5th February 2009

I woke up this morning to the best quote, and the likely winner of the sound byte of the year 2009, which is still work in progress anyway. US President Barack Obama , not once, but several times confessed on national television that ” I screwed up” , with reference to his nomination of Tom Daschle , Health Secretary who unfortunately ended up being a tax violator. Shoddy due diligence, but it happens. What was truly refreshing though , like driving down a deserted Marine Drive at 3 am in the morning, was his straight- from –the- heart brutal transparency. No bullshit! No justifications! No shrouded in calibrated jargon! I am sure the conservative Republicans must be crying foul at the usage of the slang term with a sexual connotation, but Obama was cool! I am surprised how the BJP has not threatened to snap diplomatic ties with the US for such disturbing cultural imperialistic import from the White House itself should they occupy Race Course Rd! And the Left , which must be too shell-shocked with this blatant hip-hop political speak of the 40 something President , at a time when economists are heralding the return of Marxian philosophy.

But this is Obama’s second staccato-fire. His first was absolutely brilliant, when he termed the financial jack-asses ( the erstwhile over-rated over paid investment bankers of Waterfall Street ) as “shameful” for pocketing million dollar bonuses even as long-term investors went bankrupt, families got wiped out, and the world plunged in The Great Recession . And that too from the bail-out funds from government charity and tax-payers money. What a monumental repugnant act of self-aggrandisement ! . It took a honest, bold and a true leader to condemn the preposterous day-light robbery by these flaky fools in pin-striped suits chewing on Cuban cigars, to set the record straight. And while these thick-skinned financial racketeers are collectively protesting, Obama has gone and done the hitherto unthinkable; he has put a cap on their disproportionate salary levels, thus ensuring no subterfuge methods of compensation. Now that’s what you call a real leader; he does the right thing, fearlessly, and without blinking an eyelid.

For Corporate India there some lessons to be learnt from both Obama ( I confess to having initially welcomed him with guarded circumspection and restrained enthusiasm, as I found the hype claustrophobic ) and the home-grown Ramalingam “Satyam”Raju story. Paradoxically enough, even Raju ultimately did say “I screwed up” without choosing the same colorful vocabulary but that was after he had sowed the seeds of India’s Himalayan financial catastrophe .

So instead of giving you blue-blooded, business school sanctified , sacrosanct gyans ( that is the rare prerogative of esteemed Board Members of some IT companies) , let me give you simple down to earth learning from some of the most momentous experiences of recent times:

1) BE BRUTALLY HONEST
Cut the crap! The world is short on patience and verbal jingoism, and playing silly hide and seek games in the corporate boardroom and press conferences. . If you have done great work , please do shout from the roof-tops. If you haven’t, don’t sack your PR firm either ( unless you cannot afford them ) . Speak up, even if from the ground floor whose rentals are now on your piling payables. Disclose, disclose and disclose, and do so without fear.

2) SIZE DOES NOT MATTER
Companies have this mindless obsession for being the biggest and all that; it is a fruitless endeavour. Everyone wants to be on a LIST of sorts, and size seems the common denominator of CEO obsession. As the collapse of financial behemoths and others such as AIG , Citibank, Merrill Lynch, GM, Ford , Satyam prove, ultimately their size became their undoing. Sure enough cheap funding can create big scale, but what happens to the key task of managing those multi-product, geographically spread , cross-cultural and complex structures when they are simultaneously challenged? Today even Tata Motors is defaulting on paying suppliers, and we are not even shocked anymore. And despite the pink papers massaging egos of their advertisers by repeatedly showcasing them , please stop taking those Forbes billionaire lists too seriously. Focus on customers and quality; size will follow almost logically.

3) WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT A ” QUARTER”?
One of the principal reasons why many companies are floundering is because of this self-created pressures of providing Dalal Street a well-spread buffet meal every three months , a staple high calorie, deep fried meal . Companies I think are meant to exist for the long-term, and sometimes projections do go haywire, and unexpected shocks are inevitable. It’s not the end of the world if your stock price slumps because of short-term profit-bookings or cut-loss operations on account of unreasonable punter expectations. Instead, what you should look for are far-sighted investors, and your own business strategy over a sustainable period. I think CEOs over-react to stock analysts and media pressures. Instead, they should show them the door.

4) CUT OUT ” EXCESSIVE” SOCIAL NETWORKING
There is the new culture in town that tells you that you must be seen in EVERY conceivable networking dinner, corporate party , a ET or BT or FT or TT bash. Dump it! In any case, you meet the same old usual suspects mumbling the same ancient incoherent crap. I am not saying business socializing is not important, it is . It is also the cheapest form of brand-building ( especially in these slow-down times) , but if over-done, it results in diminishing returns. Why don’t you spend that saved time in mentoring your future leaders, reading the audit report, just calling on your customers, or maybe just driving home early?

5) TRUST YOUR EMPLOYEES FIRST
Good or bad news—– your employees must know about it before that Mr Patel scratching his head at his Fort office or the journalist from those TV channels. CEOs keep repeating ad nauseam—”My employees are my biggest asset”, but treat them like their disposable liabilities. If you can’t take your team into confidence, good or rough news, you should quit, you do not deserve to be there; instead start by giving the pink slip to yourself in a white envelope.

6) CREATE YOUR OWN GOLD STANDARD

We have an obsession with all things alien, western, esoteric, heavy-sounding — we are constantly looking for role models to ape, concepts to implement, buzzwords to crow, fads to follow. It is time we acknowledged that while being adaptive to global ideation is being smart, we are distinctive, and perhaps need to create our own case stories , business models, best practices, and performance standards. As a company, each one can have its own defining values, work culture and management principles. The best benchmark is not your competition, but where you want to be.
These days the giving away of ” Awards” is become a real joke. Essentially it is a brand-building agenda of the host, a sponsored event, which also becomes a revenue generating model, a double-edged sword. It is a farce. Satyam got the Golden Peacock ( poor bird) for corporate governance , for god’s sake? So if you are not a great place to work or truly admired, but only got the award because you filled up the forms with politically correct information before the due date expired, don’t accept it. Instead of becoming a motivational tool, it will be a long rope with which you will end up conjuring some death-defying stunts that may unfortunately succeed. Create your own standards, and reward yourself and your team. You need no external endorsement.

7) INVEST IN ETHICS AND VALUES
In the final analysis, it is your openness, transparency, goodness, the whole set of work values and business ethos that will help you through difficult times. But this must start at the top, leaders must set the pace, practise what they preach and teach ( unlike Enron which had a voluminous book on ethics) , and set exacting standards of fair-play. And don’t get frightened if you made mistakes and “screwed up”, it’s human to do so. Your journey to your destination will not end. The basics usually matter the most, they are the bed-rock of endurance.

8) AVOID THE DEADLY “E” WORDS
Many leaders sink in a cesspool because they get “emotional” about their work-place. “Ego” worsens the situation considerably. It is a deadly toxic combo. The two drive several business barons to unknown limits to either grow, maintain or salvage their enterprise. You know, one can understand the involvement, passion, sweat and toil and tears and all that, but frankly, in the end in business you do not control the outcomes, the environment, the future. It is important to let go, take things dispassionately and not be too harsh on oneself. The world forgets. More importantly, they also forgive. Better still, we move on, with the comfort of the knowledge that one did the best one could. And forget the neighbor’s new car, you may not be aware of his repayment capabilities. Clean and maintain your own jalopy like a black stallion.

9) BE READY FOR THE MOST UNEXPECTED
There are volumes of work and strategies on crisis management, but when it comes to the crux, we are not just caught napping, we are usually comatose. Leaders of The Great Recession era ( 2008 onwards and continuing) need to be conservative in their projections, and realistic about its potentiality . Ceteris paribus is good just for micro-economics for higher secondary schools. Risk-assessment is not just to satisfy the audit committee, but to mitigate against unforeseen quirks of nature and some man-manufactured disasters of epic proportions. Essentially, we should not look too stunned when suddenly surprised. It is easier said than done ( which is why I am writing this piece) , but leadership is not everyone’s cup of tea or coffee, my dear friends. In calm waters, everyone is a good captain. When you see an iceberg, the end does not have to be titanic .

10) HAVE FUN: LEADERS ARE ALLOWED A LAUGH
I think leaders take themselves too seriously ; they try hard to appear to be constantly engaged, value every second of their time as if the world will stop revolving when they take a loo break, and speak with the gravity reserved for making funeral speeches. Lighten up, folks, it’s all right to crack a smile, you hurt no one in the process. And with or without you, the business will thrive, everyone will come to work, and life will move on. Who knows, the customers may even rejoice, and your employees will break into a salsa ? Frankly if you are not having fun despite the house-car-club-bonus-PR-stocks deal, clearly you have a problem. Remember, he who laughs , lasts.

Start by being honest to yourself; that’s a great first step. Practise saying this before a mirror every day ” I screwed up, I screwed up, I ———”. Because you will. But when you do, you will not be a chicken. You will be a leader.

What’s good for the U.S. is good for the New York Stock Exchange. But what’s good for the New York Stock Exchange might not be good for the United States. William Martin , Jr ( 1906-1998) Chairman, US Federal Reserve System

Morgan Stanley had just completed a whirlwind road-show across India, ensnaring giddy-headed investors into buying its much-hyped IPO for a mutual fund, marketed with such deceptive strategy, that the gullible greedy lot had thought they had bought into an emerging Reliance share. Some of India’s leading hot-shot merchant bankers had duplicitously allowed a false notion to pervasively prevail that Morgan Stanley was like glittering gold; an investment that was a roadmap to El Dorado. That was 1994-95.

As I write this column, Morgan Stanley is close to being permanently vanquished, its stock tumbling dramatically, leaving it to Mitsubishi bank for a complete buy-out. Even in those heady days, when working with a blue-blooded investment bank was considered a career pinnacle, one suspected something rather extraordinarily strange about this sublime , sacrosanct breed called investment bankers.

“ What do you think, should we invest in this chaalu ( fast) stock or just ignore it?”, asked the foreign-educated, market savvy, media-obsessed portfolio manager for a global asset management firm. Outside, a rotund, gold-plated spectacle-wearing burly man with a grin wide enough to accommodate the Grand Canyon waited anxiously. The concerned stock was seen as the then Ipod of the emerging portfolio; the broker had some strong insider information on a proposed bonus issue straight from the horses’ mouth.

We shrugged our shoulders; after all, it was the chief investment officer who had to take the final call; the rest of us were mere signatories on pre-printed forms. A dart -board stood framed disconsolately on the blank white walls opposite the CIOs desk. “ Let’s take a shot. If it hits the bull’s eye, we buy full quantum. If we score under 8, we pick up half the recommended allocation. If it’s less, we give it the thumbs down”. He took the sharp-pointed dart in his hand, and taking aim glided it towards the bull’s eye.

In all fairness, I do not know whether he finally executed that transaction based on the result of his Robin Hood aim, but that was the style , mood and attitude that prevailed. Equity research did not mean plant visits, extensive deliberations with production staff, interacting with the firms’ suppliers and dealers, analyzing industry trends. Or assessing customer feedback. Most decisions were a function of secondary published research, subjective calls, insider trading , business networking, and confidential invitations to promoter boardrooms.

I met a well known head hunter recently by sheer accident at a private gathering, and asked her; “ So what do you think of the current global mess? I guess it exposes the over-rated over-paid over-promoted tribe of “I” bankers. The I, Me, Myself lot who cannot see beyond their annual bonuses and extravagant off-sites, and yet appear so pious about stakeholder interests”. Her reply stunned me.

“ Oh , come on ! It’s not their fault. They are greedy. It’s the regulators to blame”. Of course, it is also a system failure, borne out of regulator apathy, thanks to America’s passionate embrace of pure market capitalism, but isn’t the regulator and the government today working over-time to bail-out the speculative deals, innovative derivatives, subsidize the hefty pay packets of investment dudes and crony brokers, to preserve sanity on Wall Street. As a disgruntled friend told me “ The next time you hear these guys saying they are bullish on TV channels, all you will think of is that they are all bull”. Welcome to the world of cowboy capitalism!

Of course, the commercial and investment bankers can always justify that the CDS ( credit default swaps) was a breakthrough product, meant to create a new derivatives market, and free up capital for more structured lending. Ultimately, it would have meant higher ROI for both customers and investors. But surely, investment bankers were not expected to be so stupidly naïve about the over-all exposures multiplying through a vicious chain of internecine investments , which portended a huge systemic risk. Even a high school student could have predicted a certain bloodbath , if just one variable—-home loan defaults , began to escalate. After all, they were sub-prime by definition, weren’t they? That is exactly what transpired.

Which brings me to Mr Friedman. Perhaps that is what Thomas Friedman meant when he said The World is Flat, his much touted international bestseller, titled with an appropriate catch-phrase for grabbing eyeballs, based as it is on a factual fabrication. As central banks all over the world converge to salvage the US financial mess and their own ( check the speed with which RBI has swung into action) , it’s repercussions being felt world-wide, maybe this is the “level-playing field” that Mr Friedman postulated on in his book, which at best, can now be called pulp fiction.

The Wall Street fiasco which has led to the investment banks tumbling in a calamitous heap, best explains why Friedman’s book is based on fragile assumptions of continuous world-wide prosperity, over-dependence on technological innovations, connectivity and mathematical programming. In the 1930s , the Great Depression was a function of the stock-markets tumbling on speculative investments; almost 80 years later , it is a similar chain of avaricious events that has led to the big bubble burst. What goes round, comes round and around, Mr Friedman. And that can only happen if the world is round. Not flat. Galileo can rest in peace, even as Mr Friedman scripts another bestseller in his quiet backyard.

But perhaps Mr Friedman biggest blunder in his entire book which wants us to believe that the world is flat, is because his world conveniently does not include Africa, calculatedly forgetting the dark continent of the world. Because Africa is HIV/aids infected, suffers regular epidemics, starvation levels are shockingly high, ethnic genocide continues, politically irrelevant, and economically bankrupt. It has no “value added proposition”, perhaps. .

Friedman also fails to explain a peculiar trait of Indian IT industry; which is that the Indian IT behemoths who have created huge market capitalization and global brands , and have been given special status through tax sops by the Finance Ministry , still remain unaffordable for India’s domestic corporate sector , and new entrepreneurs in the SME segment . Why? Because it is so obsessed with profiteering motive alone , Friedman’s value-creation is based on pure commercial considerations and has nothing coherent in terms of terms of larger social responsibilities, that may require lesser operating margins. Isn’t it therefore a peculiar paradox that the global investment bankers are now looking at government charity for a survival lifeline ? It is what I would call as “ reverse nationalization”.

Friedman should have maybe dug deeper than merely confabulate with IT honchos to find out why, despite possessing the supposedly best minds of a new India in the knowledge sector, why is it that Bengaluru is today India’s worst infrastructural mess? You will get a collective response—“It’s the government, stupid! But I have another question to ask—-“Why not use your creative intelligence to initiate change as opposed to lobbying in Delhi’s corridors of power for tax benefits and other freebies ? And by the way, has someone asked Corporate India as to where is their RTI Act? In fact, ironically enough, it is the central government which has made the gigantic step towards transparency, but besides tall talk on ethical standards, India Inc. can still hide behind fudged numbers, through an accountant’s artifice.

Perhaps Mr Friedman will be best advised to look inwards and introspect on a simple maxim which applies to investment bankers today; surely, if stock market experts were so expert they would be buying stocks, not selling advice. If New Orleans itself is so far removed from Manhattan, Mr Friedman, don’t you think it has been rather presumptuous on your part to hard-sell to us all that the world is flat ? .

Yesterday, I was out for a weekend dinner, and ordered a delicious baked chocolate fondant for dessert, which on just a slight pierce, melted prodigiously into a circular pool. It reminded me of Morgan Stanley. It was a Japanese restaurant.

“Greed……is good. Greed is right. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit—-. Greed—-mark my words—–will save…….the U.S.A.”
Michael Douglas (1944–)
American actor in Oliver Stone’s 1988 motion picture Wall Street

At the moment, Gordon Geckos’, the Wall Street master – brokers’ words are somehow not quite saving the US of A. In fact, there is a salvaging operation on by the free enterprise US government itself, perhaps, marking the first case of reverse nationalisation. Blue-blooded pedigree investment banks such as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch have all changed hands with extraordinary alacrity. Mighty institutions have been felled by ingeniously crafted risky mortgage products by creative investment bankers which have now boomeranged. One of the world’s largest insurance and financial behemoths AIG has been forced to take a government bail-out, and even Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are on the verge of a precipitous collapse. Amidst all the brouhaha of financial gluttony, we may have missed the woods for the trees. What does the stumbling, crumbling, collapsing Wall Street drama really imply? It actually reflects —— the failure of leadership. Strangely, the virus of greed affected all the fine gentlemen in black suits and red ties simultaneously. The reverend CEOs perhaps, forgot what their management trainees spend hours learning in five-star classrooms; the risk-reward curve.

The story goes that when Bear Stearns was getting stowed over burning charcoal, Jimmy Cayne, chairman was busy playing bridge, even forgetting his portly mobile phone behind. And that Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO David Fuld was making rosy predictions about his firm’s glossy future to the shrewdest investors of them all, Warren Buffet, fully aware that in reality they had hit insurmountable road-blocks. Numerous investors who got taken for a real ride forgot a simple saying; if stock market analysts were indeed such experts, they would be buying stocks instead of selling advice.

Not so long ago, Kenneth Lay, erstwhile chairman of Enron, once amongst the most highly visible entities in the energy sector, threatened the Indian government with dire consequences if we reneged on the Enron deal in Maharashtra. A head of a multinational Fortune 500 company was threatening a sovereign democratic republic of over a billion people with unambiguous arrogance. A few years later, Enron existed but only on legal documents, and Lay had become an unfortunate victim of trying circumstances. Incidentally, Enron apparently had a 79 page code book of Ethics, and we all know that perhaps, it was just an in-house paperback bestseller.

I remember reading several articles on leadership and ethics, business principles and values around that time, as the USA experienced a series of deadly CEO frauds. Martha Stewart had also made dubious headlines, almost savouring the media spotlight. Even bad publicity is publicity after all. Years later, after the standard pontifications, we can see that nothing really changed. Sure, the current investment banking failures are not regulatory violations or cases of deliberate criminal misconduct. They are , to use common parlance, bad business decisions. But ethics is not just about corruption and violation of existing rules and regulations. What leaders need to understand is that ethics also has to do with one’s priorities, a comprehension of the bigger picture, assessing the likely fall-outs on all stakeholders – customers, investors, shareholders, employees, partners and the industry itself. Blind obsession with quarterly profit projections has ended up creating CEOs with a fuzzy vision, even irreparably blurred.

Newspaper reports say that Lehman Brothers senior team-members in India are being already head-hunted for big jobs with high emoluments; isn’t that a queer irony? But what about the hapless staff in BPOs, the ordinary work-people without the MBA tag, the administrative team, the back-office guys, and the contract labour ?

The collective leadership failure of the blue-chip investment banks is already become part of financial folk-lore and business school case-studies. They say that gentlemen prefer blondes. However, problems arise when they develop a passion for bonds instead. Maybe Wall Street CEOs could take that as a first lesson.

In one of the foreign banks I worked in earlier, there was this strange, rather peculiar culture. The big boss discovered his motivation for decision-making only after popular bar-hubs were open for Happy Hours. As we watched the golden sun making a shimmering exit, our hearts sank. At least, mine did. But there was a vast, silent majority that would usually hang around, meandering aimlessly, writing copious reports, smiling at the bad jokes of the mighty One, and looking prodigiously occupied. Believe me, I could never quite fathom the productivity levels at that sunset hour and beyond, despite the perceptible bravado on display. Often, the evenings extended into dinner time, and before long, one was headed home well past the midnight hour. The young aggressive breed who were the regular hangers-on, who would return to office the next day, bleary-eyed and half-asleep, felt like heroes who had just captured some Himalayan peaks. “You know, last night I slept at 2 am, man”. It was a fashionable statement to make. My point is, work-life balance, is not just a modern-day fad; it’s been prevalent in some places from time-immemorial. Only today, it has become a virtual epidemic.

I guess, everything in life, has some or the other trade-off. If you want to party hard, you have to forget the sweating out at the gym. If that next deal could be a career-changing one, you might have to skip that little movie with your daughter that you promised her. Unhappy with your current job; sure, you can move on, but even at a better compensation, there are a lot of unknown devils to be encountered. Work-Life balance actually follows the same principle, but tries to help find the point of equilibrium.

The other day I met an old friend of mine, who looked far beyond his age, thanks to a slightly protruding tummy, dark circles, a clear slouch and a much harried expression. He travels incessantly, obviously burns the midnight oil and rarely takes that casual break. When I quizzed him about it, he had a solid, rational explanation to give, “I am doing it all for the family”. Sure, but is that what the family really wants? And therein, may lie the answer to work-life balance.

Thanks principally to a booming economy sustained over the last four years, we have seen a surge of extraordinary business opportunities in practically every field. This has led to higher incomes, lifestyle habits, job and peer pressures, more travel, and aggressive ambitions. The situation has been aggravated by constant jostling, even in-flight, maddening stress on account of inadequate infrastructure to back the required pace across all metropolitan cities, declining talent quality and thereby, poor support and often unreasonable self-imposed expectations. I have never seen corporate India as burnt-out as this. The recent growth sluggishness, thanks to the Wall-Street melt-down, will only accentuate matters.

Work-Life balance involves a mature and deep understanding as well as practise of several healthy principles, a disciplined approach and certain behavioural changes. For the moment, though, let me keep it simple and focus on just two aspects that could help one make that leap towards a balanced scorecard (pun intended). Firstly, one must know one’s own priorities in life. This calls for self-introspection and a little conversation within, in all stark honesty, without any external influences. If you are consciously aware about the key issues that dominate your life, that really matter to you, you will subconsciously not allow relatively distracting or trivial issues to derail you. The mind somewhere works as an auto-check and restores purpose, direction, and sanity, should one get temporarily off-track. Our life priorities, which can change, according to circumstances and with time, become like a guiding post-sign. They show you the way, invariably.

The second basic element, is managing your time. I have seen several people allow a drift to happen, for no real justifiable reason, whether it is to a meeting, discussion, travel, or schedule on account of a laid-back, casual approach to time. It’s ridiculous and self-defeating, as things quickly mount, adding horizontal layers of pressure, and often throwing our lives haywire. It helps to be realistic about time, to be well planned and prepared, and budget for all potentialities. And also impose a self-imposed line somewhere which should be sacrosanct. For instance, no matter what the urgency, I refuse to take or initiate office calls after 6 pm, as I do believe that the sky is not going to fall over our heads, no matter how critical things might be. Frankly, nothing really happens; it’s just that we are allowing ourselves to get conditioned to that emergency – crisis scenario. It is an unnecessary investment of precious heartbeat. We end up making a major mountain of a miniscule molehill.

Start with just two simple acts; revisit your life priorities, and manage your time intelligently. And remember, at Happy Hours, head home. Or for a jog! Listen to music. Or just hang-out doing nothing. And discover what happy hours are really all about!

Sure, every CEO worth every rupee of his precious sound byte says, “people are my most critical assets”; but beyond that famous lip service, do we really see a genuine long-term commitment to that clichéd phrase? To be brutally honest, the answer is a deafening NO. Which is why the moment that we have even a temporary down-turn, the drawers are suddenly emptied, business forecasts are re-done and the pink slips emerge in a dramatic hurry. Now why would an intelligent professional suddenly drop his supposed “most crucial asset” in such a desperate hurry? The reasons range from short-term focus, an obsession with business numbers, lack of understanding of HR role, down to sheer inability to recognise the human angle. Yet, the principal responsibility for being shafted unceremoniously by the CEO at the slighted pretext lies with the HR professionals themselves. That’s the harsh reality.

What is the bottom line mission of a solid, well-founded HR unit in today’s modern, savvy organisations’ people-driven team? How does it really add real tangible value to business results and overall effectiveness, breaking away from the traditional slot of being payroll masters , doling out salary cheques and minding attendance registers, and receiving unending flak for every trivial human failure.

If you do a basic assessment of the profession of Human Resources compared to that of Marketing or Finance (it’s usual competitors) or even General management, you can begin to see that HR has traditionally chosen the quiet corner voluntarily, retreating almost humbly into the backwaters. While Marketing (along with Sales and Distribution etc.) has always prided on being the bread-winners who create the revenue pipe-line, Finance has the perennial positioning of being the cold-hearted systemic function that does hard number-crunching and talks complex ratios. They are seen as more cerebral et al. From time immemorial, the HR guy, on the other hand, has allowed a perception to float and register that they are the ‘soft guys’. Just because they end up often dealing with conflict resolution, employee motivation, counseling sessions, and morale building, the rest of HRs contemporaries treat them as the “feel-good” blokes, who occasionally break the monotony of the boardroom. And bring some mild entertainment along.

It is time for HR professionals to reposition their own stereotype image, and as they say, charity begins at home. It is time for some deep introspection, otherwise, the HR impressions are unlikely to change in any remarkable hurry. And that will be a real tragedy. Because the bottom-line is that HR has every reason to believe that they are, in a services economy and consumer-driven markets in particular, one of the key variables for success. If not, probably the most important one.

HR professionals who are able to look at the company business strategy and identify those internal processes and people-practices that need to be newly created or amended to support the business are poised to make a leapfrog. That’s the only way forward. Change management starts with the HR professionals themselves raising their performance bars. Quite simply, because the entire success story gets scripted by how HR gets the right team going. Not just by recruiting right talent, but getting them to stay . And perform. It is a tall order.

Give me one company’s high-sounding lofty vision or mission statements that does not have the people and employee element in it. Or are some companies presumptuous enough to believe that their business success can be achieved without motivated and quality employee effort? The ability to identify the communication and human interventions that need to take place to support business activity with a vibrant and engaged workforce, is today a required competency of HR practitioners. Employee engagement is no longer just a passing buzzword or a fashionable management fad.

Can we even contemplate the impact of the professional uncertainties and personal struggles world-wide amongst several thousands of employees of the Lehman Brothers-Merrill Lynch –AIG bale-outs and virtual bankruptcy? While the investment banker makes a massive mess (after pocketing million-dollar bonuses), it is the HR person who cleans the stacked-up debris. Who does the tough task of severance, settlements and not-so-golden handshakes, an inevitable fall-out.

The soft guy usually becomes the fall-guy. But it is now time for HR to rise. And shine.

What is the bottom line mission of a good HR unit or a savvy company’s people-team? How does it really add real tangible value to organizational activities, breaking away from the traditional slot of being payroll masters, doling out salary cheques and receiving unending flak for every trivial human failure.

If you think of the profession of Human Resources like that of Marketing or Finance ( it’s usual competitors) , you can begin to see that HR as a function is in the unique position of being part of people-power that fuels a business. Any business, actually!

HR professionals who are able to look at the company business strategy and identify those internal processes and practices that need to be newly created or amended to support the business are poised to make a leapfrog. That’s the only way forward. Change management starts with the HR professionals themselves raising their performance bars. Quite simply, because the entire success story gets scripted by how HR gets the right team going. Not just by recruiting right talent, but getting them to stay . And perform.

A word of caution, though. Value additions does not stop at identification of the issues for strategic alignment, it also blends into an overview of the dynamics of the organization , it’s vision and mission statements. Give me one company’s latter high-sounding lofty vision or goals that does not have the people element in it. Or are some companies presumptuous enough to believe that their business success can be achieved without quality human intervention? The ability to identify the communication and human interventions that need to take place to support business activity with a vibrant and engaged workforce, is today a required competence of HR practitioners. Employee engagement is no longer just a passing buzzword or a fashionable management quote.

For a long time now, CEOs, business leaders and management thinkers have been repeatedly saying that people are an organization’s most valuable asset et al. It is time for HR pros to now seize the opportunity and confidently establish their credentials.

In an age of quick-fire M&A, where an MTN can suddenly switch overnight from a Reliance merger deal to a Bharati Airtel one , one can imagine the turbulence on employee minds in all three organizations. . Or take the Yahoo-Microsoft-Google impasse, which can have implications for management at all levels. Even the Ranbaxy acquisition by Daichi is fraught with serious HR challenges. The actual demand of time and space for organizational realization that people really are the cornerstone responsible for business success , and that a good CEO and even a great leadership team cannot do it alone is crucial for new management thinking.

We need to understand that when change radically happens it takes twice as long and is thrice as painful for those trying to live through it than if it can be supported and introduced properly and with sensitivity within the organization. Though all things around us change, most changes are really gradual and we take them on little by little. Usually organizational change needs to be swift to be successful. If we are not organizationally change savvy and supported by HR’s advocacy and agent role, it’s ability to communicate and get buy-in from employees, we may lose a good many of our talented and key people along the way . And that can have not- so-pleasant consequences for the profit crunchers.

What does this really mean for HR? It means that HR must be more focused on the long term and strategic needs of the business rather than of the paper processes that support them. To start with, HR pros need to look in the mirror. And see a robust, confident , cheery, professional and business-like reflection. That will be a good start.

Sanjay Jha Jha is Executive Director of Walchand Talent First ( Dale Carnegie Training and SHRM Training and Development Partner)