GLIM HR Conclave 2009

On 5th September, I attended the HR Conclave organised by Great Lakes Institute of Management. As expected, I was deeply impressed with the learning I received from GLIM HR Conclave.

Let me share a few learning & observations:

1. Mr Bala V Balachandran,Founder & Dean- Great Lakes Institute of Management spoke about the relevance of 'money value of time' in education.

2. Mr R Seshasayee, MD, Ashok Leyland Ltd shared with us that the key to high performance lies in togetherness, proper communication,increasing the organisational capacity, pushing the targets at aspirational levels and emotional bonding.

3. Mr Srini Raju, MD- Peepul Capital Advisory Services Pvt Ltd explained the importance of proper goal setting and not limit one's aspiration by aiming to work in an esteemed organisation alone. He said that the focus should be more on becoming a better professional with a sense of uniqueness and achievement.

4. Mr S Ramakrishnan [IAS] spoke about the HR lessons he learnt from Horse Riding and how it's important to appreciate the subtle differences of people.

5. Mr Jay Desai ,Founder & CEO- Universal Consulting India focussed on customising the company's HR strategy based on the organisation's relative position in the fitness landscape. According to him the right place in the fitness landscape is the 'sweet spot' which lies in the middle of two extremes ie. Chaos & Order.

6. Mr Durjoy Patranabish, Country Head- Redpill Solutions shared his thoughts on how HR professionals should train themselves to become more sensitive about different backgrounds & culture.

7. Mr Ravishankar B, Head, OD & E- HCL spoke about the 'employee first and customer second approach' of his company. He told us about the HR practices based on philosophy of trust, transparency, flexibility & value centricity.

8. Mr S V Nathan, Director, Talent- Deloitte, US India Firms is one of the speaker who had impeccable humour and great examples of the HR practices in Delloite like the Delloitte film festival or the maverick contest. Each of those practices are clear cases of out of the box thinking. However the best learning from his address was that the HR fraternity should retain the learning of the downturn in order to better manage the Human Capital Post-meltdown.

9. Ms Bhavana Issar , GM ,HR,India Region-Castrol India spoke about the fact that HR strategy should have customer & business in the heart. She also expressed her thoughts on how HR should be at the business table and not on the business table. I particularly loved the Urdu Couplet which she shared with us that encapsulates the intent and aspiration which every HR professional should strive for. It is as follows:

Tu shaheen hai Parvaz hai kam tera kam tera

Tere samne Aasman aur bhi hai

Sitaron se age jahan aur bhi hai aur bhi hai
Abhi ishq ke Imtehan aur bhi hai aur bhi hai

10. Ms Richa Gulati, Economist-Watson Wyatt Worldwide, shared some interesting HR innovations with the following examples:

• New tools: Multideck survey- linking employee preferences to pension plan design.
• New design: Using employee segmentation techniques to offer the right reward.
• New research: Fairness in pay is more important than pay itself
• New model: Supply chain model of talent management

11. Another favourite speaker of mine was Puneet Jetli, Senior VP,HR & Head, People Function-Mindtree Ltd who spoke on how the Indian Army produces heroes during war times. He encouraged the audience to look at adversities as oppurtunities. He appreciated how the Armed Forces do not complain about turbulent times and shine in spite of such turbulence. Another thought which I really loved was regarding how forced bell curve should be removed from the performance appraisal systems. I completely endorse that most of the times bell curves are introduced for HR's own convienience.

12. Mr Samuel Chander, Senior VP,HR- Henkel India emphasised on the redoubled thrust on outsourcing with emphasis on cost and quality arbitrage, right sizing to right shaping, quality hiring with international standards , limiting the core and expanding the periphary [burger to dough nut approach :-)]. Another thought which I loved was the The ICARUS Agenda inspired from Greek Mythology which is based on a quadrant with 'Rate of learning in Y axis & Job obsolescence on X axis. I must confess that explaining it in this post will be challenging for me but the idea is very thought provoking and exciting.

13. Dr Pramod Solanki, Head- People & Organization Development[E & C Division]- Larsen & Toubro Ltd said that this downturn will make us much better prepared for the future challenges.

14. Mr Subramanium Arumugam, Senior VP, HR & Admin made the session very interacticve by answering multiple questions. I especially liked his focus on the growing importance of qualitative tools in recruitment.

15. Mr Sudhir Warde, Executive VP, HR- Larsen & Toubro Infotech was an absolute delight to listen. Great humour, modesty, simple but effective examples and a very student oriented speech were the ingridients of his perfect address. He focussed on sincerity, passion, communication skills, mannerisms, depth of knowledge, pride in doing one's work, commitment, ability to learn and consistency in performance as some of the key qualities required in the new recruits. One of the statement which I will always remember is when he said that a recruiter should never get confused with MAFA [ Mistaking Articulation For Achievement].