Human Capital Management - Must evolve from RTB to CTB | GTB Play Arena

We have been through the Industrial age and now living through the midlife of Information Age. Knowledge Economy was an alliteration that caught amongst the business leagues post year 2000 has pushed the envelope further as it brought to bear an undeniable influence of Human Capital Assets and the Leaders of Talent Management.

Trend is more than ever before HR leaders are scaling to the peak of corporate echelons as well rounded true blue business leaders. Importantly Women who have been in the HR leagues are breaking the Glass Ceiling. What beckons is whether the powers of talent break new ground to take on both the challenges and opportunities of now and future.

We have seen a mushrooming trend of Entrepreneurs bloom in the Small Business arena picking the HR portfolio in the last two decades than any time in the past. This has plugged the gap as fillers to accommodate the frenetic pace of human capital intensive business albeit with tolerable in competencies.

Often times, HR folks are accused of being stereotypes & reactive support functionalists. Most HR leaders of the yore weren't acquainted with 360 Degree business imperatives while the dynamics of transformation agenda at Organisations expect challenging status quo & innovating against the run of business as a basic necessity to steer corporations in times of dynamic global change & uncertainty.

As Chieftains of the most important strategic asset of the firm - “TalentedPeople”, the imperative is to lend leadership & innovation on how they attract, engage, nurture, develop & retain top talents? This is a big problem areas and a big ticket question that is staring at most leaders.

Technology plays a crucial part in the talent management sweepstakes as is evidenced from the recent large deal acquisitions of IBM, Oracle and SAP. The three giants have admittedly consumed Kenexa , Taleo & Successfactors for their ability to bring in software assets that connect with the talents on the social networking fabric. They seek to listen to what they say & to see whats transacted on the social sites and derive meaning which will then guide their leaders in strategic decisions. Relationship analysis is the job handed to the new breed of employees- Data Scientists!! A Big Data Agenda for sure.

While technology plays a pivotal role, artificial intelligence isn’t yet there to replace the human touch. Particularly so when high touch and soft handle are required at understanding aspirations, limitations along with complex human relationship semantics - be it in the physical work world or the socially connected flat virtual world.

The shifts of global power and influence are certainly getting distributed from west to east. A new economic architecture is being evolved yielding to the pressures and pulls of an interconnected world grappling with change factors of changing political and economic horizon. Post the ushering of third world nations , facebook & likes are heralding a 4th World. They are both growing in enormity as well as in their telling influence.Recent uprising at Egypt have show us how !!!

In these times of uncertainty, change is a constant and predicting the change direction and timing the transformation with agility is the mandate for the Chief Executive of the Global , Glocal Corporations.

Machines and Software can change at the click of the button but to expect the vast talents spread across the chasms of generations, aspiration , cultures & geographies of most Global MNC’s is expectation wish list whose time hasn’t yet arrived.


It is in the above context that the Human Capital Executive is charted with a Premier Challenge of shifting gears from Run the Business ( RTB ) to Change & Grow the Business mandate ( CTB,GTB). Many Corporate Boards have realized this in the recent times. The Vineet Nayar's incredible story on Employees First & Customers Second at HCL Technologies is an example worth emulating.

The challenge presents the biggest realm of Innovation possibility for leaders to renew and redefine the ways they engage in attracting, engaging , nurturing , developing and retaining talented assets. For every talent is different from another and is unique therefore how we plan to accommodate their uniqueness , their life cycle in the companies those hire & engage them , customers they serve is the agenda that is the BIG Game Change at some of the smartest companies around.

These are challenging times , yet very interesting passage of time amidsts the Information Age. Knowing isn’t enough as it seems , predicting is the high stakes play for the future. People loath uncertainty - evolving certainty and delivering innovation & productivity is the sub rule of the big game change. The games have begun , it is the folks who recognize the subtle shifts and transform who will be winners ( importantly survivors ) into the future.

"Cleantech" The Greatest opportunity for India.

What is CleanTech?

Clean tech encompasses a constellation of environmentally-sustainable technologies spanning multiple value chains in four primary economic sectors - energy, water, materials and transportation. Individually, these technologies are focused on the optimization of natural resources. Collectively, they are the basic elements of a broader systemic response to the systemic challenges of sustainability. The following taxonomy provides a basic snapshot of the core technologies that define the cleantech space:

Energy Generation
Energy Storage
Energy Infrastructure
Energy Efficiency
Transportation
Water & Wastewater
Air & Environment
Materials
Manufacturing/Industrial
Agriculture
Recycling & Waste

Clean tech has also been defined as:

“Clean tech is a diverse range of products, services, and processes that harness renewable materials and energy sources, dramatically reduce the use of natural resources, and cut or eliminate emissions and wastes . . . [which are] are competitive with, if not superior to, their conventional counterparts.”

–Clean Edge, Inc.

Its widely believed that cleantech is the single biggest investment opportunity of the 21st century. As far as market size is concerned, if you add up energy and transport sector, that’s $6 trillion worldwide. That is massive; it dwarfs sectors like IT. But that does not mean you will have hundreds of companies with billion dollar market caps immediately. The risks and hurdles are also big. The biggest hurdle is obviously that you need more capital.

The 1-2-3 factors driving investors to cleantech are -A Global Conseus on the menace of climate change, followed by a early shape to global policy on carbon pricing & volatile swings of fossil fuel pricings.

Cleantech is not a theory, and people have made money in India. Perfect example is Suzlon which has reported revenues of more than $1 billion. Like India made IT services industry hugely strategic 10-15 years ago, I think the country has a fantastic chance of making cleantech strategic too.

The biggest problem for the country is infrastructure.Mainly energy and transport. We have massive scarcity of power.

India did a complete quantum leap in telecom.We didn’t make investments in wire line, we went straight to wireless. We skipped a generation of technology. Why won’t you do the same thing in energy? Why would you go to 50-60 year old technology of coal and natural gas, when you can go to something new in energy business.

The thought of desalination of sea water for the ever scarce drinking water problem in chennai has been there for some time now. The government needs to create a viable atmosphere for private players to invest in this area as water is going to be all the more scarce with climate change rendering monsoons unpredictable.

India is one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world.Like in telecom we can afford to skip several manufacturing & engineering bottle necks and leap frog into battery powered auto mobiles cutting down emission dramatically. Think about the opportunity of coding intelligent software to manage power grids and battery hubs from a SW lab at Hitech City @ Cyberabad.

It would be a right step forward if the government assigns a minister of state for Cleantech to channelize investments. Recognizing this sector as a separate industry is a huge step forward. A visionary move that the UPA government will take which can create as many jobs as the IT sector has given the nation. This may not get them the vote bank as did the 60000 cr loan waiver but will surely create greener pastures for a Green Global India as a hub of cleantech source.

It’s a huge opportunity India & the world has to benefit from in a hurry !

New WORK is to THINK

The new "WORK" is to think ! From workers to thinkers ! Knowledge economy will be powered knowledge workers who dont merely sift tera bytes of data in excel , adobe & word sheets but who think posibilities & solutions by thinking through the data templates.Data are the means to the productivity purpose for the thinkers who energise the economy with their intellect.

But then what are leaders there for..here's the prescription..

Leaders are like conductors of a Symphony @ an Orchestra. Orchestrating the thought streams with meaningful macro templates. Intellect at the knowledge workers end & emotional blend at the leadership end will blend in to a fine brew of way forward.

Way forward to change avenues is critical in many ways.the fundamentals of business it seems today increasingly weighed in cutting costs.Cutting cost most certianly in most cases meant slashing work force. At cases a near nil in intake of new blood to rejuvenate the system.

The balancing act was always the forte of the corporate leaders from the finance,marketing , sales quaters.But the seasons initiative & reins should be with the Human Capital managers for more reasons than one. They have the locus standi to shape the culture,make good of the asstes they took in & transform them. Its a cost that corporates need to invest instead of writing them off as write offs. Thats the kind of leadership which will reinstate the faith in the world economy that its all about peoples business & not that of manchines & raw balance sheet datas.

Tha onus of managing , orchestrating & blending the new & freash talents to grew a refreshing culture is with the the Human Capital head. For starters he is entitled to take charge as the tile is already in place.

Next Giant Steps!

Putting a man on moon was Kennedy's vision to levitate human endeavor. The next giant steps must be walked in our minds impacting the citizens of the globe. Bringing the Berlin Wall was a great mini next step. International borders need to be more porous than they are now.. The borders serve only the purpose of mindless defense spending drained at protecting man made barriers which man kind is better off without.

Instead the next giant steps should be to build impregnable walls of immunity against killer epidemics& pandemics. Thats building with purpose serving a cause of sustaining life.

Moon is still far off. Before which lets secure our ozone layer, the snow peaks. We must realize global warming is just a tip of the iceberg. I am sure there are lot many more natural barriers and more sinister human barriers constituting of global terror & religious fundamentalism which impede & stumble us from moving ahead.

Even as we celebrate 40 years of man stepping his foot on world , the most lasting impact is the beautiful picture of blue earth brought home by the crew. A step forward then would be to keep planet earth as beautiful as it was with its multi hues & myriad uniqueness.A vision of a New,Clear globe!

Decisive Verdict ! Winning Trivia and All !

Decisive VERDICT!

Manmohan Singh summarized the mandate succinctly “ People of India have spoken and spoke with great CLARITY”

Singh and Rahul were the men of the Circa 2009 General Elections !COMBO - A great blend of the ebullient youth and the rich experience!

Thats one of the reasons that the Akshay Kumar magnum opus "Singh is King" leads track upstaged the AR Rehman Oscar winning "Jai Ho" at all media shops and celebrations.

Jai Ho it was and Singh is King all the way !

A journey into the next five years well begun with Pro Incumbancy and one which in my view will end due to mindless Rahul Ghandhi Sycophancy by Congress Men.


"Rahul Gandhi can become Prime Minister when ever wishes" - Shivraj Chouhan - Senior Congress Leader.

It is in many ways a historic verdict for India. I see this as coming of age of the Indian voter. A mandate decisively won by Congress who contested the election on a broad plank comprising some significant issues such as 1.Secularism; 2. Development; and 3. Populist Agrarian Schemes.

All of these poll plank pillars seem to have connected with the masses that saw the sincerity in execution of the United Progressive Alliance winning them a clear majority.

A clear majority is such a relief to many who always wished not to be in the mire of the convoluted maze of a fractured mandate. A fragmented mandates brings in opportunistic regional parties to the great bazaar of coalition mess in the past.

For the next five years, politically speaking “It is an unbridled long right hand drive on a clear road ahead”; some thing that the UPA government last time was constantly bridled by left and other ever opportunistic deal makers.

A Secular Government is in many ways a harbringer of a Secular Bull Market.

Many passed the electoral test and came through victorious and vindicated.

• Manmohan Singh - Singh Is King!
o Only a second thus far after Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru winning a mandate after a 5 year term. While Jawaharlal got reelected the Sardar got reselected.

• Weak Prime Minister freshly operated with a strengthen heart pumping secular politics and functional, stable economic governance in an unstable world.

• A “Loha Purush” and Prime Minister in waiting will finish as the one in waiting even as he decided to relinquish the pole position of leader of the opposition after the defeat.
o Now, I doubt if he now call for a debate on national television?

• 123 - Nuclear agreement with US was right and left was wrong in pulling the plug from a coalition which was forced to realign with SP to complete the last leg. A nuclear deal which worked for congress and hopefully for India in the long run.
o Left will realize that the pin they pulled from the coalition grenade exploded in Kerala and Bengal.
o Left left behind UPA with Trinamool. Karat and Buddha are no more dada and mamatha is the new didi “mano ya na na NANO”
o The goodies such as NREGA and pro poor policies of the Left influenced UPA benefited the likes of YSR at AP and DMK.

• Rahul – Paving way for the Congress in the largest state influencing the 15 crore Indians there to vote outside caste and communal agendas for pro development.
o The rampaging BSP Elephant, cowed down for now.
o The lawns of SP mowed down, cutting them to size at grass root level.

• The tiger at west is upstaged by it own cub MNS weakening the Shiv Sena and its principal partner BJP.
• Modi’s Gujarat political landscape is modi-fied by a sure stepped UPA. This is one bastion Rahul will love to consolidate. Khemcho ! NAMO !

• Pawar’s quest for Power at IPL 2009 general elections remains unquenched. For Now. He is confined and contended to wielding his clout at IPL-2.

• Winning Bihar with good governance is Nitish Kumar “Chatur Chlaloo” ; Vanquished Lalu will have to settle with the taste of Railway canteens “Samose Mein Aalu” . This too if Madam Sonia ordains so!

• You may ban him from cricket for guilt yet to be proven but the public have voted him into limelight as a part of the success story in Rahul Gandhi’s UP surge. Like his career in cricket Azharuddin has made an impressive debut.

• While Jaya Lalitha finished a close second; Jayaprada and Jayasudha come in as impressive firsts against all odds.

• Severing anti secular ties helped Naveen Patnaik quell the ghosts of “Khandamal”

• Impressive it was indeed for Shashi Tharoor. Transition, transformational from the tall tables at UN to sipping tea at Trivandrum with party workers on campaign trail. What if he can’t speak fluent Malayalam, Malayalees have handed him a thumping 50000 margin victory.

• Lastly Gowda is no God! Jaffer is no Jack! BJP prevailed at Karnataka, the legacy matters of congress and JD flattering to deceive then mattered more than thrashing of women at Mysore.

• Delhi is securely in Congresses belly!

• In Punjab! It turned out sad for SAD  . Not sad at all for Navjyot Sidhu.

• Chiranjeevi failed the screen test! PRP bombed at ballot box office. But opened his counter as a humble beginning at least for now.

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Watch this space ..after the initial euphoria dies down , i shall upload pointers dechiphering the verdict and attempt to explain the begenning of an imminent decline of the Congress due to servile flattery of congress junta clamouring for higher post for Rahul. A bane that is a malignant in the form of Sycophancy of Rahul Baba !

Jaago re Maximum City Mumbaikar !

I was traveling overnight by train from Bangalore to Hyderabad on a chilly 26th November 08 and the train screeched to a grinding halt before time in the wee hours of the morning before day break. Sooner I reached home I happened to switch on TV to see unprecedented video clips of a police vehicle shot at out side the Taj Mahal hotel. A scribe shot at with bleeding hands and a telecast to unfold visuals of smoky clouds bellowing from the historic Taj Mahal.

Soon I sunk into my bean bag with a hot cup of filter coffee only to be confined at the edge of the beanbag as several heart rendering moments unfolded the next full week. Marathon coverage of all leading TV news channels aired the angst of the Mumbaikar aside heart felt tributes paid to some of India bravest officers on police and military duty whose sacrifice in the hour of crisis of the nation unforgettable.

Every Indian in my view would have wept a silent tear and suffered a broken heart bleed considering the enormity of the attack killing so many civilians and brave men guarding the nation. A certain Shobha De kicked of a rhetoric of “Enough is Enough” which unleashed a smoldering hate wave on politicians. Add to it the politicians one after one flabbergasted one an all with their suicidal speak and audacious acts only to add petrol to an already blazing flame of smoldering anger.

I was certain that the Mumbaikar and every other Indian was instigated enough to turn his anger into a wave of sweeping change at the upcoming elections. So many candles burnt and so many abuses hurled on the politicians, it was a forgone conclusion that Mumbai Indians were charged to exercise their adult franchisee and this time for a better person to guard them against dastardly attacks like 26/11 voting a resolute government with the resolve to quell terror in a city ravaged by attacks regularly in the past.

Alas on 30th April 156 days hence, it seems “Enough wasn’t Enough” a long weekend was sufficiently luring for the Mumbaikar to get out of the city for a blast at the sun kissed beaches of Goa. Or it was sufficiently cozy at home to flick TV channels and dig into the hot doorstep delivery of a sizzling vada pav, may be watching highlights of IPL “Mumbai Indians” blaze away against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Only the pigeons at Taj seems to have fluttered leaving their feathers ruffled.Many a stains of the brave blood still remain as scars on the freash wounds of the martyed souls family. Seems like 56 % of Mumbai kars werent moved to wake up to the call of social consiousness..:-(

When every one yelled Vote Kar Mumbaikar, when there was Bomb by the Bay 156 days ago; when time to vote came over half of the population were MuM Bhai! Voting yesterday was a potent chance for you to voice in change. On this Labor Day this is a severe labor pain of a still born democracy. Only 43 % voter turnout is adding insult to 26/11 injury. May be we must heed to the AD vani of making voting compulsory!
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The Great Abraham Lincoln once opined that “The Ballot was stronger then the Bullet” and yet when all of Mumbai was up in arms lighting candles post 26/11 crying change and accountability from the politicians they elected last time why 57 % percent citizens of the most vibrant and bustling city stay home muted at a time they should have been voicing their vote for change.

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man and a nation” – Oscar Wilde.


Why haven’t Mumbaikars channalised the unprecedented discontent into powerful vote bank ringing in change that you so desperately want? Are only 43 % of the citizens of Mumbai owning up to the responsibility for electing the next responsible government?

Has the compassion for the fellow citizens orphaned or widowed and seething anger against the terrorists of the Maximum City dwellers melted away along with the candles in their hand which they lighted with such great purpose weeks after 26/11?

One of India’s best cities and the one aspiring to be the next Shanghai, Mumbai is integral and far too important to the nation to sulk in an attitude of non participants in the democratic process so vital to nation building.

The Financial Hub of the country wails in protest every time goons from MNS thrash north Indians or when self appointed moral police attack women , pub culture and valentine day celebrations. The voter forgot that this very sainiks and goons hardly squeaked on 26/11.

Mumbai to India is a potent and highly visible example and such abysmal voter turnout will certainly mire the urban consciousness in other parts of the country. For now I am relieved and happy that down south of India at Hyderabad the turn out was 70 %!

Candle Light Vigil may be symbolic, but stepping out and respnsibly voting with 100 % turn out is a REAL way to show support to a terror struck maximum city ! Else soon it many become a minimum place of hope !

So next time we go to vote! Let’s usher in a few changes to bring in viable change on deciding who works for us at Parliament.

· Making voting compulsory in India.
· Allow negative votes so that the criminals don’t get in to govern in the first place.
· Don’t hold elections in summers.
· Experiment with casting of voting from home with bio informatics enabled internet voting. ( So much for the sophisticated urban lazy bones)
· Postal voting.

Lets Hope !

aravindan umashankar: Audacity of Malice

aravindan umashankar: Audacity of Malice