C.P. Gurnani, MD&CEO, Tech Mahindra took the stage at People Matters TechHR 2019 and he asked the audiences about their childhood memories. Everyone felt that it was the experience that hasn’t changed. The senior industry leader mentioned that HR leaders should take experience in account when they are embracing HR technology, no innovation can be successful without having an experience. 

He said, “Though we are developing technology but still people are lonely, people require different level of treatment but people prefer for personalization and they are looking at personal experience.” 

People need personal touch and that’s why jobs such as dog walkers, cuddelist, physical trainer, chief happiness officer and minister of loneliness exists and these jobs will not be replaced by robots.  

He mentioned that, HR needs to behave like a player and a coach. Gone are the days where they need to fill the form and take orders. 

“When you become a player you add value to the team and when you become a coach you lead the team. HR leaders should take a note that digital is here to stay and they should know how to leap frog,” said, C.P Gurnani. 

The Tech Mahindra CEO insists on creating experience like Amazon and Walmart create for their customers, people and users. He concluded by saying, “Make employee experience as top of your agenda and then you will realize that you matter.”

Agility of the leader

Aruna Jayanthi, MD, APAC and Latin America Business Unit, Capgemini started her address by saying that the rules of the playing field are changing and by playing field she meant the culture of the organization, AI, robotics, IOT and quantum computing is changing.  

“A leader needs to influence the co-workers with his style of working and not by his/her designation. One should be able to influence the people and work with them in a collaborative environment, she said.”

Highlighting about the output, the APAC MD of Capgemini highlighted that working in silos will never give positive results. She said, “Working in silos is never as effective as working with influence and diversity. We only talk about gender diversity, diversity of thought and culture is equally important. The more people you have from diverse background and diverse thoughts then you will have high performing team.” 

Leadership style in digital is similar to the traditional leadership but with more agility. Leaders should influence people and not dictate them. If the leaders aspire to be successful, they should ignite the same passion for the job among the team and make them feel the same what they feel.

Suggesting the future HR leaders about leadership, Jayanthi mentioned, in order to be ahead of the game one has to be truly agile in fact super agile because tech is changing every six months. 

When asked one thing that they would like to start and stop as a leader. Aruna Jayanthi replied, “Enjoy every day and stop worrying as a leader.” Replying to the same question, C.P. Gurnani said he wants to kill hierarchies.