Powering India’s Future
Six of India’s top executives share their own brand of leadership and the part
their respective careers play in shaping who they are today.
Poor hires at the top level are not only costly to replace, but they are also disruptive to business operations and can slowly erode faith in the management team.
Nicolas Dumoulin
Managing Director, Michael Page
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Innovation: More than just a buzzword
Paramjit Nayyar
Chief Human Resource Officer, Apollo Munich Insurance
Paramjit Singh Nayyar had one of those life-changing moments while walking down the street in Delhi. He was preparing for his MBA examination when, suddenly, it dawned on him that he didn’t want to spend his working life doing transactional jobs in sales or operations. With so much more out there to explore, the pressure to restrict his studies and future career to only one facet of business was ultimately too much for this future member of the C-suite. Instead, Nayyar says, his desire to impact the lives of people, coupled with the natural knack to engage and enable others, morphed into a career in HR. “I wanted to do something where I can make much larger impact, help people realize their true potential, and work seamlessly across the functions to create business value,” says the now CHRO of Apollo Munich Health Insurance.
The culture of learning starts from the top. Organisation culture tends to echo based on how leaders behave, and what they embrace.
Nayyar’s road to CHRO
Nayyar had stints at the Aditya Birla Group, Triveni Industries, Bharti Airtel and VLCC before joining Apollo Munich. He credits his passion for learning to two things: his middle class upbringing and somewhat nomadic history with his father, who served as a banker with State Bank, a job that that calls for relocation every few years.
As a CHRO, he’s well-aware of the challenges facing leaders in India today. Amongst them, two most important are to find the right leaders who are not only able to fit in culturally, but at the same time challenge the status quo and facilitate a culture of innovation.
“We consciously look for talent with diverse exposure in multiple industries and cultures. These candidates add substantial value in the decision making process due to their varied perspectives, and will appreciate and solve business challenges more effectively.”
Throughout his career, he has learned the following about hiring and leadership and offers it up for those in similar positions.
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Focus on high impact priorities
Nayyar’s frequently able to ace most challenges that come his way. “For me, I put 80 percent of my efforts into 20 percent of the things that matter.” The 80/20 principle is known as the Pareto Principle, but it’s touted by business leaders as just the opposite to what Nayyar does - in that one is meant to focus 20 percent of efforts on tasks that produce 80 percent of the results. Instead, Nayyar says “most HR leaders focus only on input parameters, but it is important to focus on results and achievements. We are in a dynamic environment where solutions are not one-size-fits-all. A constant eye on milestones helps one to re-align the input strategy and increase chances of success.”
Forget perfection, focus on facilitating change
This is an exciting time for the insurance sector in India. The health industry is buzzing with more than 60 players that is constantly evolving with machine learning and AI. Nayyar admits that he is not a perfectionist and advises others against it. “If you focus on perfection, you might miss the chance to capitalise on other opportunities waiting for you. A CXO should have the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously to make the most of this sunrise industry. HR leaders can lead transformation by acting as the catalyst of change and advocating a culture that encourages a certain level of risk and experimentation,” he adds.
Be the champion of technology
Operating in a highly regulated industry, Nayyar adds that it is essential that an organisation has the right approach to learning. “The culture of learning starts from the top. Our leadership is the first to participate in learning endeavors, be it certification or or completing learning modules on AMLearn, our digital learning tool. Organisation culture tends to echo based on how leaders behave and what they embrace.”
Apollo Munich has advanced ahead in its journey of embracing technology. “Fundamental to my strategy is the simplification of people processes by leveraging the power of digital. Millennials are experience-hungry, they want to learn fast and rise up. We have digitized the way we reward and recognise employee performance with an internal appreciation platform, Kudos. Kudos is central to infusing positive energy and promoting a high performance culture. It currently runs in over 300 offices within India and appeals to our multi-generational workforce.”
When hiring, look at real-life business issues that come up
The hiring process for leadership roles at Apollo Munich aims at getting a real view of the candidate’s ability to solve business challenges and culture fit with various assessment tools. Candidates are given real-life assignments that have a host of complexities involving business priorities, people, and change. “This gives us an insight into the suitability of the candidate, which is far more credible than the vanilla interview conversations. Leadership hiring cannot be based on gut. It has to be scientific, technology enabled and context driven,” Nayyar explains, proud of his unique way of doing things.
The role of family in finding success
Nayyar has been part of several family run business, which has taught him that it is essential to have a professional team with the power and independence to make business decisions. “Apollo Munich is a brilliant example of how an empowered professional leadership team can bring success by leveraging the strength of its parentage in two different industries.”
Through it all, work isn’t the only thing that keeps Nayyar going. He says that relationships beyond transactions and a constant focus on learning motivate him to drive HR forward. Nayyar is also a fitness enthusiast and actively participates in Niramaya, his company’s employee wellness initiative.
When asked on the biggest contribution he’s made in over 20 years of being in HR, he summarizes, “My biggest wealth is the impact that I have created in people’s lives by enabling them to take the right decisions in their life and career.”
Above all, leaders must be human
Swati Yadav
People & Culture Director, Roche
Swati Yadav has never shied away from responsibility. Her grandfather, a veteran, often reminded her while she was growing up that one should always follow through with their commitments. She followed his advice and today she is the Director of People and Culture at Roche, the world’s largest biotechnology company. One hundred and thirty-seven million people with serious illnesses are treated with Roche’s medicines, according to the company’s website.
Yadav, who has been working in Human Resources for 13 years, has always had the support of her family to take risks and explore unchartered areas. They put her through the grind, shaping her work ethic by pushing her to become skillful and independent from a young age. She distinctly remembers the morning she left home to join college, and how her father drove her to the bus stand at five a.m. with a trunk and suitcase, told her to explore her way to other cities and literally to life ahead.
We focus a lot on building the capability of our people in a manner that does not simply focus on one’s current role, but defines where his or her interests lie and then help them build it for the long term.
Yadav went to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences for her post-graduate degree before joining a string of top FMCG and healthcare corporations. Her professional journey started at the Saharanpur Factory of ITC, as a summer intern which built the right foundation for her. Before joining Roche, she worked with MNCs like Johnson and Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive. Yadav values the lessons from each of her stints. “If I had to reflect on my journey as a professional, I would call it a learning journey rather than a career,” she says.
Yadav also believes that creating a culture of trust and transparency is of utmost importance. "It is essential that leaders and organisations are exceptionally transparent. If you are saying or doing something which you cannot say or do with the door of your office open, you should probably not do it."
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Throughout her long career, she has also picked up the following insights and lessons about successful hiring, HR management and leadership:
Every employee has leadership potential
She dismisses the old-school HR idea that companies should invest only in the top 5% of the talent. Everyone is a talent at Roche, according to Yadav, and more strategic investments in human resources can make all the difference. In India, where companies tend to reward only for vertical growth, Yadav is trying to do something unique. "We focus a lot on building the capability of our people in a manner that does not simply focus on one’s current role, but defines where his or her interests lie and then help them build it for the long term."
She doesn't believe in traditional job training. "What we are trying to do instead is to focus on creating a network learning organisation. It is based on the belief that capabilities exist in the organisation in a pocket somewhere, what we will need to do is to connect between where the capability exists."
Diversity is essential to today’s companies
Yadav is also focusing her efforts to nurture diversity in the company. "A company with a diverse set of people will never be stagnant, as the employees bring in different ways of exploring a problem." This belief directly correlates to women in the workplace, since female employees are still rarely seen at the management and C-suite level in India. “That's because traditionally as a culture, we have not broken the ceilings of women being in sales and marketing.”
The ability to transform her ideas into sustainable policies has made Yadav one of the few women leaders in the pharma sector. "If you look at HR, Finance or Marketing, you will find women in top roles. However, the moment you come to commercial function - or the value functions as we call it at Roche - where they do product strategy, that's where you do not see a woman leader. There are three to four life stages where you lose female talent in business. So I think as an organisation, if we can support people in those life stages, we will be able to retain them in the organisation.”
Align employee purpose and organisational vision
Yadav notes that she has been on a steep learning curve at Roche. “We are working specifically on ways to define the purpose of an employee’s life and align it to the vision of the organisation. And I never thought in my life that I would be working with an organisation where I’m training a team on finding their purpose in life, not work,” she says.
She explains that she is working to understand how best to connect with people and motivate them, so that they get different experiences and exposures and start moving in the direction that they aspire towards. “We don't want a cookie cutter approach to managing talent in the organisation, but a more personalised one.”
Successful leaders embrace uncertainty as opportunity
She is also uncompromising when it comes to leadership hiring. "A leader should be comfortable with uncertainty because the environment in India is exceptionally agile. If the person is looking for a perfect answer, they will struggle. We will need leaders who embrace uncertainty and deliver value for their organisation."
Her hiring principles resonate with this message. "We always ask people about their personal failures and how they overcame it. It gives us insight into how they manage their life," she says.
Personal insights into life experiences
Yadav knows she is not the same person who stood at that bus stop alone all those years ago. “The reason is because of all the experiences that I’ve had. Like my mother told me, you learn from everything and everyone. That's what I have been trying to gather as a person: diverse and challenging experiences. It has been 13 years in my career and for me, wealth is defined as the wealth of experiences in one’s personal and professional life. The more experiences that I am able to go through, good, bad and ugly, the stronger that will make me.”
Yadav strives to continue thinking outside the box and experiment when it comes to People and Culture practices, so there continues to be a strong talent pipeline for Roche.
Only as strong as the team around you
Sushil Agarwal
Chief Executive Officer, Aavas Financiers
Sushil Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer of Aavas Financiers, never aspired to be CEO of a financial services company.
Call it a twist of fate, or maybe destiny: Despite having other plans, he emerged as one of India's most promising corporate leaders. Now, Agarwal runs one of India's most prominent retail and housing finance companies, primarily serving low, middle-income and self-employed customers throughout non-urban India.
Aavas still has a lot of growth potential, and Agarwal is ready to meet it with the help of his managerial team. For him, the key to success lies in strong succession planning and being ready for the future.
We began our journey in a Tier 6 city, and 73% of our customers have taken a loan for the first time in their lives. In the first year when we had 1200 customers, I had personally met 1100.
"Today our management team is ten people strong. It's not just me who takes decisions for the company. When you create an organisation for the future, you create a team that [sees things the same way.] But it's important that everybody sees a growth path for themselves,” he concludes.
From ICICI Bank to Aavas Financiers
Agarwal spent his first professional years at ICICI bank, where he quickly rose into senior leadership positions. His true nature, however, insisted that he take on a project of his own. “Since I belong to a business family, I always wanted to do something of my own. At the age of 32, I got this opportunity to run the housing finance company. On the day of joining, I bought my equity. That's how the journey started in 2012.” He uses these four guiding principles for leaders to navigate today's workplace - both in hiring and for larger success:
Be open to hiring from different backgrounds
The former Chief Manager of ICICI Bank Limited, Agarwal has also worked with Kotak Mahindra Primus Limited as Assistant Manager. On top of his business experience, he is also a qualified Company Secretary and a Chartered Accountant who secured the tenth rank in his final examination. It wasn’t until Agarwal’s recognition as a top student that the tide of his future employment truly turned.
“I belong to a middle-class family in Jaipur. My Father used to run a cloth shop. During my graduation, I used to spend a considerable amount of time at my father's shop. There was no intention to come into the financial world. My father allowed me to do a job after I won the gold medal for CA,” he recalls.
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Learn about your customer - then learn some more
From the very beginning at Aavas Financiers, Agarwal was adamant that he would not be sitting inside an air-conditioned office, but a hands-on leader. Says Agarwal, “We began our journey in a tier 6 city, and 73% of our customers have taken a loan for the first time in their lives. In the first year when we had 1200 customers, I had personally met 1100.”
Invest in the right talent and skillsets for the future
He says that through the years, Aavas has also made significant investments in information technology systems to make the business sustainable. “Today, we have 60 software engineers, and 5 IIT-IIM guys managing the software side. Further, 100 percent of sales leads come through the mobile app. We have reduced the turnaround time from 24 days to 10 days.”
Ramping up the high-tech solutions is just one half of the Aavas story. The other is a strong management team. Agarwal often speaks in plural, talking about the company in terms of “we” more than “I,” which belies his belief in the value of strong teams.
“You will need the right kind of people to make your company sustainable. If you don't have people, you will not be able to grow. So, we created a robust management team. Under every leader, there are three other people to assist him.”
Be open and transparent in hiring and HR management
It's a tough job considering the company has to attract talent to work in a non-metro area, but Agarwal says he has been able to attract talent from top MNCs in multiple sectors. “Whenever we are hiring people, we have made sure that the organisation processes are transparent. We are quite open about our remuneration policies and our promotion policies. KPIs are shared daily, weekly and monthly with employees.”
Ask Agarwal about the secret sauce behind his successful company, and he says it’s made of teamwork and fresh faces. “I am 41, and there are only ten more people who are older than me in the company. Eighty percent of employees in our company are under thirty.”
Personal insights on understanding Bharat
Agarwal makes a point of meeting 50 customers every month and visiting 100 branches in a year to get a better understanding of his clients. It’s a strategy meant to minimise risk and give competition the slip.
Of course, challenges remain in this business, and Agarwal is aware of that. “I always try to get a fresh perspective. There are so many good things happening in different companies, and I believe that we should have the best of the policies and processes in ours. The most important thing is to bring the right DNA into the company.”
Personally, the accidental businessman makes sure to get in a healthy dose of exercise every day, and even encourages his employees to maintain the same kind of work-life balance. “My life is not hectic. I am a disciplined guy. I alternate between running 8 kilometers doing 2 hours of yoga daily. I like to go home at 7 p.m. and spend time with my family. And that's what we also want all our employees to do.”
Keep a sharp eye on the future
Puneet Khurana
Human Resource Head, Policybazaar.com
Puneet Khurana is refreshingly down-to-earth for someone heading the Human Resources department of India’s only profitable consumer internet company in the past ten years. For the not-so-business-savvy, that is what’s known as a unicorn company – named thus as they are exceedingly rare.
Khurana grew up in Gurgaon and earned a degree in hotel management from the Institute of Hotel Management PUSA (Jaipur Chapter). He spent the next few years learning how large corporations work at renowned companies like Hero Group, Dell, IBM and Stryker Global. An eager student, he went on to earn a Management degree specializing in Human Resources. The degree suited him well because of his unique ability to analyze situations objectively and in an unbiased manner. Rapidly moving up the ladder, he eventually joined Policybazaar.com as the HR head. To support the high growth trajectory of the company, he dove headfirst into increasing the employee base of the company from 1450 to 10,000 employees in a span of three short years.
At Policybazaar, each manager is empowered to take his decision and run his department like individual business entities, which are working in sync.
Though he may not be taken to boasting, Khurana knows his department’s stats inside and out - and he is clearly proud of what he has helped Policybazaar accomplish. It was his sports background that prepared him for the corporate sector. He remembers that one of the earliest team activities he was able to execute flawlessly was cricket and basketball.
“Even if you miss a second of teamwork, it destroys the entire game. Teamwork is in the DNA of a sports person. It has really helped to add value to my organisations too,” he recalls.
As he guides and develops the team at Policybazaar, he uses the following lessons:
Good HR policies need to be a top priority
“HR is an ocean, and it is not just about compensation and benefits. It involves getting the right people, managing them and improving their skill sets, while juggling the organisation, as well as its tantrums and market volatility. As a leader, you also have to ensure that the management and the employee are in tandem with each other at every second of their journey,” he explains.
At Policybazaar, his focus has been on framing policies which create a conducive work environment and foster professional growth. He also led employee engagement initiatives, which played an instrumental role in aligning the goals of the management with the workforce, thereby creating synergies between the senior, junior and middle management.
He also places extra emphasis on communicating changes quickly as well as clearly and up and down the line, so that everyone is aware of what is going on, all the time. Regular calibration sessions between the teams ensure that this communication is open and transparent.
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Focus on succession planning and internal development
“For a niche industry such as ours, there is a dearth in skilled talent. Thus, intensive leadership programs are put in place to nurture talent in-house for senior leadership positions. The hallmark of our organisation is that 80% of our senior management has been groomed, mentored, and promoted internally. What sets us apart is also the entrepreneurial model that we follow within the organisation. At Policybazaar, each manager is empowered to take his decision and run his department like individual business entities, which are working in sync.”
When asked how he ensures that these internal development resources are going to the right people for the job, he responds, “We maintain a strong culture of trust internally. What we seek in our candidates are primarily talent and attitude – aptitude is something we can look to develop.”
Never repeat your mistakes
Mistakes aren’t anything to be ashamed of, but repeating them would be folly. When evaluating the reasons for his success, Khurana emphasises that professionals should take chances and come in with the mindset that failure is not to be shunned. While everyone will experience failure in their career at some point, it can also be an excellent learning experience.
“Forget about failures – if you feel that you have never failed in your life, then you’ve not learned enough.”
The key, he goes on to say, is to acknowledge mistakes, and be open to feedback. So how exactly does this top HR man handle criticism? He tries to take it on board. “Healthy criticism is good for productivity. And my mantra is that it’s okay to make mistakes, but not to repeat them. It was what one of my teachers told me in school and it has stayed with me.”
Don’t fear technology – grow with it
A major driver in the future of the workplace right now is technology, kicking off a discussion of how it may replace humans in their jobs in the very near future. Khurana takes the opposite view and feels that technology is nothing to be feared. Like software itself, humans must constantly look for ways to improve their skills, knowledge and abilities to ensure that they are at the top of their game.
“As a professional, the continuous effort to test and improve my skills will ensure I remain competitive. It’s not true to say that technology will replace human beings if we are also updating ourselves with technology. At some point, there will be a need for human intervention. I don’t think human interaction will turn obsolete anytime soon.”
Constant cycle of learning and growth
If one thing is clear about Khurana, it’s his consistent hunger to always be learning. Whether he is helping his son with homework or working his job at Policy Bazaar, he is on the lookout for opportunities to learn more, which will surely help in his preparations to meet the challenges of the future.
To make it in India, you must understand India
Swaminathan Subramanian
Chief People Officer, Reliance Capital
One of India’s most popular HR leaders describes himself as “a man from coal mines”, thoroughly grounded and raised in conservative traditional Indian values. Perhaps that’s the reason why Swaminathan Subramanian, Chief People Officer at Reliance Capital, has always stayed away from bluster and believed in maintaining austere HR budgets. But for all his gentle talk and humble persona, Subramanian’s CV is something he can really boast about. A gold medalist in engineering, this HR head has played a key role in supporting the establishment and turnaround of organisations across multiple continents.
If you want to be an HR head in India, then you should know the intricate nuances of the country and states. You cannot apply a boiler-plate global approach.
Subramanian believes that one of the reasons for his success is his upbringing. “I come from a conservative South Indian family, and believe in keeping things simple. I am a perpetual student, and have never brought a bag of tricks to any job because every company has its own DNA and culture. What works for one might not work for another. I don’t believe you can replicate the success of one company.” he says animatedly.
Subramanian loves to take on new challenges. “Proximity to decision makers is very important. I worked in Dubai, London, Taiwan as well as Indonesia, and have adapted culturally to all these places. But working away from the headquarters (HQ) of these companies had its constraints. There is always going to be transmission loss both ways when you are not based in the same country as the HQ.” This made him resolute to come back to India and work at the epicenter of decision making. He says, “Ironically, I had learnt more about overseas markets and workforce than I did in my own country, and working at Fullerton India [an NBFC that provides loans to rural customers and SMEs] helped me understand the talent and challenges at the hinterlands. There is India, and there is Bharat.”
“If you want to be an HR head in India, then you should know the intricate nuances of the country and states. You cannot apply a boiler-plate global approach.” Understandably, his advice revolves around the importance of giving deserved value and attention to India, particularly for returning Indians:
Spend adequate time to study India, state by state
“You need to know India, our income tax laws, market practices, talent landscape, cultural nuances and pitfalls. There is no need to engage in esoteric discussions around performance management models and bell curves for example. End of the day, it’s simple: it’s about how much business revenue is, and how much of it are shared with employees and at what cost. It is a business solution, not a text book functional debate,” he explains. “Those are the skills and experiences that hold me in good stead at a marquee Indian company like Reliance.”
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Believe in Indian companies
Subramanian was an early believer in the premise that Indian companies are best positioned to contribute to nation building than foreign companies. Homegrown companies such as Reliance Capital are far more entrepreneurial than any other foreign company in India.
“It has required vision from the beginning [for Indian companies] to be the size, scale and stature that they are today. They do not lack what their western counterparts have access to today. Long ago, they didn’t have access to talent, but that has changed significantly over the last two decades”
Tap into the huge resource of Indian professionals returning from abroad
When questioned about the shortage of leadership talent, Subramanian comes out with guns blazing.
“There are huge numbers of returning Indians, who are realizing they are more impactful in their country of origin. The attractiveness of India has increased. Pay levels are almost similar to those of other markets at least at CXO levels. The scale and complexity of roles in India is bigger than being in a single city in developed economies. Even MNCs bring back globally seasoned professionals to handle India, after having demonstrated their caliber in less complex markets.”
Invest in creating diverse leaders
According to Subramanian, Reliance Capital invests heavily in leaders and sends them to Ivy League schools like Columbia or Harvard for senior executive and digital programmes. “There are several leaders at the CXO level in Reliance Capital who are currently undergoing an international Ivy League programme. I don’t think there is a grooming problem in India, but there is still resistance in many traditional companies to appoint younger people. Age and batch are still key considerations at these companies. Some are better, but still far behind western counterparts. It is common at Reliance Capital to find CEOs in their early 40s, but this isn’t very prevalent elsewhere.”
Women talent is also underinvested within India. He points out that diversity of Reliance Capital is 27 percent, which is in the top decile for retail financial services companies. At senior leadership, 16 to 17 percent are female. According to Subramanian, diversity is about making sure that you don’t have an unconscious bias. “Women don’t want concessions, but need to be treated equally. And that’s what we do at Reliance Capital.”
Personal insights into the difference between education and experience
“When I started my career as a shop floor engineer, I noticed the huge gap between academics and actual work. I wish they taught life skills in engineering college. So, the next step was a management course from the Xavier School of Management. But even so, he says “my real education began after I joined work. I am who I am, because of the work that I have done, and not because I’m from a top Indian business school. It merely gave me visa to get in to the corporate world.”
Subramanian is quite aware of what he brings to the table, and is proud of his stints with global MNCs. “I don’t believe in theories and models. The only way to make an impact is to get under the skin of the business and discover the context of the challenges it faces”.
A culture of trust and camaraderie to drive superior performance
Anshul Bhargava
Chief People Officer, PNB Housing Finance
On meeting Anshul Bhargava, his composed gait alludes to his background. There was a time when young Bhargava would look with awe at soldiers dressed in combat greens and dream of donning the uniform in the future. His hometown of Mathura is well-known for temples, but it is also home to one of the largest cantonments of the country.
“My first school was in the cantonment area. We grew up listening to stories of valour and unmatched leadership displayed by our armed forces in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. At that time, I used to read comics like the “Commando” which were based on stories in World War I and II. It was the love for the uniform and adventure that triggered my journey,” he recalls.
Nothing could be more vital to a company’s long-term health than the choice and cultivation of its future leaders.
His formative years of schooling were spent in The Scindia School, a leading boarding school which helped mould his well-rounded personality. Later, his varied career in the Army saw him volunteering for special forces to operate in high intensity counter insurgency missions. The structured and rigorous training equipped him with leadership attributes that are required to cope with the challenges of the battlefield.
Before transiting from the army to a corporate role, he secured an executive management degree from IIM Calcutta. Bhargava took the confidence and leadership lessons he learned from a stellar Indian Army career and funnelled them into several corporate roles. He has proven himself a big asset to the Punjab National Bank Housing Finance Limited (PNBHFL), who had taken him on to spearhead the organisational transformation journey. Dedicated to his new career, Bhargava has helped rejuvenate a thirty year old, languishing public sector enterprise into the fifth largest housing finance company with an asset book of INR 70,000 Crores in a span of six years with 5000 employees.
“Integrating fresh talent from the industry and merging it with the existing cadre, building a unique value system, culture and DNA of a high performing organisation was one of the most exciting aspects of the job. It was a litmus test for a HR leader’s competency of change management in its true sense,” Bhargava says.
Bhargava has a knack for defying odds, a skill he says he learned with the army. His rich experience spread over his time in the army and corporate world have brought insights that he uses in his life now. The following are just a few of them.
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Invest in your leadership pipeline
“Nothing could be more vital to a company’s long-term health than the choice and cultivation of its future leaders,” believes Bhargava. Mission and execution orientation, people skills, ability to see larger picture, and foresight to steer the teams in ever disruptive business environment are a few essential attributes to become part of his senior leadership team. According to him, succession planning and leadership development are natural allies because they share a vital and fundamental goal: getting the right skills in the right place. Succession planning generally focuses on key positions, and leadership development usually begins in middle management. Collapsing the two functions into a single system has allowed PNBHFL to take a long-term view of the process of developing the middle management. The firm recognises the pivotal role that middle management plays and the importance of developing this key group as leaders, thereby making the organisation future ready.
Embrace disruption
Bhargava warns that “globally, the financial services industry is at a tipping point—either disrupt or get disrupted.” Technological changes are disrupting roles, structure, and competitive environment. HR leaders will have to build the organisation's culture and ability to react and manage change repeatedly, as well as consider the needs of the customers before their own products and services. To become agile, there is a need to diffuse decision making across the ranks. Bhargava recalls, “In the army where there is a hierarchical chain of command, counter insurgency operations have decentralized decision authority to exploit fleeting opportunities and help beat terrorists. Free your initiatives and decisions.”
PNBHFL is proactively combating information asymmetry within the company by encouraging teams to share information. “The business side has learned agile principles from IT, and IT in turn discovers customer needs from the business. Cross-functional engagement is paying rich dividends in terms of developing holistic employee profiles, retaining key talent and also de-risking the company.”
Employer value proposition: The key to a lasting competitive advantage
“Organisation culture remains the cornerstone for creating a compelling employer value proposition,” reveals Bhargava. Corporate culture shapes everything, from ability to attract talent to employee motivation. “At PNBHFL, we started the process by simply asking a difficult question - why would a highly talented person choose to work here? We realised the need to establish a compelling value proposition gradually by having highly credible and competent senior leadership, customised reward and recognition programs, align job interest with work-life balance, and create career opportunities for our employees. Additionally, we deliver the gold standard of customer service and am known as a socially responsible entity.” These long term differentiators have enabled PNBHFL to emerge as a preferred employer brand in the BFSI space.
Poach your internal talent: Managers role to engage them
Great managers care about their people's success. “Job seekers look for an environment where sensible mistakes can be made and leaders encourage experimentation without dysfunctional relationships and bureaucracy,” Bhargava states. He adds that most employees do not have clarity around their career aspirations or drivers of job satisfaction. To engage employees, two levers can be utilised: career development opportunities matching their areas of strength, and training. Sometimes, there is a need to hard code a culture of mentoring and coaching to reach these goals. “Supervisors have a direct influence on the engagement of their subordinates. At PNBHFL, we have a defined framework where front line managers are mentored to develop leadership skills, so that they demonstrate competence, have integrity and show they care about employees. This has yielded great results in subduing talent leakage and driving superior performance.”
Hiring for the C-suite in India
Nicolas Dumoulin
Managing Director, Michael Page
The search for senior talent is not an easy one to traverse. Managing Director (MD) for Michael Page India, Nicolas Dumoulin, shares his outlook for senior leadership, hiring trends that matter, and why focusing on six pillars: succession, communication, talent, culture, strategy and innovation, is important for successful hiring for the future.
It all starts with talent
Nicolas Dumoulin was given the challenge of a lifetime when he was made the MD for Michael Page India. In maintaining an even keel for Michael Page, Dumoulin often draws on the lessons he’s learned from his long career in recruitment, noting that careful talent scouting and hiring are key to moving forward as a business.
Poor hires at the top level are not only costly to replace, but they are also disruptive to business operations and can slowly erode faith in the management team.
In terms of talent scouting, Dumoulin explains that there are two fundamental schools of thought on the subject. The first is to cultivate leaders from within an existing pool of talent; the second is to define the perfect candidate and look for someone to fill those shoes. “From there on, you sit with an executive search firm to further define where these potential people would be. It is extremely important to get a good view of the Indian market, especially within the areas where you are fishing for talent.”
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What’s the right strategy?
Business strategy actually goes hand-in-hand with communication when you’re talking about hiring, succession and keeping all the business gears turning.
To determine the right candidate for the position and the company, Dumoulin says that evaluating the technical competencies of your candidates is an easy thing to check first. However, it is also essential to look at more qualitative factors, such as culture and soft skills.
“In a lot of cases, decisions are made quickly when a potential candidate has worked in the same industry and has experience in a similar position. The assumption is that he or she will be able to assimilate into the role easily. I think there needs to be more scrutiny and in-depth analysis on whether the candidate has right skill set and cultural fit.”
Communicate your culture
When culture isn’t well-represented from the initial recruitment process, it can often result in both the candidate and the company feeling a mutual mismatch after onboarding. “It’s almost like a marriage where the husband and wife aren’t on the same page. That will definitely translate to problems down the line,” he adds.
Company culture needs to be at the forefront of recruitment – candidates should know what the company stands for, which is more so pertinent if the hire is a senior one. “Place someone who espouses the complete opposite of your company’s values in a senior position, and dissatisfaction among the lower ranks will spread quickly.” Proper communication during the hiring process can help to clarify doubts and minimise any surprises. “Poor hires at the top level are not only costly to replace, but they are also disruptive to business operations and can slowly erode faith in the management team,” Dumoulin muses.
The importance of succession and modernisation
For locally run Indian businesses, there has been a long-standing challenge to attract strong, independent leaders. “There is often no succession planning strategies in place since a family member takes the reign of the company. And despite best intentions, this is often not the best result for the business or the individuals.”
One way for overcoming the lack of succession planning in these companies is that of structural modernisation. Specifically, shifting from traditional boss-employee relationships and embracing the modern template of a multinational corporation (MNC).
“One of the major differences in leadership style between MNCs and home-grown companies is that locally, the boss gives instructions, and subordinates tend to comply without question. Whereas in MNCs, strong emphasis is placed on a collaborative listening culture, where the leader works with the team to define their vision, and how to go about achieving it,” he says, noting that the latter model tends to lead to heightened ownership and engagement. “With authoritative leadership, employees tend to be less satisfied in their roles and less engaged,” Dumoulin explains.
Looking forward, the six pillars are more important than ever
Dumoulin is keeping both eyes open: one on his company’s performance, and another on the future of business management. He is constantly refining the balance between internal communication, strategy, talent management, company culture, innovation and ultimately, plans for succession. Even at the top, he knows that no one is too big to fall.