Career Development Practices

NHRD Network Journal
ISSN - 0974 - 1739

January 2014
National HRD Network
The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that

every human being has the potential for remarkable
achievement. HRD is a process by which employees in
organizations are enabled to:
Dr. Sandeep K Krishnan

S Deenadayalan
Saurabh Govil
Dr. K Prabhakar
Innovation
and HR
Akash Bhatia
Curt Coffman and
Ashish Ambasta
Gargi Banerji and
Sunil Pillai
acquire capabilities to perform various tasks

associated with their present and future roles;
Sukumar Rajagopal
develop their inner potential for self and

organizational growth;
Sandeep Kohli
develop an organizational culture where networking

relationships, teamwork and collaboration
among dierent units is strong, contributing to
organizational growth and individual well-being.
January 2014
www.nationalhrd.org
Issue 1
N T Arunkumar
Building Sustainable Organizations: Role of HR
The National HRD Network, established in 1985, is an

association of professionals committed to promoting
the HRD movement in India and enhancing the
capability of human resource professionals, enabling
them to make an impactful contribution in enhancing
competitiveness and creating value for society. Towards
this end, the National HRD Network is committed to the
development of human resources through education,
training, research and experience sharing. The network
is managed by HR professionals in an honorary capacity,
stemming from their interest in contributing to the HR
profession.
Volume 7
A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network
www.nationalhrd.org
ABOUT THE JOURNAL

he National HRD Network publishes a semi-academic quarterly journal where in each issue is
dedicated to a theme.
INNOVATION AND HR
Volume 7
Issue 1
January 2014
NHRD Network Board Members

National President:
Mr Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) & Member of

the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra
Past National President :
Dr. T V Rao, Chairman - T V Rao Learning Systems

Dr Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business & Director, Group H.R.
- Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt Ltd
Conceptual and research based
Contributions from thought leaders including a limited number of reprints with due permission
Organizational experiences in HR interventions/mechanisms.
About this issue :
Aquil Busrai, Chief Executive Officer - Aquil Busrai Consulting
This issue is on the theme of Innovation and HR. This covers a range of topics around demystifying
innovation and innovative HR practices successfully followed by some organizations.
S Y Siddiqui, Chief Operating Officer - Administration (HR, Finance,

IT & COSL), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
Regional Presidents:
East:
Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, Executive Director (HR) - Retail Sector,

Spencers Retail Ltd
South:
L Prabhakar, Vice President (HR) Agri-Business Division, ITC Ltd
West:
Ms Anjali Raina, Executive Director, Harvard Business School
North:
Ms Veena Swarup, Director (HR), Engineers India Ltd
National Secretary:
S V Nathan, Director Talent (US-India), DELOITTE
National Treasurer:
Ms Shelly Singh, Co-Founder & EVP, People Strong HR Services
Director General:
Kamal Singh
Editorial Team
Sriram Rajagopal,
Vice-President Head HR, Cognizant Technology Solutions
(Guest Editor for this issue)
Dr. PVR Murthy, Managing Editor,
CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants,
pvrmurthy@exclusivesearch.com
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director - Human Resources,
Citrix R&D India Pvt. Ltd., bandyopadhyaypallab@yahoo.co.in
Dr. Arvind N Agrawal, President - Corporate Development &
Group HR, RPG Group
Printed at
Dwarakanath P, Advisor-Group Human Capital - Max India

NS Rajan, Group Chief Human Resources Officer and Member of the
Group Executive Council, TATA Sons Ltd
Publisher, Printer, Owner

and Place of Publication
The journal publishes primarily three categories of articles :
Kamal Singh, Director General, NHRDN

on behalf of National HRD Network,
National HRD Network Secretariat, C 81 C, DLF Super Mart, DLF City,
Phase IV, Gurgaon122 002. Tel +91 124 404 1560
e-mail: kamal.singh@nationalhrd.org
Nagaraj & Co. Pvt. Ltd., 156, Developed Plots Industrial Estate,
Perungudi, Chennai 600 096. Tel : 044 - 66149291
The views expressed by the authors are of their Copyright of the NHRD Journal, all rights reserved.
own and not necessarily of the editors nor of the Contents may not be copied, emailed or reproduced
without copyright holders express permission in writing.
publisher nor of authors organizations
Editorial Board Members :

Dr. P.V.R. Murthy, Managing Editor is a product of I.I.T., Kharagpur and IIM, Calcutta with close
to thirty years experience in H.R. field. He founded and runs an executive search firm Exclusive
Search Recruitment Consultants. He is associated with a number of academic institutions. He is
trained in TQM in Japan and in human processes from ISABS and NTL, U.S.A. He is the Past
National Secretary of National HRD Network.
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay is Director - Human Resources Citrix R&D India PVT Ltd. A doctoral
fellow from XLRI and AHRD, he is trained in OD and Human Processes from NTL, USA and he
believes in applying HR concepts to practice to make it more meaningful and effective. He is a
mentor and coach to many young HR professionals.
Dr. Arvind N Agrawal - Dr. Arvind N. Agrawal, Ph.D. serves as the President and Chief Executive
of Corporate Development & Human Resources and Member of Management Board of RPG
Enterprises. Dr. Agrawal has worked at RPG Enterprises since 1999 and his current responsibilities
in RPG comprise of HR and TQM. Agrawal held senior positions in Escorts and Modi Xerox. He
was the past National President of the National HRD Network. Dr. Agrawal is an IIM Ahmedabad
alumnus and also an IIT Kharagpur alumini, and also holds a PhD from IIT Mumbai.
NHRD firmly believes in and respects IPR and we appeal to the

contributors and readers to strictly honour the same.
For any further clarifications, please contact :
The Managing Editor
Dr. P V R Murthy, CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants,
#8, Janaki Avenue, Off 4th Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600 018.
Dear Readers,
The National HRD Network has been bringing out a semi-academic, theme based, quarterly journal
for the last few years. It aims at compiling and publishing the professional views and experiences of
reputed HR professionals, line professionals, CEOs, researchers, academicians in each theme area. We
carry out extensive research, identify and invite persons who have eminent publications or have rich
experience in the theme area to contribute articles for each issue. Through the journal, we aim to build a
body of knowledge in all facets of HR which is not otherwise easily available for the current and future
HR Professionals. So far, close to 350 eminent authors have contributed articles. Each issue is guest
edited by a person of eminence in the concerned theme area.
This journal is circulated free to the members of NHRD Network to stimulate their thinking and towards
their professional development.
Publications so far have been based on themes such as :
IT in HR
Performance Management
Attracting and Retaining Talent
Career Management
Organizational Change
Global HRM
Women in Corporate Leadership Roles
Organization Development
Learning and Development
Leadership
Work-Life Balance
Institution Building
Coaching For Performance and Development
Human Resources Management in Rapid Growth Organizations
HR Competence
HR and Employee Relations
CEO and HR
People Power Draw, Drive and Deliver
Getting HR Ready for Gen Y
CSR & HR
Shapes and Structures of Organizations - Today and Tomorrow
Managing Change, Transformation and Enhancing Competitiveness : The HR Role
Dots and connections: winning hearts and minds through internal communication
Skill Building and HR
Technology and HR
Social Media and HR.
Building Sustainable Organizations : Role of HR
The copies of these issues of the journal can be accessed from www.nationalhrd.org.
The current issue is on the theme of Innovation and HR.
Some of the guest editors for future issues include Dr. Pallab Bandhopadhyay, Director - Human
Resources, Citrix Systems, Ms. Anjali Raina, Executive Director, Harvard Business School India Research
Center and L. Prabhakar, Vice President, HR, Agri-Business Division, ITC.
This is your journal and will be as rich as you want it to be.
In order to further enrich it, we would like to receive your
1. qualitative feedback on issues brought out so far, and
2. suggestions for themes to be covered in our future issues;
3. Any other suggestions.
Kindly send in your thoughts to drpvrmurthyresearch@gmail.com
Dr. PVR Murthy
Managing Editor
(On behalf of the Editorial Team)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our heartfelt thanks to all the contributors of articles, who have taken time off from their
busy schedules out of their passionate interest in the field of HR and Sustainability.
We acknowledge the excellent contribution of the Guest Editor - Sriram Rajagopal,
Vice-President Head HR, Cognizant Technology Solutions for conceptualizing the entire
issue and inspiring all busy experts in the field to share their thoughts. We are grateful to
the support of Ms. Shruthi Sridharan, Ms. Sandhya Ramesh and Mr. Raj Dharmaraj of
Cognizant Technology Solutions.
We acknowledge the support from Sunathy of Exclusive Search for passionately working
with me.
Dr. PVR Murthy, Managing Editor
(On behalf of the Editorial Team)
CONTENTS
S.No.
Title of Article
Author
Page No.
1.
Every Business Is A People Business
N T Arunkumar
2.
Contemporary Thoughts in Theory and
Practice on Career Development

3.
Innovation and HR
S Deenadayalan
14
4.
Innovation and HR
Saurabh Govil
22
5.
Innovation and HR in Apollos

Journey to Excellence
Dr. K Prabhakar
26
6.
Social Analytics in HR
Akash Bhatia
32
7.
Is it Time to Replace Human Resources

with People Energy?
Curt Coffman and

Ashish Ambasta
36
8.
Inclusive Human Resource Development

A HRD Trajectory For Development of
Disadvantaged Groups
Gargi Banerji and

Sunil Pillai
42
9.
Old Innovation or New Innovation?
Sukumar Rajagopal
52
Sandeep Kohli
55
10. Innovative HR practices engaging

multi-generational workforce
Book Reviews
11. Orbit Shifting
Management Developing Sustainable
Business Organizations
Reviewed by: Raj Dharmaraj
EDITORIAL COMMENTS
According to Wikipedia, innovation is the application of
better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated
needs, or existing market needs. The term innovation can
be defined as something original and, as a consequence, new
that breaks into the market or society.
SRIRAM
RAJAGOPAL
(Guest Editor for
this issue)
Vice-President
Head HR,
Cognizant
Technology
Solutions
AS HR professionals, we are constantly on the lookout

for the next big motivating influence or value driver, that
improves productivity levels of individuals and teams, and
also betters business performance and outcomes.
The Human Resource function by itself evolved through
an innovative idea of actually treating employees as more
human and less resource. Through the past few decades,
the HR function has tread lightly in organizations, always
the silent enabler, watching out for the welfare of employees.
Driving innovation took back seat to a lot of mundane
tasks that had to get executed to keep the engine running.
Today technology has begun to replace many a HR task,
and as a function, we have evolved to partner with business
in a market that has become totally knowledge, and hence
people intensive. So there is an increasing need for us to
differentiate and restate our objectives and the way in which
we contribute to our roles.
HR plays a dual role of constantly reinventing its processes,
and coming up with creative ideas to better engage with
employees. This has given rise to a lot of path breaking
and innovative people practices across the word. The other
important mandate that any HR organization has, is to
preserve and nurture the culture of innovation. Without
new ideas it is impossible for organizations to seed new
projects, new teams or even new markets. Hence HR teams
hold the tenuous and challenging tasks of both innovating
and enabling an innovative culture in any organization.
Innovation and HR is the theme for the current issue of

NHRD Journal. This is a topic that is close to my heart
and also extremely relevant for every professional of today,
from a CXO, to HR head, to the youngest employee in an
organization.
This issue covers a range of topics around demystifying
innovation, innovative HR practices that some organizations
practice successfully, and specifically, the role that every HR
team in an organization has to play to facilitate innovation,
and innovative practices.
We have made an attempt to cover a myriad of industries, to
showcase the fact that irrespective of the field, innovation is
instrumental for organizations to thrive in todays market.
We have talked about the concept of which is better Old
or New innovation. There are scores of real life examples
that our authors have thoughtfully put together which take
you closer to understanding how different companies have
used the premise of innovation to push their companies
into newer trajectories of growth.
I would like to take a few line to thank the team of NHRD
for having given me this opportunity to play the role of
Guest Editor for the January issue. Without their support,
follow up and most importantly guidance, we would have
never been able to put together such a rich issue. A big
thanks and hearty appreciation to each and every author
who contributed with their thought provoking and often
from the heart experiences.
As we step into 2014, there is no other value apart from
Innovation that an organization has to embrace roses
,thorns and all to remain competitive and relevant to both
customers and its employees. Not only at business houses, but
innovation at grass root levels is relevant for all industries
be it high tech companies, multi crore health providers,
or NGOs that strive tirelessly with efforts to include the
disadvantaged into the mainstream. HR practitioners are
constantly innovating in their ways of working, and helping
build a culture of innovation that impacts every individuals

life. The smallest of ideas creates the biggest of impact.
I had the good fortune to interact with HR stalwarts and
leaders while compiling articles on the topic of Innovation
and HR for this issue. It has been a privilege to put this
journal together, and here is a sneak peek into what you
can expect in this issue.
In his snappy and to the point article titled Every Business
Is A People Business loaded with real life examples,
N.T.Arunkumar talks about how innovation is a strategic
differentiator for any company. He quotes two real life
examples of a start up KPO, and an old world bank, that
had to strive to make a mark on their customers using
innovation in their solution offerings to clients. The contrasts
and the similarities in the way the two had to innovate
to make themselves more valuable to their employees and
customers have been detailed.
He also pens his learnings from the two experiences , breaks
myths regarding a centuries old banks commitment and
turnaround due to innovation, and proves time and agin,
how when the right ideas are given the right impetus,
nothing is impossible.
He shows us that HR plays a key role in influencing elements
like organizational alignment, leadership alignment and
culture, and that they need to understand the customers
intimately . He elaborates that the role of HR lies in resolving
innovation paradoxes in the organizations culture and
owning the learning process of innovation.
In his well-researched article on Contemporary Thoughts in
Theory and Practice on Career Development, Dr. Sandeep
K. Krishnan explores the journey that organizations have
undertaken in trying to manage career aspirations and
career growth. He presents the debate on who is ultimately
responsible for an employees career the organization or
the employee himself, and showcases examples of companies
that have implemented both these models in their own ways,

finally leading to the conclusion that both the employee
and organizations have equal ownership, and have to adopt
innovative short term and long term strategies that align
to industry, size, and nature of employees.
In his aptly titled article, Innovation and HR,
S.Deenadayalan defines innovation as a combination of the
IN (inner journey) + OVATION (triumph sans war)
and as a self-actualization process which brings about an
intrinsic pride in ones achievements innovation involves
transformation of the dream to hard reality. He insists that
The mark of a true innovator is to persevere, to convert
what is initially considered the whim of a madman to the
need of the masses.
He poses important questions to HR on whether they
are themselves business-savvy, hyper aware of the actual
customer, encouraging the culture of permitting failure
and most importantly questioning status quo constantly.
The writing on the wall for HR is clear, he says, that
they have to reinvent themselves, and make themselves
indispensable to business, rather than skirting around the
edges of the same as an enabling function which guards
status quo.
Saurabh Govil, in his article Innovation and HR talks
about how organizations and HR teams of the organization
need to approach innovation.
He talks in detail about, whether one should focus on
incremental innovation or disruptive innovation. He also
takes a view counter to popular belief that innovation is the
onus of every individual. While acknowledging that there
are some challenges that one has to manage, he talks about
how Wipro, has two distinct teams one which continues
to run the business, and makes incremental changes to
existing processes, and a team of break out individuals
and teams, who are given the space and resources to come
out of their area of work / comfort and come up with ideas
that are completely transformational HR, he feels needs to

play a key role driving synchronization between the two.
He says that leadership and culture are the basis for
innovation in organizations and he goes on to talk about
how HR has the support and mandate in most organizations
to cultivate, reward and preserve the culture of innovation.
Healthcare is one of the most enriching services that each
and every one of us has experiences, and we were fortunate
to get Dr. Prabhakar from Apollo group of hospitals to give
us their inputs on how Apollo has managed to navigate the
waters in their journey to excellence.
This article covers the changes brought at Apollo to align
the on-boarding experience and how existing employees
are constantly coached on the concept of customer centric
experience building through innovative interventions like
- Apollo Acculturation Program for imbibing excellence:
(AAPIE) and HOPE: (Hospital Orientation Program for
Entrees) They have talked about HRs contribution in
managerial capability building and developing internal
process improvement teams by deploying Lean Six Sigma
methodology supported by the certification process from the
Indian Statistical Institute. A notable process is PEACE:
(Preceptee Education and Competency Evaluation) which
integrates mentorship based learning, and helps new entrants
assimilate faster into their line of work.
They also give us insights about Apollos role in creating
professionals at different levels in the health care space by
joining hands with National Skill Development Corporation.
I am confident that with their innovative practices Apollo
will not only touch, but will actually enrich a billion lives.
Akash Bhatia in his article Social Analytics in HR
talks about, how with the abundance of information, and
processing tools available today, one can literally crystal
ball gaze into the future and accurately predict what
users / consumers / employees want or are likely to do.
Predictive analytics he feels, is the tool not of the future,
but of the present, that will allow HR to get deeper insight

and knowledge, and precognition about the future of the
organization that they could use to drive a favorable outcome.
Enjoy this eye opening article on how companies store
away data from every click of the mouse / keyboard stroke
that you make, to enable employers to predict behaviors of
their employees better.
In their article Is it Time to Replace Human Resources
with People Energy? Curt Coffman and Ashish Ambasta
from People Business talk about the fact that with changing
employee contexts, but we need to stop considering people
as resources and opt rather to look at them as powerhouses
of energy and infinite possibilities.
He proposes the idea of people energy instead of Human
Resources and elaborates on the laws of leveraging
this energy. He believes that People Energy is either used
or wasted, it cannot be stored:, and PB Coffman, have
segmented employees based on this into actively engaged,
passengers and actively disengaged populace.
He gives us a view into some of the worlds best organizations
that have brought out some key themes where you manage
this energy into abundance and have succeeded in harnessing
this to annihilate competition.
We also had the good fortune of being able to get the thoughts
of Gargi Banerji and Sunil Pillai, from Pragya, on how
HR can play an instrumental role in the development of
disadvantaged groups in their article on inclusivity.
This non-profit organization talks about how people deprived
of the benefits of development can be brought back into the
circle of development. They talk about a structured framework
which they have themselves managed to implement, with a
3 pronged strategy for human resource and social capital
development.
They have beautifully articulated how HRD for societies
needs to display an inclusive orientation, and use a selective
support & development approach, with a bias towards the

disadvantaged, and deliver muti-level interventions aimed
at enabling, developing and empowering them.
Sukumar Rajagopal, stimulates our thinking by urging
us to think about where we need to invest our time and
energy on old innovation or new innovations. He
tells us about how we are typically conditioned to think that
coming up with something new, is considered innovation,
rather than improving an existing product, and that in
reality irrespective of whether the innovation is brand
new or incremental, companies need to minimise risk by
adopting the portfolio approach to innovation. If we
donot consider the the 70 : 20 : 10 rule, we risk missing
out on 90% of innovation opportunities available in the
core / adjacent businesses.
In his invigorating insight into E and Ys Innovative
HR practices on engaging multi-generational workforce,
Sandeep talks about the Whole of Life proposition that
their company offers to every employee. They believe in
providing their people with the best in class experience
irrespective of their skills, experience, gender or age groups.
Every employee is provided with an exceptional experience
in E and Y that adds value to their career and personal
growth. Their people interventions hinge on building long
lasting relationships with the diverse demographies of people
in. The article crisply outlines all the best practices that E
and Y has to attract, engage, grow, develop , reward and
make people feel included as a part of the E and Y fold.
Last but not the least, the book review of Orbit Shifting
Innovation The dynamics of ideas that create history
by Rajiv Narang and Devika Devaiyah gives us inside
information on one of the most refreshing pieces of business
thought-leadership to be published in India in recent times.
The aim of the book sets the tone firmly for the entire
work-making innovation the transforming agent for the
organization and the nation. The authors overarching
purpose is to bring more clarity to understanding the

dynamics and enablers that accompany truly breakthrough
innovations. The book is developed around insights drawn
from several hundred breakthrough innovation missions
that Erehwon has facilitated across a spectrum of Indian
and MNC organizations, leadership strategy sessions
related to transformative engagements and ongoing primary
research into innovation processes across a wide range
of organizations - from J&J and Unilever in FMCG, to
Vestergaard and Vodafone in Healthcare and Telecom,
through to Grameen Bank and Tamilnadu Police in the
Social and Government sectors.
I hope you have a great time and a rich learning experience
reading the articles that we put together in this edition of
NHRD Journal. I hope we could provide you some thought
provoking ideas on how you can innovate in your line of
work, and how as HR professionals you can drive and
nurthure the culture of innovation, that will take your
function and company to greater heights.
Dr. PVR Murthy

Honorary Managing
Editor on behalf of
the Editorial Team
Dr. Pallab
Bandyopadhyay
Dr. Arvind N
Agrawal
EVERY BUSINESS IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS

N T ARUNKUMAR
About the Author
N.T. Arunkumar a wannabe wandering story-teller, aspiring
school teacher and enthusiastic enough to try anything new from
Mandarin to Meditation, Arun wants to live to learn. Keenly
interested in technology, innovation and how organizations deal
with talent, Arun is also drawn to behavioral science and its
influence on business and leadership. When not reading, biking or
having illusions of becoming a wild-life photographer, he works
in UBS as Managing Director of its global partnership and transformation strategy,
heading its innovative offshored footprint in Asia. Arun is a PM&IR graduate from
XLRI Jamshedpur.
nnovation is now a strategic differentiator

for any company, be it a startup or a
large, globally established business. But
innovation is not anymore about a one-time
creative product or a market disruption. To
be a sustainable competitive advantage,
innovation must permeate throughout
the organization beyond any one single
dimension of product, market or customer.
Some of the most innovative companies
of past dont exist anymore think
Kodak. The most pioneering product
organizations are struggling to remain
relevant in todays rapidly changing
customer demands think HP. The most
innovative marketing campaigns that
launched entire industries have been
over-shadowed by radical startups think
advertising and Google. More books have
been written about innovation recently
than any other topic of management.
Every industry, every company and
every market segment has a noteworthy
example. While the formula for sustainable
innovation remains debatable, I will
narrate two stories here that capture, in
my first-hand experience, the essence of
innovation as an organizational principle.

Both are stories you will not find mentioned
in any management theory or book (not
yet, at least!). With these stories I want
to underscore why innovation is more
about people and culture than anything
else. They will hopefully inspire HR
practitioners to play a proactive role in
defining the culture of an organization and
leading it to enable innovation more as a
habit than as a measure of desperation.
Once Upon a Time in Chennai how
documents started getting produced
like cars!
Sometime in the early 2000s, in between
the Y2K sigh-of-relief by the IT industry
and coping with the after-effects of the dotcom meltdown, a startup KPO company
was bringing to India a new type of
work not attempted before as an offshore
service. India then, much less Chennai,
was an unlikely destination for anything
innovative in the fledgling services
industry. Imagine printing an entire IPO
prospectus of an American corporation
remotely. Or being the invisible support
January | 2014 NHRD Network Journal
to an Investment Banker as she presents a

pitch book to an M&A client. How do you
decouple what is considered an intimate
part of a business transaction and deliver
it seamlessly from several time zones
away, produced by twenty-somethings
right out of college? And how do you do
it consistently and at global scale? Such
leapfrogging in service delivery was
beyond mere strategy and technology
what it required was innovation at every
level of process, in every function of the
firm.
IT and Communications technology
redefined remote in the last two decades,
thereby creating the whole paradigm of
offshore delivery, at a fractional cost, done
by talent pool half the Western workers
average age and with unprecedented
agility and smarts. Knowledge, as in the
traditional sense of experience, got
redefined too. You could train someone
to write research reports and analyze
equities movements across markets, while
you shifted focus to managing changing
client requirements and re-engineering
process for efficiencies. As this shift was
beginning to happen, this company had a
huge challenge to overcome for its largest
client, a financial printer in the US. The
problem was this: the company produced
documents for the printer a soft copy
of what it finally printed physically for its
clients that involved a dozen different
skills (e.g. content creation, editing,
type-setting, proof-reading etc) and
hundreds of specifically trained people,
with seasonal demand and unpredictable
skills definition in each batch of jobs
sent offshore. While initial service was
about hiring and training, scaling up
was becoming impossible because you
couldnt just hire a few hundred people
during peak season and let them idle (or
even let go) at other times. The training
investment was high. This line of business
was the companys mainstream revenue
2
source, while it was diversifying into the

emerging BPO verticals. So it was critical
a solution was found to (a) deliver peak
demand predictably and consistently and
(b) develop a delivery model that was
configurable to demand fluctuations,
retaining skills invested in already. Given
the startup culture of the firm, there was
no shortage of ideas. Filtering ideas on the
floor, while still cranking up the delivery
machinery for a 24x7 support and trying
out the promising ones, was daunting.
Because it is one thing to enthuse a whole
company to generate ideas, quite another
challenge to layer a management system
on top of it to ensure the dual goals of
keeping the lights on while implementing
new changes.
Adapted from Innovation is the process of idea

management by Tim Kastelle, University of
Queensland Business School. Idea generation,
ideas selection and ideas diffusion are all
integrated and feed each other; execution is key.
Enabling such an environment could be HRs
single biggest focus area, for innovative companies
like Google, Apple et al are organizationally
aware of where their great ideas come from
and how to keep them coming!Growth through
innovation is exponential and if such growth is
the cornerstone of a companys strategy then it
must be based on a idea-driven people-culture.
To cut a long story short, the team realized

that there was no best practice to learn
from and hence the solution was not only
to be designed from ground-up but had to
be adopted, for dependability and time,
from another successful industry which
deals with demand fluctuations, product

variations and specialized skilled labor. The
auto industry was closest (coincidentally,
Chennai was also developing into a major
auto hub of India). The team piloted a new
process configuration mapping every
task (e.g. proof-reading = Quality Control,
etc) to an assembly line process, resulting in
the final product (car = finished document).
Toyotas cell manufacturing process was
adopted to create fully-functional cells
comprising of all skills into one unit as
against organizing the whole production
around specialized functions moving from
one task to another based on specific skills.
The similarity between various parts
(tasks) were identified and grouped for
standardization and similar processes
(skills) were made adjacent for easier
workflow. But the challenge was also
to keep the customer fully engaged and
involved in the process while still fulfilling
demand the old way. Hence the teams were
seeded with representatives (specialists)
from the customer organization, an

investment in time and trust that had to be
made to make the co-creation successful.
The result, after quite a few iterations,
reconfigurations and several small pilots,
was astounding in a just a few months.
On a reduced headcount, the team was
producing more documents with lesser
errors. What was even more exemplary
was that each self-contained cell was
a micro version of the larger team and
could deliver independently. So, one
single, linear machinery was redesigned
into several full-scale machines that could
distribute and manage loads in peak
optimally while focus on training and reskilling in low demand!
The machines were just teams of people
with different skills. This was after all, a
people-intensive business, enabled by IT.
So, what were the lessons in innovation
from this successful case?
Conventional process: linear, sequential workflow requiring more resources and time. Tasks
move from one department to the next and functions have pre-requisites for task completion.
Errors are expensive. Output is slow.
Cell: empowered teams form self-sufficient pods that are a miniature full-function process.
Skills are re-used and teams are self-contained, multi-skilled units. Errors are self-corrected,
output higher, faster with less resources.
Innovation in process engineering through cell manufacturing adapted from automotive

industry for financial printing & document production.
Image source: Google search
Here are the top three according to me

that organizations (not just startups) and
people managers can benefit from:
Empowerment is the critical enabler of
an innovative culture. Innovation and
risk-taking are closely inter-connected. A
hierarchical, approval-seeking culture does
not yield creative ideas. At the same time a
free-for-all chaotic environment results in
high risk and low predictability. A balance
is needed and I believe the people function
in any organization is most well-placed to
define and exemplify such a culture by
facilitating the process of idea management
throughout the firm.
Amplify the fail early, fail small, rinse
and repeat culture in every team. Ideas
are great but require enormous change
management skills to implement firmwide. Small pilots are critical pathways to
learning what will work, while reducing
impact of failure. Rewarding such behavior
will go a long way in creating startup
managers in the firm regardless of its size.
Such a culture, again, must be defined and
evangelized by the people function.
Customer is the most important partner
in the innovation process. Everything
starts with the customer, even the problem
in the first place! No innovation initiative
will succeed or even if does, sustain if
the customer is not an integral part of the
solution building process. Partnership
is based on trust and trust in turn is
completely based on the credibility of the
people facing-off to the customer, delivering
to them daily. Such people in the firm must
be placed in the forefront of any policymaking and should be used as a learning
ground to design HR practices from.
But is innovation possible only in a
startup environment? It is of course
4
natural for startups to embrace innovation

quicker as there are no legacy cultures
to overcome. But can large companies
with old businesses innovate? How
should they approach innovation? One
way to look at it is to identify the most
important component of such a firm (a
market segment, geography, a product
unit or even a function) requiring drastic
transformation and treat it as a startup.
Some firms have been successful in doing
so but it is rare (running skunk works
projects like in Motorola) and also risky.
Internally in such organizations, managing
two cultures becomes counter-productive
and creates employee dissonance. But
innovation-led transformations must
sooner than later become a firm level
initiative else the business model would
become unsustainable. And such a large
scale effort, while following the same
principles of innovation like a startup,
requires a radically different approach in
redefining culture and change management.
Again, without HR acting as a catalyst,
such efforts get isolated into functional
strategies without change in people
behavior that drives long-term change.
Redefining Financial Services By
Redesigning The Operating Model:
Supply-Chain Innovation
The global financial crisis culminating
in 2008 fundamentally changed the
economics of banking as also how banks
are perceived as institutions by their
stake holders. The post-crisis share holder
confidence, regulators heightened scrutiny
and volatile global markets have put
enormous pressure on banks profitability
and sustainability.
A large European bank, almost two
centuries in existence, faced a triple
challenge as it began recovery from the

crisis: huge fixed-cost structure in shrinking
markets, high risk-weighted assets in the
balance sheet and dire need to reinvigorate
revenue growth in a differentiated business
model. All at the same time. And connecting
the dots among the three challenges are
some unique solution themes: move
to variable costs, commercialize assets
by unlocking their value in the market
and leverage the financial services ecosystem by strategically collaborating with
competitors and thereby co-creating new
value for customers.
The back office operations and technology
functions of the bank, which together
comprised over one-third the banks
people and cost base, have to lead this
transformation. For a bank steeped in
European culture and traditions and
hardly an example of global sourcing,
such a change will not be possible without
completely rethinking its operating model
and componentizing its value chain. Which
means defining and accepting that certain
tasks, even functions, cannot and should
no longer be done in-house. That certain
2. Partnership Model: move from core

competency to defining and executing
collective competency in the value chain
i.e., to collaborate to form market utilities,
driving cost structures down while
differentiating in customer service and
processes are better done by other firms,

even industries, better than the bank
itself in terms of both cost and quality.
That along with customer demographics
(a younger, more demanding and globally
aware customer with lesser loyalty),
the workforce demographics and talent
availability are also changing rapidly,
shifting East to countries like India and
China. What this requires is innovation
at three levels:
1. Operating Model: changing the way
services are structured and executed,
within and outside the bank. This also
requires a redefinition of core and
non-core in the business model. One
way to look at it, for example, is to design
all core services around the principles
of (a) Customer Experience (b) Risk &
Regulatory Management and (c) Capacity
management. Another view would be to
decouple business-aligned services from
shared services and orchestrate processes
around that segmentation. The key
however is to partner with world-class
providers to enable this new model.
product offerings. Agent / correspondent

banks, clearing / custody institutions,
market infrastructure providers, BPO/ITO
companies all become part of the ecosystem
in delivering a new value and experience
to the customer.
Industrialization is the banks strategy

for the innovative transformation program.
This program attempts to do two things
at the same time: standardize common
processes and differentiate for customer
experience & value. By segregating the
execution strategy for shared services from
that of the business-aligned services, the
bank is much better focused and placed to
tackle all challenges simultaneously: cost
reduction, revenue & profitability growth
and regulatory compliance.
Pic source: Gartner / CSC
3. Supply-chain view of outsourcing: a

strategic learning and input for the bank is
from the electronics / hi-tech industry; post
the shift from analog to digital the whole
supply-chain landscape changed to highly
specialized verticals (e.g. panels, storage,
chips etc) while horizontally integrating
assembly and product development. The
suppliers extended the value-chain in a
cost-optimized manner while the producer
owned design and customer experience.
Apple is a classic example of this model
and through its supply-chain innovation
has achieved both cost optimization as well
as exponential market growth.
But to deliver all of the above, the most
important ingredient in the innovation
strategy boils down to just good, oldfashioned aspect: leadership. Adapting and
re-purposing the organizations leadership
culture to embrace globalization, become
ambassadors of change and reiterate
changing values through behavior becomes
the cornerstone of the banks execution
success. Supported by a strong intervention
role played by the HR leadership, the
bank has defined and ingrained in its
people, a set of behaviors that exemplify
the change; underscored further by
integrating the values and behaviors with
performance measurement at all levels.
6
Thus, the transformation strategy enabled

by innovation translates into an execution
plan that is demonstrated through
behaviors and measured in a transparent
manner. And again, if I were to summarize
the key lessons learned from experience
in implementing the above strategy, they
mostly revolve around people.
Organizational alignment. A coherent,
compelling and common message for
change for all the employees delivered
and reiterated in a consistent manner.
Raising awareness of the firms situation
and helping everyone recognize the drivers
and need for the change is the crucial
starting point.
Leadership alignment. The entire
leadership team has to visibly commit to the
change, putting the firms transformation
agenda before self. This must be transparent
to the entire organization. A simple
example to demonstrate this would
be to adapt flexibly to new roles and
responsibilities ahead of clarity emerging
on organization structure etc.
Behaviors. Culture is nothing but sum total
of peoples behavior in an institution. And
it gets set right from the top. Bad culture
will invariably defeat a good strategy.
Change management begins with defining
the new set of behaviors and managing the

cultural change required to institutionalize
them.
So what can HR do to play a more
influencing role in driving and sustaining
innovation in an organization? If the
above two examples one in a startup
and another in a large, old company are
anything to model the role on, I would
extrapolate focus to the following:
1. Understand your organizations
customers business and their challenges
as much as you try to know your business
issues. All drivers for innovation start with
the customer. A truly innovative culture
cannot exist without an obsession for the
customer. Think Amazon.
2. Proactively resolve innovation
paradoxes in the organizations culture.
Not all cultures are ready for innovation;
ideas are just a starting point that shows
willingness. Ability to execute may vary
depending upon how many conflicts are
resolved effectively between for example
a ruthless ROI focus versus long-term
change, between investment appetite

and implementation ability etc. Such
resolutions require intervention through
analytics, OD and leadership rotations to
provide clarity of purpose. Think Google.
3. Own the learning process of innovation.
Like any other discipline of management,
innovation too can be learnt and percolated
through the organizations ranks. It takes
deliberate initiative, supported by enabling
policies that recognizes risk-taking
behavior and rewards entrepreneurial
display of initiatives, and evangelizing
together with the business the commitment
of the organization to invest in creating an
innovative culture. Think Cognizant.
All organizations and businesses, however
technologically sophisticated, are finally
about people. Because it is people who
execute the strategy. Good execution is
driven by a great culture that draws the
best out of its people. Great organizations
are about great culture and innovation is
right at the center of this truism!
CONTEMPORARY THOUGHTS IN THEORY AND

PRACTICE ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Dr. SANDEEP K KRISHNAN
About the Author
Dr. Sandeep K. Krishnan is an Associate Director at People
Business. He is a Fellow (Doctorate) of Indian Institute of
Management Ahmedabad. Prior to joining People business, he has
worked with organizations like IBM, Infosys, Ernst and Young,
and RPG. As a consultant he has led large assignments in the areas
of leadership development, talent management, and employer
branding with both public and private sector organizations. He
is a certified Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) from HRCI and
has completed certification in Executive Coaching from University of Cambridge.
Sandeep is also an Adjunct Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management Indore.
Career development has been an area of
interest from an individuals perspective for
long. However, organizations have started
taking a structured approach towards
career development. In the past few years
we have seen organizations focusing on
practices that align with employee career
development. Although career is one of
the key element of employee retention,
and ensuring that he/she sees a long term
focus of the organization, structuring the
softer aspects and harder aspects of career
management is not easy. For example,
we have seen organizations focusing on
organization structuring; having detailed
career paths supported by job descriptions,
promotion criteria and venturing to change
it as and when the business realities
warranted. Clearly, it led to lack of
understanding for employees in terms of
what they can expect in the organization
and very less in terms of options, what
the whole structure meant for their career
growth. So while established organizations
had career management infrastructure and
tried to make it as a unique proposition
8
for its employees, it was difficult to tailor

to the aspirations and competencies of
employees. In practice we would have seen
tenure based promotions in private sector
organizations that were no different from
a bureaucratic government enterprise.
For example, a software engineer would
become a senior software engineer in
two years and would probably become
an assistant manager in another 3 years
(the difference was only whether the
year was good for business to give
enough promotions). This eventually
led to meaninglessness in career growth
from an employee perspective. The
concept of Protean Careers (Hall, 1996)
also got attention with the whole career
management becoming a responsibility
of the individual employee and the
belief that individuals should own their
career and seek opportunities, develop
themselves, learn continuously, and adapt
to the changing environment. This context
eventually led to the understanding that
career management is a joint responsibility
of employees and the organization where
individuals need to have a say in making

their career choices.
Current Concepts in Career Management:
One of the interesting concepts in career
management that got interest of industry
was Mass Career Customization (MCC)
(Benko and Weisberg, 2008). The concept
of Mass Career Customization brought
forth two critical aspects. One there is a
growing interest and trend to move away
from the traditional hierarchy based career
growth. Second, it supported the life cycle
of a human being and their career. The key
was giving an opportunity for individuals
to have a say in customizing their career
along four dimensions (Pace, Workload,
Location and Schedule, and Role). This
meant that the employee could have a say
in terms of his/her pace of career progress,
workload they would like to take up at any
point of their career, location preferences
and schedule, and role). The key was
giving this choice would lead to higher
employee retention and commitment.
The second aspect was that it demystifies
the vertical growth aspect. Employees
could take a choice to move vertically,
horizontally, or even take a call to work
at a lower responsibility level in a new
area. It also provides employees massive
scope in terms of career opportunities. For
example, a Human Resource Head may
choose to take up a functional sales head
responsibility and then move on to be a
marketing lead and come back as a HR
Director. Similarly, a software engineer
who is technology oriented, may choose to
do a part-time MBA, do a special project in
consulting and move in to IT consulting
and after a few years return as a project
manager in technology. The key is to
understand that there should be mutual
understanding between the organization
and the employee and there is a long
term focus. Which meant that it should be
well entrenched into the talent and career
planning process in the organization.

Creating the Soft Infrastructure
Baruch (2006) studied eighteen career
management techniques or practices that would
be relevant or effective.
18 Practices studied by Baruch (2006)
1. Use of performance appraisal (PA)
as a basis for career planning
2. C a r e e r c o u n s e l i n g b y d i r e c t
supervisor
3. Career counseling by HRM unit
4. Books and/or pamphlets on career
issues
5. Common career paths
6. Assessment centre
7. O t h e r w a y s o f i d e n t i f y i n g
management potential
8. Dual ladder
9. Postings regarding internal job
openings
10. Appraisal committees
11. Formal education as part of career
development
12. Career workshops
13. Written personal career planning for
employees
14. Retirement preparation programmes
15. Mentoring
16. PA as a basis for salary review
17. Management inventory (succession
planning)
18. Training programs for managers
The study found that it is lack of information
with employees about the programs and
its relevance, lack of long term view about
career, and lack of proper implementation
of programs that leads to programs
not yielding its purported objectives.

Interestingly, Budhwar and Baruch
(2003) did a similar study with Indian
organizations and found that organizations
use these practices in different clusters.
Some are related to planning (linking
career development to performance
appraisal), some are progressive (use of
assessments like development centers),
some are foundational (dual ladders),
and aspects related to HR department
(their involvement in career development)
showed that HR is playing a more
proactive role in career management in
organizations. This also links up to the fact
that HR is expected to have understanding
of career guidance and development.
While looking at research and practices,
the key elements of a career management
infrastructure are broadly.
1. Information and understanding
2. Assessment and Guidance
3. Development
4. Internal Job Placement
Many organizations have invested along
these lines to manage the career interests
of its employees. For example, Infosys as
described in Saha (2013) has developed the
whole range of programs under the banner
Pathfinder. Pathfinder is a platform that
provides information about career streams
and opportunities in the various business
units, supports managers and employees to
have career guidance discussions, enables
career development through an array of
development programs, and supports
internal movements through Career
Fairs and Career Seminars. As an
organization which is large and has many
career streams and job openings, career
seminars and fairs helped individuals to
get a fair amount of understanding of the
opportunities available for them. Second,
career guidance program helped them to
have a conversation with their managers
10
and HR and develop a customized career

development plan. Third, the development
opportunities through formal training, job
shadowing and internal special projects
helped them for skills development, and
get a first hand idea about how the next
job looks like. The key success factor of
Pathfinder was branding, support from
leaders, programs that were easy to access
by employees, and brilliant execution.
Similarly, at IBM, a whole array of career
guidance resources was made available
to its employees. Termed as Learning
@IBM the focus on career development
encourages employees to do a self
assessment of their skills for a particular
role or career path, use resources available
that are customized for their development,
and participate in organization wide
development activities like Mentoring
and Job Shadowing. The programs that
are linked to talent review like Bottomsup, or Business and Technical Resources
also helped to identify the key resources
in technical and business domain and fast
track them through career development
interventions.
The interesting aspect that both IBM and
Infosys had used is having a route of
real experiences that provides a vertical
or horizontal job experience. IBM and
Infosys have extensively used stretch
assignments mostly special projects
and job shadowing to support career
development of individuals. This gave
individuals an opportunity to try out
different functions and businesses or work
in a different technology altogether.
Some of the organizations also use career
development and opportunities aligned to
it as a core employee value proposition.
For example, RPG Group defined one of
its core employee value propositions as
Diverse Strengths Diverse Opportunities.
While working closely with People
Business on defining its value proposition,
Career Development Elements:
research showed that employees having

an opportunity to work across sectors
and many having successfully moved are
a great value proposition for current and
prospective employees. The successful
execution of this value proposition helped
the group to leverage talent pool across
group companies to its advantage and
at the same time providing employees a
canvas beyond their function or company
to a larger group.
The elements of career development clearly

gives a lot of scope for organizations
to develop practices in line with their
size, industry, technology infrastructure,
manager capabilities, and talent
management maturity.
Element
Information and
understanding
Processes deployed
Induction program
Recruitment related information
Employee internal website
Career related workshops, HR sessions, leader talks
Career portals
Employee stories
Assessments
Employee self assessments

Career Assessments provided by organization
Manager assessment of potential
Development Centers
Team based assessments
Guidance
Manager discussions during performance appraisal

Formal career guidance discussions
Up-line manager guidance
Formal talent review discussion and decisions
Development
Career Development / Individual development plan

Mentoring
Job Shadowing
Coaching
Formal training
Special assignments
Career counseling
Special programs for top talent
11
Element
Placement
Processes deployed
Internal job postings
Internal messaging
Internal job market
Employee CV and internal hiring
Promotions
Specialized leadership job filling based on internal placement
drills as part of talent review planning and execution
Current research and theory rests at

balancing individual and organizational
objectives of career management. Based on
Budhwar and Baruch (2003), it is important
for organizations to realize that individual
careers are not predetermined and also not
completely flexible as per organizational
needs, it is important that individuals have
a say in their careers and understand that
individual preferences towards career will
change with age, life stage, or approach
towards work life balance or material
success.
While most of the engagement surveys
show that employees expect more
in terms of career development and
manager supporting them in the process,
organizations are taking cognizance of this
feedback and the focus has been mainly on
hipo development (Bhattacharya,2012). The
focus has been on giving them more live
experiences that will stretch them beyond
regular jobs and hence able to learn through
action. Secondly, it is important that they
get enough guidance and support from
the ecosystem, including managers and
experience a differentiated development
support. Thirdly, it is important from the
individual and organizational standpoint
that feedback and assessment is done
for their readiness for a new role as they
grow. Organizations are also focusing on
transitions like promotions, job moves,
re-entry to job after sabbaticals or career
12
breaks. The interesting point here is

organizations are moving from formal
training and focusing more on giving
job experiences on the field. Pathfinder
Next (internal internships at Infosys, that
gives employees short term assignments
(Saha, 2013), Stretch assignments at IBM
(IBM, 2013), Results based coaching as
practiced by consulting organizations like
People Business are examples of on the job
learning that also provides a clear outcome
for the organization.
Organizations are also focusing on
providing career support to retiring
employees. Educational institutions
like IIMs have given opportunity for
their retiring professors to continue
on a contractual basis till age 70.
Similarly, it is not uncommon for senior
professionals to get extension beyond
their regular retirement age. Many
growing firms that find it difficult to
find trained hands, have also opted
to employ retired professionals. Large
NBFCs like Manappuram Group and
Muthoot have retired bank officers as their
branch managers and use their service
to groom younger managers. Second
Innings by retired professionals is an
interesting aspect that will be seriously
looked at by corporate (Kunhikrishnan
and Krishnan, 2009). Many benevolent
organizations also prepare their senior
executives with skills like executive
coaching to prepare for career post

retirement.
Conclusion:
Career Development as a practice is
going to be of more importance for
organizations and the challenge would
be to balance organizational and
employee interests. While the processes
can have a short term impact, the fruits
of a deep career development program
will be long term. It is also important
for organizations to deploy practices

in line with their industry, size,
and nature of employees. However,
the common factor is that career
development is about providing more
information, giving individuals an
opportunity to express their aspiration
and assess their potential for the same,
providing guidance and development
opportunities and having a strong
internal job market to support the final
outcome of career move.
References:
Baruch, Y. (2006). Organizational career planning and management techniques and activities in use in high-tech organizations, Career
Development International, 1(1), 40-49.
Bhattacharya, S (2012). Companies like IBM, HCL Tech, Cognizant, others roll out initiatives to nurture young talent well, Accessed
Online: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-09-11/news/33763229_1_development-programmes-young-leadersdevelopment-experiences.
Benko, C., and Weisberg, A. (2008). Mass Career Customization, Building the corporate lattice organization, Deloitte Review,
Accessed online: http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/Deloitte%20Review/us_ps_
USDeloitteReviewMassCareerCustomization_051310.pdf
Budhwar, P.S., and Baruch, Y. (2003). Career management practices in India: an empirical study, International Journal of Manpower,
24(6), 699-719.
IBM (2013), Career Development, Accessed online : http://www-07.ibm.com/employment/bcs_career/non-flash/bcs_careers_
development.html
Saha, S. (2013). Gaining the competitive advantage, Human Capital, Nov, 50-53.
Kunhikrishnan, K. and Krishnan, S. K. (2009), Second Innings, Human Capital, May, 29-31.
Hall, D.T.(1996). Protean Careers of the 21st Century, Academy of Management Executive, 10(4), 8-15.
13
INTO THE (W)INNER WORLD OF INNOVATION

S DEENADAYALAN
About the Author

S. Deenadayalan is is the Founder, CEO and Architect
Organizational Capability, Centre for Excellence in Organization.
He has rich experience of over 4 decades and has worked with
companies like ITC, Fenner, Dupont, etc.
hen we all think alike, then no one

is thinking one person looks at
a yellow dot and sees a yellow dot, but
the innovator sees a sun lurking in the
shadows of the yellow dot. Simply put,
innovation distinguishes between a leader
and a follower. Vincent Van Gogh said, I
dream my painting, and then I paint my
dream. Innovation thus is the intrinsic
ability of the bold; those who dare to try
rather than just sit back and accept that
the well-trodden path is all were meant
to travel.
It is not enough to just dream innovation
involves transformation of the dream to
hard reality. The mark of a true innovator
is to persevere, to convert what is initially
considered the whim of a madman to the
need of the masses.
Is innovation the same as improvement?
When we find better ways rather than
new ways to do things, are we still being
innovative? Is innovation the same as
invention? If any new and workable idea
is an invention, can it also be considered
an innovation? The answer to all the above
questions is a simple and emphatic YES.
14
Innovation is not something that can

be taught, even in the best and most
prestigious institutions the wheel was
invented long before we had our IIMs
or Harvard, and some of the best and
most-loved technologies of today were
innovated by school and college dropouts.
Todays institutions on the contrary
are only churning out more and more
people who hold degrees, but are largely
unemployable. This proves without a
doubt that innovation is driven by an
intrinsic passion to go one step ahead,
to push the boundaries, to find a way
where there seems to be none, and to
look for solutions to seemingly unsolvable
problems.
Innovation and Human Resources
Is HR a field that fosters innovation? Do we
create an environment that encourages new
ideas and welcomes new ways of doing
things, or do we cling to tried and tested
methods because they work just fine?
More often than not, innovation in
organizations is stifled under the shadow
of the mountain called organizational
hierarchy. If a voice is heard from the

bottom of the pyramid, it is dismissed as
the squeak of a mouse. That the mouse may
be a veritable store of innovation is never
considered it is an insignificant mouse,
therefore what it has to say is insignificant
as well.
It is not my intention to don the hat of a
pessimist, but having borne witness to the
myriad roles of HR as a radical participant,
an influencer and a passive observer
during the course of my four decades in
the function, I am suitably convinced that
we have a long way to go to understanding
the importance of and acknowledging
innovativeness. In my experience, HR
has more often than not distanced itself
from innovation the literature on
innovation recognizes the value of small
experiments, and even though HR is aware
of this, they tend to treat experiments
with considerable distaste. Yes, we have
contributed significantly to the dictionary
of jargons, but can we take credit for
allowing innovation to flourish? The
answer to this question lies in how leaders
view their people do they leverage the
brain power of the entire team or are they
the sole custodian of innovative wisdom?
I am lucky to have been exposed to two
different schools of thought during my
early years in the HR field.
My first boss, the late Mr. PM Mathew,
Director Personnel, Mettur Beardsell,
believed that to get the best out of people,
you should just give them the resources
they need and get out of the way. I may
have felt a twinge of helplessness at being
thrown into the deep end when it was
time to deliver, but the inner spirit was
pushed to find an innovative solution to
the problem at hand, and I believe that
it was the space provided that allowed
me to face 12 strong unions at the tender
age of 24, and creatively solve the issues
plaguing the company. This gives credence

to the innovative definition of innovation
the IN (inner journey) + OVATION
(triumph sans war) is a self-actualization
process which brings about an intrinsic
pride in ones achievements, a pride that
drives you to innovate and deliver time
and again.
The other school of thought, which
thankfully did not become my DNA, is
that you need to keep a tight rein on
your employees or they will screw up.
Traditional HR leaders believed in the
power of warning letters rather than
an environment of trust. I was exposed
to this during my second job when
confronted with a tough and disgruntled
union leadership and a messy Industrial
Relations situation, innovative thinking
helped me to take a bold call. I engineered
the exit of 17 hardcore leftist union leaders
and disgruntled employees however,
they left as Entrepreneurs, not as exemployees. It was a win-win situation.
Similarly, I used greeting cards rather
than charge sheets to reduce absenteeism.
Although my innovation was humiliated
as soft pedaling at the time, the process
sustained and absenteeism reduced,
and today, many organizations use this
technique effectively to manage IR.
Coming back to the question Does
HR foster and encourage innovation?
Perhaps we can find a convincing answer
if we can answer the following questions
satisfactorily.
1. Is HR Business-Savvy?
It was not when my career started;
however, ten years down the line, in my
innings at Titan, I was able to connect
my role in HR to both business and
innovation. I was provided with the space
and autonomy to innovate, and out of
the experiments we conducted were born
many an innovation story.
15
Every member of the Titan team was highly

engaged, innovative and participated in
the varied aspects of business growth.
The driver for innovation was the marked
absence of Buyable Skills. Horology as
a discipline was unknown in the early
eighties when the country was more
attuned to mechanical watches. The
manufacturing facility was in Hosur, a
backward district in those days, affected
by Naxal movement and poor pass
percentages at the school level. However, it
was this adverse environment that allowed
innovation to germinate.
If we couldnt buy talent, we decided to
build it. Rural talent from Government
schools was mainstreamed, housed, fosterfathered, trained in hygiene and etiquette,
and in Quartz watch manufacturing.
Diversity was successfully introduced in
the form of female and differently-abled
employees, for business reasons and to
address job monotony. The visuallychallenged packed the watches, the
hearing-impaired handled jobs in high
noise areas, and dwarfs were put to
manage stores they were all done for
business reasons, and the altruism was
incidental. Ancillaries were created to
manage tasks like washing of uniforms,
and NGOs like MYRADA played an active
role in their set-up.
Today, many of those employees have
grown into managerial roles in and outside
the TATA group and in different parts of
the globe. Thanks to the innovation that was
shown back in the day, business benefitted
and aspiration was on a continuum. Several
books have been written about this model,
and in a world where it is only the best
organizations that can take pride in having
ex-employees as their brand ambassadors,
Titan can claim one of the top positions in
this regard. I myself am proud to reiterate
that Titan is the University of Innovation
in all disciplines of management, and
16
has proved beyond doubt that HR is truly

business savvy.
2. Are Customers in HRs Radar?
HR in its traditional form has always been
considered a pure service function, one
which is more into facilitating internal
customers and stakeholders. The business
end is often left to the marketing and frontend teams. However, during my stint at
DuPont, I understood the power that HR
has in terms of connecting customers to
the core of the organization the workers
from the grassroots. I call it my greatest
unlearning journey, because the wisdom
goes against what we are traditionally
taught that customer visits must be
guided by the top management of the
organization.
At DuPont, any visit by the Chairman or
customers or other dignitaries was always
handled by the people at the grassroots
in all respects. It is they who took them
around, spoke with eloquence on product
pride and business vision.
Today, as a process consultant, wherever
we work, visitors are taken around and
looked after by the people at the bottom
of the pyramid. Not only is it a powerful
business pull factor with the customer
perceiving high value in the process,
it is also a simple yet powerful way to
emotionally connect with the grassroots.
A high employee engagement score is an
incidental byproduct which is the pride of
any company.
So yes, if innovation is encouraged,
customers can be a part of HRs radar in
more ways than one.
3. Does HR Value the Inverted Pyramid?
Who are the most innovative contributors
in any organization? Do we as HR invest
enough time and effort in nurturing them
and allowing their voice to be heard?
Contrary to popular belief, it is not the

top executive teams that build long-term
careers with any organization, but those
at the grassroots. And it is they who are
the critical drivers of innovation, whether
they are in sales, manufacturing, R&D or
any other function. It is they who work
closest to the action, and this is why it is
important that HR facilitates the creation
of a space for their voices to be heard in
the quest for innovation. Only then can we
break the status quo myths that the bottom
of the pyramid has the least to offer.
Training budgets however are lopsided,
and more is spent on the white collar
population and not the blue collars,
because of the myth that white collars
contribute more to productivity.
We should take a leaf out of the book of the
leading retail chain Nordstrom, who, with
more than 100 years in existence survives
on bottom of the pyramid innovation.
Every customer is most valued and their
complaints are the input for new products.
HR innovation is the only critical factor
for sustained business success. The simple
edifices they propagate are Hire the
Smile and get the best out of ordinary
people.
Similarly, Whole Foods is an annual winner

of Fortunes Best Places to Work award
because the company is widely known
for its customer service and profits. Its
culture focuses on engagement, and this
starts at the top and trickles down. For
example, leaders allow employees to

help determine salaries, strive to make
employees feel valued, provide generous
benefits and practice a strong promotefrom-within approach. Shareholders have
been rewarded with stock appreciation
significantly higher than industry
standards.
Why is it that Per Employee suggestion is
highest from the bottom of the pyramid in
countries like Japan and Korea, and not in
India? HR needs to start using the concept
of Self-Managed teams to bring about
greater empowerment at the grassroots
level at all organizations, learning from the
success of innovation through the inverted
pyramid at companies like EID Parry,
Dr Reddys, RPG Reychem, CEAT and
Pepsi.
4. Is HR Permitting Failure?
Innovation calls for creating a Permission
to Fail environment. Experimentation
and risk taking are the key ingredients
of innovation. Celebrating failures, like
3M does, creates a climate for innovation.
The key challenge for HR is to get
senior leadership to believe in employee
experimentation. However, Stanford
Universitys 2013 CEO Performance
Evaluation Survey found that boards
typically hold CEOs and their leaders
accountable for financial metrics. Factors
related to employee development and
employee engagement are often considered
to be less important.
Ideally, the CEO and senior leadership
team possess the emotional intelligence
and values to create high-performing
work cultures. However, they are bound
by the pressures of business targets
and profits and other monetary issues.
Here is where HR has an uphill battle
to play the conscience-keeping role and
campaign for and enforce factors relating
to employee innovation. However, many a
17
time HR becomes more obligated than the

employer to stifle innovation. Bell curves
take precedence over actual performance
ratings, and HR often seems to have a
risk assessment / risk mitigation mindset.
Many in our HR fraternity have grown up
in a quasi-legal world where their job is all
about ensuring that the organization does
not fall foul of labor laws. When it comes
to Gen Y HR leaders, HR is at best the
POLICY POLICE and NAYSAYERS
of the organization.
The HR fraternity cannot fathom the
concept of different strokes for different
folks, as historically, HR has championed
enterprise-wide programs, be it benefits
administration, on-boarding programs or
dress code. Permission to fail would mean
treating each human being as a unique
and valued contributor. Both mindless
cut and paste best practices without
connect to context or passion results in
credibility erosion. HR analytics will go a
long way in connecting individual passion
to business passion.
5. Is HR focusing on Coaching or
Poaching?
Be it McKinseys Global Institute in
Washington or the National Skill
Development Corporation, they all predict
worldwide shortage of skills. In todays
supply-and-demand business world, it
makes sense for organizations to build,
not buy the talent they need.
However, talent building is an art that is
more talked than walked. But because
future talent is scarce or not readily
available in the market, innovation
becomes a compelling necessity.
When we hire, are we looking at the person
behind the resume or being allowed to be
led by false claims and the gift of the
gab? Are we focused more on technology
as a recruitment tool with assessments
and instruments playing the lead role or
18
do we truly understand the talent that

is required? Domain knowledge at the
highest levels and academic excellence at
entry points need not necessarily be the
predominant GO factor during selection.
Most of our organizations are modeled
on the principles of manufacturing
- linearity, specialization of labour
and the division of labour; however,
organizations are no more pyramidal with
boxes and lines connecting people and
positions. Virtuosity, matrix, globalism,
demographics and time zones redefine
structures of organizations and the skill
sets of the people required.
If we have to really understand innovation,
then the resumes of candidates should
be trashed and the human behind the
resume understood. Human resources
should move away from being just
a commodity or a billable resource.
Cost arbitrage, business flexibility and
mindless competition result only in
oxymoronic innovation. Outsourcing,
benching of talent and higher reliance
on staffing companies will only lead
to emotional disconnect, which while
seemingly ok in the short term, will
definitely create immense damage in
the long run. HR must find innovative
alternatives to remain cost competitive,
rather than just donning traditional hats
for talent acquisition.
One option is to under-hire for overperformance with technology simplifying
jobs and manufacturing skills being taken
over by high-tech machines, there is no
point in hiring highly skilled hands when
not absolutely required.
Another is to avoid over-hiring for
under-performance many jobs can be
done by basic graduates or high-school
graduates who are intelligent, yet not
highly qualified, with a little grooming
and training. Instead of hiring high end
engineers and MBA grads who are over
qualified, it makes innovative sense to

reduce labour costs by building rather than
buying talent at exorbitant rates.
From my personal experience, I find that
the Learn and Earn model is what HR
needs get intelligent people who are
not really qualified, custom-train them
in the skills that are required, and you
have a model that addresses productivity,
retention and aspiration in one shot.
Youth who have only completed their
schooling have grown to managerial levels
and contributed much to the business,
after being trained in the necessary skills.
This approach removes the distinction
between blue and white collar
rather, it focuses only on career collar.
Companies that have seen their business
benefit from this model include Ashok
Leyland, CEAT, Cavinkare, KEC, Reychem,
Heinz and Dr. Reddys.
While a shortage of skilled labour has
pushed organizations to adopt this model
by default rather than design, the need of
the hour is an industrial university to tap
the innate abilities of the rural youth of
our country.
6. Is HR Addressing Competency Shelf
Life?
Gone are the days when products were
made with longer shelf lives. Today,
businesses swear by creative destruction
where they continue to add value to their
products. Resting on laurels implies you
are mildly allowing the competition to
swallow you whole.
Similarly, people must continuously
update their competencies and skills,
adding value to themselves and their roles.
Competencies have a shelf life beyond
which they are not recognized any longer,
and these shelf lives are growing shorter
by the day.
How can HR address this shortening of

competency shelf lives? Must we focus
our efforts on finding the right talent
with all the competencies at the required
levels, or can we go down the less-trodden
path and innovate in how we enhance
the competencies of the people who are
already with us?
Arvind Eye Hospital has paved the way in
innovating how we enhance competency
levels in our workforce with their inhouse ophthalmologists performing ten
times the number of surgeries the average
ophthalmologist in the country performs,
within the same time period, they have
managed to train their nurses and equip
them with the expertise required to handle
parts of the surgeries. This in turn allows
the doctors to perform more surgeries, and
also add value to other areas of eye care
to quote an example, the hospital chain
was importing intraocular lenses at $200
per piece; today, they are making the same
lens at the same quality at $5 per piece and
exporting it to 85 countries.
Arvind Eye Hospitals resounding success
is a testimony to the philosophy that a
shared vision is all it takes to achieve
greatness. The leadership team calls it
an inner energy that the mind cannot
comprehend. Beyond the IQ and EQ
quotient, the SQ quotient is the most critical
factor in tapping human innovation, and
that is what they have achieved through
ordinary people. HR actively catalyses the
percolation of the organizations vision
to all its teams, then the very compelling
vision inspires employees and motivates
them to enhance their competencies
continuously.
7. In an Era of Self-Service and
Automation, is HR Contextually
Relevant?
Another significant area where HR faces
an uphill challenge is the humanization
19
or lack thereof in the services it provides.

Everything is automated today and the
mouse has taken the place of personal
interface. Self-service allows you to do
pretty much everything from buying
a bus or plane ticket to getting the food
of your choice delivered to your home to
sending and receiving money through the
touch of a finger, its all about reducing
time and effort in getting things done.
HR has thus been reduced to automated
pay slips and FAQs through a HRIS portal
in most organizations. In this context,
how relevant is the Human Resources
function? Is HR able to innovate and
address the hurdles posed by the invasion
of technology into our lives? Or will it die
out for want of the courage and conviction
to voice these concerns?
Technology is great, no doubt. But the irony
is that it also brings about a distance that
results in issues like depression, loneliness
and getting lost in the ocean of people and
being just one of the crowd. Add to this
the fact that your brain has less work to
do and so rusts faster, and you have the
makings of a robotic workforce, running
on the fuel called technology and little else.
HR thus has a balancing role to play
innovative skills are required now more
than ever to address the softer issues of
isolation and the lack of creativity induced
by mindless dependence on technology.
How do we as a function enhance
brainpower in a world that is increasingly
being taken over by technology and SOPs?
How can we induce more meaning into the
roles of each employee so that the passion
is retained and renewed, and the workforce
remains fresh and rejuvenated? These are
questions that only innovative thinking
and doing will address.
8. Is HR Questioning the Status Quo?
The nonHR fraternity has always seen
HR as the custodians of Status Quo.
20
Precedence determines policies and the

tried and tested ways of doing things
remain intact since change is seen as an
unnecessary complication.
We talk big about Change Management,
but it is more a jargon that we bandy about
rather than a journey that merges business
necessity with innovative ideas. We engage
consultants to manage and bring about
change through new initiatives, but we
fail to encourage innovative thoughts and
ideas in our own employees, the people
who are closest to the action and who
therefore, are best positioned to suggest
and ideate positive change.
Just as research has due processes
for hypothesis, validation, observation
and synthesis, HR needs to create a
process for sparking discovery skills in
employees. By creating organizational
processes that mirror individual discovery
behaviors, innovative leaders can build
an organization that acts differently and
thinks differently, and by doing so, makes
a difference not just in the industry, but
on a global stage. One way to do this
would be to include in the PMS system a
component that rewards and recognizes
questioning and challenging the status
quo, and advocating creative and positive
change.
Innovating the Future
The writing on the wall for HR is clear
innovate or incinerate! The innovation has
to be a two-prong approach innovation in
the way HR is perceived and valued, and
innovation in the way HR can add value
to the workforce of an organization. Unless
the change within happens, the change
outside will only be a distant dream. So
for HR to become and sustain itself as an
innovator, it has to create a new avatar
for itself that of becoming a core part
of the business rather than remaining a

support function that guards the status
quo. Once this initiative is on the road to
reality, then innovation can become a key
aspect in adding value to the work-life of
your workforce.
Innovation is the child born out of an

encounter between an opportunity and a
prepared mind. So HR should continuously
sharpen its brain cells, and be on the
lookout for the right opportunity, thus
paving the way to innovating the future.
21
INNOVATION AND HR
SAURABH GOVIL
About the Author
Saurabh Govil is the Senior Vice President- Human Resources for
Wipros IT Business. He has responsibility for Talent Acquisition,
Engagement and Development. He has been a HR practitioner for
over two decades, having previously worked in organizations
such as GE & ITC.
Saurabh is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, where he completed
his Masters degree in Human Resources.
nnovation has stood the test of time and

opinion. Several times over the course
of history, people have proclaimed that
innovation has reached the end of the
line. Today, there are no doubts in the
minds of people that innovation is key to
be successful in any endeavor.
approximately every two years) not only

holds good across industries, but is also
impacting the overall viability of the
businesses. We are not just talking of
incremental innovation but disruptive
innovation, one which leads to a paradigm
shift in the way we deliver or work.
There are two dominant truths about

Innovation:
Together this Disruptive and Incremental

Innovation today are not just a gamechanger, but a vital element of everyday
effectiveness of businesses.
i) When incubated well, innovation results

in transformational improvement. ii) If
this much-required innovation is managed
poorly, that failure threatens the existence
of an enterprise.
Either way, what is clearly evident is that
if you are not innovating as an enterprise
someone else will and that can erode your
standing in the market.
Before we get in to the importance of
innovation in HR it is worthwhile to
understand why there is such an emphasis
on the area today? On one hand, with the
advances in technology, the cycle time
and direct investment in innovation has
reduced dramatically and on the other
hand, the impact and reach of innovation
has increased manifold. The Moores
law (that computing power doubles
22
In this scenario the 2 critical questions for

HR are:
1. Another much debated question is
which approach works better? Should
each employee be an innovator or is
innovation the job of a specialist?
2. How do we help build an organization
which encourages innovation and help
the company grow?
I will first talk about which approach is
the better one.
Each employee an innovator or is this a
specialists job?
The context of work and the services offered
here is what determines the viability and
scope of innovation in an organization. For
a back office employee who is expected to

follow an activity based work and keep the
deviations to a minimum, innovation is
not the expectation. The expectation here
is of continuous improvement and that is
innovation for these set of employees. In
the daily work of deadlines, escalations,
firefighting, adhoc customer requests
expecting disruptive innovation is not
viable.
Disruptive or transformational Innovation
works best when you are away from the
daily firefighting mode and are able to look
at the big picture. Everyone working on a
big innovative disruptive idea is neither
possible nor desirable. It is not desirable
as customers` psychology tells us there are
four broad segments of customers early
adopters, early majority, late majority
and laggards, these segments follow a
normal curve distribution. If we have half
of the population resisting change and is
consuming the regular solutions, it makes
complete business sense that their needs
are catered to, these revenues are to be
managed by maintaining the business as
usual.
customer is expecting day in and day out,

and Change the business -team works
without the responsibilities of the daily
operations on creation of new solutions,
which will help us leap frog into future.
An obvious logical criticism to the
approach raised is - Are we by limiting
the innovation to a small set of employees
not prone to producing solutions which are
idealistic and away from the real ground
realities? Will `run the business` part of
the organization not be resistant to change
and create hindrances to implementation?
I regard these not as criticism but potential
downsides to be aware of and managed.
These are valid concerns because if the two
parts of the organization are not aligned,
the paradigm shift may not happen. The
Run the Business gets us all the revenue
and are powerful stakeholders in the
organization. Their acceptance is crucial
to making key improvements, which if
ignored would lead to stagnation. The Run
segment is closely aligned with clients and
is also a key source of ideas that can lead
to disruptive innovation.
Moreover, any innovation rests on basic

fundamental of allowing for the person
to fail, and in such a case, performance
management cannot be productivity based
but on the merit of experimentation and
idea incubation. In regular business, we
have strict closure activities and to expect
to innovate when working on a strict SLA
of closure is far-fetched.
The solution therefore is to ensure there are

enough interlocks between the Change and
Run the business so that they are working
in synchronization. HR plays a key role in
facilitating and driving synchronization
between the two.
In that context I believe the organization

is effective with both of these types of
innovation -one where you work on rapid
disruptive innovation and other where
you maintain and continuously improve
what the customers are consuming. At
Wipro, we have this distinction, and the
two segments which we have are Run
the Business and Change the Business.
Run the business- team is responsible for
the regular delivery operations which
Let me now talk about the kind of

organization which needs to be designed
which will foster innovation.
How to Build an Organization which

encourages Innovation?
The two important factors to build an

innovative organization are: leadership
and culture. Innovation by design cannot
accomplish any movement on a daily basis,
it does not have a to-do list which can be
struck off by the end of the day. The work
rests in a futuristic idea or concept, which
23
has not been tried earlier and cannot have

a proof of concept to begin with.
In the connected world today, analysts
and social media track all the moves of
organization minutely, the pressure to
show top line and bottom line performance
each quarter is immense. In such a world,
a leadership perspective where money
spent is not seen as cost but an investment,
unflinching leadership support for long
term goals is required for innovation to
flourish. At Wipro we have created an
innovative investment process where
all our leaders build seed money under
a category named as Horizon 2 and
Horizon 3, these cover projects where we
experiment and look for innovation.
Leadership also is the key to build the
kind of culture which fosters innovation.
Innovation is possible when people are
allowed to experiment towards an end
goal and experiments by nature can fail.
Hence a culture which allows for failure
is required for innovation. Innovative
organizations have a culture which
is adaptive and agile. They cultivate
expertise, outside-in thinking and a global
mindset. They reward experimentation,
curiosity and collaboration. They enable
innovation through networks, investment
and tools.
The role of HR is to remove barriers to
innovation and create the right culture,
we need to design reward systems that
recognize competencies and innovation
behavior, nurture diversity of people,
ideas as part of the work, evangelizing
and role model open communication
which fosters diverse views.
It is persistence and application of a
few simple principles that can build an
innovation culture, my own learning on
some of this is detailed below:
Keep it Simple: If innovation is the
smartest solution and technology it is
24
also finding simple answers. They will give

you the highest value worth the complexity
involved. At Wipro HR we were facing
an issue with building communication
channel from employee to organization,
the traditional communication flows top
down. We have an innovative practice
today called the `Employee Advocacy
Group` where we have given employees
a position of power and a platform where
they can directly work with leaders on
organization processes, policies and other
areas that matters to them.
Collaboration: Good ideas are not limited
to a few and great ideas generally come
when people collaborate to solve problems.
This needs to be nurtured and in this I
believe the power of Social media can
be tapped into. At Wipro we have built
powerful platforms for people to connect we have leadership blogs, a social platform
for people to connect with one another and
very recently we have tried an innovative
concept of social mentoring. We also have
a `mobile app innovation group` which
gets employees to collaborate and develop
business solutions.
Appreciate: It is a long road peppered
with many failures before an innovation
starts to show results. In such a scenario
where we need to keep people constantly
motivated, appreciation does wonders.
We need to have a method by which we
dont encourage only the outcome but
also reward the thought. At Wipro we
have come up with innovative ways to
appreciate and laud the innovators, some
examples are - Wipro Innovators Club,
The New Idea Challenge Series, The Wipro
Tech Challenge, Patent Club, etc.
Closing notes.
We live in a time where we are trying to
adapt to the world around us while at
the same time maintaining a competitive
edge. How do we fit in innovation in the
scheme of things? Well, it wouldnt fit in

if we try to forcefully introduce it and
will always remain alien. Because like a
bitter pill forced down your throat, people
will feel threatened and confused, unsure
and faced with timelines and milestones,
and will eventually & naturally gravitate
towards tried and tested ways of doing

things. The most important variable and
stepping stone to innovation is Leadership
Support and Culture. HR is in an envious
position, as it has the much-needed
leadership support and investment to
transform culture and processes.
25
INNOVATION AND HR
IN APOLLOS JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE
Dr. K PRABHAKAR
About the Author
Prabhakar has Graduated in Chemistry with a PG in Social Work
(PM&IR) MSSW, BL, Dip (T&D), Dip (Lab & Adm Law) followed
by a Ph.D on Nursing Professionals from University of Madras
and a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from Indian Statistical
Institute.
HR Career started in Plantations and thereafter held different
positions in Mines, Textiles, Engineering, and Banking and
associated with the Apollo Hospitals Group from 1986 in different capacities in
Corporate HR. He is now the Chief Education & Skilling Officer of the Group and
also is the CEO of Apollo MedSkills, a JV with NSDC.
pollo Hospitals is the pioneer of

integrated Health Care delivery in
India with a mission to bring in Health
Care of International Standards to our
country. From a humble beginning, today
Apollo has more than 8500 beds across 51
Hospitals and 43,000 employees with a
significant presence at every touch-point
of the Medical value chain. The legacy
of touching and enriching lives stems
from the pillars of the Apollo Philosophy
experience, excellence, expertise and
research.
The value chain in the Health Care system
has two important Segments Public and
Private Health Care Delivery segment.
Further, it is divided into Health Care
Service Delivery, Medical Equipments
Pharmaceutical companies and Medical
Insurance Segments. Hospitals are a part
of Health Care Service Delivery Segment.
The Hospital Medical Services (Doctors
& Nurses), Paramedical Services, Support
Services, Administrative & Outsourced
26
Services provide unidirectional customer

aligned services. As an organization,
hospitals are people dominant complex
unit having highly educated Doctor
Professionals at one end of the spectrum
and less qualified ward boys /girls and
housekeepers on the other end of the
spectrum. Though there is a tremendous
heterogeneity in terms of demographics
and culture within the work force in a
hospital, the synergy and the cohesion
among the various services becomes the
key differentiator of making a hospital a
great institution of repute and hope.
However, there are enough challenges to
be combated by the Hospitals due to the
following factors such as Quickening pace
of change, Demanding Customers, High
Shareholder expectations, Technology
Revolution, Competition, Handling
Gen Y Employees, Service mind-set Vs
Professionalism and Building competency
and talent for quality service delivery.
The CEO and the Management team
have to develop a clear strategy to face

the challenges to ensure viability and
sustainability of the organization.
This article covers the changes brought
at Apollo to align the onboarding and
existing employees to be in line with the
concept of customer centric experience
building through innovative interventions.
We have also covered HRs contribution
in managerial capability building and
developing internal process improvement
teams by deploying Lean Six Sigma
methodology supported by the certification
process from the Indian Statistical Institute.
Finally we have talked about Apollos
role in creating professionals at different
levels in the health care space by joining
hands with National Skill Development
Corporation.
Journey from Induction- Apollo
Acculturation Program for imbibing
excellence: (AAPIE)
The first onboarding welcome experience
for a new employee plays a very important
role in creating positive employment
experience / moments of truth. With this
thought in mind we revisited this process
which was in existence to ensure that the
values of the organization are disseminated
and imbibed in each individual. For
this purpose Apollo decided to recreate
the induction experience by setting up
a program called Apollo Acculturation
Program for Imbibing
Excellence.
The organization did
a dip stick check to
understand if everyone
demonstrated these
values in the roles
that they played. This
exercise was followed
by gap analysis and the results were shared

with the Management Committee. The need
of the hour was to re-think, re-structure and
re-work on the induction. The corporate
HR team, Unit HR team, and all training
managers did a brainstorming session
and came out with a plan to re-structure
the induction from 2 days of classroom
orientation to an Experience building
journey for 3 days to all new associates and
called it Apollo Acculturation Program
for Imbibing excellence.
Why the name AAPIE and how it is
different from Induction?
Acculturation is the process
of understanding the culture of an
organization and aligning your values to
the value system of the Organization. At
Apollo, Excellence has been the defining
edge, clinically as well as in other
outcomes. Hence it was critical that our
new Associates quickly align to the goals
of the organization. Customer expectation
is changing fast and it is important that
our onboarding journey needs to be in line
with the concept of Experience Building.
APPIE has made a huge difference to the
onboarding experience of new Associates
resulting in the growth of our Tender
Loving Care Index (Customers rating on
courtesy and compassion). The Journey
of APPIE does not end on day three but
the same batch is invited by the COO
on completion of 30 days to assess their
comfort zone. Further on day 365 we have
a reorientation for a day where all learning
is re-emphasized.
APPIE won 2 awards - Asian Learning
& Development Leadership Awards for
Best Induction Program and SKOCH
order of merit in the year 2013
27
Having talked about generic induction of

onboarding new employees we thought it is
important to discuss about the functional
induction process of Nursing Population
which is one of the key segments of the Hospital.
HOPE: (Hospital Orientation Program
for Entrees)
Professional Nursing holds a unique place
in the society. Nurses are the largest
members in the health care service delivery
process and they work in diverse settings
and fields as frontline providers of quality
nursing care. While most nurses work in
acute-care settings/wards in hospitals,
nurses expertise and skills extend well
beyond the same and nursing continues to
be an indispensable service to the public.
Nursing care is provided for people
with widely diverse health and sick care
needs in multiple contexts worldwide.
The knowledge and competence to meet
such a wide variety of care needs may
be daunting for the student starting a
program of study to become a registered
nurse. Nursing program is designed to
allow knowledge and practice experience
to be accumulated and assimilated by the
nursing student within the 3 or 4 year
course period. However, learning is life
long, and the journey of learning through
a Pre-Registration Nursing Program is only
the beginning.
Hence, at Apollo, the Nursing orientation
program is designed to mould Novice
Nurses to full-fledged Apollo Nurses. An
Apollo nurse is powered with intellect,
driven by values, crafted with skills,
translated into a world of action by
providing personalized care to the patients.
It is necessary for an institution to train new
nurses, according to the hospital policies,
protocols & procedures.
28
At Apollo a specific program has been

designed called Hospital Orientation
Program for Entrees (HOPE), to align
nurses to patient centric functional
requirements. HOPE classes include 4
days of Orientation, 6 days of functional
training, and 21 days of Preceptorship
period in which the Nurse Director,
Chief Nurse Educator, Clinical Educators
and Clinical Instructors will train the
candidates. Pretest is conducted before the
start of the HOPE classes which includes
written and skill assessment and a Post
Preceptorship exam after 31 days.
PEACE: (Preceptee Education and
Competency Evaluation)
The beginning of a nurses career
can be a challenging time and initial
experiences can be pivotal. To ensure the
best possible start for newly qualified
nurses and to maximize the training
investment, a Quality Preceptorship
Program is essential.
Preceptorship should be viewed as a
structured transition phase that allows
newly registered nurses to develop their
confidence and apply their knowledge
from academic studies and placements.
Having expert support, with protected
time gives a foundation for lifelong
learning and allows nurses to provide
effective care more quickly.
At Apollo Hospitals, the nurses are in
the Preceptorship Program for 21 days
after their HOPE Program. Preceptors
are identified from each ward and
the Preceptees will be assigned to
each Preceptor in respective area. The
Preceptors and the Preceptees will be
posted in the same shift for knowledge and
skill enhancement. Post evaluation of the
Preceptees is carried after this program to
evaluate the nurses knowledge and skill

using a structured Questionnaire and skill
checklist.
4. No negative marks were given.

5. Skill Check list
SKILL TOOL:
PROCESS:
Recruitment and Deployment
1. A checklist has been used for assessing

the skills
General Induction by HR
2. It is assessed in 2 situations, before &

after Preceptorship training period.
Nursing Induction HOPE (Hospital

Orientation Program for Entrees)
3. The major components in the checklist

included: JCI mandates, basic nursing
procedures like vitals, medication
administration, advanced nursing
procedures like blood transfusion,
assisting doctors in invasive procedures
and infection control practices.
Results revealed that there was good
improvement in level of knowledge and
skill required to work at Apollo Hospitals,
Chennai among the novice nurses after
attending the HOPE & PEACE session.
Deployed for wards
Deployed for
CCU and OT
Area Specific HOPE

Preceptorship Program (Preceptee
Education and Competency Evaluation
PEACE)
Post Preceptorship
competency
evaluation
Competent
Not competent
Posted in
Respective
areas
Re training
and
Evaluation
KNOWLEDGE TOOL
1. The tool used for the study was a
structured questionnaire.
2. The questions were based on the
policies, procedures & protocols of
Apollo Hospitals.
3. Totally 50 multiple choice questions and
each question carried 1 mark
Thus after completion of one month

orientation program, our Nurses were able
to take care of patients with confidence
and the major nursing error that leads
to sentinel events has been Nil. Ongoing
Nursing education and training is also
happening everyday for the knowledge and
skill enhancement. Periodical competency
evaluation on both knowledge and skill
is carried out to ensure only competent
nurses are on the floor to take care of the
patients to deliver quality care. The above
initiatives are a part of continuous nursing
education at Apollo Hospitals.
Enhancing Managerial Talent at Apollo
through strategic Alliance with XLRI
The need for professionally trained
Hospital Managers is felt by the Indian
Hospitals very strongly. This is largely due
to growing recognition that performance
levels of hospitals in various managerial
and functional areas are falling short of
standards that are known to be achievable.
The profiles coming out of the 2nd /
29
3rd tier Institutions do not match with

the Graduates coming out of premier
Business Schools of the country. Taking
into consideration the attrition and the
need for professional talent to take care of
the expansion plans at Apollo, the Group
partnered with XLRI for building the
Internal Managerial Talent.
Apollos 75 Practicing Managers across
6 Group Hospitals (Delhi, Hyderabad,
Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Madurai)
were selected through an internal
screening process for a one year General
Management Program with XLRI in
a virtual learning environment. The
program was delivered from the studios of
XLRI campus by the Professors. To make
the program cost effective XLRI studios
got connected to the Apollo Bridge and
the 6 Hospitals were linked to the bridge
to enable the Managers take part in the
learning process. The program was further
supported by contact classes at the XLRI
premises.
The program was on a co-pay basis at
reduced cost due to utilization of our
internal resources in Tele-networking. 30%
of the successful candidates progressed in
their career ladder through vertical and
horizontal movement across the Group.
HRs contribution towards building the
culture of Continual Improvement at
Apollo:
In todays competitive business
environment, organizations depend
on the responsiveness and continual
improvement necessary to help them to be
successful in their business. Exceptional
quality will be our competitive market
differentiator. In the Health Care Industry,
quality of care is more than a concept. It
has become essential to patient well-being
and financial survival.
Lean Thinking and Six Sigma are two
30
process innovation approaches that

are currently popular in industry. Both
provide a systematic approach to facilitate
incremental process innovations. Lean Six
Sigma is characterized by its customerdriven approach, emphasis on decision
making based on careful analysis of
quantitative data, and a priority on cost
reduction and quality improvement.
Our vision at Apollo in the Lean Six Sigma
journey is to create 50 Black Belts; 500
Green Belts and 5000 Yellow Belts by end of
2015. Our driving force for Lean Six Sigma:
Patients
Clinicians
Surgeons/
Consultants
Executive
Director
CEOs/ Unit
Head / Senior
Management
Quality/
Audit Process
Owners LSS
Community
Costing Team
Apollo Hospitals Lean Six Sigma Program

includes all levels in the Hierarchy and
provides for a well defined Deployment
framework. The framework helps in
identifying training needs, defines roles
and responsibility and lists down expected
contribution at every level.
As a part of our journey in achieving

excellence at Apollo, we have trained 29
Black Belts, 276 GBs and 1790 YBs, since

its inception in the year 2008. Examination
and Certification is handled by Indian
Statistical Institute. Today at Apollo we
have 10 Black Belt Projects, 180 Green
Belt Projects on three counts Process
improvement, Enhancing Quality through
error reduction and Cost Saving Projects.
Development of Health Care Human
Resources A JV with NSDC
In order to contribute to the national
vision in the Health Care Sector, Apollo
Hospitals Group has taken the initiative
of commencing 60 Skill Development
Centers across the country by setting up
Apollo MedSkills Limited and signing
a Joint Venture Agreement with NSDC
to further the cause the Nation with
respect to Skilling and Up Skilling Indian
youth to make them employable. Apollo
MedSkills, the skilling arm of the Group
is committed to developing talent in the
healthcare space.
The project includes a comprehensive
and unique training program that
combines class room training, simulation,
functional labs and fieldwork based
methodology to introduce the selected
candidates to the functions of a hospital
and provide them necessary skill-sets
which eventually helps them in finding
jobs in its hospitals and other healthcare

centers.
The courses in the academy is based on
the premise that a detailed, practical,
skill-oriented technical and vocational
training program for doctors, nurses,
technicians and support staff will provide
a strong career foundation and open up
several employment opportunities for the
underprivileged youth to succeed in todays
environment. The trained individuals will
be certified by Universities / Board /
Health Care Sector Skill Council of NSDC.
The enumerated initiatives have given
us a good learning insight about the
transformation of mindset of people in
bringing out the desired customer based
outcomes. In terms of this strategy, the
broader framework of capturing the voice
of customer and aligning our people
capability requirement helped us achieve
the desired results. Participation in the
accreditation/certification process such
as JCIA, NABH, NABL, CII Business
Excellence award helped Apollo to fine
tune the processes to enable the work
force align with the concept of positive
experience building to our customers
apart from creating a source for healthcare
professional talent as a part of the national
agenda.
Apollos motto is to touch a billion lives
and the journey continues
31
SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN HR
AKASH BHATIA
About the Author

Akash Bhatia is the Co-founder & CEO of Infinite Analytics. Akash
graduated from MIT Sloan in June 2012. Prior to MIT Sloan, Akash
is the co-founder of Indias first and largest ticketing company,
Kyazoonga. Prior to Kyazoonga, Akash was an engineer with
Oracle/PeopleSoft in Silicon Valley. He has completed his B.E from
College of Engineering, Pune, M.S from University of Cincinnati
and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
ig Data Analytics is everywhere today.

In the fields of Finance, Insurance,
Retail and Marketing, predictive analytics
has taken huge steps ahead, but in the case
of Human
Predictive analytics will allow HR to

get deeper insight and knowledge, and
really precognition about the future of the
organization that they could use to drive
a favorable outcome.
Resource Management, one doesnt hear

of as many companies adopting big data
analytics.
Many of us have seen the movie

Moneyball. It is an account of the
Oakland As baseball team in the 2002
season and their manager, Billy Beanes
attempt to assemble a competitive team,
despite a lack of funds. He, along
with his assistant, Peter Brand, adopt a
sophisticated predictive analytics to crunch
data from millions of sources, pitches,
games and other variables to create a team
of undervalued players with specific skills
that went on to win the World Series. (Of
course, predictive analytics have become
a mainstay in team sports these days but
it got a fillip from the Oakland As).
For years, companies have been conducting

exit interviews, and most of the times, the
top most reason for quitting is the want
for better compensation compensation
that will make them happier. But in most
cases, even when the employees are given
a retention bump in their compensation,
they leave shortly thereafter. Their period
of engagement with the company is not
exactly determined by the compensation
they receive. Then what exactly might
be the factors that drive/motivate such
employees?
Building some models based on exit
interviews/annual performance reviews
wouldnt really cut it. Most of these surveys
are really biased, and eventually, your
results will only be as good as the data
you have.
32
In Strength in Numbers, Erik Brynjolfsson

(an advisor to Infinite Analytics), talks
about how data driven decisions increase
the bottom-line of large companies by
almost 5-6% over their competitors.
Coming back to your organization, what if
HR could identify that a certain employee
getting a salary on par with others in

similar position is highly likely to quit, and
what if they could understand the factors
that might be motivating him/her to do so?
What if HR had the ability to understand
what steps need to be taken to create a high
performance team of equally motivated
employees, each getting the kind of benefits
that would drive them forward?
What if HR had a tool that gave them
a 360-degree view of candidates for a
particular position? Not just what they can
see on a the resume or the LinkedIn profile,
but something that gave them a sense of
not just the professional information, but
what kind of activities does the candidate
get involved in, what kind of networks is
s/he a part of, how many people in the
candidates network work for a competitor
firm, and so on and so forth. After all, an
eventual employees performance is not
just based on her/his experience, and the
sooner HR understands the factors that
motivate the employee, the better they will
be able to reduce attrition in employees.
Its not a pipe dream anymore!
To quote an oft-repeated line that you will
find when you Google big data, - 90% of
the worlds data today has been generated
in the last two years. A combination
of NLP, Machine Learning, Semantic
Technologies and Predictive Analytics
on this Big Data can provide insights
that have, until now, been the forte of
soothsayers and clairvoyants.
The Internet has a knack of capturing every
keystroke, every click and every activity
of a user, for perpetuity. Whether one
cleans up the cookies after visiting a site,
or hides behind a VPN, some information
is always captured by websites who wish
to know more about the user. Besides this,
more and more people also share a lot of
information about themselves on different
social networks. A typical breakdown of
information is as follows:
Facebook What one does on a daily basis,

the people one interacts with whether
friends or acquaintances, the kind of TV
shows one watches, the music one listens
to, and the places one visits, among other
things.
Linkedin Ones professional information,
education information, professional
groups, professional networks, and other
information that one would like to mention
on their resumes/CVs.
Twitter What one is thinking at the very
instant!
Now consider this information about this
user being combined into a 360 degree
view of the user the information from
Facebook + the information from Linkedin
+ the information from Twitter. Together,
this information is the most powerful
dataset about a user/candidate. But this
deluge of data about the user can be really
overwhelming. On an average, there is at
least 5GB of data about one user in this 360
degree view. The number of data points
to look through would only drive an HR
professional crazy. Besides, data without
insights is nothing. What you need to do is
use this data to get insights into the user.
There is a lot of information and sentiment
behind peoples posts on Facebook and
tweets on twitter. Using NLP (Natural
Language Processing) and Machine
Learning, one can break down these
into their sentiment, the what, when,
how and why of the users post. Using
Semantic technologies, one can then
understand more intelligently about both
the structured and unstructured data about
the user. For e.g.: If a user posts I love
cricket, is s/he talking about the game of
cricket or is s/he talking about the insect,
cricket. Getting this part right is only
part of the job. Semantic technologies can
also be used to understand relationships
between a users interests and products,
users and brands, products and products
33
and even users and users. What this means,

for example, is that Semantic Technologies
can help understand if a user likes Sachin
Tendulkar, likes to drink Pepsi, watches
How I Met Your Mother, wears a certain
kind (or brand) of clothes because of his
crush on a Bollywood Star and likes to hang
out with his friend on weekends.
So from just getting data about a user, one
can now go down to understanding what
is it that drives/motivates a user.
Predictive analytics can then build upon
this rich understanding of the user and
other users to predict a variety of things
about the user and more specific to HR
- what job is a user looking for, is the
user looking for a new job or is s/he
content with the current one, Is the user
disgruntled, are there any life events that
might affect the users performance at
work, and so on and so forth.
Thus, predictive analytics based on Social
Data, or Social Analytics have the ability
to provide HR with a crystal ball into their
employees/potential employees.
The genesis of Infinite Analytics lies in
a class at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. The inventor of the World
Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee instructs
a class on Linked Data Ventures at the MIT
CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Lab). Essentially, we create
a Social Genome of a user across Social
Networks. Just as the human genome
tells us everything about the biological
person, the social genome, our patentpending technology, disambiguates a user
from across social networks, so user A on
Facebook is the same user A on Linkedin
and is the same user A on Twitter. We
do this with a relatively high degree of
accuracy. This is the most critical piece, as
any mess up here would completely screw
up the social genome. Once the merged
profile is created, our proprietary NLP
and machine learning algorithms begin
34
dissecting a users genome to identify

various aspects of the user, patterns in the
users behavior and, of course, understand
the users structured and unstructured
data. As mentioned earlier, being able to
understand that the user likes the game of
cricket and not the insect is something that
our algorithms are very accurate about. We
then use proprietary Semantic technologies
to understand the relationships between
users interests, likes, different products as
well as to get a understanding of any other
aspect of the user that might have remained
unexplained. Once this is completed, our
predictive analytics take over and predict
user actions and attributes. Some of them
are given below:
1. Intent
2. Spending Potential
3. Brand affinities
4. Events likely to attend
5. Influence
6. Competition
7. Brand Advocacy
8. Interests
9. And many others
While we do not strategize for our clients,
we provide them with the ammunition
they will need to take the right decisions.
To provide an instance, for one of our
clients, we provide them with the following
capabilities:
1. Identify target segments
2. Quantitatively estimate how certain
online behaviors (e.g. being a fan of
Deepika Padukone or of Mumbai
Indians) translates into other behaviors,
such as also liking other products/
brands
3. Identify fans and detractors of clients
products
4. Identify what motivates fans of
competitors and identify messaging

that could convert them to the clients
product
5. Identify the influence of popular culture
on the target audience
6. Identify real-time clusters of client
product/competitor fans
7. Identify groups with similar traits
8. Use predictive analytics to predict
future behavior knowing that a user

does not engage with a brand will
allow client to allocate their resources
somewhere else where there might be
a bigger impact
We also believe that a lot of these insights
can be further tuned to provide HR with
insights that they would need, specific for
their firms, much in the way I had written
about, above in this article.
35
IS IT TIME TO REPLACE HUMAN RESOURCES WITH

PEOPLE ENERGY?
CURT COFFMAN and ASHISH AMBASTA
About the Authors
Curt W. Coffman, MBA, is Senior Partner, Chief Science Officer. A
New York Times Bestselling Author, researcher, business scientist,
consultant to Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 organizations and
Executive Fellow at the Daniels School of Business (University of
Denver), Curt Coffman has invested 30+ years in the science of
high performance cultures.
Ashish is a Practice Head for Employee Engagement at PB and
is a seasoned professional having in-depth exposure in both
operational and strategic business positions. He has more than a
decades experience of managing business, teams and profitability
of various SBUs. In his last stint at Gallup India, Ashish has
worked with several leading organizations around leveraging
people element of business and was responsible for the largest
client relationship that Gallup had in India.
ccording to Wiki: A resource is a

source or supply from which benefit
is produced.
way around. All power clearly resided

in the employer. That was then, but is
it now?
Looking at the term, Human Resources,

from this perspective, it means a human
(source or supply) produces a benefit.
This term was coined during the industrial
age when producing a product required
a combination of several resources, one
of which was human labor. Industrial
and manufacturing jobs made up 80%+
of all jobs. HR existed to keep an ample
supply of humans, in-stock. But, the
need wasnt really about the human, it
was about the hands of the human.
Resources running low? No problem, just
hire a few more hands. The employee
needed the employer more than the other
The latest engagement data shows more

and more employees around the world and
across industries becoming increasingly
disenchanted with their work. More than
two thirds of employees going to work
are either not engaged or disengaged.
This means they are physically showing
up for work, leaving their head, heart
and soul elsewhere. This is a potentially
dangerous situation for all stakeholders.
Employees are frustrated, customers
have become switchers, and when these
human supplies become compromised
and unreliable the consequences are
widespread.
36
Changing Context:
People Energy:
When you change the way you look at

things, the things you look at change! One
of the issues, which has led to this situation,
is our inability to see that the world has
changed and with this the context of the
employment has also changed:
With some recent estimates pegging

industrial jobs at below 20% of the total
job role pie, majority of the job roles
available today are knowledge-based.
Consequently, the resource or supply
needed to create the desired benefit no
longer lies in the hands, but in what
lies between the ears of the person. The
challenge for the organizations now is
- how to maintain an ample supply of
human intelligence, ideas and instincts to
create desired benefits for the business?
Dimension Earlier Time
Now
Reason for
working
Money
Meaning
Driver for
staying
Pension
Purpose
Place of
work
Office
Anywhere
Time of
work
9-5
Anytime
Flow of information
Senior to
Junior
With Everyone
Length of
employment
Lifetime
ALFNJ [Always
looking for next
Job]
Teams
Present/
Physical
Virtual
Choices for
Limited
employees
Many
Role of HR
Drive Business
Supply
While the employment context has

changed, we are still managing our people
using practices firmly planted in the past.
Its like you are trying to drive a Porsche
with pair of rock solid bullocks and
wondering why its not moving fast? You
might have worlds best systems, process
and technology to drive people initiatives
in the organization but if it doesnt meet the
needs of current and future generations,
it may not be of any use. Unfortunately,
most organizations have not realigned
their people practices to meet the wants
of this changed scenario and this in turn
may be partly responsible for the abysmal
employee experience.
Some of the worlds greatest organizations

have found an answer to this challenge by
focusing on the energy of the individual
and how that is directed and used in
organizationally productive ways. They
start by selecting the right talent, but then
extend it to finding the right fit which
transforms the talent into talented and
have great managers who understand
that their #1 job is to help every person
reach their highest level of success. They
consciously build on the understanding
that the success of their business lies in
the heads and hearts of people within.
Dawning of this new reality can either
strike terror in the hearts of leaders, or
can be seen as an opportunity to build real
value and growth. And most progressive of
the lot (of leaders) embrace this reality and
translate what may appear as a significant
headache to some into a source of distinct
and sustainable competitive advantage.
People Energy is either used or wasted,
it cannot be stored:
We have met several organizations which
keep scratching their head on how do
they engage rather than really thinking
about how do they capture and release the
energies of people coming to work in a
manner which impacts everyone involved.
Every employee brings a certain amount
of energy to work. Depending on the
37
work environment and other factors,

either this energy is utilized in good/
innovative work or it dissipates into
politics and other negative activities. Great
organizations constantly think about how
the energy of an individual needs to be
drawn out for generating maximum value
for the organization and the individual in
question. Based on our multi-year, multicountry research, we at PB Coffman have
been able to broadly segment employees
into three categories depending on their
emotional connect, ability to provide
superior results and propensity to dispense
energy in organizationally productive
ways:
Actively Engaged
Passengers
Actively Disengaged
Our Research suggests that while Passengers
utilize 65% of their total available energy,
actively Engaged employees are able to use
82 percent of their talent and abilities at
work. In contrast, Actively Disengaged are
functioning at only 27% of their capacity.
Lets consider the ramification of this
variation from a project management
perspective, where our strategies reflect
some basic assumptions like treating
peoples energies in terms of FTEs [Full
time Equivalents]:
A team of 100 people working 40 hours a
week is 4000 staff hours. If on average only
42 are actively engaged, 23 are passengers
and 35 are actively disengaged, the amount
of energy available to the organization is:
FTEs
40
= 4000
100
CaHrs/
Staff
People
pacity
Wk
hours
Actively
Engaged
42
40
@ .82
1378
Passengers
23
40
@ .65
598
38
Actively
Disengaged
Productive
Energy
35
40
@ .27
378
2354
Staff
hours
The question is why we are wasting so

much of People Energy and what is the
impact of this wasted energy?
Research comparing planned budgets,
benefits and timelines against actual
results for 1471 IT projects, reported in
HBR, revealed an average cost overrun
of 27 percent. Even significantly one in six
projects incurred [on average] a whopping
cost overrun of 200% that is sad and bad
for companies. And if you look closely
this could have been avoided. There is
a way in which we can bring the extra
energy on the table and utilize the same
for productive outcomes.
Our studies into worlds best organizations
have brought out some key themes where
you manage this energy into abundance.
Some of them are:
1. Hiring for individuals purpose
and assessing alignment with what
the organization stands for: Best
organizations are very careful about
who they let in. They are very methodical
about the recruitment process and why
not, this step determines what type of
culture you are going to create in your
organization. Mindvalley (http://
www.mindvalley.com) a global brand
and an online resource company asks
prospective employees to upload a
video on YouTube explaining their
purpose in life, why they should be
hired at Mindvalley and how they
intend to contribute once in. And once
uploaded the videos with maximum
likes are the ones which get noticed by
the recruiters at Mindvalley while at
the same time creating visibility for the
individual in question.
This exercise gives Mindvalley an

insight into the persons source of
energy and inspiration- his/her deep
driving desire. Higher is the extent
of congruence between what the
individual is passionate about and
what the organization stands for, higher
is the extent of energy expanded in
organizationally productive ways and
personal fulfillment experienced by the
individual on an ongoing basis.
Values Create Value: Every organization
has crafted a set of values and you will
see them being prominently displayed
on the walls and as part of corporate
logo. However, the important thing is
not the prominence or the beauty of the
display but whether these values are
vivid, generate emotions, are personal
to the members of the organization and
do they create unique responses on the
ground that impacts an individuals
energy positively? Great organizational
cultures have specific and enduring
values that when lived on a day-to-day
basis become a source of organizational
folklore.
The values that make an organization
truly excellent are about 80 percent
generic and 20 percent specific. Generic
values are CHAIRs (Customer Focused,
Honesty, Accountability, Integrity and
Respect), the basics that are important,
but dont distinguish or energize.
Competitive advantage lies in the 20
percent that slam-dunks the meaning
of the organization creates incredible
desire to belong. Sticky values are
edgy, i.e. paranoid collaboration, fun
and a little bit weird, bad news fast,
hardworking and fearless to name a
few.
2. Providing Worlds best GO-TOs:
In the industrial age, information,
reverence and decision making power
was distributed to only a select few.
This made them very important in the

organizational scheme of things. This
created a code of behavior for those
who reported into them. There were
unspoken rules - adoration is welcomed
but there will be consequences for being
too direct. Maybe this is the genesis of
subordinate?
Now with the advent of internet
and web, information is no longer a
prerogative of a select few, in fact,
people around you may have much
more information at their disposal than
what you may have accumulated over
the years. Since the gap in access to
information has diminished, the onus
on go-tos or managers has increased to
continuously think of ways to add value
to their junior team members. Young
employees are looking for managers
who can unclutter their minds and put
them situations and positions that allow
them to fully leverage their talents and
abilities and be their best. . The era of
the prescriptive manager who only
focused on the dos and donts of the
job is gradually getting eclipsed by the
need for a Coach Manager. This is the
manager who asks relevant questions,
helps people unleash their full potential
and supports them when things get
tough.
One of the leading technology company
in Bangalore, India has made an attempt
towards enabling such a change. The
organizational structure enables this kind
of a managerial behaviour by mandating
each people manager to play the role of a
Coach for his/her team. And this is not
only enforced structurally but also enabled
behaviorally through active knowledge,
skill and behavioral support to managers
to play this role most effectively.
3. Keep the Mission Vivid: Employees
dont want to arrive, work and then go
back home. They yearn to know how
39
their work is contributing to the larger

purpose of the organization. They
really want to know how their work
is creating value for stakeholders. If
they dont have a line of sight from
themselves to the impact they are
creating, they tend to get disconnected
and look for something that does
provide meaning. A very critical driver
of an employees association, longevity
and productivity in an organizational
context is its purpose.
Aravind Eye Care System runs a very
successful chain of Eye Hospitals and
Clinics in Southern Part of India. This
organization was founded in 1976 by
Dr. G. Venkataswamy with a simple
yet compelling mission- To Eliminate
Needless Blindness. This mission has
remained pivotal in every aspect of
running and growing Aravind Eye Care
System from a 11 bed facility to what
is now regarded as one of the worlds
largest facilities in eye care. Every job
right from the bus driver who drives
patients to the nearest Aravind facility
for free treatment to the nursing staff
who takes care of these patients has a
clear sight of how their contributions
are inspired by and contributing to
furthering this vivid mission of the
organization.
4. Take Interest in People and They
Will Take Interest in You: Great
organizations love their people and
their people love them back. They
value real relationships and know that
the quality of relationships will be
what leads success. There is an effort
to craft roles around people versus
fitting people into jobs. Decisions get
made close to the action and strong
relationships drive great decisions.
Rules are never allowed to replace great
choices. Employees are ALL-IN and
cant wait to come to work.
40
One of the leading non-banking financial

services provider based out of Mumbai
in India has taken this philosophy
of taking interest and loving your
people as a basis for allowing people
to architect their workday as per their
needs. The organization realized that
employees at this organization valued a
certain degree of flexibility in their work
schedules. Consequently, employees
were encouraged to consult and work
out their time schedules in a way which
most suited their individual needs.
They were expected to be available
in office for team meetings and other
activities which required their physical
presence and beyond these interactions
which required a mandatory face to
face interface; employees were free to
decide how their daily work timings
and schedule looked like.
5. Allow Pursuit of Inclination: Some
of worlds most innovative companies
breed innovation by allowing their
people to chase their passions. An
opportunity to live ones passion and/
or interests at work not only benefits the
individual it also encourages positive
emotions which in turn fuel effective
utilization of peoples energy at work.
3M encourages its employees to spend
15 percent of their time to follow their
instincts and pursue something that
creates opportunity for them and the
company. Google also follows the
same rule with innovation jam and
opportunity for individuals and teams to
pursue projects which they feel strongly
about. Just because you are paid to be
working does not mean that you need
to leave your interests and passions
at home. In fact such organizations
create platforms for people to fuel
their passions and interests and in
turn employees feel inspired to exhibit
extra role behaviors and unleash their
full potential for organizational good.
An interesting finding from our

research suggests that the most
engaged employees have the positive
view of work-life balance. This does
not necessarily mean that they are
not occupied enough or they are
engaged because they have little or no
pressure to meet deadlines. What this
essentially means is that an opportunity
to fully invest your energy at work
inspires greater meaningfulness and
in turn positively impacts your overall
wellbeing at work. The notion of a
50-50 work-life balance is gradually
becoming archaic and organizations
are looking for ways to minimize the
divide that segregates work and life for
individuals. Life does not happen to be
outside of work, it can be at work too!
The difference between an also ran and a

world class organization lies in its ability
to maximize on every bit of people energy
available. They focus on consciously
creating a work environment or a culture
that encourages people to fully expand
their energy. Your competitors may be
able to copy your strategies, replicate
your process and get the latest technology
that you thought would set you apart
but its the people and their energy that
they cannot replicate. So, it will be your
people and their productive energies
which may determine whether you pip
your competition to the post or fall by the
way side. After all we are in the People
Business!.
41
INCLUSIVE HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

A HRD TRAJECTORY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF
DISADVANTAGED GROUPS
GARGI BANERJI and SUNIL PILLAI
About the Author

Gargi Banerji is a founding member of the NGO Pragya, which
carries out development projects in the Himalayas and in SubSaharan Africa. She is an XLRI-alumnus, with 25+ years of
experience straddling the corporate and development sectors.
Since 1995, Gargi has directed Pragyas programming, shaping
it into a development organisation of repute (winner of Whitley
Award for Conservation, Energy Globe Award for renewable
energy, STARS Impact Award for education). Her work has been
recognised with the MSDS Award for Social Entrepreneurs and NHRDN citation.
Sunil Pillai is also a founding member of the NGO Pragya, and an
XLRI-alumnus with 25+ years of experience across industry and the
development sector. Sunil has worked in Marketing & Promotion
functions in industry, and as a Management Consultant with TCS.
In Pragya, he directs the HR & Communication functions and
guides Stakeholder relations, and his contribution to the sector
has been commended by NHRDN. He also plays a key role in
managing Pragya Solutions, providing consultancy services to
state & non-state actors in development.
The critical difference between HRD at an organizational level and that at a societal level is
how one perceives the human being: as a resource-contributor or as a member-participant.
The human being in an organization with a clearly enunciated economic purpose, is a
resource to be managed as a contributor. In a society, an ecosystem approach however needs
to be adopted, the human being viewed as a member with equal rights, with the potential of
being a productive participant, and the society and its leaders carrying the responsibility of
ensuring that every member-participant has equity in opportunities and is wholly enabled
to take advantage of these, thereby contributing to his/her own well-being as well as the
nations. HRD for societies needs to display an inclusive orientation, and use a selective
support and development approach, with a bias towards the disadvantaged, and deliver
muti-level interventions aimed at enabling, developing and empowering them.
42
1. Stretching the Boundaries in HRD:
he dominant focus of traditional HRD

has been on the organisation, with
the key objective being that of maximising
the economic benefit to the organization
while potentiating the individuals
resource value, the major levers being
those of selection, development, and
performance management. However, the
basic philosophy of HRD of investing
in people and their environment, for
shared gains, makes it eminently suited
to a broader application and utility, to
address larger, critical development issues
at a societal level as well, with certain
adaptations to suit societal objectives,
drawing on disciplines in the development
domain that are complementary. Along
with developmental benefits, this would
have deeper and more comprehensive
impacts on the economic sub-system as
well, and the multiple institutions of this
sub-system, viz industries, organizations,
and workforce performance.
This broader definition of HRD, as a subset
of human development, finds a reflection
in national-level HRD policies/strategies,
which have also typically followed the
human capital theory, and focused on
education, training, workforce/labour
management, demonstrating a neglect of
those development aspects that are less
directly connected to the economic purpose.
For instance, the NHRD policy in India is
largely to do with education, training and
culture, while that of Singapore includes
manpower planning and development,
education and lifelong learning, and the
work environment. Thus McLean (2006),
acknowledging the role NHRD could
play to address developmental issues in
nations, exhorted HRD researchers to
focus on expanding the scope of HRD to
include unaddressed, core developmental
issues, and a range of other authors
(Garavan et.al., 2004) have also supported
the need for a more comprehensive and

multi-level approach. A holistic and
multi-dimensional perspective is gradually
making its appearance in NHRD, with
particular strategies/policies aligned to the
specific national context and contributing
to the development goals (Millennium
Development Goals) on which the nation
is off-track, towards enhancing the overall
development status of the nation and
quality of life, as well as productivity of
its citizens.
Sustainable development remains a goalunreached in most societies, partly due
to inequities in development that leave
specific population sub-sets disadvantaged,
marginalised, and neglected. The factors
of disadvantage could do with socioeconomic characteristics, including sociocultural difference from mainstream
populations (caste, ethnic group, tribe,
religion), lower economic strata and lack
of access to factors/tools of development,
and place characteristics, ie, geographical
distance from or peripherality in relation
to locations of power and/or urban centers
(remote, rural, border areas). Two key
gaps that add to such disadvantage are
those of infrastructural and social capital.
Concepts and methods of HRD have much
to contribute to the building of social
capital in particular, which would have the
potential of transformative development
for the disadvantaged groups.
The missing principle in HRD at all levels
of its application however, particularly
in traditional HRD, i.e. that applied
to organisations, is the philosophy
of inclusion of the disadvantaged.
Organisations aiming for the economic
goal, would only go so far in developing
their human resources, and prefer to
choose the option of weeding out the less
competent, clearly evaluating investments
on HRD against the prospective returns.
At a societal level however, as Amartya
Sen has cautioned, development is not
43
wealth-accumulation alone, but rather the

expansion of an individuals entitlements
and capacities, and include political,
social, legal and infrastructural aspects,
apart from the economic. The selective
breeding and weeding approach of
traditional HRD when adopted at a
societal level would lead to leaving out the
disadvantaged, violating their rights and
increasing the development-divide, and
potentially, vulnerability to manipulation
by destructive forces. HRD for societies,
needs to adopt an ecosystem perspective
and a development-centered approach,
with an emphasis on the rights and
development of the disadvantaged.
2. Building Inclusion into HRD:
We therefore call for an inclusive HRD in
its application at the societal level, with a
bias for disadvantaged groups. This would
necessitate a more holistic perspective
with a multi-dimensional interventionmix, since such disadvantage is typically
PRAGYA, a not-for-profit development
organisation, works for the appropriate
development of vulnerable communities
and sensitive ecosystems of the world.
Pragya programs reach the benefits of
development to the most remote and
least developed regions, delivering
an array of services to isolated and
underserved communities, and building
their capacity to help themselves. The
organization was set up in 1995 with
a concern for last-mile communities,
and is today serving tribal communities
and ethnic minorities that are neglected
and marginalized in the development
process, in India, Nepal and Kenya.
These communities suffer from high
levels of poverty, have much lower
access to education, healthcare and
infrastructure, are constrained in terms
of opportunities, and hence continually
lose pace with other more rapidly
developing parts/groups.
44
accompanied by severe poverty and

infrastructural gaps, which are hurdles to
absorption and utilisation of traditional
HRD inputs, as well as a rights and
empowerment-based approach, for the
building up of social capital while ensuring
broader development principles and aims.
We present here a model for HRD
for disadvantaged societies/groupsa trajectory for a multi-dimensional
development of the disadvantaged,
contributing to sustainable and
inclusive societal development. The
model incorporates learning culled from
experiences of PRAGYA (a not-for-profit
development organisation) in working
with remote, disadvantaged populations
in Asia and Africa, who are the last-mile
and least-developed communities in these
regions. It also draws heavily on concepts
of individual development, human
development, human and social capital,
leadership and organizational learning,
organization development and culture
building. While particularly useful for
HRD in its broader dimension, the model
also holds suggestions for managing a
more organic organization change and
development process in low-performing
units/divisions in organizations.
Broadly: the Trajectory begins at a

Development Platform, which requires the
creating of an environment supportive of
development and human rights; 3 Spirals
of Development originate from this base,

three sets of development actions aimed
at enabling and empowering the people
through progressive interventions, the first
aimed at Capability Building in individuals
and groups, the second aimed at Stake
Building in communities, and the third
aimed at Citizenship Building to enable
the specific group to take its place in the
larger society.
3. The Development Platform:
The fundamental entitlements of a citizen
from his/her country and government, are
pre-requisites for development, in that only
when the people are confident of accessing
their rights, are they able to absorb
and utilise development inputs. This
necessitates upon the local government
and development actors to ensure human
rights and create an environment for HRD.
The process needs to begin with State
commitment and associated development
action to provide for the basic needs and
fundamental rights of the population.
Critically important is the delivery and
reach of welfare services such as education
and health, and the availability of related
infrastructure (schools, hospitals); it must
be noted, that services and infrastructure
for disadvantaged, last-mile communities,
are frequently hindered by issues of
restricted physical or social access, such as
caste or ethnic group based discrimination,
and/or poor access conditions for remote,
hilly, forested or border areas. Effective
service delivery would necessitate dealing
with these hurdles as well, and adopting a
rights-based approach to welfare services
and infrastructure. The institutional
framework and environment for equitable
access to rights (laws, justice), must be in
place, with necessary legal provisions,
as well as the government structures,
courts and legal procedures for redressal.
Governance structures and processes must
emphasize and institutionalize inclusion,
ensuring this in programs and policies,

while harnessing communication and
media to promote such attitudes, and deal
with prejudice, barriers and discrimination
of all kinds. Policy and legal support might
need to incorporate measures for positive
discrimination as well, in the short-term,
towards bridging the development divide.
Disadvantaged populations also have
higher levels of vulnerability and exposure
to risks. Poverty and discrimination leave
them socially and economically vulnerable,
which also implies higher exposure levels
to disasters and diverse threats. They
tend to be on the fringe of mainstream
society and experience lower coverage by
institutions of protection, such as police,
courts, disaster management services, and
since poverty and hunger also impacts
the people on the margins, their primary
concern is to do with survival, rather than
development. State efforts need to be
focused on providing these groups with
a reasonable sense of security regarding
their basic needs, viz food and water and
access to resources, livelihood security
and freedom from hunger and poverty,
and a sense of safety and protection from
threats to life. Material support to the most
disadvantaged, along with special legal
protection and availability of safety-nets,
would contribute to the minimum sense
of security needed for development to
take place.
4. The 3 Spirals of Development:
With an assured basic minimum of equity
and security in place for disadvantaged
groups, an effective process of change
and development can be initiated. The
Trajectory would comprise a simultaneous
focus on 3 levels of HRD for disadvantaged
groups: individuals and groups, with
a focus on the human and economic
aspects of development; communities,
with a focus on socio-cultural aspects;
and larger society, with a focus on the
45
political aspects. It must be noted that the

latter levels have a longer gestation period
and need a longer period of support to
reach the threshold level of development,
and achieve self-propelled growth and
sustainability.
Spiral 1: Capability building
Building the capacity of the disadvantaged
would have the objective of enabling
them to share equal space in development
and progress. With this perspective,
HRD interventions need to be aimed at
potentiating individuals and groups, and
thereby the human capital of the area. This
builds holistic capability - towards creating
the right attitudinal base, developing
necessary knowledge and skills, and
facilitates the productive use of the
individual and group capacity.
a] Information, education and training:
Continuing under-development,
neglect and exclusion of disadvantaged
groups, and the visible development
divide from the more privileged and
mainstream populations. This leads to
psychological scars, including a sense
of helplessness and apathy. The first
steps therefore would be to foster an
attitudinal change, overcoming this
development apathy and confidence
gap, and creating the psychological
fabric capable of absorbing development
inputs. Education is the greatest
enabler at an individual level, and
removing barriers to primary, higher
and technical education, as well as
information and lifelong learning, for
disadvantaged groups, would ensure
individual development and help
transform and potentiate the local
human capital. Training for economic
activities must aim to bridge the gap
between competencies required for
current markets and those available
within the disadvantaged groups, to
make additional livelihood choices
46
Development Resource Centres:

Pragya has set up several ICT-enabled
Community Resource Centres in
disadvantaged areas, equipped with a
range of information and knowledge
resources. Regular supplementary
education sessions for children,
vocational training programs for youth,
confidence and awareness building
sessions for especially marginalised
groups, are held at these centres.
The Resource Centre at Joshimath in
the remote district of Chamoli, is a
hub of local development dialogue
and action. It serves 5200 people, and
has conducted 114 educational and
training sessions in the 7 years since
it was set up.
available to them, and to enable
them for effective interaction with
the markets. Interventions need to
focus on up-skilling for traditional
livelihoods and alternate-skilling for
the uptake of alternate livelihoods.
Frequently those at the negative
side of the development divide are
pegged down by low-end jobs and low
margins, as well as lack of options. The
results of such interventions would be
enhanced employability, and increased
entrepreneurship and economic activity
among the disadvantaged groups, along
with increased and supplementary
incomes.
b] Enabling productivity and local resources:
Local productivity in disadvantaged
areas is usually constrained by lack
of necessary infrastructure and
support. Traditional HRD elements
aimed at teams/groups may be
adapted for effecting enhancement
in productivity enhancement, with
benefits for groups. Self help groups,
cooperatives and enterprise clusters
with shared infrastructure would be

viable measures to enable producers
in disadvantaged groups to grow and
develop their livelihoods or embark into
new livelihoods, while also providing
for intra-group support, mentoring,
and joint access to markets. Economic
benefits would accrue to all members
and thus raise the base economic
levels and the groups capacity for
propelling economic development,
and set in a positive cycle of growth.
Development mechanisms need to be
focused on group development. They
should also provide access to enablers,
in particular, technical assistance,
credit, and management support, and
assistance with access to markets,
including market information and
marketing support.
Heritage-based Enterprises: Pragya has
facilitated 24 niche-sector cooperatives
in the Himalayas, leveraging and
commercialising the local heritage, such
as traditional arts and crafts, local herbs
and food products. The cooperatives
have been assisted with formation
support and storage/processing centres
and a Microenterprise Facilitation
Service in the districts provides ongoing
training, market information and
business linkages.
The MPGC (Medicinal Plants Growers
Cooperative) set up in 2003 in the
remote Himalayan valley of Lahaul,
has given the tribal population of the
district a set of cash crops, and the 600
farmer-members of the cooperative earn
as much as USD 250,000 per annum via
institutional sales arrangements with
herbal majors (Dabur).
HRD also has a key role in the
development of intellectual capital
and management of local knowledge
(Salisbury and Plass, 2001; Kessels
and Poell, 2004). When applied to

disadvantaged populations, HRD
strategies should aim to develop the
intrinsic strengths of the group. They
need to make them the factors of
competitiveness, and thereby guard
against the one size fits all approach.
Available local skills and resources,
and local knowledge and innovations,
may lead to maximum and quickest
economic gain and multi-dimensional
benefits. For instance, niche-sector
livelihoods may be developed through
the commercialization of local arts and
crafts or bio-products; apart from a far
shorter development cycle, given the
local resource and knowledge base, this
would also serve to preserve the local
heritage, and provide socio-cultural
advantages and benefits as well.
Spiral 2: Stake-building
The sense of community in marginalized
and disadvantaged groups should be
leveraged for the purpose of development.
This may be achieved by inspiring
Development Catalysts: Pragya has
developed a cadre of local youth for
propelling development in remote, rural
areas. Some of them are:
Rural Technopreneurs, local youth with
a technical bent of mind, have been trained
for propelling infusion of technologies,
including renewable energy technologies
and farm technologies.
Helpline Volunteers have been developed
for clusters of villages, to provide
counselling and advice to communities at
the grassroots, and assist them to access
development schemes.
Citizen Journalists have been developed
in districts, to raise visibility of local
development issues and needs, at local and
national levels.
47
the group with a sense of responsible

stakeholdership, capacitating it with the
necessary structures and systems, and
engaging and galvanising strategic human
resources within the community as social
capital for change and development.
push to newer ways, and help increase

their uptake. Local civil society should
seek to develop and support these
strategic HRs to play an effective role
in community development.
a] Talent management and social capital:

Flight of skilled/competent human
resources is a critical issue of lessdeveloped regions, and leads to eroding
the HR capital and development
prospects of the people. Local talent
management implies creating avenues
for capturing the imagination of such
talent, channeling their energies, and
providing them with a mission, thereby
preventing outmigration. Youth, in
particular, possess the energy and
drive, and the capacity to learn, that is
necessary for change and development.
Hence, a focus on youth, and creating
opportunities for them, to contribute to
development and derive its rewards,
would benefit the entire community.
Since technology and infrastructural
gaps constitute key hurdles to
development in disadvantaged regions,
trained youth-power could be leveraged
to help access the benefits of technology
for the masses, and to set up and
operate necessary infrastructure as well.
b] L e a r n i n g a n d s e l f - d e t e r m i n a t i o n :
Community organizations and facilities
serve to empower communities, and
help them take charge of their own
development. The route to responsible
stake-building hence would be via the
creation of community-based structures
to help shape an appropriate form
of development, ensuring culturalspecificity and sustainability of
development strategies, participative
HRD principles and methods of team
and organization development may be
adapted for the purpose. Community
groups when made responsible for it,
have been found to more effectively
weave together development and
conservation elements in micro-level
development plans, with a stronger
sense of community and sustainability.
Alongside, systems for participative
management should be created, with
institutionalized processes for selfdirection, that allow the communities to
periodically evaluate their development
status and make necessary corrections.
Three strategic HRs need to be identified

and nurtured as internal catalysts and
key elements of the social capital that
would bring about the necessary change
and development at the community
level: change agents, i.e. people with
potential for driving change in specific
areas (eg, education, agriculture)
at the local-level; role-models and
mentors, i.e. early adopters of newer
technologies, and progressive members
who can demonstrate more effective
and developed ways and also coach
others; torchbearers or enthusiasts
who can promote the change and
development process, provide the social
HRD at a community/societal level

also encompasses the notion of the
learning community as an ongoing
change mechanism, enabling selfdirection, participative evaluation,
equal opportunity and power sharing
(Tosey, 1999).The above HRD strategies
for disadvantaged groups would make
for self-propelled learning systems at a
micro-level, and local-level governance
of services from the government and
mainstream development mechanisms.
In particularly remote, disadvantaged
areas, where the cost of delivery of
essential services might be prohibitive,
community organizations and service
48
Community Councils: Pragya has

facilitated the formation of CBOs in
remote areas, for various welfare,
development and conservation functions,
at the local level. These organisations
have also been strengthened with formal
structures and systems to aid them in
scientific conduct of these functions.
Community Conservation Councils
(CCC) and Habitat Monitoring
system: CCCs have been set up to ensure
sustainable use and protection of natural
resources of the community. Annual
habitat monitoring by them tracks changes
in the status of endangered species, forests
and water bodies in their neighbourhood,
for necessary action.
Network of Citizens Resources for
Welfare (NetCReW) and Barefoot
Monitoring system: NetCReWs use a
quarterly monitoring mechanism to check
on the adequacy and quality of services
and facilities for education, health, power,
in villages.
Womens Care Groups (WCG) and
Mother andChild Health Surveillance
system: WCGs in remote villages use the
health surveillance system for monthly
monitoring of nutrition and health status
of women and children and timely access
to hospitals and professional treatment.
providers (eg., traditional healers)
may be strengthened, to supplement
existing measures or compensate for
the lacunae in state provisions, through
community-based initiatives.
Spiral 3: Citizenship Building
The marginalization of disadvantaged
groups and their socio-cultural-political
exclusion from the mainstream, serves
to increase the psychological divide
within countries, and when this festers,
even jeopardizes the integrity of nation
states. Building effective citizenship of

disadvantaged groups, which would
reduce their marginalization and enhance
their integration, calls for a two-pronged
approach: empowerment and active
democracy for the disadvantaged groups,
and inclusion and solidarity by mainstream
populations.
a] Empowerment and leadership development:
Disadvantaged groups typically have
limited influence over the forces that
shape their lives and even lesser influence
over national politics. Most often, these
groups are small, scattered populations,
significantly different/dissimilar from
the mainstream population, and unable
to agglomerate due to socio-cultural
and geo-physical constraints, which
renders them voiceless or unheard in
national processes. A concerted effort is
necessary to educate the marginalized
groups on their civic and political
rights and responsibilities, and promote
their active participation in local and
national politics, and aim to develop
a politically informed, aware and
engaged populace. Processes for culture
building and change and development
may be introduced to facilitate such
empowerment.
Aids for Active Democracy: Pragya
implements a regular communication
initiative for building awareness of civic
and political rights in remote areas,
delivered through the Resource Centres
in the area. Political and legal experts
are also used to train panchayat leaders
and local activists and groom them for
their role.
Community Development Advocates
have been developed in the remote districts,
to study local issues, dialogue with the
government and affected groups, and work
to bring about necessary changes.
49
Alongside, local, political leadership

must be developed, and representation
of the marginalized groups ensured at
the larger societal level. Devolution
of powers to the grassroots, even
where the formal political processes
have embraced this, is often only
paid lip-service to, partly due to lack
of associated capacity in grassroots
leadership. Training for leadership
development and micro planning and
programming would ensure the real
devolution of powers and the effective
use of these for local development.
In addition, capacity building for
effective representation should also be
provided to local leaders, along with
ongoing mentoring/coaching, for the
use of mainstream political processes
to address local issues and bridge the
development divide.
b] Integration and inclusion: Effective
integration of marginalized groups
faces several barriers from mainstream
populations and processes. The
socio-cultural distance between
the mainstream and marginalized
communities is predicated by social
mores and a range of prejudices that
support these; a vicious cycle is played
out as the social divide and mutual
mistrust is deepened by the distance
and lack of interaction. Creating and
institutionalizing processes that foster
interaction between the disadvantaged
groups and mainstream population,
would serve to create understanding and
respect between them, and overcome
the beliefs and perceptions that hinder
the socio-cultural integration of the
disadvantaged groups. Cross-cultural
networks and linkages, inter-group
dialogues, campaigns and festivals,
would propel changes in the deep
structures of cultural attitudes, and
bring about inter-group trust, harmony
and solidarity.
50
Stakeholder Forums: Pragya has

established stakeholder forums for
marginalised areas and communities
and enabled them with processes for
engaging with the wider community
and interacting with government
and civil society. These include webbased discussions, online and physical
campaigns, portals for awarenessraising, and conferences and dialogues
with development actors.
High Himalaya Forum (HHF): HHF, a
stakeholder forum, spans all high-altitude
Himalayan districts. Members in districts
interact quarterly with the government on
development issues, and periodic national
level dialogues/conferences are held with
HHF members from all Himalayan
districts. The HHF website conducts
regular online discussions/campaigns on
development issues of the Himalayas.
Himalayan Voices (HV) and Himalayan
Heritage (HH): 2 web-portals have
been set up with the aim of wider
awareness on the Himalayas. HV provides
comprehensive information and research on
the Himalayan region, while HH provides
links to the culture, products and services
of the Himalayas.
Insufficient understanding among
development actors, of the problems
of disadvantaged groups and the
development neglect and constraints
suffered by them, tends to rob the
disadvantaged groups of suitable
and adequate development attention.
Governmental and non-governmental
development professionals need to be
educated and informed about these,
adopting HRD methods for crosscultural management training, to build
their sensitivity to disadvantaged
groups and their proficiency in
area/group specific development
actions. Opportunities should also be

created for face-to-face interactions
between development actors and the
disadvantaged groups. Stakeholder
forums, people-state dialogues, civil
society round tables, centered on
specific development issues of the
disadvantaged groups, and backed up
by a micro-level evidence-base, have
been found to be effective measures for
capturing the attention of development
actors and propelling inclusive
development.
5. Conclusion
The model presented above, based on the
experiences of a non-profit entity working
with especially disadvantaged groups,

seeks to ensure that the people deprived
of the benefits of development, relative to a
larger, mainstream population, are brought
back into the circle of development, via an
inclusive, 3-pronged strategy for human
resource and social capital development
in these groups, utilizing approaches and
methods from HRD and complementary
disciplines. Low-performing units/
divisions in firms could adopt a similar
HRD strategy for transforming the relevant
organization and the associated human
resources by building their capabilities,
their stake in the particular unit/division,
and their participation in the overall firm.
References:
Garavan, T.N., McGuire, D., and ODonnell, D (2004). Exploring human resource development: A levels of analysis approach. Human
Resource Development Review 3(4), 417-441.
Kessels, J.W.M. and Poell, R.F. (2004) Andragology and social capital theory: the implications for Human Resource Development.
Advances in HRD. 6 (2) 146-157.
McLean, G. N. (2004). National human resource development: What in the world is it? Advances in Developing Human Resources,
6(3), 269-275.
Salisbury, M. and Plass, J. (2001). A Conceptual Framework for a Knowledge Management System, Human Resource Development
International, Vol. 4, No. 4, p. 451 464.
Tosey, P. (1999). The Peer Learning Community: A Contextual Design for Learning, Management Decision, Vol. 37, No. 5, p. 403 410.
51
OLD INNOVATION OR NEW INNOVATION?

SUKUMAR RAJAGOPAL
About the Author
Sukumar Rajagopal is Chief Information Officer and Head of
Innovation at Cognizant. Sukumar has over 24 years of experience
in the IT consulting industry focused exclusively on Global
Delivery Models. Sukumar has been with Cognizant for over 17
years, and most recently, served as Cognizants Chief Knowledge
Officer. Sukumar was instrumental in the roll out of the One
Cognizant program, a major transformational initiative. The One
Cognizant platform has received several prestigious awards CIO
100 honoree, NASSCOM HR Summit Winner, Infoweek Top 250 honoree for best use
of technology for employee engagement and NASSCOM Top 5 Innovations 2012.
Sukumar was among the first 200 people in the world to pass the IEEE Certified
Software Development Professional (CSDP) exam. He holds a bachelors degree in
Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS, Pilani, India.
oday, you cant read a magazine or

attend an event without coming across
the word innovation. The growing
importance accorded to innovation has also
given rise to several mistaken notions about
it. While all misconceptions surrounding
innovation cannot be addressed in one
article, it would be pertinent to look at the
concept through the prism of old and
new innovations.
It is unfortunate that we have been
conditioned to think that innovation
means something altogether new. Even
an iPhone 5S, for example, despite being
one of the best designed phones, is not
deemed innovative enough by pundits.
This could be perhaps because its flagship
featurethe fingerprint scanner and
security systemhas been around for a
while now. However, from my personal
experience, I can say that just the magical
fingerprint scanner in iPhone 5S is worth
millions of hours of productivity gains
52
achieved across all iPhone users around

the world by eliminating the need for
them to enter passwords.
For us to understand the old versus
new innovation better, let us first
understand how innovation spreads
across a large population of people or
organizations or countries. Professor
Everett Rogers covered this topic in his
1962 book Diffusion of Innovations.
Since then, the following diagram [sourced
here from Wikipedia] has become a gospel
truth for people in the field of innovation
[although Geoffrey Moores Crossing the
Chasm curve is a more accurate depiction
of the diffusion phenomenon].
As seen in the diagram, any innovation

goes through an adoption cycle that first
covers Innovators and Early Adopters
and progresses finally to the Laggards.
Depending on how much change an
innovation entails for an adopter, the
adoption curve could last several years or
even spread over decades to reach 100%
market share. Furthermore, innovations
that are still in the Innovators and
Early Adopters stage could be deemed
new and those that have crossed over
to the Early Majority and beyond could
be deemed old.
Let us take the example of an organization
that is still managing its sales pipeline
using spreadsheets. It is surprising just
how many organizations are still sailing
on this boat. It is also surprising that
numerous organizations in countries such
as India are doing this using pen and
paper even today. In this scenario, if you
are able to implement a CRM [Customer
Relationship Management] system
and improve sales force productivity
and effectiveness, would you call that
innovation?
Some may say no, which is
understandable given our notion of
innovation as being something new.
But those already using CRM might find
this boring. After all, most minds are also
conditioned to equate old with boring.
This line of thinking is pervasive across
the world and this is one of the key reasons
why innovations such as CRM systems
havent attained their full market-share
despite being around for several decades.
Inside corporations too, many processes
are still stuck in the stone age with
outdated approaches, methods and
applications. This begets the question:
How big is this old innovation space?
What are we missing?
To get a perspective, we need to look
at the portfolio based approach to
managing Innovation. The fact that

innovation is risky is well known. In the
banking industry, the risky business of
investments is managed using a portfolio
approach, where risk is spread across
multiple asset classes with different risk
profiles. Researchers applied the same
idea to managing innovation, and came
up with the 70:20:10 thumb rule: 70% of
the innovation efforts are spent in the core
business, 20% in adjacency business areas,
and 10% in transformational business
opportunities. This approach was outlined
in a must-read Harvard Business Review
article, Managing Your Innovation
Portfolio by Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff
(May 2012).
In this approach, instead of voting
innovations as old or new, we attack
both old and new innovations. Our
experience suggests that old innovations
fit the core and adjacency businesses very
well, while new innovations align
well with transformative business. My
argument is that by dismissing old
innovations, we are actually missing out
on 90% of innovation opportunities.
Because CRM systems are an old
innovation, the risks are low and benefits
high when they are implemented properly.
So why would organizations ignore such
nearly fail-safe innovations?
My observation is that many organizations
are not adopting a portfolio-based
approach to innovation. Instead, they are
chasing new innovations exclusively,
typically using the R&D function, and
coming up short. In fact, coming up
short could be an understatement, if you
consider Booz Allens annual Global
1000 innovation report [http://www.
booz.com/global/home/what-we-think/
global-innovation-1000 ]. According
to the report, the Global 1000 spend
approximately $0.5 trillion every year
chasing new innovations.
53
At Cognizant, we have adopted a different

approach to innovation. Our Managed
Innovation program uses the portfoliobased approach. Using this approach,
55,000 innovators across Cognizant have
delivered innovation impact worth $1.6
billion to our customers over the last four
years. Our innovation program was rated
54
in the Global Top 10 in the Innovating

Innovation challenge held by McKinsey
and Harvard Business Review in February
2013 [http://www.mixprize.org/story/
managed-innovation-oxymoron].
In the realm of innovation, old isnt
necessarily boring.
INNOVATIVE HR PRACTICES ENGAGING

MULTI-GENERATIONAL WORKFORCE
SANDEEP KOHLI
About the Author

Sandeep Kohli is a seasoned HR professional with over 24 years
of experience across the complete value chain of HR, having
worked extensively in the areas of Strategy, Talent Management,
Leadership Development, Coaching, Leading Change & HR
Transformation. He has exposure to multiple Industries including
Consulting (EY), IT (Microsoft, Siemens), Manufacturing (Taylor
Instruments) and Telecom (TCIL Bell South).
Currently, Sandeep is National Director Human Resources at Ernst & Young, leading
HR for all its businesses viz. Advisory, Assurance, Tax & Transactions with over
8000 people across India.
consulting organization like EY builds

and sustains its market leadership by
virtue of great intellectual capital. We are a
global leader in assurance, tax, transaction
and advisory services with over 175,000
people spread across the globe. For us,
our people are fundamental to our success,
and we work towards providing our
people with the best in class experience
irrespective of their skills, experience,
gender or age groups.
To best leverage our people strength,
we have created the most competitive
HR strategy of building Whole of life
relationships with our people. Whether
people are with the firm for three months,
three years or thirty years, we provide

them an exceptional EY experience that
adds value to their career and to their
personal growth. We develop a lifelong
relationship with our people and an
allegiance to the firm which starts before
people join EY and continues long after
they leave.
Whole of life relationship
Our whole of life proposition is central
to what drives our differentiating people
culture and employee engagement that
results in a holistic and lifelong relationship
with our people.
55
Whenever you join, however long you stay, the exceptional EY experience lasts a
lifetime.
Before you join
Its your choice.
Make the most of it.
When you are here

Its your time.
After you leave

Its your legacy.
We create an environment
that attracts engaged and
motivated people who
together achieve success for
our clients/stakeholders, EY
and our people.
We empower our people

whilst they are with
EY to have a sense of
purpose and have the
opportunities that add
value to their overall
career experience.
We ensure that when people

leave, the affiliation that
they have with EY remains
and that we maintain
strong relationships as
people move on to new
career opportunities. We
do not see this as the end of
the relationship, but rather
beginning of the next stage.
Whatever our people go
on to do, we want them to
remain lifelong members of
the EY network.
We want that every interaction

that a potential recruit has
with EY should leave them
with a positive impression.
Whether they join us or not,
all candidates should feel a
benefit from the experience
of having met us.
We ensure that once

people join us, we retain
our outstanding talent for
as long as possible and
help our people grow in
a way that would not be
possible anywhere else.
Before you join

Our reach to a diverse mix of talent
ensures we attract candidates with a global
mind-set. We look for a rich and diverse
perspective on life and a sense that an
individual will embody our values.
We have the most individual-centric,
respectful and value adding experience
for any candidate who engages with us.
Interaction with EY enhances a candidates
professional self-esteem regardless of the
ultimate outcome.
Attracting multigenerational workforce
Only best can attract the best
We work hard to identify candidates
with exceptional technical skills; passion
to make a difference and personality that
stands out. We look for a rich and diverse
perspective on life and a sense that an
individual will embody our values. A
sense of authenticity is important too. We
stress to all candidates the importance of
Education, Technical Skills and Values and
56
Ethics, as the three important pillars of our

requirements. Given below is a snapshot
of how we attract people from different
backgrounds and age groups as a part of
our HR strategy.
Ensuring the right fit
Employee referral program: Our employee
referral program is the most trusted and
dependable source of hiring people with
the right skill set, attitude and values.
It promises the right fit both technically
and culturally for the firm, and provides
attractive and substantial cash rewards to
our people for each successful referral. It is
also an effective medium of creating a pool
of like-minded people across generations
and surround themselves with people
they know and trust.
Our employee referral program contributes
to nearly 55% of our hiring, which is very
high per industry standards.
Campus engagement: Our campus
relationship strategy focuses on proactive
engagement with campuses and goes
beyond hiring. We connect through

platforms like:
Platinum sponsors of the mega debating
event at Sri Ram College of Commerce
(SRCC)
Budget Ace contest in collaboration
with Financial Express invited analysis
by students from top B Schools in the
country.
XLRI program Leadership
engagement with students at XLRI
through guest lectures, case study
competitions etc.
Enterpryze Case study competition
at NITIEs flagship festival.
Summer Training program To engage

millennial talent, we have a structured
summer training program where we spot

and engage talent at the beginning of their
professional career. Students from target
campuses work with us for a period of two
months on live projects with project teams
under the guidance of our professionals as
mentors and guides. This experience helps
them to know the work, culture and people
they can look forward to on joining us post
completion of their course.
Social Media - Facebook
We have a strong presence in the social
media with our constantly updated and
active Facebook and Linkedin pages. We
keep our future Gen Y employees engaged
through various updates, which gives them
a glimpse of the life at EY. It also gives
them an opportunity to know more about
our services and job openings.
Whenever we visit campuses for
recruitment we make sure we introduce
our Facebook page to our future
employees, and showcase our values,
culture, opportunities, and experiences to
our prospective recruits giving them the
right information of who we are and what
57
we stand for.
Testing the Fit selection tool for
senior professionals
EY Fit is our tool to ensure that a
potential hire is a technical and cultural
fit for the organization.
It is specifically designed around EYs core
competency framework with the aim of
effectively assessing the candidates level
of proficiency on all competencies critical
for success in a role.
When you are here
People at EY build value in their career
that is recognized within the firm and the
marketplace. This Career Equity remains
with them forever. We operate as one
global workforce, innovative in the way
Six core engagers
Best
practices
58
we collaborate across borders and without

silos, both digitally and face to face.
Our people have the flexibility to succeed
and achieve in a way that supports and
enriches all aspects of their lives, their
families and their communities.
Engage
We engage our people across levels
and age groups through conversations,
choices and celebrations
It is one of our priorities to ensure that we
engage with our people at all levels and
make them comfortable in an environment
that gives them the flexibility to achieve
their professional and personal aspirations.
People engagement for us is not just
policies, processes and systems; these are
foundational but not sufficient. People
engagement is about behaviors; and we do

this through our six core engagers.
Conversations
We hear and speak with our people at all
times and we do so in countless ways. We
connect with our new joinees
New hire orientation program (Embark
and WTEY): All new joiners at EY are taken
through a detailed orientation program
that showcases our legacy, leadership,
unique employee value proposition,
differentiating people strategy, but also
provides the necessary knowledge,
information and resources to accelerate
the settling in process. Our detailed
induction Welcome to EY (WTEY) is a
two day program designed by global
team and delivered by corporate L&D and
partners of the firm to enable new joinees
to understand our firm, our business and
service offerings, solutions, etc.
Buddy: Buddy is a friend (experienced
employee at same level) who helps the
new joiner feel comfortable in the new
environment; provides answers to queries
that the new hire is hesitant in raising with

the manager or a colleague. This program
works wonderfully well for the younger
generation who are new to corporate world
and needs more informal connect to settle
in quickly.
New hire partner meetings: An open
forum for communication between new
employees and partners of the firm. New
joiners share their initial experience with
the firm, provide feedback on different
processes, team work, interactions with
various functions, etc.
Leadership Connect
We understand the importance of open
communication and provide a variety
of channels for all our people across age
groups through which they can make
suggestions, share ideas and reach out to
the leadership.
Speak up: Speak up is a virtual and
formal platform for people to directly
connect with our Regional Managing
Partner, ask questions and come up with
suggestions, feedback and reactions on
various aspects of the firm, its policies,
59
processes and initiatives. The transparency

and exchange of ideas seamlessly, makes
this forum popular with our people.
Leadership Town Hall meetings allow
our RMP and Service Line Leaders to
meet people and share Firms strategy,
performance, key wins, and ensure that
people understand the role they play in
bringing our go-to market strategy to life.
FOCUS Formal interactive meetings
between employees at the supervisory
level and below and senior managers/
partners skipping a level in between. These
provide an important opportunity for
youngsters to have face time with leaders
and have direct communication with them.
These meetings provide a first-hand feel
60
of the working practices and issues faced

by employees who dont get to work or
interact with partners/ senior managers
on a daily basis.
People surveys our unique approach to
listening
The biennial Global People Survey
is the most important tool we have
to understand what our employees
think and feel about our business,
our culture, the opportunities for
development and the quality we deliver
through our services.
People Pulse is a sub set of our
exhaustive Global People Survey. It is
an important measure of our progress
against our peoplerelated priorities.

The results of this survey are analysed on
all major dimensions including service
lines, locations, gender, age and tenure.
Such analysis plays a pivotal part in
designing customised interventions for
our people.
Choices
You have the right to make career choices
even after choosing a career with us.
Internal Job Posting: It has been observed
that our Gen Y and millennial generation
look forward to diverse experiences while
growing in an organization. Thus to
address this need of our young generation
we provide them with the opportunity
to apply for open positions within the
organization. This practice helps our
people gain exposure and access to diverse
career experiences within the organization
and enhance professional growth potential.
International mobility: Opportunities
are available to people to get seconded to
other geographies, to prestigious clients
where they can gain rich developmental
experiences.
Celebrations
Joie de vivre: the art of engagement!

Rendezvous - A platform for our people
to connect, collaborate and compete.
Rendezvous is a combination of on the
floor fun events, online quizzes and
contests that are conducted throughout
the firm on a monthly basis. This has
been a very effective medium to engage
our young generation who seek fun and
lighter times at office.
Offsites and team outings - Business units
and service lines take their groups out for
fun-filled and activity oriented offsites to
exotic locations. Team outings and events
such as movies, bowling, lunches, a day at
a resort, etc are organized. This is a great
way to de-stress as well as helps motivate
employees. Success and special moments
such as wedding, birthdays and child
birth are celebrated by gifting vouchers,
personalized EY branded cards, chocolate
box and congratulatory mails.
Festivals and special occasions: We
61
celebrate many festivals through the year to

bring in the festive spirit to the work place.
Holi, Diwali, Id, Onam, Janamasthmi,
Christmas, Navratri, Independence Day,
etc are celebrated across all EY offices.
Another key element of our people
engagement agenda is our focus on
Corporate Social Responsibility. We
provide various platforms to our people to
engage with their communities and work
towards imparting education, creating
sustainable models, supporting through
our knowledge base, providing vocational
training etc.
For us, CSR is truly a collaborative effort
of all our people in the firm and it is
an integral part of all the achievements
and success of our programs. This year,
we initiated a unique and impactful
delivery model towards implementing
CSR programs a systematic and planned
flow of CSR activities across the firm.
With inputs from the leadership team
and suggestions/ ideas received from
our people, the central CSR and HR
teams collaborated and developed a new
62
model to effectively and efficiently deliver

services to the less fortunate through our
people. This method helped us on focusing
the CSR priorities for the year, effectively
communicating in advance to our people
about the forthcoming events and widening
the reach of the CSR programs by using
HR employee engagement tools.
Our people have used this to put
forth suggestions and have seen their
recommendations take shape.
Some of our initiatives are culminated
based on collective suggestions by our
people. Again, while employees come here
to work, it empowers them to share an
idea, become the long term project owner
of the idea and be a part of the group that
implements it. Some of the initiatives that
our people have engaged in:
Tree Plantation drive: Employees from
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore
participated in a tree plantation drive
wherein more than 1 lac trees were
planted
Clothes Donation drive: 23500+ Kg of
clothes donated and collected by EY

employees
5 saplings gifted as part of employee
birthday celebration:
1500+ employees pledged for a greener
tomorrow as part of Environment week
Develop
To succeed
Development at EY is a mix of offerings
Best
practices
of learning, experiences and coaching that

our people need to enrich their careers and
deliver the best results for clients, as well
as offering additional programs for current
and future leaders of our organization.
EYU (EY and You): our unique approach
to developing our people
EYU reflects the mutual commitment we
have to supporting our people to achieve
their potential, and our people have to
owning their careers. The three core
elements of EYU: formal learning, hands
EYU-Our unique career development framework

Cutting edge leadership development initiatives
Monitoring program for Partners
Global NexGen Program
on experiences and coaching are aligned

in the context of our clients, our business,
our communities, as well as the role, needs
and competencies of our people. EYU is
underpinned by our global competency
framework.
This framework is customized for each
service line and each level thus ensuring
that learning curve continues to accelerate
at all stages of professional life of our
people.
EYU Learning
A three-tier learning and development
organization consisting of the Global/
Area L&D framework; Corporate L&D
team and Service line technical training
teams.
A strong soft skills curriculum of over
30 formal soft skills courses covering
a wide range of areas that are critical
for success in todays marketplace.
These training programs are further
categorized as:
Mandatory courses for a particular
level of employees in a specific
service line.
Role based and Milestones programs
to equip people to manage new role
post promotions.
Skillbased programs like crucial
conversations, The confident
speaker, Creativity and problem
solving, etc.
An elaborate technical training curriculum
classified into solutions, methodologies,
63
sectors and industry specific trainings

etc., across our service lines.
EYU Experiences
These are activities that provide an
opportunity to put knowledge into
practice and develop new skills to stretch
and grow as an EY professional. These
cover service line specific experiences,
quality service delivery, mobility, account
development, coaching, leading change,
recruiting, brand building and community
responsibility.
EYU Coaching
It involves focused development-based
conversations, between reporting managers
and their team members to develop skills
required to succeed in a role. Through
effective coaching, we transform learning
and experiences into practical application
on the job.
Cutting edge leadership development
initiatives
As a firm we are committed to investing

in developing our future leaders and
our leadership development agenda
supports this commitment by preparing
our experienced professionals like senior
managers and above to take on leadership
roles. There is a strong focus on creating
a leadership pipe and preparing and
grooming our people to take up leadership
position in future.
Some of the important intervention to
develop and engage people includes:
Milestones - EMEIA Role based
programs
A series of development and celebration
programs for newly promoted seniors,
managers, senior managers and partners.
These programs focus on equipping our
people to succeed in transitioning into the
next stage of their career. These programs
take place on an EMEIA or global basis
and connect our people worldwide so that
they think and act across borders, gaining
exposure to many of EYs top leadership
teams.
Leadership Track Development
Workshop (LTDW)
A long range program that uses a
development centre methodology to do

a realistic evaluation of the potential
strengths and development areas of the
target group of senior managers. The
facilitator group consists of experts from
64
around the world, skilled professional

actors to engage participants in role plays,
L&D team and the leadership group to
observe, assess and provide feedback to
participants.
Mentoring program for partners
This program aims at mentoring to equip
young partners to take on their new role
with the guidance and support from older
partners. Mentors facilitate development of
partners by informing and advising about
performance; identifying challenges and
addressing development gaps.
Global NexGen Program (GNG)
EYs two year global partner pipeline
program that builds the skills and
capabilities through three experiential
leadership challenges focused on our
markets, our business and our people. It
aims to create new partners with strong
market leadership skills, a global mind-set,
wide networks and a broad understanding
of our business.
Grow
We grow when our people grow
Best
practices
Career Management framework

Ongoing investment in counselor development
Advancing careers through higher education
Managing Careers
A strong career management framework
helps our people to take complete charge
of their careers through:
Career Conversations Meaningful,
future focused conversations about the
counselees short and long-term career
aspirations and how the reporting
manager/ organization can support in
aligning these with business needs. We
train our counsellors to engage their
counselees in structured conversations
that would help him/her achieve career
aspirations.
Career watch A tailor made program

for our high potential employees at
senior manager level to identify, engage
and develop them in a focused manner.
The program aims at accelerating
development and growth for
employees and building organizational
effectiveness, long term sustainability
and profitability for the firm.
Accelerated careers for high potentials
Short and middle-term international
experiences
Long-term strategic international
assignments
Advancing careers through professional
education
We are a very young organization and lot
of gen Y and millennium generation people
who join us right after their graduation.
Through their career journey with us we
support them to grow and also help them
acquire world class education. Under this
program we have teamed up with the
Indian School of Business (ISB) one of the
top business schools in India to provide
a learning opportunity to our people
through a professional post graduate
degree program in general management.
We believe that to achieve sustained growth
for our organization, it is imperative that
our people grow. As a firm, we take various
initiatives to help our people grow through
a strong career management framework,
counselor development, and providing
opportunities for career advancement
through professional education.
Reward
Recognizing and thanking people for a
job well done
We are dedicated to nurturing an
environment where people are appreciated
65
for their good work, extra effort and

achievements in a variety of ways. We
reward efforts that go beyond established
standards of expectations.
Appreciation is a powerful motivator
At EY, everyone has the opportunity to
get special recognition. We show our
appreciation, through various formal and
informal platforms, monetary and nonmonetary rewards.
Excellerator - Managerial Excellence Our

unique approach to recognizing people
behind the people aims at rewarding
managers who effectively drive our people
agenda by developing people and their
careers, empowering teams, being sensitive
to peoples needs and aspirations.
Thank you week - We recognize that
success comes not because of any one
persons effort, but due to the contributions
of many. With this in mind, a thank you
week is organized on an annual basis,
to acknowledge and express gratitude
to different sections of stakeholders. A
theme for the day is selected and initiatives
are planned around those themes to
thank counselees, peers, counselors,
administrative staff and our communities.
66
Excellerator - Individual and team

excellence To award our younger
generation we have created a reward
program that recognizes individuals and
teams at supervisory level and below, who
deliver high quality service by deeper
analysis and insight; introduce new ways
of enhancing processes, therefore excelling
in engagement execution and driving high
levels of client satisfaction.
This is a great initiative to engage and

integrate employees across all levels, teams
and boundaries.
KUDOS - Based on the idea of on-thespot recognition, KUDOS empowers
counselors to directly applaud people who
show exceptional commitment and go the
extra mile to deliver excellence in all
their endeavors. As part of this recognition
program, a gift voucher worth Rs 2500/- is
given to an employee nominated for this
award.
I Applaud is our spot recognition
program, aimed at providing a platform
to appreciate/ thank our colleagues on a
one-on-one basis. Sharing gains and profits
in a fair manner
Include
Together we can!
Inclusiveness means listening and making
sure all our peoples voices are heard
and valued. We are focused on creating
an enabling environment where people
from diverse backgrounds, skill sets and
expertise work together to give us an edge
over the others. In this pursuit, we have
designed several initiatives to ensure that
our people work together to make EY a
great place to work.
Kaleidoscope of diverse people and
cultures
Diversity and inclusiveness is of great
strategic importance to us because it
affects our people, our clients and our

communities too. We build a diverse and
inclusive environment through:
Robust D&I organization across the firm
to drive our D&I related priorities.
Being an equal opportunity employer
by recruiting for all job classifications
- race, religion, color, creed, national
origin, age, gender.
Gender sensitization to apprise people
of unconscious biases and enable them
to deal with it appropriately.
Cross-cultural inclusion of people
from diverse educational backgrounds,
gender, ethnicity, geographies, cultures,
physical abilities.
67
EY WIN (Womens India Network)

across all EY office locations to provide
a platform to our women to network,
build relationships and increase
visibility to role models. Caring for
our people and their families as
individuals
We, at EY, recognize the importance of
enabling our people to manage their
personal and professional responsibilities
better. We believe in providing them the
flexibility they need to strike a balance
and succeed at both, using diverse,
purposeful and inclusive approaches to
care for our employees. We ensure that
we provide adequate support to our
new mothers and fathers to take up their
responsibilities and strike a right balance
while managing personal responsibilities
and professional commitments. Best
practices in flexible working, our My
Life policy framework:
Flexi-time policy: Provides people
flexibility of arrival and departure
timings from work, while maintaining
standard working hours per week.
68
Part-time work arrangement: Equips

employees to reduce their working
hours to half to meet their personal
responsibilities and still continue
working with the firm.
Telecommuting for working mothers:
An option to work four hours in office
and remaining four hours from home.
Extended maternity benefit: Policy
provides an option to women employees
to work from home or take an unpaid
leave for a period of three months post
the statutory maternity leave.
EY Kids Zone: Our in-house day
care center located within our office
premises to provide our employees
with the option of bringing their babies
to work.
Paternity leave: Fathers get to bond with
their new born over one week of paid
paternity leave.
Adoption leave: Gives time off to new
parents to spend time with their new
baby.
BOOK REVIEWS
1 ORBIT SHIFTING
ISBN 13 : 978 0749468750
Editors
: Rajiv Narang, Devika Devaiah
Publisher : Kogan Page
Overview
rbit Shifting Innovation is one of the most refreshingpieces of

business thought-leadership to be published in India in recent
times. The book is co-authored by Rajiv Narang and Devika Devaiah,
who are Founder and Director of Erehwon, a specialized advisory firm
and a leader in innovation and strategy for over 20 years. The aim of
the book sets the tone firmly for the entire work-making innovation
the transforming agent for the organization and the nation. The
authors overarching purpose is to bring more clarity to understanding
the dynamics and enablers that accompany truly breakthrough
innovations. The book is developed around insights drawn from
several hundred breakthrough innovation missions that Erehwon
has facilitated across a spectrum of Indian and MNC organizations,
leadership strategy sessions related to transformative engagements
and ongoing primary research into innovation processes across a
wide range of organizations - from J&J and Unilever in FMCG, to
Vestergaard and Vodafone in Healthcare and Telecom, through to
Grameen Bank and Tamilnadu Police in the Social and Government sectors.
Core Premise
The fundamental premise of an Orbit Shifting innovation is the transformative nature of its outlook
and impact. Orbit Shifting Innovations achieve a step change in terms of both extent of transformation
and shift in business model. Typically these involve fundamental changes to mental models with
which we view any situation or problem (at a function, organization or ecosystem level), which
provide the ability to identify and work toward solutions that achieve dramatic results and outcomes.
In contrast, Orbit maintaining (or incremental innovation) delivers continuous smaller improvements
to the status quo, without the quantum leap that breakthrough transformations provide.
Key Themes
Orbit shifting innovation comes not from searching for new ideas, but by uncovering new boundaries
not out of the box ideas but out of the box challenges. The book while a daunting looking 360+
pages, is an engaging read, as it is structured into modular, self-contained sections written in
jargon-free style and with liberal references to actual innovations across a range of organizational
contexts. Every chapter also has highlighted things to think about for CEOs/Innovation Leaders
that summarize and highlight the relevant takeaways.
Narang and Devaiah, clearly come across as practitioners who have directly guided and facilitated
breakthroughs, rather than just armchair theorists.The authors present a series of myth busters,
that provoke us to challenge conventional wisdom around innovation. For example, most often it
is not fear of commercial failure that discourages innovation, but a fear of personal failure or loss
of credibility that causes roadblocks tonew initiatives. Similarly, bringing in new people with new
69
ideasfor innovation to flourish is not necessarily the answer- it is more critical to ensure that the
resources needed to meet an innovative challenge are fully met without dilution. And yet another
misconception market research or customer focus groupsdont hold the key to new answers
in order to orbit shift, the authors suggest we need to enable insights through new questions.
Orbit Shifting Innovation unfolds in four broad parts. The first section presents a range of fascinating
Orbit Shifts that Created History, from around the world. This section grabs attention from the outset,
providing inspirational stories of innovation. Among others, how Vestergaard saw the potential of a
low-cost water purification device, through its expertise as a textile manufacturer, how the worlds
highest railway line was built against all odds and conventional engineering wisdom or how one
bureaucrat was able to redefine the problem of corrupt, inefficient policing into a community based
service all through the lens of Orbit Shifting approaches.
In the next section the authors describe what is involved in Seeding Orbit Shifting. This part of the
book provides a useful field-tested set of the tools and processes by which orbit shifting can occur
by design. It provides triggers to identify and take on innovation quests, guidelines for managing
and implementing the journey and finally revealing orbit-shifting insights. A particularly relevant
framework here is the 6 horizons of insight model that describes a spectrum of increasingly widening
horizons that orbit shifters could apply in order to arrive at new and breakthrough insights.
Section three deals with Combating Dilution, arguably the most challenging part of any orbit shifting
journey. Here the focus is on the change management required to sustain and see through true
breakthrough innovation, while avoiding the pitfalls of diluting the overall quest and final goal. The
authors draw on a wide range of examples to illustrate the importance of exciting and enrolling
key stakeholders, and then ways in which to sustain and maintain the level of engagement across
the orbit shifting initiative. Co-building and alignment with the overarching purpose of the orbit shift
are some of the keys to achieving this approach.
The final section deals with Leading Orbit Shifting Innovation what is required in terms of
leadership mindsets and approaches for institutionalizing innovation. This final part of Orbit Shifting
Innovation, describes in detail what it takes to build an innovation DNA in any context. Narang
and Devaiah outline a well-defined five- stage threshold map for Orbit shifts, which succinctly
encapsulates the end-to-end process involved from Generating Escape Velocity, to Detailing
the Orbit Shifting Innovation to Developing and Implementing the Successful In-Market Modelof
the desired transformation. The most thought-provoking and most engaging part of this section,
is the chapter that outlines the traits common to orbit shifters across a range organizational,
business and societal contexts. These range from Orbit Shifting Innovation being a direction not
a destination, possessing an attacker vs. defender mindset, seeking to discover new insights and
questions rather than validate through new answers, using co-ownership rather than convincing
to implement Orbit Shifting Innovation and the tenacity to combat dilution without compromising.
Takeaways
Overall, Orbit Shifting Innovation is very different from traditional books on innovation, in that
it presents not only grounded, real-life examples of transformational initiatives, but also backs
these with the rigor of supporting theoretical and process framework, which can be used across
the innovation lifecycle, from diagnostics through to analysis and implementation. The book is
particularly interesting in the way it deals with what the authors refer to as Mindset Gravity a
pervading force that traps all of us into our current orbits of thinking and behavior.
It would have been good tohave had more examples of end-to-end application of the Orbit Shifting
Innovationprocess this book draws from experiences from a series of interconnected engagements,
based on which the overall framework has been developed and refined. Therefore while one can
clearly relate specific engagements to phases and elements of the overall Orbit Shifting Innovation
70
framework, start-to-finish innovation breakthroughs are likely still ongoing projects. Additionally, it
would be wonderful to see the authors research on innovation from non-traditional management
contexts such as India and the developing world being recognized and extended to the wider body
of traditionally western-dominated innovationand management theory.
In conclusion Orbit Shifting Innovation isan enjoyable and informative readthat provides a fresh
lens with which to view and approach innovation - and a highly-recommended way to commence
addressing the challenges and opportunities ahead in 2014.
Reviewed by:
Raj Dharmaraj
Head HR - Emerging Business Accelarator, Cognizant Technology Solutions
71
ABOUT THE JOURNAL

he National HRD Network publishes a semi-academic quarterly journal where in each issue is
dedicated to a theme.
INNOVATION AND HR
Volume 7
Issue 1
January 2014
NHRD Network Board Members

National President:
Mr Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) & Member of

the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra
Past National President :
Dr. T V Rao, Chairman - T V Rao Learning Systems

Dr Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business & Director, Group H.R.
- Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt Ltd
Conceptual and research based
Contributions from thought leaders including a limited number of reprints with due permission
Organizational experiences in HR interventions/mechanisms.
About this issue :
Aquil Busrai, Chief Executive Officer - Aquil Busrai Consulting
This issue is on the theme of Innovation and HR. This covers a range of topics around demystifying
innovation and innovative HR practices successfully followed by some organizations.
S Y Siddiqui, Chief Operating Officer - Administration (HR, Finance,

IT & COSL), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
Regional Presidents:
East:
Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, Executive Director (HR) - Retail Sector,

Spencers Retail Ltd
South:
L Prabhakar, Vice President (HR) Agri-Business Division, ITC Ltd
West:
Ms Anjali Raina, Executive Director, Harvard Business School
North:
Ms Veena Swarup, Director (HR), Engineers India Ltd
National Secretary:
S V Nathan, Director Talent (US-India), DELOITTE
National Treasurer:
Ms Shelly Singh, Co-Founder & EVP, People Strong HR Services
Director General:
Kamal Singh
Editorial Team
Sriram Rajagopal,
Vice-President Head HR, Cognizant Technology Solutions
(Guest Editor for this issue)
Dr. PVR Murthy, Managing Editor,
CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants,
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director - Human Resources,
Citrix R&D India Pvt. Ltd., bandyopadhyaypallab@yahoo.co.in
Dr. Arvind N Agrawal, President - Corporate Development &
Group HR, RPG Group
Printed at
Dwarakanath P, Advisor-Group Human Capital - Max India

NS Rajan, Group Chief Human Resources Officer and Member of the
Group Executive Council, TATA Sons Ltd
Publisher, Printer, Owner

and Place of Publication
The journal publishes primarily three categories of articles :
Kamal Singh, Director General, NHRDN

on behalf of National HRD Network,
National HRD Network Secretariat, C 81 C, DLF Super Mart, DLF City,
Phase IV, Gurgaon122 002. Tel +91 124 404 1560
e-mail: kamal.singh@nationalhrd.org
Nagaraj & Co. Pvt. Ltd., 156, Developed Plots Industrial Estate,
Perungudi, Chennai 600 096. Tel : 044 - 66149291
The views expressed by the authors are of their Copyright of the NHRD Journal, all rights reserved.
own and not necessarily of the editors nor of the Contents may not be copied, emailed or reproduced
without copyright holders express permission in writing.
publisher nor of authors organizations
Editorial Board Members :

Dr. P.V.R. Murthy, Managing Editor is a product of I.I.T., Kharagpur and IIM, Calcutta with close
to thirty years experience in H.R. field. He founded and runs an executive search firm Exclusive
Search Recruitment Consultants. He is associated with a number of academic institutions. He is
trained in TQM in Japan and in human processes from ISABS and NTL, U.S.A. He is the Past
National Secretary of National HRD Network.
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay is Director - Human Resources Citrix R&D India PVT Ltd. A doctoral
fellow from XLRI and AHRD, he is trained in OD and Human Processes from NTL, USA and he
believes in applying HR concepts to practice to make it more meaningful and effective. He is a
mentor and coach to many young HR professionals.
Dr. Arvind N Agrawal - Dr. Arvind N. Agrawal, Ph.D. serves as the President and Chief Executive
of Corporate Development & Human Resources and Member of Management Board of RPG
Enterprises. Dr. Agrawal has worked at RPG Enterprises since 1999 and his current responsibilities
in RPG comprise of HR and TQM. Agrawal held senior positions in Escorts and Modi Xerox. He
was the past National President of the National HRD Network. Dr. Agrawal is an IIM Ahmedabad
alumnus and also an IIT Kharagpur alumini, and also holds a PhD from IIT Mumbai.
NHRD firmly believes in and respects IPR and we appeal to the

contributors and readers to strictly honour the same.
For any further clarifications, please contact :
The Managing Editor
Dr. P V R Murthy, CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants,
#8, Janaki Avenue, Off 4th Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600 018.
ISSN - 0974 - 1739

January 2014
National HRD Network
The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that

every human being has the potential for remarkable
achievement. HRD is a process by which employees in
organizations are enabled to:

S Deenadayalan
Saurabh Govil
Dr. K Prabhakar
Innovation
and HR
Akash Bhatia
Curt Coffman and
Ashish Ambasta
Gargi Banerji and
Sunil Pillai
acquire capabilities to perform various tasks

associated with their present and future roles;
Sukumar Rajagopal
develop their inner potential for self and

organizational growth;
Sandeep Kohli
develop an organizational culture where networking

relationships, teamwork and collaboration
among dierent units is strong, contributing to
organizational growth and individual well-being.
January 2014
www.nationalhrd.org
Issue 1
N T Arunkumar
Building Sustainable Organizations: Role of HR
The National HRD Network, established in 1985, is an

association of professionals committed to promoting
the HRD movement in India and enhancing the
capability of human resource professionals, enabling
them to make an impactful contribution in enhancing
competitiveness and creating value for society. Towards
this end, the National HRD Network is committed to the
development of human resources through education,
training, research and experience sharing. The network
is managed by HR professionals in an honorary capacity,
stemming from their interest in contributing to the HR
profession.
Volume 7
A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network
www.nationalhrd.org

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NHRD Network Journal

ISSN - 0974 - 1739

NHRD Network Journal

National HRD Network

The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that

Dr. Sandeep K Krishnan

acquire capabilities to perform various tasks

develop their inner potential for self and

develop an organizational culture where networking

Building Sustainable Organizations: Role of HR

The National HRD Network, established in 1985, is an

A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

NHRD Network Board Members

Mr Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) & Member of

Past National President :

Dr. T V Rao, Chairman - T V Rao Learning Systems

Conceptual and research based

Organizational experiences in HR interventions/mechanisms.

About this issue :

Aquil Busrai, Chief Executive Officer - Aquil Busrai Consulting

S Y Siddiqui, Chief Operating Officer - Administration (HR, Finance,

Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, Executive Director (HR) - Retail Sector,

L Prabhakar, Vice President (HR) Agri-Business Division, ITC Ltd

Ms Anjali Raina, Executive Director, Harvard Business School

Ms Veena Swarup, Director (HR), Engineers India Ltd

S V Nathan, Director Talent (US-India), DELOITTE

Ms Shelly Singh, Co-Founder & EVP, People Strong HR Services

Dwarakanath P, Advisor-Group Human Capital - Max India

Publisher, Printer, Owner

The journal publishes primarily three categories of articles :

Kamal Singh, Director General, NHRDN

Editorial Board Members :

NHRD firmly believes in and respects IPR and we appeal to the

Every Business Is A People Business

Contemporary Thoughts in Theory and

Dr. Sandeep K Krishnan

Practice on Career Development

Innovation and HR in Apollos

Is it Time to Replace Human Resources

Curt Coffman and

Inclusive Human Resource Development

Gargi Banerji and

Old Innovation or New Innovation?

10. Innovative HR practices engaging

Reviewed by: Raj Dharmaraj

AS HR professionals, we are constantly on the lookout

Innovation and HR is the theme for the current issue of

build a culture of innovation that impacts every individuals

that have implemented both these models in their own ways,

that are completely transformational HR, he feels needs to

but of the present, that will allow HR to get deeper insight

support & development approach, with a bias towards the

purpose is to bring more clarity to understanding the

Dr. PVR Murthy

EVERY BUSINESS IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS

nnovation is now a strategic differentiator

innovation as an organizational principle.

to an Investment Banker as she presents a

January | 2014 NHRD Network Journal

source, while it was diversifying into the

Adapted from Innovation is the process of idea

To cut a long story short, the team realized

deals with demand fluctuations, product