People Matters

When words and actions are aligned

By Ester Martinez, Managing Editor

May 15th 2011

While we have heard CEOs talking about the importance of talent as a competitive advantage for their organizations, we have also seen instances when people expenses have been considered as costs and not as investments. The People Matters CEO Survey 2011 reveals that this trend is changing and talent management is a top priority in the CEOs’ business agenda. Business leaders are walking the talk by committing individual time to talent activities and by having talent targets and metrics ... Read more »

Cover Story : CEO as the Chief Talent Officer

By Ester Martinez & Rajlakshmi Saikia

May 15th 2011

73% CEOs in India spend more than one-fourth of their time directly on talent-related activities. While 68% acknowledge that this time has increased in recent years, 79% also affirm that this focus will only increase further next year. This indicates a relevant change in the way organizations are functioning today. The People Matters - Monster.com CEO as the Chief Talent Officer Study 2011 reveals what CEOs are doing in their individual capacity to leverage the people advantage to build succes... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: Deep Kalra, CEO, MakeMyTrip

May 15th 2011

As we establish ourselves as the market leaders, it is imperative for us to leverage it to position ourselves as an ‘Employer of Choice’ and also offer our people plethora of growth opportunities. Therefore managing talent is a prime focus which ensures that our people development strategy and HR processes are in line with organizational needs. As a part of this initiative, we have identified the first batch of leaders who will undergo a critical talent development initiative this ... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, CEO, Zensar Technologies

May 15th 2011

In the context of our industry, where we are experiencing rapid growth, broad basing the organization and scaling up people, capabilities is key to gain the required competitive advantage. The HR head in our organization is part of the strategy council. This council is a team of 6 people who are key decision makers for the future of the organization and HR is very much part of these team. For us, people strategy is an integral part of business strategy.Our HR priorities include a gamut of peo... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: Santhanam B, Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Glass India

May 15th 2011

The role of the CEO in any organization is to act as the "bridge" between the external world and the internal organization. The CEO must be able to interpret external opportunities, competition, environment, trends, and challenges, and provide clarity internally about the direction that the company must take. The CEO must to zoom in and zoom out constantly and be able to provide answers to internal questions at all levels.While growth is promising, the biggest challenge facing organi... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: NV (Tiger) Tyagarajan, Chief Operating Officer, Genpact

May 15th 2011

People are core to our business. People are the clear differentiator in our business; it is the way we win. I spend one-fourth of my time on talent-related activities and the rest between customers, operations and strategic initiatives. Even in the time I spend with customers and the operating teams, at least one-fourth of that actually goes into discussions around talent, including requirements, challenges, innovation and expertise building. Overall I spend at least 35 to 40% of my time on ta... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: Susir Kumar, CEO, Intelenet Global Services

May 15th 2011

Our industry is very dynamic and client expectations have increased tremendously. Today clients expect you to recommend business solutions across any industry or domain in a matter of days. The trend for outsourcing has increased as many companies have downsized capacity during the downturn and, in this new phase of growth, they do not want to build capacity internally but remain nimble by outsourcing the required capacity to third parties. As a consequence, the outsourcing business is boomi... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: Niren Chaudhary, Managing Director – Indian Subcontinent, Yum Restaurants India

May 15th 2011

Our HR priorities for the year need to be read in the context of our mission of ‘growth with a big heart’. We aim to grow our business to a billion dollar company, with 1,000 stores across India; and we aim to grown in terms of people, from 15,000 employees today, to 50,000 employees in the next 5 years. Growth here does not just mean growth in numbers but growth for the people and the communities that we work in, which is our corporate social responsibility mandate.The biggest cha... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: James McEleney, CEO, BNY Mellon International Operational (India)

May 15th 2011

In the current scenario where we are growing very rapidly there is increased demand for talent, a vibrant work environment and a need to develop and empower leaders at all levels, for organizations to compete. Therefore the three top HR priorities for us include recruiting the right people, developing the current team in terms of technical and professional requirements to meet the new demands of the job, and fostering workplace energy though employee engagement and connection.Talent priorities... Read more »

Cover Story Interview: Sanjay Modi, MD, Monster India/SEA/Middle East

May 15th 2011

The CEO’s role has witnessed a paradigm shift post recession and there is an increasing need for the CEO to spend time on engaging the workforce. There has been an increased stress on employee engagement and communication where CEOs today need to reach out to the employees and communicate what was happening within and outside the organization as well as its impact on the organization.As CEO it is my responsibility to build an environment where employees can flourish by enabling engagemen... Read more »