IILM Management Review

The POWERGRID Experience

H. P. Pal & Sachin Kumar

Diversity Management through Talent Management at Engineers India Limited

Dr rM.Y. Ali & Neha Shukla

Transparency in Rewards & Recognition

Raj Nehru

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1 October 2016 INR 200

Board of Editors Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee Senior Director, IILM Lodhi Road Dr Smitha Girija Director, IILM Lodhi Road Dr Taruna Gautam Director, IILM Greater Noida Prof Shivani Ahuja Director, IILM Gurgaon Prof Rahul Mishra Professor of Strategy, IILM Dr Shivani Khurna Professor of OB & HR, IILM Prof Vinay Chirania Professor of Strategy, IILM Prof Ruchi Shah Professor of Marketing, IILM Dr Sanyukta Jolly Professor of OB & HR, IILM

Editorial Associate: Prof. Rachna Madaan Editorial Associate: Prof. Radhika Madan Publisher: Rajiv Kumar Owner: IILM Institute of Higher Education Designed By: Cream Group

Printed & Published by: Rajiv Kumar on behalf of IILM Institute for Higher Education and Printed at: Pushpak Press Pvt Ltd., 153, DSIDC Complex, Okhla Industrial Area - I, New Delhi and Published at: IILM Institute for Higher Education, 3, Lodhi Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi Copyright ©2016IILM. All Rights Reserved

IILM Management Review

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CONTENT

07

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Diversity Management through TalentManagement at EIL by M.Y.Ali and Neha Shukla AGM & Senior HR Officer, EIL

Conflicts - Boon or a Curse by Ashutosh Chadha, Group Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Microsoft India Pvt Ltd. Intel South Asia

24

Competency Models: The Powergrid Experience

by H.P.Pal & Sachin Kumar, Chief Manager and Deputy Manager, HRD, Power grid

32 Business Analytics Function to Reshape the Future of Pharmaceutical Organizations by Dr. Ambrish Joshi, Assistant Vice President Pharmaceutical & Healthcare, Research and Analytics, GENPACT

Life in a Digital Age and Knowledge Economy

by Joseph Jones, Group Business Director, IMRB International

Social Innovation in the Era of Capitalism

by Ravi Nawal, Country Head Kapronasia

56 Learning with Heart

by Ritu Prakash Chabbria, Managing Trustee, Mukul Madhav Foundation

59 Factors affecting the success rate of Women Managers / Entrepreneurs

by Neha Poddar Export Director Rajul Group Of Companies

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Transparency in Rewards & Recognition by Raj Nehru Director HR, Schneider Electric

IILM Management Review

The Editorial Mission Statement IILM Management Review (IMR), the bi-annual journal of the IILM Institute for Higher Education

is intended to be research-oriented, scholarly in nature with editorial contributions from the fields of management, business and economics. The primary target of readers are professional managers. Another yardstick for potential papers or articles in IMR would be whether they could be taught to a group of business or management students. In a broad sense, IMR seeks to reach out to thought leaders who influence leadership, management and practice through teaching, consulting, managing and other professional activities.

Ideally, articles should be based on research evidence, either quantitative or qualitative.

Papers could include what we already know about academic literature but advance our knowledge in the areas of business, management and economics, or be reviews of themes of particular topics - those that have implications for society or public policy and from areas that have been neglected largely in prior research.

India is increasingly becoming a global engine of growth and a lot of this growth is being driven by Indian corporations. The country has several well-acclaimed business schools, great managers and reasonably good academic research, but so far, there is no single publication that captures this growing dynamism to disseminate lessons from success and failure. Further, research from the business side is far and few between. At another level, India is also grappling with issues of poverty and corruption. This calls for greater focus on social sector management and governance.

Through the Journal, in course of time, we hope to:

• provide a thought leadership platform for Indian business and non-business managers, academics, policy makers and students of management.

• create a world-class management publication to record, understand and disseminate

research and knowledge on best practices in Indian business and non-business organisations.

• create a forum for discussing and validating new research, ideas and management innovation across the country and possibly in the future, in emerging economies.

• build a knowledge network involving business schools, academic researchers, business managers, government and other social institutions.

• develop in part a global Indian view of management theory, research and practice.

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Leading in the Age of Disruption This issue of IMR is in your hand. The articles which we have been able to put together are those related with the big issues of business that readers will find more useful. The overarching theme which binds all these articles are the practicality of each of the idea and the experiences of different companies while implementing those ideas and concepts. The essence of the issue of IMR is to focus on the theme “making knowledge work”. It is in the practicality of implementation of ideas and business concepts when we know constraints and usefulness. Contributors of the issue are practitioners of management ideas.

There are certain emerging issues which have started affecting businesses. The article on Business Analytics Function to Reshape the Future of Pharmaceutical Organizations is one such article. The application of Business analytics has wide implication for most of the business processes. In the knowledge economy the differentiating factor for success is going to be the richness and application of data. The article which builds this theme is Life in the Digital Age and Knowledge Economy. The article focuses on the impact of digital and knowledge economy on companies and customers and individuals.

The second set of articles which cover the theme of managerial effectiveness and leadership issues which affect all managers and leaders. Infarct these are the core issues of any company. In service economy,, the engagement of employees and society as two important stakeholders carry lot of weight. The case study on Diversity Management through Talent Management at Engineers India Limited” is one such issue where managers can learn the experience of EIL in talent management and also constraints and challenges which company face which is essentially into project management with diverse team. The good part is that concept of employee engagement at EIL is woven around HR Vision and Mission of the company. This is particularly true of knowledge and service based organization like EIL . The article on Transparency on Rewards and Recognition is crucial for companies to recognise the tools of employee engagement.

In a highly competitive market place and scarce talent pool, any leader without tools of employee engagement will feel the heat of lack of talent in execution of company’s ideas and programmes. The articles give management knowledge and tools of employee engagement and rewards and recognition. It links these tools with the morale of employees and companies. The practical experience and research are woven into that. To take this discussion more meaningful level and to understand requirements of the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees and leaders and to utilise the best competence available into company, the article on Competency Models: the POWERGRID Experience gives fresh practical insights. There are lot of takeaways of competency mapping to build leadership pipeline in that.

There three articles which are linked to the matter of combing ethical and moral choice with practical business proposition. The articles on social Innovation in the era of capitalism and Learning with heart touch that aspect. Without this moral and ethical framework, the business world would be dull and dreary land. The experience of Mukul Madav Foundation brings forth such noble experience which society expects businesses to do. To make another moral and ethical choice in business in society is to make women succeed as equal partner in social and economic development. This is inclusive development. The article Factors affecting the success rate of women managers/entrepreneurs elaborates on that. Some basic traits and habits which help women managers and entrepreneurs have been identified and prescribed. The essence of progress for women managers and entrepreneurs is to change the mental framework and bring in the new way of working to create a niche for them.

The authors of the articles are seasoned industry professionals. They are best of the lot in India to weave practice while giving the new ideas and framework for businesses. IMR contributes this conversation of change in social, business and economy area of India and the world.

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“Diversity Management through Talent Management at Engineers India Limited” Dr M.Y. ALI AGM Ms NEHA SHUKLA Senior HR Officer, EIL

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Engineers India Ltd (EIL) is one of the leading design and engineering organizations in South Asia. Established in 1965, EIL provides engineering consultancy and EPC services principally focused on the oil & gas and petrochemical industries. The Company has also diversified into sectors like infrastructure, water and waste management, solar & nuclear power and fertilizers to leverage its strong technical competencies and track record.

EIL is a ‘Total Solution’ engineering consultancy company providing design, engineering, procurement, construction and integrated project management services from ‘Concept to Commissioning’ with highest quality and safety standards. It also provides specialist services such as heat and mass transfer equipment design, environmental engineering, specialist materials and maintenance and plant operations and safety services.

EIL’s robust corporate strategy steered by its corporate vision to build a world-class EPC and total solutions consultancy organization continues to inspire its workforce to deliver excellence and to create a business portfolio for long term sustainable growth.

EIL’s greatest strength is its professionally qualified and experienced human resource and through their synergistic collaboration EIL has been able to achieve all the significant milestones in its Growth journey.

EIL offers various services viz. process Design, Engineering services, Procurement Services, Construction Management Services, and Commissioning Services etc to its clients. EIL for its overseas markets, is planning to build strategic partnerships for complementing the skill sets to enable faster scaling up of Consulting and EPC business.

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Diversity Management through Talent Management at EIL

Process Design Services

Conceptual designs and feasibility reports Process Design and Residual Engineering More than 30 process technologies Yield and energy optimization and capacity augmentation services in process plants

Procurement Services

Engineering Services

Detailed Engineering in all disciplines

Heat and mass transfer Environment engineering Materials and maintenance services

Strategic sourcing Materials management Contracts management Expediting, inspection Logistics Vendor Development

Project Management Services

Certi cation Ser vices

Integrated project management services with focus on cost, quality and schedule

Certi cation and r e-certi cation services through EIL subsidiary Certi cation Engineers International Ltd

Commissioning Services

Constructional Management Services

Pre-commissioning and commissioning assistance Safety audit Hazard and operability studies Risk and consequence analysis

Materials and warehouse management.

Quality Control and assurance Health Safety and Environment (HSE) Progress monitoring and scheduling Mechanical Completion Site Closure

Talent Management: The EIL Way The current business scenario has greatly impacted the dynamics of managing ‘human resources’ in an organization and the ‘war for talent’ has become a frequent theme for discussion. Progressive organizations understand that a solid talent bench is quite literally the lifeline to their future success. Organizations, now, are more strategic and deliberate in how they source, attract, select, train, retain, promote, and develop, employees through the organization.

Organizational Strategy Business Initiatives Business Environment Growth Plans

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HR Initiatives

HR Strategy Manpower Requirement Alignment of HR Processes & Practices Talent Management

Reorganization / Restructuring Nurturing Leaders for New Business Initiatives & Existing Business Competency development in alignment with Business Objectives

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Engineers India Limited (EIL) futuristic plans of diversification into infrastructure, power, solar energy etc. needs a tough, diverse & talented Workforce. Human Resource in EIL is the most important resource and managing them effectively is the key to EIL’s success.

The professionally qualified and talented human resource of EIL enables the Company to maintain its competitive edge. To further reinforce the available resources, EIL follows a well defined Talent Management Program for attracting & retaining talent.

Resource based Competencies Being a talent driven & knowledge based consultancy organization, EIL continues to attract & retain talent at all levels. The Company has a total of 3043 employees (Regular) as on March 31, 2016, including 2573 technically and professionally qualified regular employees excluding Management Trainees. Approximately 3.46 % of these employees are located outside India. Many of our engineers are familiar with international work environment and cultures.

Our HR policies for talent acquisition facilitate intake of young professionals at Entry levels as well as skilled and experienced professionals at junior and middle-management level. Our HR Policies is very well linked to HR Strategy, which is in alignment with Organization Vision & Mission. Through focussed talent development and engagement policies, individuals are encouraged to showcase their talent in their professional arena.

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Diversity Management through Talent Management at EIL

HR policies and procedures are closely linked with the business objectives, and make mega contribution to achievement of EIL’s objectives.

HR as a Strategic business partner in EIL, ensures: • Identification of Gap Between Current Situation and Future Vision • Communication of Company Goals • Encouraging Participation of All Stakeholders • Visualizing HR Challenges and Opportunities • Transforming Proactively The way ‘TALENT’ is defined in EIL In view of Engineers India Limited Moto stating “Delivering Excellence through People”, talent is not only clearly defined but also effectively & efficiently utilized and developed in EIL.

Aspiration desire for responsibilities, challenges & rewards

Engagement emotional & rational commitment, discretionary effort and intent to stay

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“TALENT” Defined as

Ability combination of innate characteristics & learned skills

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Like any progressive HR organization, EIL has embarked upon a series of initiatives to address the issues of diversity management through talent management: •

Developing managers and leaders to reinforce culture, instill values, and create a sustainable “lead ership pipeline”

•

Identify competency gaps for delivering training or development programs to fill these gaps

•

Provide learning that is relevant, flexible, convenient, and timely

• Manage people in a consistent and measurable way so that everyone is aligned and held account able In an endeavour to address these challenges, HR at EIL has build and stitched together the performance management system, training & development programs, succession planning systems and leadership development systems through a common thread of ‘competency’ into the fabric of the organization, to promote diversity management.

The detailed “Talent Management Processes & Systems” implemented in Engineers India Limited are illustrated below: Competency development in alignment with Business Objectives: EIL has developed competency based HR system for Development, Selection and Career Progression.

The initiative was carried out in two phases, wherein in during the first phase Competencies were identified for key roles within the organization and in the second phase, assessment and development centers were organized for senior role incumbents and individual development plan for each incumbent was put in place.

The competency framework was further elaborated by defining each competency, proficiency levels and their behavioral indicators.

Competency Framework of EIL

EIL Strategy and context

International best pratices

Developed model for Competency at EIL EIL Competency Model

Customized and deployed tools for Assessment centre

Conducted Assessment centre

Individual pro le and future potential

Integration with PMS

Leadership Development

IILM Management Review 11

Diversity Management through Talent Management at EIL

List of competencies and proficiency levels are illustrated below:

Managerial

Technical Job Knowledge/ Technical Expertise/ Domain Knowledge Awareness Speci c Knowledge Leveraging Technology HSE/ Quality Consiousness

Planning, Organizing & Foresightedness Business Acumen Customer Focus Drive for Results Analytical Thinking & Decisiveness Conceptual Thinking Innovation Thoroughness

Leadership

People Skills

Leading Others Negotiating Communication Fostering Team Work Managing Change Building Collaborative Relationships

Visioning & Strategic Thinking Brand Building Mentoring & Coaching

Global

Global Business Perspective and Sensitivity

Pro ciency Levels 1

2

3

4

5

Beginner

Elementary

Intermediate

Advanced

Expert

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Intra Departmental Competency Analysis: Interdepartmental Competency Analysis is also an important part of overall Competency Mapping in EIL. It not only highlights the Individual’s competency gaps but also act as a building block for Departmental Overview of its areas of strengths and improvements, illustrated in the table below: Competency Gap Analysis X Dept.

Name

AAA

BBB

Emp No.

xxxx

xxxx

Quali cation

B.Tech(Chem.)

B.E(Chem.)

VACHT

YES

NO

SPC

YES

NO

HYSYS

YES

YES

Trays

YES

NO

Tower Internals

YES

NO

Deaerator

YES

NO

O&G Separators

YES

YES

Desalter

YES

NO

Water-DeOx

YES

YES

GDU

YES

YES

FGDU

YES

NO

Description

Software Familiarisation

Design, Engineering/ Drafting (Individual Equipment)

Familiarization with Systems

Talent Development through Training EIL recognizes the need of professionals to remain abreast with the latest knowledge & business needs and the training plan has been designed keeping in view the competency requirements of different level clusters, irrespective of diversity they possess.

In order to facilitate mobility, flexibility and retraining in job assignments, EIL encourages & supports employee development as part of the Talent Development policy, by continuously identifying and implementing various areas wherein employees should be trained and enriched through different modes of learning interventions such as: i. ii. iii.

Domain/Technical expertise training Soft skills competencies training Leadership Development training

The Planned interventions have been grouped under the following verticals for various employee levels based on the competency requirement at the respective levels:

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Diversity Management through Talent Management at EIL

ACCESS (L12)

CLIMB (L 13-15)

BUILD (L 16-18)

STAFF (L 1-9

• Conceptual Thinking

• Think Straight : Think Through

• Aadhaar I (L 1-4)

• Planning for Results

• Plan Better :

• Plan, Decide & Deliver Enthusiastically

• Workplace Communication Skills • Connect 360 • Empowering Self and Emotional Intelligence

• Deliver Best • Express to Excel

• Analytical Thinking & Decisiveness

• Creating Winning Teams

• Communication for Leadership Roles

• Putting Customer First

• Negotiating to win-win

• Personel Excellence and Emotional Intelligence

• Manging High Performing Teams

• Aadhaar II (L 5-8) • Aadhaar III (L 9) • Grooming for Role Transition

• Customer Relationship Mgmt • Mentoring & Coaching

Access - for employees in level 12 (Executive Management): The aim of programmes under this vertical is to provide a smooth transition of the new entrants (direct as well as through the management training programme) into the functioning of the organization and act as a bridge between the expectations of the employees as well as the employer.

Climb - for employees in level 13 to 15 (Junior Management): The focus of programmes under the vertical will be to equip them with the desired functional skills as well as the behavioural orientation for combating the demands of the dynamic and challenging work environment.

Build - for employees in level 16 to 18(Middle Management): Training Programmes under this vertical address the competencies that enable participants to retain talent and bring about cohesiveness amongst team members for sustaining as well as strengthening the intellectual capital of the organization.

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Staff Development Programs: These cater to the needs of the support staff in the area of communication skills, taking initiative, inculcating a sense of ownership. The programmes are delivered primarily in hindi and use lots of films and videos for ease of instruction and assimilation.

With a view to align with the core competence of the organization, EIL also focuses on providing structured Management Development Programs and in-house training programmes for competency development.

Structured training programs are conducted: • •

•

Soft Skills Development Programs for Junior Management Domain Training Programs for employees and clients, organized in technical/functional areas such as Fire Hazard Analysis in Nuclear Plant; PMP Certification for Project Management; PDS/PDMS training for 3D plant modeling; Rehabilitation of concrete structure; Lead Auditors Course For OHSAS 18001:2007, etc.

Management Development Programs–Under this head, various programmes such as ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, ‘Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results’ etc. are being organized for employees at Sr. Manager & Asst. General Manager Levels time to time.

Aarohan- Leadership Development Program Commenced in the year 2009, conducted in collaboration with M/s Accenture, the leadership development programme “Aarohan” encompasses leadership strategy design, diagnosis, development & deployment.

“Aarohan”- the Leadership Development Program is designed to build LEADERSHIP PIPELINE in the organization catering to different levels e.g • Business Leaders (Level 18-19) • Functional leaders (Level 17-18) • Young Leaders (Level 16-17) Aarohan is basically an experiential learning

journey, wherein participant’s selection is based on performance + potential. Through ADC findings, the selected participants are informed of their strengths together with areas of weaknesses. Aarohan program aims at grooming of the identified mass by working upon weaknesses and Action Learning Projects (ALPs) to provide higher level of skills to LEAD SELF, LEAD TEAMS and LEAD SYSTEMS. The program is characterised by learning through transformative experiences based on the core theme of “Crucible” learning, and is divided in two phases i.e. Self Reflection and Development phase.

The self reflection phase participant reinvent themselves as per the inputs derived from psycho metric & multirater tools and in the development phase structured workshops are organized on the identified development areas of participant.

The second phase - the development phase focuses on action or experiential learning through ‘Action Learning Projects (ALP)’, ‘Individual Leadership Development Plan (ILDP)’ implementation, guidance and inputs on key leadership concepts through structured ‘Action Lab Workshops’, ‘Immersion Sessions’ and ‘one-one coaching interactions’. A set of high impact strategic ALPs are selected for participant groups under guidance of the senior management. The senior management closely monitors and tracks progress on these projects, apart from providing active support and guidance, in their roles as ‘Project Sponsors’ & ‘Project Guides’. In certain cases where expert advice is required to complete the project ‘Subject Matter Expert (SME)’ also assist the specific group in ALP. Fish bowl sessions are conducted monthly wherein participants get a chance to share their project progress in presence of project sponsors, guides, SMEs and other senior executives.

These sessions also give an opportunity to the ALP groups to brainstorm, debate thereby providing valuable inputs and direction to the projects.

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Diversity Management through Talent Management at EIL

Periodic Action Lab workshops are an integral part of the program as these workshops focus on delivering core leadership skills in line with EIL ‘Competency Model’, ‘Group OPQ Outcome’, ‘Dominant ILDP Themes’ and the program design. The learning is imparted through a mix of case studies, simulation-based exercises, interactive games, role plays, videos and concept based movies.

Through this initiative EIL endeavours to benchmark its human resources with world class leaders to sustain EIL’s vision to be a world-class globally competitive EPC and total solutions Consultancy Organisation.

Building Individual Leadership Developement Plans (ILDPS)*

Self-Re ecting - PLP, 360 Feedback Assessments

Learning through Workshops & Lectures*

Developmental Experience Through: AAROHAN

Implementing Action Learning Projects (ALPs)*

Receiving Coaching*

Cascading Learnings Measurement & Tracking*

Diversity Management through HR Initiatives Assessment & Development Centres Research demonstrates that that there is no substitute for objectively observing and systematically measuring how people actually perform “on the ground”. A well designed Assessment Centre is the most effective tool available for assessing individuals in both individual and group based environments for selection or development, irrespective of their gender and race. EIL partnered with a strategic HR consulting firm to conduct the ADCs and facilitate the one to one developmental dialogues.

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In keeping with our motto of “Delivering Excellence through people”, we endeavour to undertake various development initiatives for our people, giving equal opportunity to everyone.

The ADC approach to key HR processes helps in strengthening the current capabilities as well as drawing-up of a synchronised succession plan.

Performance Management System To institutionalize a Performance based Culture, the potential assessment under the Performance Management System (PMS) is based on competencies for each role.

Under PMS, each of the officers has been mapped to a unique (key) role and critical competencies identified for these roles have been integrated with the PMS.

Highlights of EIL’s Role based PMS: • •

• • • • • • • •

Mapping of each Officers to a Unique Role.

The Appraisal process is consultative & ensures interaction between the Appraisee & Appraiser at least thrice during the appraisal – Performance Planning stage, Mid-year review & Yearend Coun seling.

Formalized goal setting process to ensure objective measurement of performance against targets,

minimizing scope for subjectivity & ensuring ongoing dialogue between appraiser and appraisee

Identification of individual performance measures aligned with the corporate and departmental goals.

Well-defined scale

Visible and transparent linkage with rewards and other HR systems. Inputs from the system to be

used for Learning & Development.

Separate Ratings for Performance and Potential

Performance Rating used for ascertaining variable pay.

Overall rating used for Career Growth.

The process of Potential & Performance evaluation generates data for development needs.

Employee Engagement Initiatives for Talent Retention According to Scarlett Surveys, “Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee’s positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work”.

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Diversity Management through Talent Management at EIL

EIL understands how the following drivers impact engagement:

Pride & attachment to Co s Vision & Mission

DEFEND Pro tability

CHALLENGE BOND

Social interaction, team development

Bene ts, Prestige & Status

Growth

How can I grow?

Productivity

Learning/ Growth opportunity, stretch goals, challanging assignment

Do I belong?

Retention Customer

ACQUIRE What do I get?

EIL has leveraged the strength of each driver to enhance engagement of its human resources.

Bond

Acquire

Challenge

• HR Council • Outbound Employee

• Cafeteria Approach

Development Programme

• Competency- based performance assessment

• Mentor-mentee sessions

• Performance-linked pay

• C & MD social interactions

• Revised rewards & recognition

• Family get-togethers • Top management interactions

scheme

with new joinees

• Succession planning

• C & MDs feedback portal • Team work

Defend The initiatives taken under each of the above drivers help in inculcating feeling of pride and attachment to Company’s Vision and Mission

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Challenging Work Environment: • Competency based learning interventions • Business Diversification : Identified core teams for new areas of growth • Alignment of individual goals with organizational goals

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EIL evaluates and uses its overall employee related data from time to time to develop its Employee Engagement strategies and for ensuring engagements at all levels and at all times The Management Information System on employee statistics is shared with all major departments/divisions as “Quarterly Reports”, “Exit Interviews Report” and “Internal Customer Perception Survey Report”. These reports compile information on significant parameters pertaining to manpower trends like induction, separation, overall strength, age profile, factors affecting separation and factors affecting employee satisfaction & involvement within the Company. The HR plans & strategies are aligned keeping in view the changing demographics and business needs as well as taking into the feedback received from various employee forums.

Some Employee Engagement Initiatives are detailed below: • Succession Planning for critical roles To ensure the availability of right talent in the right place at the right time to achieve Business Strategy - a talent pipeline to fill key positions is in place. Through the process of Competency Mapping and Environmental Scanning, key positions have been identified throughout the organisation. Thereafter, identification of candidates is done using multiple tools like Performance Rating, Assessment Centre Reports, 360 degree feedback, Psychometric test, Nine Cube Talent Matrix etc. From this talent pool, further short listing is done based on diversity of experience, tenure available & their past performance, the candidates are developed for future positions.

Position Details

Identify Critical Positions

Employee Database

Identify Potential Candidates

Performance Management

Assess candidates readiness and identify successors

Career Paths

Develop and implement Development Plans

Talent Development Processes

The Succession Planning Process is followed with implementation of talent and leadership development plans outlined in the succession planning process

Creating a Sustainable Leadership Pipeline EIL partnered with Accenture in June 2009 to design and execute a strategically focused leadership development program which would help to build critical leadership competencie across levels. EIL, till date have developed 236 leaders through a world-class programme design and continuous coaching interventions which have enabled these leaders to align with the Organisation’s business imperatives which have resulted in impactful Action Learning Projects.

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Diversity Management through Talent Management at EIL

Annual Award Scheme EIL has a robust performance based mechanism for rewarding the better performers. Due weight age is given to the employee performance in deciding financial reward in the form of annual incentives. The objective of the scheme to recognize employees’ efforts & stimulate creativity and motivate the achievers for sustained exemplary performance. The two schemes enumerated have been implemented to achieve the aforementioned objectives: Every employee is given equal opportunity for his/or her nomination for Annual Award.

Each Year, employees are facilitated by various categories of Awards such as Best Employee of the Year, Young Executive of the Year, Professional of the Year, Individual Innovation, Team Innovation and Technical Paper Writing Award, which motivates them to deliver to their best of capabilities.

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EIL promotes diversity management and encourages synergy among employees through the following ways– Task Force Concept : To take up special work assignments and projects, cross functional task forces are constituted facilitating teamwork and synergy • Nomination of employees at all levels for conferences, seminars, workshops at global level encouraging awareness of latest trends and information • Recognizing talents and creating avenues for demonstration of their talents through various in house competitions • Women Empowerment Women constitute approximately 12% of EIL’s human resource, wherein 70% of the women employees are professionally qualified and more than 50% in the junior/ middle management. To cater to the development needs of its women employees, EIL has constituted a Women Forum.

•

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The forum focuses on providing opportunities for development to women employees and identifies various training interventions especially in the area of Managerial Skills and Leadership Development. The forum also facilitates participation of women employees in various conferences and seminars. Senior women executives of EIL have been rewarded at prestigious forums for their contributions in their work field.

International Women’s Day Celebration occurs every year. On this occasion, the top management of EIL encouraged the women employees to continue to add value through their concerted efforts for achievement of the Organisational goals. The event was interspersed with various competitions & fun games to inculcate a feeling of togetherness & bonding.

EIL provides its human resources an enabling environment which motivates, facilitates their growth and rewards them for their contributions to help them emerge as ‘talents’.

As mission driven organization, we strive everyday to earn ourselves an identity as an organization that welcomes diverse talent, and embrace, value and utilize difference that they offer. To achieve success, we go beyond an initiative, or a process and engrain it in the fabric of the organizational culture. And our journey continues with just a few words at the end; It is the assessment of an employee’s ability to rise to and succeed in a more senior or expanded role. Potential considers individuals’ performance, character, capability and motivation.”Aon Hewitt.

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as possible. Not just because a negative outcome may prove disastrous but because postponing the same may actually delay a positive outcome, lead to a team break up and further nonperformance.

Conflicts

Boon or a Curse Ashutosh Chadha Group Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Microsoft India Pvt Ltd. Intel South Asia The hypothesis is that actually conflicts are really a boon. Conflicts are a reality. They will happen everywhere whether in personal or in professional life. Whether it be between two individuals, groups of individuals or organizations. The bottom line is whenever they occur they need to be addressed.

Managed well, they can be a boon managed ineffectively they can be a curse. They can actually create room for stronger relationships, build trust, provide the confidence to a team to think and voice different opinions. In the end it can lead to innovation and doing things better. All positive outcomes for a team, an organization and even an individual.

On the other hand if this does not get managed well you would tend to only have negative outcomes which would pull the team, organization, and individual down. That can have disastrous effects in the long term. The biggest barrier in conflict management is of sweeping the issue under the carpet, avoiding it – or defer addressing the issue.

A conflict irrespective of ones fear of the outcome must be managed and managed as soon

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In essence every conflict should be looked at as an opportunity to use the defect as an effect and achieve higher levels of motivation and team / individual performance. This does appear to be a contra approach but actually this is what separates true leadership from mediocre.The other interesting perspective of conflict is that managing conflicts are not just a prerogative of the manager or leader. Peers can step in to resolve, one owns self can step in and resolve the conflict that occurs with someone else. The most important thing in conflict management is the attitude with which one approaches the same. Let’s call that the Attitude of Stepping Out to Step Up. Why do conflicts happen? Typically different perspectives, different ideas of what the goal is or how to get there, cultural differences, different opinions, miscommunication, perceived power struggle, turf wars are all possible reasons of why conflicts can happen between two people. Addressing this requires one to do two things which are applicable irrespective of whether you are a part of the conflict and / or out of it.

The first is to Step Out. By stepping out one means remove and / or ignore any allegiance to the issue, people and / or the point being contested. This is a critical step because an allegiance will always bring in an emotional bonding to the aspect under consideration. For someone who mediates between two conflicting parties this is critical and equally advisable for those involved. The second is stepping up – which is ideally to look at what is the goal that is required to be achieved and not the conflict itself. By focusing on the goal that one needs to achieve the objective is to concentrate on why the two opposing parties are working together rather than on the conflict, and thus look at the end rather than the means. More often than not when conflicts occur it is because the larger end goal is forgotten or ignored vis a vis the interim processes or approaches that one is following. The conflict is more on the approach, process and the actions there of than anything else.

While there is no golden rule on how conflicts can be managed there are certain steps that one can follow. These steps would ensure that the focus remains on the overall goal and less on the issue at hand.

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Agree on the disagreement The first and possibly most obvious step need to be agree what the disagreement is all about. More often than not when conflicts escalate the moot point of disagreement is forgotten and other issues emerge as centre point. These could be past disagreements, perceptions and even unrelated issues which are only being used by one party to confront the other with. Thus getting as much information and listening to the conflicting parties is very critical to first arrive at an agreement on what the disagreement is all about. Clarifying helps to the heart of the conflict. The goal of this step is to get both sides to agree on what the disagreement is.

Reorient to the Larger Goal The objective at this step is to reorient the conflicting parties to the larger goal that one is working towards, something that they both care about – this could be a personal outcome, a team objective or a company goal.

Focusing on a larger goal helps do two things. At the most basic level it ensures that there is a commonality identified, a shared value discovered between the two or more parties. Secondly this also ensures that the focus moves away from what the conflict is to what needs to be achieved.

How to and Why Not This is a key step where one focusses on how one achieve the agreed upon larger goal, the possible approaches, the possible barriers to achieve the same and what can be done to overcome those obstacles.

This is actually where one does stand the risk of the conflict reemerging. The key in this step is to make both the parties think how could they have approached it differently. Again this may be appear to be true only for an organizational set up and not in an interpersonal conflict. However if one has approached the first and second stage effectively where one focusses on what is the shared relationship that the two or more parties want to establish the similar approach will work. By discussing the obstacles one also tries to this preempt any possible future areas of disagreements. Further at this stage also uncover and establish something which can’t be changed or negotiated with and thus how one needs to accommodate that in the possible solution or approach.

Define Roles and Agree on way forward The next step is to ensure that each party understands it role in the solution and the way forward. What one achieves here is an unambiguous approach to the way forward and thus defining clear steps for all parties concerned. Agreement here also ensures that any possible conflict situation from overlapping roles gets avoided. In an interpersonal situations this coud be to ensure that certain behavior are taken care of as well as any misunderstandings don’t surface later.

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Competency Models: The POWERGRID Experience H. P. Pal

Chief Manager (HRD) POWERGRID

Sachin Kumar

Deputy Manager (HRD) POWERGRID

With the evolution of competency based HR management systems many companies with the help of external consultants or internal subject matter experts have designed their competency frameworks. Unfortunately most of such studies neither have seen the day light beyond the drawer of concerned HR nor have found their integration in various HR processes like training, performance management etc. Few cases which have seen the light have struggled to gain the understanding and acceptanceof employees in day-to-day practice. A surgery of such large-scale failures indicates following issues.

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A. Too much dependence on behavioural competencies There is a notion that competency is only a behavioural subject because even behind a functional competency you need a certain level of human behaviour to execute it. For example a behavioural competency called ‘learning instinct’ shall ensure a functional competency called “Prepare technical specification for smart grid and distribution system equipment”. Citing this reason and also fearing the mammoth task of capturing functional competencies across large scale functions, especially big compa-

nies, majority of the organisations only go with a behavioural competency directory.

For easy understanding, number of behavioural competencies is always tried to be kept within 7-10. So in practice it is very difficult to map 1000+ functional competencies across 30+ functions on the strength of a few behavioural competencies. Further, functional competencies which rest on multiple behavioural competencies are more difficult to predict based on behavioural competencies alone.

B. Failing to answer following key questions

Questions for Competency Framework Can it be explained to a layman who does not know anything about competency framework?

Questions for a Competency Descriptors Does it answer the word competitive advantage?

Beyond individual limitation does it also answer the key organisational capabilities?

Does it describe too narrow/ too broad?

Does it answer both the learning and performance dimension?

Does it have too much overlap with other competencies?

Does it give an idea to the employees the element of dif culty and level of priority so that they can maintain their focus for on what matters more?

Can we map it in the same way to online performance management, as we can to online training needs assessment?

Whether same model holds equally good for both functional competencies and also for behavioural competencies?

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Competency models: The Power Grid Experience

C.

Lack of understanding of the mix of KSA

Competency in general comprises Knowledge, Skill and Abilities (KSA). However, having a model that defines KSA for each competency like the one below makes it difficult to comprehend, understand and communicate.

Competency Area

KNOWLEDGE

SKILL

·Knowledge about extant Renewable Policies.

Renewable Energy

·Knowledge about

ABILITIES

·Plan transmission system for renewable evacuation

·Researching ·Networking ·Integrating ·Updating ·Collaborating

·Manage Advanced

·Researching ·Networking ·Integrating ·Updating ·Collaborating ·Customer focused ·Process Oriented

Renewable Energy generation technologies

·Knowledge about Metering infrastructure

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (hardware, communication, standards and protocols).

Metering Infrastructure (hardware, communication, standards and protocols).

The drawbacks of the above model are –

• Too much repetition of the abilities (behavioural indicators) • It is not possible to discern which knowledge and abilities are of what difficulty and what priority, so that element of individual focus will be missing

D.

Building narrow and dependent frameworks

Model 1: Cant’ provide customised answer to model 2 Name of Competency

Competency Descriptors LEVEL 1

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LEVEL 2

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 4

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Model 2: Cant’ provide customised answer to model 1

Name of Competency

Competency Descriptors 4 years

10years

5-9 years

Model 3: Too broad

Name of Competency

Competency Descriptors

Differentiating

Foundational

Model 5: Too fanciful; difficult to describe

Name of Competency

Competency Descriptors Learning

Demonstrating

Building

Perpetuating

E. Not having a separate framework for Leadership Competencies Of course we can capture the key elements of leadership from both functional and behavioural competency directory; still for a better understanding and communication of leadership competencies it is better to describe in a separate framework like the following.

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Competency models: The Power Grid Experience

Model 4: Good for defining Leadership Competencies

Name of Competency

Competency Descriptors Apprentice

Contributor

Local Leader

Global Leader

Model 6: Good for defining Leadership Competencies

Name of Competency

Competency Descriptors Personal Leadership

Result Leadership

People Leadership

Business Leadership

POWERGRID Model For Integration Of Competency To Online TNA PART –I INDEPENDENT COMPETENCY BANK

PART –II DEPENDENT COMPETENCY BANK

The POWERGRID journey in competency studies has matured with the following experiences.

I. Preparation of Behavioural competency framework through a leading external consultant.

II. Online survey on organisational cultural capabilities of POWERGRID for present and future.

III. Aligning the above mentioned study on cultural capabilities revisiting functional and behavioural com-

petencies through a leading external consultant followed by assessment and development centre and Individual development plans of a group of senior executives.

IV. Revision/ Updatation of functional competency directories by in-house subject matter experts.

V. Integration of updated functional competency directory to online HRD management system to capture Training Needs of employees.

The integration of competency framework to Training Need Assessment (TNA) in POWERGRID has followed the following model.

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1

INDEPENDENT COMPETENCY BANK FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY DIRECTORY [SMARTGRID] KNOWLEDGE

SKILL 1

SKILL 2

Basic Knowledge about the equipment, systems, processes

Hands on experience of equipment, systems, processes

Can test, analyse, design, develop, upgrade andintegrate systems, handle critical exceptions.

CODE

Descriptor

CODE

Descriptor

CODE

K_SM1

SK1_SM1

SK2_SM1

K_SM2

SK1_SM2

SK2_SM2

K_SM3

SK1_SM3

SK3_SM3

K_SM4

SK1_SM4

SK3_SM4

Descriptor

This framework has following features.

• The above said bank is independent of any employee level, employee tenure etc. This serves the base of the dependent bank given hereinafter.

• This independent bank only captures one level of knowledge and two levels of skills, based on level of

•

difficulty. At Skill-1 the employee is able to operate equipment, system and process which has been designed by an employee possessing advanced skill as defined in Skill-2. So you can say Skill-1 concerns more of a baseline handwork and Skill-2 concerns more of a frontline brain work.

These knowledge and skills are interlinked through coding behind the scenes. For example, if K_SM2 is checked in by the employee then only he can access SK1_SM3 and SK3_SM4.

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Competency models: The Power Grid Experience

2 MODEL FOR DEPENDENT FRAMEWORK w.r.t INDEPENDENT FRAMEWORK

Level wise Minimum Competencies for

[SMARTGRID]

KNOWLEDGE LEVEL

Basic Knowledge about the equipment, systems, processes CODE

New Entrant

Engineer

Manger

Deputy Manager

Chief Manager

Asst. GM & above

SKILL 1

SKILL 2

Hands on experience of equipment, systems, processes

Can test, analyse, design, develop, upgrade and integrate systems, handle critical exceptions.

CODE

CODE

K_SM1 K_SM2

SK1_SM1 SK1_SM2

K_SM1 K_SM2 K_SM3 K_SM5 K_SM7

SK1_SM1 SK1_SM2 SK1_SM5 SK1_SM7

SK2_SM1

K_SM1 K_SM2 K_SM5 K_SM7 K_SM11

SK1_SM1 SK1_SM2 SK1_SM5 SK2_SM7 SK2_SM9

SK2_SM1 SK2_SM2

K_SM1 K_SM2 K_SM5 K_SM7 K_SM11

SK1_SM1 SK1_SM2 SK2_SM5 SK2_SM7

SK2_SM1 SK2_SM2 SK2_SM3 SK2_SM5

This data defines the basic minimum competency an employee should have at different level in different functions.

BENEFIT OF THIS SYSTEM: Combining the independent and dependent competency framework, the integrated online application can handle any query like the following • With a typical competency who is sitting where in POWERGRID? • In which common competency no body in POWERGRID is aware?

• About which competencies in a function nobody in that function is aware?

• In which competencies less than 10% of the people are aware?

• Which employees have taken training in one area but are engaged in another function ( Finding people-position mismatch) • What % of the employees in a function do not have the basic minimum competencies mentioned in Dependent Competency Bank….. etc.

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GUIDELINES FOR INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK TO ONLINE TNA PORTAL

This TNA portal has following 5 pages

WEB PAGE 1 YOUR PROFILE

WEB PAGE 2 Knowledge you have gathered & Skills you have handled w.r.t current function

WEB PAGE 3 Training Options

WEB PAGE 4 Feedback on training attended in 2015-2016

WEB PAGE 5 Knowledge of skills of previous assignments in other departments

Please confirm your profile including the employee number of your reporting and reviewing officer.

Please note that In the two boxes given on skills, you check in for those skills if you have hands on experience of that assignment.

These knowledge and skills are linked to the training options in next web page.

Therefore, your training options in next page shall exclude the corresponding programs linked to your present knowledge and skills.

In this page you may select one training options from each of the following.

Functional Cross Functional Managerial /Behavioral/ Leadership In this page please give your feedback of the training attended in the year 2015-2016.

In this page please mention the knowledge you have acquired and the skills you have hands on experience in previous departments (Max. upto two functions)

Web page 3 and 4 gets validated online through concerned reporting and reviewing officer and subsequently form a part of Training Needs Assessment database. Data captured in Web page 5 relating to competencies acquired in past functions are kept as reference in the system without validation.

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Business Analytics Function to Reshape the Future of Pharmaceutical Organizations Dr. Ambrish Joshi Assistant Vice President, Pharmaceutical & Healthcare, Research and Analytics, GENPACT Business Analytics function is seeing an ever increasing visibility within organization and suddenly organizations are rushing to reevaluate, build and focus upon this need. This trend is being observed in several industries and mostly with an advent of availability of ‘big-data’ and need to take data driven decisions in this complex business environment. Pharmaceutical companies are now turning to non-conventional ways of adding value to their business in order to overcome business challenges like patent expiry, declining R&D productivity with increased regulatory scrutiny and compliance requirements. With constant advancement in analytics and Information Technology (IT) and its penetration in every sphere of life, pharma industry is keen heading to a lower margin model

Changing Landscape in Pharma Industry leading to a Lower Margin Model •

• • •

End of big pharma “blockbuster model” commercial model Generic pressures Health Care Reform Pipeline Productivity – pharma & biotech

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• Payer influence and information asymmetry • Change in credit markets • Economic impact changing consumer be havior

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Summary - Transformation within Business Analytics Function 1. Global economy/ organizations going through turbulence • Ever evolving business environment • Those that retained their Analytics teams during tough times have benefitted 2. Analytics Ultimate goal • Serve as backbone of strategic and operational planning process - expected to create a futuristic and strategic business view and predict market scenarios/ activities

• Expectations from Analytics team undergo a change - Outcomes need to project the future competitive environment

3. Provides answer to critical questions (e.g. What? / So what? / Now what?)

• Proactive rather than retrospective • Predictive rather than descriptive 4. Paradigm shift in the way Analytics will be done in future • Recent times have seen a lot of change in the way Analytics teams and organizations are structured and function

• Work profile for Analytics team to undergo change 5. Future Analytics teams will evolve in all areas including Organization matrix, Process & Technology • Currently Analytics teams serve minimal/ negligible time to C-level executives. Organization will have to organize and re- organizes to cater to these needs

• E.g. Relative share of time given by Analytics team to product & marketing team vs. C-level executives will undergo a change

Compared to other industries, pharmaceutical industry lags in using the quality of analytics capabilities for effective decision making process as most of the pharmaceutical/biotech companies are still following traditional analytics process.

It’s no secret that today’s market conditions have made pharmaceutical industry much more complex and challenging. True integration of various functions including sales and marketing is required if pharmaceutical companies need to improve collaboration and evolve into Customer-centric operations.

It’s clear that business model of the pharma industry is changing from being product-oriented to a much customer-centric model both internally and externally by reorganizing the research and analytics operational excellence and capabilities to accelerate growth and deliver customer value. Recently global top pharma companies have started significantly investing in building a performance driven, flexible and responsive business analytics teams for value creating services that can drive growth or customer relationships.

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Business Analytics Function to Reshape the Future of Pharmaceutical Organizations

Advantages of Analytics Keep-up with Changes in the External Environment

Better Management of Inventory

Gauging and Understanding the Market

Future Human Capital Investment

Competitive in the Information Age

In early 90s, there was no or minimal analytics work (primarily reporting) carried within several departments within Pharma organization. Several departments started executing analytics work slowly driven by the business requirements. It was left to the individual department to develop/ govern analytics output. Business model of the Pharma industry have evolved from being product-oriented to a much customer-centric model (both internally and externally). This reorganizing has brought in operational excellence and capabilities thus helping to accelerate growth and deliver high customer value. Recently global top Pharma organizations have started significant investment in building a performance driven, flexible and responsive teams for value creating services that can drive growth or customer relationships.

Company x

Company x

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Work Executed

Delivery Model

Deliver more insightful work which assist in taking business decisions

Transform delivery model to realize efficiencies and generate focus and accountability in key areas

Efficiency

Improve internal efficiencies to maximize budget and leverage offshore resources more effectively

Technology / Data

Bring in new data sources and technologies such as visualization tools that improve insights/ productivity

New Services

Build new value generating service such as MCM analytics/ Competitive Intelligence COE

In State

Future State

Historical Analysis “Rear View Mirror”

“Future/Predictive” Analysis

Companies are developing long term business strategy in a lower margin model and clearly defining the strategy, planning and operations, which provide a clear vision for growth and deliver a significant portion of mature analytic and insights. These designs of future strategies will focus on: •

Build and deliver expert value generating services like Customer Insights, CRM Analytics etc.

•

Utilization of offshore vendors/specialty providers/external panels of experts

•

Resources alignment to key customers segments

•

Define strategy in a holistic view of the pharma landscape

From ‘No Analytics’ function to ‘COE/ Specialized Analytics’ function, global pharmaceutical organizations have seen lot of intermediate models. An MIT / IBM study found there was a widespread belief that analytics offers value “top business firms use analytics five times more than lower performers”. According to this study, half the companies said that the improvement of information and analytics was a top priority for them.The influx of managers requiring ongoing decision support and the need to move away from gut-feel decisions are the two most prominent pressures that drive business analytics today. Other visible pressures in the world of analytics relate to a growing urgency around the timing of actionable information available as well as the need to leverage employee’s mind power to identify and exploit opportunities for business improvement. The time frame required finding and act upon growth opportunities is becoming smaller for many organizations. In response to that, managers across a variety of industries and job roles are turning to the promise of fact-based decision support of business analytics and thus increasing reliability and emphasis on the BA functions within organizations.

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Business Analytics Function to Reshape the Future of Pharmaceutical Organizations

Most of the times companies have been following traditional methods of commercial analysis for customer value analysis but these techniques are not driving the insights and analytics to understand the customer value chain and deliver high volume business. For example, we have been doing customer value analysis in silo but not understanding the ecosystem of customer value chain. So especially for specialty areas like Oncology we recommend focusing on understanding the ecosystem of customer value chain by integrating sales and marketing information. Seven key elements for the future model for customer insights and analytics projects: 1.

Customer focused

2.

Responsive to demandpatterns (across customers) and ability to pilot and institu tionalize

3.

Addresses major high value questions in an integrative manner

4.

Drives new revenue sources and profit improvement

5.

Provides clear separation of generalists and experts by type of output and cus tomer 6.

Enables scale and cost efficiencies

7.

Provides clear roles and accountability for all groups; transparent engagement within the organization and with the business

Most of the times, companies does brand/company performance analysis by correlating its sales with factors like promotional spend, new product launch effect, market events etc. However, in case of specialty areas there is a need of shifting the focus more towards understanding tahe customer value and driving index.

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Major global pharma companies are refining their model with offshore partnerships that are aligned and capable with their growth strategy and new customer centricity operating models. These companies are looking for strategic partnerships that can enhance advanced analytics capabilities like to: • Leverage advanced analytics work to develop a deep knowledge of customer

business practices and truly understand payers, provider, customer segments, &

the competitive landscape • Maximize and institutionalize industry and organizational learning’s and best practices •

Drive business acumen and discipline in leveraging analytics for decision making

•

Consistently evaluate data and identify forward-looking trends, analyze data to understand customers and key business drivers, and jointly use P&L mentality in decision making

•

Drive the highest possible return on dollars invested in analytics etc.

The role of business analytics has gone through a sea-change over a period of time. Organizations are moving towards analytics-driven strategic decision-making rather than the simple interpretation of data.

A lot to undergo changes and transformation on way business analytics functions will contribute and work in ever evolving business dynamics. Business Analytics will have to remain in sync with the industry and times.

Possible Opportunity Directions for Analytics Organisation

1

2

3

Analystics/ Complexity of analysis/ Decision Support

Tools/ Technology used

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Transparency in Rewards &

Recognition Raj Nehru Director HR, Schneider Electric Introduction and History Ruminations on the fine art of Backpatting, Jay Whitehead, Posted October 4, 2011 in Engaged Workforce “Cyrus, who is known as the founder of Archaemenid Empire during the building of Jerusalem temple in 538 BC used to encourage his construction workers by giving them a pat at the back, or a beverage or a coin featuring with his head ingrained, to keep them motivated and show that he recognized their continuous contribution and worth. This appears to be the oldest evidence in the history of recognition that evolved with time and went through changes as economies and human behaviors evolved. Even Freud wrote this in his famous articles, that “Human Psyche is a love-hungry mess”. In fact he would have also found that humans are in constant want for acknowledgement and appreciation and as they receive the desired or expected recognition, their output will become even better.”

We look, for acceptances, and recognition and appreciation, that’s what defines, or satiates the ‘love- hunger’. In today’s world when 70-80% of our days are dedicated to our jobs, nothing could be a more apt zone for one to look for satisfaction of the ‘love- hunger’ than the work place. Hence the crucial role that reward programs play cannot be denied. A Rewards and recognition program has a two pronged benefit both for the organization and the ones in it. While it feeds in to the very basic desires and needs of recognition and acknowledgement of efforts put in by the employees; at the same time, it helps build employee, morale, and impacts the overall employee experience that the employee gets.

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Further at the same time, drives the employees, desire to deliver and impact business results, work relations, quality of output, creativity at work place, general wellbeing at work etc.

Over the years, the concept of Rewards and Recognition started gaining impetus in work cultures. Rewards and Recognition are often thought of as synonyms. However, they are very different.

Recognition mostly refers to non-monetary ways of saying thank you and can take the form of appreciation notes, awards, electronic thank you cards, supervisor announcing to the teams, being marked on a mail copied to a lot of senior leaders, company products, gift vouchers, employee photograph in the company newsletter or on “starlet of the week board”, to name just a few. There are unlimited ways to say thank you for doing the right thing, and they are not necessarily expensive.

Non-monetary recognition caters to the psychological need of the employees of being appreciated, and has high intrinsic value. Rewarding, on the other hand, intends to motivate by fulfilling employees’ desire for monetary gain. It aims at strategically designing ways to compensate employees for their efforts and contribution towards the organization. Through rewards, employees receive a share in the financial earnings made by the organization, which in turn have been accomplished through their contribution.

Across human generations ‘reward processes’, started coming into being. But they had being evolving erratically however the human psyche had been developing and the needs now had been evolving from mere need for appreciation to being kept informed about how the appreciations had been coming their way. Various motivational theories indicate the slow but evident evolution and realization of the needs. While Herzberg, debated the needs for basic hygiene factors to be in order for people to perform effectively, Maslow introduced the complex nature of needs development not across gen-

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erations but within the same life span of an individual according to varying maturity levels. Alderfer, further enhanced the understanding of the same by introducing the concept of how, when needs are not met, they can lead to frustrated needs. John Stacey Adam’s theory of Equity further compounded the scenario by trying to explain relational satisfaction in terms of perceptions of fair/unfair distributions of resources within interpersonal relationships; of why pay and conditions alone do not determine motivation; of how a person’s motivation is based on what he or she considers to be fair when compared to others.

With the changes in the employee scenarios, over the decades from Industrialization to more white collared jobs to working with knowledge workers, things like, equality, fairness and transparent systems, became a more integral part of practices, than mere rewarding the individual. Employees, now want to be a part of the build up of frameworks, they want be made more aware of what are their entitlements. They want forums where they can voice out their changing needs and wants.

Impact of R&R on Employee Behaviors Practices like the annual appraisal cycle, the Employee Salary programs, the promotion cycles, the training opportunities, Rewards and recognitions schemes in the organization often build or derail perceptions of the organizational support, for the employee.

Reena Ali and M.Shakil Ahmed (2009) in their study highlighted “the impact of reward and recognition programs on employee’s motivation and satisfaction”. The study was conducted from October till December; 2008 the Sample chosen for the study is 80 employees of UNILEVER companies Results-The factors affecting satisfaction were identified; payment (0.86**), promotion (0.74**), working condition (0.61**), personal(0.37*) as Analysis showed immense support for positive relationship between REWARD and EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION. This exploratory study suggested for the positive relationship between reward and satisfaction”.* In another study published, in the HBR achiever’s report 2013, The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance ** a report by Harvard business review analytic services, “Employee engagement emerged as a top business priority for senior executives. With the workforces going Global and the, organizations becoming more and more integrated organizations have to keep innovating not only products and services lines, but also the employee engagement methods.

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Transparency in Rewards & Recognition

72% of the respondents felt, recognition given to high performers was the highest factor to drive employee engagement in organizations. This insight brings us back to the importance of the R&R practices and the role they play in overall organizational framework.

Further, retaining associates will save the organization money “Cost estimates for turnover range from 33% to 150% of base salary. For a midsized company of 1,000 employees (average base salary $50K) with 10% annual rate of turnover, the cost is $1.7 million/ Society of Human Resources Management) to $7.5 million.”

(Bureau of Labor Statistics, Abstract). Associate satisfaction with the job and positive environment/morale impact the likelihood of retention. According to McKinsey and Company, 65% of respondents cited not “feeling valued” or “insufficient recognition or reward” for leaving previous employer (War for Talent, 2000).”

While major organizations use R&R as an effective retention tool and one that creates a sense of healthy competition. A lot of organizations still struggle with understanding the deep rooted impact of these practices on employee morale and hence the Business results by the end of the day.

Factors to consider while designing R&R practices Reward management deals with the design and implementation of programs and procedures with an objective to recognize employees in an unbiased and consistent manner. Effective reward structures award benefits to employees, in accordance to their value to the organization.

R&R can be monetary as well as non-monetary. Considerable efforts and investments are made in defining compensation structures that incentivize performance. Reward and Recognition strategies revolve around benefits that are either monetary, material or engaging policies and are for both for individuals and teams.

Monetary rewards can be placed under three categories: Competitive Pay The first is competitive pay where the employee is rewarded with an increase in salary. These are often leveraged on when you know that caliber of the employee is in line with the organizational impetus and you would like to reward the employee for his/ her performance. Often organizations have this component in built as part of the Employee Salary Program, where the best performing employees have their salaries adjusted to qualify Industry bench marks. This reward system is leveraged for differentiating the organization from competition as well.

Performance Bonus The second is a performance bonus which is a payout for meeting certain designated targets. Annual Variable pay is also a component built into the Salary structure of most organizations, where, depending on the performance of the employee an equated percentage of the Variable pay is released to the employee. Bonuses are attached to the outcomes of the stretched efforts of the employee, which they partake over and above their regular targets. This helps the organization, to achieve and stay ahead of market competition.

Others There are other unique ways to provide monetary rewards to employees. Some organizations that are conscious about social welfare, contribute to an NGO on behalf of the employee.

Technology companies like IBM, often provide funding for the employee to pursue an idea s/he might have, where initially for the first six months or so the company funds the expenses that the trails etc of the idea need and subsequently, let the employee lead the project once it stabilizes.

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Non-monetary recognition is largely dependent on the caliber of leadership that an organization deploys. Sometimes non-monetary recognition equals and even exceeds the levels of motivation that can be provided by monetary rewards.

Gifts Providing gifts is a way a company expresses gratitude for the value Employees bring to the organization. Personalizing gifts is a distinctive way for the organization to show that they care. The most common gifts are clothing or accessories branded with the logo of the company. One interesting material benefit is a paid vacation for the employee. These in turn, help the employee, feel valued by the organization.

Employee engagement Engaging employees is an excellent way to reward employees. This engagement can come in the way of a promotion or a responsibility like mentoring. The employee can also be aligned to a project of choice.

Recognition Other than compensation and gifts recognizing an employee is another critical way to let the employee know that they matter. An excellent practice is to connect with the family of recognized employees. There are many versatile ways to recognize an employee with a lot of scope to engage employees in the recognition process. Some successful practices are an appreciation wall in the common area where employees and managers can post messages. This can also be achieved using a recognition website. Providing Thank you card to employees to give out is an excellent way of involving employees in the recognition process.

These Thank You messages can also be digital and messaging thanking and congratulating employees can also be posted on their social media page like Facebook.

Awards Various industries have many unique awards like the Best Debunte award where the best new joinee in the organization is recognized and rewarded. Excellence awards are given to employ-

ees for demonstrating excellence in a certain field and Value awards are awarded to employees who best demonstrate the Company’s culture. This includes the company’s values and beliefs. Recognition can also move up the hierarchy and is achieved when tasks important to employees are delegated upwards. Senior management takes accountability for the task and upon successful completion receives recognition from employees. Rewards can also be a rolling rewards which could be a trophy or baton or title of recognition awarded for a specific time frame.

Certain organizations even reward Managers, who have been able lead team, that have excelled in performance or even have maintained low levels of attrition. Since the two are directly linked to increased levels of engagement and hence the organization chooses to reward Managers, who are able to partner in creating an engaging environment.

Another very popular award is a general public choice award, where employees, get to nominate a person they believe is truly deserving of a pat on the back. The parameters of assessing could of course be relative; like the nomination could be based on ‘performance’, ‘popularity’ ‘congeniality’ or ‘going out of the way’ etc.

Some organizations may also have awards like the ‘Unsung hero’. The basic concept of the reward is to recognize the efforts of people who often go unnoticed but make a huge impact on the larger picture.

Team Recognition Sometimes, even Team awards are disbursed.

While these awards give a heightened sense of pride and camaraderie, however they may fail to deliver the sense of appreciation at the individual level. For example, when a team plaque is delivered it stays in the conference room or at the desk of the manager however, the individual does not have anything to associate the win with.

Different surveys have highlighted various aspects that are critical for the success of R &R programs. The most critical ones are: • Employee Involvement

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Transparency in Rewards & Recognition

• Recognition for efforts on driving certain positive behaviors and not results only

• Realistic Achieving of Goals • Fair Processes

Making rewards and recognition more individualized or personalized, without violating the essence of fairness to match with the individual’s preferences and personality make the rewards and recognition more meaningful and motivating.

In light of the survey outcomes mentioned above, it’s very important that in order for the program to be successful a few hygiene factors be taken into consideration. These are: • Company Culture - The rewards program should be aligned to the company culture.

• Clear Communication – Goals must be communicated with as much clarity as possible.

Employee doubts and questions should be clarified before and during the rollout of the program.

• Consistency - The reward and recognition program should be consistent and conducted at regular intervals.

Importance of Transparent R&R practices Amongst various small and big reasons on why the organisations, should drive transparent practices, the following few are key.

Building Trust There are huge benefits of transparent R&R systems. Transparent R&R systems not only build trust they can often be a source of huge excitement for the employees. When systems are transparent people would look forward to participating in them, in way or another. When the employees, see clarity in how and why people are being rewarded and the fact that they are being rewarded, it springs a higher and effortless engagement in the system. They work and partner effectively to be a part of these practices. We often see the trust building in the system and the fairness of the practices, further spikes a sense of cohesion and collaboration amongst employees and helps build employee-manager relations. Empowerment

42 IILM Management Review

Transparent practices, empower people with the information and knowledge about the lapses and spikes in the practices, and therefore open ground for questioning the quality and intent of delivery etc. Transparent practices, give clarity on what qualifies people for the R&R programs and in the event of the same, people choose to partner on the momentum necessary to make a program successful.

Impact on Engagement Successful R&R programs have a deep rooted impact on engagement, since while employees expect to be paid fairly for their work, they also look forward to and see R&R programs as a disguised pat on the back and encouragement by the system for what they have done so far and to do better. When the employee sees fair and equitable practices being delivered over and over, they partner to make the R&R program successful too. Lack of transparency gets employees to question the every intent and fairness of practices.

Motivational Boost R&R practices; clearly fuel curiosity and build on the excitement since the surprise factor is protected all along. While designing the R&R frameworks, the makers need to be sensitive that the practices should fuel the interest of the employee. The practices, should be linked to various levels of motivational needs of an employee as s/he goes through various levels in the organization. They should not be so random and easily achievable that employees, over a period start feeling it’s more of an entitlement to be a part of a practice such as this. Alternately nor should they be so unrealistic that employees, who may feel that they are way away from the bar of the performance qualifier for the R&R programs, may choose not to participate at all or not even make an effort to meet the standards expected.

R&R Frameworks – Why do they fail?

Inability to manage Socio – Cultural differences.

One of the key pieces to consider is the impact

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of socio – cultural transformations. We have often considered the difference between parents and children, namely springing out of communication gaps, technological changes and impact and empowerment given by social media et al; to think a similar abyss also exists in the organizational framework. You see, the organizations clearly have two key sets of employees, ones who design the frameworks, in this case the R&R, and take decisions around them and ones who get impacted or are the recipients of the frameworks. Typically the matured group and the newbie as one would call them. Now let’s look at these two sets of people. The matured lot is typically the leadership; one that takes the decisions; has attempted at various organizational approaches, is experienced and has seen quite a few Human resource strategies work and fail.And then there is the second set of people, the ones these strategies are developed for. The ones that are usually labeled as the Gen Y. These are the set of people who are more alert about their wants and needs, are able to use Information as power, and are technologically savvier. These are the set of people who have caused the social media boom and hence the world only has become a smaller place for them for they are more connected. They believe in instant food, instant service and instant gratification. Their patience curves are too short. They want efforts that are resourcefully engaging and have higher and faster outcomes. They know what they want and they want it now. Now imagine when these two type of workforces are existing together in the organization. One is creating R&R frameworks that are inspired by the cause and effect theories of living and delayed gratification is a key component of it and the other wants instant recognitions and rewards. It’s a serious clash and an evident breakdown of the true spirit of R&R. Organizations like Google for example take care of appreciations in a multitude of ways, including giving a work zone that may be inspiring; but organizations, say like IBM struggle with the sheer size they are and hence may seem slow moving when it comes to bringing in a change or R&R frameworks that may be huge and covering large groups of people.

Inadequate budget allocations Another key reason would be that typically R&R frameworks would get created by C&B teams; since they may be largely budget driven. With a fixed budget and fixed spend, there is a directive on a fixed mode of spend as well. Often operating under such tight elements, can lead to fixed assumptions on execution and the need for the R&R altogether.

Lack of Leadership Interest The way the Leadership views the practices of R&R makes a huge difference. For example, if one of the key senior leaders consider the R&R as a redundant practice, since s/he feels that people work and they get paid for it, there is no reason for rewarding exemplary performances etc, you can well imagine then the kind of drive or conviction with which he would encourage his down line for the same.

Lack of standardized Metrics While Organizations these days have Business HR partners that are the HR representatives in the field; one of the biggest outcry of these HR partners is also lack of standardized metrics for identification of nominees for R&R. For example, in a Business Process outsourcing environment, there are a variety of processes – some that are Voice, some backend, chat, emails etc, hence performance parameters for all would be different.

Therefore calibration on performance standards across the verticals could be a huge challenge. While designing R&R frameworks, the HR departments work with a dichotomy here, since incase they use a paint brush approach and have the same standards across, it may seem unfair to the employees working for processes that maybe involving higher levels of complexity or engagements with the customer or involve higher levels of skills. Lack of defined matrices across different sections in the organization, further breed questions on transparency of practices, and organizational intent.

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Transparency in Rewards & Recognition

Poor Communication of Practices Further failure to adequately educate the employees on what is the intent of the R&R program, how to apply to it and what would qualify them for the R&R is a key factor. Some employees, even if they respect the practices would be easily left out since they were not informed adequately.

Weak frameworks One of the biggest mistakes that Organization’s, make while designing their R&R programs is to assume that money is the best way of rewarding. Truth be told, most of today’s IT-based recognition systems are used for delivering rewards—stuff such as money and merchandise and gift cards. But recently, scientists have proven that when it comes to improving employee behaviors, nonmonetary recognition (delivered in person or via LinkedIn-type apps) can be even a more durable currency than monetary recognition. That’s why there is a boom underway in “social recognition” tools that deliver virtual pats on the back. As of August 2011, the “social recognition” and “social software” market includes more than 50 entrants. IBM for that matter is classic and typical example of an organization, that inspires and engages people in many ways and hence the whole question around Money being the biggest inspiration for performance, is proven wrong. But then there are enough and plenty organizations that do focus largely on monetary incentives.

Poor Engagement However, another one of the biggest hindrance is the lack of engagement at the Manager level, at the level of the Human resource department and even so at the level of the Leadership. Rewards and recognition is in the eyes of the beholder. Sometimes, R&R programs are not even considered as an important program for simple reasons like, the quality of gifts or lack of communication from the managers to be a part of celebrations around the same. Another example could be where, the Leadership fails to turn up at the R&R ceremony or participate in any way with the employees who are being rewarded; then what would happen is that over a few cycles, employees would start seeing the R&R practices as a checklist activity. As per global surveys, there are less than 50% companies that have structured R&R programs in their organizations. Further surveys indicate that less than 57% of companies had spent less than 0.5% of payroll on rewards. When compared to many of the organizations, the data indicates, high performing organizations spend more than 2 % of total on R & R programs. Lack of governance is another issue that fails many R & R programs. Organizations need to identify key metrics of R&R performance and review it periodically for its success. While HR analytics are trying to work on assessing the success of R&R programs by linking them to other softer aspects like, engagement levels of the managers with their team members, and general employee motivation levels. However, we still have a long way to go before we are able to directly assess absolute successes of R&R programs.

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References

• Page 1: Ruminations on the fine art of Backpatting, Jay Whitehead, Posted October 4, 2011 in Engaged Workforce

• URL:http://www.hrotoday.com/news/engaged-workforce/rewards-a-history/#sthash.pfYunMWY.dpuf • Page 4. International Review of Business Research Papers Vol. 5 No. 4 June 2009 Pp.270-279, The • • • • • • •

Impact Of Reward And Recognition Programs On Employee’s Motivation And Satisfaction: An Empirical Study Reena Ali1 and M.Shakil Ahmed2 Page 4: HBR achiever’s report 2013, The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance ** a report

by Harvard business review analytic services Page 5: Personnel Management (Second Edition), Prof. Arun Monappa, IIM Ahemdabad & Prof. Mirza Saiyadain, School of Management University, Sains Malayasia.

Carl jung and Richard Depue and Paul Collins - http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f03/web1/ nkrimgold.html Page 7, Ref from: Making Recognition and Rewards Matter: Five Practices to Drive Better Business Results: BERSIN & ASSOCIATES RESEARCH REPORT | V.1.0 Page 7, Ref from: Rewards and Recognition: Make a difference to the talent in your organization by Aniruddha Limaye & Ralsi Sharma; Edenred & Great Places to Work Page 7, Ref from: Great places to work surveys “The Upside of Irrationality” by Dan Ariely assess absolute successes of R&R programs.

IILM Management Review 45

Life in the Digital Age and Knowledge Economy Jones Joseph

Group Business Director, IMRB International

Life today is characterized by the all-pervasive and often time intrusive effects of media, social media and technology than it has ever done at any time before in the history of mankind.

Pokémon GO is one of the latest viral sensations that has caught the imagination of millions globally. It was introduced in a limited and staggered launch across different nations, in July 2016, but it has already started to pose a threat to other digital creations like Twitter, WhatsApp, Tumblr and Snapchat by engaging with more and more users who are getting hooked onto it. It is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality (AR) game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. The game has become popular as it is based on location (GPS of

46 IILM Management Review

the smartphone) and altered reality (AR in this case) and therefore played within your city and ‘real’. It is quite simple to play - go to physical locations and find Pokémon. Pokémon appear in an augmented reality (AR) format on smartphone screens, giving the appearance that the Pikachu, the cute and cuddly yellow fur haired mammal or rodent, you have been chasing is actually in front of you. For the millennials who grew up on a staple diet of Pokémon as kids playing with these Nintendo characters via playing cards, trading card games, comics, video games, movies and shows, this is a flashback to their childhood memories, and therefore connecting with them strongly.

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While on the one hand, people around the world have been going crazy “catching ‘em all”, an equally concerned and anxious set of government authorities have been trying to educate it’s citizens from indulging in these activities which could pose potential personal safety and road safety hazards. So far, two players fell off a 90foot cliff, one got stabbed while looking for a late-night virtual battle which turned real, a girl got hit by a car while following a game map, while two got locked in a cemetery playing the game, to name a few in the growing list of casu-

alties. Proponents of the game argue that this is a better game as it gets the ‘couch potatoes’ to go outside and get going, thereby contributing to the good health of the player.

Earlier this year, one of the soothsayers of such phenomena, Alvin Toffler, passed away at the age of 87 in Los Angeles. The iconic author of “Future Shock,” the first in a trilogy of best-selling books forecasted how people and institutions of this century and end of the last century would struggle with the enormous strains and soaring opportunities of accelerating change.

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Life in the Digital Age and Knowledge Economy

Therefore, if we were to look at the large players in the internet world, globally, there are over 1.71 billion monthly active Facebook users (Facebook MAUs) which is a 15 percent increase year over year. To understand the enormity of this statistic – consider this that in 2016 the world population is 7.43 billion. And if the population of the top nine countries are considered after removing the two most populous nations – China and India, then the cumulative population of these countries is 1.73 billion, which is 23.3 percent of the total world population. Or alternatively put, Facebook citizens or netizens are 3.4 times the population of Europe. Reflect on some other facts - Five new Facebook profiles are created every second. On average, the Like and Share Buttons are viewed across almost 10 million websites daily.

Med. Age

World Share

#

Country

1

China

1,38,23,23,332

37

57.90%

18.60%

2

India

1,32,68,01,576

27

32.40%

17.90%

3

U.S.

32,41,18,787

38

82.70%

4.40%

4

Indonesia

26,05,81,100

28

54%

3.50%

5

Brazil

20,95,67,920

31

84.20%

2.80%

6

Pakistan

19,28,26,502

23

38.90%

2.60%

7

Nigeria

18,69,87,563

18

49%

2.50%

8

Bangladesh

16,29,10,864

26

34.90%

2.20%

9

Russia

14,34,39,832

39

73.20%

1.90%

10

Mexico

12,86,32,004

27

78.30%

1.70%

11

Japan

12,63,23,715

47

94.10%

1.70%

Population-2016

Urban Pop%

1,73,53,88,287

Twitter, another significant player in the digital age of ours, turned 10 years old this year. Every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter (7,309 tweets, at the time that I was writing about this according to www.LiveInternetStats.com), which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year.​

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Understanding the Data Deluge: Comparison of Scale With Physical Objects (Infographic created by Julian Carver of Seradigm in New Zealand http://www.saradigm.co.nz) And put this in perspective, here are some of the other digital facts that have occurred in that same second: • • • •

7,309 tweets sent 737 Instagram photos uploaded 1,148 Tumblr posts made 2,235 Skype calls made

• • • •

55,746 Google searches done 128,987 YouTube videos viewed 2,515,058 Emails sent 37,227 GB of internet traffic generated

Another famous personality, Buckminster Fuller propagated the “Knowledge Doubling Curve” wherein he observed that till 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today however, things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have very different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the fallout of the “Internet of Things” (IoT) will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours We are therefore citizens of this global village, and a constituent of the information age or as it is now christened – a knowledge economy. Many times such terms are used without much thought. Hence it is a good thing to pause and reflect on what is it that we mean.

Economy is the large set of inter-related production and consumption activities that aid in determining how scarce resources are allocated.

(Source: www.investopedia.com) This is also known as an economic system. So clearly there is production and consumption – read that as supply and demand – that dictates how the resources will get distributed.

In an information age or knowledge economy,

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Life in the Digital Age and Knowledge Economy

what is it that is produced and consumed? Information is data that is put together in a meaningful way. It is the result of applying data processing to data, giving it a context and meaning. This Information can then be further processed to provide knowledge. When you therefore, consider the quantum of data that is being produced every second and every minute of the day, one can realize the sheer enormity of this. tantly respond or ideally be proactive in dealing with this change.

It is not merely the individual that is beset with the impact of the rapid strides of media and technology today. Stakeholders like businesses and governments also grapple with the same challenges. It is no surprise then that the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi and his government, are going to town with various initiatives like #DigitalIndia, #StartupIndia, #SkillIndia, etc. to make India an attractive investment destination and economy.

Businesses exist with the motive of enhancing the wealth of the stakeholders – whether a sole proprietorship, partnership, private limited company or publicly held company. These businesses produce goods and services to meet the needs of the public or the consumers in a profitable manner. In the course of conducting these economic activities, the endeavour of each business is to make decisions that would improve the returns or to mitigate or reduce the risks in doing so.

Enterprises need to be ever vigilant in order to be relevant for the consumers else, they could be redundant in the ever changing environs that it operates in. Adam Buschbacher, CEO & Founder of Hello Enterprise and SuccessFastLane.com puts it rather succinctly but effectively when he says – “You can’t build today’s company with yesterday’s strategy and be in business tomorrow”.

Therefore, firms need to be adept to adapt to these changes and to control their destiny. They must continuously scan their operating environment, ask relevant questions and most impor-

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A classic example of such a company in the Indian context is ITC Limited.

Imperial Tobacco Company (ITC) of India Limited was incorporated in 1910 and even as the company Indianized itself, the core sector that it operated in, no longer defined its scope of operations. In 1970, it was re-christened India Tobacco Company Limited and then to ITC Limited in 1974. In 1925 it had backward integrated into the Packaging and Printing business. In 1975 it entered the hospitality space by launching into the hotel business with over 100 owned and managed properties across the nation under four brands: ITC Hotels - Luxury Collection, WelcomHotels, Fortune Hotels and WelcomHeritage. Since then it has also expanded operations beyond the Indian shores by opening up properties in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Dubai, UAE. In 1990 there was consolidation in the Paperboards and Specialty Papers business, and a foray into the Agri Business, and the e-Choupal initiative bearing the signature mark of use of technology to bring about a positive impact in the farming methods and improving crop productivity.

The year 2000, saw the entry of ITC into the Premium Lifestyle Retailing business with Wills Lifestyle and Wills Sport brands and subsequently John Players, and becoming the title partner of the country’s most premier fashion event - Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week - that has gained recognition from buyers and retailers as the single largest B-2-B platform for the Fashion Design industry. The company also entered the Information Technology sector by spinning off the wholly owned subsidiary ITC Infotech India Limited which is a key player in offshore outsourcing, providing outsourced IT solutions and services to leading global customers across key focus verticals - Banking Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI), Consumer Packaged Goods

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(CPG), Retail, Manufacturing, Engineering Services, Media & Entertainment, Travel, Hospitality, Life Sciences and Transportation & Logistics.

And following that, 2001 onwards saw a flurry of activities with entries into the competitive branded packaged foods businesses like ready-to-eat (RTE) Indian gourmet dishes under Kitchens of India, confectionery and staples segments with brands like Mint-O, Candyman, Aashirvaad atta, biscuits with Sunfeast, snack foods with Bingo! and instant noodles with Sunfeast Yippee!

In 2005, the company launched into the personal care business space with launches like Essenza Di Wills, Fiama Di Wills, Vivel and Superia brands and in deodorants with Engage.

The company has therefore been able to hedge against extraneous risks like the growing awareness of health and activism against smoking. At the same time, it has successfully diversified into completely unrelated categories and remains relevant to its ever expanding base of consumers – both in India and overseas.

IMRB has partnered with ITC Limited on various fronts in this exciting journey by providing market research services like, but not limited to, new category understanding and consumer understanding studies, estimating the potential of new products, pricing, advertising development and pre-testing, brand and ad tracking as also tracking the performance of FMCG products via the household purchase panel.

Enterprises need to be always forward looking and engage in a 360 degree scan of the environment. Of course, no business can walk away from the responsibility of doing these themselves. However, it is also hugely advantageous to partner with others who can help in this activity.

In the endeavour towards this 360 degree scan, it would be good to keep in mind some pointers:

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Life in the Digital Age and Knowledge Economy

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Mobile has revolutionized and will continue to impact lives like never before. The mobile has already proved to be a threat for the watch, alarm clock, photography or camera, the flashlight, the radio, television, amongst others which are some of the obvious ones.

Wearables and smartphones and even have revolutionized the way individuals engage with and consume personal data. The mobile is no longer in our pockets – it is everywhere. And with it the way health care services can be managed and delivered has also been impacted tremendously. The mobile records the bio-vital stats and uploads it to the server the next time it is in a Wi-Fi enabled space.

Technology like 5G – the next thing to hit the telecom and digital world will impact lives significantly with machines and devices talking to each other and driver-less cars becoming an everyday reality. This is the engine that will power IoT in a way that has not been witnessed before.

Cloud computing and Big Data are the norm and more and more stress will be given to those who can synthesize disparate outputs from data sources and identify patterns in it to consult businesses.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will re-write the way entertainment is consumed and how new product development and research, including market research, is carried out.

Just like robotics has already made its entry into the medical world by assisting and carrying out surgeries, this will become a more pervasive reality, the same way they will enter the average household and assist the housewife with her chores and even double up as a housekeeper. Robotics has and will continue to bring down human casualty in wars with the use of drones & UAVs and fighting bots. Robotic vehicles continue to traverse mine laden grounds seeking out and helping in dis-arming them as also helping SWAT teams deal with bomb threats.

Newer streams of knowledge like nan-

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•

•

•

otechnology will continue to lead the fight against some of the diseases like cancer and create further inroads in terms of delivery of medication and minimally invasive surgeries.

Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks and Machine Learning will be the norm in the near future, even as the growing population and aspirations of the citizens will exert enormous pressure on civic administrations and governments to manage mundane things like traffic to even disaster prediction and management.

Brands will use automation like never before to meaningfully engage with consumers so that they also weave into these innovations and inventions in a significant manner. Customer service experiences must be an integral part of the overall brand experience as it has been proven that often it is not the product or service that causes the most dissonance, but rather the customer service around it. One of the significant brands of today, if one could call it such, the POTUS – was recently in the news which mentioned that chat bots would be deployed to respond to the various queries that are often directed by individuals to it.

The concept of owning means of production or assets being critical to actual delivery of goods and services are no longer the case. Consider this that the world’s largest taxi company, Uber, does not own a single taxi and Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. So start-ups that address a consumer need well; can and will reign supreme.

With this comes a set of other key questions and issues that we must be sensitive about. Issues like: •

Data security or cyber security concerns which are very real and valid given that most devices are technically prone to hacking – right from the mobile to the jet engine, from the bank website to the nuclear power

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plant, from the stock exchange to the power grid. This is not just the stuff that powers Hollywood movie plots like the Die Hard 3.0 which talks about the concept of “fire sale” and how the cyber network could be hacked into unleashing chaos and terror.

• Moral and ethical issues like, while the war on terror is being fought in another continent or another country, is the use of drones to drop bombs justified when there are civilians or other innocent lives around? Such a question cropped recently, when a robot was used to deliver an explosive to neutralize the shooter who killed five policemen in the USA. In conclusion, these are some of the inevitable realities that one must contend with and it is not all about gloom and doom. Individuals and businesses must be ever so ready to embrace change even as the 21st century gal lops at a much faster pace than it ever did before; and to use a clichéd term, at the speed of light.

The business models are seeing a paradigm shift, tectonic shifts – if one may, and one cannot take for granted the successes of today to guarantee us the same going forward. Enterprises that continuously build value into the products and services that it offers will continue to remain relevant, and to a larger extent, they will not wait for consumers to augment this value to their offers. Rather the enterprises will dictate

and change the offerings which in turn would change and shape consumer expectations even further. All this will require a far greater degree of openness and trust as collaborative partnerships would hold promise for the future.

The new age knowledge worker will need to be more agile and nimble to be able to contribute meaningfully and ensure personal and professional growth.

There is a strong need to invest into building skills on a continual basis, both on an individual and organization level and training will need to be done on a bespoke model and not a one size fits all approach.

Consequently, as a significant stakeholder in the digital age and knowledge economy, academic institutions will also be compelled to introspect on how some of their business processes, pedagogy and methodology need to be revamped to remain relevant. Already online and e-learning courses and companies, offering such services via social media and other means over the internet, are re-defining the way learning is delivered and consumed. Academia must continuously engage with various stakeholders and re-invent their platforms to ensure that the primary users of their services, students are shaped and moulded to meet the needs of the industry effectively and efficiently. Only then would we be able to leverage and drive, or in some manner influence the way our destiny is being shaped, in the digital age and knowledge economy.

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Social Innovation in the Era of Capitalism

Social Innovation in the Era of Capitalism Ravi Nawal

I recently found myself in conversation

with the founder of a leading NGO where he was explaining how the social sector is the next biggest opportunity in the country. He advanced facts and figures, pinning the current size of the sector to a miniscule single digit percent of the future potential size of the sector in the country. I was impressed. He further convinced me when he asked- ‘Imagine if Jharkhand or Karnataka were a country?

Given the economy and work options there (in isolation of India) would the youth not have naturally gravitated to enterprises working with social causes? Isn’t that the case with Europe? Social is mainstream capitalism in several European countries.’

While India prides itself on the fact that it is the fastest growing large economy in the world today, the country is also cognizant that this growth has not necessarily meant equity or even opportunity for all its citizens.

The most pressing challenge before the Indian state in ensuring that the benefits of the country’s economic progress percolate to its most needy has been the abysmal lack of social infrastructure. Physical and soft social infrastructure- Roads, public transportation, electricity, telecommunications, broadband, hospitals, schools, stadiums, waste disposal etc. etc. – the list is endless, are woefully short of the nation’s requirements. These have now become a limiting factor to the aspirational two digits GDP growth, which India can easily achieve.

We are also aware of the limitations to our own erstwhile approaches to bridging the social deficit in the country. The tried and tested solutions have not delivered. For the scale and the impact that we are looking at in each sphere of socio-economic development, India has found its approach thus far to be short on outcomes. Hence, it has become imperative that we think out of the box and adopt new 54 IILM Management Review

Country Head - Kapronasia strategies and tactics for bridging this deficit.

As I write this piece, somewhere, in a quaint town in Himachal Pradesh, a primary healthcare worker takes an electro cardiogram reading of a patient, through a mobile ECG unit- the size of a largish tiffin box. The reading is then transmitted through the primary health care worker’s phone to a district hospital in Kangra. Expert doctors read the ECG that has just come in and phone in with recommendations on treatment protocol. All of this happens in a matter of minutes.

In a village in southern Orissa, a farmer gives a ‘missed call’ to a local number from his mobile phone. In a few seconds he receives a ten-minute call back from that number. He is informed about the local weather, farm and crop related best practices, electricity availability hours, healthcare best practices, played a Bollywood song and a few dialogues, followed by ads in Oriya. The farmer has been made aware of relevant and topical issues within those 10 minutes.

There is a woman in a ‘college’ in Rajasthan learning to assemble and install solar lighting infrastructure. Once through with the course, armed with funds and solar instruments she will return to her district with the audacious goal of lighting at least a thousand houses in the coming year. The ‘college’ trains over five hundred such solar workers a year.

All three examples enumerated in this article are working towards solving social pain points through innovative approaches. The first is focused on accessibility to quality healthcare, the second on the training (to a certain extent) farmers on farm related best practices, the third on meeting India’s lighting challenge. All three directly or indirectly are adding value to the mainstream economy. However, the day is not far when enterprises which run these approaches will become the mainstream economy of the country. For that to happen, innovation, or rather

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‘social innovation’ is key.

Social innovation will need to be enabled by disruptive thoughts (ideas), technologies and techniques (processes). Thoughts/ ideas need to question the status quo and apply themselves to constructive solutions. Here the key touchstone will be resourcefulness. Can we come up with solutions, which are ‘do-able’ in the ‘here and now’ with our limited resources? Technology, already driving transformative change in the social agenda will need to ensure that enabling solutions are simple and economical. Techniques/ processes need to be re-engineered or established anew for alignment with new thoughts and technologies. This is of significant importance. For re-engineering questions the existing way of doing things. It requires a lot of new learning. More importantly it requires a lot of unlearning, which is easier said than accomplished.

Together these 3Ts need to come together to create a momentum towards accessibility, quality and efficiency- the three dimensions important to ensuring larger social good. Hopefully, the momentum will also find greater strength through the spate of policy interventions around mandatory corporate social responsibility, strengthening of entrepreneurial ecosystem, Skill India, Digital India, AADHAR, PMJDY and PMMY etc.

While these are regulation led enablers to social innovation, the key drive for social innovation has to come from the citizenry. More importantly, social innovation has to be led by individuals who have been the key beneficiaries of the erstwhile social order of the Indian nation. Educated, upwardly mobile, young men and women need to get involved with social transformation. There has to be an intersection of aspirations of this class with the objective of doing social good. For profit social enterprises will need to blossom across the length and breadth of the country. Not only will these enterprises work towards alleviating on ground challenges, more significantly they will become the crucible for employment generation. This is key to ensuring that the ‘youngest’ nation (in terms of youth demographics) is put to meaningful work.

To sum it up, social innovation is the driver of capitalism. India will script its future through capitalism, which is meaningful and relevant. Capitalism, which benefits and nurtures all. Capitalism with a soul.

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LEARNING WITH HEART Ritu Prakash Chhabria Managing Trustee, Mukul Madhav Foundation

I always believed that education is the foundation of how one thinks, perceives and eventually leads their lives. What you learn at school remains with you till eternity including your everyday habits, respect, leadership, friendship and determination to reach your goals. When my father-in-law inaugurated our factory, Finolex Industries at Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, it was one of my first experiences truly going into a remote

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village and seeing how people live there. It was an interesting thought that returned with me that I want to put up a school in this village. Not just any school, but the best which can be compared to any school in urban cities.

Thus began my dream which was finally achieved in June 2010, when we inaugurated an English medium school in an interior village

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called Golap in Ratnagiri. Spread across 10.5 acres of land generously donated by Finolex Industries, we began with 1 school building and 151 students who enrolled in our first year! It was not as easy as penning it down in 2 lines! The politics to handle, the people to convince and recruiting staff were some of the toughest challenges I faced. Mostly what was difficult to answer was a question posed “What do I get from all of this?” The simple plain concept of giving and philanthropy is lost today and every move seems to have an ulterior motive!

That was the general perception.

However, coming from a family who always believed in giving and being married into one with similar values always taught me to keep doing what I am doing if I believe it will benefit someone. Having began work at my NGO Mukul Madhav Foundation since 1999, I had gained experience in the field of education and health. Our first barrier to overcome was to convince the rural population of Ratnagiri to accept an English medium School! During our construction phase we did everything including personally talking to villagers, the panchayat, political parties.

Finolex Industries had a good name in the community as they had also been doing a lot of activities in CSR, even though there was no mandate back then. The community began to respond and slowly gradually we began with admissions. It was very exciting to know that the future of these little children was now in our hands and we have the opportunity to shape it and prepare them to face the real world, the world outside a village of farmers and fishermen.

The one thing I was certain about was that this would not be just another academic school. We made provisions in space and budgets to accommodate extra-curricular activities including Karate, Yoga, and chess, to begin with. As our academic year began in June 2010, we only had classes from Nursery, Jr. KG, Sr. KG and first standard, with a total of 151 students. We recruited 5 teachers to take care of these

classes in the first year. Ever since then, we have been naturally progressing year by year and today have reached up to the 7th grade with 550 students and 25 teachers on roll!

In our first year we started this institute as a free school but learnt very fast that nobody values your time if it is for free. We observed very low attendance in classes, students not coming to school due to reasons such as the rain! I started feeling that these young minds will not understand the value of time or money unless you teach them. Their parents also could not be entirely blamed as this seemed to be an attitude amongst people in the village and since they had invested nothing into this, they could not care less. It was hence time for a change and I put my foot down and decided to charge a bare minimum fee of Rs. 200/- per month for each student.

This decision came as a shock to many people and we faced many parents not willing to pay. We only had one response “We started this for free but you did not value it”.

As they realized the importance of education and saw few parents willing to go the extra mile to give their children good quality education, we began receiving fees without any hassles. The attendance directly shot up to over 75% which was a great achievement for all of us.

Over the years we introduced many more activities including dancing, singing, tabla, piano and drums. We also discovered many young budding artists who were enrolled for local competitions and emerged victorious. 5 paintings of our students were also selected to be displayed under the coveted banner of “Khula Aasmaan”, an exhibition in Mumbai which displayed the artworks of talented students across India.

Being the only English medium school within a 40km radius, we understood that students would find difficulty in practicing English, since most of them came from illiterate backgrounds. To solve this problem,

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we ensured that students got ample amount of time to complete their homework at school and my dedicated team put in all extra efforts to revise and teach each topic in depth. Our latest introduction has been the German language as a third language for classes 5th, 6th and 7th. Our students are absolutely enjoying this experience of learning a foreign language and we understand the opportunities this can bring forth for them.

Mukul Madhav Vidyalaya has a fully equipped science laboratory, 2 computer labs with over 30 systems and a vast library with over 2000 books! The state-of-the-art infrastructure is designed to suit the needs of students. We also have separate toilets for boys and girls and a huge playground outside to promote and inculcate sports. Our plan is to construct a multi-purpose playground in the near future.

With the Right to Education (RTE) Act in place, every student had the right to receive education. I could not be happier when this mandate was finally put in place. However this also meant that children with special needs such as learning disabilities had the chance to attend regular school. We were more than happy to integrate 5 students with LD and ADHD in our school. The solution was not just to enroll them in this environment but it was vital for every school to be equipped to handle such children. We immediately seeked guidance from a counselor and started advising parents to take therapy sessions apart from just regular schooling. It is definitely a challenge to find special educators in that region and hence our own teachers took the extra step of learning how to teach these children. We began tele-rehabilitation sessions with speech therapists from Bharati Hospital, Pune to help these children overcome their speech difficulties. After a year of these sessions, the parents are extremely happy to see remarkable improvement in their children!

As I mentioned that education is definitely a necessity but good health is a foundation! At our school we conduct medical health camps twice a year and have a team of dentists, ophthalmologists, ENT and pediatricians screen our children and we maintain their health cards at school. One story which I would love to share is of a little girl Priyadarshini, who was 7 at the time, when the pediatricians at our camp felt she showed some unusual signs and should conduct further tests. On investigations we discovered that she was suffering from Hypoplastic anemia, which required a bone marrow transplant to be cured. Her father works at Finolex in the fire department while her mother is a simple house wife. The cost of her total treatment was over Rs. 10 Lacs. I could not imagine what her mother could be possibly going through and felt it was our duty to help her. The entire team of Mukul Madhav Foundation and Finolex appealed to all our friends and supporters and raised Rs. 10.3 Lacs for Priyadarshini! We personally saw her through the entire treatment. She was a brave fighter who did not give up. Today she is in the 4th grade at MMV and is doing exceptionally well. Apart from our school, we have also been conducting these health check-up camps at over 15 Zila Parishad schools in Ratnagiri since 2008.

My journey through these 18 years at MMF has definitely been a huge learning experience where every life we touched, taught us something back in return. Let that be a spirit to fight, a never giving up attitude, belief in a better future..

Over the years we have touched the lives of hundreds of people, a few who thank us and walk away and a few who come back to us and in return help us in reaching out to many more! Once a beneficiary enters the Mukul Madhav Foundation family, we are part of their journey till the end. I remain grateful to God almighty, my family, friends and well-wishers, who have been a constant source of support throughout the years. I truly believe that MMF is not just one independent entity but is a magnetic force that binds people together to work for the betterment of our society.

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Factors Affecting the Success Rate of Women Managers/Entrepreneurs Neha Poddar

Export Director Rajul Group Of Companies

For balancing work and family life, family has to play a major role. Knowing that your family is happy is a strong propeller to fly high.

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Factors Affecting the Success Rate of Women Managers/Entrepreneurs

Who doesn’t like to be successful in this world? Ah the sweet taste of success! It is enough to motivate anybody and get them moving. That heady feeling when you have achieved what you planned way ahead is almost like getting married to the one you love after much struggle. All of us I believe should get to this sweet spot at least once in our lives. But there’s a chicken and egg situation here. One needs to be motivated enough to be able to taste success in the first place. Almost like long distance dating with all the fights and arguments and still wanting to carry on with the same person. Sweet (and sour) indeed!

It is of utmost importance to figure out the factors that shape successful women managers/entrepreneurs. If there are certain tried and tested formula, then all of us must know and keep in mind the same. Though one man’s medicine could be another man’s poison. But wait, women are in focus here which changes the game totally!Women who mostly share the same woes and have similar experiences in their daily lives. ‘Women’ who after managing everything at home still shine in their respective work spaces.

Being a manager in a private company and then eventually launching my own business once married, I would dare say I have tasted success only mildly. Having met ,interacted, heard about and read about a lot of successful women in life, I think there a few personal and societal factors which can definitely help us women folk climb the ladder a bit higher-

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Belief and confidence

To begin with, one needs to completely believe in herself and her capabilities. Confident people impart and exude confidence in everything that they do. It is a great quality to start any work with. Much like dating, only when you love and believe in yourself can you expect another person to do so. I have read about many people who armed with their belief have achieved their seemingly impossible goals. Don’t feel confident enough? Well then fake it till you can make it. Even faking confidence eventually leads you to be confident. One of the strongest factors for success is self esteem-believing you can do it, believing you deserve it, believing you will get it.

Mary Kom, an Indian boxer is a living example of how self confidence and belief can create miracles in our lives. A five-time world amateur boxing champion and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each of the six world championships, ‘Magnificent Mary’ has been a fighter in her professional and personal life.

She has carved a name for herself where no woman has ever reached before. She was the first Indian female boxer to win a bronze medal at the 2012 summer Olympics in London. Hailing from a humble background, Mary Kom made everyone around her believe

in her dreams. She trained hard and achieved a lot.

Also, even after being married she rejoined boxing and went on to be a winner in every sphere of her life.

Education Education is what helps us to grow all throughout our lives. Empowering a girl child with education is imperative and is a key to success in any field. Education is one of the most important factors which has the power to transform any society while making it progressive and evolutionary. Also, education is something which should carry on for the rest of our lives as we should constantly update and upgrade ourselves as we go along. Wait, I think I need to check on the next management skills workshop right away.

Strong support at home Support can come in any form whether its our father, mother, husband or even your child. Right from understanding and respecting what you do to eventually being supportive and motivating you to reach higher goals. Simple things like taking caring of themselves back home go a long way. For balancing work and family life, family has to play a major role .Knowing that your family is happy is a strong propeller to fly high. To this day, I am forever grateful to my parents

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Factors Affecting the Success Rate of Women Managers/Entrepreneurs

and husband in being extremely supportive in everything I set out to do. Margaret Alva, past governor of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, attributes her success to her family especially her husband. With a successful political career spanning over 41 years, her extremely understanding and patient husband has always been the backbone of it all.

Multi-tasking Right from managing children at home to meeting deadline and clinching deals at work, women not only have to multi-task but they have to perfect the art. Multi-tasking is one of those special abilities which have taken women places in their lives. Twinkle Khanna immediately comes to mind where multi-tasking is concerned. She has many feathers to her hat and all of them look seamless because of the art of multi-tasking. From being a successful interior designer, former film actress, columnist, author to being a devoted wife and mother, she continuously inspires us to wear many hats.

Support at work Whether its managerial support or a strong network of associates, support at work is always a strong influence in achieving ones vision. This also depends a lot on our own attitude which will make everyone else have faith in us. Also, management needs to be free of emotional, social and cultural bias regarding the gender. There is a lot to learn from colleagues, supervisors as well as subordinates which can go a long way in realizing personal and professional goals. Flexibility and open communication ensure in making work environments more conducive for women. Glass ceiling which hinders the growth of women should be done away with. Marissa Mayer, president and CEO of Yahoo! is a name to reckon with in the IT industry today. Rising above glass ceiling and proving her worth in an industry which is male-dominated, she has acquired and won the support and praise of many at work and otherwise.

Women helping Women Woman can be a woman’s strongest ally. Seriously, if we women stick together and help each other at home and work, nothing and I say nothing can stop us from achieving our goals. We need to hold hands and rise to the occasion together. A woman boss should work towards upliftment of wom

Right from managing children at home to meeting deadline and clinching deals at work, women not only have to multi-task but they have to perfect the art.

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To begin with, one needs to completely believe in herself and her capabilities. en subordinates as she would understand their situation the best. Even at home, our mother helping and believing in us makes us that much m=ore confident to go and face the world. To this day, my mother has been my strongest ally in achieving whatever I have today. Sheryl Sandberg who is the COO of Facebook is one of the best examples of a successful woman helping other women. Having written one of the bestselling novels about women in leadership roles called “Lean In’, Sherly Sandberg has introduced many changes to Facebook workplace in order to motivate women employees to do better. She is one of the most influential people who is constantly trying to get women to brake the barriers of their mind and do better.

The right attitude An attitude of learning and gratitude is the one of the easiest ways to chart your success story. I have seen and met innumerable people who armed with the right

attitude have achieved goals way beyond their imagination. Being thankful for all that we have received and willing to learn and pick up skills which we know not of already put us on the roadmap to success. The biggest barrier exists in the confines of our own mind.

We need to cross the mountains we have built ourselves and leap ahead. I will now take the liberty to relate a personal example here. A very close friend of mine always wanted to be a pilot. However she did not take up PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Math) in high school. After college she went on to become a flight crew because of her love of flying. She was willing to learn and be in the vicinity of her dreams. Eventually she cleared PCM from an open university, joined a flying school and is today riding her dreams as a pilot with Indian Airlines. The right attitude always seemed to work for her even when she did not have the necessary skills.

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Factors Affecting the Success Rate of Women Managers/Entrepreneurs

Perfectionist? Or Not? Career oriented women are always guilty of not spending enough time at home. And maybe again not giving enough at work. They are always torn apart between their duties at home and at work. Also, women tend to be perfectionists in all areas of their lifethey want to be a perfect wife, perfect daughter, and perfect daughter in law, perfect at work. This leads to more guilt, every time. Thus is it perfectly ok to not excel. Sometimes home might require more attention, and sometimes work will. To juggle everything and go with the flow might just take the stress off. Also, guilt-free work will help to be more productive in all spheres of life.

In the words of famed actress Angelina Jolie- ‘“I don’t believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don’t judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free’.

Inner strength and resilience All transformation begins from the inside. Women are surely bestowed with indomitable inner strength and resilience. The ability to bounce back and start all over again is a woman’s forte. There are many pauses in life right from marriage to kids which needs us women to rethink and redo our strategies at work.

Braving all of this and still moving ahead every time is a feat which can only be achieved by us women.

Also, we need to constantly remind ourselves about the same and keep forging ahead no matter what.

There is much to learn from Indra Nooyi,Chairman and CEO Pepsi Co-the world’s fourth largest food and beverage company . Her success story is worthy of every accolade. Besides being a wife, mother, daughter and working woman, she is woman of substance, someone to reckon with. Being in the top management position in a male dominated world, Indra Nooyi has proven to us that no matter where we are in our lives, we can achieve the impossible with

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our will and determination.

Innovations and moving out of the comfort zone

Magic happens outside the comfort zone. Thus, only when we women decide to leave our comfort zone can we drive the changes we are hoping for in our lives and work. Sense of a new experience always challenges us and makes us work that much harder breaking the existing barriers. Constant innovations at work and working towards the same is also moving out of the regular comfort zone which we are used to. Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank Ltd(India’s largest private sector bank) is widely acknowledged in the banking world for her intelligent innovations. She has driven many innovative changes in the Indian banking industry which has made ICICI a market leader.

We women, armed with grit and determination can achieve everything we have set out to do. We now do realize the internal and external factors shaping our success story. Self-confidence, will to work hard, self-belief and inner strength all go a long way in getting started and achieving whatever we have set out to do. All of these internal factors are under our control and a starting point of our road map to success.

External factors such as support and strength will eventually fall into place. Right attitude has the power to transform and change everything. It’s the never-say-die spirit which we all need to imbibe in the core of our being. We should march ahead with this fighting spirit and become PV Sindhus and Sakshi Maliks of our world. It is time to make success our middle names!

As Ayn Rand , a famous novelist and philosopher had once said “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

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