NHRD Journal

NHRD Journal
Global HR Management
Globalisation-Making a Difference
Jan 2008 Volume 2 Issue 1
NS Rajan
Challenges of Global HR Systems Implementations
Nina E. Woodard
Managing a Global Organization:
Focus on Leadership and Business Partnering
Global HRM
Giri Giridhar
Towards Global HR - An Equal Challenge for all Global HR Professional
Sripada Chandrasekhar
Managing Across Borders : the HR Challenge Becoming a Global HR professional
Inder Walia Nancy Reisig
Preparing Talent for the Global Environment: Success Mantras for the New Age Global HR Professional
HRD for Emerging Multinationals Uma Ganesh
Lisbeth Claus Indian HR Professionals and the Challenges of International Assignments
The Science and Art of Global HR Management Deepa Balaji

Global HRM
Soma Mohanty What makes a successful Global HR Professional?
The Globalization of Human Resource Practices R.Sankar
Sheila M. Rioux, Paul R. Bernthal, and Richard S. Wellins Global HR Professional in a Globally Adaptive Organization
Globally Yours...Learnings from TCS experience Mukund Menon
Charles Samraj Cross-Cultural Understanding for Successful International Interactions
Global HR Management: Are Indian Companies Prepared? Renu Mattoo
Vivek Paranjpe Has the Global Indian HR Leader Arrived?
A Conversation with Mohan Das Pai Shabbir Merchant
Bimal Rath and P V R Murthy Role of Perspective in Global Human Resources
A Conversation with Chunkath Georgie Lorelei Carobolante
Rati Mansinghka What it takes to be a ‘GLOBAL’ HR Professional
Book Reviews K P Dutta
The Next Global Stage- Challenges and Opportunities in our Leadership Excellence Attainment Determinants (LEAD)
Borderless World by Kenichi Ohmae, Sethu Madhavan. P and Yehya Al Marzouqi
C Mahalingam Global HR Challenges - for the HR Professional and the Function
International Human Resource Management by Chris Brewster, Paul Chandrasekhar Pingali
Sparrow, and Guy Vernon
Jan 2008 Issue

David Nallathambi More Articles and Book Reviews on Back Cover

A quarterly Publication by the National HRD Network A quarterly Publication by the National HRD Network

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 APPEAL TO CONTRIBUTORS
The National HRD Network publishes a semi-academic quarterly journal-each issue dedicated to a
theme. Publications so far include on the themes "IT Enabled HR" ,"Performance Management",
"Attracting and Retaining Talent", " Career Management" and “Organizational Change”. The current
issue is on the theme "Global HRM".
The plan for the ensuing issues is as follows:
NHRD Journal
Global HRM Date of
Volume 2 Issue 1 Jan. 2008 Publication Theme Guest Editor
April 2008 Women in Business Leadership Roles Dr. Uma Ganesh,
July 2008 OD Dr. Gopal Mahapatra
NHRD Network Board Members OCt 2008 Strategic HRM Dr. Udai Pareek
Special lssue Employee Relations and Statues Mr. P Dwarakanath
Aquil Busrai, National President, ED-HR, IBM India Limited, Special Issue Leaming and Development Mr. C Mahalingam
Dwarakanath P, Immediate Past National President, Director-Group Human Captial, Max Iindia. Jan 2009 Managing Generation -’Y’ Dr. S.Chandrasekhar
Santrupt Misra (Dr), Past National President, Director Aditya Brila Group April 2009 Leadership Mr. N.S. Rajan
July 2009 Institution Building Mr. S. Varadarajan
Anand Nayak, Regional President-East, Head HR, ITC Ltd. Oct 2009 Assessment Centres Dr. T.V. Rao
Gopalakrishna M, Regional President-South, Director Incharge, A.P. Gas Power Corporation Ltd. Jan 2010 Building Collaboration at Work Mr. Yogi Sriram
Satish Pradhan, Regional President-West, Executive VP Group HR, Tata Sons April 2010 Work - Life Balance Dr. C. S. Venkataratnam
Rao GP, Regional President North, VP- HR, JK Tyres
Varadarajan S, National Secretary, Executive VP & CHRO, Quatro The journal publishes primarily three categories of articles:
Ashok Reddy B, National Treasurer, VP- HR, InfoTech Enterprises
Satyanarayana. K, Executive Director, National HRD Network  Conceptual and research based
 Contributions from thought leaders including a limited number of reprints with due permission
Editorial Panel  Organizational experiences in HR interventions/mechanisms

Bimal Rath, Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific, Nokia, SIngapore.
(Guest Editor for this issue)
Dr.PVR Murthy, CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants, #8, Janaki Avenue,
Off 4th Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600018 Email: pvrmurthy@clickitjobs.com
Aquil Busrai, Executive Director, Human Resources, IBM India Limited, DLF Infinity Tower A,
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Block Koramangala, Bangalore-560095 India. Email: pallab.bandyopadhyay@cambridge-asia.com
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In V. V. Ramani (Ed.), Succession planning: Insights and experiences. Hyderabad, India: ICFAI
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CONTENTS
S.no Title of the Article Author Page Nos
1. Editor’s Comments 4
Global HR Professional
2. Becoming a Global HR professional Nancy Reisig 5
3. Success Mantras for the New Age
Global HR Professional Uma Ganesh 9
4. Indian HR Professionals and the Challenges
of International Assignments Deepa Balaji 14
5. What makes a successful Global HR Professional? R.Sankar 18
6. Global HR Professional in a Globally
Adaptive Organization Mukund Menon 22
7. Cross-Cultural Understanding for Successful
International Interactions Renu Mattoo 29
8. Has the Global Indian HR Leader Arrived? Shabbir Merchant 33
9. Role of Perspective in Global Human Resources Lorelei Carobolante 37
10. What it takes to be a ‘GLOBAL’ HR Professional K P Dutta 44
11. Leadership Excellence Attainment Sethu Madhavan. P
Determinants (LEAD) and Yehya Al Marzouqi 46
12. Global HR Challenges - for the
HR Professional and the Function Chandrasekhar Pingali 53
Global HR Management
13. Globalisation-- Making a Difference NS Rajan 59
14. Challenges of Global HRSystems Implementations Nina E. Woodard 66
15. "Managing a Global Organization:
“Focus on Leadership and Business Partnering" Giri Giridhar 69
16. Towards Global HR – An Equal Challenge for all Sripada Chandrasekhar 72
17. Managing Across Borders: the HR Challenge Inder Walia 77
18. "Preparing Talent for the Global Environment:
“HRD for Emerging Multinationals" Lisbeth Claus 80
19. The Science and Art of Global HR Management Soma Mohanty 84
20. The Globalization of Human Resource Practices Sheila M. Rioux, Paul R.
Bernthal, and Richard S.
Wellins 88
21. Globally Yours...Learnings from TCS experience Charles Samraj 92
22. Global HR Management: Are
Indian Companies Prepared? Vivek Paranjpe 99
23. A Conversation with Mohan Das Pai Bimal Rath and P V R Murthy 104
24. A Conversation with Chunkath Georgie Rati Mansinghka 108
Book Reviews
The Next Global Stage- Challenges and Opportunities
in our Borderless World by Kenichi Ohmae, C Mahalingam 111
International Human Resource Management
by Chris Brewster, Paul Sparrow, and Guy Vernon David Nallathambi 112

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 3

 EDITOR'S COMMENTS

Dear Professional colleagues,

India is increasingly getting integrated into the global economy. Indian
corporations are going more and more global. Foreign Direct Investment is
pouring in. Indian firms are also investing in overseas corporations through
acquisitions and mergers. In such a dynamic environment, the main
differentiator for success of any firm is the human capital it has,.
The right HR professionals the firms have ably facilitate and sustain this
Guest Editor,
winning advantage. In this issue of the journal we aim to address this
Bimal Rath, dimension on what does it take to be an effective global HR professional to
Head of Human go beyond the boundaries and also the process of global HR Management.
Resources, Asia Pacific,
Nancy Reisig, Mukund Menon, Uma Ganesh,and R.Shankar give us an
Nokia. Earlier he had
overall view of what is required to become and be there as a successful
rich experience in HR
global HR professional. Soma Mohanty and KP Dutta with their extensive
with Eicher, British
Telecom and Tata experience in both India and abroad highlight these challenges. Through
Group. tracing the evolutionary process of globalization,NS Rajan identifies the
competencies needed to be a successful HR professional.
Sethu Madhavan. P and Yehya Al Marzouqi attempt to identify the underlying structural
similarities across different types of organizations and cultures that seem to be determining the
success of leadership development a key role of HR.
To get a more deeper understanding of specific issues in this context, we have Deepa Balaji
talking about adaptation in international assignments, Giri Girdhar shares his views on business
partnering and essential leadership skills. Inder Walia presents what every global HR person
needs to demonstrate in addition to the basic HR skills. Renu Mattoo expounds on various
aspects of cross-cultural understanding and adoption for success.
We have Lisbeth Clauss sharing views on HRD for emerging multinationals, Nina Woodard
looking at challenges of HR systems implementation at a global level and Wellins talking about
globalizing Human resource practices. Then there are the more provocative ones; getting us to
think even more deeply. Shabbir Merchant questions whether the global HR professional is yet
there, while Sripada Chandrasekhar and Chandrasekhar Pingali both throw at us the challenges
to the professional becoming global and almost ask us to pick up the gauntlet!
Vivek Paranjpe and the trio of Sheila/Paul/Richard take us back to the big picture to ponder
on-overall Global HR management and why having a large perspective plays such a key role.
The two interviews are thought provoking, Mohandas Pai of Infosys and Georgie Antony of Nokia
Siemens Network come from very different backgrounds and perspectives, but they converge on
some common themes and issues for global HR practitioners through their varied experiences.
Finally, Mahalingam and Nallathambi have contributed individually to this issue by reviewing
two very relevant books to the theme -The Next Global Stage by Kinichi Ohmae and International
Human Resources Management by Chris Brewster, Paul Sparrow, and Guy Vernon .
We hope that this first issue of the new year will excite, educate and engage all of us in some
thinking and debate. Best wishes for a great year ahead and happy reading !!

Bimal Rath PVR Murthy

(Guest Editor for this Issue) On behalf of Editorial Team

4 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

 BECOMING A GLOBAL HR PROFESSIONAL
NANCY REISIG
F or several years HR as a global
profession has been making the
transition from being
administrative, transactional, and
sidelined in the "soft stuff" like
training and employee
engagement activities to "having a
seat at the table" and being one of
Nancy Reisig is former the business decision makers. We
Vice President-HR, Ford
India Pvt. Limited. Prior
can argue about how far we have
to joining come, and how far we have to go,
Ford India, Nancy was but it's clear that the paradigm of
the Director of HR as a key part of the business is
International Service widely accepted around the world,
Operations at Ford even if we are still catching up on
Motor Company's
global headquarters in developing HR professionals to
Dearborn, Michigan. assume this more responsible role.
She was responsible for
A parallel but perhaps radical
all aspects of
thought: while being relevant to the
administering the
company's nearly 2000 business and understanding and
employees on foreign acting upon operational challenges, it
service assignments
is also increasingly difficult for any
around the world.
HR professional to avoid the need to
Earlier in her career, she
was the first woman to think, act, and plan globally. It doesn't
manage a U.S state matter if you're in charge of dealing
trade office in Japan.
with the Deputy Assistant General
Nancy holds a
Manager of Factories, doing an
bachelor's degree in
English and History industrial relations job in a factory in
from Michigan State Madhya Pradesh, Romania, or Texas,
University, a master's
or have a job with "global" in the title
degree in Japanese
where you have oversight for HR
Studies from Yale
University, and an matters outside your country's
M.B.A. from Wayne border. Because business,
State University.
collaboration, and people movement
is now increasingly across borders -
so is the typical HR job. From
employees worried about
outsourcing in Texas, to employees
DOING outsourced work or building
products for export in Rumania or
Madhya Pradesh, there are few of us
that are not touched either directly or
indirectly by the "global village" the
world has become.
January 2008 NHRD
What attributes do you have to
have to add value to - or in some
cases, not detract value from - to
your company's global business?
I'd argue that the basics are
amazingly simple - and attainable
- by any HR professional. Even
better, they can be used in one's
own country as well as dealing with
people from another culture.
THREE ATTRIBUTES OF A
GLOBAL PROFESSIONAL
1. Be a Role Model for Clear, Precise,
and Effective Communication Across
Cultures - and Help Others See and
Act on the Need for This As Well.
A recent study mentioned on the
SHRM (Society for Human Resource
Management, (www.shrm.org)
website stated that "effective
collaboration" was one of the top
challenges noted by global HR
professionals. This can be within a
company or with the company's
customers-and mistakes can be
costly. In one of my previous jobs in
economic development, I was
helping a Japanese supplier
establish a base in the U.S. They had
just successfully negotiated a key
contract with an automotive
manufacturer. But, when they went
to execute the order, they got it
wrong and at considerable cost, had
to rework all the parts. Why? They
had misunderstood the spec. In
Japan, the specification was stated
as a "mirror image" of the part. In
the U.S. it was not. So all the parts
were backwards. A very costly
mistake that could have been
prevented with better
communication.
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 5
Dealing with other cultures is the subject of
books and can't be fully addressed in a short
article. But one of the most significant barriers
to effective communication across borders that
I've seen is electronic mail. It's not for complex
issues or problem solving. It can so easily be
misused that my personal rule is that I've traded
emails more than three times, it's time to pick
up the phone. Though I sometimes still get
sucked into a "email war", the rule helps me do
it less and less - and I've passed the idea on to
my customers.
As HR professionals dealing in a global world,
we also have to recognize our role to step into
the "white space" when we see misfires in cross
cultural communication. We have to be willing
to coach our business partners as well. For
example, one manager I dealt with several years
ago used a lot of slang and acronyms in his
speech, and tended to ramble when he talked.
Unfortunately, when he spoke before a non-U.S.
audience, I could see that though the group was
nodding and smiling, it was highly unlikely that
they understood his meaning (especially since
as a native speaker I was having a bit of trouble
myself). So, I stepped in to "translate" by asking
him questions and at the same time rephrasing
more slowly and precisely what I thought he was
trying to say. Later, I learned to coach people,
especially those who tend to speak rapidly and/
or unclearly before the fact.
Too often, people simply assume that others
understand both their words and their meaning
- when dealing cross culturally, this is rarely the
case. I believe as HR professionals we
significantly understate the importance of this
to our own interactions as well as those of our
business customers. We can add a lot of value
to our organizations simply by acting as
"steward" to this issue and bringing it to others'
attention. In a country as diverse as India, this
has applicability within the culture, as well,
given the different languages, customs, and
backgrounds.
6 January 2008 NHRD Journal
2. Lead in the Building of a Culture Where People
Stick to Agreements, Follow-through and Keep
Communicating if Obstacles Arise
Shortly after I arrived in India three years ago,
I attended an HR conference where a group
was discussing how Indian companies can
become more global in mindset. One of the
participants said something I have not
forgotten, since I have seen it in operation
since. To paraphrase, this executive said, "We
say 'yes' with our voice, but 'no' with our
actions. We may agree to please the boss, but
then when it comes time to do what we said,
we let circumstances or many other things get
in the way."
I have seen this many times, and I have to say
that in India, my follow-up system has
improved a lot, since it has been necessary both
personally and professionally. It is not a
question of intent or that people are lying to
you when they say they will carry through. But
too often, they will agree to do something and
then not do it in the way agreed - or at all. There
may, as the executive said, be many reasons. It
may be that they find a problem to execute an
instruction and run into a stumbling block. It
may be that they personally disagree with the
direction and don't want to say so, or simply
don't find it as important as the person asking
them. Rather than come back and say, "I ran
into this problem" or "I thought about this and
talked with the team, and we don't think it is a
good idea for this reason" or "I need to
renegotiate the deadline or my workload", they
simply fail to act and fail to communicate. The
worst example of course is the person who
accepts an employment offer, signs on the
dotted line, and then doesn't show up - or even
call to inform that they got a better deal
elsewhere. In international business, this is, to
put it simply, a killer.
I believe it is an HR challenge to help
management and employees deal with and
reinforce a mindset of honoring commitments
Vol. 2 No.1
and, in line with the first point, communicating
clearly about what the expectations are and
how we will fulfil them. When dealing
internationally, it's probably wise to adjust our
behavior to the very toughest standard that
we come across - in my own case, that would
be Japan, where the trains run to the second,
not the minute. While cultures differ in this
respect, I've never run into a situation where
doing more than people expected, or over-
communicating, got me in trouble!
3. Know How to Say Thank You in More Than
One Language and Style
This is such a simple thought, and yet one of
the most powerful tools of global business.
Thank you is an international lubricator - it
opens doors and creates goodwill in every
environment, sometimes in unexpected ways.
No matter what the culture, people look to be
recognized and thanked.
The caution - and this is very important in a
human resources context when we are
designing employee recognition programs,
compensation programs, or counselling our
management---is that how you say thank you
or show recognition is not the same in all
cultures. And it is not about saying thank you
for everything - it is knowing the appropriate
moment or occasion in that culture. For
example, in some cultures, individual
recognition in public is not appreciated, for it
makes the person feel as if they are standing
out from the team. They much prefer to be
recognized or thanked privately, or with the
entire group being acknowledged at the same
time. Or it may be embarrassing to a lower
level person to be thanked in front of the boss,
even though this is quite acceptable and even
desirable in other cultures. It is important to
take the time to learn and understand these
cross cultural differences.
Mastering the art of saying thank you in ways
that are meaningful to the recipient is a lifelong
January 2008
process, and if we are open to it, we continually
learn new things. Recently, I had an experience
that reinforced this. This was with a service
organization here in India where I was a
customer. How often do we yell at these people
when things go wrong, yet fail to acknowledge
their efforts especially when things are
delivered on time and properly? One of the
office managers had to run around all day
gathering signatures and paperwork for a key
project. This entailed going into the evening
as one person was not available for signatures
until after 7 p.m. The next day, I wrote a simple
note to this person, saying, "Thanks for all the
running around you did yesterday to make
this happen - I really appreciate it." The person
called me and was actually quite emotional,
saying, "In all the years I have been in this
business, no one has thanked me for such a
thing. Your email has made my whole day." I
was taken back. It seemed such a simple thing
to me. Yet the act of noticing, and
acknowledging, made all the difference in the
world to this person. Although I can say thank
you in Tamil, Hindi, Japanese, Hebrew,
French, and Chinese, I learned a new language
here altogether - the language of observing a
small thing and saying thank you to a person
who may often hear only criticism when things
go wrong.
Of course, becoming a true global professional
can take years - and experience outside one's
own culture, whether managing people,
travelling, or actually living in another country
is of course very helpful and some might argue
essential. But having worked in three countries
now and interacted with employees from
many others, it always seems to come back to
a few basic things - communicate clearly, listen
well, be open to challenge your own
paradigms - and learn how to say thank you.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 7
Acknowledgements from Editors:
• Our thanks are to all the contributors of articles for sharing their thoughts and experiences.
• We appreciate the support we received from Development Dimensions International and Worldwide
ERC for permiting us to reprint their articles.
• Our thanks to Mohan Das Pai and Chunkath Georgie for sharing their views.
• We are also thankful to Nokia for their suppot.
• The editorial team thanks the guest editor Bimal Rath for his excellent contribution.
• Our thanks to Rati Mansinghka, Nokia HR for her time and support.
• Finally our profound thanks to Prof. SS Rao, former Editor of Vikalpa and a Prof. IIM Ahmedabad for
his expert suggestions and guidance.

Erratum:
We apologize for the errors in the names printed for the authors of the following articles in the previous
issue on organisational change ( November 2007)
1. “ Measuring organizational culture and change” – Rajiv Kumar, Faculty IMT Ghaziabad, is wrongly
printed as Rajeev Kumar – Page number 70
2. “ Organizational change: The formidable XI”- Rajeev Dubey, President HR & Corp Services,
Mahindra & Mahindra, is wrongly printed as Rajiv Dubey – Page number 78
All other associations of the authors with the articles remain unchanged.

8 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

 SUCCESS MANTRAS FOR THE NEW AGE GLOBAL
HR PROFESSIONAL
UMA GANESH
I n the last decade, we have been
observing radical changes
sweeping across boardrooms
around the world. One of the key
changes impacting most
organizations is the aftermath of
globalization. Globalization in
Indian context has to be viewed
Uma Ganesh is the from multiple perspectives:
Chief Corporate
Development Officer, • Global organizations like IBM,
HSBC Global Accenture and Oracle setting up
Resourcing (HSBC GR)
shops in India, thus embracing
with responsibilities for
Business Strategy, India in their expansion and
Planning and Business growth strategy
Development for HSBC
Global Resourcing. • Large established Indian
In a career spanning
businesses like Tata, Infosys,
over two decades, Uma Wipro and others acquiring/
has had the opportunity merging with other businesses
to play significant roles overseas and strengthening
in the corporate sector
their market share worldwide
with Crompton Greaves
and Fibre Glass • Indian businesses setting up
Pilkington and with
offices/centers in various
NIIT, Aptech and the
Zee Telefilms Group. international locations to service
Was CEO of Zee customers' needs better
Interactive Learning
Systems. Prior to joining • Medium scale businesses like
Crompton Greaves acquiring
HSBC GR, she had set
up an entrepreneurial businesses overseas which has
venture -Kalzoom
catapulted them overnight as
Technologies focusing
global leaders in their industry
on delivering KM
Consulting and Content • Small and medium businesses
Solutions to global
organizations. She co-
operating out of India getting
authored a book noticed on account of their
"Unleashing the capabilities and quality thus
Knowledge Force." becoming partners of choice of
Uma has an MBA from global companies whether
the Faculty of based out of India or overseas,
Management Studies,
University of Delhi, and now having to develop 'global
PhD from IIT Bombay. mindset' to remain successful in
the "global village."
Thus globalization has brought in
its wake a new set of challenges and
January 2008 NHRD
issues that organizations have to
deal with in order to manage
growth and customers'
expectations. The heady growth
being experienced by these
organizations has been made
possible primarily on account of
the 'people factor'. Never before in
the history of business success and
growth has the people factor been
as important as now, thus paving
the way for redefining the role of
HR professional. We can see the
emphasis on management of
people changing from the titles
given to the managers over the
decades which has transitioned
from what was then known as "IR
Manager," "Personnel Manager"
and "HR Manager" to what are now
familiar terms "Talent
Development Managers," "People's
Officer" and "Joy and
Entertainment Officer" thus
indicating the significance of
people as the strategic resource of
the organization and the need to
nurture this resource with utmost
care and attention. In the context
of globalization, the complexity in
dealing with the people factor has
increased manifold and has called
for a major shift in the approach
adopted in the past. In this article,
we shall take a look at the some of
key challenges faced by
organizations in dealing with the
people factor and will highlight the
evolving personality trends in the
Global HR professional that are
helping them succeed.
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 9
Challenges Faced in the Wake of
Globalization
One of the key challenges organizations face
on account of globalization is integration and
adaptation to different business environments.
In the context of globalization, it is not possible
to isolate people related issues from other
dimensions of organization development,
integration and growth. These are primarily
to do with culture, processes and systems,
stage of business and markets being served.
All of these dimensions determine the
framework for managing people across
borders and helping them identify themselves
with the organization. Let us examine these
dimensions in detail:
Culture
Culture has always remained a key challenge
in the organization development process.
While most HR professionals have
concentrated upon building the "right
organization culture" that is conducive to
productive work environment, the matter gets
compounded in the context of globalization on
account of the following factors:
• People from different countries bring with
them different national cultures and at
times distinctive cultures from the locations
they hail from within their countries. For
example, a New Yorker's culture is very
different from a Texan's although both hail
from the USA.
• Depending upon the nature of relationship
between the parent/corporate office and
country offices, which culture would be
dominant and which one would be
adaptive is another key question to be
addressed. For example, if an organization
is hiring professionals in large numbers in
Europe to be employed in their own
countries, their culture would shape the
day to day work norms in their offices, even
though the parent organization may be
10 January 2008 NHRD Journal
large and employs significantly more
number of people elsewhere. The reverse
would be true in cases where global
organizations set up offices in India and
recruit professionals in India. These
organizations like IBM, Microsoft and
others have been known to adapt to Indian
culture - whether in terms of dress code or
food being served in their canteens.
• Finally, whether the growth is organic or
inorganic, the core issue is all about
propagating the organization culture and
ensuring this culture becomes the
overarching culture at all locations,
irrespective of the number and heritage of
people employed. Deciphering organization
culture for those who are not at the same
location where decision making and
influencing the organization culture take
place, is a major challenge which the Global
HR managers have to contend with. They
have the onerous task of ensuring that all
cultures emanating from national identities
are enveloped by the organization culture
and eventually employees and other key
stakeholders across the globe are able to
identify themselves with this culture.
Processes and Systems
In global organizations there are debates about
how much of leeway should be permitted in
localization of processes and systems and
when two companies merge or a company
acquires another company located in another
country, which of the companies would adopt
processes and systems of the other country.
There are no easy answers for these questions
and the solution varies from situation to
situation. However the moot point to be noted
is that processes and systems are implemented
by people and if not handled carefully, could
become an emotive issue and thwart the
globalization objective. Herein lies the need for
Global HR Managers to handle such situations
with sensitivity and pragmatism providing the
Vol. 2 No.1
necessary support to the business leaders with
the requisite change management tools to
facilitate the integration and adoption
processes.
Stage of Business
Scale and stage of business matter a great deal
in the globalization journey. If it is an
organization like HSBC or IBM, these are
organizations for which globalization is a way
of life, having spread their operations to
various parts of the world for the last several
decades. Therefore the experience in instilling
the organization culture or bringing into its
fold a new entity or a new location and its
people is backed by systematic methodologies
and time-tested processes. The challenge of the
global HR professional in this case is in
keeping abreast of practices and experiences
from different parts of the globe and to adapt
quickly to local needs, what is popularly stated
as 'Think Global, Act Local'. If on the other
hand, an organization is venturing to
international lands for the first time through
acquisition or setting up an office, learning to
adapt to the new ways of doing business and
implementing changes go hand in hand. This
would be applicable to all layers of the
organization from the CEO downwards. The
HR Manager faces multiple challenges -
preparing people to adapt to the new culture,
deciphering and defining the new culture for
the organization, coaching people at both
locations to understand each other and
creating the right work environment for the
organization to move forward without taking
a breather to pause and reflect! In other words,
the HR Manager is expected to be a magician
who could get the organization and people to
think and behave as one, in the shortest
possible time!
Markets Served
There has been a sea-change in the last two
decades in the models adopted by businesses
January 2008
in the entire value chain of servicing the
customers worldwide. Whether it is design or
manufacturing, procurement or service
delivery, businesses choose to base these
activities where they have a competitive
advantage either in terms of cost or in terms
of access to the right talent and other resources
required to manufacture or service the
customers. This has resulted in many
businesses having to adopt a 'global mindset'
in every aspect of the conduct of their business.
The challenge for businesses lie in developing
people strategy based on how the markets
would be served. For instance, if the markets
planned to be served are in the US and Europe
and manufacturing is planned out of China
and design is based out of India or Germany,
the primary focus of the organization would
have to be in building teams who are sensitive
to the nuances of these markets irrespective
of where manufacturing or design are carried
out. While it may be possible to hire marketing
and sales teams at customer locations, HR
Managers have to figure out how to build this
sensitivity amongst the rank and file of the
organization who would rarely have an
opportunity to come face to face with these
customers.
Profiling the New Age HR Professionals
With globalization bringing in its wake a
number of challenges as outlined above, it is
interesting to examine how organizations are
coping with the demand for HR professionals
to manage their talent resourcing and
grooming needs. While the practice of relying
on trained HR professionals with the right
qualities continues to be adopted by many
organizations, it has been increasingly
observed that there is a trend of selecting HR
professionals from non HR functions as well.
Let us now examine what characteristics
organizations look for in these professionals.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 11
• Interest in People
The first quality global organizations look for
in their HR professionals is whether the
candidate has real interest in people. This may
sound odd because HR professionals are
expected to work with people. However in
reality, in large organizations, people tend to
assume that it is impossible to reach out to
thousands of people and build relationships
with them and hence interest in people and
bonding become secondary to systems and
tools in HR. HR professionals who are able to
rise above the challenges of scale, geographic
dispersion and number of employees they
need to deal with and are able to find ways to
relate to people to make them feel special,
unique and wanted, would be the most sought
after. This is possible only when the HR
professional has a real interest in being with
people and finds pleasure in relating to them.
Counsellors, teachers, cheer leaders and NGO
workers enjoy their work not because they are
'paying jobs' but because they find their
Nirvana in being with people and listening
and caring for them. Businesses need people
of such caliber today when their primary
resource is people and the success with people
management would be the determining factor
for the growth trajectory of the organization.
• Familiarity with Multiple Cultures
Culture, as they say, is never taught, it is
experienced. HR professionals with exposure
to multiple cultures are not necessarily born
in business schools but are found amongst
those who have either worked in organizations
which have a systematic program to move
them around to different parts of the world or
they have schooled and grown up in different
parts of the world which give them a huge
head start in the context of culture assimilation.
In order to be a successful HR manager in a
global business, it is not enough to have
attended programs which help bridge cultural
12 January 2008 NHRD Journal
divide but it would be of tremendous
advantage to have had the real life experience
of living, working and interacting with people
of different nationalities.
• Being "Young at Heart"
With the majority of the employees in most fast
growing organizations being young and the
average age of employees being in the 20s, it is
important to have HR professionals who could
understand and relate to them. While
experience is important, remaining "young at
heart" and having the ability to appreciate the
way the youth think and their aspirations for
their careers and life are extremely important
factors for a successful HR professional. How
would young people like to spend their free
time and what would they expect from the
organization varies from country to country.
For example, young people in India enjoy
watching films and singing in their spare time
whereas many young people in China like to
indulge in some sports activity. Global HR
professionals should be able to spot these
interests and others so they could plan activities
which would help in bonding with the youth.
• Entrepreneurial Spirit
Entrepreneurial spirit is another important
characteristic to look for in a successful HR
professional. Whether it is to do with finding
people in new locations, or ramping up for
growth or fine tuning skill sets or motivating
people, an abundance of enthusiasm,
eagerness to find unique and distinctive ways
of achieving the objectives and treading the
uncharted areas with confidence and purpose
would be the essential ingredients for success.
Never before has this capability been so
relevant for HR professionals as now with
globalization and the demands placed on their
shoulders to meet the requirements of the
business in the shortest possible time and act
as effective change agents in the dynamic
business environment in which they operate.
Vol. 2 No.1
• Strategic Thinking
The days of HR professionals playing a passive
support role in businesses are over. Most
global organizations have their Chief People
Officer (CPO) on their Boards and expect them
to play a strategic role in building the business.
With people factor being the most important
competitive tool for businesses, HR
professionals are expected to provide vital
strategic directions on sourcing and retention
of talent linked with the business goals thus
paving the way for business strategy to evolve
on the strength of people strategy. Before
customers decide to go ahead with large
contracts, they would like to ascertain from the
CPOs what their people strategy is all about.
Executive decisions around new locations of
businesses or new lines of businesses are made
on the strength of HR recommendation on
people strategy. Thus global businesses have
come to rely upon the HR professionals
heavily in the context of their growth and
geographic dispersion strategy.
• Experience in Customer-centric
Operations
Many organizations recognize the value of
customer facing experience and have
successfully identified those with such
experiences to handle HR role. This is all the
more relevant in the case of service industry
where understanding of the customers' needs
and creating solutions to meet their
expectations are the key to success.
Professionals who bring with them the
invaluable experience of having dealt with
customers face to face could contribute
significantly in nurturing the right people for
the business. The prerequisite for this would
be what has been stated earlier - interest in
people and willingness to blend
understanding of business needs and
managing expectations of people.
January 2008
• Extensive Networking
To succeed in global organizations,
networking not only within the organization
but extensive networking outside the
organization would be of advantage. Being
clued into industry trends and falling back on
professional networks for informal advice are
significant enablers in the rapidly changing
dynamic business environment of today. With
information explosion, it is impossible to keep
pace with the developments all by one's own
efforts and therefore professional networks
could be tapped into as and when required.
Participation in industry forums also provides
a platform to present organization and
industry interests to different stakeholders and
therefore, HR professionals with global
ambitions need to systematically nurture
networking with fellow industry professionals.
In conclusion, we are living in exciting times
that present with us opportunities for a
distinctive approach to people management,
leadership building and meeting the
challenges of speed and scale to achieve the
growth objectives in the global context. For
HR professionals to succeed, the two critical
success factors would be continuous learning
and the ability to adapt quickly. There is a
glorious future awaiting all HR professionals
who are willing to ready themselves for the
high growth opportunities. What is
important is to carry out a self analysis of the
profile as outlined above, identify the gaps
that are required to be bridged and work
upon them assiduously.
Opportunity is knocking at your door, are
you ready for the challenge?
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 13
INDIAN HR PROFESSIONALS AND THE CHALLENGES OF
INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS
DEEPA BALAJI
T he article examines issues that
will enable HR professionals
from India to become global
players.
Professional India's footprints are
now being felt all over the world.
While talented Indian professionals
were given opportunities for
Deepa Balaji founded
Jigyasa, offering HR, international assignments through
customer service and organizations like Unilever (which
consulting services in started its globalization efforts in
Singapore. She has a
Post Graduate Diploma
the 30's), Cadbury's and Procter &
in Personnel Gamble, the doors were nudged
Management and wider out of necessity when Y2K
worked in India for problem had to be solved and
several years. She has
worked with several
Indian expertise was needed.
multinationals in South Today, India Inc is ready to acquire
East Asia and China foreign companies, if it sees a
and professionals from strategic fit.
across the globe.
Globalization has resulted in
increased international
assignments and multi-country
responsibilities, implementation
and rollout of initiatives both
regionally and worldwide. Several
studies have highlighted the need
for a global mindset to develop
new leadership capabilities and
competencies. If globalization is
ultimately the business of mindset
and behavior change (Rhinesmith,
1992), HR's role becomes integral
to the growth of Indian businesses.
Perception of Indian Professionals
and Their Acceptance Globally
The diversity, depth and numbers
of talent and capabilities that India
of today is offering to the global
market has brought forth a myriad
of emotions; ranging from
astonishment to fear and shock.
14 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
Businesses internationally (except
in US) have found it difficult to
reconcile with what India has to
offer; from low skilled and
uneducated labor to the
sophisticated, highly educated and
most importantly confident and
sure of their place in the global
multi-cultural environment.
While it was agreeable to look at
India as a market, even acceptable
to outsource to India if it was cost
effective, the world is not used to
seeing an India taking over
businesses, of being in charge.
Talk to any Indian professionals at
the highest levels of business and
he or she would be quick to point
out the opportunities given to them
and highlight the fact that the
'ability to deliver' is what matters.
Nationality and origin are
unimportant. Yet, on the other
hand, it is difficult to overlook the
missed opportunities and stalled
international careers that reflect
prejudice and bias.
From an Indian perspective, it is
difficult to understand how the
world can accept leaders such as
Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo), V. Pandit
(Citibank), Ram Charan, C K
Prahalad and simultaneously balk
when Laxmi Mittal bids for Arcelor
and make odious comparisons that
European steel is like "perfume"
and Mittal's steel like "eau de
cologne" or cast doubts about the
viability of luxury-car brand such
as Jaguar if it is acquired by an
Indian company.
No.1
Human Resources management practice in
India is fairly developed and was a specialized
field at a post graduate level, almost alongside
the development of general management as a
profession. Organizations both Indian and
multinational in India had progressive HR
practices quite early as compared to other
Asian countries. Few countries in the Asia
Pacific region have deep and diverse resource
pool of HR professionals comparable to India.
HR professionals from India on their first
international assignments are surprised to find
the practice levels adopted in several countries
in Asia relatively lower than those in their
home country. Yet, few outside India
appreciate the depth of HR expertise that exists
in India and can offer to the Asia Pacific region.
Till a few years ago, HR professionals' move
into international assignments was mostly
within their own organization. In recent years,
this group of HR professionals has been
instrumental in increasing the global presence
of HR professionals from India through what
we now term as "social networks."
How can HR Professionals from India
Develop a Global Leadership Position?
1. Global Mindset and the Indian HR
Professional
A global mindset is a prerequisite to grow and
successfully compete in markets worldwide.
To make this happen, the organization must
have an HR team that orchestrates the
development of a global mindset in the
organization.
72% of CEO's in a survey of the skills and
capabilities identified "The ability to think
globally" as a skill they need to improve the
most and becoming a "truly global company"
was identified as a major trend.
A global mindset needs qualities amongst
others an ability to work as an equal with
persons of diverse backgrounds, it involves the
January 2008
ability to lead and participate effectively in
multicultural teams. It also involves an
understanding of one's own cultural values
and assumptions, an ability to profile the
organizational and national culture of others
with accuracy and the avoidance of cultural
mistakes and ability to behave in an
appropriate manner in all countries.
Are Indian HR professionals ready to inspire,
influence and shape the thinking, attitudes, and
behavior of people from all over the world?
Various studies, both conceptual and
empirical, have established a direct co-relation
between working on global assignments and
responsibilities, working with multi-cultural
groups, international travel, and international
mergers and acquisitions and the development
of a global mindset. India of today offers
Indian professionals plenty of such
opportunities to build a global mindset. Many
HR professionals have seized such
opportunities and have been instrumental in
shaping and building a global mindset (their
own as well as those in their organizations).
Yet, if Indian businesses are to succeed in
establishing a global presence, HR needs to
ensure that people in these organizations think
globally, and build a global identity.
2. The Challenge of Moving from an
"Ethnocentric" to a "Geocentric" Approach
Ethnocentric attitude is defined as the belief
that "the way of one's home country is always
the right way when it comes to doing
business." Decision-making and evaluations
take place at the head office, where, in this
view, people are best suited for those tasks.
An ethnocentric manager is one who views the
world from his or her own cultural
perspective. (Perlmutter,1969). On the other
hand, a geocentric attitude is "the extent to
which nationality or cultural differences are
unimportant when selecting individuals for
managerial positions" (Beechler et al, 1999).
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 15
The geocentric approach allows organizations
to select the best person for the job to seek the
best talent, irrespective of nationalities.
Most importantly, a global mindset will
encourage the sharing of learning across the
firm, in contrast to ethnocentricity where
people place higher value on inputs coming
from similar others, a sharing which
encourages identification of managers with a
global organization (Beechler et al, 1999).
"Indian HR professional" will have to give way
to the global HR professional if HR
professionals from India need to play a critical
role in the development of gobal organization.
In order for the Indian multinational to become
global entities, employees within the
organization have to answer the question,
'who are we?' in global rather than local terms.
(Beechler et al,1999).
3. Managing Cultural Diversity
Most Indian HR professionals have been
exposed to different cultures, attitudes and
diversity early in their lives by the virtue of
having studied or worked in places different
from their place of origin and have far greater
ability to recognize, grasp and acknowledge
cultural and social differences.
Yet, an Indian HR professional's skill at
managing and influencing an internationally
diverse group is hardly tested within India.
To be truly successful and to be able to
influence a group of people from a different
cultural back grounds, an Indian HR
professional must be aware of his or her
culture as well as that of other cultures and be
able to interpret this knowledge and use the
skills to influence and make a difference.
While few studies are available to actually
gauge how Indian professionals are perceived
outside India. Articles in papers and
interviews with various professionals indicate
that Indians coming out of India in recent years
16 January 2008 NHRD Journal
are well received, are seen as "highly
qualified," "competent" and "confident."
However, Indians are also perceived as
"overconfident," "having a sense of
superiority," "do not mix." The Pew
Foundation survey said that Indians have a
higher opinion of their own culture than
citizens of any other nation. 64% of those
surveyed 'agree completely and without
reservation' that India is culturally superior to
other countries.
Evaluation of new competencies such as
"cultural empathy, emotional intelligence,
diversity awareness" (Bennis and Nanus, 1997)
in business managers becomes a critical
requirement in globalized India. Qualities such
as valuing differences, reaching out and taking
interest in cultures and societies outside one's
own, ability to appreciate both individualism
and collectivism become critical qualities to
succeed in the international business.
• Diversity Management
In global organizations, diversity management
programs have become integral to the way
organizations do business, it has been
positioned as a corporate-wide strategic
commitment as a way of doing business.
"Diversity management is related to, but
differs in origin, intent, and activities from,
equal employment opportunity and
affirmative action, which are grounded in
moral and social responsibility to amend
wrongs done in the past, with legal obligations
to increase the representation of minorities and
females in the workforce to reflect their
availability in the labor market." (Society of
Human Resource Management, 2001).
Former CEO Steve Reinemund, PepsiCo was
instrumental in enforcing a hiring and
promotion policy that required half of their
workforce to be women or minorities. Their
bonus structure also rewarded managers on
their ability to hire and retain such talent. The
Vol. 2 No.1
reason for doing it was entirely to understand
and capture emerging markets that PepsiCo
was entering into.
Indian Multinationals such as Infosys and Tata
have foreigners in their Board of Directors to
assist in internationalization. Tata's Executive
Director, Alan Rosling is responsible for the
group's drive to go global. DBS Bank
(Singapore) and Unilever (London) have N.
R. Narayana Murthy on their board to
understand and expand into Indian market.
Ability to Understand Trends and Position
HR Initiatives Accordingly
a. Demographic Shifts
India still has a young workforce and an aging
work force is a non issue. Yet, as Indian
companies become increasingly global with
operations in different countries where ageing
is one of the key issues; policies and programs
will need to be developed accordingly.
About 35% of Deere & Company's 46,000
employees are over 50 and a number of them
are in their 70s. Almost 20% of the population
in Japan is already over 65, the highest
percentage in the world. As a result, Toyota is
making changes in the shop floor to
accommodate the needs of older employees.
b. Issues around Part-time, Flexible Timings,
Co-sharing and Others Related to Work-Life
Balance
Fundamental values and approach towards
work, work-ethics and work-life balance have
a wider impact not only on managing talent
but also on decision making and managing
change. A study of US based professionals of
a Swedish multinational brought out the fact
that the month-long summer holiday in
Sweden had an impact on the speed of decision
making. This was in direct contrast with the
quick responses expected in the US. The long
work hours of Indian companies would be
impossible to implement in Europe. By 2020,
it is predicted that only 77% of the employed
population in the EU hold or seek full-time jobs
(32 hours or more.)
Expertise in the areas highlighted above will
make a difference for HR professionals from
India need to be perceived as thought leaders
in the global arena. In addition, there needs to
be greater empirical data and research coming
out of India on subjects such as perception of
Indian professionals outside India,
competencies that Indian business leaders
need to compete in the global arena and
concerns and challenges to organizations
globally.

References
• The ageing workforce, The Economist, 2006.
• Beechler, S. 1999. Building a global mindset for competitive advantage.
• Bennis, W, and B. Nanus. Leaders strategies for taking charge.
• Egan, M, and M. Bendick. 2003. Workforce diversity initiatives of US multinational corporations in Europe. Thunderbird
International Business Review, Vol 45.
• Foundation for the Malcom Baldridge National Quality Award CEO Forum Survey, 1998.
• Harris and Moran. 1994. Managing cultural differences.
• Paul, Herbert. 2000. Trends: Creating a mindset, Thunderbird International Business Review, Vol. 42, No. 2.
• Pepsi’s diversity push pays off, Fortune, September 2006.
• Perlmutter. H. V. 1969. The tortuous evolution of the multinational corporation, Columbia Journal of World Business,
Vol. 4, Issue 1.
• Rhinesmith, S. H. 1992, Global mindsets for global managers, Training & Development, Vol. 46, Issue 10.

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 17

 WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL
GLOBAL HR PROFESSIONAL?
R SANKAR
L iterature and academic studies
on the making of global leaders
abound. In this age of the global
corporation and the peripatetic
employee, advice that would help
a manager or leader settle in and
contribute effectively in a
transnational context is plentiful.
R. Sankar, Executive Rather than survey literature or cite
Director,
PricewaterhouseCoopers,
examples from companies and
India, is a chartered and employees who have achieved the
cost and works difficult task of being effective in a
accountant with over 23 global context, I thought,
years of work
experience in
responding to the NHRD's
management consulting invitation to contribute on the
in India and abroad. theme of the Global HR
Before joining PwC, Professional, that I would share
Sankar was Country
Head and CEO of
with the readers the accumulated
Mercer Human experience, both mine and that of
Resource Consulting, other HR executives that it has been
India. He is a much my good fortune to know, in
sought-after speaker at
industry and business
working successfully and
forums. effectively in a global context. In so
doing, I shall write from the
viewpoint of the Indian executive
in a global corporation.
What are the principles that make
for a successful global HR
executive? What are the few things
that if done well will contribute to
his effectiveness? In my view, the
general principles of success apply
equally to working in a
multinational framework as they
do in a purely domestic one. These
have been well documented and
include in addition to a level of
domain knowledge, personal
attributes such as a willingness to
listen and to learn, a participative
style, understanding the
organization's DNA , history and
18 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
culture and adapting one's style to
them, striking the right balance
between employee advocacy and
the requirements of managerial
efficiency, an appreciation of the
political and organizational
dynamics and a keen
understanding of what is feasible
as opposed to what is desirable. As
the perceptive reader will have
noted, the attributes I have listed
apply with equal force to all
executives, not only those in
Human Resource Management.
If these principles have universal
applicability, what then
distinguishes a global HR
professional from the others? In my
view, there are a few additional
measures of effectiveness that make
it possible for a HR professional to
transcend national boundaries and
to be effective in a global scenario.
First, the Indian professional,
especially if he is well qualified, by
which I mean possessing an
engineering degree and/or an
MBA from a prestigious institution,
must eschew intellectual
arrogance. He must disabuse his
mind of the notion that his
qualifications and the fact that he
is an Indian confer on him a
unique advantage over others. I
say this from personal knowledge
and observation of a number of
indubitably smart executives being
less than successful in a global
context. It is worth reminding
ourselves that at the workplace,
effectiveness matters more than
intellectual brilliance or academic
No.1
achievement. One is hired to help bring about a
business outcome, not to demonstrate one's
intellectual virtuosity. This is not to suggest
that putting one's intellect and knowledge to
good effect is either not necessary or is to be
disdained. All I suggest is that one must not
wake up every day with the objective of
proving one's intellectual superiority over his
colleagues if one wants to succeed as a global
executive. This also means that one must wear
one's learning lightly and be prepared and ever
ready to learn from one's colleagues within
and across borders.
This brings me to the second principle for
effectiveness in a global context, which is to
collaborate effectively across borders. In my
view, too few of us are trained in the art and
science of collaboration. Perhaps our ultra-
competitive education system does not school
us in the virtues of and the need for
collaboration. This explains too the crassness
and selfishness we see around us and our
general lack of civic awareness and
responsibility. Perceptive observers of our
cricket team have pointed out that the our lack
of success in the sport commensurate with the
talent at our disposal is chiefly the result of
our 'team' being a collection of a few brilliant
individuals, rather than a cohesive group
which plays for each other and in the pursuit
of a common objective to which the entire team
subscribes wholeheartedly. True collaboration
consists in (a) understanding one's role as part
of a larger team and committing oneself to
discharging it diligently, (b) reaching out to
and supporting the efforts of colleagues, rather
than viewing them as competitors to be
undermined (remembering that in the success
of others lies one's own), (c) accepting and
being loyal to one's leadership even if one is
not entirely convinced of its appropriateness
or efficacy. This includes submitting to
superiors younger and arguably less bright
and less qualified. (It never fails to amuse me
January 2008
that while the Indian executive in the private
sector swears by a meritocracy, he is unwilling
at the same time, to submit himself to someone
who is junior to him and who may owe his
position to merit. "But I was senior to him at
XLRI" goes the refrain). The adoption of MNCs
of complex matrix organization structures
makes collaboration even more critical for
success.
Building a strong network of colleagues to call
upon in times of need or upon whose good word
one's career depends is always a good idea. Being
good at one's work is one thing. But getting
others to appreciate and recognize it is another.
Equally important is one's willingness to seize
opportunities to work on new projects or with
new colleagues or superiors. Such opportunities
abound in global corporations and are widely
advertised. They provide the platform for a
talented executive to demonstrate new
capabilities and to endear himself to new
colleagues and superiors. They are especially
valuable if they are cross-border, provide
opportunities to demonstrate leadership, are
high profile and critical to the achievement of
the organization's strategic objectives. An
example of such a project in HRM in a global
corporation would be the roll-out of a multi-
source feedback process across Asia.
Communicating effectively is another
ingredient to success. We in India often
mistake garrulousness and loquacity for
communication. We tend to make speeches,
not points. The result is a stream of words "full
of sound and fury signifying nothing"! We also
tend to be argumentative, impelled by the
conviction that an inability to critique
something reflects poorly on our intellectual
capabilities. We also tend to forget that
effective communication implies effective
listening. No amount of money and effort
spent in improving our communication and
listening skills is a waste. To listen carefully,
to await one's turn and when it comes, to speak
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 19
slowly and clearly, making one's point
concisely and constructively, and to write
simply, logically and clearly are skills that will
take one far. The good news is that global
corporations invest a lot in enhancing the
communication skills of their workforce and
provide numerous opportunities (town halls,
presentations at internal meetings etc) for
employees to hone their communication skills.
Patience is perhaps the most inestimable of
virtues when it comes to working in a global
context. Our management graduates seek fast-
track careers and challenging work. While
there is nothing wrong about these aspirations,
they would do well to remember that large,
global organizations have complex structures,
rigid hierarchies and tend to be fanatical in
their insistence on process. Decision-making
can be slow and is often centralized. This is a
consequence of three forces at work - advances
in information technology, managers'
relentless quest for efficiency and the impact
of legislation particularly on US based
multinational companies. The first two forces,
acting in concert, have made it necessary and
possible for managers effectively to control
and manage far-flung operations and to
provide services to both internal and external
customers without the need to be close to
where these customers exist. Thus, we see
centers of excellence and shared services. This
trend has been exacerbated by legislation such
as Sarbanes-Oxley which mandate
undiscriminating compliance with reporting
and disclosure requirements.
To these three forces must be added a fourth -
the matrix organization which today has
become so ubiquitous and pervasive as to
constitute the norm. While the matrix
organization does not necessarily add to the
centralizing tendency, it does slow down
decision-making by requiring extensive
collaboration among different arms of the
matrix for decisions to be taken and executed.
20 January 2008 NHRD Journal
The flipside of all of this is that global
corporations often use a 'one size fits all'
philosophy, regardless of the nature of the
markets and business conditions, resulting in
their having to forego the opportunity to
exploit the unique strengths and advantages
that each market provides. The perceived loss
of autonomy among local executives and the
inability to react with speed and dispatch to
changing market conditions are other fallouts.
On the people front, this means a stultification
of initiative and frustration arising from a
perceived lack of autonomy. To give an
example, most MNCs deploy rigid processes
around headcount approval and budgets in an
effort to manage people costs. It is not
uncommon for a local HR executive working
for an MNC to have to seek and obtain
approval to hire a replacement for an
employee who has left. The process typically
involves the preparation, concurrence and
eventual approval (at regional or global
headquarters thousands of miles away) of a
business case for the hire. Even if information
technology has made it possible for the
business case and its approval to happen
relatively quickly (if not at the speed of light!),
the frustration that the local executives feel in
their inability to go ahead and hire instead of
preparing internal documents and await
approval is not difficult to empathize with.
Patience is the salve Under these
circumstances, a mature executive seeks ways
to be effective. How does the organization
work? Who takes crucial decisions? Who are
the key influencers? What's best timing to get
certain things done? A thoughtful and
resourceful executive who thinks on these lines
will find a way to get around obstacles to
achieve his objectives instead of giving vent
to his frustration, railing against management
and quitting. He will learn to bargain, to trade,
to negotiate. Can I have bulk approval for 10
hires if I can grow revenues beyond budget?
Vol. 2 No.1
If I can have approval for bulk hires now, I
promise I will use the approvals judiciously
(e.g., only to replace).
Finally, be adaptable With the shelf-life of
CEOs shortening and with Boards of Directors
under pressure to grow revenues profitably,
changes in leadership, strategy, structures and
processes will continue to occur at an
unprecedented pace. Successful executives
will have shown themselves to be adaptable
and resilient. They will be quick to discard old
paradigms for the new and to align themselves
behind the new leadership. This does not mean
that they will follow the boss, regardless of
their own convictions; only that recognizing
that they exert little control or influence over
many of the strategic, tactical, people-related
and operating decisions in the global
corporation they work for, they do not hold
themselves responsible for the ills of an earlier
January 2008
regime. Instead they seek to understand and
demonstrate the behavior and style that would
make them effective in the new dispensation.
The perceptive reader will have noted that the
factors I have listed and discussed apply with
equal force to all executives, not only those in
HRM. In this, he would be right. For the
principles of success are the same, regardless
of the discipline to which one belongs or the
function in which one works.
In summary author reflects on the attributes that
contribute to effectiveness and success in a global
context. He calls on the Indian executive working
in a global context to eschew intellectual arrogance,
learn to communicate and collaborate, build a strong
network of support, and demonstrate patience,
adaptability and resilience. He concludes by pointing
out that these attributes are not unique to HR
executives but apply to all executives.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 21
 GLOBAL HR PROFESSIONAL
IN A GLOBALLY ADAPTIVE ORGANIZATION
MUKUND MENON

I n the current globally

competitive scenario, every firm
in the world is set to transform their
a responsibility to integrate, anticipate,
have ears on the ground on the
competition, and build a futuristic
monolithic firms into globally organization while enabling the
adaptive organizations by instilling existing organization to go through a
flexibility, efficiency, altruism, and seamless growth phase worldwide. The
transparency into their globally competency expected is global and
networked talent, processes, and domestic policies and processes will
Mukund Menon is partnerships. The World Isn't Flat become monumental for global growth.
Satyam's Global Head
of Talent Acquisition,
Till Global Firms Are Networked, The board room expects HR to play
with overall Risk-Agile, And Socially Adept. the role of creating an ideal global
responsibility for
Thanks to exponential growth in organization and pro-actively
building talent in the building corporate wide initiatives
organization globally. global trade, the world appears
He is a key leader in the increasingly smaller and flatter, that are beyond transactional.
Leadership Team for promising firms massive new Typical Scenario that Presents
People Management
and works out of New
market expansion opportunities. Itself to a HR Organization
Jersey, USA. He was Global exports tripled from $3.45 Market Barriers Fall, Facilitating
responsible for trillion to $9.12 trillion between Global Movements of People,
attracting more than 1990 and 2004, a 164% increase
16,000 to join Satyam Capital, and Info. Annual trade
fueled by the integration of volumes within the EU alone are
globally in the last
financial year 2006-07 emerging nations like China and expected to grow by 45% between
and would be building India into the global economy and 2003 and 2015. Processes and
talent around 20,000 or the vision of a "Global Village"
more for this financial policies and systems are to be in
year 2007-08.
seems close to realization. More tune with projected growth.
and more organic and inorganic
In the last 20 years in
growth is happening in the • The BRIC Nations Rise,
the industry, he spent
domestic market and through Unleashing Hordes of Voracious
about 10 years in the US
with responsibility cross-border business acquisitions. Middle-Class Consumers
around global locations. Goldman Sachs projects that the
Before joining Satyam, The HR organization is presented with
he was a Business Unit
Head for Charles River When BRICs’$ GDP would exceed G6*
Computers based out of UK Germany Japan US
New York City to run China

their Application Italy France Germany Japan

Development business. India
Earlier he worked in
DSQ Software and Russia
Italy France Germany

Manali Petrochemical
Ltd. He received Italy France Germany
Brazil
Master's in HR from the
University of Madras. G6
BRICs

2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050

Source: Goldman Sachs economics paper ‘99

22 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

consuming middle class in the four nations
known as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and
China) will quadruple in the next decade and
contribute nearly 70% of global growth by
2040.
Opportunity to capitalize on the first mover
advantage, de-risk capability building and
spread across borders, build diverse workforce
and avail advantages of being in a relatively
low cost country.
Vast New Talent Pools Swell the Global
Labor Market Supply
Besides accounting collectively for 2.4 billion
consumers, China and India, or "Chindia," also
boast a growing pool of talented engineers,
scientists, and professionals willing to provide
cost-competitive R&D and IT services to
MNCs coping with an aging Western work
force. Complimentary skills prevail in both the
countries and both the governments are
engaged in building talent in the country at
college level up to experienced level and
subsidies are provided for select industry
sectors to set up shop.
The Need to Comply With Multiplying
Regulations Increases the Cost of Doing
Business Globally
The new age of compliances to protect
consumers, promote fair business practices,
homeland security, secrecy laws, etc have
opened a new challenge and need to be
compliance as a respectful corporate citizen.
January 2008
These have huge impact on people in the
organization to be cognizant of the compliance
issues and even for those who are not covered
by a moral responsibility to enable compliance
to their counterparts across their organization.
For example, European Banks had to spend,
on an average, €115 million to comply with
Basel II. Motorola had to comply with such
region-specific financial regulations as
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), compliance with which
costs firms, on average, $4.3 million in the first
year alone. Restrictive labour laws in India and
France, stringent real-estate property
regulations in Japan, and convoluted
intellectual property (IP) governance in China
and Brazil - both countries' lax drug patent
protection laws are a source of heartburn for
Big Pharma like Pfizer and Roche.
Compliance, conducive environment study
and building processes to fall in line with the
local laws and respect culture and government
policies are caveats to people policy building.
New Global Market Place and Challenges to
Thrive
It is time C suite executives and the corporate
planners are moving from industrial-era
insular corporate cultures, hierarchical
organizational structures, and deterministic
planning tools designed for more stable eras
that will not thrive in a chaotic, unpredictable
global business environment. Change is more
driven to build a fluid and nimble
organizational form that embodies:
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 23
1) Entrepreneurship at Business Unit Level to
Empower and Localize
Help Build Teams That Will Operate as
Resilient Mesh Networks to Deliver
Anywhere, 24x7
The competency and specialized functions,
technology, R&D functions, and skills
distributed across regional units can rapidly
be assembled into virtual entrepreneurial
teams that could operate according to the "one-
for-all, all-for-one" Philosophy. For example
John Deere's Design Anywhere, Build Anywhere
(DABA) units, virtual teams of R&D and
manufacturing experts located in the United States,
Europe, India, and China. An US engineer might
complete a new tractor design initiated by an Indian
engineer and have the tractor be manufactured in
Germany in the event that the designated Chinese
plant becomes inaccessible in order to still meet
Deere's committed delivery deadline to the client.
Need to Optimize and Avoid Duplication of
Processes
Optimization through IT and support shared-
service model that avoids duplication of
process and functions. Keeping in mind that
they may be centralized from a governance
and compliance standpoint, these resources
can be physically located in different locations
in order to rapidly respond to frontline units'
dynamic needs.
Build a Knowledge Sharing Enterprise across
Units, New Know-how and Best Practices
Sharing knowledge and enabling process
synergies by continually identifying and cross-
pollinating learning - including market
insights, socio-cultural intelligence, new
know-how, and best practices - across its front
line units. For example IBM's CEO Sam
Palmisano want IBM to be a globally integrated
enterprise with specialized skills and competencies,
say, those of Indian software developers and
Japanese quality management experts, that can be
24 January 2008 NHRD Journal
recombined dynamically in cross-unit teams
assembled to meet customers' needs worldwide.
2) Learning Organization Responds Faster to
Global Opportunities
Provide entrepreneurial front line units with
the platforms and right resources that would
assess and manage risks associated with the
local opportunities they pursue. To create a
learning organization that strives to constantly
learn from experience and best practices in the
world.
Promote Risk Taking Culture and Build
Measures That Will Anticipate
Train and encourage employees to take
calculated risks as they pursue new
opportunities worldwide. Goldman Sachs, for
example, with a track of more negative trading days
than any other investment bank, is nevertheless the
most profitable. It encourages risk-taking among
its employees and pro-actively manages the risks
the company takes. Similarly, Google's work ethos
of "If you're not failing enough, you're not trying
hard enough" is evident in its 70-20-10 policy,
which empowers employees in Mountain View,
Beijing, Zurich, and Bangalore to spend 30% of
their time on side and new projects instead of
focusing on core offerings.
Anticipate and Prepare for Strategic Risks by
Creating Flexible Tactical Plans
A good example to explain this is how Siemens
augments its traditional strategic planning
process with scenario analysis for specific
regions like India and China. It is important
to build Business Continuity Plans and have
cross functional teams that will evolve
strategies and plan to respond in an emergency
scenario in the domestic or cross border to
ensure that employees and services will go
through less disruption or no disruption. It is
the key to identify Business Continuity
Champions across the globe and have a
common plan.
Vol. 2 No.1
3) Collaborative Partnerships in a Virtual and
Multi-locational Organization
It is a common phenomenon that collaborating
within the organization is much difficult than
working with a customer or a partner. It
involves understanding cultures, needs,
visibility etc that embodies when it comes to
an internal scenario. Some of the organizations
have mastered the art of building processes
and culture to promote internal collaboration.
Build a Formal Structure as Part of Business
and Corporate Process that Enables
Collaboration
Some of the possible avenues that could bring
in the collaboration are at the budgeting stage
at every annual budgeting session. Cross
budget lock ins will enable dependency to
perform and cross pollinate all capabilities of
the organization. Build virtual teams and allow
them to work freely with other teams and
geographies with clear demarcation of roles
and responsibilities.
Tie in Rewards and Incentives for Teams that
Collaborate
It will be wise to create a collaboration index
that is perceived optimal for the health of the
organization and the teams that achieve the
score should be provided with additional
incentives and rewards. The success of this
initiative lies on the proliferation of the rules
of the game and reward earning mechanisms.
It is also key to publicly announce the best
collaborators in the system and tie the growth
and "right of refusal" privileges to the
successful collaborators in the company.
Institutionalize a Formal Survey or
Measuring Process to Measure Collaboration
Each organization can build its own
customized survey or measures that will
reflect the true collaboration within groups.
The periodicity and components of the
measurement will be determined based on the
January 2008
need and challenges the organization at every
stage. The dimensions could extend to the
external world such as partners, alliances and
customers to make it end to end.
What is "Going On" in a Successfully Global
Organization
Innovation and Creativity as a Culture
To constantly stay in leadership position and
seize new market opportunities worldwide,
innovation culture of an organization that
proliferates across their employees, customers
and partners, enterprise wide from the bottom
up, to rapidly co-design and co-market
innovative products, services, processes, and
even business models at both the local and
global level is made as part of the DNA of any
global organization.
Business Continuity and Risk Mitigation
Plans
In today's world most of the services and
products are delivered in virtual processes that
are outsourced and in-sourced. In this scenario
the prime responsibility lies with the principle
employer to ensure that business continues in
the event of a natural or socio disaster situation
and most of the organizations worldwide have
put in plans and process to respond and regain
within 24hrs. In most of the situations the first
affected are employees and obviously services
getting affected as a casual effect.
Operational Excellence
Improve productivity. The common slogan
and problem encountered by every
organization. Employees play a major role.
Competition and profitability derives from an
organization's capability to be productive and
operationally excellent in all their process. It
is important for every organization to optimize
their valuable resources and human resources
to their fullest capability and strive to eliminate
non value added processes through
digitization or outsourcing to a third party.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 25
Thought leadership and driving through
SLA's help the organization to stay focused on
growth and competition.
Social Responsibility
The maturity of an organization is measured
or perceived from the organization's ability to
contribute to the society not as a check book
charity but getting directly involved in a social
cause and impact the society as a large by
building initiatives and organizations that will
run developmental programs on a continuous
basis. Most of the HR honchos worldwide have
taken the CEO's position in such an initiative
of the corporation as it is a natural extension
of organization commitment to the society.
Transparency
In a flat world the commitment to various
stakeholders such as employees, investors or
shareholders, customers and society in
different parts of the world needs the
organization to be effectively communicating
the good news and bad news and as well
forward-looking plans. This imbibes the
culture of transparency to win the confidence
and as well get all stakeholders engaged in the
core business of the company. From a people
perspective every quarterly report would
cover the human resource info in detail that
will provide a good sense of company's
strength.
The hub and spoke organizational structure of traditional top down operating model organizations
Top
management
Middle
Decision-making management
authority
Global frontline employees
26 January 2008 NHRD Journal
Need to Re-look and Transform Suitable
Organization Design
Traditionally grown industrial-era
organizational embodies old corporate
philosophy, cultures, business practices, and
external interactions. This suits well in the
geopolitically stable late 20th century, but not
in the 21st century enabled by affordable,
ubiquitous transcontinental travel and the
Internet.
Non Scalable Organizational Design Doesn't
Help Synergy and Distances Entrepreneurial
Capability
Organization design plays a major role to
embody a dynamic and flexible organizational
structure that delivers both global economies
of scale and local responsiveness.
1) A hub-and-spoke model that, due to its
command-and-control structure, constrains
front line units' flexibility, or
2) A highly decentralized operating model that
empowers local units at the expense of creating
functional and regional silos that undermine
process synergies, cross-unit knowledge
sharing, and collaborative problem solving.
In today's digital global economy, it is
important to utilize the fullest capabilities of
front line employees and keep them motivated
to track emerging local risks and opportunities
HQ
Regional
subsidiaries{
Vol. 2 No.1
 Mesh Network model that represents bottom up operating model

Global frontline employees

Middle
Decision-making management
authority

Top
management

Each node is embeded with a sense-and-respond mechanism that promotes adaptive learning

sense and In Collect and analyze data

t on key leading indicators to

er
assess emerging risks and

pre
ransform
opportunities.

t
Dec
Use feedback loops to

nd t

id
reiterate process and

e
na
an
skills transformation r d Determine and implement
and reshuffle coping Lea act
strategies portfolio.
appropriate steps to mitigate
rick or seize opportunity.

or to engage internal and external partners to 2. Create a learning organization from best
jointly develop solutions that meet stakeholder practices and global events rather than fighting
needs across multiple markets. Lack of fires.
platform to do so or cultural frustration can 3. Build internal capabilities with tight
lead them to jump ship or, worse, passively partnerships that share global risks and rewards.
watch as an isolated local spark ignites a firm
wide global brushfire. Some of the "Must Do's" in a Globally
Adoptive Organization for HR
Employee Engagement Around the Globe
Hire Ambiguity-loving Workers with Strong
The key challenge for new age Global HR Pro Interpersonal Skills
is ensure that every employee in the
organization worldwide is engaged in the Need to build talent Type A well-rounded
business and their involvement and strengths individuals who are globally savvy, self-
are leveraged to the optimum which enables motivated, and demonstrate strong team
sharing best practices and bringing in facilitation skills. For instance, rather than staff
innovation and greater employee networks its US-based labs with more technical experts,
within the organization. It is assessed among Motorola's CTO office worked with HR to recruit
MNC's that only* 14% of global work enforce "T-shaped" engineers who boast deep technical
in a given company is highly engaged and 62% expertise augmented by the strong project
is moderate and the other 24% is completely management skills needed to orchestrate globally
disengaged. Mexico and Brazil tops in the dispersed R&D teams within Motorola's nascent
highly engaged employees at 40% and 31% global Innovation Network.
and India, China and the Japan are at bottom Build up the Firm's Social Capital by
of the list with 7% and below. It is a huge Funding CSR Initiatives
concern and HR organization would play a Forty three percent of S&P Index-listed firms
major role in building frameworks and produce annual corporate responsibility
structures that mesh the employee networks
reports. For example, a group of concerned
and engagement across their locations. investors and environmentalists launched the
1. Restructure top-down hierarchies with risk-agile, Investor Network on Climate Risk to assess
opportunistic entrepreneurial teams. the effectiveness of MNCs' responses to global
warming. HP chairman Mark Hurd, for example,

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 27

believes that "with global reach comes global
responsibility." Melinda Gates foundation and
some of the top Indian companies in India have
committed and truly formed their social
responsibility organizations in line with the true
sense of development.
Empower Frontline Risk-takers
Identify those who are entrepreneurial within
the organization and encourage them to take
calculated risks in new markets, products and
services that will benefit and differentiate the
firm's advantage in a new market or line of
business. It is the key to create "safety nets" in
this type of scenario and build accelerated
rewards and recognition programs for those
successful in this initiative. It will enable
growing leaders within the organization and
succession planning.
Branding and Corporate Citizenship in the
Outside World
For instance, Google's use of solar energy to
heat its Mountain View campus not only
warms the heart of its environmentally
conscious Californian community and boosts
employee pride but also saves Google a bundle
in electricity costs! Similarly, Infosys, Satyam,
etc., have created foundations in development
of society and in Indian primary education not
out of pure philanthropy but also to preempt
the looming skills shortage in India that could
cripple the company's astounding growth.
Equal Employment Opportunity Employer
in True Sense
One of the key challenges is to keep employees
of all cultures and background feel that the
policies and processes are non discriminative
and welcome to empowering employees of
diverse, sexual, religious, and cultural
orientations to openly express their unique and
multiple identities instead of trying to mesh
them into a homogeneous corporate identity.
While different nationalities are part of the
global organization it is important to bring in
the right diversity among women in the
company and at leadership level.

References
Bartlett, Christopher A., and Sumantra Ghoshal, The individualized corporation: A fundamentally new approach to management.
Farrell, Diana, Martha Laboissière, Jaeson Rosenfeld, Sascha Stürze, and Fusayo Umezawa. June 2005. The emerging
global labour market: Part II - The supply of offshore talent in services. McKinsey Global Institute.
Findings of BMT-Led European transport study predict a dramatic increase In road haulage.
Radjou, Navi, with Ellen Daley, Michael Rasmussen, and Heidi Lo. December 13, 2006. Forrester report.
Sachs, Goldman. December 2005. How solid are the BRICs? Global Economics Paper No. 134.
Snow, Charles C., Raymond E. Miles, and Brent B. Allred. 2003. Managing leading-edge multinational corporations,
Managing the Global Network Corporation, edited by Bruce McKern, Routledge.

28 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

 CROSS-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL INTERACTIONS
Renu Mattoo is a
consultant trainer with
niche areas of Global
Business Etiquette, and
Presentation and
Communication Skills.
Renu taught post-
graduate management
students at
XLRI,Jamshedpur for
nearly 16 years. In
addition to teaching
responsibilities, she was
faculty head for placement
from 1980 to 1992. She
has written over 350
articles published abroad
and in India. She is
English (Hons.) from
Delhi University, and a
Post Graduate from XLRI,
Jamshedpur, where her
special interest lies in
Organization behavior.
She was awarded the
Hindustan Lever
Scholarship for both years,
and also two gold medals-
The Abdul Bari and The
Kumarappa- for academic
excellence.
RENU MATTOO
A ttractive commercials do not
guarantee business success in
international negotiations. A good
deal may be lost because one party
was not aware of the intent and
consequences of particular verbal
and non-verbal communication
norms of another culture. Even
though at a professional level
business behaviors globally are
similar, people from different
cultures do think and act
differently from each other. It is
important, therefore, to learn about
the rules of communication and
etiquette of various cultures, so that
unnecessary conflicts, mistakes,
and ill-feelings, however
unintentional, are eliminated
before they break down the
interaction process.
Here is a sample of some important
issues to be considered.
Time, Punctuality and Deadlines
North America and most of
Northern Europe are very time
conscious. Meetings always start on
time, people are not carelessly late
for appointments; if a deadline is
promised, much pressure is placed
on those responsible for delivery, to
"beat the deadline." Time is money;
time is passing by and must be
caught; time must be managed; time
is not going to come back!
In Japan and China, being late is
seen as an act of discourtesy.
In Asia, Middle East, Southern
Europe, South America, and
Africa, there is always plenty of
time; a few minutes this way or that
way do not make much difference;
January 2008 NHRD
nobody minds the inconvenience
of kept waiting; it is, in fact, rude
to tell someone in a business
situation that he is late.
For an Arab, if family
preoccupations make him late for
a meeting, or miss it altogether, it
is nothing to make a fuss about.
The Style of Interaction
• In the West
• In America, in particular,
negotiations take on a
legalistic tone. Contracts are
drawn up, signatures
obtained, terms verified, etc.
Business presentations are
based on the logic of
economics, so numerical data
and statistics are important.
Business is discussed on the
very first meeting.
• In UK, polite but firm
pressure is used, and
deadlines calmly insisted
upon!
• In Germany, all information
is analysed in great depth;
much importance is given to
statistics; logic and precision
rule.
• In France, the finesse and
etiquette of the Interaction
style is as (if not more)
important as the matter.
Academic discussions often
intervene in logical issues.
• In Italy and Greece,
emotional appeals are
resorted to, but when
pressure is to be used, it is
deadly!
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 29
• In the Far East
• In China, the hosts will make strenuous
efforts to bargain for better deals. Often
negotiations continue even after an
agreement is signed.
• In Japan, team-work and consensus are
important, even though hierarchies are
strictly observed. Business comes after
personal relationships of trust and
comfort are established. Orderliness
and self-control are valued.
• In Thailand, decisions rest with the
senior-most person, or the head of the
family business.
• In the Middle East
In much of the Arab world, business
negotiations take place in an environment
where non-business matters may also be
discussed simultaneously. People not
connected with the matter may walk in and
out casually. All receive the full attention of
the hosts. One's word is more important than
a signed document.
• In Latin America
All parties often tend to talk loudly, with many
gestures, and various tonal inflections. Business
relationships are personalised. People prefer to
do business with old friends and relatives.
Business Meetings
Since international negotiations necessarily
require both parties to meet several times and
with several levels, it is essential to understand
the global norms of small talk and business
behaviors during meetings.
• In most western societies, Americans,
Germans and Australians get to the
point quickly. Very little attempt is
made to develop personalised
relationships, which, being subjective,
can colour one's objectivity and may
even lead to conflict between business
interests and the personal friendship.
30 January 2008 NHRD Journal
Small talk as an act of courtesy is
minimal. So after the initial and brief
greeting, get directly down to business.
Be up front, as most people in the west
take words at literally and at face value.
• In the Far East, in China, Japan, Hong
Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and
Thailand, and Vietnam, much time in
the initial meeting is spent in small talk
as a rapport and relationship building
process. Though financials are
important, wait for your hosts to initiate
the business discussion, which may
require several meetings over many
days, weeks or even months! Usually,
a formal dinner follows the initial
meetings. Wait for the senior-most to
begin eating before you do.
• Communication: In Japan and China,
expect long moments of silence between
questions and responses. Verbal
interjections such as the Japanese "Hai!"
may mean "I am listening," "Please
continue," "I understand," and rarely
"Yes!" Since the Japanese and Chinese
do not say "No" directly, look out for
sentences such as, "Maybe," "We are not
sure," or "Let us see," "Our schedule/
policy/process may not allow that," "We
need to think about this," or, "This seems
difficult/ inconvenient."
• Respect for seniority: Hierarchical ranks
are very important. Delegates enter the
meeting in hierarchical order, seniors
leading (in Vietnam, however, the senior-
most may enter last; all stand in respect;
he takes the chair at the head of the table;
and the others resume their seats). In
Hong Kong, your hosts will already be
seated on one side of a long table. Ensure
that your delegates sit on the other side,
each person facing directly someone from
the Hong Kong team with the same rank.
Juniors are expected to defer to seniors,
Vol. 2 No.1
 and not interrupt when a senior talks. As
a reciprocal gesture of respect, select the
senior-most to make your presentation
and be your spokesperson. Ask lower-
ranking officers not to interrupt, question,
challenge, correct, or openly disagree
with a senior-whether from your own
team or the other side's. If you challenge
a senior, you may cause him to "lose face,"
and may, in turn lose the respect of the
others present. Being blunt is
discourteous.
• Information: The Japanese prefer to
have schedules in writing, such as who
is going to present what information,
for how long, in what order, etc. The
Chinese like to receive a complete list
of delegates attending the Interaction
meeting, in the order of seniority, with
ranks or designations.
• The Chinese team is likely to be large,
demonstrate authority and
regimentation, even in the seating
arrangement, and appear slow-moving.
• In Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines,
decisions are taken by consensus, and
after lengthy deliberations spread over
many days. Therefore negotiations
move slowly. You would do well to be
patient, and low-key. Since the natives
are soft-spoken, they do not appreciate
boisterous behavior or loud talk. Again,
be prepared for long silences. Deal with
top-most executives.
For a face-to-face meeting in a different time
zone, avoid arriving on the same day as the
meeting. In some cases, reaching two days in
advance makes better business sense. You will
need time to adjust to the weather, food, time,
and cultural differences.
Expression of Emotions
In the west, in Latin America, and in some
parts of Africa and Arabia, it is fairly common
January 2008
and acceptable to give vent to emotional
feelings. It is also considered okay to engage
in humour, whether subtle and wry as in
England, or loud and back-slapping as in the
United States, or risqué and even boisterous
in Latin America.
In the Far East, however, showing anger in public
is a serious discourtesy. It makes the other `lose
face', and may end the relationship. Also, long
periods of silence or not expressing any emotion
are normal in the Orient, while remaining silent
disturbs the westerner. Humour is near absent
in negotiations in the Far East.
Regardless of cultural norms, people all over
the world understand basic respectful
expressions. Treat others with honour, and do
not criticise other cultures, verbally or non-
verbally. Focus on understanding the
differences and working through them.
Business Courtesies
Globally, the most common and acceptable
greeting is the handshake. In Germany and
USA, the grip is firm as a limp handshake shows
a weak personality. On the other hand, in
France, the Middle East, and in Latin America,
a soft touch is the hallmark of culture. A too
firm grip is considered aggressive in Japan.
In the Arab world, handshakes between a man
and a woman are not appropriate. In Malaysia,
the outstretched hand is enveloped gently
between both palms and the left hand brought
to the heart "I greet you with my heart."
In America, business people get down to first
names very fast, while in Germany, even long-
time neighbours who may be acquaintances,
but not friends, address each other with the
titles "Frau" and "Herr." It is the same in Japan.
In the West, the surname comes last, while in
China it comes first.
Business courtesies in China include lots of tea
and cigarettes before the serious discussion;
in India, it is tea and snacks; in USA, it is "Let's
get down to business, shall we?"
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 31
Dressing correctly and well for a business
Interaction matters. A business suit is best till
the relationship becomes less formal. Western
businesswomen in Islamic countries should
wear lower hemlines, higher necklines, and
keep the arms and shoulders (and perhaps the
head) covered.
Gifts are an integral part of the Japanese, Chinese,
and Indian business culture. In Germany, USA,
and UK, it is seen as an attempt to influence the
decision. Gifts of certain types, colours, and
numbers are taboo in certain cultures: Do not
offer gifts in sets of four in the Far East. Do not
offer gifts wrapped in yellow in Africa. In USA,
a gift is opened in the presence of the giver; in
Asia, after the presenter has left.
Body Language
Since there are vast cultural differences in how
people use gestures, postures, eye contact, etc,
it is vital to prevent misinterpretations in the
business scenario.
Eye contact: In the west, strong eye contact
indicates confidence, openness, sincerity, and
trust. In the Far East and Middle East, strong
an eye contact is considered disrespectful, and
even aggressive. American women make
much more direct eye contact than women
from Asia, Africa, and Arabia. People in the
Far East, Africa, and Asia look down in respect
when elders address them; Europeans and
North Americans look up at the speaker to
indicate attention. In fact, looking away is
interpreted as a sign of rudeness! Sideways
glances or touching or rubbing the skin under
the eyes are indicators of slyness or even of
untruth.
Facial expression In the Far East and India,
people often smile when embarrassed. While
Arabs, Asians, and Japanese make less eye
contact when smiling, Westerners make direct
eye contact when they smile.
Personal Space In the west, people are
uncomfortable when others stand too close to
32 January 2008 NHRD Journal
them or touch them. While the English and
North Europeans hardly touch each other after
the handshake, the French and Italians touch
quite frequently. Arab men hug upon meeting,
but after that keep their hands mostly to
themselves.
In the Far East, China and Japan, where
hierarchies rule, the usual distance between
people is anything between three to five feet!
In Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and the
Indian sub-continent, people of the same sex
stand fairly close to each other, touch often,
and hold hands, to indicate closeness and
friendship, not homo-sexuality. People of the
opposite sex, on the other hand, stand much
further apart in public.
Gestures In most cultures, pointing is rude,
as is beckoning with the upright forefinger,
except in USA! The "thumbs up" is a positive
sign in USA and UK, but obscene in Latin and
Islamic cultures. In France, the "okay" sign
means zero or useless. It is considered obscene
in parts of Latin America, Eastern Europe, and
Spain! Touching the head of a child in India is
a blessing, while in Malaysia; it is a threat to
the child. The shake of the head from side to
side in agreement in India, but confuses the
American or the European.
Postures It is rude in the Middle East and Far
East, to sit so that the sole of the foot is pointed
towards another person. In the Far East,
always get to your feet when someone older
or senior enters the room or stands up to leave.
When you sit, keep your feet flat on the floor
so that the sole does not point to anyone.
This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of
items to consider when working across
cultures. It does, however, indicate that
correct understanding and appropriate
responses can ensure that a person is as
likeable as his product, service or the
financials of his proposal. And that may just
give him that winning edge!
Vol. 2 No.1
 HAS THE GLOBAL INDIAN HR LEADER ARRIVED?
SHABBIR MERCHANT
T he topic of Global HR
professionals seems very apt at
a stage where the Indian economy is
currently poised. India as a global
talent destination seems to be a clear
writing on the wall. Unlike the
previous decade where the
positioning was largely related to the
Shabbir Merchant is the IT domain, India's talent pool is
Chief Value Creator at today recognized across a host of
ValUlead Consulting.
functions such as engineering,
He has two decades of
experience in Human marketing, general management
and human resources.
Resources Management
and Leadership
So has the Global Indian HR
Development with
organizations like Grow
Leader found a place under the sun
Talent, Wipro, responsible for himself/herself? I would say
for the entire HR function the stage has been widened for the
for its India, Middle East Indian HR professional, and the
and Asia Pacific opportunities to deliver at a global
Operations, and Eicher
level are much more than in the
Group.
yester years. There are several
He has over the years had
examples of Indian HR
the opportunity to receive
development inputs from
professionals who are today
various international playing a significant role in a global
faculties which include C responsibility; therefore, it merits
K Prahlad, Robert Kaplan, understanding who really is the
Sumantra Ghosal, Jagdish Global Indian HR leader and can
Seth, Peter Block, Kirk
we claim that he/she has arrived.
Patrick and Harbir Singh.
He did Masters from I plan to divide this article into two
Symbiosis Institute of halves, the first focusing on classifying
Business Management, the different types of Global Indian
Pune, India. HR leaders and the imperatives each
of them face and the second half,
focusing on the future areas to focus
on for the Global Indian HR leader.
Overseas
Type AGlobal
MNC
HR Leader
Indian MNC Type C Global
HR Leader
India Based
Fig 1 : 4 Types of Global Indian HR Leaders
Indian MNC : Primarily an India Headquartered company, with global operations
Overseas MNC : A company with its headquarters outside India, and has a presence in India
January 2008 NHRD
A) Four Types of Global Indian HR
Leaders
There are four types of Global
Indian HR Leaders, each of them
having to face some common
imperatives and some unique and
distinctive imperatives. While I
outline in this article some
perspectives to reflect on, let me
quickly add two caveats with
which to absorb these perspectives:
a) Technical HR competence as
the base I consider it as given, that
the Global Indian HR leader has the
base competencies required to be
a successful HR leader. Hence
whether in a Generalist HR role or
in a Functional Specialist HR role,
the technical HR competence is
considered to be a passport for the
Global Indian HR leader. Hence, I
have not separately outlined the
same.
b) Overlap of imperatives I do
accept that the imperatives
mentioned below are not
completely exclusive to a role, and
definitely there would be overlaps
across roles. My attempt has been
to prioritize the imperatives for
each role, without discounting the
other imperatives which would
also be important.
Type D Global
HR Leader
Type B Global
HR Leader
Overseas Based
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 33
1. Type A: The India Based Overseas MNC HR
Leader
This would be the HR leader for an overseas
MNC who is located in India and leading the
HR function for the India based employees.
Many of the readers may dispute whether an
HR leader working with an overseas MNC and
based in India qualifies to be a Global Indian
HR Leader. To which my response is that any
role which requires the HR Leader to think
beyond his country for managing his talent
pool is a Global Indian HR Leader. The key
imperatives which this type of HR Leader
needs to manage are:
• MNC's ethos and values Type A HR
leaders need to be able to themselves
absorb the essence of the ethos and
values of the MNC, and should be able
to build/sustain systems which
facilitate the Indian employee to live the
ethos and values on a daily basis.
• Local values and culture filter In most
Overseas MNCs, the policy making is
rather centralized and the country HR
leader is expected to play the role of an
implementer. It is critical that the Type
A HR Leader is able to create the
appropriate influence on the global
policy maker on local cultures/
conditions, and ensure that, where
merited, the policy is modified. I have
watched with amazement policies such
as purging of bottom 5% of the
workforce, forced ranking, etc., being
mindlessly applied in an Indian
scenario where the social context may
not be completely ready to accept such`
policies. The Type A HR leader needs
to have the courage and conviction, to
play the role of a filter, which is
beneficial to the Indian talent pool and
also to the business in India
• Facilitating Indian talent access The
Type A HR leader has to play the
34 January 2008 NHRD Journal
advocacy role in ensuring that high
talent from his India talent pool gets a
fair career opportunity on the global
stage. No doubt, processes like Internal
Job Posting Process do exist in many
overseas MNCs, yet we are at a stage
where we do need to do some bit of
level headed marketing of the Indian
talent pool on the Global Stage, as it is
said "Even Eagles Need a Push."
2. Type B: The Overseas Based Indian MNC
HR Leader
This is an Indian HR leader who has been posted
overseas to manage HR for its overseas office(s)
of the Indian MNC (Akin to Infosys, Dr Reddy's,
Tata Steel). The key imperatives which this type
of HR Leader needs to manage are:
• Cultural acceptability and self
adjustment The Type B HR leader has
to accept that the rules of engagement
with employees may be a little different
in an overseas geography as compared
to India. Especially the employees of a
non-Indian nationality would have a
different cultural context in which they
seek engagement with their
organization and the HR leader.
Building his own acceptability and
responding in a manner which suits the
corporate culture of the country would
be advantageous.
• Employer brand building A significant
challenge for the Type B HR leader
would be to build the brand of the
Indian MNC in a foreign land. While a
Wipro or an Aditya Birla Group or Dr
Reddy's are very respected Employer
Brands in India, they would not have
enjoyed the same brand salience in
another country when they initially set
up there. Hence the need to focus on
Employer Brand building in the Talent
Market, B-Schools and in the
community at large.
Vol. 2 No.1
 • Impact based initiatives and support
A key leveraging factor for the Type B
HR leader would be to pro-actively roll
out initiatives which have a direct
relevant impact on the business and the
talent pool. This may mean at times for
the Type B HR leader to shift focus to
address administrative issues (Visa's,
housing, language management,
healthcare, etc.) which are impacting
the business and the talent pool.
Addressing these would help build
positive equity which can be
subsequently encashed for deeper HR
interventions.
3. Type C: The India Based Indian MNC HR
Leader
This would be the HR leader for an Indian
MNC (akin to a Aditya Birla Group, Wipro,
ICICI bank) who has responsibility for the pan
global presence of their offices and employees.
This leader though has a base location in India,
is responsible for offices and employees across
different global geographies.
The key imperatives which this type of HR
Leader needs to manage are:
• Propagation of ethos and values
Playing an evangelizing role for ethos
and values is critical for a Type C HR
leader, and this may not have scope of
delegation in most cases. The best
results are when the HR Leader herself
does this, and that does entail
significant travel. In fact for a Type C
HR leader with a global responsibility,
travel of around 100-120 days per
annum is an occupational hazard he
should be willing to live with.
• Cultural etiquette and adaptability
Engaging with employees & managers
of different nationalities requires
different tactics and styles. The Type C
HR leader must be adaptable enough
January 2008
to be comfortable with the formal
Japanese employee, to the gregarious
Australian employee, to the respectful
Chinese employee.
• Local legal understanding While labor
Laws in India have become old
fashioned for most Indian HR
professionals, a Type C HR Leader has
no option but to roll up his sleeves and
get into this area. Notwithstanding legal
experts and opinions being available at
an arm's length, it is the HR leader who
would use her judgment for critical
decisions.
4. Type D: The Overseas Based Overseas MNC
HR Leader
This is perhaps the most complete form of a
Global Indian Human Resources Leader. This
is not to mention with any disdain towards
the previous types of Global HR leader,
however truly, when you have peers &
customers of different nationalities than your
own, it does represent a deeper sense of a
Global HR Leader. The key imperatives which
this type of HR Leaders needs to manage are:
• Global business understanding The
scale and complexity of a global
business model is critical for a Type D
business leader to understand, in order
to create a fruitful partnership with the
business leaders. Understanding the
economic and political dynamics of
different regions and countries, would
be a base fundamental for this HR
leader.
• Cultural and political sensitive policy
and process framing As a continuation
of the above, the complexity in policy and
process creation multi-folds when the
same has to be rolled out across different
countries. Having a robust mechanism of
a "Feed In" and "Feed Out" would help
the HR leader in this role.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 35
 • Perpetual value creation When the
Type D HR Leader is rubbing shoulders
with the best of the best at a global
stage, there is no room for redundancy
or inconsistency. The spotlight on a
Type D HR leader is sharp and
evaluative, and the only escape is
perpetual value creation by the HR
leader and her team.
B) Future Focus Areas for the Global Indian
HR Leader
In the past two decades India has made a mark
for itself as one of the major the IT Services
capital of the world. No doubt, we have not
dislodged the Silicon Valley in the US, and
Taiwan & China continue to be the IT
hardware Capital. Yet, brand India does have
a shine of IT services.
While India does have the potential to achieve
similar status in areas like , Engineering
Services, Drug Research & Trials, Financial
Services to name a few. One area which is ripe
for India to capitalize is to become the "Human
Resources Practices Capital" of the world. This
is where the Global Indian HR Leader needs
to focus in the future. Providing "Thought
Leadership" in the area of HR is where Indian
HR leaders can contribute to the Global
Corporate World.
In my travel across the globe in interactions at
various international platforms, when I have
shared about the kind of values, systems,
processes which are done by Indian HR
leaders, it has only amazed international
audiences. Yet, many in the Indian HR
36 January 2008 NHRD Journal
fraternity seem to keep looking towards the
west for thought leadership in HR.
We do have some great original HR work done
here in India; however, we need to showcase
it with enough research validity and at the
right kind of international forums which will
bring visibility to the thought leadership in HR
originating from India. We do have the
foundation in India to make this happen.
• A great talent pool of HR who have the
right mix of being effective HR
practitioners and the ability of creating
impactful conceptual frameworks.
• An active HR body in the form of
NHRD, which is continuously raising
the bar of HR concepts and ideas.
• Business leaders and industry captains
who are committed in letter and spirit
to HR function being a pivotal part of
their business strategy.
• Outstanding academic institutions
specializing in the HR function, like
TISS, XLRI, SIBM to name a few.
It needs a magical partnership of all the above,
along with sufficient research to put the Indian
HR Leaders, on the global map.
In conclusion, the future Global Indian HR
Leaders will be the ones who can make India
the "HR Capital" of the world, encouraging
the West to look East at India for talent
engagement and development practices.
Then we can say for sure that the Global
Indian HR leader has arrived.
Vol. 2 No.1
 THE ROLE OF PERSPECTIVE
IN GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCES1
LORELEI CAROBOLANTE
A n unknown Italian author
once wrote, "History is our
recording. That recording is our
memory. Memory constructs our
culture. Culture influences our
behavior. Not all the people on this
planet have the same memories.
For this reason, our main social
Lorelei Carobolante, problem is historical."
Chief Pathfinder, G2nd
Systems™, is a global Clearly, one's experiences influence
HR professional and his or her perspective, and that
entrepreneur with a perspective certainly influences his
passion for leveraging
or her human interaction in and out
the benefits of diversity
and inclusion through of the workplace. However, the
Intercultural English, trouble with perspective is that it
workplace is subjective. Understanding the
collaboration, global perspectives of others involves
leadership
being open to the possibility that
development, and
successful workforce one's own perspective may not be
mobility processes. the best explanation or the only
She is a global possibility - a challenging quality
management consultant to apply even in domestic venues.
and a member of the Thus, it should not be surprising
Mobility Global that when perspectives of people
Editorial Advisory
in different cultures converge in the
Committee.
global workplace, unpredictable
issues will arise. Cultural
sensitivities influence how people
interact - or fail to interact - with
one another, and can translate into
counterpart managers working
together effectively, or
ineffectively, in their attempt to
achieve results across multiple
international locations. Although
there is an extensive body of
research examining the overall
influence of globalization and
technology on human resources,
the impact of global corporate
reorganization on HR practices
1. Reprinted with permission of Worldwide ERC®, from the April 2005 issue of MOBILITY
January 2008 NHRD
may be affecting HR professionals
across different countries in ways
that have not been anticipated, e.g.,
a European human resource
manager may perceive the same
issue very differently from an HR
colleague in the United States.
Real Life
Last fall, I participated in a small
focus meeting near Brussels,
Belgium, that included HR
professionals from Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, and the United
Kingdom. During the meeting, one
UK HR manager had this to say
about a mobility situation
involving his US HR counterpart:
"I dread working with corporate
[headquarters] because of the way
they recruit people from my
organization."
Looking across the conference table
to a German colleague, he
continued, "Would you do this? By
the time I found out that one of my
employees was being moved to the
United States, the hiring manager
and HR already had contacted the
fellow directly to sell him on the
upwardly promising career
prospects associated with moving to
the United States. You and I would
get on the phone and talk about
what moving the chap might mean
to the organization, employee, and
so on. Why don't they do that? The
decision already had been made; the
employee was needed in the United
States. Period."
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 37
The US HR manager's perspective was
probably very different, likely landing some
place between being supportive to a line
manager's request - presuming that manager
recognized a growth opportunity for the
employee overseas - and moving another task
forward in an increasingly demanding
workplace. Yet, true to the polarizing power
of experiential perspectives built over time,
neither HR manager seemed to make an effort
to develop a relationship with the other.
Instead, they focused on their own fast-paced,
ongoing local issues.
"Demands that are piling up every day in
response to more work and fewer resources,"
the UK HR manager said in a tone that invited
other ideas on how to manage inter-country
manager relations.
As I reflected on his sincerity, others in the
room chimed in with experiences involving
their differing perspectives in comparison to
their US counterparts. These included
frustrating situations involving trying to find
ways to fit US HR practices into local
processes. It left me with the sense that, to this
group of European HR managers, their US
counterparts neither understood, nor wanted
to understand, the context of their local issues.
And because e-mail is their primary means of
communication, much of the context is
probably lost in translation.
A Side-by-side Comparison
In general, cross-country manager
relationships do not develop as easily as they
do domestically because employees
interfacing across global locations seldom meet
in-person, and virtual teams and/or
counterpart positions (such as HR managers)
in different countries may never meet face-to-
face. As the meeting continued, someone
raised the topic: what makes a company
global, versus multinational? A global
company, they agreed, must prioritize overall
38 January 2008 NHRD Journal
company goals without regard to location to
make things work wherever and whenever
they need to work. In contrast, a multinational
structure likely would retain locally developed
points of view because interface activities with
other locations would occur less frequently,
e.g., to periodically manage specific situations
relevant to multiple areas and, thus, normal
processes would not interweave with either
workplace. Unfortunately, while technology
facilitates immediate communication,
diversity-influenced perspectives quickly can
transform into emotional reactions, which is
what I observed in the meeting.
"Many companies tend to take HR initiatives
used in the United States and overlay them
on to other parts of their organizations abroad
- essentially trying to do it abroad like it is done
in the United States," said G. Roland Ransom,
vice president, human resources, World
Learning/School for International Training,
Brattleboro, VT, an organization of more than
1,000 people that supports 169 world learning
programs and projects in more than 100
countries. In fact, most companies write
documents in English and they are expressed
from a US perspective [e.g., using American
idioms]. This is a normal US multinational
company approach. Thus, we should not be
shocked that HR people overseas feel
ambivalent about working with US HR
managers.
My previous employment background was
with a large, multinational chemical company.
When we would visit facilities and introduce
ourselves, 'Hi, I'm from corporate
[headquarters] and am here to help you,' the
locals would joke, 'You don't get US You are
trying to overlay your corporate stuff on us
here and it does not fit here.' In this post-9/11
world, I think we are learning that people
around the world do not like us for a variety
of reasons, and we do not understand how we
are coming across. In other countries, due to
Vol. 2 No.1
natural proximity and historical needs, it is
generally part of one's culture to try to
understand others' cultures. Yet, things we say
and do without any problem in the United
States can offend people in other, much less-
open cultures [e.g., generally, employees from
other countries don't interrupt people or finish
their sentences, and are much less direct in
communication style].
"Personnel actions that are normal in the
United States also have entirely different
results abroad. For example, the way
performance appraisals are conducted in the
United States does not produce the same
results in other places. HR managers regularly
confront this challenge because of employee
mobility.
I was at a local [Society for Human Resource
Management] meeting last month and an
Asian manager who was temporarily working
in the United States was talking about
performance appraisals. When a US HR
manager communicated an unsatisfactory
performance appraisal to a female employee,
she came to work the next day with her head
shaved because she shamed her husband by
receiving a poor performance review, the
manager explained. There are so many
workplace issues influenced by culture [e.g.,
concept of time, purpose of performance
review, importance of saving face, team
interaction, and many others]. In the United
States, much depends on the industry and
corporate culture. Abroad, to communicate
respect and other cultural requirements, many
such interactions must be mitigated in
accordance with local needs. It is important to
recognize the effect these types of experiences
have on relationships between international
and US HR managers.
"One difficulty we are encountering now is
that, because of costs, companies are not
training employees before they go overseas.
January 2008
But when the problems occur, then they will
invest in the training. I think that is a mistake.
What type of picture does that paint of the
United States? I think we are still very
insensitive to inter cultural differences and
what that means to business value and growth.
We have some work to do on this. One factor
that is still causing problems is language: the
lack of functional business proficiency of
American employees continues to be a setback.
This also translates into inter-HR employee
relations. A non-US HR person is most
comfortable in their native language, but the
American HR manager generally does not
understand any other language-making
International English (which contains no
American idioms) an essential communication
tool for both parties. To communicate
effectively, US HR managers need to acquire
the ability to speak English without using
American idioms because those cultural
shortcuts are meaningless to non-US
employees-often changing the intended
message and leading to miscommunication.
"Partly because of communication challenges,
I believe global companies are moving away
from the interchange of US expatriates in
management positions abroad to a next phase
of truly using the local talent and moving them
up through the organization. Actually,
employees may be from the applicable
country, another country, or the United States.
The difference has to do with global companies
choosing employees based on their skills and
know-how, international experience, inter
cultural knowledge, and communication
capabilities, rather than just placing someone
who does well in the United States into a
position abroad. This trend also should
encourage HR managers to learn to work
together more effectively by developing
functional relationships with their HR
counterparts outside their home countries.
One policy for all locations, which happens to
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 39
work fine in the United States, may be
unrealistic in a world of multiple histories,
cultural values, and perspectives - sometimes
on the same issues.
"Ultimately, we have to be able to show the
value of whatever we bring to our
organizations. Of course, we cannot always
expect to make big changes - working with an
HR counterpart located in another country can
be an opportunity to start out small, run a pilot,
and try it out. Then, after some success, it can
be publicized in the organization and possibly
rolled out to another part of the company.
Together, HR managers working across
different countries could evaluate what it
would mean to the organization to do it or not
to do it. Naturally, one would have to be able
to articulate the effort in terms of ROI-projected
results. If one cannot do that, management will
not buy into it. This brings me back to the
importance of HR. If we are not looking around
and scoping for potentially negative situations
that are being caused by cultural and
communication issues we can be our own worst
enemy. What could be a better way to achieve
that than building cross-cultural relationships
with our overseas counterparts? And, if one
cannot succeed in building relationships with
one's own colleagues in HR positions abroad,
then shame on that HR person for not doing
so. Unfortunately, although the challenges for
building relationships can be similar
domestically, because of the influences that
different perspectives and inter cultural
communication have on moving things
forward effectively, they are magnified
overseas."
Empirical Evidence
Still, the trend to develop diversity programs
is increasing because of a need to make the
most of diverse ideas from people who have
different cultural histories. In fact, many agree
that it is politically incorrect to question
40 January 2008 NHRD Journal
whether a diverse employee mix automatically
translates into company success. Surprisingly,
a comprehensive diversity study found
otherwise.
The 2002 study was coordinated by Thomas
Kochan, professor of management at MIT's Sloan
School of Management, and sponsored by
Diversity Research Network, which is comprised
of Business Opportunities for Leadership
Diversity, a group of CEOs and HR
professionals; the Society for Human Resource
Management Foundation; and the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation. The study found that, "there
is no reason to believe diversity will naturally
translate into better or worse results." Yet,
although it highlighted the fact that companies
do not automatically gain an advantage simply
by having diverse teams, the study found that
those same teams - if managed with what
Kochan called an "integration-and-learning
perspective" - add value, increase synergy, and
can contribute directly to business and strategic
growth. However, Kochan cautioned that
companies have to value and integrate the
"insights, skills, and experiences" that employees
acquire over time as part of their cultural
uniqueness. Clearly, the study's recommended
approach fosters relationship-building, which
leads to cooperation - an initiative that, by
working together, international HR counterparts
can help facilitate.
Moreover, according to a manager responsible
for global programs for a large electronics
manufacturing company, "product line
managers have been moving toward
recognizing the need to adapt to the
multicultural environment by adopting
multiple countermeasures, from language and
cultural training to the actual hiring of
engineers and other personnel who speak the
languages required in the target markets. This
trend has grown to the point that knowledge
of such language is a prerequisite skill for some
hiring, even though not strictly required by the
Vol. 2 No.1
actual tasks performed in the position, but
becomes invaluable when the need arises to
exercise specific interfaces, either for periodic
training on new products or for customer
support. Moreover, forced by the need to
constantly interact and achieve results and
business continuity within organizations that
are dispersed throughout the world, successful
technical and business communities have
learned to adapt to different levels of
directness while interacting with different
cultures. This has happened not necessarily by
choice or training, but simply because building
relationships with counterparts was crucial to
achieving specific goals. Out of those
relationships emerges a common
understanding that takes into consideration
the different perspectives that must be
reconciled to achieve synergy. Thus, they have
learned these nuances 'on their own skin,' and
have figured out how to get the job done in a
new environment where the familiar
management rules could not be applied and
new leadership skills had to be honed in order
to get people to achieve common goals."
International managers have learned such
skills "in the trenches."
As today's efforts are tied more closely to
strategic goals that involve global synergy
development, and HR activities are becoming
an integral part not just of local organizations
but of these new "dispersed" realities, a similar
type of collaboration among HR organizations
is becoming vital, and the same type of
learning relationship needs to be developed
across them.
Relationship Building
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD),Wimbledon, London,
England, recently reported that developing
relationships with international HR
professionals in all countries in which the
organization operates is one of the "key
January 2008
competencies that [is] required from the HR
function in a global organization." Building
those relationships can support the
development of other key competencies
identified by CIPD.
For example, the implementation of formal
systems that improve worldwide
communication, the recognition that ideas
about teamwork vary from one culture to
another, and a commitment to foster a global
mindset in all employees through training and
development that incorporates local and
international HR insights, all ensure an
appropriate balance between worldwide,
regional, and country-based HR functions and
activities.
Moving forward, the worldwide Internet
population will be greater than one billion,
technology will continue to facilitate
globalization, and the collaborative roles of all
HR teams also will gain importance; although
inter cultural challenges sometimes make it
difficult to recognize, there are innumerable
opportunities for HR professionals ahead. This
brings us back to why it is important to
consider how to overcome challenges that
differences in perspective create among inter-
country HR managers.
Overcoming Challenges
First, the process of developing better inter
cultural communication between HR groups
in different countries can help them think
about their organizations as a single global,
rather than multiple local, system; this lays the
foundation for positive change.
Second, HR groups need to understand that
changes in the workforce can go beyond one's
local area. Multiple perspectives must be
considered in order to find meaningful
solutions, and common threads can be used
to promote synergy in both locations and keep
one informed of issues that may not be readily
visible.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 41
Third, it must be understood that, because
people embody very different life and
professional experiences, their perspectives
are unique, and, if valued, can be important
resources for learning and business growth.
As companies respond to the shift in demand
for more effective collaboration across
cultures, it should not be surprising that they
are beginning to place a new focus on building
relationships between parallel organizations,
which has become as important as the
contribution of knowledge and expertise
associated with each position. Today's
workplaces include multiple cultures,
languages, and attitudes, all of which
interweave with myriad employee activities
influenced by perspectives that are naturally
more extensive and difficult to recognize.
Finding common threads develops
interpersonal relationships and cooperation
and stimulates global workplace effectiveness.
Observations and conclusions are bound by
individual viewpoints, based on one's history,
memory, and culture. When people who have
different backgrounds interact with one
another in work situations, their behavior
influences their level of understanding, as well
as their underlying perceptions about what is
motivating all entities involved - with negative
or positive results. Global mobility
professionals recognize this as a cross-cultural
relationship issue and fundamental driver of
failed or successful employee interaction.
Yet, as globalization and technology continue
to shrink the distance between all the players,
42 January 2008 NHRD Journal
and we find ourselves close to people and
organizations that were previously considered
remote, the ability to establish a collaborative
relationship among the different internal HR
groups is a key strategic objective. This requires
the development of skills similar to those used
by foreign ambassadors: curiosity,
attentiveness, and the motivation to understand
the cultural underpinning of others, while
reducing our own semantic regionalism.
The success of our industry, of ourselves as
professionals, and of the employees who we
serve, depends on our ability to recognize the
new tools and expertise required to address the
needs of people as they march toward a more
interdependent world where most rifts have
been closed. HR managers who work for the
same organizations in different countries have
unique opportunities to become ambassadors
for change and global understanding.
In Summary, The use of United States-based
human resource (HR) initiatives by
multinational organizations can create
unnecessary inter cultural problems that
negatively influence efficiency in the global
workplace. By comparing other countries' HR
practices with those used in the United States,
Carobolante illustrates how the development
of relationships among all HR professionals
operating in each country in which the
organization maintains a presence will foster
project synergy and contribute to business
growth.
Vol. 2 No.1
Resources on the Web
Arabian Society for Human Resource Management [based in Saudi Arabia]
Asociacion Mexicana en Direccion de Recursos Humanos (AMEDIRH)
Australian Human Resources Institute
Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations (CCHRA)
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
China HRM
European Association for Personnel Management (EAPM)
European Training and Development Federation (ETDF)
Federation of European Employers (FedEE) http://www.fedee.com/about.html and http://www.fedee.com/
accession2.shtml
Foundation for Human Resources Development—Malta
Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management
Human Resources Management in Belgium
http://www.hr2hr.com/main.php?lng=en&page_id=011 and http://www.hr2hr.com/
main.php?lng=en&page_id=300
Human Resources Institute New Zealand
International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO)
National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA)
Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI)
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) North America Human Resource Management Association
World Federation of Personnel Management Associations (WFPMA)

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 43

 WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A "GLOBAL"
HR PROFESSIONAL
K.P. DUTTA
R avi was a successful HR Head
in a leading blue chip company
in India. Apart from HR he also
managed the legal cell because of
his law qualifications.
The company was into
manufacturing operations and the
decision making was top down
Kishan Dutta is an MBA
in HR and a law with some amount of delegation at
graduate and currently middle levels. Ravi managed his
heads the people relationships very well with his
development and HR seniors and his personal style was
function for one of the
to create a bonhomie environment
largest British
construction and at the work place and which
engineering company entailed not confronting
based out of Dubai apparently dated practices.
Head - People
Development and HR One day in the summer Ravi got
an offer to fly out to Dubai to head
Al Naboodah Laing
O'Rourke Co. ( L.L.C ). the HR function for a British
He specializes in multinational company having a
Business planning, multicultural work force and a
organization predominant British leadership.
development and
Upon joining he realized he was the
compensation and
benefits strategy. He is a only non-European in the senior
specialist certified leadership and within months
trainer on Phil Crosby began to realize that getting
quality management through a plan or a proposal was a
system, Leadership
Herculean effort. He also felt that
development,
Personality assessment he was not comfortable with the
and Business planning social environment at the work
and goal setting. place because he could not socialize
and mix with the senior leadership,
and his juniors normally kept a
distance because of the hierarchical
culture prevalent in the company.
He slowly started shying away
from work groups and in the
process lost his effectiveness. And
the day came when he decided to
move back to India and pick up
another assignment which was
financially not so attractive and the
44 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
challenges too were on a much
lesser scale.
Let us look at some of the areas
where he missed out.
A. Understanding a Global
Business
The business model varies from
region to region since the market
is different and so are the
customers, the socio economic and
political conditions, the revenue
model and with it there are
associated changes in the
technology and marketing
strategies. The global HR manager
needs to have strong business
acumen to appreciate the
differences and align the HR
strategy to the business
requirements. Ravi's appreciation
of business was limited to his
previous organization and the local
environment in which it operated.
B. Acceptance as a Part of the
Management Team
The company where Ravi joined
was typically a transnational,
rather than a multinational
company and which meant that
most of its senior management was
from a particular European
nationality. So when they talked
about the Rugby finals or the match
between Man U and Arsenal, Ravi
could not relate to the talks. So far
he had cocooned himself within the
geographical boundaries of his
country and he had made no effort
to seek out and be in touch with
what's happening around the
world. And this necessarily was not
No.1
related only to his profession but also cultural
nuances.
C. Being Assertive and Standing Up with
Conviction
Whereas Ravi had thrived in a climate of
bonhomie, the culture here was different.
Everybody had views, was assertive and spoke
their minds. It was expected that Ravi too
should be opinionated, have a conviction in
what he speaks and stands up for his views.
However, because of his socialization back
ground and the 'bonhomie' culture to which
he was associated wherein "thumping of
tables" were frowned upon, he was seen and
perceived as a weak manager with little or no
conviction.
Being assertive also thwarts of work place
bullies. The initial phase of conflict and
dissonance paves the way to greater trust and
confidence in the relationship when people
realize that stand taken is for the larger cause
of the organization.
You need the science to understand the models
which underlie HR. You need the craft too and
there is no point in standing up to the manager
if you can't tell them the HR tool or process or
technique that will answer their question.
However, even if you know the science and
have been trained in the craft, the personal
January 2008
characteristics you bring to bear even if you
have the confidence brought from the first two
are hard to teach. And this is an art.
D. A Natural Communicator
What do you do when you have 18
nationalities in your organization and you
have no clue on their cultural sensitivities or
their eating preferences? You would drink
water in the open during Ramadan or
inadvertently hold the hands of your male
European colleague or worse give stories of
your own ethnic origin to explain a point and
to which none of them can relate to!!
I can relate to an Army officer in my country
that gets posted to around 20 odd stations
during his service period before he retires and
which roughly equates to the number of states
we have.
He understands a bit of culture cutting across
states and hence is a natural communicator
given any kind of settings within his country.
In corporate context, the HR Manager must
make an attempt to familiarize himself with
all the predominant cultures within his
organization and which helps to put him at
ease in any team settings. And this needs a
genuine effort to come out of "safety zones"
and enjoy relating to people with different
cultures and socialization process.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 45
 LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE ATTAINMENT
DETERMINANTS (LEAD): STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES
BEYOND THE CULTIVATED AND/OR
CULTURAL DIVERSITIES
SETHU MADHAVAN. P & YEHYA AL MARZOUQI

T
oday global considerations and cross
cultural concerns have become one of
the most important areas in Human
resource development (HRD) practice and
research. Factors such as globalization,
liberalization, proliferation of offshoring
models, emergence of business process
Dr. P Sethu Madhavan Yehya Al Marzouqi
outsourcing, increasing international mobility
holds a D.Phil degree in joined ADCO in 1992 of HRD professionals and adoption of new
Psychology from Centre after working in a work methods such as telecommuting have
of Advanced Studies in Resources Centre in a perhaps triggered this recent surge of interest
Psychology, Allahabad major bank in the USA.
University in India . At ADCO he has been
in global HRD among professionals
Currently he is a involved in HR (Madhavan 2005). While there have been
Learning and Business Process Re- many studies exploring the global issues in
Development Advisor engineering, developing HRD, most of these studies have been aimed
at Abu Dhabi Company Personal Development
for Onshore Oil Plan for all UAE
at discovering the differences across cultures
Operations (ADCO) in nationals, implementing rather than exploring the underlying structural
the UAE. During his Succession Planning for similarities(e.g., Hansen, Carol & Brooks,
earlier jobs, he has the ADCO's Leadership 1994). The purpose of this paper is to identify
rendered training and Team, establishing
consulting services to Assessment Center
the underlying structural similarities across
companies in Middle known as Career different types of organizations and cultures
East, East Asia and Development Center that seem to be determining the success of one
India covering (CDC) and played a of the major strategically significant roles of
construction, major role in
manufacturing, oil and implementing
HRD namely leadership development.
gas, banking and IT competency-based Leadership and leadership development
sectors. He started his training and 360 degree
research in the global context
career in IIM, feedback initiatives.
Ahmedabad and has Yehya has obtained his Leadership excellence is a central concern of
held various positions BSc. in Computer today's CEOs and leaders as well as HR
in India including the Information Systems
Director of Academy of from the USA and researchers and practitioners. There have been
HRD before moving to currently pursuing his many studies exploring the leadership and
Bahrain to join Ernst Doctorate of Business related variables across the nations and
and Young. His name is Administration (DBA) cultures (Hofstede, 1980, House, et al 2004,
cited in the 2006 and at Bradford University,
2007 editions of UK. Derr, et al 2002, Smith & Peterson 2002).
Marquis Who's Who in However in spite of the rich literature on the
the World for his concept of leadership, it is not easy to explain,
contributions to the control or predict the success and effectiveness
field.
leadership development efforts across the

46 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

different types of organizations and different
cultures. One of the reasons for the failure of
research to adequately guide the leadership
development practice may be the excessive
focus of researchers and practitioners on the
leadership rather than studying also the
leadership development process adopted by
different organizations and cultures. Literature
on leadership is plenty, but comparatively, the
literature on leadership development and
determinants of its success is rare. The factors
that determine the success of leadership
development efforts, named in this paper as
the "Leadership Excellence Attainment
Determinants(LEAD)", therefore, seems to be
a worthwhile topic for HRD professionals to
study more in detail. This paper explores into
this interesting concept and its applications in
corporate life based on the lessons learned
from professional experience across different
types of organizations and cultures
(Madhavan, 2007a, 2007b and 2007c, Al-
Marzouqi, and Madhavan 2006).
Before elaborating on LEAD it is however,
important to define leadership excellence. The
following section aims to uncover the
structural components of leadership excellence
without going into the details.
Traditional Approaches to Leadership
Excellence
A quick review of literature will reveal that
traditionally and predominantly there have
been three types of approaches namely trait
theories (Stogdill, 1974), style and behavioral
theories ( Handy,1993), situational and
contingency theories (e.g., Fiedler 1967, Vroom
and Yetton 1973), which attempted to explain
leadership excellence. Later on other
approaches such as the transformational
leadership (Burns, 1978), charismatic
leadership (Kanungo and Conger, 1998) and
more recently the global leadership (e.g.,
Cohen 2007) attempted to explain the concept
January 2008
of leadership excellence. A review of these
approaches makes it clear that in general and
in varying degrees, they are attempting to
explain leadership based on competencies,
styles and values.
The recent series of corporate scandals,
shocking world incidents and the increasing
number of "toxic leaders" at work and in life
in general has forced authors recently to pay
attention to concepts such as toxic leadership,
positive leadership and ethical leadership
(Lipman-Blumen 2004, Kellerman 2004, Terry
Price 2005, Whicker 1996). Authors have
observed that lack of attention to the positive
values by the leaders was one of the central
reasons behind the fall of many big companies
(Al Marzouqi and Madhavan 2006). These
trends indicate that, in future, leaders will be
increasingly evaluated on not only what they
aspire to achieve or even achieve but also on
how they achieved or how they plan to achieve
their aspirations as well.
Structural Components of Leadership
Excellence
This brief review of various literatures on the
topic indicates that perhaps the discussions
around the concept of leadership excellence
have three important dimensions namely
Leadership Competencies, Leadership Values
and Personal style as highlighted in Exhibit 1.
Exhibit 1. Structural Components of Leadership
Excellence Leadership Competencies
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 47
Leadership competencies refer to the skills,
knowledge and attitudes that help a person to
become more effective in leadership roles (e.g.,
knowledge of the business, attitude towards
people and work, visioning skills, strategic
thinking skills etc). Normally there is not much
controversy about the competencies required
for leaders and many organizations are able
to identify the competencies matching with
their business context without any great effort.
Leadership Values
Excellent leaders have always paid attention
to their personal values and core values of their
organizations. In the organizational context,
values represent enduring beliefs that we hold
and therefore influence our actions, attitudes,
choices and decisions. They represent the
collective sense of what is good for the
company, its employees, shareholders and
society. Ethics refers to application of right
values in our personal life as well as work life.
Leadership Styles
Leadership styles are perhaps the most
controversial component of leadership
excellence. Real life throws plenty of examples
of leaders with different styles succeeding and
even having major impact on people,
organizations and societies. The question
regarding the best style perhaps can only be best
resolved based on the choices dictated by the
situation and values of the organizations. Many
companies today makes it clear the acceptable
styles of leadership and behavior at work.
The above model considers all aspects of
leadership covering not only the "Person" but
also the "Situation" as the questions regarding
values and styles are often resolved through a
careful and detailed analysis of situations.
Perhaps leadership excellence is highly
predictable when a competent leader embraces
the right values and adopts the right style to
suite the requirements of the organization.
Leadership Excellence Attainment
Determinants (LEAD)
For CEOs and HR professionals often the
concern is about how to ensure leadership
excellence in their companies or organizations.
This section aims to summarize the lessons
learned from application of leadership talent
tools and methods across a variety of
organizations operating in different cultures,
broadly under the two categories namely
Support Structure and Processes and Tools
Structure.
The support structure refers to the key
supporting structures that are essential for the
success of any leadership development
programme. In other words they are the key
determinants for ensuring the life of the
leadership development process in any
organization. The process and tools structure
refers to the key processes and tools required
to make the leadership development
programmes a success. However, the processes
and tools structure will die out fast if the
support structure is not strongly established.

The Support Structure (The DEAL Model)

The four key LEADs which fall under the support structure are shown in Exhibit 2 and may be
remembered through the acronym DEAL as elaborated below in Table 1
The Support Structure LEADs Remarks

Dedicated top management It is critical that the Top management is dedicated to the leadership
development programme. Gaining this support sometimes needs persistent
and high quality demonstration of value to them through small “wins”

48 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

Experienced HR team It is essestial to ensure that the HR team and managers driving the leadership
development initiatives are experienced in the activity and are driving it based
on solid experience rather than through untested creative experiments.
Otherwise the credibility of the programme suffers continuous erosion due to
mistakes and un intended consequences

Active involvement of It is important that the line management is ‘bought in’ to the process
line managers through an active change management programme. Many organizations
make the mistake of trying to force the leadership development initiatives
through memos or orders initiated from the top/CEOs.

Layered and integrated Approach should not only integrate the various tools used in the process but
approach also ensures that the programmes are scaled to match the requirements of
different levels of leadership in a company namely executive level, middle
level and junior level. Communication of the details of these programmes is
also a critical success factor.

Exhibit 1. The Elements of Support Structure- DEAL

Exhibit 2. The Leadership Excellence Attainment Determinants (LEAD)- The DEAL and the 7 Cs

The Processes and Tools Structure (Seven Cs Model)

The components of the processes and tools structure are shown in the Exhibit 2. These
components may be remembered through the “Seven Cs” as listed and elaborated below.

The Processes and Tools Remarks

Structure LEADs
Core Values & Leadership
Culture Building
Articulation and revitalization of company’s core values are fundamental to
the success of any leadership development programme. Core values should
be also wired or rather hard wired in all appraisals, assessments, rewards,
leadership competency framework, leadership training etc

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 49

The Processes and Tools
Structure LEADs
Competency Framework
aligned with business
Remarks
Leadership Competency framework should be aligned with vision, mission
and values of the organization. The competency frameworks should be logically
coherent and integrated with all assessments, feedbacks, development plans
and training. Often simple and home grown models are more meaningful
than “grand” models imported from outside.

Credible Assessment It is important to make sure that the assessments are reliable, valid and credible.
and Feedback

Careful Personal
Development Planning
Often we forget that even the senior and most successful leaders need
professional support, mentors and coaches to develop their personal
development plans. Personal development plans are much deeper than filling
up a personal development form. It requires careful handling and in depth
thinking.

Creation of Diverse Learning
Opportunities
Creation of blended learning opportunities such as in-house workshops,
external workshops, off the job opportunities, on the job opportunities,
conferences, networking forums, traditional learning resources such as books,
electronic courses and libraries and so forth helps to develop the skills faster
in a more meaning full manner.

Continuous Performance Low performance needs not just training, but also diagnostics. Continuous
Coaching performance coaching and reviews are essential for the development of
leaders. Formal coaching and mentoring programmes often help to develop
the culture of learning and respecting learning as an important activity even at
senior levels. External executive coaches who are experienced in the job will
be able to play a vital role in the process.

Career and Succession Succession planning perhaps is the easiest thing to do, but making it work is
Planning perhaps the most difficult part! Leadership level jobs need perhaps only broad
person-role matching. However, while doing this one cannot depend on
assessment score and numbers only- Caveats, justifications and confidential
information available to top management also matters. Also it is important to
note that one cannot ignore managerial and shareholder preferences/bias
though a system will help to reduce such influences

Exhibit 3. The Processes and Tools Structure (Seven Cs Model)

Why Structural Similarities are important successful implementation of HRD

While culture is very important in many ways,
our experience shows that we should not be
excessively incapacitated by a fear of cultural
incompatibilities. While it is important to
magnify the cross cultural differences, it is also
equally important to look for underlying
structural similarities and determinants of
programmes across the man made and natural
borders. Our concluding remarks to support
our argument are as follows:
1. Captivated by the limiting thoughts around
the cultures we often forget the role of HRD
professionals as a change agent. When 360
degree feedback was introduced in India

50 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

 many years ago by professionals like Prof
T.V Rao and Prof Udai Pareek, (Pareek,
Udai & Rao, T.V 1998), there were many
among the participants of 360 degree based
workshops, who raised their brows and
stated that the method is not suitable for
typically hierarchical Indian culture.
Similar is the experience of HR
professionals around the globe with
introducing new tools and methods.
2. Globalisation, media, international
mobility, internet etc are reducing the gap
between cultures to a great extent. These
developments might not be making every
body more tolerant to other worlds, but
definitely they are making it easy for the
open minded learners to understand and
absorb different worlds
3. Global HRD professionals also tend to
forget the fact that often they are paid for
their diversity value rather than similarity
value! Every time when we decide not to
implement an HR tool due to the fear of
cultural incompatibility, we may be loosing
an opportunity to cross-pollinate and
contribute to the culture change.
4. Finally, while the expressions of culture,
values, etiquettes, religions and ceremonies
may differ widely across the borders,
fundamentally and structurally human
beings are similar across the world. This is
an important learning, which one discovers
perhaps only after getting considerable
exposure to diversity across the world,
groups, sects, communities and so forth.
January 2008
Suggestions for future studies
It should be noted that while we tried to
highlight the major ingredients of an effective
leadership development programme in this
paper, one should not underestimate the other
factors which might undermine the success.
One of the most important among such factors
is communication and internal marketing of
the leadership development programmes.
Experience shows that even communicating
simple things are not easy in a large company.
For example, even after communicating the
employee benefits through policies and
procedures manuals, booklets, intranet etc,
many employees may not be still fully aware
about their rights and benefits though these
issues are personally important to them. Given
this situation, communicating on a fuzzy issue
such as values, culture, leadership etc is going
to be a major challenge. More studies may be
needed to elaborate the role of such "Knock
out" or "killer" factors outside the frameworks
shared in this paper.
Conclusion
This paper concentrated on identifying and
articulating "Leadership Excellence
Attainment Determinants", abbreviated as
LEAD based on the experience of dealing with
many different types of organizations and
cultures. The attempt was to separate the
underlying structural determinants of the
success of leadership development while
ignoring the complex cultural issues and
visible differences across the cultures.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 51
References
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52 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

 GLOBAL HR CHALLENGES
FOR THE HR PROFESSIONAL AND THE FUNCTION
CHANDRASEKHAR PINGALI
M any top professionals globally
and several consultancy
companies have already written,
predicted and analyzed the phase of
HR in the last five years and
projected the next three years as well.
Many HR models have been written
and several jargons have been
Chandrasekhar Pingali reinvented. Successful companies
is the Executive Vice
have created better people practices
President, HR of SCOPE
International Pvt Ltd (a and continue to improve every year
subsidiary of Standard as demanded by the increasing
Chartered Group, plc) complexity of human capital
and Head of HR, South
creation, measurement and value
East Asia for Standard
generation. So writing this article and
Chartered Bank.
keeping the readers' attention on
With over 22 years of
something different in the New Year
professional experience
and extensive will indeed be a challenge. Therefore,
worldwide exposure, my focus here is an attempt to
Pingali has developed integrate the challenges that have
an enviable record of already been articulated for today
professional expertise in
and tomorrow with a global HR
all aspects of human
practitioner's perspective.
resource management.
He has a master's A number of HR challenges have
degree in Human
been articulated at various global
Resources Management
from Tata Institute of seminars and in numerous surveys.
Social Sciences (TISS) None of these themes are new and
and a master's degree in most may in fact sound 'clichéd',
Pharmacy. with so much already drilled into
us in our respective companies, or,
by external HR thought gurus.
Often, it leaves the CEO and the HR
professional gasping for clarity as
to what it is that is really expected
of us in managing people and
running a business.
The HR challenges for the next three
to five years are expected to be:
1. Change Management
2. Leadership Development and
Talent Acquisition
January 2008 NHRD
3. Human Capital Measurement
4. HR Effectiveness
Let us evaluate what each
challenge represents for the HR
function and its professionals.
1. Change Management
This expertise for any organization
is always in short supply. Peeling
this sweepingly broad statement
would present what this challenge
means to different companies. Let
me bring this to life with an
example. Several family-owned/
closely held organizations in India,
China, Africa and Brazil with
successful businesses have
adopted a largely paternalistic
approach in managing people or
driving change. With booming
opportunities in the next ten years,
these companies begun to realize
that they need help. They need to
change their organizational
culture, re-profile to a diverse
workforce to expand their
footprints, restate their core values,
invest in leadership development
to translate the dreams of the major
shareholders into business reality
and build a brand to attract and
retain high caliber talent. Several
questions arise: How do such
organizations lead change? What
kind of HR professionals do they
need? How will they approach the
whole management of change?
How will they bridge the gap
between what they dream and how
they can inspire their people to
share and execute that dream?
What is the level of sponsorship the
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 53
shareholders are willing to provide to go
through the process of change towards desired
outcomes? At what state can they claim
success? And what happens if the market
forces change to compel mid-course
corrections to the change management
interventions?
These questions arise even in MNC companies
that are expanding their businesses in the
growing markets like Asia, Africa, Eastern
Europe and Latin America where depth of the
companies' knowledge of the local markets
and culture will determine the potential
success of their business.
CEOs look to HR professionals to provide
solutions. Expertise in this area is constantly
evolving even while HR and business
managers grapple with understanding the
"science" of change management and tailoring
it to their respective organizations. This in itself
is "managing change" to remain current and
relevant. From a practitioner view point, I have
learnt a few lessons in different cultures while
driving change.
• A common framework can be adopted
in different cultures but the approach
has to be tailored with a thorough
diagnosis of the people pulse and the
culture on the ground. Jumping to
solutions or thrusting change with an
intent of standardization will succeed
at best in the very short term and will
fail to sustain.
• Top management leadership has to be
together and visible with hands on
approach to drive change. It's not just
about town hall meetings and power
point presentations. It's about
demonstrating with right behavior, fair
and transparent decision making and
leading by example.
• Inclusion of "influencers" is a must to
build consensus but don't let them
54 January 2008 NHRD Journal
change the focus on the outcomes. In
many instances, speed and consistency
is the essence to accept and cope with
change.
• HR professionals have to learn and
cascade the body of knowledge of
"change management" consistently
across the company. Seek external help
and act as facilitators than managers of
change. By this I mean, move from a
control driven approach to a more
influencing, appreciative style, with
responsibility to deliver the outcomes.
Often, HR tends to hand over the baton
to line and then act as policemen or stand
in judgment. The moment it becomes a
shared accountability with a large part
of rewards linked towards desired
outcomes, it will quickly change from
being a "judge" to a responsible "coach"
and a "player" in the field, scoring goals.
2. Leadership Development and Talent
Acquisition
Tons of books have been written about
leadership. We often tend to confuse
leadership with emulating "charismatic
leaders" than understanding the essence of
what it takes to provide leadership. Coupled
with this, is our own varied understanding and
usage of jargon of a leader and a manager. We
substitute one for the other. In the
practitioners' world, we are managers first, of
ourselves, our business and the people who
work with us before we claim to become
leaders. Globally, leadership development and
building organizational capability proves to be
a big challenge for the next three to five years
in all companies. HR professionals continue
to wrestle to understand the best ways to
create an organization-specific leadership
framework that enables to recruit, retain
people in the pipeline and develop leaders for
career and succession planning. HR
Vol. 2 No.1
professionals are expected to provide the
essential frameworks, tools, processes and a
direction needed for the selection and
development of future leaders.
For example, there is a simple practical tool
(yet another!!) that I created for myself to use
effectively when I recruit middle and senior
management in different countries. I found
value in using the same framework for
development conversations with my teams as
well. The teams that work with me found this
tool enormously valuable in sourcing and
developing talent.
To share this :
LEADERSHIP ®
THOUGHT TEAM
VALUES
PROCESS EXECUTION
® Copyright by Chandrasekhar Pingali
When we seek self assessment with data and
successful examples on providing leadership
in each of the areas above on a 1-10 rating scale
(10 being the highest), it acts as an effective
tool to source or develop people. Basically this
framework was founded on a set of practical
principles that, when we run a business,
however small or large, we need Thought
Leadership to create a business or a function,
Team Leadership to produce results through
people and teams (no individual is above a
team), Process Leadership to create simple and
scalable business processes around customers
and staff, Execution Leadership to lead to the
desired outcomes and finally, underpinned by
leadership to practice a set of core Values that
January 2008
act as the "Dan tien" or the gut of the company
to compass its people through good and bad
times. When I recruit people, I specifically seek
out examples of how the candidates have led
in any or all of these areas, besides using the
framework to describe their understanding of
the role for which they are being recruited.
And subsequently, it enables us to follow
through with developmental conversations
that stack them up for success, playing to their
strengths.
There are many tools for leadership
development. What applies for an
organization as the most appropriate tool is
indeed a challenge. This challenge can best be
met by gaining support from the business to
develop leaders of the future and engaging top
management in establishing the leadership
development philosophy and practice. An
aging work force, particularly in the western
markets like Europe and Americas will compel
organizations to review their succession
planning gaps and find solutions to fill these
through concepts like "shadowing" of critical
talent into key leadership positions. For the
next three years, to invest in sourcing talent
pools from alternate channels and developing
them into future leaders will be the biggest
challenge for most organizations irrespective
of which part of the world they do business
in. Some global organizations are creating
simple international mobility policies and
working with their respective governments
through consortiums to facilitate migration of
talent pools from other markets. This is
intended to help succession, prevent
knowledge erosion and build a pipeline of
leadership capability. One will see migration
of talent pools from large populated countries
like India and China to fill the talent gaps
across different levels.
Across the globe, many organizations have
recognized and accepted that they need
leadership development as a critical strategic
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 55
initiative to ensure that the right employees
are retained, that the culture of the
organization supports performance, that they
provide equal opportunities to grow from
within to gain market position, and that they
are willing to invest in skilling, re-skilling and
up-skilling managers to equip them with
abilities to take on leadership roles of the
future. In today's world, the reality is "young
managers manage even younger workforce"
in many of the growing markets. To start with,
HR professionals need to focus on developing
supervisors into "people managers," not just
"technical specialists" before identifying some
or many of them as potential leaders for
development.
Many of these initiatives, sustained with
consistency and transparency of execution act
as the organization's building blocks of human
capital across different levels to make the
business viable for the long term and create
shareholder value.
3. Human Capital Measurement (HCM)
Many organizations have already started
measuring Human Capital they created and
how it directly contributes to shareholder
value and the company share price! Several
tools and processes are now on offer to help
companies create score cards that quantify
their human capital, which was probably not
possible even five years ago, although the
concept existed for many years.
HR professionals are increasingly being asked
to provide strategic thought leadership to
create and compute business relevant score
cards and human capital assessment globally.
The focus is not about producing demographic
data of the organization or standard sets of
performance and retention information. It's
also not about broad brushed information and
inferences that allow judgments or
motherhood statements and then decisions
being agreed at the board table.
56 January 2008 NHRD Journal
The power of automated analytical tools and
capital valuation is yet to be fully leveraged
by global organizations. Let me cite an
example:
In the back office business of an MNC bank
set up six years ago, knowledge management,
attrition, need to further automate with
Straight Through Processing capability,
building leadership in the middle
management, succession planning and finally
talent acquisition were identified as some of
the key challenges two years ago. Analytics
were pulled together for each of the areas and
strategic solutions were executed to address
each one of them. In this company, there is now
a fairly robust technical training solution for
new comers, knowledge capture and retention,
investment in automation, a massive reduction
in attrition by 40%, a robust resourcing and
re-profiling of the work force capability
through alternate, non-standard pools of talent
and a fairly well tested succession plan in the
middle that works!. All of this was possible
only because of the depth of analytics
produced to identify root-cause and find
integrated solutions. The process would be
faster if there was a higher level of automation
of the "people analytics" that were business
specific, timely and allowed data mining.
The human capital return in this example is
quantifiable - % of multi-skilled talent with
process knowledge which means w% of
experienced workforce that enables x% faster
productivity and higher value transaction
processing; c% cost saved for retention at 1.5
to 2.5 times the resource cost depending upon
the skill set; y% of talent in the middle that
has capability for diversification, new
businesses, M&A; m% leadership succession
coverage ratio that helps exporting talent to
the Bank globally; z% of experience available
for each of the complex processes and
therefore an ability to hub more business
processes; the depth of experience in each
Vol. 2 No.1
process be directly correlated with p%
efficiencies from reduction in span of control
or delayering in the company, etc.
Human Capital (HC) can be measured to
understand potential capital reinvestment into
other subsidiaries, reduction in costs through
efficiencies, available investment for new
product/business start-ups, % readiness to
hub higher complex processing and direct
customer dealings, % pool of entrepreneurs to
accelerate growth in white spaces (unexplored
markets) etc., We are still at a nascent stage in
the corporate world to comprehend and
compute the real value of this whole model
and its possibilities for shareholder and share
price returns to a company!
To start with, organizations would derive
value if they can create a single, global quality
data base and link part of their rewards and
recognition of line managers to specific "key
people performance indicators" that compels
them to contribute to the human capital value
generation. This is no longer an overnight fad
or a nice thing to have. It's about deep-rooted
culture change within an organization to move
to a process-led, data driven decision making.
Some of the well known global IT brands based
in India have made in-roads in this direction
although the realization of Human capital in
its true form has quite a way to go.
HR professionals have an invaluable role to
play in realizing this value even while they
continue to help retain the "human face" of the
company and act as the employee champions.
The extent of value contributed by HR
professionals in developing such capability will
be dependent on the expertise they develop in
this area. Not surprisingly, therefore, HR
profession will continue to command respect
for its value creation alongside CEOs. In reality,
we are already seeing in some fast growing
markets, HR professionals draw equal and in
some cases, a higher price tag than even CEOs
January 2008
in today's market demand for top class HR
thinkers and leaders.
4. HR Effectiveness
Increasingly it's emerging that the profession
needs to measure its contributions - not only
in its transaction management but also in
driving the business. Many HR professionals
have been questioned in the past and now on
their business acumen. A metrics-driven
approach to determine effectiveness is just a
beginning of a shift from being perceived as a
purely administrative function to being a true
strategic partner and player within the
organization.
For example, the value the function brings is
shifting from simply counting the numbers
hired to determining the ROI of hires on a long-
term basis. As again, going beyond measuring
attrition rates, this new approach considers and
measures "controllable, undesirable" turnover
and "controllable, desirable" turnover along
with the overall cost of replacement hires.
A global, leading HR thinker defines a strategic
business partner as someone who partners
with senior and line managers in strategy
execution, helping to move planning from the
conference room to the marketplace. This
entails being expert in the way work is
organized and executed, delivering
administrative efficiency to ensure that costs
are reduced while quality is maintained. He
calls a "player" in HR doing things that make
a difference by acting as a coach, architect,
designer, facilitator and leader. It's important
to note that HR professionals face the same
economic, political, social and environmental
challenges as other business professionals.
Because the role of HR professionals continues
to increase in value, more functional skills and
greater leadership expectations are placed
upon individuals in the profession.
Many HR organization designs have been
tested and practiced in different global
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 57
organizations. The one that I am closest to, is
increasingly being recognized and
benchmarked globally, with proven track
record, as truly world class and an outcome
of visionary thinking of a gifted global director,
HR who made this happen for the company
in just five years. This design allows HR
effectiveness measurement in each of the
components of the structure, backed with data.
The areas focus on are a globally hubbed HR
transaction management and an internal
customer service center; HR product design,
development and outcome measurement;
global business Organizational Effectiveness
(OE) teams driving global business
performance and finally Country/regional OE
teams scoring goals along with the country/
regional businesses.
Perhaps many organizations have either moved
to this design, separating HR transaction
processing capability from other streams or in
the process of reaching there. What is critical
for the function and the HR professionals is the
consistent execution to build that capability and
measure effectiveness. Besides, the level of
continued investment in automation, constant
upgradation of the quality of HR professionals,
periodic review of business alignment of the HR
structure and a continuous process
improvement to scale up as the organizations
58 January 2008 NHRD Journal
grow will determine the success of a sustained
HR operating model.
The capabilities of a HR professional will be
radically different from the last decade. A top
notch professional is expected to have sharp
business acumen, strong in data/metrics to
effectively deploy analytical tools for decision
making, an ability to anticipate and lead
change, influencing and facilitation skills,
coaching skills, thorough knowledge of the
body of HR expertise, develop systems that
enable people to work to their potential, very
good communication skills, an ability to
strategize and possess outstanding execution
skills.
In conclusion, the challenges facing HR will
be in the forefront of driving organizational
change and business performance through
people. HR professionals will find themselves
in great demand depending upon how current
and relevant they have made themselves to
be. For the next decade or so, HR will be
recognized by all global organizations as,
perhaps the most important function that can
help generate Human Capital value
proposition which might well be a dominant
parameter alongside financial performance
indices to determine the market value of any
organization - global or local.
Vol. 2 No.1
 GLOBALIZATION: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
N S RAJAN
W hat Is Globalization?
Two and half decades ago, in my
first job after graduating from
XLRI, I came across the word
globalization for the first time in
what is widely recognized as a
prescient article "The Globalization
of Markets" by Ted Levitt in the
Rajan, a Partner with
Ernst & Young, is the Harvard Business Review, May-June
1983. Levitt elegantly drew
national head of the
Human Capital practice attention to the fact that the world's
in India and is also needs and desires have been
vested with the role of
irrevocably homogenized, and that
Global Leader for HR
Advisory of Ernst & only companies that adopt a global
approach to markets will achieve
Young. He is a Post
Graduate in Business long term success. He observed
Management from XLRI that "unlike multinationals, which
with an optimal mix of
adjusted their products and
industry and consulting
experience. Rajan brings practices for different countries at
high costs, global corporations
two and half decades of
work experience, operated as though the entire
having served clients in world was a single market." The
India, Middle East,
term globalization is slated to have
Africa and South East
Asia with expertise in appeared for the first time in the
Consulting across the Webster's Dictionary way back in
HR value chain with 1961, defining it as "making things
well known multi worldwide in scope and
national companies,
application."
leading Indian
conglomerates and Since then, there have been many
Public Sector approaches to define the contours
Undertakings. Rajan has
developed a keen
of globalization through different
sensitivity to diverse viewpoints: cultural, economic,
people, and his multi- technology, strategic,
functional exposure has connectedness and
given to him the interdependence. Globalization is
capability of directing
"the process by which the
projects from the
business and experience of everyday life,
organizational strategy marked by the diffusion of
perspective. commodities and ideas, can foster
standardization of cultural
expressions around the world"
(James Watson, Encyclopaedia
Britannica). It is the freedom and
ability of individuals and firms to
January 2008 NHRD
initiate voluntary economic
transactions with residents of other
countries (World Bank).
Globalization is a flat world
platform creating power for
individuals to collaborate and
compete globally (Thomas
Friedman). It is a process of ever
growing interconnectedness and
interdependence ... with economic
and technological forces at play …
giving us a name for the times in
which we live (Chanda). We live in
a border less world today where
the central challenge for
organizations is to be successful;
endeavouring to be the best within
the domestic arena, and also be
counted as a globally successful
company against world class
organizations.
Is Globalization New to India?
India is no stranger to a border less
world. As early as the 4th
millennium BCE we had trading
relationships with Mesopotamia.
Entrepreneurship was flourishing
with active trade with Rome in the
2nd century and China in 9th
century. India witnessed the entry
of the world's multinationals with
the English and Dutch East India
companies establishing roots in the
17th century - a precursor to the
world of globalization we see
today. Adam Smith had remarked
in the 18th century that "the
Discovery of America and the
passage to the East Indies (India)
by the Cape of Good Hope are the
two greatest events recorded in the
history of mankind." Our first joint
ventures were formed as early as
the 18th century with English and
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 59
Indian merchants creating partnerships. India
made her leap towards the formation of
modern industries spanning cotton, jute, coal,
sugar, navigation and shipping by the late 19th
century. By the time the country became
independent, over a third of the industry was
under Indian ownership. The socialist era
between 1947 till 1990 was one where the
public sector enterprises were formed and
deemed to play a predominant role, and the
private sector curtailed relatively. The post
liberalization period of Indian industry,
triggered by the reforms in 1991, witnessed a
dramatic shift in the focus of enterprise. World
class companies, who recognized India's
potential, made significant inroads into
establishing their footprint in the country.
Indian companies, no longer bound to our
shores, are viewing the world as their arena.
The India Advantage
India, a democratic nation, is stable socially as
well as politically, with well developed
governance institutions. The economy has
registered an average real GDP growth at over
6% since the 1990s. A huge consumer market
with over 300 million, fuelled by growing per
capita income makes the country an attractive
market for any corporation. India has a sound
banking system with a network of over 70,000
branches and foreign banks having 786
branches. It has a vibrant capital market with
23 stock exchanges, and over 9000 listed
companies.
India, home to a billion people, has the second
largest workforce in the world. With 54% of
its population under 25 years in an ageing
world around us, the demographic
opportunities are immense. India has a vast
pool of high-quality, technically-qualified and
English-speaking manpower. Every year, 9
million graduates pass out of colleges from
around 300 universities and engineering
colleges. Over 200,000 engineering graduates
and 5,000 PhDs are added to the intellectual
60 January 2008 NHRD Journal
capital every year. India's scientific and
technical capacity is ranked third in the world,
after USA and Japan.
India is thus uniquely poised to take
advantage of the advent of globalization,
serving both as an inviting domestic market
as well as providing impetus to global
aspirations of the Indian entrepreneur.
Impact of Globalization on India
The impact of globalization in altering the
economic landscape of India may be examined
through the lens of four drivers, which I
believe have resulted in significant changes in
the way we live and work, especially since the
last decade and a half. These include the entry
of multinationals, Indian companies going
global through acquisitions, information
technology & outsourcing boom, and the
dawn of private equity.
Surge of multinationals The fundamental
attractiveness of the Indian economy and
growing domestic demand is continuing to
attract a great deal of multinationals leading
to a surge of inbound activity. The Post-
liberalization era witnessed the entry of
multinationals, hitherto not welcome, and
what started as a trickle became a flood with
foreign direct investment barely at $ 100
million in 1990-91 crossing the $ 40 billion
mark over the next 15 years. Most of the
Fortune 500 companies established their
operations in the country with varying degrees
of success. There was common belief that the
Indian industry would be submerged by an
influx of foreign companies and the resultant
tsunami of competition. The entry of
multinationals, with the desire to share the
India story, did dramatically alter the range
of product and service choices for the
discerning consumer, and raised the bar in
terms of quality and design. They also brought
in tested systems and processes which were
world class. The leading companies overseas
Vol. 2 No.1
have gone multinational (with a presence in a
few countries) and then developed into truly
global corporations (operating across the
world as a single market). Indian industry
embraced the trend successfully competing
domestically as well as setting their sight
overseas.
India embraces acquisitions Acquisitions are
integral for growth, to achieve scale, gain new
technology, access raw materials, expand the
portfolio and to remain competitive. Inorganic
route is the fastest mode to grow manifold.
Tata Group's Tetley acquisition in 1999 (for $
407 million) was a pioneering deal and
forerunner to India's significant forays to
come. Even more illuminating was the fact that
Tetley was almost thrice the size of Tata Tea,
an eloquent testimony to confident optimism
of the Indian industry. Tata Steel acquired
Corus ( for $ 12 billion) making it the world's
fifth largest producer of steel; Vodafone took
a controlling stake in Hutchinson Essar ( $
10.8), which is India's largest inbound
investment and largest M&A transaction in
Asia; Hindalco acquired Novellis ( $ 6 billion)
making it the largest aluminium rolling
company worldwide; ONGC Videsh acquired
exploration rights in Russian Sakhalin-1
Project and Kazhakastan's Kashagan Oilfield
( at a combined value of $ 2.5 billion); Suzlon
acquired controlling stake in REpower
Systems AG ( $ 1.7 billion) recognized as a fine
result of structured financial reengineering;
United Spirits acquired Whyte & Mackay ( $
1.1 billion); Tata Power took a significant stake
in PT Kaltim Prima Coal ( $ 1.1 billion). This is
indeed an impressive indicator of the global
vision and bold aspirations.
Information technology and outsourcing
Texas Instruments was the first multinational
to set foot into the country, as early as 1985,
establishing a circuit design and development
centre. In 1994, Healthscribe set up its
outsourced medical transcription centre,
January 2008
setting off a new wave. Outsourcing,
particularly from USA to India virtually
exploded with Y2K, followed by e-commerce,
and soon the entire range of Business Process
Outsourcing. Outstanding corporations like
Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Satyam etc with their
ability to develop mission critical software
applications and complex systems created a
global footprint for India in their domain. In
recognition of India's tremendous pool of
scientists and engineers, over 110 Fortune 500
companies set up R&D centres in the country
across a wide range of industry verticals. The
BPO industry today employs over 700,000 in
the country, contributing $ 17 billion to the
economy. The call centre of today, another
epitome of the globalization of the Indian
workforce stays awake at night catering to
customers at the other end of the world.
Technology has been a veritable force in
enabling globalization that we see today.
The Emergence of private equity Private
Equity, a major alternate source of growth
capital, has started to play an increasing role.
It is also serving as a proxy, if not augmenting
foreign direct investment. Blackstone buyout
of Intelenet last year for $ 200 million,
ChrysCapital 's 6.5% stake in Mphasis, and
Warburg Pincus' 19% stake in Bharti Tele-
ventures are some of the landmark deals on
Indian shores. The India investment model
gained tremendous fillip in the form of a
successful and total exit when the Private
Equity firm Warburg Pincus realized nearly $
1.6 billion in 2005 on an initial investment of
around $ 300 million into an emerging telecom
entity in 2001. Last year alone saw an infusion
of $ 6.8 billion of private equity. Unlike
traditional management and ownership
structure, PE engenders an exceptionally
strong focus on rapid growth and a change in
operating structure, fuelled by the model of
exiting in five to six years, altering both the
strategic intent and execution.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 61
Challenges in India in a Globalized Era
Each of these drivers poses new challenges to
corporations operating in the milieu of a
globalized world and continues to alter the
way they strategize and function.
Multinationals in India Multinationals that
have entered India encounter a domestic
industry which is savvy, resilient and
remarkably entrepreneurial. Plans on the
drawing board do not always translate into
expected bottomlines, sometimes requiring
deep pockets to continue investing with the
hope of reaping fruits in the future.
Corporations need to be able to bring in
benchmarks and practices and balance it with
local imperatives. The availability of trained
manpower in India needs to be leveraged in
strengthening their global work pool.
Indian corporations going global The desire
to be global would be confronted with
challenges of how to become a significant player
in the industry as well as the other countries
they operate in. Becoming globally competitive,
not just in price but also in quality, technology
& design, and constantly benchmarking itself
against the best and the biggest would define
the way forward (Antoine van Agtamael).
Acquisitions and expansion also bring in other
constraints that need to be managed. The
opposition faced by the Mittals in the course of
acquiring Arcelor and the recent rebuff that
Orient Express Hotels gave the Indian Hotels
Company highlight the sensitivities with issues
ranging from business reactions to country-of-
origin concerns. Employer branding for the
Indian entity in overseas geographies requires
renewed attention. Mind sets, preconceived
perceptions, acquiree syndrome all need to be
handled to with speed and sensitivity. The
addition of a new entity necessitates the whole
gamut of post merger integration to ensure that
the intended value of the transaction is
unlocked.
62 January 2008 NHRD Journal
Domestic arena The days of monopoly and
even oligopoly are behind us. Organizations
operating in the domestic arena, both Public
Sector Undertakings and Indian private sector
players, are confronted with intense
competition with borders wide open, both
from multinationals within, and with the free
flow of goods from overseas at cheaper prices
and better quality. There would be pressure
to professionalize organizations to higher
levels and ready the organization to grapple
with new realities. Those who have sought
Private Equity participation will also find new
dynamics operating in terms of stakeholder
expectations. Need for rapid growth, changes
in management structures and governance,
and pressure to perform is heightened.
In these times, "success in the global economy
needs three things: massive investment in
human resources, a passion for product
improvement and a deeply caring attitude for
customers" (Gurcharan Das). Outstanding
corporations, which have survived and thrived
over time, recognize that it is necessary to have
a compelling vision and a clear strategy but it
is equally paramount to ensure flawless
execution to ensure a sustainable competitive
advantage. Creating a shared vision, hiring
and nurturing the best and the brightest,
developing leaders at all levels, leveraging the
intellectual pool enable the execution to
become a reality.
The Importance of Human Capital
In the quest to go global, harnessing human
capital and lending primacy to the human
resources function will distinguish the leaders
from the laggards. The success of an enterprise
rests on the people it has. According to DDI's
2005-2006 Global Leadership Forecast, 4,500
leaders from around the world cited
improving and leveraging talent as their
number two business priority. People issues
now feature high on the list of executive
Vol. 2 No.1
priorities on virtually all the surveys of global
business leaders. CEOs talk of spending as
much as 30-50 percent of their time on people
issues. Wayne Brockbank aptly observed that
this decade will be that of the human side of
business and that the level of expectations for
HR professionals in global business has
changed. The human resources function is
indeed a force and an ally.
As the very nature of the business entity in
India undergoes a change, the HR professional
is faced with expectations and challenges
never envisaged earlier. The set of current
competencies that would have served well
when the corporation was confined to the
country's borders seem inadequate now. The
very role of the Indian HR professional is
experiencing a profound transformation. What
one is expected to do and how one would get
it done necessitate a reflection on the role and
competencies to support a corporation that
intends to be global.
The Emerging Role of HR in the Era of
Globalization
The new emerging role of the HR professional
is an amalgam that includes being the chief
integrative officer, deliverer of business
success, diversity manager, employee
champion, productivity czar, and chief
effectiveness officer (Losey, Meisinger and
Ulrich). Dilemmas that an Indian HR
professional is faced with now are compelling,
with seemingly distinct polarities to choose
from: focus on profitability at country level as
against the metric of global growth, need to
respect local culture versus enabling a globally
consistent organizational ethos, localization
against standardization, command and control
leadership vis-à-vis highly empowering
delegating style. The human resource
professional needs to perform the role of an
alchemist, constantly enhancing the value
generation by the internal customers he/she
is responsible for.
January 2008
Need to Augment Competencies for Success in
a Globalized World
On a change continuum, we are now in a phase
where the very competencies that were
recognized and relevant till today for the HR
professional are in a need of urgent
augmentation. The trials and travails ahead
will pose a challenge to the current
accumulated knowledge. I have attempted to
share what I believe could be some of the key
competencies that HR professionals must
equip themselves, in light of the changes
globalization has imposed on us.
Objective leadership HR needs the ability to
recognize and celebrate diversity of cultures,
technology and functions, and harness the
team in attaining the firm's vision. It must
provide the bridge to manage expectations that
vary in teams, comprising locals and
expatriates, and help synergize a common
functioning platform.
"Indian employer" branding Ability to attract
talent would be critical in new geographies.
This would require understanding local
mindsets and cultures, and weaving a vibrant
Employer Branding amongst the prospects.
There is a need to correct pre-conceived
notions about India and it's companies that
prevail overseas, and in turn build equity for
the new professional enterprise from an
emerging economy which is on the road to
being a truly global corporation.
Global talent management HR needs the skill
to spot global talent and identify drivers for
differing employee groups in different
cultures. Providing a road map to groom truly
global professionals who can work anywhere
in the world would be a key differentiator. It
must be able to create an organizational plan
to attain a work environment that will retain
talented yet disparate employees. The ability
to identify and plan for desired expatriate
competencies is a given, as is the skill in
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 63
designing appropriate expatriate
compensation programs.
Expatriate management Managing a globally
mobile workforce of expatriates who need to
be optimally deployed is a challenge in itself,
much different from working with local
employees. HR must equip itself to manage
reverse flows of deployed talent on assignment
completion. Expatriate management
competency is a vast area with a tri-
dimensional focus. The primary facet is
management of cultures, which essentially
means appreciation for, and having the skill
in developing a diverse workforce. The second
parameter is trans-border team facilitation, or
ensuring seamless working of workforce from
dissimilar cultural milieu involving face-to-
face interaction, as well as, effective
functioning of teams dispersed across
locations. The third aspect is global training,
which calls for the ability to reduce the
ethnocentrism and increase the economic
global-mindedness of high potential
employees. Training needs to be deployed
which is applicable trans-nationally.
Cross-border networking Working in a global
environment calls for willingness and ability to
share information, people, and resources. It also
requires ability to maintain a network of
personal relationships that is global in its reach.
Another focus area is acquiring multilingual
skills and being able to communicate with
anybody, anywhere in the world.
Knowledge management As an organization
grows across geographies, the need to
assimilate and distribute knowledge is
paramount. Knowledge is a source of
64 January 2008 NHRD Journal
economic strength and a great liberator and
the harnessing and diffusion of knowledge can
be a powerful competitive advantage. With the
evergrowing power of ideas, solutions and
concepts must be deployed seamlessly across
the corporation, to aid wealth creation.
Openness and transparency A critical skill is
to display an open and transparent behavior
that accommodates multiple interests, and
which transcends parochial orientations. Being
approachable; relating easily to diverse groups
and individuals; building and developing
relationships are other related aspects.
Enabling a trusting and fair environment and
a pluralist culture becomes paramount when
teams are dispersed and even combine
virtually across long distances.
Each of the above competencies, when
mastered, could enrich and enhance the
capability dimensions of the HR professional
intent on reinventing himself. Environments
undergo change and organizations evolve;
competencies once relevant will appear to
have gained a lag and several might lose
significance. When we can anticipate what
may happen tomorrow, we enable the ability
to commit ourselves to action today. In this
era of globalization, the challenge ahead for
the Indian HR professional could indeed be
richly rewarding to those who seize the
opportunity to make a difference. William
Shakespeare's timeless words from the play
Julius Caesar aptly remind us: "There is a tide
in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood,
leads on to fortune …. On such a sea are we
now afloat. And we must take the current
when it serves, or lose our ventures."
Vol. 2 No.1
References
• Agtmael, Antoine van. 2007. The emerging markets century. Free Press.
• Brockbank, W. This will be the decade of the human side of business. Praxis.
• Business Line, May 2001.
• Business India, 30 Dec 2007.
• Business Today, 15th Anniversary 2007.
• Business World, 1 Jan 2007; 31 Dec 2007.
• Chanda, Nayan. 2007. Bound together. Viking/Penguin.
• Das, Gurcharan. 2000. India unbound. Penguin Books.
• Friedman, Thomas. 2005. The world is flat, Penguin Books.
• Joynt, P., and B. Morton. Nov 1999. The global HR manager - creating the seamless organization. CIPD
Bookstore.
• Levitt, Ted. May-Jun 1983. The globalization of markets, Harvard Business Review
• Losey, Mike, Sue Mesinger and Dave Ulrich. 2005. "Reality impact and professionalism," The future of HRM.
Wiley.
• NASSCOM - HR Challenges in the IT Industry.
• Outlook Business, 20 August 2007.
• The Penguin CNBC-TV18 Business Yearbook 2006-07
• University Grants Commission, Statistics on Number of Students.

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 65

 CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL HR SYSTEMS
IMPLEMENTATIONS
NINA E. WOODARD
D uring my tenure at Standard
Chartered Bank,
experienced several major global
I
implementations, including an
Employee Stock Option Plan, a
Global EIS implementation, and a
significant change process to build
a shared service centre for HR and
Nina E. Woodard is Finance operations.
currently the Director,
Business Development, These were all challenging projects
for Strategic Human and offered many learning
Resource Management opportunities. However, I thought
India Pvt. Ltd., a
to make this article as rich an
subsidiary of Society for
Human Resource informational offering as possible,
Management (SHRM) I would collect data and compare
US. my experiences to those of other
In May 2002 she exited organizations. I surveyed 57 Senior
as Sr. Vice President of Level HR Executives in the US, UK,
Human Resources for Australia, and India. All have
Standard Chartered
global relationships and/or have
Bank, PLC, a London
headquartered International/Global in their
international bank, company name. Those who shared
whose focus is their experience are Ms. Mary
primarily in Emerging Cheddie, SVP Interval
Markets, to build her
International, Mr. Phil Felando -
own global consulting
practice. She has Head of HR for Qlogic, Ms. Mary
worked across North, Helen Waldo - Head of HR for
Central and South Serena Software, Ms. Carol Olsby
America, in the Middle - Head of HR Tietonator, Mr. Alan
East and in Hong Kong,
Freeman - HR LOF International
India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Nepal, HR Solutions, Dr. Chandrashakhar
Singapore, Thailand - Head of HR Capgemini India, Ms.
and Taiwan. She gained Nancy Magsig - Consultant, Ms.
a truly global business Helen Van Ores - MCI, and Ms.
perspective. In all of her
Angelina Ng - Regional Director,
roles, she worked as an
HR Strategic Business HR Discovery.
Partner with the line
From the feedback it appears that
managers.
global activity is on the rise. One
question to respondents asked
when their companies first floated
a global initiative in the HR space.
Of the 13 respondents, 10 indicated
66 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
that they had knowledge and
experience and of those 10 seven
of the projects discussed were
initiated in the last 5 years. This
seems to indicate a trend in looking
at HR projects more holistically
within organizations and building
global systems to support company
initiatives.
The kinds of projects reported to be
completed or underway include:
EIS system implementations (3),
applicant tracking, Employee
Opinion Survey, Employee
Handbook, and a Stock Options and
Purchase Plan. So there are varied
projects, however in general the
trend seems to be toward insuring
that information systems are
available to track important
employee and applicant data. The
global reach of these projects was 3
countries on the low side to a
maximum of 70 countries in which
the organization has operations. The
response average was 25 countries.
I provide this data as a backdrop
as we move on to discuss the
details in each of the lessons
learned, critical success factors and
offer general guidelines for new
project initiators. As I explore these
elements, you will understand the
context and value of the shared
information.
Of the projects reported in this
article, none of them were the first
global HR initiative attempted by
the company. Some of the key
learnings from earlier experiences
that helped with the success of the
reported projects were:
No.1
 1. Realizing that spending appropriate
time planning leading into the
beginning of the project is essential to
being prepared for the complexities that
will occur including the language, legal
and cultural issues that will impact the
project time line.
2. Understanding that cultural, societal
and legal impacts on process and
program are at the core of setting up the
right approach.
3. Realizing that project management
skills are extremely important for team
success.
4. Knowing the impacts of change and
managing the effects of change on the
entire organization are also important
aspects of the project (nothing happens
in isolation).
5. Understanding the historical relevance
of similar projects. In other words, the
success of current projects depends on
what exists and what has been tried in
the past.
6. Realizing that some localization is going
to be necessary for any global initiative.
Each of the contributing HR practitioners shared
the fact that their projects have been successful
or appear to be on a highly successful track.
They indicate several methods by which their
organization measured the success of their
projects. Those include:
1. Employee feedback, retention and
avoidance of any legal problems or
implications.
2. Getting "buy-in" through early
employee involvement in the process.
3. Local and country adoption of the
project outputs; user acceptance and
buy-in including commitment to
implement.
January 2008
4. Having the right people, executive
support and solid day to day project
management skills to deliver on time,
within budget and with acceptance.
When asked to identify any specific advice these
contributors could offer, almost without
exception, everyone indicated that planning is
very important. They articulated that having
the right vision and upfront understanding of
the expectations of all stake holders leads to
better acceptance of the process and less tension
during the implementation. They also identified
realistic resource allocation (what you need vs.
what you want) as a key element to success,
such as, freeing time of existing staff to work
on the project effectively. When working
globally, language and communication become
a challenge. Individual words carry different
meanings. Even if English is spoken, a plan
must be clearly written and communicated in
a way that will ensure mass understanding and
integration.
Time is a challenge in global initiatives as the
variations in reference to time and the various
hours of the day around the world make a
single meeting time almost impossible. When
it is 5AM in Europe, it is 4:30 PM in London; it
is 10:00 PM in India and 11:30 AM EST in the
US. There may be need for different
implementation timetables given various
country needs/requirements and mid-course
corrections and flexibility are important
components of the original plan.
Each contributor mentioned the need for
flexibility in terms of the project manager and
the implementation process. They also
identified that the implementation teams and
those adapting to the change need to be
acknowledged often during the process and
credit for contribution above and beyond
needs to be recognized often.
Communication is the critical element.
Information and activity can not be over-
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 67
communicated. Respondents stated that
implementation teams are often matrix
managed. Matrix type management requires
additional effort on the part of team leaders
to guarantee that participation is a positive
learning, growing and developmental
experience for all concerned. Several
mentioned the need to build in "fun factors"
and "stress busters" to bring forth and address
concerns or anxiety so that the project may
move along as smoothly as possible.
When I couple these comments with my own
experience, I would add that having a common
internal language within an organization
around project and change management is
tremendous advantages as global projects
begin. It allows for shared understanding and
communication around a common set of terms
and understood values. This may mean
organic development of internal change and
project expertise or spending time upfront to
do the organizational training to bring the
common approach into play. Most global HR
initiatives are significant "change"
management events. The common
understanding of the facets of change and the
impacts on operational activities throughout
the company makes a significant difference in
the ability of the organization to manage
through the change. Almost without exception
there are bound to be some negative reactions,
some resistance, and some slowness to accept
the "newness" of what has transpired. This is
normal. However, it should not be dismissed
as unimportant. It is an important
communication opportunity.
68 January 2008 NHRD Journal
I would also add that at the top of the
organization identification of a sponsor is
critical. A sponsor is the single person who has
control over all resources that are required to
bring the implementation to a successful
conclusion. The sponsor must play an active
role initially indicating the desire for the
success of the project and full support of
whatever it takes to make it happen. The role
of this initial sponsor is to cascade sponsorship
down to lower levels of the organization by
continually supporting decisions and actions
that will spring the initiative to the status of
"BAU" (business as usual) as quickly as
possible. There are bound to be conflicts for
financial, human, time and technological
resources. Without a strong sponsor for the
initiative, it may be difficult for these conflicts
to be resolved productively.
As globalization moves out of the realm of
"new" into the realm of BAU, success in
Human Resource leadership and facilitation
will demand expertise in project and change
management, as well as communication and
interpersonal skills. Implementation teams
must be prepared to approach each initiative,
first, as a significant change initiative. If during
the planning stages the change perspective is
well established and serves as the foundation
for the initiative itself, the opportunity for a
successful and smooth implementation is
greatly increased.
Vol. 2 No.1
 MANAGING A GLOBAL ORGANIZATION:
Focus on Leadership and Business Partnering
GIRI GIRIDHAR
I don't need to emphasize that in
managing a global organization,
orchestrating the business
performance across a range of
geographies is a huge challenge.
You can't run a global organization
from a corporate centre-
decentralization and management
Giri Giridhar is by exception is the key. While great
currently Director
business strategies matter, the key,
(Finance) of Aditya
Birla Retail. He is an clearly, is to have the right people
alumnus of Indian in place with the right mindset. I
Institute of have a lot of passion around this
Management, and wanted to share some of my
Ahmedabad, and a CA.
experiences here.
He was earlier the
director of business and To me, there are two key enablers:
development of Diageo
Plc, London. He has a) The focus on leadership,
over 20 years of where we seek to recruit and
experience and has develop leaders, who
worked with companies demonstrate the kind of
like ITC, IL&FS and
Shoppers Stop.
leadership qualities that we
want.
b) The focus on business
partnership.
All this has implications on the
individual manager.
Leadership : Focus on the
Individual Manager
While it is clearly recognized that
leadership development is critical,
I do believe that we need to dial up
the focus at an individual level. Is
the manager demonstrating the
leadership behaviors that we
expect of him?
Organizations have started using
person-job match questionnaires at
the time of recruitment to ensure
that they are hiring right. The key
question is: Once recruited, do we
January 2008 NHRD
have a structured approach in
defining the leadership attributes
that we want our managers to
demonstrate?
With these leadership attributes
defined, the challenge lies in
calibrating the people on these
attributes. In performance
appraisals, demonstrating the
functional attributes is necessary,
but not sufficient to get a Fully
Meets Expectation Rating.
Managers must demonstrate the
requisite leadership performance
to stack up.
What then are some of the key
leadership attributes that we expect
our managers to demonstrate.
Companies may define it in
different ways, but to me, there are
three themes here:
a) Personal
b) Working with People
c) Performance
Personal authenticity is the key.
Walking the talk and standing for
what we feel is right and important
is critical. Demonstrating personal
integrity and ability to build real
relationships is vital. Being very
self aware on strengths and
development needs, being open to
learning and self development.
Importantly, the manager must
role model the company values.
These may appear to be truisms,
but sit in a performance appraisal
and ask - has the manager
demonstrated these? You will be
surprised at the outcome.
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 69
Working with people is good line
management capability. How confident are we
that we have good line managers? The
execution of the company's strategy depends
on this. Employees join a good company - they
leave because of poor line managers.
Are the line managers creating the right
conditions for their teams to succeed? Does the
manager know his team well enough? Is he
spending enough time in their growth? Does
he give them enough freedom to succeed?
Does he encourage diversity of thought and
action? Does he celebrate success?
Every manager is an internal ambassador for
the company. Managers must demonstrate
they can enable their teams to connect to the
company purpose and energise them to
deliver the exceptional.
Sitting in a performance appraisal, can we
discuss if the manager has demonstrated
these? Of course, we can.
Personal accountability for great
performance We need managers to
demonstrate deep personal accountability for
great performance. The starting point of this
is the ability to create possibilities. Can the
manager stand in the future, in shaping the
vision/destiny of the company? Is he a blocker
or an enabler? Is the manager staying focussed
on priorities with appropriate rigour and
execution? Is he making a difference? Most
certainly we can measure all of this.
It all comes down to focussing on leadership
at the individual manager level - calibrating
him on the leadership scale as a pre-condition
for subsequent action, viz., identifying the
stars for fast track growth, creating great
development plans and in the case of laggards,
exit mechanisms. All these mean that we need
to move away from the focus solely on the
functional attributes.
70 January 2008 NHRD Journal
Focus on Business Partnering
A key challenge in the global organizations is
to ensure that each of the business units
functions optimally to deliver the business
performance. For decentralization to work, we
need the local teams to work together
effectively without supervision. The business
partnership framework is a key enabler.
For our functions - HR and Finance - the focus
on business partnering has been significantly
dialled up. But to be honest, companies are all
over the place in terms of their understanding
of and implementation of business partnering
frameworks.
At the core of business partnership is the belief
that if we spend increased time on business
partnering, the company's business
performance can better plans and competition.
The operative word here is increased time. We
need to ensure that our teams spend increased
time on business partnering-this means they
need to spend less time on inputs and more
time on value added outputs. As an example,
how often we find that in a 10-hour day, we
have spent most of our time on preparing a
report as opposed to value adding on a report!
We need to create that increased time! How?
Refine the processes It is worth relooking at
the processes and ensuring that these are
simplified, automated. We need to keep an
overarching focus on Simpler, Faster, Better.
High value at stake (HVAS) focus We need
to clearly focus on the High Value at Stake
(HVAS) activities and ensure that we put
resources behind them. Don't waste time on
peripheral activities.
Get the controls right: Interestingly, great
business partnering is built on an edifice of
sound controls - this guarantees the company's
performance and reputation. How many times
have we seen our functions not get these basics
right - with resultant focus that takes away a
Vol. 2 No.1
bulk of time on fixing the control weaknesses.
The trick is in getting all this right and
humming, so that we are free to focus on the
larger business partnering agenda.
With increased time and robust controls,
business partnering can come alive. There are
possibly four planks here in this order:
Right information driving the insight The
insight is vital. This drives the diagnosis for
subsequent action. Historically, our roles have
started and ended here - a mere support
function - where we provide the information
(usually 'asked for' information). Business
partnering is beyond this - today it is the
starting point.
Right judgement driving decision-making
Business partnership means that we take an
active part in the decision making. Our views
matter! Our ability to look at multiple choices
- each choice with its own implications and
probability of success - and drive decision
making, makes the difference.
Right influence through engagement
Engagement is at the heart of business
partnership. We are not a backroom function.
Our people must work across the organization
- listening, engaging, persuading. Building that
influence is the key.
Right conscience: Hold to account An
effective business partner is at once "the best
friend and the severest critic." A good business
partner should be able to stand up to the
business head and say that something is not
January 2008
working and needs to change. Building that
trust, confidence and relationships is a huge
challenge.
Interestingly, these four blocks have to work
in the above order. Very often, we see
controllers who are very good at holding to
account-but without the engagement, there is
no effective influence! For the controller to be
a business partner, the engagement and
influence piece is a pre-condition.
Challenges for the Organization and the
Manager
Getting all this right in a global organization
is tough. Cultural comfort zones are real,
where Head office people tend to trust their
kind - a British company will trust the British,
the American company the American. This
really results in posting a huge number of
expatriates to far flung locations. The challenge
of Inclusion and diversity is rea l - many
companies talk about it, but mostly it stays as
a target. But all this is rapidly changing and
can accelerate if the leadership development
programs are robust.
For the manager, who manages to get posted
outside his home country, there are significant
challenges. When we are out of the country,
the reference points can irrevocably change.
The functional expertise matters. But more
than that, the ability to step up on the
leadership scale, be a business partner and
drive business performance makes the
difference.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 71
TOWARDS GLOBAL HR: AN EQUAL CHALLENGE FOR ALL
SRIPADA CHANDRASEKHAR
B eing Global is not a unique
challenge only for Indian HR
managers. In a sense, all other HR
professionals, irrespective the
country of origin, are facing the
same challenge. All over the world
people are not global. If any,
Indians are uniquely positioned to
Dr. Sripada be among global HR Leaders due
Chandrasekhar both their past and present. India's
currently leads HR for
Capgemini in India-a
history and heritage prepares in
global leader in IT Indian HR Managers to appreciate
consulting and services diversity and plural societies with
with close to 18,000 ease. India's current economic
employees in India. progress based on "western"
He has over 28 years education prepares Indian HR
experience with HR and managers with the required
had held leadership
perspectives to be global. Yet there
positions with
renowned companies in is a way to go since globalization
various sectors in the and the place for Indians within
public, private and that has just about begun. Being
multinational firms. global is first a human issue, then
Prior to joining
professional and only thereafter an
Capgemini, he was the
head of HR of Reliance HR issue. So until people, in
Infocomm, now general, become global, all other
christened as Reliance professionals- accountants,
Communications. engineers, marketers - become
Chandra has been a global, HR alone can not make this
long HRD network
enthusiast supporting
journey. However, to the extent
the Network in many that education and change
roles, including the management are specific HR tasks,
current membership of HR managers have the twin
the National Board. responsibility of personally
growing global and enabling others
to do so. Being global needs several
new perspectives and a few unique
skills. Understanding the
"economics" of globalization and
not seeking "one common culture"
are two very important
perspectives in this journey. This
essay explores these issues in
greater details based largely on the
author's personal experience of
working in global settings.
72 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
To be truly Indian is to be global.
Only those who think of the entire
world as their family and those
who pray for the peace and welfare
of the entire cosmos/universe
could have lived on the banks of
the Indus and hence be Indians.
The Indian civilization that was
evolved by a series of global
immigrants over several centuries
never thought small and
parochially. The history and
heritage that was created and
handed over to those who were
raised on this land was marked
with enormous inter-mingling of
cultures, fusion of thoughts and
blending of world views.
Resultantly the "argumentative
Indian" was imbued with a unique
global world view, a distinct
tolerance for entirely opposing
views and an ability to seamlessly
assimilate apparent contradictions.
Being global should come as
cultural DNA to true Indians. Even
in more recent times, the leaders of
this land (Gandhi, in particular)
thought of the world first before
India. India's decision to support
the British in their fight against
Hitler was a rare act - global in
spirit and not merely nationalistic.
History, culture, national
experience, heritage created by our
Leadership, the sheer diversity of
Indian subcontinent-its myriad
languages and religions- all this
and more prepare Indians to be
global in outlook and spirit.
In current times, an average Indian
child of 12 or 14 yrs.age knows
more about Bush, Iraq and the
struggles of some remote African
No.1
communities than many other children any
where in the world. Indian television and
media presents more than adequate doses
'foreign and global news than most other
channels elsewhere.
Indian corporate world is but a replica of the
"western world." (And today many think that
being western is equal to being global!) Indian
management graduates are taught through
American text books and cases, and every
successful organization in India benchmarks
with global practices. You have to look hard
and still may not find anything very Indian in
companies in India.
So what is preventing the Indians from being
seen as global? Why is there so much doubt if
Indian HR mangers are ready for being global?
My answer is: "we don't know." Indian HR
Mangers perhaps have the same chances of
success as any other national. Try an
experienced Indian HR Manager to lead the
global HR function of Microsoft or GE and see
if he fails because he is an Indian !(we will have
then an interesting area to research : Are
Indians genetically incapable of being HR
leaders of global corporations?) But we have
no evidence yet. It is just about now that
Indians in other professions are beginning to
move into some significant global business
roles (Nooyi, Pundit, et al). They seem to be
doing all right.
Indians have no more disadvantage than
others in being global. In fact the irony is that
the world is not global. All nationalities have
equal problems in being global. Americans,
Swedes, Germans, Japanese or British all have
similar problems in being global. It is wrong
to think that being western is being global. It
is also wrong to determine what is global based
on what the economically more "powerful"
nations decide. Those who are affluent do not
have any automatic rights to determine what
is to be global.
Once we understand that being global is a
global challenge which all nationals face in
equal measure, we can define a road map of
being global which is neutral to nationalities
and presents what all of us need to do. Due to
the accident of both national history and
personal upbringing different people have
different challenges of being global (extreme
dependence on curd rice comes in my way of
being global!). I will present here what I see as
some universal and some India-specific
challenges for being global HR leaders.

Five perspectives that can accelerate global HR capability

1. See the big picture and understand inter connectedness of the world.
2. Be multi-cultural and respectful of others
3. Work diligently, be reliable, team with others and share credit.
4. Be willing to travel and constantly cope with unfamiliar environments
5. Understand that economic prosperity, not national ambition, is the biggest trigger of
“globalization”

Let's look at these perspectives in detail: • First time major acquisition/merger in

We can find global companies in different countries other than one's own
shapes and sizes in the corporate context: • Headquarters in one country and
• Joint ventures abroad presence in many others

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 73

 • Presence in many countries with HQ
like power centers in a few global
locations
• Running a "global" company with few
core commonalities and the rest fully
adapted to local conditions (what is
normally called "glocal," i.e , global and
local at the same time.
See the Inter-connected Big Picture
Now in all the above scenarios what is
common is the blend between local and
overseas Appreciation of this blend requires
the ability to see the big picture. Imagine the
size of the picture that Laxmi Mittal would
have seen for years before building the global
steel giant! You can not think small and be
Wal-Mart, GE, Sony or Tata and Reliance.
When you think big, the picture(s) that emerge
need a different scale of visualization and a
higher resolution in perception to be able to
make a sharp sense. A big picture is also a
careful integration of several small pictures
that are inter-connected. Successful leaders of
all large size, globally ambitious, companies
know that their success lies in seamlessly
traversing the "big" and "small" at the same
time. The struggle between Jaguar and "small
one lac car" is symbolic of many contradictions
and size issues that are intrinsic to global scale
companies. Once business sets this context of
juggling between big and small units -
sometimes aggregating and at other times
disaggregating - HR managers must learn new
lessons in structuring and balancing policies.
Global corporations are more likely to be
diverse in products, services, customers and
employees. So HR managers when tasked to
lead global corporations must learn the new
art of balancing consistency with
customization. Steam rolling one set of policies
across the globe will not work. At the same
time absence of one company spirit and lack
of core values in different parts of the world
74 January 2008 NHRD Journal
will erode the fabric of the company. The
global HR Manager must learn the fine art of
balancing the two - what is common and core
and how to ensure that it is embedded every
where in the company and what need not be
common and must be pursued as local. Thus
whether for an Indian or American HR
manager trying to be global means learning
to rise above the current state, see the big
picture and appreciate the connectedness of
the entities and issues.
Be Multi Cultural
Building a multi-cultural corporation is a
different ball game. This is about allowing
national cultures to remain strong even as a
stronger corporate culture (based on shared
values) unifies diverse units in different
geographies. In some sense it is the opposite
of "melting pot." True global corporations do
not try to impose and forge one monolithic
culture on all. They do not expect people to
forget their cultures and melt into a new whole.
They do not seek uniformity for its own sake.
They are culture agnostic. They allow different
cultures to blossom and people to retain their
preferred identities. They manage to bring a
minimum consistency without overtly
pushing for one management model. HR
managers aspiring to be global must learn to
respect this irreversible diversity of the world.
They must initiate culture building initiatives
within a pluralistic frame work of multiple
national cultures. They must foster an
environment of respect for all cultures and for
diverse points of view. The talent
identification, assessment, appraisal, reward
and recognition processes of the corporation
must pro-actively seek out such leaders who
respect others cultures and sensitively pursue
a multi-cultural leadership style. In this regard
HR tools must evolve beyond "cross-cultural
training" (which often degenerates into "how
to hold spoon and fork" type of lectures). HR
managers world over are still struggling to a
Vol. 2 No.1
show a surface level adjustment with other
cultures and teaching employee to adjust to
new cultures for the duration of their
interaction and assignment. This is far from
fostering a global ethos in the company. The
true global ethos is possible only if employees
of different cultures learn to genuinely
understand, appreciate and deal with each
other's cultures respectfully and sensitively.
HR managers must imbibe this by role
modeling and educating.
Revisit Work Habits and Be Reliable
Work habits and personality are critical to
success whether the context is national or global.
If any, global situations are even more
demanding. Reliable and dependable people
succeed in all environments. In certain cultures
and more particularly in economic environments
where the incentives for delivering on promise
are low, people tend to acquire work habits that
are "chalta hai." India in the peak of socialist times
in 60s and 70s hardly provided incentives to
individual enterprise. Hence during that time the
work ethic deteriorated and people developed
poor work habits. With the economic
environment changing and promoting free
enterprise, the work ethic in many parts in India
is rapidly changing. Now there is greater
commitment and reliability. Of course there is a
long way to go compared to some of the more
well-known work cultures (e.g., Germany). The
other traits that help in any situation and
particularly in international work settings is the
willingness to play team and avoid one-
upmanship. Again Indian HR managers very
much like their fellow countrymen in other areas
are prone to displaying individual brilliance at
the cost of the team. Indian HR managers when
compared to their counterparts in other countries
need to learn about team work and shared work,
Any one who has experience in working with
many parts of Europe and United States, UK,
Japan etc will have experienced much greater
degree of reliability, response, participation and
January 2008
much more team play than they get from their
more Indian peers. The big secret of team work
is the willingness to share credit with others.
Often the Indian competitive and political
mindset drives them to seek all the glory and
limelight for themselves. The need for seeking
attention, approval from superior and some
quick rewards are rather high among Indians
than among other nationalities that I have seen.
Satisfaction from doing professional work and
the ability to challenge the superiors are more
common in the western countries than in India.
The hierarchical mindset on which all India
professionals are raised as also the HR managers,
delays their ability to assimilate themselves and
impact more effectively in the relatively more
democratic work contexts of the western and
advanced world. Of course, a big part of the
globe - in China, Japan and other parts of Asia,
and Africa - is more hierarchical. So in those parts
of the globe we may pass off as familiar. But on
the whole, progressive global work contexts are
more compatible with democratic and
consultative work cultures as opposed to
hierarchical and boss-centred approaches. Indian
HR Managers must not use their position, rank,
status, etc., to wield influence in global settings
as they tend to do in the more feudal work
settings back home. To sum up being global is
about imbibing more globally acceptable work
habits and attributes and traits.
Go and Get Along with People of Other
Countries
Obviously, the ability to travel and immigrate
to foreign lands across the globe and adapt to
new environments is critical for global jobs.
Even though this is not a particularly Indian
inability, this is emerging a constraint recently
for Indians. With job markets booming in India
and compensation becoming competitive in
purchasing power parity terms, Indians are
increasingly reluctant to emigrate and mingle
with others. Even when they leave the country
,the ghetto among fellow Indians and stick to
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 75
familiar foods and other home-like
environments. They have to show more
curiosity and reach out to other adventure in
adapting to new environments. This is not very
helpful to be global. In fact, current generation
of Indians must learn a lot from the pioneering
Indian emigrants into Africa, UK and other
parts of the world. The other phenomenon that
is delaying the new generation's globalization
is a new found patriotism and cultural revival
among young Indians. After along time, India
has started achieving some economic progress
and this has boosted the national pride among
the current Indians. However, as they have
started enjoying and wallowing in their
patriotic fervor their patience with others in
the world is slowing down. This is India's time
to reach out to the world in a mode to give
and take. Patriotism is fine but parochialism
is not. Again HR managers have the twin task
of rising above nationalism as individuals and
also enabling others as professionals.
Understand the Economics of Globalization
Society's search for economic development is
clearly the biggest trigger behind globalization.
In simple terms when national economies
saturate, become expensive, cannot find all the
resources within and when they have to find
new markets for their surplus they start to look
beyond boundaries. The rise of internet on the
one hand and the policies of IMF/World Bank
on the other are fuelling globalization
constantly. Now it is unstoppable. Indian HR
managers have to understand the underlying
economics of globalization. In the global
world, the operating principle is: "buy where
it is cheap and sell where it is dear." So when
Indian companies are acquiring other
76 January 2008 NHRD Journal
companies abroad, it must either add to their
ability to produce cheaper or have access to a
markets to be able to sell profitably. There is
no point in acquiring businesses if they do not
improve profitability. So HR Managers
enabling global acquisitions must bear in mind
the economic objectives of each global
acquisition/merger. Within the over arching
framework of making the combined firm more
profitable, they should then design changes to
people policies, compensation and grading etc
so that the overall goal is well supported.
Acquisitions done out of ego - individual or
national - and pursued thereafter with the
arrogance of an "acquirer" will always fail. HR
Mangers need to completely understand the
business objectives of acquisitions and mergers
align/create HR plans accordingly.
India's rise from poverty will present a unique
opportunity to Indian HR Managers to lead
HR globally. We can seize this opportunity
only if we are anchored truly and deeply in
our vast civilization and its tolerant, pluralistic
perspective. We can be global only if we
remain modest in success, humble in glory,
calm when provoked, ethical when tempted
and professional when challenged, Building
global HR capability is not about some "new
tools, techniques and skills, it is about rising
above all forms narrowness and think like our
ancestors" thought:
"Ayam nijah paroveti ganana laghuchetasam
Udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva
kutumbakam"
"This is my countryman; that is a foreigner.
Such a view is entertained only by small-
minded people; but to the broad, noble-
minded, the whole world is one family."
Vol. 2 No.1
 MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS: THE HR CHALLENGE
Inder Walia is currently
Group Director of HR of
Bharti Enterprises.
Earlier, he was with
Mittal Steel/Arcelor
Mittal for 8 years based at
London as the Executive
Vice President of Human
Resources and a member
of the Group Management
Committee responsible for
group wide Human
Resources and
Integration. He played a
significant role in
successful Integration of
all acquisitions over the
past 8 years in Americas,
Western & Eastern
Europe, Africa and
Central & South Asia. His
biggest challenge and
achievement in large scale
integration came with the
high profile Arcelor and
Mittal Steel merger in
2006. He has effectively
implemented business
strategies with special
emphasis on Business HR
practices across diverse
cultures globally. Prior to
Arcelor Mittal, he worked
with Modi Corp, Shriram
Industrial Enterprises and
HCL Hewlett Packard.He
holds a Master's degree
from Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, Mumbai.
INDER WALIA
O ver the last decade India's
economy has grown rapidly.
Given the fact that the present
buoyancy is based on sound
economic fundamentals, the high
GDP growth rate appears
eminently sustainable in the long
run. More significantly, the trillion-
dollar Indian economy is
appreciably more integrated with
the world economy than many of
the other emerging economies.
Obviously, Indian corporates are
taking firm strides on the global
stage.
One of the factors behind this
progress has been our strong pool
of managerial talent. In fact, global
business not only looks at India as
a large emerging market but a
source for managerial talent. While
this is a matter of pride, it may be
too early to rest on our laurels. This
article examines some of the HR
trends and the capabilities required
for managers "going global."
Increasingly, businesses are
turning to people as a key
differentiator in sustaining their
growth. It is a truism today that
every manager must recognize
that, he/she is essentially a
manager of people. And, people
vary significantly across borders.
Therefore, trans-border business
management invariably involves a
significant HR Management
component. This is a challenge that
must be met and overcome if
Indian businesses are to be truly
global. HR managers must prepare
themselves to help their businesses
succeed across borders.
January 2008 NHRD
Running a Global Race
There are essentially three features
that should serve as a point of
departure for any HR manager
harbouring global ambitions.
Firstly, he/she would do well to
recognize that the global
environment is far more complex
than anything he/she has handled
so far, even given India's range of
diversity. A 'second country' being
added on cannot be treated in the
same way as opening one more
office in a new region in the
country. The organization will now
need to work simultaneously on
both the global platform as well as
the domestic one. Imbalances,
especially in skill-sets, cannot be
addressed with the same
mechanisms that thrived in the
domestic market.
Secondly, the HR Manager also
needs to realize that a manager
cannot duplicate his/her success in
one country in another, unless he/
she is aware of local practices and
is able to enhance the cultural
synergies while playing down
cross-cultural strains. Our instincts
have been shaped by a heritage of
multi-culturalism. These instincts
must be nurtured and practiced
consciously to leverage the buy-in
across borders.
The third point is not so much of a
"what" to do than being about
"how" to do. While there is a part
of the talent is globally mobile,
there are large sections that remain
rooted. In a context where building
global scale occurs largely through
acquisitions or mergers, it is
Journal Vol. 2 No.1 77
essential to ensure that there is a balance
between high and low-cost geographies. There
is also an imperative need to balance "own
experts" with "local expertise" of the particular
market. All too often, acquisitions get mired
in doubts about what would happen to the
local workforce. Understanding such concerns
and articulating a credible plan to address
them is important. Local expertise must
continue to be relevant and the HR manager
now has to device means of meshing this
expertise with the broader fabric of skills in
the organization.
Realities of the Global Experience
In our excitement at being a part of the global
economy, we tend to overlook the challenges
posed by nationalistic feelings. Even in
developed economies, there is a - sometimes
irrational - fear of an acquirer from across the
borders. Coupled with aggressive media
interest in such acquisitions, these fears can
harden stances of potential partners. In such a
situation, it is necessary to engage the workforce
directly through appropriate channels. It is now
common place for labor unions to weigh in with
their evaluation of prospective acquirers. Their
interests, in many cases would be to balance
costs and productivity and to ensure potential
skill enhancement for their members through
cross-rotation. While these concerns are
typically displayed in developed economies, the
test in emerging markets has more to do with
managing heightened expectations on rewards.
It is also fascinating to imagine that in a global
organization talent is necessarily a globally
mobile resource. The reality, however, is that
between the extremes of "living-out-of-a-
suitcase" and "rooted-to-the-spot," there is a
fluid pool of talent that will be mobile only
under specific circumstances and for particular
assignments. Traditional models of talent
development and succession planning will not
be able to cater to the demands of a globalized
78 January 2008 NHRD Journal
organization. Added to that is the challenge
of managing the deployment of expatriates.
Moving to a new country must be handled
appropriately. The process of settling-in must
be aimed at optimizing the benefit to the
organization. Ideally, the expatriate manager
should be able to translate the culture of the
parent organization into the newly acquired
entity. Too much or too little of this translation
will detract from the benefit of leveraging
expatriation of such in-house talent for new
acquisitions.
The Global HR Profile
The HR manager is no longer expected to
confine himself/herself to providing
transactional services. Having moved on to a
strategic role, it is essential that he/she is
completely aligned to the requirements of the
business. He/she should be able to anticipate
the changes arising from changing business
circumstances and adapt to them and seize
new opportunities as they arise. This requires
not merely conceptualizing the change, but the
ability to project-manage the implementation
of the change strategies while keeping cultural
sensitivities in view. And this needs to be done
across global teams. Thus, while the template
for change is global, the details are filled out
by the on-ground teams. The HR manager
must, as part of the project management plan,
ensure that there is adequate distinctiveness
to engage the regions, while ensuring the
overarching messages are not diluted.
With the advent of technology, it has become
possible to put a fair amount of analytical tools
in the hands of the front line managers.
Enabling front line managers to have access
to information and decision models, especially
for people-related decisions, is a key
determinant of a HR manager's success.
Technology also can be a prime mover of
workplace democracy. Trends in society,
enabled by technology, such as blogs, social
Vol. 2 No.1
networking and the like must be reflected
within the organization, with adequate
safeguards to ensure that the individual
employee's rights are protected against abuse.
To be able to recognize the limitations of a
single - often one's own - point of view is
probably the defining characteristic of a
successful HR manager. He/she must be able
to put himself in the shoes of an employee,
understand the socio-economic and cultural
milieu, and appreciate the concerns of the
individual employee. To do this, as well as to
address such issues on a global platform and
scale, he/she must be able to instill a sense of
values within the organization, so that line
managers are clear on how to handle people-
related situations.
Tiding the Current
All the desire to be global or to help
organizations succeed across borders will
come to naught if the HR manager does not
January 2008
have demonstrable expertise in core HR areas.
As the war for talent intensifies across the
world, businesses will look to HR managers
to first provide the basic support to address
this concern. The contexts in which they
operate will no doubt be different, but they
must be able to demonstrate that they can:
• Source the right talent for the
organization
• Build a culture of performance within
the organization
• Develop in-house talent, leadership
capability and clear lines of succession
• Implement innovative reward and
recognition practices
It is only on top of these basic strengths that
an HR manager can build other capabilities
needed to ensure that they become a critical
force when corporates expand beyond
national boundaries.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 79
 PREPARING TALENT FOR THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT:
HRD FOR EMERGING MULTINATIONALS
LISBETH CLAUS
M ost attention in HRD has
focused on how Western
multinationals operate in emerging
markets, yet little emphasis has
been placed on how emerging
multinationals can manage their
talent for operating globally. This
paper focuses on training and
Lisabeth Claus is an
development needs for managing
Associate Professor of
Global Human Resources the talent of emerging
and Interim Associate multinationals (with a special focus
Dean at Atkinson on Indian companies) to effectively
Graduate School of operate in Western markets.
Management,
Williamette, USA. HRD can play a significant role in
She is a post-graduate managing the global talent of
from K.U. Leuven emerging multinationals.
(Belgium), M.B.A. from
University of San Emerging multinationals can best
Francisco, and Ph.D. from develop their employees to
Saint Louis University, compete in the global market place
and S.P.H.R. (Senior by doing three fundamental HRD
Professional in Human
things: 1) Select employees based
Resource Management).
on aptitude rather than experience
She is a featured speaker
at the CIPD's annual
and develop them for needed job
conference in England. skills; 2) Enhance the delivery of
She made a number of training so that large numbers of
contributions in employees can be trained very
professional journals. quickly; and 3) Focus on the special
training content areas that are most
appropriate to operate globally.
Emerging multinationals may need
to use a different framework than
the prevailing Western-centric
HRD models to meet the talent
development challenges they face.
Everyone agrees that in today's
global environment, human capital
issues-in particular global talent
management - are the key to
organizational growth and
competitiveness. HRD plays an
enormous role in talent
80 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
management, especially to develop
the needed skills of employees to
operate effectively in multinational
companies and as a retention tool
for scarce labour. HRD is
particularly important in emerging
markets where the growth is
phenomenal, there is shortage of
talent, and the necessary technical
and managerial skills may not be
readily available to operate large
global organizations.
The Emerging Multinational
Traditionally, the world's largest
MNCs (multinational companies)
emanated from developed markets
in North America, Europe, and
Japan. These Western
multinationals internationalized in
a somewhat organic fashion and
their recent growth, in terms of
customers as well as labour, now
mainly focuses on emerging
markets (especially China and
India). More recently with the
boom of the Internet, a number of
companies, especially in the IT
area, were 'born global', with an
almost immediately global
presence. Yet, in both instances,
these large multinationals
originated mainly from the
developed world. Now, however,
attention is being paid to emerging
multinationals. Emerging
multinationals (also sometimes
called domestic multinationals) are
companies from emerging markets
that are becoming global
multinational players. Their
presence in the global marketplace
No.1
and in all types of industries has not gone
unnoticed. These emerging markets players,
unknown for long in the West, are "household
names" in their local markets. They, usually,
have many years of local experience, have
great local name recognition, strong links with
their governments (in China they are often
government-owned and/or subsidized), and
are viewed with tremendous national pride in
their emerging market countries. Indian
examples of emerging multinationals are
Infosys Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra,
Mittal Steel, Reliance Group, Suzlon Energy,
Tata Consulting Services, and Wipro, to name
just a few. Emerging multinationals in China
include BYD, CIMC, Haier, and Lenovo.
Although, they may have internationalized
regionally, beyond their emerging markets,
they only recently entered the Western
markets. They are doing so very aggressively,
mainly through foreign direct investment and
bold acquisitions, and are now competing
head-to-head with established multinationals
in the developed markets. They are not just
competing at the bottom of the pyramid, but
in knowledge intensive and innovative sectors
as well. Yet the talent management needs (and
specifically the HRD needs) of these emerging
multinationals are different from those of the
Western multinational companies.
HRD Needs of Emerging Multinationals
Employee development in the leading
emerging markets of China and India is quite
different from other markets. This is often
leading HR talent management experts to treat
these countries differently from the rest of the
world and each other. Enormous growth in
these emerging markets has created a serious
talent shortage and a shrinking pool of
deployable talent. The necessary technical
competencies may not be available and the
managerial skills needed for the talent pipeline
may need to be developed de novo. In addition,
January 2008
the retention rate is low, and high turnover often
reduces management desire to invest in the
development of new hires. Differences in
employee values also play a critical role.
Employees in emerging markets, especially
young professionals are eager for quick
professional success through compensation and
development opportunities, while their
counterparts in the western world are more
focused on work-life balance as part of that
success. Emerging multinationals also operate
in a different contextual environment. They are
used to operating under less favourable
infrastructure conditions, often at the bottom
of the pyramid, with closer links to the political
system, and with much less decision-making
transparency than in the West. Yet as these
companies are increasingly operating in a
broader global context, the external conditions
change, and they may not be as equipped to
deal with the global environment. Emerging
multinationals can best develop their
employees to operate in the global market place
by doing three fundamental HRD things: First,
select employees based on aptitude rather than
experience and develop them for needed job
skills; Second, enhance the delivery of training
so that large numbers of employees can be
trained very quickly; Third, focus on specific
training content areas that are most appropriate
to operating successfully in a global
environment. While some of these HRD needs
may also apply to developed multinationals,
the difference in internationalization of
emerging and developed multinationals
warrants a different HRD focus.
1. Selection and Development of Employees
Because of the talent shortage, emerging
multinationals must recruit people from
countries where there is a limited, often non-
existing, pool of talent with the requisite skills
and experience in their industry. There simply
are none or few experienced people in these
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 81
parts of the world from which to recruit.
Hence, they must often select employees based
on aptitude rather than experience, and
develop them for needed job skills. In these
cases, orientation to the job is much broader
than the traditional on-boarding activities in
which the employees learn the culture and
practices of the organization. It often requires
the development of specific job skills. HRD
must now play a more integrative partnership
role with recruitment and selection to identify
recruits with aptitude and high potential for
the jobs in the organization. HRD must
develop effective on-boarding and job
preparation learning products and processes
tailored to the specific needs of the recruits to
make them functional in a very short of time.
2. Scope and Delivery of Training
The rapid growth of emerging markets like
China and India requires unprecedented
amounts of talent to meet the labour needs.
Because large numbers of employees must be
trained very quickly, HRD must enhance the
delivery of training to meet the talent needs
of these rapidly growing emerging
multinationals. As learners in these cultures
may have a preference for face-to-face training,
the magnitude needed of qualified trainers
who have the competencies to deliver the
training in English and/or the local languages
is mind-boggling if one were to deliver training
through the traditional classroom delivery
method. Yet, more innovative and emerging
e-learning delivery technologies (such as blogs,
pod casts, wireless m-learning, virtual trainers,
web 2.0, etc.) may not be accessible (needing a
computer device) or acceptable to the learners
in emerging market countries. By the same
token, HRD developers may not be
knowledgeable or capable of deploying these
newer forms of training delivery that are more
amenable to customized learning and could
be more appropriate and cost effective for
82 January 2008 NHRD Journal
large numbers of employees who need to be
trained in a short period of time.
3. Content of Training
As emerging multinationals are expanding
into the global arena, these countries' high
potentials and managers (who are likely to
be leading the international process and
working with the acquired Western
companies) will need to develop additional
attributes related to working in a mostly
European and North American environment.
This will require a focus of HRD in a number
of training content areas. Some of these areas
are likely to include areas that affect working
with a broader and different set of
stakeholders in a different manner because
of cultural and societal differences. Areas of
content should emphasize greater attention
to compliance areas (especially in areas
related to professional, technical, financial,
safety, ethical, and HR compliance),
increased transparency of decision-making,
different managerial styles and integration of
an acquired Western workforce in the larger
emerging multinational culture, as well as
increased English-as-a-second-language
training, cross-cultural skills for international
assignees and virtual global teamwork skills.
Finally, these young and high-potential
professionals of these emerging
multinationals will demand greater
development opportunities and will need to
develop a sustainable successful career over
the long term.
HRD's Role in Talent Development
Emerging multinationals must use a different
framework than the prevailing Western-centric
HRD model to meet the talent development
challenges they face. All too often, well-
established professional practices and
organizational traditions do not allow us to
tackle the challenges of the new and more
Vol. 2 No.1
uncertain global environment in which we now
operate. HRD must not only make executives
aware of the global lens they use to make
employee development decisions, they must
also change their own frameworks. Although
there is not much evidence-based research on
HRD for emerging multinationals, HR best
practices may not be the same for these
multinationals as developed multinationals.
Emerging multinationals in countries like India
and China may need to invent their own HRD
practices to meet the talent challenges of their
rapidly growing organizations. These may, in
turn, become new types of HRD best practices
for all global companies to adopt.

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 83

 THE SCIENCE AND ART OF GLOBAL HR MANAGEMENT
SOMA MOHANTY
I t seems like it was yesterday, yet
it has become an old story -
globalization, mobile workforce,
shrinking borders and geographic
expansion. Corporations became
"multinationals" and local
companies dreamt of becoming
behemoths through acquisitions
Soma currently heads
and presence outside home
HR for Jones Lang
LaSalle , a real estate country. Suddenly the face of the
workforce changed. Organizations
investment services
firm , for Asia Pacific. which hired locally, found that they
With the firm from 2002 had to uproot managers to take to
helping grow from a
places where they needed quick
7000 staff organisation
to 15,000 across 12 start-ups.
countries. Jones Lang It has put a tremendous pressure
LaSalle is a Forbes
Platinum 400 company. on companies. Personnel became
human resources and then human
An Engineering
graduate from REC capital and then global people
capital. While this change was
( now NIT) Rourkela ,
and an MBA- HR from taking place, the free flow of
XIM information throughout the world
Bhubaneshwar.Earlier
worked in
made it urgent for organizations to
manufacturing, have its organizations executives to
services, professional have a common understanding of
services and sales its strategies, products, services
organisation like Eicher, and management mechanisms.
GE in India - part of
GECIS when BPO was Executives took to air travel and
starting off, and virtual travel and were speaking to
Worked with GE
multiple countries simultaneously
Medical in Singapore.
and managing multiple global
teams. Imagine then, an HR
organization and the role it had to
play. It became imperative to have
harmonized global HR program
that would hunt, hire, manage,
create, develop and engage a
workforce across multiple borders,
nationalities, sensitivities and
perceptions - shaped by centuries
of ingrained culture.
What does then a global HR
professional require? And in
84 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
context, where the world is now
looking to India to hire its global
professionals, what do Indian HR
professionals require?
The Science and Art of Global HR
Management
The science of HR management
probably is very well researched,
understood and documented -
Strategic HR management, Global
staffing, Global talent
management, Global Reward
management and International
employee relations.
It's the perspective, flexibility,
communication and localization - all
elements of cultural integration that
determines the success of a Global
HR program . This I call the art.
What's the Secret Recipe to Success?
Strategic HR Management
Any popular reading will give you
the answer that strategic HR
management is about
understanding the business and
aligning people solutions around it.
Simple! HR gets invited to the table
and discusses Business plans for
tomorrow. The HR organization
then looks at solutions and presents
to the business community which
debates, modifies and accepts.
The challenge in a multicultural
environment is about how much
business managers know. It's a
classical symptom - they don't
know what they don't know or
know what they know by their
conditioning. Strategic HR
management for a global HR
professional then becomes the
method by which all tools,
No.1
processes, systems that are available that can
drive business growth - some of which could
be alien to the practices in the country- are
brought to the managers attention and
assimilation. Its then about influence and
change such that the manager is able to start
his business discussions, smarter by the
knowledge he has just had about global
practices and how it can help him. It's about
the knowledge that some things are just not
possible.
For example, in my role, one of the business
units in china decided to outsource its
"headcount." However, under China laws,
unless they are part of another organization
and not just contracted out, the primary
organization still has liability to own them as
their employees. It's about putting this issue
on the table first, before any discussions can
start.
Success factor for the Global HR professional:
Lay the tools on the table first, then follow the
business.
Global Staffing
Gen Y in the workforce, Baby boomers retiring,
the war for talent is over. Talent has won.
Emerging new cities, global education and
opportunities - with all this - country staffing
is a challenge. Global staffing is all of this
multiplied over a number of countries.
What then is required is about finding a niche.
But on the opposite spectrum is an ability to
challenge conventional ideas. The Philippines,
for example, is a very good place to find mobile
graduates. They have a very good education
system, good language capabilities and very
mobile. To groom them in the workforce and
present as future leadership talent is to find
that "niche." On the other hand, it's been often
touted that the UK/Europe is a difficult
market to hire from into Asia. However, there
are returning Asians, who have gone for their
January 2008
education and want to come back - or the
young professional - yet to be tied down by
family commitments who is ready for an
adventure, or the eternal traveller New
Zealander who will work anywhere.
Success factor for the Global HR professional
There is no "box" for global staffing. Your
future employees can come from the most
remote uncanny corner!
Global Talent Management
How does one "manage" talent? There is an
inherent contradiction. Talent is hard to
manage. Talent is to be given choices and they
choose - choose the path that fits their aptitude,
acceptance and ambition. This is more
pronounced now than ever. The challenge for
HR professionals is to anticipate the finer
nuances between what ambition means in
China versus Japan - what shape and form
ambition can take.
Headquarters may dictate a process but the
HR professional has to be able to negotiate a
localization. In a recent organizational survey
that was deployed by an organization, the
response rate for Korea was very low. The CEO
of the firm was a surprised at the response rate.
However, the HR professional helped the CEO
understand that Koreans don't come forward
naturally to give feedback. Any public praise
is not well received. This comes in the way of
any formal succession planning or leadership
growth programs - putting one before the
other kills their work ethos.
Global Reward Management
What drives one individual does not drive the
other. This is easy to understand. What drives
one cultural group and does not drive the other
is difficult but understood. What an
organization wants to drive is a common goal
through uncommon motivations and
heterogeneous societies. This is where a Global
HR professional makes sense of the diversity
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 85
to implement rewards that drives the right
behaviors. Incentive compensations in sales
organizations usually drive individual
behaviors and high performance. In a
patriarchal society like Japan, we have had
instances, where the country head has
distributed his own "money" to businesses
which underperformed. This undermines the
purpose of the incentive compensation.
Likewise many countries and groups place
more value on short term compensation than
long term wealth creation - typically societies
which have seen "hardship" in their lifetime,
like hoarding cash.
Success Factor for the Global HR professional
Find the motivators before the reward design.
The Art of Global HR Management
Perspective Our perspective develops with
our experiences throughout our lives. It is
shaped by influences and interactions we have
had as we take our life's journey.
Understanding that when implementing a
program, we are dealing with multiple
perspectives, that at best are subjective, and
that when these come together in the
workplace can lead to a collision path.
Hence an important skill needed in the HR
professional is to challenge one's own
perspective and that how we see things may
itself be "out of context" for the person you are
interacting with. This is challenging even in a
domestic or local context and gets even more
complicated overseas.
The art of navigating perspectives when you
can only hear the voice of the person or the e-
mail is a key challenge that needs to be
overcome.
In my organization, we have had issues, where
US managers directly speak to the employee
for opportunities, sometimes bypassing the
Asian manager. In most Asian countries, the
manager is an important channel of
86 January 2008 NHRD Journal
communication for the employee and such
direct contact with employees most often than
not leaves the employee unsure of actions and
the manager frustrated. HR managers need to
understand these perspectives to be successful.
Flexibility The ability not only to see a
different perspective, but respect and regard
that perspective. This translates into flexibility
of incorporating different views into your
programs and tools. One of the fallouts, then
is "a project plan" that quite does not live up
to consistency and homogeneity demanded by
a global world. The ability to maintain a global
consistency with local flavour is the hallmark
of global HR professional.
An example of how this affects even the
simplest of things and can bring the project to
a grinding halt is demonstrated by a
recognition program that had brought debate
in our organization about the gifts that could
be given in various places. While an Australian
manager was perfectly happy in giving a wine
bottle as a recognition award, it got eyes rolling
in India. A Thai country head's
recommendation of jewellery for women felt
"too personal" for some others!
Communication Research shows that a
message needs to be communicated sixteen
times before it gets registered in the
subconscious. A good global HR manager
understands that being a PR manager is crucial
to the job. It could take months to get to the
core in some countries. In Japan, for example,
the onion has to be peeled layer by layer. If a
talent management program has several
components to it, not all can be presented at
the same time. The Japanese manager's issues
need to gently probed out, an issue at a time,
a layer at a time.
The Natural "Indian" Advantage
Indian HR managers have a natural advantage
in small doses, in one country. HR managers
Vol. 2 No.1
are exposed to different perspectives owing
to the largeness of the country and the myriad
subcultures. Sensitivity to people coming from
different parts of the country, congregating at
the workplace has given the HR manager the
natural advantage to be able to apply that
overseas.
Resourcefulness and lateral thinking to solve
complex problems has been ingrained in the
Indian upbringing and education system. This
allows the Indian HR manager to build in
different requirements and competing briefs
from cross-geography managers. Having
grown up in an environment where resources
were limited and ambitions unlimited, has
made the Indian HR manager a valuable asset
in today's global organization which demands
creativity with minimum investments.
This is more than ample scope in the
recruitment of all levels of Indian managers
to be placed outside India. There has never
been such mass euphoria over the strengths
of India managers.
Hand on Your Heart - the Stumbling Blocks
Talk slowly and listen Indian managers in
general, process things much faster than a
number of other managers. This leads to the
tendency to "cut in" or "Jump in." This is a fatal
mistake many Indian managers fall prey to.
This gets magnified for managers in the Global
HR function, where a general perception and
expectation states that HR needs to listen. They
are then branded as people who don't listen,
jump to conclusions and as someone who does
not value others' opinion.
January 2008
Assert in the language of suggestion The art
of assertion in the language of suggestion is
quite important in dealing with global HR
managers. Indian managers tend to say "I think
you should ...," instead of "Have you
considered ..." might get you better attention
and credibility. This is especially for those in
strategic HR management.
Question The Indian managers curiosity and
ability to think fast, allows him to question
existing practices and come up with creative
solutions. However when this is used in
conjunction with the "jumping in before the
other has completed a statement," it discounts
the other party.
Conclusion - Crossing the Rubicon
Peter Barge, my CEO of Asia Pacific, in his book
"The little book of big decisions" says that those
decisions, whose outcomes mean a boundary
will be crossed from which there is no return,
need resources invested in the process
commensurate with the magnitude of the
decision. Crossing the Rubicon is crossing the
point of no return, the point where "The die is
cast" as Julius Caesar said as he headed from
Gaul in 49B.C to take over Rome. The Rubicon,
a small river that marked the boundary between
Italy and Gaul, was the point the Roman Senate
had forbidden him to cross.
This is also true of the HR manager, who must
weigh every transaction and decision, with the
multitude of complexities that comes with
working in a global environment. Ensuring that
all possibilities have been considered will
ensure that he/she can cross the Rubicon safely.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 87
 THE GLOBALIZATION OF
HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES
SHEILA M. RIOUX, PAUL R. BERNTHAL AND RICHARD S. WELLINS

Sheila M. Rioux manages large engagements with key clients that involve web-based
recruitment, selection, and assessment solutions. She has consulted extensively with American
General, Andersen Business Consulting, Sanofi-Synthélabo, Innovex, and Coventry Health
Care. She has developed and implemented competency models and selection solutions for
multiple job families within client organizations. Prior to consulting, Dr. Rioux was a member
of Development Dimensions International (DDI's) Centre for Applied Behavioral Research.

Paul R. Bernthal works with internal and external clients to conduct benchmarking research,
implement evaluation and validation research designs, and provide ongoing measurement
consulting. Earlier, he served in various roles, including research coordinator, theorist,
statistician, and methodologist. He has worked with many Fortune 500 companies including
ChevronTexaco, Citigroup, Verizon, Bank of America, Kmart, Dell Computer, New York Life,
Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Pharmacia, HCA, Gap, Tenet, Oracle, Whirlpool, BASF, Mattel, Pitney
Bowes, Hershey Foods, Cox Communications, Steelcase and Lyondell Chemical.

Rich S. Wellins is manager of consulting and a member of DDI's executive coaching and
development team. Earlier, he served as senior research psychologist at the U.S. Army Research
Institute and as an assistant professor of psychology at Western Connecticut State University.

T he key to creating a consistent corporate culture across multiple

locations is maintaining the critical balance between a strong
corporate culture and local cultural differences.
Purpose
The report examines the changing roles the human resource (HR)
function plays in a globally competitive marketplace and identifies
the challenges of adapting to these roles.
• The objectives of this study were to:
• Investigate how domestic and international companies conduct
HR practices around the world.
• Determine the top HR priorities for each organization type.
• Determine the challenges that organizations face when trying
to globalize their HR function and practices.
• Determine what organizations are doing to institute a consistent
corporate culture across all locations/offices.

88 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

Responses were gathered from 206 members
of DDI's HR Benchmark Group. Two-thirds of
the respondent organizations had operations
in multiple countries (international); the
remaining third operated solely in one country
(domestic).
General Profile Findings Overview
The globalization of HR is characterized by
increasing levels of decentralization.
• Half of all international organizations
reported having one primary HR
department with independent regional
HR staff.
• Many international (37percent) and
domestic (42 percent) companies
reported using a more centralized
approach - one primary HR
department with dependent regional
HR staff.
• More than a third of domestic
organizations reported having only a
primary HR department with no
regional HR staff.
HR Priorities
International and domestic organizations
identified similar HR priorities for the next two
years.
• The top priority, identified by 52
percent of international companies, was
leadership development. Domestic
organizations also ranked leadership
development as a top priority
• (35 percent).
• Recruiting high-quality employees
ranked second as a priority for both
international (40 percent) and domestic
companies (46 percent).
• Employee retention was also a top
concern for both international (33
percent) and domestic companies (46
January 2008
percent). In fact, retention was the top
priority for domestic organizations.
Consistency of HR Practices
Findings Overview
A majority of international (79 percent) and
domestic (87 percent) organizations reported
that their parent organizations are taking
action to make HR practices more consistent
across all locations/ offices.
• International organizations use
consistent HR practices to help develop
a common corporate culture (75
percent) and to improve the
effectiveness of the HR function (73
percent).
• Domestic organizations are creating
consistent HR practices to improve both
the effectiveness (81 percent) and the
efficiency (71 percent) of the HR
function.
• Selection practices vary greatly across
locations in international organizations.
Selection practices that vary the most
include:
- Assessments (role plays and simulations).
- Testing for selection purposes.
- Internet advertising (recruiting).
Challenges to Consistency
Findings Overview
International companies face many challenges
when trying to make HR practices consistent
across all locations/offices. The top three
challenges include:
Variations in social, political, and economic
circumstances.
Different locations/offices have their own way
of doing things and are resistant to change.
The perceived value of the HR function varies
across locations/offices.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 89
Best Practices
Organizations were asked to respond to the
following What is the most effective action
your parent organization has taken to make
HR practices more consistent across all
locations/offices?
The following is a sample of responses:
• Developed a long-term HR plan to
ensure alignment of HR strategies/
objectives with corporate objectives.
• Created centralized reporting
relationships around the globe.
• Standardized assessment,
development, and compensation
practices.
• Introduced practices to regions around
the globe and allowed the HR function
in each region the autonomy to do [its]
job.
• Created global policies/processes for
data management, performance
management, compensation,
education, and development.
• Tied regional accountability to
performance management.
• Shared HR best practices used in certain
locations with all other locations.
• Developed an HR mission statement.
Creating a Corporate Culture
Findings Overview
Many international companies (84 percent)
indicated that their parent organization was
trying to establish a corporate culture at all
locations/offices that was consistent with its
goals and vision. Most organizations (88
percent) reported that creating a corporate
culture is difficult because, in certain locations,
local cultures and customs have a moderate
to great influence on the way business is
conducted. Organizations have taken the
90 January 2008 NHRD Journal
following actions when trying to create a
consistent corporate culture:
• Communicated to all locations about a
common corporate culture.
• Allowed local cultures to maintain their
identity in the context of the corporate
culture.
• Established common systems (e.g.,
accounting, marketing, MIS).
• Provided management with education
outlining how the company does business.
• Created an organizational mission with
input from all locations.
• Created a written strategy outlining the
corporate culture.
General Challenges for Global HR Function--
Findings Overview
Functions such as operations, sales, and
marketing have generally made great progress
in adapting to the global reality. However, the
HR function has typically lagged behind in
developing policies and structures that
support globalization. The top challenges HR
faces in the globalization process include:
• Coordination of activities in many
different locations.
• Understanding the continual change of
the globally competitive environment.
• Building a global awareness in all HR
departments/divisions.
• Creating a multicultural HR team.
International Assignments
Findings Overview
Finding, developing, and retaining global
leaders tops the priority list of international
companies. International, or expatriate,
assignments are often used as a way to develop
the talent of global leaders.
Vol. 2 No.1
 • Many international companies (83
percent) use expatriate assignments,
which last an average of 2.65 years.
• International assignments are quite
expensive. Most international
companies (88 percent) report spending
more than two times an expatriate's
salary during the span of the assignment.
The most important characteristic to look for
when recruiting an expatriate is a willingness
to travel. The ability to speak other languages
was third, behind having international
business experience.
• Most organizations provide pre-
departure training for expatriates, but
relatively few provide a process for
managing the expatriate's re-entry to
his or her home country.
• Only 68 percent of respondent
organizations agreed that international
assignments help an expatriate's career.
The Global Picture
When it comes to business, the world is indeed
becoming a smaller place. More and more
companies are operating across geographic
and cultural boundaries. While most have
adapted to the global reality in their
operations, many are lagging behind in
developing the human resource policies,
structures, and services that support
globalization. The human resource function
faces many challenges during the globalization
process, including creating a global mind-set
within the HR group, creating practices that
will be consistently applied in different
locations/offices while also maintaining the
various local cultures and practices, and
communicating a consistent corporate culture
across the entire organization.
January 2008
To meet these challenges, organizations need
to consider the HR function not as just an
administrative service but as a strategic
business partner.
Companies should involve the human
resources department in developing and
implementing both business and people
strategies. This type of partnership is necessary
if an organization wants to change potentially
inaccurate perceptions of HR and reiterate the
HR function's purpose and importance
throughout its global environment.
Organizations will also discover that HR can
be invaluable in facilitating the development
of a unifying corporate culture and finding and
cultivating much needed leadership talent
around the world.
The process of globalizing resources, both
human and otherwise, is challenging for any
company. Organizations should realize that
their global HR function can help them utilize
their existing human talent from across
multiple geographic and cultural boundaries.
International organizations need to assist and
incorporate their HR function to meet the
challenges they face if they want to create a
truly global workforce.
© Development Dimensions International,
Inc., MM. All rights reserved. Used by
permission from DDI. Not to be reprinted
either in part or full without express
permission of DDI.
The full report can be obtained from Rajiv
Krishnan, Managing Director, DDI India, at
rajiv.krishnan@ddiworld.com.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 91
 GLOBALLY YOURS …
LEARNINGS FROM TCS EXPERIENCE
CHARLES SAMRAJ

"Good, better, best; never let it rest till your good is better
and your better is best."

M
before
arkets demand greater
innovation. Changes occur
we comprehend.
from those closest to the processes
and the customers … from those
with their 'ears to the floor' … and
Competition is ever more nimble we need to get it right.
It's been a little over a
decade practicing HR …
… it's a war out there! Our Does it just stop with generating
stepping into the 'brave customers (specific to our internal ideas … what does it take to
new world' out of sprouts) have ever-rising transcend cubicles and
Loyola (Chennai) back expectations and demands. We geographies, needs and wants,
in 1995. Automobiles need new ideas, better processes,
was close to my heart … customers and counterparts, real
jumped the 'Hyundai' innovative products and services and the surreal in this great quest
bandwagon as a … we need more effective ways to of being 'truly' global … in work
Management Trainee … build and retain a future with our and in spirit!
overdriving to 'Ford' as customers … our 'employees'.
well. The Global HR Transformation has
A 'Function' which expects the been a little over a decade old
After quite an
automobile sojourn … management to provide 'all the [Fig.1] and the function is presently
moved to the much right answers' is juxtaposed with the imperatives of
IMPERATIVES
'happening' place … a passé. Today business … there is a great journey
Information Technology organizations Narrowing Focus
… and with much pride ahead … the lynch-pin is taking it
… to TCS.
require a steady Transitioning 'together' … being 'partners'.
flow of ideas Mobility
Presently, servicing the
Insurance Vertical with and solutions
end-to-end HR activity.
HR Metrics is my area
of interest.

Fig.1 [First Generation Transformation]*

We at TCS, have always led the 'talented' group … found better,

way … not just because we were
the first out of the block and we
didn't have a map to find places.
We set sail on voyage with a
'compass' at hand … discovered
new avenues, built 'lasting'
relationships … taking along a
surer and safer ways to move
forward … we 'JUST' set directions.
We have fervently redefined the
industry and set new benchmarks
be it Off-shore Delivery to the
Global Network Delivery Model;
from RandD to Co-Innovation,

92 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

from Learning to Talent Management. We had
envisioned a culture of 'diversity' and
'inclusiveness' - a fusion of the latest with the
time-tested.
The vision transcended borders and
businesses; people and processes; delivery and
destiny and poignantly our 'way of life'.
HR HR HR
Infrastructure Capability Solutions
First Generation HR Transformation
Next Generation HR Transformation
Fig. 2 [Transformation – First to Next]*
We have been tremendously focusing on the
'next' generation transformation [Fig.2]
Fig.3 [TCS HR Global HR Initiatives]
January
challenges and also worked on the risk
mitigates … whether the challenge is to find
new sources of talent or moving into new
geographies and markets; providing definitive
and sustained HR Solutions to global
imperatives. In tandem working on the
differentiators … were speed and agility
counts to achieve desired results.
Winning Ways … from 'Reality' to 'Certainty'
Our presence is almost everywhere … and it's
quite a formidable task to know everyone and
to maintain uniformity of processes and
practices. We've over the years built and
sustained an efficient and far-reaching HR
framework. With over 1,00,000 employees
spread over 55 countries … the task at hand is
mammoth … but we had been able to 'sustain'
and 'leverage' our growth and diversity
2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 93
enriching our 'people' fabric in an all-inclusive
… TCS way!
From International talent scouting to statutory
obligations, we have worked on seven
imperatives to help us 'stand-out' [Fig.3] … a
stocked shelf which spells uniformity,
accessibility and applicability.
I. Local Talent Scouting [International
Recruitment]
Be it our stand-out talent scouting exercises
… TCS believes in tapping local talent
wherever it has operations. In overseas
geographies, we have expanded our
recruitment initiatives in the last couple of
years, engaging in campus recruitment and
participating in career fairs organized by
various universities. This is coupled with
planned Academia Interfaces/programs that
help sustain the momentum and instil the
values of the organization as a social harbinger.
We had visited campuses … Arizona State
University, University of Wisconsin,
University of Missouri and University of
Nebraska and have set up an exclusive
Induction Facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
Australian
1.2% American,
Others,
10%
Indian
Others Uruguayan
8%
19.1%
8.5%
91.5% Mexican,
2% Chinese,
Hungarian
2% 11.2% Chilean,
19%
Fig.4 [TCS Employee Diversity]
Adding on the career fairs organized by
Harvard University, Rutgers University,
Purdue University, Wharton School of
Business, and University of Milwaukee helps
build brand value, and the stakeholders get
the 'feel and touch' of what TCS is and stands
for.
94 January 2008 NHRD
II. Plug and Play [Global Mobility]
As part of on boarding, a pivotal 'cultural
assimilation' activity happens to nurture
cultural sensitivity and adaptiveness among
its most valuable resources - its people. We
have facilitated meetups and discussions with
active participation from our long standing
customers to tide over initial 'cultural' hiccups.
The cultural orientation is imparted in various
stages in the Organization,
• Starting from Induction/Initial
training program [3 months residential
program] where 'Life Skills' are given
tremendous focus; this includes
modules on communication, team
work, code of conduct and cultural
diversity in work environments.
• Cross-cultural briefing session
facilitated by HR and Senior
consultants with a lot of experience on
the aspects of culture, weather, office
etiquettes, personal etiquettes and so
on. Each employee identified for an
overseas assignment is mandated to
undergo the activity.
• Welcome Kits Launched in Our
Brazilian,
15%
Global Intranet We have welcome kits
for every country and around 25
welcome kits for USA alone. An
British,
12.5%
employee getting deputed to a location
can login and read all he/she would
want to know about the new country/
location being visited, including details
like apartments, schools, transportation
options, grocery stores, etc.
• Cultural Integration Sessions and
Workshops This happens at onsite,
specific to a client, where we organize
workshops for the clients and our staff.
This often helps the clients and our
consultants understand each others'
culture better to integrate into an
Journal Vol. 2 No.1
 effective global team. We've partnered
with our customers to run exclusive
workshops to help them cope smoothly
with the challenges of working in cross-
cultural teams.
• Mentoring Any consultant deputed
onsite works under the 'mentorship' of
a Project Leader/Project Manager/
Relationship Manager who would
typically be a consultant with a lot of
experience working in that particular
country.
III. A Strong 'Single' Entity [Workforce
Integration]
Mergers and acquisitions create unique needs
that require a rapid yet well-considered
response.
We have had our share of challenges … and
each one help us stand taller and grow
stronger … we mitigated the risks involved
by facilitating - Transitioning activity for
Managers on the nature of change; Technical
and Soft Skill Training to cross-over shortfalls;
Family assistance program; Stress reduction
program; Meetups with counterparts; On
boarding; Role definitions; Post merger team
building activity and Employee Satisfaction
Surveys. This helps buy-in amongst 'existing'
employees as well as the 'incoming' employees
to settle down.
IV. One Stop Service [Standardization of
Policies]
An organization has to identify a common HR
policy and procedure manual which is not only
unique to each location but also caters to inter
location movements. It may sound 'first'
generational; but it has great say in moving to
the 'next' in terms of application and relevance.
We've retrofitted existing processes/policies/
procedures/guidelines/geography and unit
level business rules into over the arching
January 2008
Framework Core, to encompass all of HR
activities, as applicable in its operation,
anywhere in the world. The Framework, apart
from supporting multiple Key and Special
functions, will also allow for various Business
Units to operate independently with respect
to the HR function.
V. Leading Edge [Building Global Leaders]
One of the surest ways to retain competitive
advantage, HR professionals need to support
and build leaders who can face this challenge
head-on. Implementing a leadership
development program on a global basis offers
a unique set of challenges.
Clarity on why we need to develop leaders -
to conserve resources, effect rapid change and
ensure focus. Our drive to identify, groom and
place leaders involve; a top-down approach
with necessary alignment and consistency
across geographies pepped with inbuilt
cultural and pluralistic activity. To make it
interesting and happening, we do involve the
Customers [to template expectations and
demands]; the Recipients [to stake-up
involvement and ownership] and the Leaders
[top management buy-in]. This ranges from
zeroing down on the curricula, scouting
modalities, resource personnel, space for
home-grown leaders, exposure to a diaspora
across various sectors [the best around] … it's
one process that invokes a great focal thrust.
VI. Keeping the Comfort Zone Alive
[Retention Personified]
Three defining factors have helped us keep the
comfort zone going … build competencies;
engage at all levels [extending to families] and
multiple exposures. This is coupled with 'hand
holding' and buddy-ship for the first 90 days
… helping quicker assimilation, triggering
experimentation and finally experiencing the
results at work.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 95
 Fig.5 [Phases]
VII. Societal Harmony [Statutory
Obligations]
Sourcing to separation at any given point is
governed by various employment laws.
Minimum wages and social security clauses
may vary from country to country.
Representative bodies may have differing
bargaining powers; we might be stepping on
a mine field without noticing it.
Taking 'local' hands is the best way to liaison
giving enough impetus for better
understanding; we have a complete
familiarization activity of managers moving
in … specifically to HR Leads.
On 'Overdrive': the Way Forward
We had a glimpse of the global transformations
and the TCS way. There are definitive and
imminent focal points for us to dwell on and
stand sure in trying times. Working on aligning
HR to business priorities; revaluating HR value
propositions; building HR Competencies and
Skills and facilitating HR Mobility are the
'needs'. A quick one on the imperatives that help
fashion and fasten our sustenance …
96 January 2008 NHRD Journal
Imperative #1:
A Rush to Focus - Adapting to Continuous
Change and Anticipating Disruptive Change
To get the context and mould in place … we
need to 'Narrow our Focus'. This requires a
stable and reliable metrics system to set and
get directions; from attracting, managing to
retaining talent … from the mundane
employee transactions with the sub-sets to the
higher élans of mapping successors to front
line positions. We need numerics …
qualitative, accessible and easily decipherable.
The stage is set on a tripod framework; focus on
Business Objectives, focus on the Competitive
Environment and focus on Core Values.
Vol. 2 No.1
As we get the metrics in place, we need to
measure-up as well … the overpowering
activity of 'up-skilling' ourselves. We either
move on the treadmill or fall out. This forms
a very important part of the HR 'Cog' Wheel
[to be read on diagonals in Fig.6]
Fig.6 [HR Cog Wheel]
Skil(I)ed
‘The Armored Global HR
Professional’ … interwoven
with a plethora of skills …
assimilates, experiments and
experiences the ‘nitty-gritty’ of functions …
communicates and connects … stands
focused, provides direction, partners,
transcends, provides and replenishes …
talks and walks business … and yet keeping
his/her HR moorings oiled up and running.
Helping build an organization of the
future … skilled and skill-led!
The next interface as we get the metrics right
and the up skilling done is to learn the
'business basics' straight and clear … being
business savvy is the key differentiator in
becoming a forthright business partner in a
globally attuned organization. If we do not
January
understand business … we stand forgotten not
only as individual contributors … even as a
functional entity.
Concurrent research and studies have three
major pointers … real 'challenges' that needs
undue and sustained attention. The DNA of
the global HR professional needs 'mutated'
strains … a blend of business understanding;
definite focus on the means and end;
measurable and qualitative delivery and the
utopian pedagogy to do things 'differently'.
Imperative # 2:
Developing a strong Leadership Pipeline and
Identifying 'Successors' for Key positions
Managing 'High Potential' employees isn't a
rustic art nor can be listed as formulated
science. Aspiration, Ability and Engagement
are harbingers of success and keeping an
upbeat leadership pool would mean a greater
part of the 'future' stands sure.
The intersections are the areas of our
operation…a hunter's paradise with 'moving'
targets. The right mix of ability and aspiration
… involving 'scale-up' activities (training and
development) is the first step. Setting
expectations vis-à-vis available 'ability' is the
fulcrum and is to run in tandem with tailored
and well defined 'programs' to measure up
[definitely futuristic].
Fig.7 [HR Intersections]
2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 97
The next jamboree is to sustain two activities
on the same path … affirmatively 'engaging'
aspirations and abilities combined with a well-
oiled 'connect' exercise … up and running. It
is required to sustain and help steer the
imperatives to action. A word of caution …
even the best of 'web' and 'portal' services fail
if we do not take it 'face-to-face' … an effective
listening mechanism is a 'hygiene' activity to
help connect meaningfully and with results.
As we engage on a continuous basis, we are
building 'conscious' leaders that fit the mould
and requirement … who have been exposed
to the facet and the gamut of 'what would be
in store!' … a diverse and vibrant work group
that can take the organization levels higher …
win over competition … keeping values in
place.
'The Armored Global HR
Professional'…interwoven
with a plethora of skills …
assimilates, experiments and
experiences the 'nitty-gritty'
of functions … communicates and connects
… stands focused, provides direction,
partners, transcends, provides and
replenishes … talks and walks business …
and yet keeping his/her HR moorings oiled
up and running.
Helping build an organization of the
future … skilled and skill-led!
Imperative #3: Mobility and Fostering
Cultural Diversit
To reside 'wherever business happens' is a sure
ace … requiring a great sense of agility to the
demands of the market. We wouldn't stand a
98 January 2008 NHRD Journal
chance if we are not 'prepared' … to make
surprises and not to take many in return at
our very customers' courtyard. Being mobile
is a 'strong' mortgage to pull us through in
times of triumph and trouble.
This requires a well-planned 'program' that
can help hit the ground running.
A fervent acculturation activity with
shadowing; exposure to the 'laws of the land';
compliance and customer orientation add
spice to the effort.
As we crescendo, the 'next' generation global
HR profession is one who stands taller … at
no other point and time of history has HR
been vied as a function to "partner" … we
just stooped to 'participate'. It has been one
long transitioning and the blueprint of the
future is very much at hand. The HR
professional with the 'ears to the ground' …
anticipating and adapting to change, keeping
the throttle 'on' developing leaders and
engaging the workforce and fervently open
to being 'mobile' are differentiators … the
world is the stage … and we are to play our
parts 'together' as players and partners.
Vol. 2 No.1
 GLOBAL HR MANAGEMENT:
ARE INDIAN COMPANIES PREPARED?
VIVEK PARANJPE

This article deals with the challenges faced by the HR professionals in the era of
the globalization with a particular reference to the Indian corporations that are
becoming multinationals. It deals with the areas that HR will have to focus on as
it transforms to become effective business partner.

Vivek Paranjpe,
G lobalization existed for
several centuries in the form
of human migrations and
currently a leading
indepedent HR International trade. This became a
conslutant was earlier modern business phenomenon in
Director HR operations, the 17th century when the East
Hewlett Packard
Corporation, Asia
India Company, which is described
Pacific Singapore. He as the first multinational
has worked in India corporation, was established. The
with companies like high risks involved with
ICIM, HotelCorporation
international trade lead to the East
of India, Johnson &
Johnson and Hindustan India Company to become the first
Lever. He is a member company in the world to enable
of the HRD Committee joint ownership through the issuing
of Directors of Punjab of shares with an objective to share
National Bank and
Advisory Board of
the risks.
National HRD Network Even though several multinationals
and an advisor to the existed in the past, the concept of
Chairman of the
globalization did not permeate
Observer Research
Foundation. He business in the form as it exists
servesas Senior HR today until the later half of the 1990s.
Advisor to the Process of globalization supported
Conference Board. He is
by the technology is transforming
a visiting Faculty with
XLRI Jamshedpurand the way the business is done mainly
XIMR in HRM, HR since mid-nineties. With the advent
Planning, of internet the E-enabled business
BusinessPolicy and solutions meant new ways of doing
BusinessEthics. He has
authored twobooks and
business.
severalarticles. He is The business managers (line
apostgraduate from
functions) changed at a slightly
XLRIJamshedpur.
faster pace followed by the HR who
had to support the businesses to
become effective partners. Due to
the emergence of knowledge
economy and the rapid
globalization, today the HR
function is placed in the centre
stage of a corporation. Many of the
HR professionals are struggling to
come to the terms of the growing
sense of responsibility and the new
sets of expectations placed on
them. In many cases HR Functions
have yet to grow out of the
transactional roles to the more
strategic roles that are aligned to
the business. The HR functions
across all the corporations in the
globe are undergoing
unprecedented transformation. In
this transformation the HR
professionals are recreating or
reinventing the HR function to
support the business as true
partners, this really means
enhancing HR's contribution to the
business.
In view of the global competition
and associated pressures on
economies and stringent quality
standards the expectations from
HR professionals is on increase. In
a global corporation the HR
professionals are faced with several
issues like global compensation
including housing, goods and
services allowances, taxes etc.
Apart from these issues of
expatriates, there are immigration,
pensions, safety and security of

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 99

expatriates, spouse and family issues,
repatriation, succession planning and what
have you. These are all complex issues and are
generally given a shallow treatment. However,
some of the key challenges faced by the Indian
HR professionals or even may be the HR
professionals across many other countries in
the emerging global era are:
1. Creating and nurturing a culture for
creativity and innovation
2. E-enabled global services delivery
model
3. Managing across geography, business
and functional silos
4. Leadership development
5. Managing virtual workforce
Creating and Nurturing a Culture for
Creativity and Innovation
In a knowledge economy, creativity and
innovation are the backbone for the
corporations. Capitalism is all about creative
destruction wherein without innovation
survival is difficult. The products are hardly
the differentiators and they too have very
limited shelf life, the product life cycles are
shrinking at phenomenal pace. Different
geographies need to be dealt with differently
when it comes to products and services. In
today's era it is the services and unique
localized products that count along with the
IP that you own.
With globalization, the MNCs of today are
getting more and more vertical with more and
more centralization by each SBU and by each
function. Centralized organizations have there
own significant advantages and benefits.
However, it has its own downside. It is often
observed that the creativity and innovation has
almost become the monopoly of the head office
employees in a large number of Global
corporations. The focus on standardized
100 January 2008 NHRD Journal
processes and systems invariably leads to
people in geographies and far flung units
becoming the process operators/managers. A
centralized decision on who should even be
the local service provider at the geography/
unit level takes away the freedom. The
vendors and service providers are themselves
progressively becoming the global
corporations wherein the decisions to engage
them are made centrally. Dis -empowered
workforce can't have an innovative/creative
mindset.
Before the advent of the internet era in mid
nineties the MNC jobs were most coveted since
considerable freedom for innovation and
creativity existed. The local managements in
geographies and far-flung units were
sufficiently empowered to make their own
decisions and there was no Head office boss
breathing over the neck. Each unit evolved
their own processes/systems and showcased
them in the regional/corporate meetings as
best practices for others to emulate. In today's
context any deviation from the standard will
be almost like a sin. As a result of this in the
Indian context working for an Indian Multi
National Corporation at the head office is
becoming more and more attractive as against
working for a foreign MNC at the geography
level.
All this is coupled with the corporations
focusing on rewards that are linked to the
hardcore business objectives which are too
tight, giving very little room for creativity and
allowances for the failure. Modern day
corporations seem to have perfected the
science of giving accurate performance ratings
to the second decimal to its employees. It will
not be a surprise if one hears that the
performance rating of an employee was 3.84
on a 5-point scale. In this context how will there
be a room for creativity and accommodating
cultural differences?
Vol. 2 No.1
As Indian corporations are becoming MNCs
it is going to be a major challenge for the HR
professionals on how to balance governance,
take advantage of economies of scale thru
standardization of processes and systems and
at the same time not curbing the innovation
and creativity.
E-enabled Global HR Services Delivery Model
The transformation process that many global
companies have embarked upon involves
changing the HR operating model to achieve
optimum delivery. This is not only a cost and
an efficiency issue but also a necessity to
support the verticalized and virtualized Global
SBUs and other functions.
Global managers want to manage their own
workforce centrally; they have a need to
generate global reports to monitor their own
performance and track the health of their own
talent pool. Global managers want to
administer the salaries, reward people and
manage their development by each SBU. This
necessitates creating a central and a common
HRMS platform, global standard HR
processes, systems, and common programs
across all the countries. Standard HR processes
across the globe minimizes the possibilities of
creating the local solutions to cater to the
unique local needs. HR professionals are
always constrained by the global architecture.
Managing Across Geography, Business and
Functional Silos
The modern day large global corporations are
getting more and more complex. Managing the
matrix is a major challenge. The verticalization
coupled with centralization of the businesses
and functions has lead to curbing of the local
initiatives and creation of unique HR
programs that crop up within various
businesses creating issues of inequity.
If we look at this issue from the employee
perspective we will realize that the employees
January 2008
do not recognize the SBUs/function. They join
a full corporation with a hope to move across
geographies, functions and SBUs and thereby
grow both horizontally and vertically;
however, many of the corporations manage
themselves by each SBU. This leads to silos
which are difficult to break leading to
considerable dissatisfaction due to inability for
people to move cross business easily coupled
with differential rewards and recognition
programs within the same company and
different types of cultures that evolve across
each Business.
HR managers of Indian MNCs will have to
learn to deal with this complex matrix of
geography, units and SBUs as the Indian
corporations go global.
Leadership Development
In the global corporations leadership
development is becoming a significant challenge.
The entrepreneurial instincts amongst the
geography/unit leaders are almost suppressed
due to excessive focus on the standardization of
systems and processes across the company. The
MNC leaders at the middle and lower levels of
hierarchy are progressively moving towards
becoming more of supervisors and managers of
the processes rather than the owners of the same.
These process managers are expected to identify
and nurture the entrepreneurial leadership talent
which is paradoxical.
The MNCs need managers with global
mindset and cross cultural familiarization and
appreciation of the differences that exist. This
is coupled with the need to have diversity
amongst the top leaders wherein the
leadership team is representative of the
diverse societies within which the corporation
operates. There are two challenges that the
Indian MNCs will have to face.
The first challenge is the entrepreneurs who are
at the helm of the corporations. They will have
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 101
to develop appreciation for this phenomenon
and move from being the entrepreneur
managed corporations to becoming the
corporations managed by the professionals of
diverse backgrounds. This is easier said than
done, this means empowering the professionals,
learning the new ways of managing - form the
direct control to the management thru the
systems and processes and effective governance
mechanism. Even today many of the European
and US multinationals have not yet come to
grips with this issue in spite of being MNCs for
several decades. The top positions in these
corporations are still held by the home country
professionals. This issue of diversity will have
to be dealt with as early as possible by the Indian
corporations if they wish to become truly global.
The second and the most critical challenge is
the professional themselves. It is observed in
the US and European MNCs that have
operated so long is to get the expatriate back
home for senior assignments. The attractive
expatriate assignments which are very
lucrative are difficult to give up. In the process
the corporations lose out on the investments
that it makes in these executives to develop
cross cultural experience and hands on
management expertise in different
environments.
Managing Virtual Workforce
With the significant revolution in the
telecommunication and internet the
possibilities of the virtual teams that were
being conceptually thought of and discussed
in mid nineties have become a reality. The
concept of "If you can't move a person, move
the job to the person" has become a complete
reality. Lack of key talents in a given
geography and need to grow/creating
development opportunities for good
performers is leading to the need of creating
the virtual teams. In US multinationals it is not
uncommon to have most of your direct reports
102 January 2008 NHRD Journal
spread out across the borders. Managing
virtual teams demand very different skill sets.
This also means managing people across many
time zones, managing people of different
backgrounds, cultures and ethnicity in a
virtual world.
Apart from the technology savvy, it needs a
right attitude and behavioral pattern to reach
out to the virtual team members and engage
them. The traditional baby-boomers and even
many of the Generation X employees have
difficulty dealing with these issues. Question
that the HR professionals in the emerging
Indian MNCs are going to be confronted with
is how to ensure creation of virtual teams is
not resisted by the home country managers
and also if the teams are created, how to
develop leadership capabilities to managing
and engaging the virtual workforce.
Some Concluding Thoughts
As the process of globalization becomes faster
and faster the HR professionals in India will
have to transform HR function and move
towards becoming effective business partners
with few critical focus areas:
1. Streamlining the HR processes and
systems and viewing them as a business
is the need of the day. Ensure E enabled
efficient and cost effective HR services
across the corporation that are user
friendly and are appropriately supported
by the generalists and specialist to
support the business leaders.
2. Ensure creation of a corporate culture
that truly values diversity and is
focused on creating an inclusive
environment - a culture that has
minimal biases and stereotypes
wherein the people are able to fully
realize their full potentials.
3. Ensure creating an environment and
enablers for innovation in spite of the
Vol. 2 No.1
 need for institutionalized standard
processes and systems - existence of
appropriate rewards and recognition
mechanisms that will support the
creative and entrepreneurial instincts in
the people.
4. Developing right behavior, skills and
competencies amongst the HR
professionals appropriate for the global
environment. HR professionals of
today probably need to posses the same
level of business acumen as that of
business managers. They need to gain
credibility and respect within the
corporation thru positive contributions.
5. HR needs to have global human capital
strategy that utilizes human resources
across borders to ensure business
succeeds. A complete alignment with
business coupled with focus on
enhancement of the worth of human
capital has to be the main focus.
6. In this knowledge economy as we move
ahead there is going to be severe
shortage of competent HR
professionals both in India as well as
across the globe. India has a potential
to be the supplier of this talent due to
the English language competency and
the inherent adaptability and flexibility.
There is clearly a need for the
educational Institutions to prepare their
products for global HR roles.
January 2008
Summary
The HR functions across all the Corporations
in the globe are undergoing unprecedented
transformation. In this transformation the HR
professionals are recreating or reinventing the
HR function in order to support the business
as true partners, this really means enhancing
HR's contribution to the business.
In a global corporation the HR professionals
are faced with the several issues, however the
critical amongst them are
• Creating and nurturing a culture for
creativity and innovation
• E enabled Global services delivery
model
• Leadership development
• Managing the virtual workforce
The areas for focus for the HR professionals
in the global arena will be:
• Ensure E-enabled efficient and cost
effective HR services across the
corporation
• Ensure creation of a corporate culture
that truly values diversity
• Ensure creating an environment and
enablers for innovation
• Developing right competencies
amongst the HR professionals
appropriate for the global environment.
• HR needs to have global human capital
strategy.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 103
 A CONVERSATION WITH MOHAN DAS PAI
BIMAL RATH AND P V R MURTHY
T. V. Mohandas Pai is a Member of the
Board and Director - Human Resources,
Education & Research, and
Administration,Infosys. He joined Infosys in
1994 and has served as a Member of the
Board since May 2000. He served as the
Chief Financial Officer from 1994 to 2006.
In 2006, he voluntarily remitted the office of
CFO to lead efforts in the areas of Human
Resources and Education & Research.
He has been active in working with
regulators to improve the business
ecosystem. He was also a member of the
Kelkar Committee constituted by the
Ministry of Finance, Government of India,
for reforming direct taxes, the Non-Resident
Taxation Committee, and High Powered
Committee on e-Commerce & Taxation. He
is currently a member of the SEBI
Accounting Standards Sub-committee and
the empowered committee for setting up the
Tax Information Network. He also works
with the Union and State Governments in
education, information technology and
business. He is a Trustee of the International
Accounting Standards Committee
Foundation, the body that oversees the
International Accounting Standards Board.
He is working with governments and
decision-makers across India to improve the
quality of education and availability of
skilled manpower in India. He is involved in
Akshaya Patra Foundation, a project that
provides mid-day meals to over 450,000
children across India and aims to reach out
to one million children.
He has B.Com. from St. Joseph's College of
Commerce, Bangalore, and LL.B. from
Bangalore University. He is a Fellow
Chartered Accountant.
104 January 2008 NHRD
W ith the changing role of HR and Indian
companies becoming more global, what needs
to change in the HR manager?
HR has now become mainstream and part of corporate
strategy. In the 21st century companies are only going
to succeed if they are able to attract the best talent in
the market place and develop leadership which is
visionary. Today capital is freely available, markets
have become global and open and the only winning
formula is great talent and innovation. People make
the difference. In fact if you study the fortunes of any
great corporate today you will see that the
differentiating factor is the quality of the human talent.
Within corporations too in India, HR is being seen in a
different light. HR leaders are being invited to participate
in corporate strategy setting and execution. Their advice
is sought in many intricate issues determining the future
of the corporation. CEOs have realized that talent is
getting scarce and expensive and hence there is a greater
need to attract, empower and retain talent.
The role of the HR manager too has changed. He needs
to be a thinker, a person of conceptual ability, who
understands the working of the corporation and the
intricacies of the business, an innovator and above all
a person of vision, who stands on his own as a leader
in the business and nor a mere follower. He is a business
person with a deep HR perspective. Only those HR
managers who are able to cultivate or demonstrate
these attributes will succeed in climbing the corporate
ladder. The HR manager should have the capability to
be the CEO of tomorrow.
The role gets more complicated as corporations
globalize. Suddenly the framework and work content
extends to a larger plane. Now the HR manager has to
understand different cultures, how people think and
react in different countries, what motivates them and
what succeeds elsewhere. He should be able to build
an employee brand in new countries, be the
ambassador for his corporation and compete for talent.
It is a wholly different game globally.
HR manager has two fold role - one to reorient himself/
herself and also to prepare the employees as global
employees. The HR manager has to change his own
Journal Vol. 2 No.1
mindset first and develop different attributes
to be a global manager. As a corporate strategy
to globalize, I would support the attraction and
retention of talent to build a workforce, specific
for every country, and the creation of a cadre
of global managers who would be people of
different cultures and ethnicity, able to move
between countries and manage operations as
if they were people from the local country.
What would bind people across geographies
would be a common brand, a set of values and
a common aspiration.
In a global environment ,which strengths do
you think the Indian HR persons bring to the
table and which areas do you suggest they
need to re-orient themselves?
Indian HR professionals have yet to
understand the global environment of
business as a professional class. It is not easy
as the Indian market is itself so vast and
competitive and the challenges of operations
so immense. To be effective, requires a change
in mindset, exposure to business outside and
openness in thinking. It would be a great
challenge and in my opinion only a few are
ready today. Of course the Indian HR
professional brings great strengths, an ability
to operate in a fast changing and difficult
environment, an ability to manage crises,
exposure to great diversity and a hostile
regulatory environment; making him more
innovative, quick thinking and more
responsive. The reorientation needs to be in
the area of understanding global culture and
understanding what it takes to work with
systems and processes which allow for lesser
dependence on people. Most global
corporations run businesses on systems and
processes and there is a distinct lack of such a
culture in India where the operations are more
entrepreneurial.
What is the importance of multicultural
training/orientation before a person is sent
January 2008
on an international assignment? Does it
enhance the individual's performance in the
new location? Does this apply to HR people
as well in the same way?
The importance is that such training exposes
the individual to the challenges of working in
a different culture and orients him to
understand and appreciate differences and
bond with local people. It definitely makes a
difference as a person would be more ready
to operate and work. It applies to everybody,
more so to the HR professional as the HR
person is the soul of the company. It is
necessary too to ensure high productivity and
cohesion of views. Without training a great
majority of people sent on international
assignments would fail. Such assignments
entail a very large investment and the cost of
failure is high.
Can individuals/managers be themselves in
terms of cultural and ethnic orientation and
yet be effective in the new unfamiliar
conditions? What role does HR needs to play
in balancing this?
We need to understand that all of us have
multiple identities, which sometime work at
the same time. So long as we understand how
to wear this lightly in our interactions with
people we would be alright. If we let some
traits dominate in our interactions there would
be a challenge. A broad education and
exposure also helps. A study of history and
culture certainly improves ones capability in
the global environment. But his requires us to
think deeply and clearly. We can retain our
own culture and orientation in our private
space and when we interact with others, we
need to earn their trust and this can be only
done by making others comfortable. People are
most comfortable in their own cultures and
environments and this makes training and
proper orientations very important. HR can
play a role in balancing this by clearly defining
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 105
the work culture and expectations in the work
place so that a common set of variables apply.
HR can also help by articulating through case
studies how this can be done. Most of all a
multi-cultural HR team would demonstrate
the efficacy of such a orientation.
Do managers who go on short term
assignments adapt better in new locations
because their focus is work? What else do
they need to focus on? How can HR support?
Well, the only factor in favour of people who go
on short term assignments is that others may look
at them more kindly since their relationship is
translational. Adaptation is dependent on ability
and training. My personal view is that if the focus
is work only, the context does not change in the
short term as work implies the need for
interaction and the challenge of inadequate time
to make adjustments on either side. People who
go for short terms need some training too. HR
can again support this by setting the boundary
conditions for work and lending them greater
support
Typically how much time does a manager
take to be effective in a country abroad,
despite the cultural orientation/ training?
What are the typical do's and don't which
you/ your company focuses on?
The effectiveness of a manager is dependent on
both the individual's ability to adapt as well as
the organization's ability to provide the
necessary framework for adaptation. We
believe that we should provide our managers
with life skills so they can respond to a situation
rather than to a person. We at Infosys believe
in conversity. Conversity is a principle of
bringing together diverse nationalities, cultures
and ideas through focusing on common values.
More specifically, we offer Cultural Sensitivity
training, coupled with knowledge about the
new country - rules and regulations, common
dress code and a broad checklist of do's and
don'ts that definitely helps an individual to
106 January 2008 NHRD Journal
settle down. We also have a buddy system in
place where all employees that are travelling
for the first time to a new country can get much
needed advice and assistance before and
during travel as well as during the settling
down process.
What role does the HR function play in
educating and supporting the organization
regarding the changing role of organizations
and HR, and therefore the requirement of
different developmental approaches for
employees and managers?
With the increases globalization and the need
to push ourselves across boundaries, HR needs
to inculcate a sense of professionalism and
values in each and every employee. HR has to
move from being mere transaction providers
to being more strategic and driving business
to change. The fundamental organization
structures need to be challenged and reworked
to ensure faster and more effective growth. The
age old adage that one size does not fit all, also
applies to HR. Different approaches are
needed in all areas of HR in terms of Talent
Management, Recruitment, Retention etc. This
would provide the basis for creating and
retaining employees from across the
organization structure.
Hr also needs to be business oriented. While
HR has to retain and push the HR angle
understanding the business realities and
factoring them in would help build the
credibility for HR. Articulating a HR strategy,
creating appropriate structures, creating a high
performance work culture would build the base
on which differentiated development needs can
be set. HR is the only team which can do this.
What do HR professionals need to be
effective in a multi ethnic, multi cultural and
diverse workforce?
HR professionals reflect the culture, values
and beliefs of an organization. They are the
"face" of the company to the employee. They
Vol. 2 No.1
need to be sensitive to differences and be open
to unique ideas that different cultures bring
to the table. HR should create an open
environment. They should respond to the
transaction and not have any prejudices. HR
should standardize their approach to a
problem and this should be independent of the
geography that they operate in. HR should
walk the talk and lead by example. This is the
most effective way to demonstrate how this
can be done.
What do the HR expats need to acquire to be
effective HR professionals in India? How
would you go about balancing what they get
in versus what they need to learn and
assimilate them into the system?
Just as managers from India need an open
mindset, a broader view point and
understanding of globalization so do the HR
expats. They are no different from Indian HR
professionals who are sent outside. HR expats
bring with them a good knowledge of HR
practices and processes as the business
environment is more professional and
competitive. There is a greater body of
knowledge and research and training in this
area in their countries. They hopefully would
have worked with multi ethnic, multi cultural
and diverse work groups.
But in India, HR expats should first
understand the culture and language that is
used in the Indian workplace. They should
understand the local mindset and the touch-
points of the Indian employees. They should
be aware of the local labour practices and the
various compliances that need to be followed.
India is a vast country and each state has its
own unique characteristics. Diversity in India
is defined differently to diversity in the West.
A HR professional should not associate
practices and processes based on the Indian
culture of religions and cast. They should
understand that as a country, we are
January 2008
dependent on a network of relationships and
are not person independent in our processes.
They also need to understand that emotions
are deeper and aspirations are different.
Even though your roots are in finance
function, you have excelled as a HR
professional and also in a very short span of
time. What is your advice to the budding HR
professionals?
My advice is that one should be open,
transparent, collegial, and articulate in work.
A broad based education, general reading and
team spirit is important. Playing team games
creates a personality who understands how
teams perform and how one should sacrifice
self interest for the common good. An ability
to think logically based on data, an ability to
understand the impact of HR policies on
business creates the base on which one can
negotiate within any enterprise. One should
be exposed to various fields.
HR professionals should make an effort to
understand the business. They should convert
intangibles into tangibles like linking diversity
of the workforce to ROI. They should be aware
of how decisions are being taken and try to
make the qualitative details of HR more
quantitative. They should remember that the
emotionally engaged employee will stay with
the organization.
Most of all HR should understand that they are
dealing with real human beings, with emotions,
aspirations and passion. Empathy and
sensitivity is core to the HR function. Patience,
being a good listener, creating trust in others,
being innovative, and having problem solving
mindset are critical. Courage is essential to
create bonding with others as this would make
people understand that HR is for people and
HR would always put people interest first.
In this century, HR is the differentiator
between success and failure in business.
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 107
 A CONVERSATION WITH CHUNKATH GEORGIE
BY RATI MANSINGHKA, NOKIA, INDIA
W ith an overall perspective on
the changing role of HR and
Indian companies becoming more
global, what needs to change in the
HR manager? And do you see
Indian HR professionals as
effective in a global environment?
What are the strengths they bring
Currently responsible
to the table and what do they need
for Human Resources
Function for Asia to re-orient?
Pacific region for Nokia From the perspective of Indian
Siemens Networks.Was
responsible for
companies, in the last few years, a
Operational HR lot of companies are going global
function for Nokia for through mergers & acquisitions.
seven countries within They require HR professionals with
South East Asia & South
international exposure to handle the
Asia, with around 2000
employees. In addition, M&A issues. Purely Indian
held strategic business companies are therefore looking at
partner role for Mobile HR professionals with international
Phones, Enterprise exposure. A trend I find is that the
Solutions, Technology
Platforms and Business
number of Indian HR professionals
Infrastructure and with global exposure is not many.
Corporate functions for Indian companies should send more
APAC.Georgie has rich
of their employees outside India to
experience with
L&T,Eicher Tractors get the much needed international
,Unilever before joining exposure. Going forward, the skills
Nokia. Graduated in and competencies required in HR
Chemistry and is
professionals today are more M&A
Masters in HRM from X
LR I, Jamshedpur, skills (due diligence, etc.). Even the
India. most traditional industries are going
through Change Management
initiatives. To take an example, Tata
Motors has also been going through
M&A and so HR plays a strategic
role in developing the right
competencies and managing
massive change.
The strength that Indian HR
professionals bring to the table is
their in-depth understanding of the
Indian side of business. Also,
Indians, backed by their fine
communication ability, are able to
108 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2
adjust to newer cultures more
easily. Since childhood itself they
learn to adjust to difficult situations
and therefore the cultural
adaptability is very high. India
itself is a fairly culturally diverse
country and therefore people are
accustomed to embracing different
culture and lifestyles.
In the recent years a trend seen
among the Senior HR managers is
that they do not want to move
outside India to work. The
standard answer is always that
India is the happening place and
therefore why move abroad! With
competitive salaries and promising
opportunities, India is really the
place of action and thus it would
not be value adding to work
outside of India. This mindset
needs to change. We need to
understand that we should learn
from other countries and accept
their best practices.
What is the importance of
multicultural training/orientation
before a person is sent on an
international assignment? Does it
enhance the individual's
performance in the new location?
Does this apply to HR people as
well, in the same way?
Yes, multicultural training is
important because different
gestures, body language and
responses could mean different
things in different countries. For
example, when I moved to
Singapore, I realized that the tone
of people here is very different
from those of India. Indians tend
to talk a lot but Singaporeans do not
No.1
talk too much. Similarly during a conversation,
Indians expect a lot of response whereas
Singaporeans do not respond or talk much.
They rather find that Indians talk too much.
Multicultural training is important for
everyone going on an international assignment
but is crucial for HR professionals because they
have a lot more interaction with people. The
interdependence on others for work/projects
etc. makes it important that HR professionals
build good relations and interact with the new
environment as much. And for this
appreciation for other cultures is the key.
Can individuals/managers be themselves in
cultural and ethnic orientation and yet be
effective in new unfamiliar conditions? What
role does HR needs to play in balancing this?
Fundamentally the person need not change
much. What he needs to do is, to be more
patient in understanding the behavioral
nuances of locals of that country. People might
get evaluated wrongly if their body language
is misunderstood. Simple things like a
"namaste" or a "handshake" could make a
difference in relationship building. HR has to
support the line managers well. HR should
make them aware of the cultural differences
so that they become more sensitive to how
their body language will be understood.
Do managers who go on short term
assignments adapt better in new locations
because their focus is work? What else do
they need to focus on? How can HR support?
It is becoming increasingly difficult to say what
is short-term or long-term assignment. The
approach that I am working for short-term and
I need to be task-focused and not focus on
building relations or adjust much to the
environment is detrimental. For instance, I
went on a 2-year contract but now I have been
in Singapore for 11 years.
January 2008
HR has to play a consultative role and should
encourage people to focus not just on tasks but
also on relationship building. There are a lot
of informal networks in organizations and all
the work can't be done by formal use of power,
and organization position but by relationships
and knowing people becomes key to getting
work done. Unless you start interacting with
other nationalities, you aren't really becoming
a manager with international perspective and
skills. If one sticks to the Indian community
overseas then he is not getting a taste of
different cultures.
Typically how much time does a manager
take to be effective in a country abroad,
despite the cultural orientation/training?
What are the typical do's and don'ts which
you/your company focuses on?
About 3-6 months is usually a good time for
an individual to adjust because in most cases
it's not just location change but also a change
in role for an individual. Also it is not the
person alone but the whole family that has to
adjust. One is socially uprooted in such cases
and has to make place in a totally new
environment with a new set of people. Family
adjustment is very important, spouse getting
a new job, children adjusting in new school,
etc., could be a challenge and this plays a key
role in the overall adjustment and success of a
person working abroad.
In Nokia Semiens Networks people move
overseas very frequently due to projects and
they are encouraged to interact and build
relations with people in different countries
otherwise managing people from diverse
nationalities and backgrounds could be a
challenge.
What role does the HR function play in
educating and supporting the organization
regarding the changing role of organizations
and HR, and therefore the requirement of
NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 109
different developmental approaches for
employees and managers?
HR has moved up the value chain over the
years by outsourcing all the transactional
activities and taking up more consultative and
high-end roles. Alongside even the
expectations of the line people have to be set
right. The perception of HR and the
expectation that line functions have from HR
must be in line with the same. They need to
understand that some of the activities which
are traditionally considered as HR's job will
make more sense, if done by them. For
example motivating the workforce should be
done by the line managers.
What do HR professionals need to be
effective in a multi ethnic, multi cultural and
diverse workforce?
A lot has been said before. Also the fact is that
communication is a two-way process and it's
not only important to say things but also to be
understood in the same manner. Sensitivity to
local behavioral nuances is crucial for clear
communication and good relations. Where HR
can really add value is by picking up these
softer aspects from the environment and being
sensitive to applying them in their behavior
and coaching others on the same.
What do the HR expats need to acquire to be
effective HR professionals in India? How
would you go about balancing what they get
110 January 2008 NHRD Journal
in versus what they need to learn and
assimilate them into the system?
HR Inpats often believe that the HR practices
in their country are much more advanced as
compared to the ones in India. Whereas
Indians believe that the practices that have
developed in India are more advanced and
thus to prevent a conflict situation it is
important to be patient and respect the
practices in different countries. What one
needs to do is to learn from others and become
better. Even in terms of educational levels, we
need to understand that the standards for each
country are different. The kind of skills we
expect in MBAs (post-graduates) in India is
what graduates of other countries have and
might be hiring MBAs in India.
Also inpats need social adaptability in putting
up with infrastructural problems, such as
power failure and traffic jams which they might
not face in their country. Initially they might
find that their planning of the tasks lined up
might go wrong because they do not know that
6 kms could take an hour to cover in India due
to traffic jams but eventually instead of getting
frustrated about it, it would be better to move
on with it. People who understand that it's a
different part of the world; things will be
different and want to enjoy what is available
here, adjust better and are successful. They need
to appreciate the skills and culture in India.
Vol. 2 No.1
 BOOK REVIEWS
The Next Global Stage-Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World by Kenichi Ohmae
Wharton School Publishing
Pub. Date: 2005
ISBN: 9780131479449
The Next Global Stage by Kenichi Ohmae is focused on the various challenges and opportunities
greeting the borderless world. Ohmae's earlier books include The Mind of the Strategist, the
Borderless World, Triad Power, Beyond National Borders, and many others.
Divided into 3 parts and into 11 chapters, The Next Global Stage helps readers understand the emergence
of the global economy with all its implications for the countries and corporations. Ohmae clearly
differentiates the global economy marked by the blurring of the national-states into what he describes
as region-states, from the new economy ushered in many years ago by the technological revolution.
Ohmae makes a strong case that the world has changed substantially over the last two decades and
"different times require a new script." He seeks to offer this new script.
In Part I, Ohmae takes the readers through a world tour showing some of the areas of explosive growth and identifies some
of the characteristics of the global economy. He further supports his point of view in this chapter by examining the failure of
traditional economies and economists to make sense of the global economy. In the world tour, the author takes us for a
speedy ride into various region-states, including Dalian in China, Ireland emerging as the e-hub of Europe, and Finland as
fountainhead of innovation. Global economy is described with the characteristics that include (a) being Borderless, (b) Invisible,
(c) Cyber-connected, and finally (d) Measured in Multiples. The global economy is also marked by a bunch of new economic
paradigms that include (a) prosperity and riches are not dependant on existing wealth citing the examples of Ireland and
Finland - both were part of others' empires and both experienced devastating famines, but are currently in the forefront of
the global economy; (b) Size no longer matters-old paradigm used to be traditional obsession with a view that a corporation
has to have a substantial domestic market before it could be successful internationally. Again, Nokia from Finland is quoted
by the author as an example to prove this point. Less than 1% of Nokia's sales in 2003 came from Finland.
Part II of the book deals elaborately with the rise of the region-state. A region-state is not a political, but an economic unit.
It is a unit for creating a positive virtual cycle according to Ohmae, and it is the engine of the global economy. The author
explains that the growth of technology has laid strong foundations for the global economy in two ways. Firstly, the impact
of technology on the money market and secondly, through the Internet, how technology is redefining the concept of market
and the types of relationships that businesses must be prepared to develop. He elaborates the technology impact through
the power of platforms. Success in global economy demands possession of a platform and Ohmae deep-dives into such
platforms as Language (English, for example, as a global language), Brands (Coke, Microsoft, IBM, Marlboro, Nokia, GE, for
example), a Global Business Culture, the ATM & Smart Cards, the GPS and the like. Ohmae also devotes considerable pages
to explaining how BPOs have emerged as a platform for the global economy.
Part III is fully focused on the new script that the global economy would demand from the major players including the
government, institutions and even the individuals. He is posting a set of questions that governments have to ask themselves.
The agenda Ohmae sets out for governments include certain fundamentals like
• It must empower individuals • It must invite capital from the rest of the world • It must maintain an even keel
A powerful example is made of Singapore Government which unveiled an ambitious plan called IT 2000 in 1982 meant to use
computer technology to boost the Singaporean economy. A National Computer Board was established and computer literacy
was promoted at all levels of education and work. Internet was leveraged to introduce an e-society throughout the country.
Having achieved the IT 2000 goals five years ahead of the schedule, the government privatized this initiative. The same was
the case with respect to the Port Authority of Singapore. A government creature, it achieved the desired increase in business
passing through Singapore's port and other major logistical successes and since then it has also been privatized.
Ohmae makes a powerful case that at the individual level global economy calls for learning to adapt, discarding the holy
cows including the notion of job or career for life. To quote the author, "People will have to learn to be lifestyle managers….there
are many opportunities for personal development, but they will not to be delivered on a plate."
For the corporates, Ohmae's prescription includes the following: A root-and-branch rethink of marketing methods and the
customer must be reborn as the most important agent in the business. Much as the global economy is borderless, the companies

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 111

may well be homeless. Corporations must commit to innovation as never before and innovation in the global economy should
take place in 4 areas such as business systems, products & services, customer interface and people practices.
The New Global Stage concludes with a postscript where Ohmae clarifies that on today's global stage, we can no longer
define Competitors, Company and Customers in a straightforward way. So, the strategy definition based on the good old
three C's will have to give way to new way of strategy development. It really depends on how the strategist sees it and
carves out his business domain as his battle ground. Ohmae makes it amply clear that we need to nurture future business
leaders in the same way as we develop world-class athletes and artists.
Ohmae's New Global Stage is a must grab and a very compelling read to anyone interested in understanding the global
economy, what it means and stands for and the changes needed at the levels of individual, corporate and the government.
Book Reviewed by C. Mahalingam, Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services Corporation.
International Human Resource Management
Chris Brewster, Paul Sparrow, and Guy Vernon
CIPD Enterprises Limited May 2007 320 pp
The revised edition (2007) is quite timely as the borders between various countries are gradually
disappearing. Country specific specialized HR practices like employment statutes are getting
strengthened. Common HR practices due to factors like cross border movements propelled by
uneven distribution of talent, increasing globalization are emerging. A branch of HRM, namely
"International Human Resource Management," is becoming a scientific study. This book on
International Human Resource Management fills such a need.
The book provides a very good birds eye view as well as an in-depth perspective on IHRM,
including analysis of developments from the Pacific Rim, China and India.
Covered under 15 chapters and clustered in five parts, it addresses some of the important facets of
International HRM as follows:
International Human Resource Management: Introduction
PART ONE: NATIONAL CULTURES
The Impact of National Culture, Culture and Organizational Life
PART TWO: COMPARATIVE HRM
Theory and Practice, The Role of HR Departments, Recruitment and Selection, Reward, Training and Development,
Flexibility and Work-life Balance, Communications and Employee Relations
PART THREE: INTERNATIONAL HRM
International HRM: Theory and Practice, Managing International Working, Managing Diversity in International Working
PART FOUR: NEW DEVELOPMENTS AND THE ROLE OF THE HR FUNCTION
HR and Global Organizational Capability, HR and Business Process Outsourcing
PART FIVE: MANAGING INTERNATIONAL HRM
It will be an excellent reference material for postgraduate/undergraduate students specializing in International HRM. Based
on sound theory, the chapters contain the latest international research, and case studies. The book addresses international
and comparative HRM by analysing core areas of HRM from a global perspective.
While there is great emphasis in the book on dimensions like national cultures and their impact on organizational life, the
book could be a ready-reckoner for global HR managers by addressing issues like country specific statutes covering employment/
work permits and provisions for retiral benefits/social security.
Book Reviewed by David Nallathambi, Director, Human Resources, Alcatel Lucent India Ltd.

112 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1

January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 113
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116 January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1
 APPEAL TO CONTRIBUTORS
The National HRD Network publishes a semi-academic quarterly journal-each issue dedicated to a
theme. Publications so far include on the themes "IT Enabled HR" ,"Performance Management",
"Attracting and Retaining Talent", " Career Management" and “Organizational Change”. The current
issue is on the theme "Global HRM".
The plan for the ensuing issues is as follows:
NHRD Journal
Global HRM Date of
Volume 2 Issue 1 Jan. 2008 Publication Theme Guest Editor
April 2008 Women in Business Leadership Roles Dr. Uma Ganesh,
July 2008 OD Dr. Gopal Mahapatra
NHRD Network Board Members OCt 2008 Strategic HRM Dr. Udai Pareek
Special lssue Employee Relations and Statues Mr. P Dwarakanath
Aquil Busrai, National President, ED-HR, IBM India Limited, Special Issue Leaming and Development Mr. C Mahalingam
Dwarakanath P, Immediate Past National President, Director-Group Human Captial, Max Iindia. Jan 2009 Managing Generation -’Y’ Dr. S.Chandrasekhar
Santrupt Misra (Dr), Past National President, Director Aditya Brila Group April 2009 Leadership Mr. N.S. Rajan
July 2009 Institution Building Mr. S. Varadarajan
Anand Nayak, Regional President-East, Head HR, ITC Ltd. Oct 2009 Assessment Centres Dr. T.V. Rao
Gopalakrishna M, Regional President-South, Director Incharge, A.P. Gas Power Corporation Ltd. Jan 2010 Building Collaboration at Work Mr. Yogi Sriram
Satish Pradhan, Regional President-West, Executive VP Group HR, Tata Sons April 2010 Work - Life Balance Dr. C. S. Venkataratnam
Rao GP, Regional President North, VP- HR, JK Tyres
Varadarajan S, National Secretary, Executive VP & CHRO, Quatro The journal publishes primarily three categories of articles:
Ashok Reddy B, National Treasurer, VP- HR, InfoTech Enterprises
Satyanarayana. K, Executive Director, National HRD Network  Conceptual and research based
 Contributions from thought leaders including a limited number of reprints with due permission
Editorial Panel  Organizational experiences in HR interventions/mechanisms

Bimal Rath, Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific, Nokia, SIngapore.
(Guest Editor for this issue)
Dr.PVR Murthy, CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants, #8, Janaki Avenue,
Off 4th Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600018 Email: pvrmurthy@clickitjobs.com
Aquil Busrai, Executive Director, Human Resources, IBM India Limited, DLF Infinity Tower A,
5th Floor, Gurgaon 122 002, Haryana, India, Email: aquil.busrai@in.ibm.com
Dr.Pallab Bandopadhyaya, Chief People Officer, Cambridge -Asia, #33,Coconut Grove, 18th Main, 6th
Block Koramangala, Bangalore-560095 India. Email: pallab.bandyopadhyay@cambridge-asia.com
Editorial Advisor: Prof. S. Srinivasa Rao (Formerly faculty of IIM, Ahmedabad and Editor of Vikalpa)
Publisher, Printer, Owner and Place of Publication
K Satyanaraya, Executive Director, on behalf of National HRD Network
506, Sai Siri Sampada, 7-1-29/23&24, Leela Nagar, Ameer Pet, Hyderabad 500 016
Tel : +91 (40) 2374-2429, E-mail: nhrdyd@eth.net
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Kala Jyothi Process P Ltd, 1-1-60/5,RTC 'X'Road, Musheerabad, Hyderabad 500020
(The views expressed by the authors are of their own and not necessarily of the editors
nor of the publisher nor of authors' organisations)
@Copyright of the NHRD Journal, all rights reserved.
Contents may not be copied,emailed or reproduced without copyright holders
express permission in writing.
Request you to suggest potential contributors or e-mail original articles in MS-Word, not exceeding
2,000 words, accompanied with an abstract of about 100 words, a brief profile of the author, and a
passport size photograph to: pvrmurthy@clickitjobs.com.
Following style guidelines are recommended:
1. Use British spelling.
2. Indicate figures in thousand, million and billion.
3. Use parenthetical reference in the text. Examples: (Loveman 2003, 54).
4. For the end references, use alphabetical order (last name first) and complete all
bibliographical details.
Examples:
Loveman, Gary. 2003. Diamonds in the data mine, Harvard Business Review, 81(3), May, 54.
Watson, Tom Jr. 2003. A business and its beliefs: The ideas that helped build IBM. New York, NY:
McGraw Hill.
Rothwell, W. 2005. Reinventing the exit interview as a tool for succession planning and management.
In V. V. Ramani (Ed.), Succession planning: Insights and experiences. Hyderabad, India: ICFAI
University Press. (pp. 126-132).
ITe. 2006. ITC's rural development philosophy-echoupal, ITC website accessed on 15 April 2007, at
http://www.itcportal.com/ruraldev_philosophy/eChoupal~htm.
NHRD firmly believes in and respects IPR and we appeal to the contributors
to strictly honour the same.
For any further clarifications, please Contact :
The Editor Dr. P V R Murthy,CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants,
#8, Janaki Avenue, Off 4th Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600018.,
Email : pvrmurthy@clickitjobs.com
Editorial Team (NHRDN)
 NHRD Journal

NHRD Journal
Global HR Management
Globalisation-Making a Difference
Jan 2008 Volume 2 Issue 1
NS Rajan
Challenges of Global HR Systems Implementations
Nina E. Woodard
Managing a Global Organization:
Focus on Leadership and Business Partnering
Global HRM
Giri Giridhar
Towards Global HR - An Equal Challenge for all Global HR Professional
Sripada Chandrasekhar
Managing Across Borders : the HR Challenge Becoming a Global HR professional
Inder Walia Nancy Reisig
Preparing Talent for the Global Environment: Success Mantras for the New Age Global HR Professional
HRD for Emerging Multinationals Uma Ganesh
Lisbeth Claus Indian HR Professionals and the Challenges of International Assignments
The Science and Art of Global HR Management Deepa Balaji

Global HRM
Soma Mohanty What makes a successful Global HR Professional?
The Globalization of Human Resource Practices R.Sankar
Sheila M. Rioux, Paul R. Bernthal, and Richard S. Wellins Global HR Professional in a Globally Adaptive Organization
Globally Yours...Learnings from TCS experience Mukund Menon
Charles Samraj Cross-Cultural Understanding for Successful International Interactions
Global HR Management: Are Indian Companies Prepared? Renu Mattoo
Vivek Paranjpe Has the Global Indian HR Leader Arrived?
A Conversation with Mohan Das Pai Shabbir Merchant
Bimal Rath and P V R Murthy Role of Perspective in Global Human Resources
A Conversation with Chunkath Georgie Lorelei Carobolante
Rati Mansinghka What it takes to be a ‘GLOBAL’ HR Professional
Book Reviews K P Dutta
The Next Global Stage- Challenges and Opportunities in our Leadership Excellence Attainment Determinants (LEAD)
Borderless World by Kenichi Ohmae, Sethu Madhavan. P and Yehya Al Marzouqi
C Mahalingam Global HR Challenges - for the HR Professional and the Function
International Human Resource Management by Chris Brewster, Paul Chandrasekhar Pingali
Sparrow, and Guy Vernon
Jan 2008 Issue

David Nallathambi More Articles and Book Reviews on Back Cover

A quarterly Publication by the National HRD Network A quarterly Publication by the National HRD Network

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