What it really takes to build a future-fit organisation—straight from India’s CHROs

As India’s economic landscape decentralises from the metros, the rising growth cities—like Ahmedabad—are becoming new powerhouses of innovation, business expansion and workforce development. The People Matters SurgeHR, which landed in Ahmedabad on 25 June 2025 after successful editions in Pune and Chennai, brought this shift into sharp focus. Among the day’s most resonant conversations was the panel titled “CHRO Perspective – Architecting the Future-Fit Organisation: From Strategy to Sustainable Impact.”

Featuring insights from senior HR leaders—Ashish Srivastava (CHRO, GTPL Hathway Ltd), Veedehi Patel (Head HR, Adani Defence & Aeronautics), and Sanjay Sahni (Executive Director, Human Capital, TTEC India)—and moderated by Preeti Ahuja (Chief People Officer, Husk Power), the session unpacked the many layers of transformation CHROs must navigate. From business alignment and cultural shifts to talent strategy, technology adaptation and sustainability, the discussion explored how HR is no longer a support function, but a strategic partner shaping future-ready enterprises.

The CHRO’s Evolving Mandate

Traditionally, the HR function was boxed into administrative and compliance responsibilities. But today’s CHROs sit at the table where strategy is shaped. As Preeti Ahuja highlighted in her opening, the role has evolved significantly—from a transactional support role to becoming a core influencer in boardroom decisions.

Ashish Srivastava, who leads people operations across digital cable, broadband and EPC verticals at GTPL Hathway, summed it up crisply: “This entry into the boardroom has to be earned. Once HR speaks the language of EBITDA and revenue, we stop being seen as just a people function and start being viewed as business enablers.”

Veedehi Patel added that this influence needs to begin even earlier—at the business design stage. In sectors such as defence and aerospace, where talent demand is highly niche, HR cannot afford to come in after the blueprint is drawn. “If HR isn’t onboarded during business planning, we will fail to get the right people on board—and that impacts your P&L directly,” she warned.

A recurring thread across the panel was the critical need for HR to ‘know the business’. The premise is simple—no HR strategy can succeed unless it is grounded in a solid understanding of how the business functions, earns revenue, and scales operations.

Sanjay Sahni of TTEC India, a CX-focused BPO firm, noted that HR leaders must understand everything from client SLAs to the cost of operations. “Even our TA leaders can now say ‘no’ to business proposals—because they understand our delivery capabilities and timelines,” he shared. “We’re not just executing instructions—we’re co-creating strategy.”

This business fluency also makes it easier for HR to shape talent models and influence structural decisions that deliver measurable outcomes.

Building Organisations by Design, Not Default

While business alignment forms the ‘why’, the panel delved into the ‘how’ of organisation design—especially amid transformation.

Patel outlined how Adani Defence had to rethink conventional hierarchy models when entering the complex and tightly regulated domain of aerospace. “We couldn’t rely on old HR textbooks. Our organisation was built from scratch with three pillars—domain experts from the armed forces, commercial professionals who understood scale and profitability, and technical leads from manufacturing and supply chain,” she explained.

This triangulated model meant success was measured at the team level—not by individual titles. “There were no egos about who reports to whom. Collaboration was everything,” she added. The result: agility in structure and stability in execution.

Sahni spoke about TTEC’s internal leadership pipeline as a structural lever for sustainable growth. By hiring only at entry level and promoting from within, the company has built a 90% internally grown leadership team. “It stabilises client delivery, helps scale new sites, and gives employees a real career path,” he said, citing a similar experience during his previous stint at Reliance Retail. “We halved manpower cost and doubled store performance by promoting young supervisors instead of hiring lateral managers.”

Ashish Srivastava shared GTPL’s focus on consolidation and digitalisation as key levers of their organisation redesign. “We merged similar job families across verticals to cut costs and improve alignment. At the same time, we invested in digitalising 80% of our processes, including HRMS,” he said. The third lever, performance management, was not just about appraisal letters but fostering performance culture. “The design must support not only business goals but also enable people to succeed.”

Leadership Alignment: The Real Challenge

If organisation design is the blueprint, leadership alignment is the scaffolding. And it doesn’t come easy.

“Most leaders know the ‘why’ of change. The real friction is in the ‘how’—implementation, timelines, ownership,” noted Srivastava. To overcome this, GTPL follows a large-scale interactive process that democratises change decisions. “We crowdsource ideas, agree on outcomes, and ensure the same message is communicated across levels.”

Trust is the other enabler. “If HR is seen as fair and consistent, even difficult transitions are easier to navigate,” he added.

Patel stressed the importance of managing mindsets—especially in multi-generational or cross-domain teams. “When ex-forces professionals, corporate managers and factory engineers work together, the HR team has to play mediator, translator and enabler all at once,” she said. It’s not just about explaining what to do—it’s about ensuring everyone feels part of the ‘why’ and ‘how’.

One of the most pressing responsibilities for CHROs today is preparing the workforce for future technologies—especially automation and AI.

“We often hear that AI will take away jobs. That’s not accurate—it will replace certain tasks, but the jobs will evolve,” Patel clarified. “Earlier we did the jobs of robots. Now we must get robots to do the jobs for us.”

That calls for a proactive reskilling agenda—not just technical upskilling but a mindset shift across the organisation. “People must feel excited, not threatened by change. That only happens when they are involved in the change narrative,” she said.

Sahni echoed this, adding that upskilling efforts must be tied to business needs. “Transformation isn’t a classroom exercise. It’s about capability-building for specific outcomes,” he said, noting that their internal career mobility model is also backed by structured assessments and development centres.

As conversations turned to ESG and sustainability, panellists were clear that this cannot remain a tick-box activity.

Sahni cited TTEC’s flagship “Wellness Walk” initiative—a 23-year-old CSR programme that combines employee engagement, health awareness and community support. “Employees volunteer, run, raise funds and manage the event end-to-end. The organisation only facilitates—culture is created by the people,” he said.

This participatory model ensures sustainability is not just a policy but a way of life. “Over 12 crore raised for 77 NGOs and 1 lakh participants—that’s culture in action,” he added.

The consensus: when sustainability is seen as an HR initiative, it risks becoming peripheral. But when embedded into leadership behaviours and employee ownership, it becomes generational.

Three Words to Take Back

As the panel drew to a close, moderator Preeti Ahuja asked each speaker to leave the audience with a single takeaway.

• “Be agile,” said Ashish Srivastava.
• “Know your business,” echoed Sanjay Sahni.
• “Be restless,” said Veedehi Patel with a smile, underlining the spirit of continuous improvement and curiosity.

These weren’t just catchphrases—they were field-tested principles emerging from lived experience.

So, as Indian businesses move into smaller cities and newer industries, CHROs are carrying more responsibility than ever—driving structural agility, talent innovation and cultural cohesion. The path from strategy to sustainable impact is not linear—it involves co-creating, co-owning, and continuously adapting.

What this panel at People Matters SurgeHR Ahmedabad demonstrated clearly is that the CHRO of today is not just a custodian of policies—but a steward of purpose, design and resilience.

To architect a future-fit organisation is to engineer trust, enable growth and hardwire adaptability—one conversation, one structure, and one decision at a time.