overseeing on this? and other IMT Ghaziabad. Our model is different to theirs. In their model, it is basically the faculty that does everything. I wanted this to be reversed. What we have done is put up an advisory board which other schools don’t have. SMIF now has a very powerful set of people in the finance industry who are going to be advisors to SMIF team. The advisory Board actually has the power to veto a recommendation an executive makes. That connection can actually bring the industry closer to TAPMI. As far as the question on business versus learning is concerned, this is a superb learning experience. No question that it is also a business. Because these people are going to handle your (students’) money. It is not a lot of money but at the same time if you are handling somebody else’s money, you better know how to handle that money. So your unpreparedness, ill equipped knowledge would be devastating. This is a student run activity, run by students, for students. And so every student who puts his money is learning something. Now you are not playing with just your money, you are playing with 400 other students. They are all looking up to the SMIF board to make sensible, rational decisions.
What is the plan with regard to continuity and passing on the Finance Lab and Samnidhy to the junior batch once the seniors graduate and leave the campus? We want some first year students to be involved in the SMIF Committee. It is imperative that the first year students are extremely interested to receive a hands-on experience. I will ensure that there is a perfect succession plan.
What is the future you see for the TAPMI Finance Lab as well as Samnidhy? What I wish to see is the TAPMI Finance Lab integrated in as many finance subjects that we teach. There should be no finance course that gets taught at TAPMI where TAPMI finance lab is not being used. My vision is to see that faculty take ownership, of the facility, of the resources that we have put together. Students then should shrink gap between the theory and practice of finance. The industry will observe that TAPMI graduates are certainly different to others because of the industry exposure they have received. In regard to Samnidhy, it is probably a more challenging task than the finance lab, because in Samnidhy, there is going to be a lot of turnover, students are going to leave and the new batch comes in. The finance lab can only run where there is support or where there is ownership both from faculty and from students. My desire and my goal is to see that everybody uses it at TAPMI, and make learning much more fun, for students and faculty.
PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 9
‘ Disha ’ Enabling India’s Biggest HR Conclave
Col P. S. James Professor and Area Chair – Human Resources As spoken to Pallavi Prasad Disha 2014 – How do you think it has evolved over the years, and what do you think are the factors that contributed to it? Disha has evolved over the years; from a two day singular themed event with a substantial number of HR experts as guests, this time it was larger in scope, and was spread over six days with more than sixty HR officials, who were able to schedule their travel to Badagabettu with ease due to the elaborate duration of the event. A diverse set of themes were discussed with great enthusiasm by the guests as well as students. The student committees contributed their best efforts to make Disha 2014 a success. Disha 2014 gave a platform for students to interact with very senior HR managers for the industry. The students had a lot of buy-in, which they derived with portraying lot of fervour and energy. The HR forum and Placement Committee joined hands together to attract the best talent to TAPMI, where the latter shared the corporate world connections it had gathered in due course of time.
What have been the takeaways for the students, the management, as well as the Corporate HR guests who came down to TAPMI for Disha 2014? For the students, the takeaway from Disha 2014 has been first, emphasis on talent, second, an insight into what the companies are looking for, and third that the term ‘talent’ is not generic in nature, in the sense that every human being is talented in one or many ways. But they also learnt that there is a need to gather specific talents relevant to organizational or industrial needs at the moment. The second takeaway was that it has given confidence to an organization that it can bring eminent personalities and great talent from the field of HR to TAPMI for interaction with the students. Most organizations believe in recruiting the right talent, even if it is from a far-off PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 10
place like Manipal, but we saw the actual implementation of that during Disha. In fact, it is a significant demonstration of that. For Faculty, I believe it was a wonderful opportunity to interact with several corporate people, and the industry-academic collaboration. The fairly comfortable lunch breaks were favourable for interactions between the faculty and the guests. For the managers themselves, they were quite elated, primarily because they could meet several of their colleagues and peers from other industries, and discuss on theme of talent management. They were able to exchange notes, and more importantly, got the opportunity to have individual discussions with students. All of them participated in the panel discussions, 2 to 3 of which was scheduled each day of the six days. Also, they were asked to deliver a guest lecture to a smaller group of 40 to 50 students for an intensive interaction. These two activities kept them very much engaged and involved throughout the time.
Considering the present has been a successful undertaking, what do you now see as the future for Disha? The future of Disha would be very much on the same lines. I would say that for the next 2-3 years we should work on stabilizing the present model before we look at something different. We could improve our efforts to increase the industry closure. It would also be a good idea to have a short presentation of TAPMI to the guests at their arrival, although everything about TAPMI is discussed with them essentially on an individual basis, or when the students come. But perhaps there is still scope for some senior faculty, the Dean or the Director himself to give short presentations to the guests. Although with the given framework of their flexible timings, I am not really sure to what extent we may be able to implement this idea. Getting a theme for next year would also be a challenge, I believe. One more thing that I feel is that Disha is a platform for everyone to take-off, and not for just the HR students. It is perhaps just a perception that the guests here are HRs, and therefore only for the HR students. But the talent and people that they pick up are across functions and industries. Also, not many students are aware that there are some solid databases that TAPMI has, and I firmly believe that if they use it they will be much better prepared to join the industry.
PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 11
‘ Finomenal ’ Development Of Capital Markets In India Mr Binoy Samuel (CFO, Geojit BNP Paribas)
Mr Binoy Samuel, an exemplary participant of Finomenal 2014, shared his views on “Capital market – how it developed in India” with students. In accordance with the theme, he took the students through the history of evolution of the Indian Capital Market where in the pre- 1991 era trading was at that time limited to a dozen brokers. This selectiveness gave room for scams and highlighted the challenges of liberalisation. But with the introduction of technology and governing bodies like NSE and NSEL, the Capital Markets industry was changed for ever. Digitalization and technology transformed the system to a very fast one and magnanimously increased the volatility at the same time. In last decade it has been observed that there has been a paradigm shift in Indian capital market. The application of many reforms and developments in Indian capital market has made the Indian capital market comparable with the international capital markets. Today the market PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 12
features a developed regulatory mechanism and a modern market infrastructure with growing market capitalization, market liquidity, and mobilization of resources. Of late, a new category of markets, commodities market has been introduced in India. A lay person cannot understand technicality of financial instrument, but with the advent of commodities market even a lay person feels motivated to participate in something that appealed to them-commodities they use. He asserted that with the volatility of growth of Capital Markets, there is a lot of scope of penetration into the weaker social sector of our society. This will invite the next step after banking i.e. participation in the Capital Markets. Concluding the enlightening session he said that capital market has become very transparent today and there is a potential for the Indian market to expand.
Different Elements Under Treasury Mr Ganesh K (Senior VP - Treasury and Corporate Development, Dr Reddy’s Labs)
As a part of the ongoing TAPMI Finomenal 2014, Mr. Ganesh K, Senior Vice President Treasury and Corporate Development, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories interacted with the students regarding the nitty-gritty of treasury and how it is managed across different firms. He began the session with different elements under treasury – cash, liquidity, debt, capital and forex. According to him, managing funds is the elementary function of treasury and is the toughest part. Further on, he talked about the different functions of finance – corporate finance, sales support finance, supplier finance, structured finance. He gathered more interest from the audience when he suggested that forex is an attractive and a much more fashionable option for students. With respect to a student’s question, he PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 13
explained how bureaucracy of India is a hindrance in a company’s operations, and how countries with fewer regulations are becoming attractive places for investment and operations. More into the session, he explained how treasury starts in company from defining the capital structure, leverage, pay-out i.e. dividends or buyback and then, corporate finance, which forms the heart of treasury and that is what defines a company. Mr Ganesh concluded the session with a brief overview about a merger and acquisition process – pre-deal, deal and post-deal phases and how it is different from treasury. According to him, M&A’s are mainly done to feed a few needs of a company like exploring new geographies, inducing brand recall and focusing on technology.
‘ Finomenal ’ Regulations v/s Innovation Finomenal 2014 started off on a bright note with its first panel discussion, where four industry stalwarts collaborated to give their perspectives on the topic – Financial Innovation - Sustainability V/s Vulnerability. Mr. Amit Trivedi (Executive Director, Royal Bank of Scotland) opened the discussion by asserting that in the financial world, innovation is inevitable; the question is how sustainable it is. He believes that there is no way to completely eliminate risk, at best, we can only mitigate it. He was of a strong
opinion that innovation is important, but what is more important is to innovate responsibly. Mr. Viswanathan Iyer (Director, National Australian Bank) shared his opinion that any innovation that enhances customer service, reduces costs and reduces risks is welcome. He asserted that the biggest innovation in the financial sector is technology and that innovation along with regulation is the mantra to financial stability and success. He expressed with certainty that regulation is necessary for PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 14
any sector. It is more important that we know that regulations do not stifle innovation. The idea is not to complicate but to keep it simple, and innovation is the key to that problem. Mr. D. Ravishankar (Founder Director, Brickwork Ratings) professed that the only driving force for the companies is innovation, which not only affects the financial domain but other domains as well. He believes that the impact that technology creates in the financial world on various stakeholders is the real measure of innovation.
Dr. Prabhakar Patil (Joint Director, Securities and Exchange Board of India) cited that sustenance of financial products or schemes in the current environment is the real challenge faced by this sector and whether these changes or innovation can be regulated or not, even with the available sophisticated tools. Market dynamics must be taken into consideration while focusing on innovation; otherwise the harm caused by such practices affects the functioning of the complete system.
He strongly believes that evaluation of any financial product can be done only when it benefits all the stakeholders. Mr. Dhaval Vakharia (VP, Avendus PE Investment Advisors) strongly believed that in this tug of war between innovation and regulation it was all about the way regulations are implemented. A strong policy, a strong form of regulation needs to be implemented such that scams such as Coalgate and 2G don’t happen again. Mr.
K.
Sridhar
Seshadri
(Financial
Controller, DCB Bank) was of the opinion that “Innovation and regulation are co-existent”, as ultimately all the participants are interested in developing the market. If there is growth each one of us has stake in it and each one of us grows with the economy. Dilemma is in deciding that which one is prior innovation or regulation. To build upon his point he elaborated by saying that innovators should not take liberty of a regulator being there to protect them and try to innovate in a way that PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 15
minimizes flaws. Remarking on the credible regulatory policies of India he laid the fact that India didn’t crumble in the South East Asian economic crisis just because of the effective regulations by RBI in terms of sensitive sector exposure. He mentioned that with globalization the small investors, which are a major part of Indian financial markets are more prone to risks and hence need better protection. The discussion touched upon many important and critical issues which are being faced by
the financial sector in the country and what mechanisms must be deployed to safeguard the interests of the stakeholders in the process. It was an enriching experience for the students to understand the working dynamics of the financial world especially from such distinguished panelists who inspired and motivated them.
‘ Disha ’ Talent Acquisition in Financial Sector Mr. Mohit Shetty - AVP – HR, Reliance Capital Asset Management
Mr. Mohit Shetty - AVP of Human Resources at Reliance Capital Asset Management started his career with payroll outsourcing, statutory compliance, benchmarking, designing incentive and reward framework and policy formation as well as execution. With 16 years of experience in various sectors such as hospitality, BPO, telecom, entertainment and financial services and extensive work exposure in – talent management (career and succession planning), compensation, performance management, training & development and talent acquisition, he engaged the students in an enlightening discussion. He started by speaking on employee engagement and talent acquisition in financial sector. He asserted that a person should choose HR as his/her career only if the person feels that he/she can contribute to the organization’s PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 16
goal and growth. It is very important for the HR personnel to be pushy, aggressive and direct. Throwing light on engagement, he said that the engagement should be of a level that even the operator knows the company’s current targets and knows how to go about managing it. He also emphasized on the fact that the managers and leaders need to know each employee personally - strengths, and weaknesses, to be effective managers.
In his closing remarks he shared valuable tips with the students. He advised everyone to start investing young, starting from this day itself, and asserted that each and every one can become rich. He imbued students to invest in proper portfolios, which involved reading the companies properly and analyzing them well. He closed his debate by galvanizing students to not work for money but having money work for you.
Business Transformation and Change Management Mr Rajat Jain (MD, XEROX India Ltd.)
Mr. Rajat Jain, Managing Director, XEROX India Ltd., engaged the TAPMI fraternity in a highly interactive session on ‘Business Transformation and Change Management’food for thought for aspiring managers. He opened the session with a quote by John F. Kennedy – “Change is the law of life. And those who only look to the past or present are certain to miss the future”
about a time in he sees in the future when a person will call a nearby pizza place and the pizza-guy will know everything about the caller - ranging from cholesterol level to the last holiday trip etc. all through the mobile number of the caller. This was the kind of transformation he sees coming in, in the industries in the foreseeable future.
The essence of the quote being that with the pace of change that we see in the world today, the past has become an unreliable tool to predict the future; and rightly stated so.
On the organizational level, he took a stand on the practices of any organization stating that strategies on customer retention will become a game changer in coming times because you have to know the needs of your customers.
He asserted that it is all about getting future ready, and he strongly believed that 'Data Analytics' will play a crucial part in making this happen. The visionary that he is, he spoke
And finally, he closed the seminar by adding that transformation is not easy; it requires conviction; it is essential in order to meet the needs of Generation Z.
PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 17
‘ Disha ’ Will India Win ? With the biggest HR conclave – a 6 day meet happening, at TAPMI, the leading HR industry experts took the stage and put forth their arguments on the set theme of Onimia "The Talent Race in Emerging Economies- Will India Win?" Mr. Sridhar Krishnamurthy (Co-Founder and Director, Kelsa Solutions) opened the discussion by taking up the 5 C’s of talent risk - Capacity risk, Capability risk, Cost risk, Connection risk and Compliance risk. He asserted that in order to overcome this barrier, a nation needs to use opportunities like adopting different organizational practices and exploring new work models.
Dr. Asit Mohapatra (Director HR, Raymond) added that critical gaps have been created in the Indian talent base. We live in a VUCA (Volatile Uncertain Complex Ambiguous) world that is filled with complexity. And currently there is a shortage of talented engineers in India. And this is so because they want become managers. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 18
Ms. Ruth Singh (Head HR, Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd.) eloquently quoted that India has a challenging journey ahead in terms of talent acquisition since the core competencies and capabilities are lacking. She emphasized on the fact that passion for the job is a very important criteria as this talent gap can be bridged only when we choose careers according to where our heart lies. Mr Rajat Jain (Managing Director, Xerox India Ltd.) expressed that with the strong rise of emerging economies there is now a need to manage the talent supply chain. The Indian diaspora has achieved significant success in the global platform in the last few years and this shows that there is an immense potential
in the Indian workforce which only needs to be tapped. Ms. Sarojani Gaikwad (Director, People Business) expressed that a lot of work goes in talent assessment and leadership development of people and it is the organizations which need to take proactive measures to solve this. Employees should be able to manage and be
resilient to changes and expand their risk taking abilities. There also needs to be agility in their thinking and execution. Mr. Clive VanBuerle (Vice-President HR, ISGN) changed the course of discussion with his statement that in India there is not a lack of capacity but of capability. The lacking capabilities are the situational fluency, the adaptability and the gap between the aspirations and patience of the people.
Mr. Piyush Upadhyay (Chief Strategic –HR, TATA Power) taking a turn on Employee Value Proposition to attract Multigenerational Talent began by stating that an organization is what the organization does, and what values it inculcates in the employees. Communication channels are important but execution of values are most essential Mr. Marian Jayson (Senior HR Manager, HealthCare Global) expressed that an employee should identify with the beliefs and values of the organization in which he works. Formulating an EVP that satisfies various age groups in a workforce is extremely tricky as one’s needs are not static. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 19
Mr. Gangadharayya Pashupatimath (Director Engineering, Actuant India Pvt Ltd) contributed to the discussion by stating that EVP is all about how you deal with people. Different kinds of people from different cultures and countries involved in same project makes it difficult to draft an EVP which is applicable to all cultures. Mr. Shripad Thosar (Head of shared services HR, L&T Hydrocarbon) stated that
there are multiple generations working in tandem today. With the coining of “war for talent”, talented employees have a choice when joining an organization just like a customer has a choice while picking a service provider. War for talent is more relevant today than ever before. Ms. Priyanka (Associate VP-People Services, Davita) believes that Employee Value Proposition has been passively present. Biggest gap in an organization is that EVP is crated to attract employees but once the employees join, it is equally important to implement it too. It should align with the mission and vision of the company.
‘ Disha ’
Rajat Jain MD, XEROX India
Sridhar Prem Velayudan Co-Founder & Director, HR Director - APAC, Kelsa Solutions CISCO
Raghavendra V.P. and Head HR, Infosys BPO
Amitabh Kumar Head HR, NEC India
Siddhartha Chandoke Dr. Asit Mohapatra Director-Talent Director HR, Acquisition, Metlife Raymond GOSC
Krishnan Karuna Vempala V Head Talent Head Talent Aquisition, Development, HCL Cigniti Technologies
Suraj Chettri Vidya Muralidharan Head of HR, Airbus Head HR - After Market, Ashok Leyland
Diptii Das Head HR - South Asia, Aramex
Santosh Mishra Director -HR, 24x7 Innovation Labs
Mohinish Vaidya Director - HR, UST Global
Ivy Saldhana Director HR, Actuant India
Nagdev B Director HR, Aptean Global
‘ Disha ’
Sarojani Gaikwad Director, People Business
Charu Gulati Associate Director-HR, Axis Risk Consulting
Ramunni Nair VP HR&GA, Renault Nissan
‘ Finomenal ’
Rajesh Sahay VP & Head HR, Wipro Consumer Care
Nayan Mehta CFO, Bombay Stock Exchange
Prabhakar Patil Joint Director, SEBI
TV Krishnamurthi Group HR Head, Titan
Binoy Samuel CFO, Geojit BNP Paribus
Dr. Ashok Aggarwal CFO, Escorts Securities
Pritpal Kular VP - HR, General Motors
Aditya Pratap MD, S&P Capital IQ
Vishwanathan Iyer Director, National Australian Bank
Amit Trivedi Vijayanti Margassery Sunil Wariar Sr. VP-HR, Future Head-Talent Management Executive Director, Royal Bank Of & Organization Generali Scotland Development, Biocon
Dhaval Vakharia VP , Avendus PE Investment Advisors
‘ Disha ’ A dialogue with
Karuna Kumar Vempala Head Acquisition, Cigniti Technologies By Shweta Varma You come from a diverse work background and you have worked in many different countries. How do you think other countries are different from India in terms of HR practices followed? I’m a talent acquisition person. I work for countries like Brazil Australia UK, and the US. I have basically been hiring people from all across the globe including India. In India we have 80% people who are already trained and aware of the industry; and only 20% of them need training. Where as in other countries hiring is a challenging activity, because people are very different.
Do you feel there is a lack of talent in India? When you look for talent you will mostly get talented people. Only 20% of the times you will have to train them. So, I think the talent gap is only that much.
Can you tell us about the development programs that you have conducted to nurture and motivate talent? Generally for IT companies we have a different set of plans. We basically find out what are the skills that the company wants, what kind of the talent pool do we have, and of course what the customer wants. Based on these we conduct tests and generate reports-skill matrix report and talent reports.
There are many other industries in the corporate world like insurance and automobiles. Do you find difficulty in hiring and training employees for these industries? Whenever I look for people for certain jobs, I connect their specialty with the job profile. If I PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 22
were to hire someone say for example for the healthcare industry, a person who was previously in hospital business will be my choice because that person can easily adapt to it. That way I don’t find much difficulty in hiring and training people. Another thing that I look for is the flexibility in the employees. I need to establish their learning curve and realize the appetite they have for working.
You have worked across the globe with different cultures and nowadays there is a cross-culture environment in all organizations, how do you approach the challenges that come along with the merging of cultures? I hire people across the globe, so the challenges we face are mostly the language challenges, the cultural challenges, and lastly the time challenges. We have to manage it all. It is the best and the only way is to be on top of everything.
What are the opportunities in the field of Data analytics according to you? Where do you see this field going? Data warehousing is really big these days. Managing big and real data is the real challenge. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. you name it, they all have huge data; millions of people chatting, sharing, and uploading every minute. It is a booming industry, and we are looking at multiple career opportunities in this area.
As an HR expert would you like to give any advice for future HR aspirants and managers? HR is a booming field. HR people from various industries are becoming partners everyday because they are not just employees, they are comrades. They are the main reason for excellence in the company and it is for that I advise people to take HR as their field; especially the B-school students.
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‘ Disha ’ A dialogue with
Raghavendra K. V.P. and Head HR, Infosys BPO
By Shweta Varma . You have a really diverse work experience. You have worked in so many industries. Can you tell us how the HR function in IT sector is different from the other sector? I don’t think the HR function varies much in different sectors because ultimately it is people who you deal with. The ability to connect with people is the key. The industry comes later.
Sticking to IT, don’t you feel that maximum attrition rate is seen mostly in this sector? I don’t think so. The reason why I do not find this to be true is because in the IT sector the opportunities are plenty; and, wherever opportunities are aplenty, attrition will be present. In the IT sector we face mass talent acquisition. People from all over the country work in this sector, every industry gets involved, and new industries join this process. In every sector where you see growth or find economy booming, you will also find attrition. So, it is not limited to IT industry alone. The insurance industry sees a 110 - 115% attrition.
Taking the growth angle, do you feel that the HR functions of any industry are the direct result of the relationship with the economic environment? No, it is irrespective of how the economic situation is. It is how you connect with the people-in terms of interactions, growth, and learning. It is not state of the industry alone that impacts the functions today. An HR person should try to look at what it is it that will make a person come and join the industry, what are the conditions that will you get the individual to experience and how you are going to make it meaningful to him or her are what counts. It is true that when you hire in bulk that there are opportunities available elsewhere too because of choices available to people now. How you differentiate here is on your ability to connect, and your ability to provide meaning to the aspirations of an individual. You need the three C’scompensation, career, and care and comfort. The essence is to give an individual respect; give PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 24
him or her platform where he or she can reach to his/her potential.
Now that we are discussing jobs, it is a common belief that in India it is still a job race rather than talent race. How do you think we can overcome this barrier of culture in an Indian organization? With all things equal, everybody will chase after money is what you believe is the popular trend. I agree, but once you reach a particular level there comes a standing point when money is not sufficient. And this is not typical to India only because want will always continue to exist. But the opportunity for learning, and the opportunity for development are what really count in the end.
Getting a little specific here, what are the challenges that you face as the HR head of your company? Attrition is a challenge at every point of time. My competitor ABC who is paying more is a challenge. In constraints such as this what you do to make the difference is what counts. For example, my previous CEO used to talk about GDP – growth, differentiation and people, and my present CEO talks about the three R’s - relevance, respect and reach. A person needs to see the growth of the organization and him.
It is seen that there exists a skill gap in every organization. In what innovative ways, you think, can an organization adapt or evolve to overcome this problem? An organization is one unit; there are lot many players available to bridge the skill gap. Today, the industry has to play the activist’s role, but apart from that, the government and the NGOs need to come together and make a difference. The educational institutes believe that their focus should be majorly on getting conceptual knowledge; but if students are not taught how to actually apply conceptual knowledge and principles we will have a problem in getting the right skills for our work, which I believe is getting incorporated.
Speaking of B-schools, these days we observe this trend where mostly the engineers that go for an MBA. In your opinion, do you find that other skills are not developed is or that there is not much demand from the industry. What you think can be a solution for such a trend? No easy answers. I think people go where they see an opportunity. Today, everybody moves in a particular direction; the focus is more on IQ than EQ. Like, in the year 2008-2009 everybody wanted to move out of the private sector and get into the public sector. In an economy which is developing, these type of imbalances continue to exist.
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‘ Disha ’ A dialogue with
Amitabh Kumar Head HR, NEC By Raghunandan You have over 20 years of experience in the field of HR under multiple domains like Telecom and IT industries. What are the various challenges you faced across these multiple domains? From my perspective, HR is a function that deals with people. People challenges do not change when one moves from one industry to another. The changes are in the context in which these challenges are addressed. The nature of work in each of the domains is different – e.g. Telecom is more of an infrastructure oriented industry. We had employees working in remote areas, especially ones involved with telecom towers in God-forsaken places, attending an unfortunate event of a breakdown in the tower communication. It’s different for a person working in an office in Bangalore for a software development firm. Thus, nature of job may vary, but in terms of approach towards the challenges, nothing changes much.
Please share a little information about the current company you are working in, NEC. NEC India is a subsidiary of the Japanese corporation, NEC. In the way it is structured in India, NEC Asia Pacific (APAC) handles 89% of the equity, which is based out of Singapore, and 11% is directly handled by NEC, Japan. Currently, NEC India has over 400 employees spread across 4 locations – Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. We have a manufacturing unit in Chennai and two software development centers in Bangalore and Chennai. Additionally, we have sales headquarters across multiple cities. NEC is headed by a Japanese Managing Director, Mr. Koichiro Koide. NEC is primarily an operations business with a B2B structure and not a B2C. That’s why you will not see many visible products from NEC.
NEC is into multiple domains, like multi-media solutions, IT solutions, etc. Thus, you have differentially profiled people interacting with each other. What kind of bridge do you create to provide feasibility between them? PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 26
In terms of Organization structure, NEC has a software development division, a carrier and network division, an enterprise business division, IT platform products and a public safety and a structural engineering division. Now all the four divisions are very different in operations and nature. But NEC has a core set of policies which covers the basic code of conduct which are typically global in nature. These are the common policies along with values and ethics which are the standard practices. There is no change from one division to another. NEC also lists a division specific set of policies as well. So, the differentiation is done and maintained and is typically accustomed by our business unit HR. Hence all the efforts are made to ensure that the differentiation is maintained and the core values and ethics are not violated.
What is the culture at NEC like? What are the benefits given to the employees in order to maintain the retention rate, in due course of time? Typically in a Japanese firm, you join a company at the dawn of your career and you stay there till you retire. That is the philosophy we bring in from Japan. In India, the markets and environments are quite different. When I joined NEC in 2010, there were just 10 employees. Now we are 550, 400 of them on contract basis. And as an organization, there is a lot of focus in the areas of training and career development activities, helping people move up. In terms of work culture, it is very open and flexible. As a typical Japanese company, it tends to be a hierarchical and a lot more protocol oriented. But it is also inclined towards ensuring the organization process and chain of communication remains open. The decision-making consumes more time and is based on the consensus principle. One person cannot override all the others while making decisions. There are stakeholders who will look at things differently and one has to go to through the process where he convinces each one of the stakeholders.
When prospective employees approach NEC, they may have an engineering or management background, what is the basic expectation from each one of them? It depends on the role the particular individual is hired for. If an engineering background guy is hired then he will be given more of a technical and service delivery role. People with management background are generally hired for Sales or Strategy and Business development role. So as such the roles are clearly demarcated. Even the internal grade structure and career movement happens in a separate way. Each will have different roles assigned. A management graduate will have business development roles and engineer may have technical specialist roles.
What are the CSR activities at NEC and how do they use it to improve their brand value? NEC India has not done much CSR yet. Although we have had a few blood donation drives. But NEC worldwide has a strong program called MDD (Make a Difference Drive). As a global organization, we participate in such activities whenever initiated on a country-wise basis. It may be a supporting children’s education drive, helping the Tsunami victims or flood victims etc.
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‘ Disha ’ A dialogue with
Dipti Das Head HR-South Asia, Aramex By Krishna Chaitanya What opportunities do companies like Aramex anticipate with the high growth of digital technology in areas such as digital retail, digital analytics? I believe at Aramex, and the other companies that I have worked for, digital technology is redefining processes. This change has forced the industry to implement digital technology in its business. In supply chain management, digital growth can be of immense help at the operational level, esp. in areas such as security check of products, security by scanning, etc.
What are the innovative learning prospects for Aramex employees? I feel innovation exists in every second of the day. Learning from experience is a virtue. One cannot create innovative learning, but can create a learning culture. This is achieved by empowering people; each must be encouraged to take a step of innovation in the learning environment.
What are the challenges you experience in supply-chain-management and logistics in India? First, without challenges there is no growth. With double income and shortage of time, more and more people are shifting towards e-commerce. The supply chain time is shrinking. Thus, your biggest challenge is to think out of the box – how to re-engineer processes, ensure that process overlaps are eliminated, and empower every person who is a part of the supply chain.
Does India have sufficient talent base to cope up with the challenges? There is a surplus of talent in India. The only need is to scan through and extract the right people. Shortage is created due to impatience shown by firms in filtering through different avenues they recruit from.
What are your expectations from an MBA graduate? Our industry is moving away from people who existed in the firm for a long time, and towards people equipped with technical education. A hands-on approach, common sense, logic and discipline of processes is what we generally look for. With a formal education, you are expected to apply learnt concepts, and give back more to the industry than you derive in return. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 28
A dialogue with
Suraj Chettri Head HR, Airbus By Krishna Chaitanya How do you feel being amongst the students of TAPMI? This is my first visit to TAPMI and am quite impressed by the intellectual awareness and acumen amongst the students here. I see their energy and enthusiasm, and it makes me believe that these students are here to make a difference in the future. They are smart, sharp and willing to absorb knowledge.
In your 21 years of experience across various sectors, what are the challenges you faced while in transit from each sector to other? I strongly believe that I have always been in the engineering domain. Every domain has its own specialities, weaknesses and challenges. But to be able to contribute meaningfully, one must stick to one’s domain and build expertise.
You were a part of a team that won the Best HR Practices Company Award. Would you mind sharing some of the best HR practices in place. To name a few, we introduced the ‘Buddy system’, where-in-which people who are inducted into the organization, each is tagged with another person with a similar age and experience. We believe that the first year of an employee with the organization is crucial. If they complete the first year with content, they stick on to the company for a longer duration. HR personnel have meetings with the newly inducted employees at the end of every quarter to gauge their comfort within the company. The feedback is shared with the management at all levels.
What is your view on 360 degree feedback? The purpose of having any tool for feedback is to ensure some corrective measure is implemented at the end of each cycle. If nothing is done with the feedback, then there is no point in taking the same. A feedback system should not be a stand-alone model; it is useful only and only when it forms a part of the DNA of the organization.
What are the opportunities in the mid-term for Airbus in India? I think until now, Airbus was focussing on sales. In mid-term, services will become equally important. Also, there is a huge opportunity in the supply chain management. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 29
‘ Disha ’ A dialogue with
Prem Velayudan HR Director & Employee Relations Leader - APAC, CISCO By Krishna Chaitanya How do you feel being in TAPMI again? I think it is a fabulous experience coming back to TAPMI after many years, especially, getting the feel of this new campus. When I passed out things were very different and when I compare the facilities from that time to what you have now- the infrastructure, facilities, quality of students and the interface you have with the industry, I think it’s awesome. So TAPMI has come a long way and all I can say is that I feel great coming back here.
You have 22 years of experience, how do you describe your journey across these diverse industries? I started with sales and marketing and then moved on to consulting for some time. But for the last 14 years I had been in HR core function. In HR, I have the opportunity to move across various roles. Currently, this is my eighth year at CISCO.
This is the age of technology. So what measures do you take to upgrade and update your employees to the latest technologies? Development for an employee is a critical factor in whichever industry you are in. So we have a policy of 70-20-10 formula. 10% is learning; which is either classroom or e-learning, because you continuously need to learn. 20% is a lot of shadowing; you connect with the senior leaders in the company during the training procedure or you associate with a couple of key projects. This way you get a lot of exposure to see how things are done differently. For example you have been in development, then how do you get exposure in sales. As you grow in an organization you need to have the knowledge of different facets of the organization, and so you need to start rotating people. 70% is the organization. This helps us decide on what cutting edge technologies can be brought in, and also how you can generate new PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 30
avenues to enhance your product and services, which help your talent gets.
Did you find any challenges while moving people from engineering fields to sales fields? There are always some challenges in the transitions. Firstly, it should be in-line with people’s development and their aspirations. It’s not just what the company wants to do but it’s a combination. You have to choose the right talent; one who has the capability to make this transition and also be inclined to do new things in the future.
Attrition is the biggest threat to any industry. What measures do you take to retain the employees? Build a good culture in the company, be transparent, have a fair assessment system, opportunity to grow, provide visibility and exposure to clients, and to the corporate world will be some key areas that help us retain the employees. Doing simple things but doing them right so that the employees feel good about coming to office the next day is the mantra. People should be able to see their contributions getting aligned with the company’s goals.
Big data analysis and Cloud computing are the buzz words today. So what are the opportunities for people in CISCO in Big data analytics field? We are a global company. It depends in which location and what technological groups people are joining in. CISCO is making some radical changes in the technology being used, as the market is moving so fast.
What are the traits and qualities you expect from a fresh MBA graduate? First is learnability. The candidate must be open to a new environment, he should be able to talk to people, and he should be able to use the learning in the MBA in a way such that it makes sense in the job. Asking people the right questions, seeking advices, reaching out to people, and learning as much as possible about the organization and its people might seem trivial, but these are critical things which would help him in the long run.
What is your opinion about DISHA 2014? It is a 6 day event and I participated in the 5th day of the event, and still I see a lot of energy. I see a lot of participation from the industry specialists and great topics for panel discussions. I think the students will get a different perspective by interacting with people, who are leaders in their respective industries.
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‘ Disha ’ A dialogue with Mr.
Sridhar Krishnamurthy Co-Founder & Director, Kelsa Solutions By Aakansha Shukla and Ayon Kumar How do you feel being here at TAPMI? I was just telling one of your colleagues that work is about what you live for. I am doing my job and by the end of the month I’m going to get some salary. So, you don’t tend to enjoy what you do. If you enjoy then all other things will fall into the place. All other things are output of how you enjoy your work. Similarly TAPMI reminds me of a place where people enjoy their work with dedication. And it is always good to be present amongst hard working people.
Can you please give us some insights about the HR policies that your company follows? Basically Kelsa is a consulting company and we work for several clients across India. Clients range from large multinational companies to mid-tier companies to small start-ups. We have close to eighteen people in the organization who work from different centres in India like Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon even Cochin for that matter. Primarily what we do in our organization is nothing specific to be honest, we being a consultants allow them to learn and grow in the organization. There are no specific hours of work but there is only one specific need that is to look at customers’ requirement and fulfil it. We allow them to do it in their own way. So, there is a lot of freedom, understanding and appreciation of what we do for our clients. It is more of a flexible work culture where in quiet a good amount of independence lies in front of the employees yielding to a better outcome and better employee satisfaction.
Where do you draw boundary between the discipline and the flexibility? To be honest, a basic requirement for any consulting company is to make its employees enjoy their work. Also, make people understand and deliver what they want. As we are going to deliver for our customers every customer is unique and every customer requirement is much more unique. For this to happen we need an uncluttered mind and to that extent there are no broad rules at all. So, if you ask me about the boundaries for discipline there is only one that is meeting customer deadlines. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 32
Meeting customer’s deadlines and keeping employee happy - is it possible to manage both? Yes, It is absolutely possible. I will tell you two major reasons for it. One of them being, the moment I start enjoying my work I don’t look at what time I’m concluding my work. The moment somebody tells me you better conclude by this time, I look more at the clock than my work. The ethos of a company lies in the ability to allow them to open up. We are an extremely transparent company. Every month we have meeting with our people where we talk about not only just the top line but also the bottom line, new customers, what did we deliver etc. Everyone knows how the company has performed in the past and is performing today. Every employee knows, if we made profits in the month of June or if we didn’t in the month of July. They also know if we have made profits then what do they get out of it right there.
What is the performance management system that Kelsa follows? Having worked in large organizations before, I feel that too much of structured systems hinder the creativity of the employees. We have a clear defined system that is key result oriented. The employees know what to deliver, at what state they should deliver, what is the value added inputs they would require from us to deliver. They have very well defined requirement and delivery. There is no ambiguity whatsoever. So, they are measured against their delivery and also based on what the customer thinks about the delivery. If the customer is happy, then they would definitely have done a great job. Our major purpose lies in satisfying the customer to the maximum. That is how our system works.
So your organization is mainly customer centric? Absolutely. We live well because of our customers. I always believe that the food on my table is because of the customers.
What is your approach to understanding customer demand? How do you know what is the current trend? It is definitely a challenge for a young, vibrant and growing consulting organization like Kelsa. The challenge is to manage the current trends in the marketplace, understand them, read them and look at where it can be deployed. At Kelsa, we believe that the maturity of the organization will decide what it wants. We do facilitate the customers to think in those lines. By facilitator what I mean to say is that we objectively make them aware of the pros and cons of the alternative and give them the power to make the right choice. This approach has played a key role in understanding the customer demand and the current trends of the market.
A piece of advice to young MBA students? I don’t believe in giving advice. But I would like to conclude saying that you people have plenty of opportunities. This is a great place to study. The environment is phenomenal. So, try and take the maximum benefit out of it. As an individual, how you can make the best use of the resources available to you should be your point of focus.
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‘ Disha ’ A dialogue with
Ranjana Anand Director – HR, Optimal Strategix By Kanika Lungani With so many years of successful work behind you what has been your success mantra thus far? Hard work, hard work and hard work. You have to be persistent in what you want to do and where you want to go. Every time I took up a job, I did not look at it as a job but rather as a career. When one wants a job one can get it wherever one wants. But one has to think in the lines of making a career out of it. Only when you think along those lines can you achieve your goal or what is on your mind or whichever way you want to take your career goals.
Since you have worked in so many diverse industries, how different was your work in these industries? Very different. I started my career with an ophthalmology institute where I was managing education programs. Almost after a decade I was on the other end. So I worked in the dean’s office, managing all the educational programs. I understood thoroughly how an MBA program works. Then I got an opportunity to go abroad, I went to Dubai where I worked with S.P. Jain Center of Management. After that I decided to make a conscious shift to the corporate world while I was doing my major in HR because I had seen the MBA expanse and I wanted to see where this leads – I myself had no experience in the corporate world. After 15 years in from the field of medicine and education I shifted to the corporate industry. Then joined an IT company in Dubai. It was a sudden shift and I realized that the ground reality was different. Everyday I’d get a shock because of the slangs they used, the manner in which they talked. Everything seemed so different. It was a complete contrast but then I thought the sooner I adapt the better for me. Then I learned the tricks of the trade. It’s all about how you learn. The more you do self-learning the better it is for you. Since you have had a quite an interaction with the MBA world, I think it’s fair enough that I ask you that what exactly do you look for in an MBA graduate? PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 34
They have to be focused at first. “Just because I have done an MBA I should get the best job” should never be an approach. These day students say five years down the line I want to be a CEO or an entrepreneur, but that’s not the ground reality. It may happen but it requires a lot of hard work and won’t happen within a flash. So when we look at an MBA graduate we look at their interests, whatever they have studied, how well are they able to apply these concepts. If someone has done some other kind of job and has now come for an MBA then they should be clear why they took this decision. As soon as I see a resume I know whether the candidate is right for the job or not; especially now when I’m into research.
When I see the resumes today, I observe that children don’t think about the careers rather they go for big paying jobs. It should not be the case. If they act along these lines it will neither help them or the company.
Now sticking to Disha theme I want to know what is the future of HR in India. HR initially was only a support function where we just had to type offer letters and give it, that’s all; there was no more involvement. But today things are different. HR is no longer an admin support. Businesses have started to accept the fact that HR is also a core part of the management. It acts as a business partner. Only when the HR group understands what the need and requirements of the business is, they can HR support more, engage it’s the employees in a better way and get the best out of them.
It starts from the scratch. Management explains HR the goal and vision of the company. Then HR starts to work along those lines. Then the whole process starts right from recruitment-what kind of people you want to hire, what kind of culture you want the organization to adapt etc.
This is the age of technology. So how easily do you see technology blending in with HR functions? Earlier, everything was manual. Technology has helped a lot in the recent times. We use a lot of softwares to keep all the date in place. Whether it is the personal side of employees or the professional side data remains in a safer and better place. Usually large businesses use such softwares which helps in ease of the work.
What kinds of challenges have seen with such technologies? We had PeopleSoft and SAP. SAP for payroll and PeopleSoft for HRIS. All the data was put in there. It was easy to pull out data you needed about an employee. Even the performance data was online. Everything was available. Hence, it’s very easy when it is technology based. It’s difficult when you are in the phase of sticking to pen and paper or you want to convert it into digital data. It becomes a challenge when you have to convince the management to get such a software to incorporate that into the system.
One thing you felt that the Indian professions lacked that professionals from other countries had? I think that the hierarchy in India gets into people too much. But in the west people don’t really care about that. There we didn’t have so many levels and people didn’t really care about the levels. They are more into their job functions. Here people are obsessed with designations. In the west it is nothing like that. My operations manager was not really an operations manager. He would have been equivalent to a VP or a director in Indian context. He wasn’t really bothered. He said how does that matter - I know I lead the team whether I’m the team leader or a manager and they would all sit together and eat or watch soccer. That is something I believe is not possible in India. People are very much into ivory towers. So conscious of their designations that they don’t associate with people below their ranks. That is something I believe is not needed. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 35
‘ Finomenal ’ A dialogue with
Prabhkar Patil Joint Director, SEBI By Shweta Varma To start, I’d like to ask you as to how well regulated do you think are the capital markets in India? There is a school of thought which advocates lesser government intervention and greater freedom in capital market regulations. What is your opinion on this? In India, SEBI is a statutory body and accountable to the Parliament. It’s that that there is a mandate given, complete regulations at different points of time
depending upon the dynamics of the market which are brought in for creating a healthier market environment…and to the best of my knowledge, the developments that have taken place over a period of time are very healthy. One of the goals was to protect the interest of the investors besides the goal of developing the market and regulating the market - basically, the perception that the control is not very strong. We keep to our objectives and keep making amendments and new regulations because that’s what the market demands. As the market evolves, so do we.
But when you compare them to the capital markets in the US, it is evident that there is a lot more relaxation of rules over there, what in a way led to the 2008 financial crisis. Do you think there needs to be a change in the kind of regulatory system in India? In India, there is more of a role based regulatory framework, and when we try to compare our markets with western or European markets then the regulatory involvement is at par. The difference arises when we talk about the market participants. In Europe and America, there is a large amount of institutional participation whereas in India there is significant non-institutional participation. The reason behind what happened in the US and Europe was because of the kind of entities which existed in the market, and the type of financial products which are available. Here, in India, there are more standardized instruments and it works well for us. You have seen lots of fraudulent events happening in the past such as the Satyam case, and the Sahara case where to protect the investors we have asked them to repay the money. In general, we have a PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 36
perception that the western environment is better. But with respect to Indian capital markets, I believe, we have done our best. We have achieved dematerialization at a much faster pace than the developed parts of the world.
The FSLRC has recommended creating a UFA by merging SEBI, FMC, IRDA and PFRDA. What is your opinion? Should all the regulatory organizations be merged into one? SEBI has been created by the executive and we have been looking after the equity, debt and currency market. Though the currency is more regulated by RBI, SEBI has the mandate to regulate the trading at Stock Exchanges for price discovery in a fair and transparent manner. Probably what I feel is that in India we need to develop all sectors, all segments of the market. We need to focus more on the pension sector, different developments need to take place and the level of development that has happened in the equity market should be achieved by other segments as well. This would obviously take time.
What are your thoughts on financial inclusion in India? What kind of measures could banks and regulatory authorities take to improve the situation? We are basically trying to bring greater visibility to investors and inform them that there is a proper regulatory environment. It has to be stressed that financial savings are very important for their own future. Today, fortunately we have a large youth population in the country. But as time passes we will move to an ageing economy as we have seen happen in the developed world. At that point, everyone would require social protection, to have your own corpus built to take care of yourself. People need to have a diversified portfolio. So there is a need for educating the people about these factors.
Do you feel it only the responsibility of the government to ensure financial inclusion or do you think even private players in the market such as banks could do something about it? One of the moves that has come - the Jan Dhan Yojna – is a really good move and is a step towards that. We need to encourage banks to further this development. If people are aware of these method of savings, then these Ponzi schemes and moneylenders will find it difficult to attract them. It is important to be rational and cautious before parting with our hard earned savings.
The markets have reacted positively to the new government. What is your opinion on Modi’s government policies? I think it is more of a strong government coming into power after a gap of almost 20 years which has rallied the markets. There is proper guidance on how we have to function and that is what is more important at this point of time. I’m sure that whichever political party is able to exert that sort of direction will continue this trend of growing the capital market. With the given strength of the Indian society, we are moving towards a better economy and better prospects. PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 37
‘ Disha ’ BEST BRAND MARKETERS
Raj
Sai
Gaurav
Kiran
Priyanka
Gourish
Sagar
Shruthi
Vineet
Alekya
Adesh
Natesh
Apoorv
Adithya
Swapnil
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PRATIBIMB TAPMI’s bimonthly e-Magazine, is primarily intended to provide insights into the plethora of knowledge that relate to the various departments of Management and to give an opportunity to the students of TAPMI and the best brains across country to exhibit their creative cells. The magazine also strives to bring expert inputs from industries, thereby bringing the academia and industry together. Pratibimb is committed in continuing this initiative by bringing in continuous improvement in the magazine by including quality articles related to various management issues and eventually creating a more engaging relationship with its readers by providing them a platform to showcase their talent. We invite all the best brains across country to be part of this initiative.
Visit: http://www.tapmi.edu.in/studentlife/pratibimb/overview/ Team Pratibimb pratibimb@tapmi.edu.in TAPMI