Spearhead InterSearch- InterSearch in India

Get that job- How not to get lost in the resume crowd

2012-02-16T18:11:00.002+05:30

Are you a dynamic sales professional who has worked in the finance industry for the past 14 years and worked your way up from trainee to Regional Manager? Are you an IT professional who would love to get into a start up kind of environment to use your 15 years experience to build a company as an intrepreneur? Are you looking for a job change, and felt that monster.com would be the right place to start?

Well, guess what. A million other people had the same bright idea.

Have you ever been to the monster/ naukri/ jobsahead-s of the world? As consultants we have. And if I am looking a for a dynamic sales manager for a leading bank to handle regional level sales- chances are that I might find you but the chances are much higher that I never will. All those "highlighted" or "premier" profiles included.

If you have something unique to offer, if you value your experience, then, in a pile of resumes is the last place where yours should be. By all means, post your profile (At senior levels, its a different story altogether, we will tackle that in a later post) but there are ways to get a much better result for your job search efforts.

Head hunt the Head hunter: If you are at mid management level waiting for your next big break, then search out those who will be able to give you the break. There are the placement agencies who usually have all levels of jobs at most companies. There are some specialised agencies who deal with particular segments, like there are some firms who deal only with insurance companies. There are executive search firms who deal with senior level assignments. The last usually have fewer options, but usually they have the best options and would deal with your resume in the most professional manner.

Where will you find them? Usually a google search will suffice. Otherwise, look out for editorial articles in business papers and job supplements. They have quotes from consultants and search company managers and heads. Find them out on the net, call into their offices and ask to talk to a consultant in their office. Sometimes a company will have consultants who are experts in a particular industry. But often any consultant will help you out at this step, either by pointing you to the right person or asking about your details.

Choose how many places you would like to send your profile: If you are desperate to move, I would suggest choose the top 10 consulting firms from every metro city, especially if location is not a constraint. If you are keen on any city, target the top 10 firms from that city. If you are taking it slow, 2-3 consulting firms, the best available in the cities, should be targeted. It is wise not to limit yourself to one or two consulting firms overall. No firm would have their finger on the pulse of every good company in any industry out there.

Be clear in your communication: It is important for the consultant to immediately know the following: your industry, number of years of experience, designation, company, city, age, more often than not your ctc, and what you are looking for. So if you are a Regional Head of Sales in ABCD Bank, XYZ division, in Chennai, with 12 years experience at 16 lakhs ctc per annum, and you are looking for a bank or any financial institution at a national role which will give you required growth in career and ctc, and you can move to any metro city: all this needs to be mentioned.

You should be asked to send in your profile. Please mention that it needs to be confidential and any further action on your profile needs to be taken with your go ahead only. Give all details on your profile as to your requirements (location, role, CTC) in the very beginning in a short note addressed to the consultant. For eg: if you dont want to go to Delhi, please mention in on the profile itself. That makes it much easier to remember you and chances of your being contacted for a Delhi job are minimised. If you dont have any such hassle, dont mention anything. If you have a limited period choice, mention the time period. Eg: "Cant move out of Chennai till 2013. After that, location not an issue." Always mention date in your profile.

Follow up, Follow up, Follow up: You need the job. You need to be seen, to be remembered. The buzz word here is "top of mind recall". Whenever I have a finance opening, I should think of you. The trick is to keep yourself in the mind of the consultant without becoming irritating. I would suggest calling weekly at the beginning and then sending weekly mails and calling up occasionally. Hopefully, you wont have to wait for that long, but the average time to get interviews after one starts searching aggressively is 3-4 months. So stay in the "top of mind" till then.

Be honest with your consultant: The three people you should hide nothing from: Your doctor, your lawyer and your consultant. Complete honesty is not just advisable for your benefit, it is also necessary for the consultant to fight on your behalf. Believe me, your consultant would love it if you got the job. She gets the bonus on your joining. Make friends with her and she will fight your case for your dream job, even if you took a two year break in between to go see the world!!

Ensure that your profile is treated with due respect: Make sure that you will be asked and consulted with before your profile is sent to any company. Ensure that full confidentiality will be maintained. You dont want your boss finding out about your job search. If you are not sent the Job Description and company details in a mail after the consultant calls, drop the consulting firm from your list. It is your career on the line, and any good consultant would respect that more than anything else.

So dont just wait for some random person to catch you on the internet. Get out there and start making your own opportunities.

What is the age for entrepreneurship- 25 or 45?

2012-02-01T20:59:00.001+05:30

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook at age 19, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google when they were both 23. But the image of the young entrepreneur is just that... an image, as new research suggests. Turns out, the average founder of a high tech start up is not a brash brilliant young-un, but a mature 40- something.

Vivek Wadhwa is a Duke University scholar who studied 549 technology ventures. It turns out that a 40 year old engineer or businessman with family is just at the right age to get tired of working for another company and starting off on their own. And they have better success rates too. They are the ones who have the industry and domain knowledge in the fields they are starting off in. They also have a wide network which they can put to good use, including financial support and capital.

This is from Time magazine which reported some time back that in US, the highest rate of entrepreneurship has shifted to the 55- 64 age group, with people above 55 almost twice as likely to found successful companies than people in the age group of 20- 34.

In India, a study by National Knowledge Commission, done among 155 entrepreneurs had one fourth under the age of 35. The median age at which they became entrepreneurs was 27. Usually in US as in India, older entrepreneurs deal with complicated technological companies in IT hardware, biotechnology, heavy engineering or energy. Whereas younger entrepreneurs will have tech start ups with hugely popular software or hot apps or other easy to understand products. In the Indian study ‘Idea-driven’ motivators were found to be more signiﬁcant for entrepreneurs above the age of 35 and exert a minimal inﬂuence on those below 35. Further, ‘market opportunity’ was a far signiﬁcant motivating factor for the below-35 age-group compared to those above that age.

There is a huge advantage due to this for our rapidly ageing demographic. Whereas across the world the population is ageing, India's population is still relatively young. (50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% hovers below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China, 39 in USA, 45 in European Union and 48 for Japan) And that means, as this generation ages, innovation will increase and hopefully, there is likely to be a boom in entrepreneurship and business in this country in the next 10-30 years.

Ten buzzwords to avoid in your profile, Linked-in or otherwise

2011-12-22T11:04:00.000+05:30

Long awaited, why-didnt-I-think-of-it-before moment. Linked-in, the professional network which has 135 million members now, has come up with the most overused words and phrases in members linked-in profiles in 2011. The top ten overused words in the USA are:

Creative
Organizational
Effective
Extensive experience
Track record
Motivated
Innovative
Problem Solving
Communication skills
Dynamic

Apart from being heavily cliched, these words actually say nothing about a persons professional capabilities and yet we keep using them, sometimes all of them, to show the world how good we are at work. I am personally guilty of using creative, motivated (mine was one step further "self motivated) and problem solving and communication skills.

Having seen thousands of profiles till date, I can vouch that these words do not really work in themselves. They dont improve your value on paper one bit unless you give examples of how creative you were or how you solved some problem with an innovative idea. Isnt everyone effective really? It goes to really saying that just like everyone else on this planet, you are actually doing your job and finishing whats to be done. Extensive experience and track record: Anyone doing something for more than 2 years will have extensive experience in that subject. Anyone would have a track record. Those words dont add a thing to the sentence and is slightly irritating, because I know somewhere that you have run out of things to say now. And what about dynamic. What exactly does it mean in the context of your work. If you are a bank manager are you dynamic, does that mean you can jump around everyone's cubicles all day? Or if you are a sales manager, does that mean you have a lot of energy? Is that not why you are a sales person in the first place? Once you break dynamic into smaller parts, thats when you will come up with the exact words you would like to use in your resume.

Worldwide the number one buzzword in various countries were

Creative: Australia, Canada, Germany, USA, Netherlands, UK
Multinational: Brazil
Dynamic: France
Effective: India
Problem Solving: Italy
Motivated: Ireland
Managerial: Spain
Track record: Singapore

The job market is getting more and more competitive and for senior managers, any lax in their effort at providing the company with a well formed and worded resume shows lack of motivation and effectiveness (chuckle). Therefore, the trick is to keep the words beside you and think what they mean. If there are specific examples of the traits these buzzwords describe, it would be best to line them up. Leave out words like motivated and effective and dynamic altogether, these are things which are very well expected from a senior experienced professional.

Using examples and specific instances makes your profiles unique to you and describes "you" and not another million people on this planet. And it is "you" you are trying to sell to a prospective employer.

The fall and fall of Education in India

2011-12-20T12:03:00.001+05:30

To add to my post on "Education and Employment" earlier on this blog, here are some more startling details which have come out today. Mint reports:

" A global study of learning standards in 74 countries has ranked India all but at the bottom, sounding a wake-up call for the country’s education system.

It was the first time that India participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), coordinated by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). India’s participation was in a pilot project, confined to schools from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.
only 12% of students in Himachal Pradesh and 15% in Tamil Nadu were proficient in mathematics against an OECD average of 75%; when it came to scientific literacy among students of class X, the proficiency level in Tamil Nadu was 16% and in Himachal, 11%, as against an OECD average proficiency of 82%.

In Malaysia, 56% of students were proficient in reading and 41% in mathematics. Similarly, in the United Arab Emirates, the mathematics proficiency levels was estimated at 49% and for reading, 60%. Like India, both countries participated for the first time."

India which has prided itself historically in its education system, has to wake up and soon. There has been a lot of talkin the last year about how the US education system is faltering and how the "east" is taking over. Examples cited are from China, Japan, S Korea, even places like Malaysia and Philippines. No one talks of India. Maybe the reason shows. Mint also reports:

"Not everyone agrees. The study may not be based on an apple-to-apple comparison, says Vipul Prakash, managing director of Elixir Consulting, a recruitment process outsourcing firm.

“If you look at the entire people entering the workforce, you may find lack of quality. But if you take the top 10% then they are perhaps the best in the world. This 10% is quite a large number which is giving India a competitive upper hand.”"

Its not about having the top 10% being talked about. The top 10% of the country will end up leaving the country to pursue greener pastures on foreign shores. The rest of us will enter the job markets here. And it is the next 50% which will form the army of the biggest companies in India, the field force, the sales teams.

The Times of India was reporting in the last few days about the lack of International Schools in Chennai, and how that has pushed Chennai into the last few cities in education standards. In any city, are International Schools then, the answer to our prayers? Starting at 12 lakhs fees per annum for a kindergarten seat, an international school is out of reach of almost everyone apart from business families and CEO kids. At least the middle classes can send their kids to private schools with no worry about the basic infrastructure. But what about government schools? Tamil Nadu's chief minister made history by providing free laptops to students recently. A great thought, no doubt, but how sustainable and repeatable is it? Will they do this to everyone every year? Can it be repeated across the country in all the states?

And how good are teachers who we send our kids to? Recently in both US and UK, a large percentage of teachers failed basic tests. Is this country considering testing out teachers too? Which bright mind wants to come down to teaching students at a school level? With the pay structures as it is, is it surprising that not one of the bright kids I once knew have actually gone into teaching? They are bank managers, or consultants, or if any, they have gone into professorship into private MBA schools. If we dont have good teachers how do we get good students?

Is it time the government woke up to quality of infrastructure in schools, increasing number of schools, and getting better teachers? A lot has been done for sure, providing mid day meals, monetary incentives, etc, but how much of it is tangible benefits for those who it is meant. How useful is an incentive of Rs 1000 for 100% attendance in the year (as reported in TN in today's paper).

Organizations like Eureka Child in Chennai are working along with the school system of the government to provide students in 100 villages of Tamil Nadu a more holistic education. They build their own material, go to the village schools and create a parallel learning system along with the school syllabus. Maybe it is time to create more organizations like Eureka.

PIOs returning - India providing the right pull? (or Recession forcing NRIs to return?)

2011-12-10T23:29:00.000+05:30

Last month I got a call from a PIO (Person of Indian Origin) finance professional from US, to talk about opportunities available in India that would suit his level of seniority and who would provide him an attractive remuneration, not comparable to what he gets there of course, but at least at par with market standards here. The reason he wants to relocate is manifold- the next big break in the US looks less lucrative at the moment, his parents are in Chennai, and he would love his children to stay at close quarters with grandparents, and of course both he and his wife, an HR professional were bound to get good opportunities at present in this country.

The Link, an Indo Canadian web news paper reports

"Krishna Kumar and Savita Murthy, a couple working for a financial institution and a telecom service provider respectively in New York, were in Bangalore in November to attend job interviews because of uncertainties in the US job market. “They mailed their CVs in early September and headhunters could line up some decent interviews for each of them. The husband has attended seven interviews and the wife attended four. Both are currently finalizing their respective new jobs and are expected to move back to India soon,” said K Shivaram, a close relative of the couple.

Another couple currently working in Berlin and Paris is moving back to Pune with their 12-year-old daughter. “The wife who works in a French bank has been pink slipped and her term ends on December 31,” said an acquaintance who did not want to be named....

What is significant is that these Indian-origin executives who are now looking to return home are coming in at salaries similar to what they were getting abroad. There are, however, certain sectors which have generated more traction than others. For instance retail, FMCG, financial services, IT, mining and power have benefitted from these highly-qualified Indians looking to come home.

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is the midst of one such recruitment action. “We are improving our systems and processes, an area that as an organization we are focusing a lot on. The expertise brought about by these people at the back-end and supply chain management areas is something we required,” said Sanjay Jog, Chief People Officer, The Future Group, India’s largest retailer which runs stores like Big Bazaar and Pantaloon. The retailer hired a number of key executives, all of them Indians who have come from international markets, in the last couple of months. While Manoj Agarwal came from Procter & Gamble’s US operations based in Cincinnati who is now heading the project management office at the group, Anurup Pruthi was earlier with Burberry, UK, who is now the chief executive for Digital Services and heads the captive BPO and technology services for retailer. Another Indian to have joined the group is Prasad Menon from the UK operations of Nokia who is heading Product Information Management Services (PIMS) for Future Group."

Just today I got a call from a 30 year old from UK. After completing his degree there he has been working on a contract basis with one of the top 5 accounting firms. He is confident his contract will be renewed but he is currently open to check out what India has to offer for his area of expertise. And truth be told, I suspect, he wont have long to wait.

Article in Mail Today on Cyrus Mistry: Jyorden comments

2011-12-08T11:44:00.001+05:30

Behemoth can do without surname By Lalatendu Mishra in Mumbai

THOUGH he does not have the illustrious Tata surname but Cyrus Mistry is certainly no outsider plucked from obscurity. The elevation of the 43- year- old engineer to the top post of the Tata conglomerate will only add to the salt- to- software brand value.

Cyrus, in the capacity of the member of the highest decision- making body of the Tata group and a distant relative of the Tatas, is the son of Pallonji Mistry — who owns 18 per cent of the Tata group.

Brand and marketing experts said the choice of Cyrus as the successor would in fact help the brand grow stronger.

“ It is a good choice. He is young and is very appropriate for a young country. With him in the drivers seat the Tata brand value will be enhanced,” said Jagdeep Kapur, chairman & managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultants.

“ What is important is the ability of the person to steer the group to the next level. Cyrus is a good professional and certainly has the acumen to do that,” he said.

Some analysts also believe that the Tata brand has grown so large that it does not require the surname to support it any more.

“ It has become an international brand and does not depend only on a surname that can add value to it. The name

Tata is synonymous with trust, reliability and ethics. If the new person with a different surname imbibes these values, then it would have more positive effect on the brand,” said Rajesh Srivastava, a marketing expert.

He said there will be no kneejerk reaction from either the industry or the market, as they view the development in a longterm perspective since a lot of thought has gone into the selection of Cyrus.

“ Today Tata is known as international company with Indian origin. Because the candidate has been selected merit, it has given a very strong signal of continuity of Ratan Tatas legacy who has transformed the group in the last years,” said Jyorden Misra, managing director ( India), Spearhead InterSearch.

Chandrajit Banerjee, head the CII, applauded Wednesday's announcement, calling it exemplary move that speaks volumes about the norms corporate governance at Tata.

“ CII commends the leadership in the Tata Group for setting standards which would be benchmark for large global corporations,” Banerjee said in statement

Women make better recruiters than men?

2011-12-08T11:10:00.003+05:30

Greg Savage in his blog "The Savage Truth" finally put in words what Ive suspected all along, at the cost of being sexist. Really, otherwise, why would the majority of recruiters in any agency at any level, in any market be overwhelmed by the number of women working there vis a vis men?

The reasons Greg enumerates are quite simple

Here is why;

I have found women are far better listeners than men. They are more empathetic. It helps, because they get deeper into the candidates true motivation, the client’s real needs… and they make a better match. Bluntly put, many woman recruiters simply care more about the human element. It might not sound ‘commercial’ but actually it means they end up with more satisfied customers, and over time, that pays.
You are not going to like this guys (and before you lynch me, remember, I am one of you) but women are more resilient than men. Sure, often they show frustration and emotion much more readily than the average guy, who tends to suck it up and try to tough things out. But actually I have found a steel backbone in so many women in this business. They cry a lot, but they bounce back! They keep going. Maybe it’s fear of failure. Maybe it’s just pure inner strength. I can’t count the guys who have lasted 6, maybe 12 months and dropped out, telling all and sundry as they leave to go back into banking or accounting, that “recruiting is not a real job after all”.
And then there is the money. Mostly, recruiters get paid on results. The more you bill, the more you earn. And in a world where women routinely earn less than men doing the same job, that’s very attractive indeed. Indeed, women have told me straight out. “In this job I can earn more than the person sitting next to me, man or woman, because it’s a level playing field. I bill, I earn. It’s transparent. And I love that!”
Its all true of course, all the above reasons, and in very equal markets that may well be all. There is another reason for a market like India for this to be true. There are lots more women than men studying HR in various business schools. And they all come out into the job market, and there are so many executive search firms/ HR firms which do temping or recruitment/ placement firms out there, that it becomes a very viable career option. So at the onset, the number of women entering the workplace in this industry is more. Men would probably rather go into sales or "banking or accounting".
There is another factor in Indian recruitment firms. The industry is almost uniformly less paid than any other. Once men have a family, if they are the primary bread earners, junior or consulting positions in placement firms might not be a viable option for them. An HR Manager role in an IT firm, for example will be more lucrative, though infinitely less interesting as a job. Unless s/he has his own company, or s/he is at a senior or partnership role, it often does not make sense for an individual with high ambition to keep going in this industry. Often it is women with families, who prefer a more friendly work environment and flexible hours, which are usually provided given the nature of the job, who make it for long years. And of course it is a job which suits them, communicating, creating relationships, handling difficult personalities and ego-s, come to women naturally due to our social conditioning.
For the full blog from "The Savage Truth": "Sorry guys, women are better recruiters than men"

Education and Employment: How large is the gap in India

2011-11-26T12:12:00.003+05:30

How much have we heard about the number of engineers, masters degree holders, PhDs, doctors etc India produces "every year". Here are some statistics:
· In 2008, it is estimated that 3.5 lakh engineering degrees, 23,000 engineering Masters degrees and about 1,000 PhDs were awarded in India. The number of engineering graduates in India produced annually: 350,000. Compared to India, the United States produces 70,000 engineering graduates. Europe produces 100,000 engineering graduates.
India also produces 60,000 MBAs every year.
· The number of doctors registered by different state councils stood at 6,68,131 during the year 2006 giving a doctor to population ratio of 60:100000. Total number of doctors in India about 4.5 lakhs.

However this figure for engineers at least included “diploma engineers” who were not true engineers at all. India actually had only 102,000 real engineering graduates in 2002. This went up to 222,000 in 2006 and may be double that in 2011. India does have some excellent engineering schools, but McKinsey estimates that only 25% of Indian engineering graduates are good enough to work for multinationals (and only 15% of finance graduates and 10% of those with degrees of any kind.)

These figures are reflected in an article in The Economic Times: To read the full article go here.

The increase in our education levels has been accompanied by a decline in quality, creating a growing pool of unemployable collegegraduates.

The India Human Development Survey, conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Researchand University of Maryland, provides a striking example. In this survey of over 41,000 households conducted in 2004-05, each cohort is more likely to finish college than the previous cohort. Among males born in 1930s, only 4% completed college. Among those born in 1970s, 13% completed college.

However, even on rudimentary skills such as ability to converse fluently in English, these new college graduates appear to fare more poorly than the college graduates of their fathers' generation.

Of male graduates born in the 1930s, 53% are fluent in English compared to only 31% among those who were born in the 1970s. This does not mean that the number of English speakers in India has gone down since rising education levels make up for some of the quality decline.

However, had these new graduates retained the same skill levels as those born in 1940s, India would have had 50% more English-speaking college graduates. Since English fluency brings enormous economic returns, and increases wages by at least 12%, this increase in English speakers would have had enormous economic dividend.

We have few other markers of skills to compare across generations. If we were to give mathematics tests to adults, it is most likely that we would also see a decline in simple skills such as dividing fractions or solving basic algebraic equations.

What accounts for this decline? Part of the answer lies in the speed with which enrolments have risen. Rising demand for higher education can no longer be met with traditional colleges and a host of creative solutions ranging from private colleges to distance education are being embraced with little attention to quality. While students must meet some minimum standards to pass the examination, rote learning to prepare for the examination has become the norm.

But the other part of this answer is even more intractable. As enrolments rise and education is no longer the preserve of the elite, greater demands are placed on educators to teach students who are first-generation learners.

Unequal pay for equal work: Will women ever get paid at par? My suggestions.

2011-10-24T13:07:00.003+05:30

1976 is the year in which Indian Government decided finally that women and men will be paid the same amount of money for the same amount of work. This happened in USA in the 1963 and in UK in 1970. A recent study in UK has shown that women in 2010 were paid 17% less than men at similar level. In US the difference is 13 %. Women in UK have complained that they are perceived to be flippant about ambition and drive and are seen to be just waiting to get married and have kids. It is estimated that at mid management level in the financial sector, the wage difference in London would be around 40 to 60%. That is like working half the year for your employer for free if you are a woman, and anyway, it is a well known fact, that, to get the same amount of respect in the workplace, women need to work twice as hard.

Talk of unfair.

Lets see where India stands. The Equal Remuneration Act seeks to address the issue of payment of unequal wages to men and women. It makes it compulsory for employers to pay women wages equal to those paid to men for performance of the same work. Section 4(1) states:

"No employer shall pay to any worker, employed by him in an establishment or employment, remuneration, whether payable in cash or in kind, at rates less favourable than those at which remuneration is paid by him to the workers of the opposite sex in such establishment or employment for performing the same work or work of a similar nature."

India has the distinction of being the lowest ranked in gender parity among the BRIC nations. This was revealed in the Gender Gap Report of 2010.

"According to the Annual Survey of Industries of 2004-05 the gender pay gap for regular workers in the formal or organized sector was 57%, which is much higher than among casual workers in the formal sector which was over 35-37%. And in agriculture, where an estimated 60% of all operations are handled exclusively by women, the hourly wage rates vary from 50 to 75% of male rates. In case you thought the gender gap is restricted to the lower levels of workers, a survey done by the World Economic Forum (WEF) last year showed that there is a yawning gender gap in the corporate sector too. The average annual income of a woman is $1,185, less than a third of a man's $3,698 in corporate India. The survey, based on responses of 60 of the 100 best employers in India, showed that women employees held only 10% of the senior management positions in two-thirds of the surveyed companies. The government is no better as an employer. Two of its much touted welfare schemes, Integrated Child Development Services ( ICDS) and National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) — rely on the underpaid work of lakhs of women who are paid "an honorarium" well below the minimum wage." (Times of India article)

Initiatives like www.paycheck.in, by IIM Ahmedabad, has a "salary survey" gives people like me a chance to check my salary vis a vis, industry, region etc. When I tried it, it was not working, but I hope it will work soon and I can check my status. Maybe initiatives like this will be a way to track salaries across industries and levels, as well as cities.

As an ambitious hard working woman who handles home, child and work, while the husband goes to office, comes back and is tortured by the hard choice of lounging on the sofa or bed, I feel terribly short changed. Did women really bite off more than they could chew when they decided they could handle it all, alone! While men had the added benefit of a second income and could go about buying the expensive camera or phone? And what about the men in your own workplace. Could you imagine taking maternity leave for 3 months or a sabbatical and then getting back to work and getting a fair deal out of it? All my girl-friends who have quit their job to have babies are afraid they will be out of the rat race when it comes to the next promotion or salary increase. So some of them are too afraid to quit and continue to work, leaving a 3 month old with a hired nanny, which means guilt, heart break and tears. Men dont have to deal with that. Its not even an option.

Here are some of the companies which have been voted to the top 50 for four consecutive years as "best for women"

Accenture
Barclays
J P Morgan
KPMG
Microsoft
PepsiCo
PWC
RBS

So, what if you are not working in a company which takes care of you anyway. According to me here are some pointers a woman can take if she is serious about not being treated unfairly.

Find out what your market worth is. Job vacancies for similar positions online etc can help.
What does your company pay: Many companies do not reveal their pay, but if yours do, go for it. Ask HR.
Take a stand: OK, you are serious about your job and know you do it well. Talk to your line manager. Keep financials on your fingertips. If you are handing a Rs 2 crore project, talk about it and negotiate. Think like the boss. Why should he/she entertain your proposal? If you are bringing something unique to the table, you should be remunerated for it. Have a talk on your ambition and that you will not leave the job once you have a child. Talk about your seriousness and sincerity at the workplace.
Emotion never takes you anywhere. Believe in yourself, your work and your proposal.
Learn to negotiate: with numbers, not emotion. Never threaten to resign, you might be asked to do it. Be level headed and remember, your boss can only say "no".
Go well prepared into a meeting: Think of what arguments your boss may have against your raise. Prepare answers to them.
Always do it face to face: An email will only complicate matters and create misunderstandings.

If you, as a woman, feel that you are being short changed in your organization, and your voice is not heard, you might want to get support from your female colleagues facing the same situation or even resort to the law, if push comes to shove.

Best HR Practices

2011-08-19T10:23:00.002+05:30

As countries all over the world struggle to come out of the recession, the focus of attention has more than ever before shifted to the HR. The stress is not just to come out of the recession safely but to continue to excel in the fields of sales, customer service and technological innovation. The companies now have to retain talent and have to train, educate and mentor them to provide that extra punch in the days to come. In this scenario, how do some companies come on top of the “Best places to work for” list? Why do employees stick around in one company while in another, there is a high rate of attrition. The answers lie, as always, in the people and policies of the organization.

Here is what 20 years of experience of ‘Great Place to Work’ (www.greatplacetowork.in) say: High levels of trust between employees and managers are a common feature of all companies which feature high in their list consistently. They have thus come upon a “definition” of a great place to work: a place where people "trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with". The worth of happiness in a company depends on three kinds of relationship as the company found out- between employees and management, between employees and their company or job, and interpersonal relationship in employees.

The first step towards a great HR policy is to create a recruitment and selection process in tandem with company policies and culture. The best companies in the world like Google, Microsoft, Infosys, lays a lot of stress on a strict entry tests, to take the best talent available. Best Employers like Titan Industries, Bharti and HDFC usually go for the top performers in business schools, or in the industry and then groom them to be top performers and give them an environment to take the company to the next level. GE has a separate program to identify top performers across universities, companies worldwide, and their own workforce, and then train them centrally to take on global issues.

To create good relationship between employees and management a workplace needs to have an open management system with open flow of information where knowledge is shared across the hierarchy. Google Inc has been consistently rated the best company to work for by their employers not only at their headquarters in California, but also here in India. The company owes its success to high level of trust among its employees, low politics and its culture of sharing resources, knowledge and wealth. The work environment in Google is not that of an office but of “dream-houses for these geeks to retire to when they want to create something innovative and state of the art.” Technology thrives on commitment, and Google recognizes commitment, by creating the environment where people can be creative, independent and totally “geeky”!

In fact, the best companies all share the open secrets of creating happy employees. The basis is to build a culture of trust and commitment, as Make My Trip, another success story, believes in. Not only do they align their HR policy to the overall business strategy of the company, they also increase employee commitment and capability by their performance management, potential assessment, competency enhancement, programmes as well as career planning. Building trust is very important, therefore there is complete transparency and fairness in rewards, promotions and hiring. Their performance incentives are part of Best HR practices across industries. Employees get ESOPs and can calculate their own bonuses, which are linked to performance. They also believe in creating a “family atmosphere” in the workplace to create friendly sociable workers. Offsites are common, birthdays and festivals are celebrated in-house. There is a feedback mechanism for all HR practices and communication is encouraged.

Infosys Technologies has been voted best employer for many a year in HR surveys. Though it is one of the biggest employers in India, the company retains its small-company feel and culture. Their selection process is bias free and tough equally for everyone. All employees go through regular training and chosen ones take on higher responsibility. The company was one of the first to offer ESOPs and they have performance linked compensation and reward structures, based on individual, team and company. They also make the workplace safe, by providing health facilities, play facilities, crèche services and on call doctors. Workplace safety and hygiene are the first step to building a happy workplace. Wipro too has laid great stress on this factor. Their Performance management, which includes evaluations and feed-back are regular. Many organizations lay a lot of stress on fair performance management systems with 360 degree appraisals and feedback mechanisms. This gives way to training programs to build competencies and also to highlighting best performers and good reward and recognition facilities. Adi Godrej, chairman of the Rs 7500 crore Godrej group leads the company in stating that employees are his company’s greatest asset, and not brands. He states that his employees have strong performance linked bonus system and are provided stock options at all levels of management.

LG believes in sharing wealth not just within the company but also without, through their CSR activities. To ensure a “culture fit” employees take psychometric tests, and eligible employees are then groomed and trained to not just attain productivity but also encourage innovative problem solving. They have “Pizza Meetings” where communication is encouraged in departments. HR is very active and regularly meet up with employees, and there are help desks to address professional issues. LG also has an internal Energy, Environment, Safety and Health Department, yoga, games and singing clubs, and regular training programmes like the “Joyful Working” program to alleviate stress and reduce stagnation. This has ensured LG to be one of the highest recruiters as well as high productivity in the last years. In fact open house discussions and feedback sessions are a part of many top organizations.

Hospitality and retail are two of the primary industries which need very high customer- employee interaction and the success of companies depend highly on customer satisfaction. In this setting, employee satisfaction is paramount. Marriott makes managers responsible for the satisfaction of subordinates. In training sessions the mentor is called a “buddy”, a precursor of friendly work environment in the organization. “Work- Life Balance” is stressed and there is an employee grievance redressal system in place. The results are all there to see. In 2003 90% of employees surveyed, expressed “great pride” in working for the hotel chain. Taj Group of hotels includes all employees, including contingency workers in their programs. Year 2008-2009 was celebrated as the “Year of the Associate” to engage employees and create a workforce with pride in their employer, enhance morale and take bonding with organization to an all time high.

“Happy Families are all alike, unhappy families are unhappy in their own way” begins Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. Companies are much the same. The benchmarks are simple and are for all to use. A combination of these few HR best practices can make any organization a “happy” place to work for and create productive, committed and loyal employees.

This article has been published in the People and Management magazine from Spearhead Intersearch.

Intersearch Conference in Russia

2011-07-25T11:50:00.004+05:30

Intersearch Worldwide had its annual Conference 2011 in St Petersburg in Russia. Intersearch Russia played gracious hosts.

The Annual Conference is a partners meet of course, and I was there as the winner of the Intersearch Training Program, 2011 held in Ghent. My presentation to the partners about how consultants see the future and how Intersearch should change, was well appreciated.

Otherwise it was a time of electing board chairperson/ members/ new members, and it was time of dining, wining and revelry. St Petersburg is an amazing city, a link between the Russia of old and the waiting future, somewhat like my presentation about Practice Groups.

From India, the partners who participated was, Srimanto from Bangalore and Indraneel from Kolkata.

Executive Search to be on rise rest of this year

2011-07-11T11:18:00.000+05:30

Here is an article which talks about AESC, Association of Executive Search Consutants, view of the coming days in the business.

Demand for executives is set to improve over the rest of the year, as executive search professionals give a positive outlook for the remainder of 2011.

According to the Association of Executive Search Consultants’ (AESC) latest Outlook Report, executive search professionals gave a 66% positive prediction for their industry in the second half of the year.

The greatest optimism came from consultants in Asia Pacific and the Americas. The consultants predict that China, Brazil and India will see the greatest shortage of executive talent in the second half of 2011, while the Energy/Natural Resources sector will have the biggest growth in senior hiring.

The General Management/CEO/COO function is expected to see the greatest shortage of talent worldwide in the second half of 2011, followed by Business Development and Engineering. In order to keep up with the demand, over half the search firms surveyed plan to hire more consultants and researches from July to December 2011.

Commenting on the report, Peter Felix, President of the AESC, says: “I am delighted to see that confidence within the executive search industry remains at a high level on a worldwide basis, in spite of continuing economic uncertainty in many countries.

“All this points to the re-emergence of executive talent scarcity and the critical need for organisations to find top quality leaders in the new dynamics of world markets. The executive search profession looks forward to strong demand for its services in helping clients to plan and execute their talent management strategies for the future.”

Hospitality industry in India booming

2011-05-03T22:33:00.000+05:30

At long last hospitality has "arrived" in the country.
The slump which affected tourism worldwide, did little to affect India as the country gets not just the curious tourist but a large number of business travelers. Also, while the world reeled in the aftermath of a recession, Indians shifted focus from international travel to domestic travel. Domestic tourism is huge in India, amounting to more than 650 million in 2009 itself.
Large hotel chains are scrambling over each other to find their place in the sun in the metro cities. And not so large hotels are forming chains in the up and coming locations as well as in metros to provide a not-so-expensive option to guests who want service without having to empty their pockets.
On the one hand large chains cant get enough. Carlson will open 19 new hotels which will take the number of hotels this chain has in India to 50 by this year end, and they plan to reach 100 by 2015. Carlson has the brands Radisson®, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson(SM), Park Inn® and Park Plaza®.
In fact across various segments the hotel industry is expected to add 70000 to 80000 rooms in these two years, according to experts.
Several international chains including Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Hyatt, Radisson, BestWestern, Days Inn, Hilton, Quality Inn, Ramada Inn, Meridien, Kempenski, Four Seasons Regent, Accor, and Marriott International are entering or expanding their hotel network in India.
It is not just large international hotel chains but all sectors cashing in on the trend. We have currently assisted a start up hotel company find their CFO and are still searching for their marketing and operations heads. This particular company is planning to build hotels in the 3-4 star category in locations of pilgrimage importance. The idea is to give the pilgrimage traveler a much better hygienic option than your regular hole in the wall, but at much more reasonable rates than the currently available 5 stars. Thus you also have the hundreds of "boutique hotels" available now in cities, which are actually 2-3 start hotels which are very reasonable and provide clean rooms with good enough amenities for the business traveler.
With India slated to have the largest 10 year growth potential in tourism worldwide, the demand will only grow and hospitality is bound to grow along with it.
(See below for article on jobs in hospitality industry)

Intersearch Academy Program 2011 in Ghent, Belgium

2011-04-09T23:47:00.000+05:30

The InterSearch Academy Program for consultants was held in Gent in Belgium this year. The InterSearch Academy was founded in order to share knowledge capital in the InterSearch community of over 90 offices worldwide. This year the participating countries were Brazil, Belgium, Finland, Malaysia, Germany, Japan, India, Ukraine and Hungary. The three trainers were the very experienced and senior members of InterSearch, David Wouters of InterSearch Japan (front row, blue tie), Andras of Hungary (Right behind David) and Michael Gross of Germany (back row, second from right).

The three day program was held at the Gent Marriot hotel and consisted of training program modules, case studies, a Strategic Management presentation competition in groups and a sight seeing dinner tour of the beautiful city of Gent.

The Program was a huge success with lots of active discussions in groups and fierce competition in the Strategy presentation. The company is now planning to make Programs like this a more regular feature in the Academy and include more number of countries, of the 40 countries InterSearch is present in currently.

The main learning for everyone from this program was that different people from different countries and extremely different cultures can come together and form a successful partnership, share ideas. Every country, or region has different problems and provides custom made solutions. Europe is very different in work culture and attitude towards executive search from Asia, yet, partner companies in both places are not just surviving but flourishing with their own set of unique solutions within the wider framework of InterSearch World Wide.

The main need which came out as part of the program is to build more connecting fibres across partner countries, and make InterSearch more saleable in all countries. To build a strategy which provides the most balanced solution to communication lags and using all our global resources to the fullest by everyone concerned. This is the next step in InterSearch Worldwide.

Recruitment rises in sectors seeing growth in India

2011-03-14T23:07:00.000+05:30

Retail and business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology enabled services (ITES) sectors saw highest growth in Monster Employment Index India during February 2011. It exceeds last year’s levels by robust 45 per cent and 43 per cent respectively. The index registered an annual growth rate of 21 per cent in February 2011 across all sectors, Monster.com said in a statement.

IT and technology jobs have been seeing an upward trend for some time but what comes as a pleasant surprise is the increase in the rate of retail sector. It is not just in the online segment. Retail and hospitality has in fact been doing quite well in off line recruitment as well. It comes in tune with the definite growth in both sectors in India. It is being predicted retail sales will grow from US$ 353 billion in 2010 to US$ 543.2 billion by 2014 from 2010. The BMI India retail report predicts a golden future for the retail sector in India. There are a few emerging trends in retail. First among them is the growth of organized retail in tier 2 and 3 cities as well as urban areas. The age of local grocery shop is almost over. The other trend is large format retail stores where you get tomatoes to TVs. Rural online sales in retail is rising too. This comes as a surprise but mobile phones and computers have a large buyer base in rural India shopping online. The rise in rural retail sales are forcing many old fashioned brands to form their own e-commerce sites.

The other sector is hospitality. Again, its not just the tier one urban areas which is seeing a spurt in growth in this sector. Apart from the usual 5 star hotel spurt, there is a huge rise in 3 and 4 star hotels in cities like Lucknow and Amritsar. Hotels companies are being formed, and growing. New formats are rising every day. From boutique hotels, "affordable boutique" hotels, "no frills" hotels like Ginger, to hotel chains which concentrate on a particular type of location, like pilgrimage cities, are on the rise. The plan is to give the consumer a good experience at non 5 star prices. And these are selling like hot cakes. Riding on the waves are "Guest House" formats in cities which offer cheap no frill rooms, with only AC and kitchen at very competitive prices. These are catching up with companies with travelling executives as also with lay people like me, who just booked 4 guests of mine at a guest house in Middleton Street, in a weeks notice, at a nominal price of Rs 1400 per room. Food is extra, but there is a kitchen and cook to cook what you wish. Its nominal anyway compared to restaurant prices. Compare it to Park Hotel nearby which charges almost Rs 10,000 per night. An AC room for two days, when I would be sightseeing most of the day, with a cook to cook me chicken butter masala and payesh, at 1/8th the price... I would take it any day!

Sapient wants to STEAL

2010-12-20T12:45:00.001+05:30

This is Sapient's new take on recruiting for its division. This is part of their new campaign for recruitment is slated to be released in Gurgaon, Noida and Bangaluru. This ad campaign has been created by their US based creative directors, Allison and Bistrong and Matt Ziselman.

Sapient has 3 divisions in India- SapientNitro, Sapeint Global Markets and Sapient Government Services. They are looking to hire for the first two divisons, and are quite tongue in cheek as far as their mathods to recruit are concerned. Poaching is rampant in most industries, more so in IT, but for the first time probably a company owns up to poaching from competitors and are quite objective about it. "Its not a crime to want something better" says Sapient.

All the better for companies like us!
Read more: http://www.techeye.net/business/sapient-says-theres-nothing-wrong-with-poaching-in-india#ixzz18dGvxWjR

Job creation in Indian cities in 3rd Quarter 2010

2010-12-20T11:30:00.001+05:30

According to surveys by some major recruitment agencies here is the tally as far as job creation goes among Indian cities.

New Delhi and the NCR region is the largest job market right now, and created more than 1,13,000 jobs this year. The Common Wealth Games are seen as the biggest reason for this spurt in jobs. Ma Foi says that from October to December 2010 more than 44000 jobs have been created.

Mumbai comes a close second with about 1,00,000 jobs. Chennai had a dull start to the year but in the fourth quarter things are expected to look up, with 30000 jobs. Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad together created about 25000 jobs in this quarter and the job scene is significantly looking up in all these cities. Ahmedabad and Pune also shows a spurt in growth with more than 10000 jobs.

Though Naukri says that there was a lull due to the festive season of Diwali, when companies shelve their hiring plans, things are again in action now and companies are hiring at all levels and the three month average has been quite stable.

The best cities for freshers seem to be Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangalore while for senior profiles the best cities are Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Hiring is most likely to jump by 20% in 2011 feels HR departments in many companies, especially consumer durables, real estate and telecom. Simultaneously pay packets are on the rise too. The buzz is that the expected rise is about 20% this year. Deloitte and Korn Ferry both feel that there will be recruitment hike in all sectors in India in 2011, with stress on pharma, healthcare, retail, infrastructure, life sciences, as well as manufacturing.

Source: Financial Express/ Hindustan Times

Recruitment likely to remain bullish in December

2010-12-08T13:12:00.000+05:30

The July-September period saw a surge in hiring activities in India.
Out of 9,117 companies surveyed by recruitment firm, Antal International, across 52 countries, 76 per cent of organizations in India made active hirings in the July-September. Attrition rate is also expected to decline during the remainder of 2010 from the September quarter. The result is that for HR heads worldwide the challenge is now shifting from headcount reduction to sourcing talent, as markets are improving. Last quarter 54% firms were hiring as compared to 57% this year.

Globally, Asia stands out as the healthiest jobs market for managers and professionals with 86 per cent hiring trend in Thailand, China (81 per cent), Philippines (80 per cent) and Singapore (79 per cent). Pakistan's relatively poor performance at just 62 per cent also remains impressive by global standards.

The Antal report is based on material sourced from over 9,100 businesses in commerce, industry and the financial services sector across 52 countries in September and October 2010.

"Precision Recruitment"- Path to recruitment future?

2010-11-09T10:56:00.000+05:30

Plato, the Greek philosopher and mathematician had said "No two persons are born alike but each differs from the other in individual endowments, one being suited for one thing and another for another, and all things will be provided in superior quality and quantity and with greatest ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts.”

There was a time when you studied to be a doctor or an engineer, or an IAS officer, otherwise you have already failed in life. Times are better today, with youngsters having multiple options, research in various fields gaining popularity and sanction, out of the way professions are becoming careers- fashion designing, photography, modelling, print/ web based jobs, even BPO... one can aspire to be anything. Yet thousands and thousands of people still go in for the education or job due to parental or peer pressure and end up unhappy in their careers, dont have a career at all or remain unproductive citizens and individuals most of their lives.

Here is a solution as thought out by Envision Talent Management and the Oxford Group of Institutions in Bangalore, the first of its kind in India.

They will use scientific tools to calibrate each student’s potential and then map it to opportunities available. This will ensure quality recruitment for companies, increasing people performance and lowering attrition.

It will align:

Natural talents that each person is born with
Acquired abilities that have accrued through formal and non-formal education
Aspirational attributes that each person desires

The initiative is being launched on 15 November 2010 through a seminar on ‘Corporate Challenges in Employability Skills’ which will have companies and management consulting firms addressing the heads of institutions and students on attitudes, knowledge and skills required to succeed in the modern competitive environment.

Plenty of new jobs and boom sees attrition rates rise

2010-11-01T13:36:00.000+05:30

Six sectors are expected to create 2.3 lakh jobs in India in the last three months of 2010, according to global consultancy Ernst and Young. The six sectors are healthcare, real estate, IT/ITeS, education & training, manufacturing and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI). Among them, healthcare industry alone is projected to generate 60,000 jobs in fourth quarter of 2010. Real estate and IT/ITes sector, each are expected to create 50,000 jobs. Education & training industry is projected to generate 30,000 jobs. Manufacturing and BFSI sectors would each be churning out 20,000 jobs in the 2010 fourth quarter, E&Y said.

India's booming service sector market is facing attrition rates of 35 percent as workers switch jobs for fatter pay packets, a survey said Saturday. The figures were the latest sign of a pick-up in India's job market from last year's levels, when the economy was still feeling the effects of the global financial crisis.
Those switching jobs at senior level received average raises of 25-30 percent from new employers, the survey conducted by India's Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said. The pay hike was 10 to 15 percent for less experienced employees with two to four years' experience, said the survey, which polled 134 human resource heads. India's fast-growing financial services sector saw the biggest attrition rate in the first six months of the year, followed by the information technology sector with 24 percent turnover.

On the other hand, in Education, IIM Lucknow will admit fewer engineering graduates this year, and give more weightage to non engineering students like in medicine, arts, journalism, law, commerce, dentistry and pharmacy. Also SKIL Infrastructure, which recently forayed into the education sector in partnership with University of Strathclyde Business School, will open the Scottish varsity's campus in Noida. This would be the first campus of the university in India and on the cards are Mumbai and Chennai campuses soon. The Noida campus would be functional in September 2011 and more than 1,200 students are expected to join the school. The recruitment process for the academic staff would begin next month. SKIL Group CEO is J P Rai.

Movements in the week

2010-11-01T13:24:00.001+05:30

Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd announced the appointment of Mr Raj Manek as Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd. He succeeds Ms Shammi Nagpal who held the positions of Managing Director, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd and Regional Director, Asia Pacific, Messe Frankfurt Asia Holding Ltd. Mr Manek is a seasoned exhibition industry executive, he has more than 17 years experience covering Asia and Europe including Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. He began his career with P&O Exhibitions which owned London’s Earls Court and Olympia exhibition venues. From 1995 to 1997, he was Finance Manager with Reed Exhibition Companies before joining the ITE Group Plc as Group Operation Finance Director from 1997 to 2001. Before joining Messe Frankfurt in 2009, Mr Manek was Chief Operating Officer for Expomedia Group Plc in India.

Mumbai-based biotechnologist Dr Nimita Limaye has become the first Asian and first woman to be elected global head of the Society of Clinical Data Management based in the United States. At 43, she is also among the youngest to be chosen for the post. SCDM is a global body that plays a key role in providing thought leadership in health care and sets global standards and best practices for managing data pertaining to clinical trials, which are needed to prove the efficacy and safety of every new drug and significant biotechnology product. Over 100 pharmaceutical companies, including Fortune 100 companies such as Pfizer and Merck, are currently outsourcing clinical trials in India. Major players like Siro, where Dr Limaye is vice-president, Cognizant, Wipro, TCS, Mahindra Tech-Satyam, Quintiles, Accenture, IBM, and Intel are part of the Indian clinical data management scene.

Pepsico India gets new CEO

2010-10-27T22:10:00.000+05:30

In key top-level changes announced by Pepsi-Co on Monday, its CEO for South East Asia, Manu Anand, will take over as chairman & CEO, PepsiCo's India region from the current incumbent, Sanjeev Chadha, with effect from Jan 1, 2011.

Chadha will take over as PepsiCo's chief for the Middle East & Africa, the company said in a release. He will also be a member of PepsiCo's global leadership team: the PepsiCo Executive Committee. Chadha's new area of responsibility —Middle East & Africa—is one of the largest and most profitable regions of PepsiCo, and is headquartered in Dubai.

Anand, on the other hand, moves into the new role from Thailand, where he was responsible for the foods and beverages business in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands.

Source: Chadha to make way for Anand at PepsiCo India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Chadha-to-make-way-for-Anand-at-PepsiCo-India-/articleshow/6812555.cms#ixzz13Zu3S8i4

MBAs in demand again

2010-10-25T10:50:00.000+05:30

MBAs are again in demand. The education and study-abroad company Quacquarelli Symonds published a survey in October which shows that the rise in recruitment in countries like China and India are outstripping recruitment in Europe and US. The demand for MBA-s increased 32% in the APac region, compared to 9% in USA and 3% in Europe. Many European and North American companies have still not come out of the ravages of recession and are not hriring.

The highest paying field is no more the Banking sector. In the post recession era Pharmaceutical is the highest paymaster. Graduates recruited into pharmaceutical companies earned an average of $92,274, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds report released Oct. 14, followed by those in financial services, with average pay of $90,926. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/business/global/19iht-RIEDSALARIES.html?_r=1&src=busln)

More than 2000 companies, 200 B-schools (80 in the United States, 67 in Europe, 36 in Asia and the rest in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East) were surveyed. The survey also shows the anomaly in the job market with respect to education. University graduates were still scrambling for jobs which MBA-s were receiving high starting salaries.

What then are the B-schools which get the highest salaries?
Ashridge Business School, London, is the winner. (Average salary of $169,050)
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium is next (Average salary of $140,000)
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in North Carolina were the only two schools outside Europe to make the top 10 in salaries.
According to another B School survey by the same firm, the M.B.A.s most valued by recruiters — even if they were not the highest paid — were from Harvard, Wharton, Insead, the London Business School, Insead’s Singapore campus and Melbourne Business School.

MBA-s with solid pre qualification experience get paid more and B schools like Ashridge recruits those into their programs who have more work experience. Their program is more like an executive management program. There was a 24% increase in MBA job opportunitites in this year (2010). In 2009 there had been a decline of 5% in MBA hirings. MBAs usually get more consulting and financial services opportunities and the demand in these fields will keep rising according to an article in NY Times.

Laying off after a merger- ICICI Bank

2010-10-21T10:26:00.000+05:30

Here's one to boggle the HR mind. What does a company do if it has to absorb thousands of employees but knows it cant keep them for long. It might just not be feasible. ICICI bank faces such a dilemna.

The merger of ICICI Bank and Jaipur-based Bank of Rajasthan, BoR came into effect from 13 August after the Reserve Bank of India notified it. The merger took place through a share-swap deal that valued BoR at around Rs.3,000 crore, at a ratio of 4.72 shares of BoR for one share of ICICI Bank.

Around 4000 employees of BoR are now with ICICI bank. The newly inducted BoR staff are yet to be given new functional responsibilities in ICICI bank and are continuing in their old roles.ICICI has issued to around 400 of these employees, contracts that will end without any prior notice at the end of a five-year term regardless of the age of the employee. Of them about 75 are GMs, Asst GMs and other senior officials. Employees are prohibited from union activities or bringing any "outside influences". Therefore they just have to accept the terms of the contract.

The BoR employees see this as a strategy to lay off excess staff after five years. About 45 BoR employees at junior levels have quit in the last one-and-a-half months, this person added.

In the past, ICICI Bank had acquired two other old private banks—Bank of Madura Ltd and Sangli Bank Ltd. It now employs at least 53,000 people. In May, the bank’s managing director and CEO Chanda Kochhar had said it would not lay off BoR staff or discriminate against them. “Whenever we do a merger and acquisition, we treat the employees of the acquired bank as a part of our parivar (family), we will take care of them (BoR employees) as our own employees; we are not here to retrench people,” Kochhar had said.

Though the contract goes againt the words, it may actually be impossible to make everyone happy and ICICI is taking a humane approach giving all employees (400 out of 4000) five years to look for alternatives. However in the market conditions today, some finance / NBFC professionals at mid level are looking for jobs for a time more than 5 years.

The full article at http://www.livemint.com/2010/10/19215520/ICICI-will-lay-off-some-BoR-st.html?atype=tp

Trouble in Chennai

2010-10-18T20:17:00.002+05:30

The city has come to be known as the Detroit of India for its large concentration of automakers, but a series of labour disputes have rocked it, putting a question mark over industrial peace.

Car markers such as Hyundai Motor India, BMW and Ford Motor India besides Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia India have set up their plants on the city outskirts employing more than 23,000 people.

As the city and other parts of Tamil Nadu woo more foreign and domestic companies, employees of several factories had resorted to strikes demanding recognition of Trade Union, good pay package.

Employees of Hyundai Motor India went on a flash strike in June this year demanding that the management reinstate 67 employees dismissed earlier for demanding recognition of trade union.
Employees of Nokia India also resorted to strike early this year demanding wage revision. About 75 per cent of 8,000 employees working at Nokia's Sriperumbudur facility constitute women employees.
Strikes is in all three facilities of tyre major MRF at Arakkonam, Thiruvottiyur and in Puducherry against installation of CCTVs in Tiruvottiyur plant since it invaded their privacy.
About 13,000 contract workers of the public sector Neyveli Lignite Corporation have also been on strike since September 19, pressing for various demands including raising of wages and issues relating to bonus.

According to government Policy Note, the number of strikes in 2009 was about 36 and there were 13 lockouts, of which 2.10 lakh man-days were lost. This is comparatively lower to 2008 which witnessed 56 strikes and 30 lockouts with 3.87 lakh mandays lost, it said.

Source: Labour disputes rocking 'Detroit' of India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Labour-disputes-rocking-Detroit-of-India/articleshow/6762957.cms#ixzz12imcKb8D

Hospitality Industry in India: Poised for growth?

2010-08-28T11:10:00.002+05:30

India comes 62nd in the world in the list of attractive destinations, in APac region its rank is 11. Here are some facts from the IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation) website:

It is ranked the 14th best tourist destination for its natural resources and 24th for its cultural resources, with many World Heritage sites, both natural and cultural, rich fauna, and strong creative industries in the country. India also bagged 37th rank for its air transport network. The India travel and tourism industry ranked 5th in the long-term (10-year) growth and is expected to be the second largest employer in the world by 2019.

India’s hotel pipeline is the second largest in the Asia-Pacific region according to Jan Smits, Regional Managing Director, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) Asia Australasia. He added that the Indian hospitality industry is projected to grow at a rate of 8.8 per cent during 2007-16, placing India as the second-fastest growing tourism market in the world.

Sanjay Gupta, CMD, Neesa Leisure Ltd stated that the hotel and hospitality industries are among the biggest employment generators in the country.

An April (2010) report says that in the next three years the Indian hospitality industry will require 100000 trained personnel across various levels. A report by the consulting and temp staffing firm Ma Foi Randstad projects the Indian Hospitality industry to be the second largest employment generator in the country in the coming days. Sunil Kothari, a senior official from the Hotel and Restaurant Association (HRA) says that the rate at which various hotel management institutions are churning out personnel are just not enough to meet this demand.

What are the various senior opportunities in a hotel that awaits eager professionals and how is the pay scale expected to be. Here is a list with these details which one blog from the Wall Street Journal states :

GENERAL MANAGER
Jack of all trades and CEO of the hotel.
Pay Scale: Smal hotels (100 rooms or less): Rs 25-40 lpa, or $53,400 -$85,400, according to Neeraj Chadha, regional general manager for India at Hilton Worldwide.
Larger hotels (200 rooms or more)- starts from Rs 50 lpa ($107,000)
Qualifications: Usually requires a masters degree/diploma in hotel management or MBA. Knowledge of local language and social skills help.

REVENUE MANAGER
Analysing demand-supply data. Prepare business plans. Look out for events and conferences to generate more business. Set pricing strategy to maximise profits.
Pay Scale: Rs 8- 18 lpa ($17,100- $38,500)
Qualifications: Commerce /Economics grad or MBA in finance.

EXECUTIVE SOUS-CHEF
Number two guy in the kitchen. Administrative role, deciding menu and kitchens daily activity in charge.
Pay Scale: Rs 7- 14 lpa ($15,000- 30, 000)depending on role and size of hotel
Qualifications: A culinary course, fluency in English is a plus a reputation.

DIRECTOR, SALES & MARKETING
BD, brand management, sales strategy, revenue management.
Pay Scale: Rs 16- 30 lpa depending on hotel size and quality
Qualifications: MBA, with 7-8 yrs experience, charisma is important, this is supposed to be the glam job.

SPA MANAGER
Managing the spa team, strategising on packages etc, warehousing
Pay scale: Rs 9 lpa or more
Qualifications:Graduate with a spa course, good communication skills a must.

Ranbaxy CEO quits

2010-08-13T20:49:00.000+05:30

The CEO of Ranbaxy, Mr Atul Sobti quit after just one year of joining the company. Former CMD Malvinder Singh had resigned before him and Sobti's is the second resignation after Daiichi Sankyo took over the pharma major in 2008. Now, Arun Sawhney, President of the Global Pharmaceutical Business will take over from Sobti as MD. Sobti had a three year term as CEO and MD of the company but had someproblems soon after he took over.
In his interview to TOI he has said

‘‘There are certain differences... in the overall working of Ranbaxy as a company, in its running and how to go forward, and integrate it. I took the decision to quit a few months ago, but decided finally (to go) a week ago. Sometimes it's better to quit when there is no resolution, though it is very disappointing and unfortunate.''

He is still evaluating his next move. Under Sobti's tenure, the company posted a strong growth, with net profit of Rs 963 crore in first quarter ended March 31, 2010, as against a loss of Rs 761 crore in the year-ago period.

Source: Indiatimes.com

Spearhead Intersearch MD, Jyorden Misra, speculates on the reasons behind this sudden move. According to him “The socio-cultural perspective in regard to Korean and Japanese companies has a different tone and tenor from that of American and British owned companies under transition... It is no secret that Korean and Japanese companies vest their critical leadership levels in their own nationals since they do not have a high degree of comfort otherwise."
Source: www.mydigitalfc.com
Here is the link to the article on Financial Chronicle which tells the story including Mr Misra's comments on the matter.

http://www.in.com/news/business/fullstory-sobti-quits-on-cultural-differences-15037063-57e0a1a1db5d14db667d6d6fb1265af8eeed65a7-1.html

Social Media, Networking and Recruitment

2010-07-31T11:58:00.003+05:30

Social Media is the set of tools you use in order to do Social Networking. Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, You Tube, are just some of the websites which are the new buzzword in businesses world wide. However there is a lot more to social media than these few sites. Today the world wibe web is a humongous network of blogs, tweets, audio and video sharing sites, photo sharing sites, community sites, sharing tools, micro blogging and other increasingly new and sophisticated tools.
Most of us still treat the networking sites as social meeting points. Twitter has been instrumental in saving plenty of victims in natural disasters. Blogs have brought the peoples struggles in Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere in front of us, literally, through our computers.
"Individuals have benefited from the viral virtues of social media: Musician Dave Carroll got the attention of United Airlines when his YouTube video about how the airline broke his guitar reached millions of viewers; TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington got Comcast to respond to him in 20 minutes and resolve a connection issue he had complained about to his 12,000 Twitter followers."
http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/19/facebook-twitter-linkedin-technology-cio-network-social-media.html?partner=airlines_newsletter
But these are some of the more obvious uses of these sites. Whats coming up now in a huge wave is the use of social and business networking for business purposes. In marketing that means using social media to reach the customer, to find trends, to get feedback. All major companies now have a 'social media strategy' and social media firms in India are springing up to help Indian companies in getting their message across as well as keeping a finger on the pulse of the consumer.
How social network can affect strategy

"Bad strategy execution originates from communication and engagement failures. The worst symptoms include employees disregarding the strategy and management ignoring employees' input regarding their strategic decisions."

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/19/facebook-twitter-linkedin-technology-cio-network-social-media.html?part ner=airlines_newsletter
Therefore companies are now making social networks inhouse to monitor employee reactions and getting inputs to gauge the success of strategies.
Social Network and Recruitment
Facebook, Linked In and Twitter are the holy trinity of social networking strategies for individuals and recruiters alike.
http://blogs.fo rbes.com/work-in-progress/2010/06/14/social-media-twitter-facebook-linkedin/?partner=relatedstoriesbox
Jobvite, a recruiting software company, asked 825 HR and recruiting professionals about the extent to which they use social networking websites in their recruiting process to find and vet candidates for jobs. Their answers indicate that they view social networks as a viable channel for sourcing high-quality candidates and that they plan to increase their use of social networking websites in their recruiting efforts this year. (Only about 3 percent of survey respondents were Jobvite customers.)
http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-06-30/social-networking-ever-more-critical-to-job-search-success.html
Here are some of the reasons being touted to job searchers to get over the third party recruiter cycle and get on to the www.
1. You'll have access to job opportunities at progressive, growing companies.
Companies that are hiring the most people in the shortest periods of time "are the ones who are more aggressively pursuing social recruiting," says Dan Finnigan, Jobvite's CEO. "Companies with the most growth opportunities are trying to get better, higher-quality candidates through social recruiting."
2. You'll have access to job opportunities first.
The Jobvite survey results show that employers prefer using social networking sites for recruiting because they make advertising jobs and sourcing candidates cheap and easy.
3. Employers are increasingly using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to find and vet prospective employees.
According to Jobvite's social recruiting survey:
. 73 percent of respondents currently use online social networks or social media sites to support their recruiting efforts.
. 92 percent of respondents hiring in 2010 currently use or plan to recruit via social networks.
. 78 percent of respondents use LinkedIn for recruiting; 55 percent use Facebook (up 15 percent since over 2009); and 45 percent use Twitter (up 32 percent over 2009).
. One-third of respondents always check out candidates' social media profiles when vetting them. . 58 percent of respondents have successfully hired candidates through social networking websites.
4. You may not find as many job ads on job boards or job opportunities through recruiters.
Jobvite found that 36 percent of survey respondents say they plan to spend less money on job boards as the economy recovers. Slightly more (38 percent) will spend less on third-party recruiters and search firms as the recovery continues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After polling 100 hiring managers at small, mid-sized and large companies on how social media is being used in the hiring process, Jump Start, a New Jersey search engine found that a good number of the hiring managers have started checking social media sites to research candidates before making a job offer. While LinkedIn-the only professional social networking sites to research the credentials of job candidates, is the favorite for three quarters of those polled, a good 48% turn to Facebook and 26% to Twitter.
http://www.digitalcommunitiesblogs.com/international_beat/2009/06/social-media-can-also-get-you.php
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Of course Linkedin has been favoured for years by recruiters, such as ourselves, nowadays recruiters in companies and third party firms use social network sites to get an overall view of the individual, apart from his professional resume. It helps that people are unabashedly free spoken on sites like Facebook or Twitter. Testimonials on Linkedin are also like reference checks in a way, used with caution. And for just how long have we been using google.com to search for phone numbers, profiles or even just plain information on projects or theses.

Here is a matrix which shows quite well the experience and expertise required and the method of recruitment favoured by a company.

http://www.ibscdc.org/Articles/social_networking_better_recruitment_platform.htm

How to go about it as a recruiter
The average user of social networks, mainly for job search has been found to be 37, therefore the GEN X-ers !1964-'80). Thats not to say Gen Y ('80-'95) does not use networking as a tool. However the message has to be put in a different way.
Gen X need interactive media such as Internet banner advertising, job boards, e-cards, text messaging, mobile media.
For Generation Y/Millennial mostly interactive and alternative media work: job boards, Internet banner ads, networking sites, RSS feeds, blogging, text messaging, streaming video, flash e-cards, e-mail marketing, splash pages, mobile media.
However there are downsides to this as well. Discrimination might be a huge charge which might bring the lawyers to the doorstep if you reject a candidate for his Facebook profile. Or Social Network sites not meant for professional networking might be actually too personal. Or even the chance of mistaken identity always remains.
Therefore there may be some precautions you have to take as suggested by http://www.ceridian.co.uk/hr/newsletter/nav/1,4813,593,00.html.

Be aware of rules of equal opportunities.
Keep a paper trail and archive print-outs that you have used when assessing a candidate.
Ernst & Young set up the company’s own profile and network, then makes sure that the organisation’s reputation is not being damaged.
Company information must be used responsibly.
Constantly monitor your organisation’s profile on the various sites.

Happy searching.

Audi's Sound Concept cabin defines auditory excess: 62 speaker surround-sound

2010-07-18T00:19:00.001+05:30

Audi's 7.2 Surround Sound

If you've been bragging about your all-encompassing 7.2 surround-sound system to of your friends, prepare for a mighty dose of humble pie. Audi has hand-crafted what it calls the Sound Concept, an in-car sound system so excessive it should be able to cause your soft, fleshy bits to pulsate in new and exciting ways. There are five tweeters scattered across the dash and the doors, five woofers (four in the doors and a monster in the back), and then a whopping 52 mid-range speakers encircling the entire enclosure, creating a package that's not likely to show up in the options catalog anytime soon. All these have been wedged into the interior of a Q7 SUV in the interests of Wave Field Synthesis, minimizing a user's ability to hear specific speakers -- and blowing Audyssey's paltry 11-speaker DSX system right out of the water

When is a good time to change your job

2010-07-17T11:48:00.005+05:30

Leave recession aside for once. For every unlucky soul who lost her/his job there were some who still had the luxury of choosing to continue in their present job or to jump ship. We saw quite a few candidates change jobs through the last couple of tough years itself. And though the media is hyping, the job market is picking up a wee bit.

I often get this question from candidates as well as friends- real or virtual: Is it the right time for me to change? There has not been even one among us who have not been plagued by this question some time or another, even people who have been very happy in their jobs and been in a company for donkeys years. Yes, some candidates, perfectly good apples, I should say, have been in one company for 15 or 20 years before finally being head hunted and taking the leap. They never thought of looking out for a job on their own. Their profiles have never been on a job site, some, believe me, do not even have a CV. I should know, I dont have one myself.

Therefore, how do we know that it is the right time to change.

Some reasons are pretty straight forward and obvious- when the company is going down

Rats will always leave a sinking ship. And the writing is pretty much there on the wall for years before a company starts downsizing or closing shop altogether. When the Citi fiasco happened, there was an exodus from group companies like Citi Financial. An acquisition is another reason employees may want to leave a company desperately, especially if job security is not guaranteed by the acquiring company.
Often, and this has been proven, a bad boss is enough to push you out of the workplace. Sexual (or other) harassment- of course.

The above fall into what is called the HYGIENE factors of Maslows Theory of Motivation.

The bottom two are the hygiene factors. Assuming that your office has bathrooms and your desk is dusted every morning, and you have your necessary stationery, and also that your job is more or less secure, then the motivation factors come in.

BELONGING, the third factor from bottom in the pyramid, stands for relationships and friendships in the company. How do you fare with your boss. How are your colleagues. The next is the ESTEEM. Is your work recognised? Is it rewarded as it should? Are your achievements recognised? The last is SELF ACTUALISATION- which stands for how creative your job is. Does your company allow for out of the box thinking. Are you allowed freedom in your work. Are you allowed to innovate.

Recently I came across an article from the India Career Journal which lists 10 pointers about when to leave your job. Here they are
Here are 10 signs that could indicate that it’s time for you to move on – either from your current job function or from your organization – to other adventures.

1. Social networking but not working: Spending too much time on the internet on sites or proxy sites for prolonged period of time.
2. Been there, done that: You are not learning much any more.
3. Not challenged enough: Responsibilities are not making you grow.
4. Unmet goals: Your career not moving where you want it to move. IN short, no promotion.
5. Too big for your shoes: You have reached your level of incompetence in the company. Time to reskill or move to a better fit.
6. Closed to change : You dont agree to company change, or you cant handle change. A cutltural misfit.
7. Politics over mechanics: Office politics too much for you.
8. You’ve been overlooked — again: self explanatory.
9. Don’t want your boss’s job?: Cause thats where you are headed in your company.
10. Evil thoughts about your boss?: If your boss is forever pulling you down you should think of moving.

Negotiating Benefits when Compensation is not much to write home about

2010-07-01T11:23:00.005+05:30

Of all ideas on Compensation and Benefits, here is one which is a win win situation for both the employee and employer. Excerpts below. Find the original article here.

Can't Get A Raise? Negotiate Your Benefits
Bobbi Dempsey, 06.30.10, 10:48 AM EDT
There are many ways your employer can make your job more pleasant, even when money is tight.

For employees who can't get a raise in salary, a "benefits raise"--getting the employer to increase or enhance current benefits or add new ones--may be the next best thing. Here are a few tips on persuading your employer to consider a benefits raise.

Come Up with a Win-Win Scenario
"The best approach would be a benefit/incentive program that is going to produce more benefits for the employer than it costs," says Robert F. Fallis of Fallis & Associates, an organizational psychological consulting firm in Seattle.
Fallis suggests something along the lines of the Scanlon plan, in which employees come up with creative solutions to improve the ratio of sales vs. labor costs. Employees then get a pre-negotiated percentage of the resulting savings, unlike a standard profit-sharing arrangement where much of the profits are often diverted to other things before employees get their share.
Look for Any Upside
An example could include any potential tax savings for your company resulting from an increase in your benefits.
"If you are requesting additional funds contributed by your employer into your Health Savings Account, that contribution is deductible in Tampa, Fla. "Talking up potential tax savings is a great selling point for many increased employee benefits."

Realize Some Things are Off-Limits
To a certain extent, your employer's hands may be tied when it comes to some benefits.
"Companies with fully insured benefits plans don't have the luxury to offer you a 'better' health/dental/vision plan than what they offer everyone else, and employers must be careful about what 'extras' they offer so as not to be discriminatory in their benefits offerings," says Roxann Kerr Lindsey, vice president of CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services of Kansas City, Kan.

Be Creative
If you do run into a dead end with the obvious benefits, think of other strategies.

Focus on Work/Life Benefits
This is an area where employers are often willing to consider giving some extras. Flex time, for example, may be an option.

Think Small
If your employer resists any increase in major benefits, think of small things that could still make your life better. Some of Lindsey's suggestions: reimbursement for parking fees, ability to retain the frequent flier miles earned for company travel or a health club membership. Another idea: See if your employer will cover the cost of an out-of-town seminar or continuing education program. Not only do you get a little getaway, but "this is deductible for the employer, plus they benefit from your increased knowledge."
The Bottom Line
Your salary may be in a holding pattern, but by using your imagination and your best negotiation skills, you may still be able to get a few extra perks that will help make your life a little easier.

Domain Knowledge is very important

2010-06-28T19:18:00.000+05:30

A joke forward that came in:

There was this family with one kid. One day the mother was out and dad
was in charge of the kid, who just turned three.

Someone had given the kid a little 'tea set' as a birthday gift and it
was one of his favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in
the evening news when kid brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was
just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy
tea from father, kid's Mom came home.

Dad made her wait in the living room to watch the kid bring him a cup of
tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!!'

Mom waited, and sure enough, the kid comes down the hall with a cup of
tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then she says to him,
'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get
water is the toilet??'

....Mothers know!!

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Domain knowledge is very important!!! Else your supplier will trick
you......

Google Project

2010-06-23T12:17:00.003+05:30

How would you go about attracting a potential employer for the dream job that you want?

You might head start with uploading your resume over numerous job portals; you might be referencing and networking. If you are lucky a headhunter might spot you and do half the work on your behalf (they actually do). You would even try every trick in your book and leave no stone unturned.

How about innovating?

Well if you are Alec Brownstein, you would just draw a focused plan with a precise marketing strategy. Few clicks over the internet and you are hired.

Google has been a way of life for many. Across the planet, millions of people have benefitted from Google’s services. What many may or may not know is that the main source of income for Google is Adwords, the flagship advertising product.

Why advertise with Google? Because Google gets you almost all the information that one needs on a subject available over the internet. Google knows what a particular user searches the most over the internet, trends and analysis. So next time you search for something Google shows you the advertisement targeted to you according to your search behavior.

So how would you leverage the power of a giant search engine and use your information to achieve the best results.

Here is what Alec Brownstein did. He wanted to get hired as a top creative director in New York. He bought Google Adword services and created his ad campaign for Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Gerry Graf, Tony Granger and David Droga.

http://www.alecbrownstein.com/project.php?cat=3

Now every time these gentleman Googled themselves Google Adwords showed a personalized message from Alec Brownstein asking for a job and the message linked to his online portfolio. He was called for an interview from David Droga, Gerry Graf, Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone. Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal offered him a job. He is now working with Y&R; Tony Granger is the Global Chief Creative Officer of the company.

Ingenious? Well, I’d say! Few hours and $ 6 approximately was all he invested. How did he score the opportunity? Doing what he is best at- “Creativity”.

Alec Brownstein (is an advertising copywriter, the co-author of several humor books, and a film director. He attended The Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and Tufts University.

References :

http://www.alecbrownstein.com/project.php?cat=3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Brownstein

HR lessons from Up In The Air?

2010-06-22T10:33:00.002+05:30

What is the best way to fire an employee?

We are in the business of hiring people, not firing. It falls on the lot of evil HR people on the company rolls to do the dirty job. And a dirty job it is. I have heard of people getting nightmares after having to let people go, during the slump time, in groups at a time. I have heard of HR people going into depression after having to deal with downsizing of colleagues, close friends included. A person, who has not dealt with recruitment, would not know the amount of counseling, hand holding and advising that can go into this process. Then just imagine how devastating firing can be for both parties.

In Up In The Air, George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, the “corporate downsizer”, a terminator with, of all things, a heart. He never says “You’re fired”. Redundancy can be made to sound so motivating when it is Bingham doing the talking. The loss is actually an opportunity toward a brighter future, for time with the kids which dad never had, time to follow ones dreams, time to finally take a break and change ones life as one knows it. If I were fired, I would be happy to be fired by him. He is much in demand, always flying from one site to another, always up in the air, like all the other downsizers in his company.

Enter Anna Kendrik as Natalie Keener, the new trail blazer, new blood, just cant wait to change the world. Firing is not an emotional procedure in her book. She has a new plan to reduce turnover time, increase employee productivity, and drastically reduce costs. No flying around to client sites to fire employees. She introduces video conferencing and proves that it saves time and money for her company. Bingham keeps warning of the terrible consequences but she wins first round.
And then a woman she fires over video conferencing jumps from the bridge and kills herself.

Watch the official trailer of the movie here.

Lets face it, people are being fired left right and center even today, with all the talk of economy returning to normal. While a company might handle some of the financial issues relating to the loss of job the employee has to face, what about the emotional repercussions.

This movie had created ripples in HR circles worldwide, HR blogs all featuring a review/lesson gleaned from it. However the CEO of RiseSmart, a consulting firm in Silicon Valley has this to say about the movie:
“The movie attempts to ground itself in reality by featuring interviews with real people who’ve lost their jobs,” Sathe says. “But that’s about the only thing the movie gets right in its portrayal of corporate layoffs and the human resources function.”

His interview about the 5 myths and misconceptions about HR in the movie can be found here.

All in all, it is a very trying process to fire people, a task HR people need to undertake often enough. It would be good to remember that technology is an enabler, a means to an end, and the end needs to be human. Just like one needs hand holding to get into an organization, much more help is required when one has to leave. And HR has to keep that in mind.

Reboot to Reinvent a Start-up

2010-06-15T14:39:00.002+05:30

Three years ago, Odeo was a struggling startup on a path to nowhere. Odeo's core offering--a set of tools for users to create, record and share podcasts--was facing serious competition from Apple and other heavyweights. The management team made a radical decision to "reboot" the company, and Twitter was born.

As I read the Twitter story, narrated eloquently by Dom Sagolla, I can't help but look back over the many startups that I've been associated with over the past twelve years. In my various roles as a founder, an investor, a board member, and an advisor to startups in Silicon Valley, I'm constantly fascinated by the mechanics of reinvention. Which approaches to reinvention succeed and which ones fail?

Startups flounder for countless reasons. Perhaps the market opportunity is not as big as imagined, or perhaps there is a mismatch between the technology and the market. Maybe the world changed in some significant way, invalidating the key assumptions on which the startup was based. For example, an established company such as Google or Microsoft might enter the market. Or perhaps the deepest recession in recent history dried up demand for the original product or service. In these cases, the founders and management team have to ask themselves the question: should we push ahead, assuming superior execution will win the day against long odds? Or should we change what we're doing?

Companies that decide to reinvent need to acknowledge the bad news first: most startups fail, even the reincarated ones. Those are just the odds. The good news is that certain approaches to reinvention work better than others, and companies can increase their chance of success by carefully calculating their reboot strategy.

Every technology startup has four core components: team, technology/product, market, and business model. Rebooting involves changing at least one of these components, while leaving the other factors unchanged. Let us look at each component in turn:

1. Team. Reinvention usually leads to changes in the team. To qualify as a reboot rather than an entirely new company, however, there must be at least part of the team -- and usually at least one of the founding members -- who continues to remain with the company through the transition. In my experience, one model that usually does not work is when VC investors replace the entire founding team with new management. I've never seen a startup with none of its founders remaining succeed.

2. Market. Many startups try the most tempting option: to keep the same technology/product and look for a new market. After all, the investment in product development has already been made. Unfortunately, while this approach seems the most logical, it is also the least likely to succeed. Why? The hardest part of a startup is understanding the requirements of the market, not building the product. After the dot-com bust in 2000, many consumer internet startups tried to reinvent themselves as enterprise technology providers (remember Chemdex?). The startup junkyard is littered with the carcasses of dot-coms that took this route and failed.

3. Business Model. A very attractive strategy is to keep the same product and market, but change the business model. In my experience, this is the most likely option to succeed. For example, enterprise software companies can reinvent themselves by open-sourcing their software and providing consulting services, or a premium version. A software vendor can reboot as a software as a service (SaaS) provider on the Web. Consumer websites can move to a subscription model from an advertising model, or vice versa.

4. Product. Another smart reinvention approach is to addressing the same market (or a closely related one), but change the product or the business model. This option works best when the market need is real, but the product does not adequately address the opportunity. I've found that the key to success is to throw away the old product completely and start from scratch, using the hard-won learnings about the market acquired from the first iteration. In some cases, it makes sense to move the old product to "maintenance mode" and reassign the bulk of the team to developing the new product.

I've applied this particular model of reinvention to both companies where I have been a founder -- Junglee in 1997 and Kosmix ten years later, in 2007.

We started Junglee in 1996 to create virtual databases that integrated data from multiple websites. Although we had some initial success, we quickly realized that the architecture of our first product limited our ability to deal with rapidly-changing information, a key success factor in certain markets. We completely rebuilt the product from scratch in 1997, and created the world's first comparison shopping service. This service was enormously popular and led to Junglee's acquisition by Amazon.com in 1998.

We introduced Kosmix as a vertical search engine, initially in the health sector. Our idea was to find a better way to help users understand open-ended queries such as "diabetes", which have no single right answer; that is, explore topics rather than find the needle in the haystack. We'd planned to take a vertical-by-vertical strategy, launching sites named RightHealth, RightAutos and RightTrips. Very soon, however, we realized that the vertical approach carries severe limitations, because it's hard for consumers to remember to go to different sites for different topics of interest. We decided to rewrite the product from scratch, and we relaunched Kosmix.com as a horizontal site. Kosmix lets you explore any topic and gives you a 360 degree view of anything than interests you -- including information from the Deep Web that is inaccessible to the usual search engines. This transition from vertical to horizontal was much harder than it sounds; it required us to rewrite our technology from scratch. But we did it because of our passionate belief that the problem is real and the market opportunity is vast.

While most startup reboots involve rethinking only one or two of the four core components, in some rare cases it makes sense to go the whole hog. Sometimes it pays to be bold: go after an entirely new market opportunity, create a new product, find a new business model, and make large-scale team changes. This approach is fraught with risk; but there have been a couple of spectacular successes. One clear example is Twitter. Another is Twitter's cousin SMS GupShup, a similar service in India. SMS GupShup was born as Webaroo, a company that wanted to create offline copies of large parts of the web so you could browse while offline. A couple of engineers there launched the SMS GupShup service as a lark and it took off; once the management team saw the traction of GupShup, they re-oriented the company around the new idea.

Some startups are born great: the right team starts with the right idea at the right time, and the rest is history. Some have greatness thrust upon them: the right conjunction of market forces propels an unlikely startup to dizzying heights. Other startups, not so lucky as those in the first two categories, need to earn their greatness. And sometimes that requires a reboot.

Notes on The Author :
Anand Rajaraman is a co-founder of Kosmix, an internet startup focused on organizing the wisdom of the web. He also teaches a class on web-scale data mining at the Computer Science Department at Stanford University.
In his VC avatar, Anand is a Founding Partner of Cambrian Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. Anand's investments include Kaltix (acquired by Google); Transformic (acquired by Google); Neoteris (acquired by Juniper); India Infoline (IPO 2005; INDIAINFO); Facebook; Efficient Frontier; Aster Data; Mobissimo; The Find; and Chaupaati.
Prior to founding Cambrian in 2000, Anand was Director of Technology at Amazon.com, where he was responsible for technology strategy. Anand helped launch the transformation of Amazon.com from a retailer into a retail platform, enabling third-party retailers to sell on Amazon.com's website. Third-party transactions now account for over 25% of all US transactions, and represent Amazon's fastest-growing and most profitable business segment.
Anand came to Amazon.com in 1998 through the $250 Million acquisition of Junglee, an Internet pioneer that he co-founded in 1996. As Chief Technology Officer, Anand played a key role in developing Junglee's award-winning Virtual Database technology.
He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he won the President of India Gold Medal for graduating at the top of his class, and his MS and PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. Anand has been featured in articles in Business Week, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other leading national publications.
Anand can be contacted at: datawocky@gmail.com

Paternity Leave Around the World

2010-06-15T11:57:00.005+05:30

New York Times screams "In Sweden, Men can have it all". Well, actually they can. I quote: Birgitta Ohlsson, European affairs minister, put it this way: “Machos with dinosaur values don’t make the top-10 lists of attractive men in women’s magazines anymore.” Ms. Ohlsson, who has lobbied European Union governments to pay more attention to fathers, is eight months pregnant, and her husband, a law professor, will take the leave when their child is born.
“Now men can have it all — a successful career and being a responsible daddy,” she added. “It’s a new kind of manly. It’s more wholesome.”
Sweden is the front runner when it comes to relieving harassed mommies and giving daddies a chance to actually play dad. Pre school from 12 months is highly subsidised, grandparents get state sponsored care, leave-taking parent can take one year off at full salary. And both parents can work 6 hour days till the child starts school.
Which other countries have gone the "daddy months" way.
US does not have any rules regarding mandated paid leave, though their rules mandates unpaid leave to most US fathers. Portugal has mandatory leave for dads, but for one week only. Iceland has 3 months leave for fathers, 3 months formothers and 3 months shared. Germany provides 14 months total leave for parents, 2 of which are reserved for fathers. In Denmark, 2 weeks of 52 weeks leave is reserved for dads. Bulgaria has one year maternity leave, but the father can swap this with the mother. Most of Europe has about 5 days to one week leave.
The Americas however is far behind. Only Brazil has 5 days leave. Canada has unpaid or semi-paid leave which can be shared with the mother. Some countries like Uruguay, Guatemala and Chile have one day to 3 days leave.
Kenya leads the African countries with 2 weeks paternity leave while some countries like Tanzania and Seychelles have 5 to 10 days. In Asia only Philippines currently has 7 days fully paid paternal leave, Israel dads can take leave in place of mothers, Indonesia, Myanmar and Saudia has 1-6 days leave.
(Stats from Wikipedia)
The blogger 'An American Dad in a Swedish Fatherhood' has taken all the data available on wikipedia and have made a world map of Maternity and Paternity leaves. Its available here.

India has 12 weeks paid maternity leave but no provision for paternity leave. Even Bangladesh is planning 15 days leave for new fathers. Both India and Bangladesh have 6 months maternal leave. (B'desh law pending from 4 months presently).

Let us take this a step further. Does paternity leave spell greater gender equality? Lets take Sweden again. In this land of Viking lore, men are at the heart of the gender-equality debate. The ponytailed center-right finance minister calls himself a feminist, ads for cleaning products rarely feature women as homemakers, and preschools vet books for gender stereotypes in animal characters. For nearly four decades, governments of all political hues have legislated to give women equal rights at work — and men equal rights at home. (NYTimes)

Men are expected to take leave and are not penalised. Womens paychecks benefit, and socially too, divorce rates have gone down. Most important, the socially accepted norms of masculinity is changing in the country.
It has been seen that women take more leave for their children not because they are socially driven to it, but because they are paid lower. This is a vicious cycle of course, the more leave women take the lesser they will be paid. A study published by the Swedish Institute of Labor Market Policy Evaluation in March showed, for instance, that a mother’s future earnings increase on average 7 percent for every month the father takes leave. (NYTimes)

Is it time to rethink child related leaves through out the world?

2009-06-02T21:20:00.002+05:30

What you should know before the headhunter calls ?

It’s tough to play well without knowing the rules. The employment game is no different: jobs may not always go to the best, but rather the best who know how to play the game. For those people who are in roles where positions are usually filled by companies using search firms, knowing how "executive search" works, particularly knowing what to do and what to avoid, can propel you throughout your career.

Why is this important to you?

In the world of employment search there are rules and common practices as well: knowing what they are, how things usually get done, and the pitfalls to avoid can assist you in being the best candidate you can be - and avoiding being the proverbial candidate from hell. Knowing how search firms work can also tip you off to how enthusiastic and serious, or how ho-hum, to opportunities that come your way.

In an earlier piece Ten Secrets Headhunters (Usually) Don’t Tell You many of the hidden or unsaid parts of the search firm - candidate world were outlined. This piece, and a following post, cover information that’s known if you’re in the business, not generally known if you are not.

Following that post, here are the key things you should know BEFORE a headhunter calls. As always, take these observations with an 80 / 20 grain of salt and note that these practices apply to the United States. Employment firm practices vary around the world, and the local practice may be different. In the UK, for example, historically all candidate referrals came through some sort of personnel / search firm agency. While that practice is changing, it’s still a different legacy than the direct hire AND search firm model used in the USA.

Two types of search firms

There are two basic flavors of search firms that get paid to find people to fill positions (and repeat from that earlier post: search firms do not get paid to help people like you find jobs, they get paid to find people like you who can fill the jobs the search firms are working) and they are not “good” and “bad.”

Those two types of search firms are retained firms, and contingent firms. The differences between the two can be great or minor depending on the search firm, the search executive(s), how the employers uses search firms, and the nature of the role. [Note: there are hybrids as well, such as “container” firms.]

Retained firms (hence the name) are paid a fee by employers to fill a position regardless of whether the search firm actually places a candidate for the role. Standard fees - sort of like hotel room "rack" rates - are typically 33.3% of first year’s total compensation (base and any bonus, and sometimes base and no bonus) of the candidate they place. Fees are sometimes discounted to anywhere from 30% to 25% depending on things like the volume of work done with a client, how well the employer negotiates, or how "eager" the search firm is to get someone’s business. At the higher compensation levels fees may be capped to search firms: a $2M candidate placement generates the same fee as a $3M placement.

Retained fees today are typically paid at 1/3rd of estimated total fee at commission of a search, 1/3rd around 30 days later, and 1/3rd around 60 days after commission of the search engagement. Administrative and office fees, frequently as a small percent of the engagement fee, may be added into the mix as well.

The larger national / international retained firms such as Heidrick & Struggles and Korn & Ferry are “leveraged ”: senior staff have junior and/or less experienced staff working for them to help on searches. These junior staffers typically handle initial sourcing working (talking with people who might be or might be a source to surface candidates) and talking to and qualifying potential candidates for referral to their senior associates for further screening.

At a senior level the sourcing (initial identification of possible candidates) tends to be more refined, and may be done mostly by the senior associates frequently with titles like "partner", "managing director", etc. Junior staff tends to be titled “associates”, and intermediate staff something like “senior associate” or “principals.”

A couple of the other international blue chips like Russell Reynolds and Spencer Stuart are a little less leveraged and senior staff may do more of the initial sourcing and screening. For senior searches (CEOs, EVPs, Presidents, etc.), even in more leveraged firms, senior staff tend to handle most of the heavy lifting and candidate screening.

Small boutiques have far fewer staff and the legwork of sourcing and screening typically falls upon the principal(s) rather than junior staff since any junior staff may be far and few between.

Retained search firms, after some preliminary screening, typically work with employers to sort through, based on their initial screening, who should be further vetted by in person interviews by the search firm. These vetting / biography recap summaries typically provide employers academic and work background information, and a high level sense of a potential candidates work history. Contingent search firms rarely take this step: the nature of the fee arrangement incents contingent firms to put as little up front time and money as possible since there is no known pay-off.

After the vetting conversation(s) with the client employer, search (again: almost always retained) firms interviews those candidate(s) identify as worth speaking to in person. Those interviews typically involve the search person traveling to visit the candidate, though I’ve had first hand experience where I’ve been flown in as a candidate to see the search firm exec.

A second vetting review between the employer and search firm, usually complete with a more detailed and personalized candidate work-up including salary history, job background with accomplishments and challenges, and a read on candidate personality, occurs and decisions are made as to which candidates appear to merit interviewing with the employer, and potentially in which order candidates should be seen.

A common experience at a firms like Barclays Global Investors, in part based on travel schedule and availability, was for the hiring manager and someone like a senior recruiter managing the search to interview candidates - usually in person but sometimes over the phone - as a first employer screen following search firm vetting. If candidates merited further interviews, they get scheduled to be interviewed at a later date by more company managers, and seen again by the hiring manager and perhaps someone like that same senior staffing person. (The most times I knew of someone be interviewed at BGI was 28 interviews over multiple visits, and the candidate - who was from Tacoma - ended up declining an offer, claiming their spouse was not ready to move to the San Francisco Bay area.)

Retained and contingent firms will frequently have "no touch " provisions with prior clients: these "I won’t solicit, recruit, or interview anyone from your firm" agreements can be as broad as an entire company or limited to specific divisions or even functions within divisions. These no touch arrangements can also be based on the quantity of search work done for a firm. If you’re a great candidate, but you’re in a company covered by a no touch, you are unlikely to ever be brought up for consideration unless the employer engages with the client employer directly.

One reason why some firms choose multiple search firms is so they can work around restrictions their preferred firm might have with targeted companies. Another reason why some firms, such as when I was with McKesson in the 1990’s, use more than one search firm is to try to build up "no touch" positions with multiple search firms, in essence "moating " their employees from being contacted for searches. In general it would be considered unprofessional and unethical for retained search firms to recruit from current clients.

Contingent firms may have fewer constraints on their sourcing. Retained firms usually work on an exclusive basis (e.g. no other firm has been engaged on the search). From rare time to rare time you may see firms partnering with other search firms on a search, usually at a senior level, and usually as a way to work around no touch provisions.

Contingent search firms have some similarities and some key differences from retained firms. The most significant is that contingent firms get paid when and if they place a candidate (hence the name contingent). While there is no hard and fast rules, contingent firms tend to be involved with positions ranging from $50,000 to somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000-$200,000. Retained firms generally are working in the space of approximately $150,000 and north to millions of dollars.

Contingent fees tend to be structured differently than retained search firms: more fees in the range of 20-25% rather than the higher ranges generally of retained firms. A search for a roles where contingent firms are involved is frequently commissioned to multiple search firms, and it’s not unusual (note I didn’t say effective) to direct two or three firms to handle get commissioned for a search and add others if there is not movement on the search. While many employers discourage the practice, some contingent recruiters will send in uninvited resumes for positions – open or not. Should a candidate interview and be placed there can be a scramble for who actually brought the candidate forward. Not your (the candidate’s) problem but a pain in the bottom for employers.

It’s also not unheard of for a contingent recruiters to “resume trolling ” – collecting resumes to stockpile from candidates when no search is actually involved.

As noted earlier in this post, way fees are structured generally incent contingent firms to spend less time on a search than retained firms since time spent on searches – which may go nowhere – because it means greater cost with no return. While contingent firms have a bad rap as “paper mills”, sending candidates resumes in for any job for which they might be qualified, there is a bias in the way most employers work with contingent firms (engaging multiple search firms at the same time) to encourage that sort of resume mill behavior.

While it would be rare (I can’t think of a single incident in 30 years in the people business) of a retained firm not interviewing a candidate before sending over their paperwork to an employer, many contingent firms engage in that practice.

Cut to the chase

Retained firms generally move slower, are more thorough in candidate interviewing and sourcing, and command greater fees than contingent firms. Staff tends to be longer tenured, and on average more professional.

Contingent firms tend to be more nimble, will generally have a less depthful sense of the candidates they’re submitting, and will perform far less handholding service (bios, candidates summaries) for the employer. They can also frequently be more nimble, turning around searches quickly but not having the longer endurance (one the candidate pool is gone, it’s gone) of a retained firm.

This article was written by J.Mike Smith which can be viewed on

http://backwest.com/wordpress.backwest.com/?p=1344&goback=.mml_sent_none_DATE_1.mid_183760467

How To be Remarkable

2009-05-23T07:55:00.002+05:30

How To be Remarkable. Be Extreme

Remarkable means doing more than anyone else.
Extremism is necessary. Half-measures won't do.

Being remarkable means impressing an audience. Not yourself.

Of course, most people won't appreciate your efforts to be remarkable. But, so what? Most people can't do squat for you. They just try to keep you down.

A few people insanely focused on what you do is better than thousands who are mildly interested.

Average is for losers; Get appreciated or not, whether You Win or Lose. You have to be different.

There are very few people like this, in any area of life. Most people freak out when their plan goes awry. They panic. They feel lost.

You might think you are like this in your area, but you don't know until you get nearly to the very top and you see the difference between the people two steps from the top and the top.

Abandon yesterday. What's fashionable is commonplace, not remarkable. There are no problems, only solutions. Find a way. Make it Work!!!

Intersearch Ranked 11th Globally

2009-05-23T07:43:00.001+05:30

InterSearch Worldwide was ranked 11th in Kennedy Information's Executive Recruiter News (ERN) exclusive global rankings of retained search firms for 2008, rising three places from the No. 14 position the organization held in 2007's rankings.
The 97 offices of InterSearch's global network reported revenue of U.S. $119.3 million in 2008, up +12% from last year. Only 9 of the top-20 global executive search firms reported growth in 2008, the others reporting loss of revenue of up to -13% due to market conditions during the year's last two quarters. InterSearch Wordwide's revenue per consultant was $486,900, up from $421,100 in 2007.
"This is a confirmation of our organization's strengths and InterSearch's capability to create business opportunities, especially in emerging markets where the effects of the global economic crisis have been felt less. We will continue to focus on providing top-quality services by combining in-depth local market knowledge with an international mindframe" commented Patricia Epperlein, Chairwoman of InterSearch Worldwide.
ERN's 2008 ranking includes the 20 largest global retained executive search practices with specific data on revenue, growth, revenue-per-search consultant as well as the number of offices, partners/consultants, and associates/researchers.
InterSearch Worldwide is a global network of search firms consistently ranked amongst the largest retained executive search practices in the world by Executive Recruiter News and search-consult magazines. InterSearch is currently represented in more than 40 countries, staffed by local professionals selected for their experience and reputation in their own markets and their ability to operate internationally.

InterSearch Worldwide's 90 offices across the globe were retained to execute more than 3,100 executive search assignments during 2008.

Approximately 150 of these searches were cross-border assignments, in which InterSearch consultants from more than one country cooperated in order to deliver the best possible results to the search firm's international clients. Consultants from all regions participated in these projects, including consultants from InterSearch offices in developing markets.

Major sectors with high demand for cross-border executive search business in 2008 included Automotive, IT/Electronics, FMCG, Capital Equipment and Machinery, Life Sciences, and Manufacturing.

2009-05-23T07:21:00.002+05:30

This is beautiful - and it is surely worth making the 5 finger prayer a part of our lives.

1.Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a 'sweet duty.'

2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.

3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.

4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger, as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.

5. And lastly comes our little fingers- the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, 'The least shall be the greatest among you.' Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.

lets all join our hands and pray for a beautiful, loving and a peaceful world :) : )

Company Policy, No Bananas

2009-04-17T14:44:00.006+05:30

I would acknowledge the author of this tale I am about to tell about company policies. The story begins-

"Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.

Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result; all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it. Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Again, replace a third original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys that have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs.

Why not?

Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been around here. And that's how company policy begins ..."

It is a good tale. It is funny and it brings out the point but is too ludicrous to be true in business circles?

All organisations have a tranche of policies which may be out of date or do not fit the environment in which the organisation now finds itself and cause significant levels of ineffectiveness. The solution to this often unseen problem is to review all policies and processes which are three or more years older for their purpose. As businesses evolve the parameters that impact performance and efficiency too evolve.

The earlier we observe the merrier, Otherwise we all risk making monkeys of ourselves!!!

Sign of the times

2009-04-17T11:55:00.000+05:30

On efficient use of resources

2009-04-17T11:51:00.001+05:30

Here is a good forward from a friend on mine.

Buddha, one day, was in deep thought about the worldly activities and the ways of instilling goodness in human beings. One of his disciples approached him and said humbly " Oh my teacher ! While you are so much concerned about the world and others, why don't you look in to the welfare and needs of your own disciples also."
Buddha : "OK.. Tell me how I can help you"
Disciple : "Master! My attire is worn out and is beyond the decency to wear the same. Can I get a new one, please?"
Buddha found the robe indeed was in a bad condition and needed replacement. He asked the store keeper to give the disciple a new robe to wear on. The disciple thanked Buddha and retired to his room. A while later, he went to his disciple's place and asked him "Is your new attire comfortable? Do you need anything more?"
Disciple : "Thank you my Master. The attire is indeed very comfortable. I need nothing more"
Buddha : "Having got the new one, what did you do with your old attire?"
Disciple : "I am using it as my bed spread"
Buddha : "Then.. hope you have disposed off your old bed spread"
Disciple : " No.. no.. master. I am using my old bedspread as my window curtain"
Buddha : " What about your old Curtain?"
Disciple : "Being used to handle hot utensils in the kitchen"
Buddha : "Oh.. I see.. Can you tell me what did they do with the old cloth they used in Kitchen"
Disciple : "They are being used to wash the floor."
Buddha : " Then, the old rug being used to wash the floor...?"
Disciple: " Master, since they were torn off so much, we could not find any better use, but to use as a twig in the oil lamp, which is right now lit in your study room..."
Buddha smiled in contentment and left for his room.

If not to this degree of utilization, can we at least attempt to find the best use of all our resources at home and in office? We need to handle wisely, all the resources earth has bestowed us with, both natural and material so that they can be saved for the generations to come.

2009 Global Executive Search Trends- Cook Associates

2009-04-13T12:01:00.002+05:30

Here is an article on the global trends of executive search in 2008- 2009.

This has a picture of the ground realities of US, South Africa, Belgium, Malaysia, Brazil, Australia, India and Japan. It also gives the plans for a path forward in the current and projected scenario in the recruitment and executive search markets in these countries. Go to-

http://www.cookassociates.com/executivesearch/documents/trends_globalsearch.html

An excerpt:

Coping: Leading in 2009
Winston Churchill once said that attitude is one little thing that makes a big difference. Attitudes are contagious. In 2009, exuding a positive attitude will be one of the most important behaviors to help navigate through the turbulence.
“For years there has been a war for talent, now there is a war for employment,” says Schelstraete.
That is why Schelstraete is going to give hope to people he works with, highlight positive news, meet more candidates and keep clients aware of the opportunities for recruiting.
Barrick seconds the approach. “It is never easy to conduct a truly consultative service-based business,” says Barrick, “So let’s be nimble, let’s be innovative and let’s continue to deliver with passion.” “We have identified key short-term objectives and measure ourselves monthly in our progress towards achieving them,” says Barrick. “We have launched an internal campaign amongst all our staff called “passion lives here.”
Khoo of Malaysia is going to be more aggressive in her recruiting strategies aiming at more recession proof industries.
For Epperlein in Brazil, the solution of 2009 issues lies in transforming challenges into opportunities for growth.
Both Waite and McCool of Australia and the United States respectively agree that the solution lies in developing closer and more effective communication with the clients.
Meanwhile Wouters of Japan is going to focus on staying in the public’s attention by efficient marketing and public relations efforts.
Misra of India sees the way out by arming with key strategic tools. “In the current scenario, as companies employ “targeted hiring strategies”, it is important to equip ourselves, more than ever, with information and an active awareness of the availability of specific skill sets in the market place,” says Misra. Fortified with the right strategies, executive search consultants can help position prospective candidates more effectively.
Although the globe is bent with the hurdles of a rough economy, executive search firms see opportunities on the horizon. Good executives will no longer be adequate for futuristic companies looking for excellence in CEOs and hence, with executive recruiters. Thus, executive search firms will have to be ready to meet the demands of their clients and provide services better than ever before. Whoever withstands the storms of 2009 will be ready to embark again.

Spearhead Intersearch in Mumbai

2009-04-13T11:54:00.002+05:30

Look out! Here comes our Mumbai team in battle gear and fully armed... to hunt for heads in your city. The newest addition to the SHIS family, Mumbai office is now fully functional.
Inviting Sridhar and Mayur Vora to give all the details here, and some photographs of our lovely office and lovelier guest room. It looks yummy, Im sure!

India Inc. Meltdown Impact

2008-12-13T02:49:00.003+05:30

India Inc. is cruising slow but steadily as the global slowdown has dampened the hiring prospects, causing it's outlook to hit lowest ever.According to a survey only 19 per cent of the employers are showing positive recruitment plans. There seems to be a considerable decrease of 24 per cent points quarter-on-quarter and 27 per cent year-on-year.

Employers in India report the second strongest hiring intentions globally, next to Peru. The situation is unclear;the amount of damage done to the world economy is uncertain and the clear picture can come up only in next 5-6 months time.

East India has the strongest hiring plans with a net employment outlook of 20 per cent followed by the South India at 19 per cent. However, the weakest hiring plans are surfacing in West and North India at 18 per cent only.

Analysis shows that mining, construction and manufacturing sectors can expect the most active hiring environment. While Wholesale and Retail sector can get the worst hit with a net employment outlook of 11 per cent.

Though global slowdown has affected world's economy the positive sign is that India and China are surviving it relatively well with the latter being limited to -1 per cent to the expected growth rate.

Visit to BIEC Automation Fair

2008-12-11T13:14:00.001+05:30

Dev has an interesting article.

http://spearheadatbiec.blogspot.com/2008/12/fun-at-work.html

Here is an excerpt:

“Dev, you and Krithi get ready for the Automation Trade Fair on 10th December at the BIEC”. Those were the first words of SB when he stepped into office on Monday, 8th December.

Believe me, I was on my foot and said, “Yes Sir”. I found out the names of the participating companies, didn’t print it though. I got the cab booked (AC – Tavera); after all we were representing Spearhead Intersearch.

So 10th December it was and we were there at the entrance. It was a fair where around 500 companies from automation and engineering sector were to showcase their products and services. Krithi, a goddess who just came down to earth in a black salwar suit was the centre of attraction and the god himself was just making the girls go crazy in light purple shirt and pitch black trousers.

The setup in BIEC was huge. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures to support the last line but I am telling you, it was indeed a great show. You could actually see faces from almost every part of the world standing in their respective stalls, all looking enthusiastic and charged up (They had to be, it was 11 AM in morning) showcasing all kinds of components and equipments used in factories and automobiles.

However, for us it was a nightmare. I am an electronics engineer and Krithi I believe is also the same and here we are in the middle of Pumps, Motors, Shafts, Belts, Screws, Filters etc etc etc. I always told my dad that I wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer but he never listened to me (Sorry dad. I just pulled you unnecessary into this). We could see people in front of us, we could see them staring at us but we were still thinking as to where and how should we start. Now the famous lines comes into play, Where There Is a Will There Is a Way (Oh!! that rhymed...hai Na? Sometimes I think that I should have been a poet...haha)

Anyways, let the story continue. So we took a round of the entire hall and decided that it’s time to attack the Germans. We were actually looking for faces. I don’t know whether you would agree to me or not, but I think that one can easily make out from the face of the person that whether he is a CEO or MD or someone else and this works with me when relating faces to roles. We were bang on target from the beginning as we bumped into one CEO and then into an MD. Believe me; talking to them is far more knowledgeable and fruitful rather than speaking to some company representative. So we were doing well, actually very well indeed.

There were mostly German companies who have some distributor in India. Most of the Indian partners or subsidiaries were pretty new to the Indian industry. When asked about the plans of expansion almost everyone had one common answer, “This recession has put a halt on our plans of expansion. Maybe in the next 1 year we would think of coming to Indian markets as they hold great opportunities”. Everyone actually praised the Indian markets and still India is sometimes referred to as 3rd world country, strange, isn’t it? We got to speak to lot of people, some were even themselves looking for change (ya ya...dont worry, I have their names and numbers).
We were at our peak of BD when suddenly Krithi’s sandals gave up; I guess it had enough of walking so it just snapped. But that did not stop Krithi from walking. She did not look down or even back down. Spearhead spirit is just great. We then went to other stalls. We also met the officials of a company from Taiwan. They were good, but believe me after we spoke to them I am actually planning to open an institute and name it as Can You Teach Me English? You won’t believe, I had to bend down, fist to match his height and then I had to reduce my rate of speech from 120 wpm to almost 30 wpm. It was a challenging thing to do and you know Dev and Krithi, we are born to take challenges. Anyways, we finally took a break and had lunch at the food court there, Executive Non-Veg meal and a Chicken Club sandwich. It was good. Could have been better if they would have used some extra pieces of chicken. Well, I guess the chicken sale also has taken a hit in this recession period and the chickens have reduced their egg laying capacity. “You don’t give us food, we won give you eggs”, that’s what the chickens must be saying.
The post lunch session was also good for us. We met lot of officials. Showcased Spearhead Intersearch in the best possible professional way. Gave out lots of visiting cards and also collected lots of them. I would say it was a good day. Lot of work done. Lots of contacts made. We may not be able to target them right now, but 6 months down the lane we sure would have a good chance of healthy business with them.

Overall, it was a good exposure for both of us. We have two pictures that we took when we were out of the halls. Actually were so busy working, we actually forgot taking pictures to make this more illustrious. Anyways, something is better than nothing.

What are the prime requirements to be a successful headhunter?

2008-11-25T11:15:00.004+05:30

I came across this article on one of my group in Linked-in. It was posted by Abbas Jalias Rizvi, Deputy Manager Recruitment, ACME Tele Power Limited

This question was asked to me just when my career as a Search Consultant had started. I believe one is born a Search guy; we are headhunters by birth or not.

So what is mandatory to be in Headhunting:
1. Memory: Always remember whom you interacted with, even if it has been years. Or at least don't let the other person know if you don't remember at all. The name of key people in the industry or vertical should be on tips and the movements keenly watched for and scrutinized too.

2. Relationship: A personal side always help in the Indian scenario. People love to meet for lunch and talk over a cup of tea. These activities go a long way. After all relations are what we build and networks are what we thrive on. But more important than that is what kind of value adds these things can do for you. Some people can be good information churners for a headhunter, what we call the insiders, and some people would like to even give you a casual call for infomation. So people connect with you for something or the other. It's a give and take relationship, which at least we would like to call in good words mutually beneficial.

3. Ego: I have come to believe now that it's not about money, it's not about anything else. It is about power. The power of information and the maturity the Search industry can provide you is what I still love it for. This overwhelming sense of reach and approach make people sustain in it for long. It's the equality and fair share of ears from people double my age which I loved. You are a consultant to all.

To sum up, I would like to just state what I said to my batchmates when they asked me for my choice of industry. "I am interacting with those people right now whom you would continue seeing newpapers, television, and websites for another 10 years. And yes I address them with their first names."
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=51584&discussionID=557407&commentID=692281&trk=discq_mor&goback=%2Ehom#commentID_692281.

Tata will top car market share growth

2008-09-06T11:53:00.002+05:30

By 2013,the global market share growth of India's Tata brand cars will be the highest among all brands,says a study by leading global market Intelligence firm US basedGlobal Insight.
The study prepared for the Indian automative industry lobby Xociety if Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says tgat by 2013, Tata brand light vehicles will double their global market share from 0.6 per cent to 1.2 per cent - a gain of 0.6 per cent.
The second fastesst growing car brand will be the Chinese brand chery,the market share of which will grow from 0.6 per cent - the same as that of the Tata brand now - to one per cent by 2013.
India's maruti brand too will see an increase in its global market shar from one per cent now to 1.1 per cent by 2013.
Apart from these brands the other brand that will see a big rise in market share is the French Renault.It is predictedd to gain 0.3 per cent share from 3.1 per cent now to 3.4 per cent by 2013.
Other gainers would be the Japanese brand Nissan,German brand BMW and AudiJapanese brand Mitshubishi,Czech Brand Skoda and Chinese brand Wuling.
Market study says that Japanese brand Honda, German brand Mercedes -Benz and US brand Dodge will have almost the same market share.
The worst hit brands will be the US brand Ford,registering a decline of 0.7 per cent that will be from 7.1 per cent now to 6.4 per cent then.
The next worst hit brand will be the French brand Peugeot.

Research : Tata Young a Thai American singer,model and actress has got her name sought after the Indian car manufacturing brand Tata.When Tata Young's father was travelling in India,and he can't think of a name, those days Tata was very famous in India, and that is how she got her name.

Bata shoe mogul dead

2008-09-05T18:33:00.000+05:30

Thomas Bata, owner of the global shoe conglomerate 'Bata', a house hold name in India, died here at the age of 93.
A spokesperson of Bata Shoe Museum said he died early yesterday in Sunnybrook Hospital only weeks before his 94th birthday.
She did not give cause of his death. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.
Bata is survived by wife Sonja, a son and three daughters.
Bata came to Canada to make his mark, he had said some years ago. "I wanted to do something where I could say OK, now this enterprise I built on my own. Canada was the one country that I selected for this experiment." By 1940, the Batawa plant was in business. And after 1945, when the Czech factories were nationalised by the Communists, the company headquarters was relocated to Toronto under Bata's leadership. Toronto is home to the Bata Shoe Museum, a four-storey structure with 10,000 shoes.
The company returned to the Czech Republic in 1989, after the Communist regime ended, nearly 100 years after the firm was founded in 1894.
Thomas G Bata, a grandson of the founder, became chairman of the business in 2001.
Bata's father, Tomas, a ninth generation cobbler, founded the shoe empire in Zlin in 1894, which later swelled into the giant Bata Shoe Organisation. Thomas Bata ran the shoe company from the 1940s into the 1980s.
"One of the greatest personalities of our time has left," Czech President Vaclav Klaus said in a statement.
"Despite ill fortune in his homeland, he managed to succeed in the world and became for us a symbol of business success. We will all miss him," Klaus said.
Born September 17, 1914, in Czechoslovakia, Thomas Bata's life was buffeted by the worst horrors of the 20th century. He exiled himself in Canada in 1938 when the rise of Nazism forced him to flee his homeland. Seven years later, having served with the Canadian army on the battlefields, he returned to his freshly liberated birthplace, but not for long When the communists took over the country after the WW-II, they seized his factory and declared Bata a capitalist evil.
"I found it very sad," Bata said in an interview in 2005, "because what we thought was liberation really became a dictatorship of the communists." The regime gave the company a new name and it went on making shoes, but it was Bata, headquartered in Toronto that remained a byword for shoes.
Bata broadcast support to the dissident movement on Radio Free Europe and offered his business as a vision of what could be - "so that people would see that the democratic system, based on democratic economy, would be the most advantageous for them." It took 40 years, but vindication finally came in 1989. As Eastern European communist dictatorships collapsed one by one, Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident leader and playwright turned president, asked Bata to come back.

List of Small-Medium HR firms

2008-07-07T11:41:00.003+05:30

Finally someone has taken the initiative to build a comprehensive list of HR and OD firms doing good work but not so widely known. Here is the link- http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2008/06/list-of-small-and-medium-management.html

Hope to see the list grow with suggestions and new names coming in.

Microfinance in Northern/Eastern India

2008-06-13T14:42:00.004+05:30

A lot is being said about microfinance in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu or Gujarat. What many dont know is the slow but steady rise in micro financing in the states like Bihar, Jharkhand, MP or West Bengal.
Recently SKS, one of the biggest microfinance companies in India and now featured in a Forbes list, opened shop in Bihar. Already companies like Basix, Share and Nidan has been getting its market share. Smaller start-up companies are coming in with the help of giants like Unitus or the Dell Foundation or the Bellweather Foundation to hold their hands.
Cashpor Microcredit operating in Bihar and UP has recently crossed the 100,000 client mark. These are some of the poorest regions in India. This is a tiny number as compared to states such as Andhra Pradesh, but it is a significant start nevertheless. Bandhan and Arohan are smaller setups working in various districts in West Bengal.

What does it mean for us.

Whereas larger microfinance companies have been using the services of executive search firms for some time, only recently have the start-ups and smaller firms realised the need to get top talent in their top management. Microfinance organizations are not always not-for-profit firms and hence selling and recovering becomes integral to their bottomline. What is required then is aggressive selling of loans on the one hand and also humanitarian forms of recovering the loans without pressure but with efficiency. Founders are understanding the need of getting corporate hotshots, with experience in private banks or even from diverse backgrounds like FMCG selling to lead the business from the front.
A perfect match would be a combination of the above skills with the passion for development work. And whereas that is not to difficult to find, one has got to know where to look.
Sammaan Foundation is a non profit company started by two graduates from IIM-A and IIT-K. It provides funds to rickshaw pullers and even redesigns rickshaws to suit the pullers and passengers better. The difference brains make to the project is this- besides funds from leading funding agencies these two have deviced other revenue generation shemes, advertisements on rickshaws, mineral water bottles and newspapers to passengers etc, while working towards a sustainable livelihood for the pullers.
Therefore, young brains are always available to lead companies to a bright future. More and more microfinance agencies are realising that. And they are ready to pay the price to get them on board.

Indians in the TIME 100

2008-05-21T14:11:00.003+05:30

The 2008 Time 100 list has, surprise surprise, Sonia Gandhi, Mr Tata of the Nano, Indra Pepsi Nooyi. Well, Ms Gandhi was not born Indian, and Ms Nooyi was but grazes greener pastures. That leaves Ratan Tata, the only 'true' Indian on the list. Well, there is the Dalai Lama too, and one can vehemently argue that he is as much Indian as you and I, after all, we all root for a free Tibet too.
BTW, Hu Jintao, also makes the list. Thank God they put the Dalai Lama before him, even though the list is not ranked.

"Say you'll stay..."

2008-04-03T15:01:00.004+05:30

...Goes a song from the Cranberries.

Technology boom, open markets, vibrant job-scene... this is what the world has to offer the average college grad today. Consider this- in the next 5 years the old bastion will have retired. More than 55% of the country will be below 25. Companies across the globe will be flooded by new blood. 20-25 year olds... the 1990-s born.
Already expectations of the new recruit are sky high. They would have seen their grand parents and parents in a particular job set-up- one company, one job, slow growth, painful trudging up the hierarchy, slow salary raise through ones career. Not for them, this scenario. Economic optimism and a growing job market means they will not stay put for less salary or advancement in career. They are not afraid to jump and more often than not, they are not the worse off for it.
"It's a very different generation," says S. Gopalakrishnan, chief executive of Indian tech giant Infosys Technologies "They want immediate rewards."
The challenge, hence, is to find the balance... a way in which to utilise their energy while giving a realistic viewpoint to their expectations; address both their desires and frustrations.
Given the large population on youngsters in the job market, what India will do today, the world will learn tomorrow.
"India is going to be a lab for lessons that we'll apply to other countries," says Lyndon Rego, manager of innovation at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C., which develops leadership training programs in emerging markets.
And the experimentation is already under way in companies like Infosys, IBM, Mindtree and the like, which have all revamped their training and orientation programs for the young recruits below 30.
In the graduating batch of 2007 IIMs, a large percentage has already shifted jobs, some even twice. In one year. With this years financial slump, the trend might slow down a little. However, the 2008 batch of B-schools and engineering colleges have just finished their placements. In a few months we will know what they will decide to do, and who will finally be able to make them stay.

2008-02-29T13:57:00.006+05:30

How much have we heard about the "Kolkata work culture". For generations it is a well known fact that Bengali-s are a lazy lot, dreaming away their days and singing and chatting away evenings, till its time to sleep. In Kolkata only though. Take a Bengali out of Bengal and he is a different animal. He not only works his backside off, and parties through the night, but also is the first to call his country cousin's bluff, first to criticise the above mentioned work culture, the first to point out that "they" all take siestas and jump for joy on bandh days.

We have a whole separate set of vocab for our gabbing. The "babu", with all its negative connotations is a quintessential Bengali term from the time when Writers Building first came into existence.

Have you heard of "rowak culture"? That is when a group of people sit on a 'rowak', that is any level ground where you can sit, and "give adda", (a word now in the Oxford dictionary, all hail) or while away time by talking. And how they talk. Any typical 'rowak' conversation could start with Bhajji's insult and end with Sarkozi's declining support in France and maybe touch Anjelina's pregnancy somewhere in between!

But Bongs, they are a-changing. The latest news is that "rowak adda-bajs" are joining the list of the endangered. Can it be that Bengali-s are finally trying to get some work done? Could well be. Leave Dalhousie's laid back lumbering afternoons and head towards the swanky buildings of Salt Lake Sector 5. The only locality in Calcutta spared the onslaught of Bandhs (another word recently introduced to the Oxford dictionary). That's the IT hub in the city, trying hard to look and feel Bangalorean. Glass walls reflect well dressed young men and women rushing about for a quick bite, a far cry from loose trousers and 'half-shirts' of the Government employee.

Real and retail estate is on the rise once again. Malls like South City are creating a whole new place for kids to spend their time. The Bengali has finally learnt to dress for a night out. Night clubs are usually full, restaurants have one hour waiting periods, marks and spencer lingerie is selling like hot cakes. And we are working for it. Finally there is an outcry against another bandh. People are out on the streets, almost defiant, inspite of lathi weilding goonda types (party workers, no less). We want the world to know we are not like that. We want that message out- "look ma, no holiday".

We are trying to stop talking and start walking. And if that happens in the heart of Bongland... watch out world.

A press release on Spearhead Intersearch, the Indian arm of Intersearch Worldwide

2008-02-27T16:53:00.005+05:30

INTERSEARCH WORLDWIDE STRENGTHENS ITS PRESENCE IN INDIA

InterSearch Worldwide, one of the largest executive search networks globally, announces its expansion to India.

The newest member of InterSearch is Spearhead, a leading executive search firm incorporated in 1997 with a team of 20 seasoned search professionals based across four major cities - New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai. In addition to several of the largest Indian corporations, Spearhead has been retained to fill senior leadership positions in India for a client roster including organizations as diverse as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, Honda, Nike, Mars Inc., Merrill Lynch, Bata India, Tupperware, Alcon Labs, Givaudan, Accretive, Vertex India, Emptoris, MWG, CIFF, Siemens and many others.

"We are privileged to be a part of InterSearch Worldwide, a top ranked global network. The values and qualities that InterSearch stands for are very important to us. In a growing and rapidly developing economy such as India, where corporate / business opportunities abound and the war for talent is raging, it is imperative that we bring genuine value and higher standards for our clients, through global capabilities in a local setting. Our partnership with InterSearch gives us this strength and enhanced capabilities to widen our service offering. This is already evident through the amazing response received from a key barometer – our clients! They’ve given a huge thumbs up to the news of Spearhead joining InterSearch and they are excited about the new business possibilities they can explore, without having to worry about finding leadership talent in India or globally," commented Jyorden T. Misra, Managing Director of Spearhead InterSearch India.

InterSearch is the 4th largest search firm worldwide for 2007 by number of offices, according to the annual survey conducted by search-consult magazine.

Also-

InterSearch Worldwide: EMEA Business Development Meeting & Belgian HR Awards
Executive search consultants from InterSearch offices in 16 European countries attended a regional business development meeting hosted in Ghent by Schelstraete & Desmedt, the Belgian InterSearch partner, on January 24 and 25.
The meeting was scheduled to coincide with the 8th Annual Human Resources Awards organized by Schelstraete & Desmedt, an event designed to reward the best graduate thesis in the field of Human Resource Management and Organisational Development, thereby building a bridge between the academic and business world.
Ms J. Gysels of the University of Ghent won this year's HR award with her thesis on "The Relationship Between Job Search Objectives and Job Search Behaviour".
In line with the subject of the selected thesis, the main topic of the event was talent acquisition. Key note speaker of the event was Astrid De Lathauwer, Chief HR Officer of Belgium's largest telecom operator Belgacom, who gave attendees a unique perspective on "The War for Talent in 2008: Is It Really Happening?"
“It was very interesting to listen to innovative ideas on how to motivate managers to make the right recruiting decisions with a long-term view, keeping in mind concerns about changing demographics” commented Heinz-Dieter Hestermann, Board Director of InterSearch Worldwide.

Media contact:
Carla Calvo ( +39 335 7429756 calvo.c@intersearch.it)
Harris Karaolides (+30 210 7294 720 info@symvoli-intersearch.gr)

Barefoot Banking

2007-12-26T14:07:00.002+05:30

Seven Indian micro-finance companies have made it to the top 50 in the Forbes list. A World Bank study found that in rural households in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, 59% lack access to deposit account and 78% lack access to credit. There are 360 million "poor" households, both rural and urban, as the potential customer base for micro finance institutions to reach.

Still much of the microfinance action is happening in South India, mainly Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. But just in the last five or so years micro finance has moved from the periphery of the financial sector to the forefront. As Forbes puts it "even philanthropy aimed at alleviating poverty can be profitable".

In India, in Andhra Pradesh the three MF institutions, Share, SKS and Spandana, has extended from servicing about 1 lakh families to more than 15 lakh families today. Almost all major financial organizations, ICICI, Citi Group, HDFC, SIDBI, Grameen Group, have a share in the pie.

Empowerment of the poor seems to have become the buzz word globally. One just has to wait and see where this leads to in another 10 years time. The transformation of this nation depends on the power being passed on to the farmer, the small entrepreneur, 'the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker'.

When Mr. Gubin’s wife is Mrs. Gubina

2007-12-17T11:31:00.001+05:30

Here is a nice article I came across. Old one though. But makes for good reading.

It’s important to learn the nuances of business etiquette in the country you are visiting.

A young vice-president of a large Indian engineering firm went on his first business trip to China last month and had, quite thoughtfully, taken small gifts for his hosts based in Shanghai. His experience shows why it’s important to learn the business etiquette in the country you are visiting. For, it varies widely from country to country and not knowing the nuances of business etiquette can cause a major embarrassment.

At his first meeting, the executive offered a nicely gift wrapper present to his Chinese counterpart. The HR manager in his company had told him that the Chinese love token presents. To his surprise, the Chinese gentleman smilingly declined to accept the gift. Thinking that he was just being polite, the Indian executive offered the gift again, but rather sheepishly put it back in his bag as the Chinese declined it for the second time. He obviously didn’t want to offend the sentiment of his host. But little did he know that it is part of the business etiquette in China to refuse gifts three times before accepting them. The presenter of the gift was supposed to graciously request him to accept it thrice.

Thus, it’s advisable to know the culture of a place before you offer business gifts. For example, giving cutlery as a gift to your business partner in Argentina will be symbolically interpreted that the giver has decided to end a relationship.

Also, in many European nations, an even number of flowers fewer than a dozen is appropriate only for funerals. And don’t give chrysanthemums or red roses as gifts in many of these countries. While the former is given only at funerals, the latter will be interpreted as trying to be romantic. An Indian business manager who gave roses to his prospective business partner in Italy was initially thought by his guest to be gay!

The gay V-P did not have to pay for his mistake heavily as his trip was more fact finding in nature. But talk to many of today’s global managers and you will find examples galore of things going horribly wrong due to the lack of knowledge of the business etiquette of the country they wer4e visiting.

The V-P gives several examples of the dos and don’ts of business etiquette in China. For example, do not give clocks or anything in white, blue or black to any Chinese business host, as they are associated with death in that country. Imagine an Indian manager (a Hindu particularly) getting a leather bag from a foreigner who proudly proclaims that it is made from cow hide.

Attending a dinner without knowing the business etiquette of the country you are visiting can also be hazardous. While in most European nations, a business guest is expected to eat all of the food given to them as a compliment to the quality of the cooking, don’t do the same if you are in China. For, your Chinese guest will assume you did not have enough food and are still hungry.

While on the topic of business dinners, if you are in Moscow, don’t ever leave an empty bottle on the table. It’s considered to be very poor manners. As soon as you finish the bottle, move it to the floor so that it is off the table.

There is a lot to learn even on maintaining eye contact with your business partners. In Ireland, for example, it is considered politer to maintain eye contact as not doing so will imply you are not interested or ignoring the other person. But it is exactly the opposite when you are in Japan. In Tokyo, the lesser the eye contact, the better off you are. The Japanese view direct eye contact as an affront and prefer only an occasional glance.

If you are on a business trip to Japan, you should receive even a business card with both hands (taking it with one hand is considered insulting) and bow subtly. And read the card with great interest. The short point is simply taking the card and putting it in your pocket is considered rude.

It is also advisable to brush up your knowledge on naming conventions. For example, many surnames change based on gender after marriage. In Russia, for example, Mr. Gubin’s wife would be called Mrs. Gubina. Referring to her as Mrs. Gubin is considered to be a serious faux pas.

Examples like this would make you think that it’s better to stay back in India where Mr. Pradhan’s wife would be just Ms. Pradhan and not Mrs. Pradhana. But since that’s hardly an option if you want your career graph to rise rapidly, rush to the next business etiquette training course.

shyamal.majumdar@bsmail.in

Business Standard 13.12.2007

India's newest exports- leaders

2007-12-16T16:19:00.002+05:30

India was once upon a time the hunting ground for cheap labour, hoards of whom alighted on distant shores in search of a better lifestyle for themselves and their children. Now in the news are, one after another, global leaders of Indian origin- in business or otherwise.

Citi group announced last week its new global CEO. Vikram Pandit, a Maharashtrian, left India at the age of 16 to join Columbia University. An engineer, he completed his Ph.d in Finance. Earlier he was COO of Morgan Stanley. He now heads what is a predominant Indian presence in the Citi hierarchy.

In 2006 Indra Nooyi was named CEO of Pepsico. She is a grad from IIMC and worked in India for several years before she left for Yale and a hot shot career.

Here is an article which sums up whats been happening in the global leadership scene with Indians in some time now.

Basdeo Panday, a second generation Indian was Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago for 6 years till he was succeeded in 2001, and has remained leader of parliament for decades now. Mahendra Pal Chaudhary, was prime minister of Fiji but for a short one year before he was ousted in a coup.

The front runner in the US presidential elections Hillary Clinton's aide and right hand woman, Huma Abedin, has been in the news for some time now, lately for the wrong reasons. Read more about it here.

Fareed Zakaria is now the editor in chief of Newsweek International and one of the spokespersons India can count on. Of course Shashi Tharoor is another.

And nothing new to be said of the late Kalpana Chawla and Suneeta Willaims, or of the Manoj Shyamalan-s and the Vikram Seth-s.

Indians rock, or what!!!

A great beginning

2007-12-13T17:49:00.001+05:30

Welcome all to our company blog. Its time we Spearhead Intersearchers became true netizens and along with our Orkutting and Facebooking, took time to blog some!!! Hoping we all share this space.