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Smriti Krishna (43/10)

Section A


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Practices related to companies· performances vary across cultures and geographical boundaries.
This piece of the Harvard Business Review on ´How the best Indian companies drive
performance by investing in peopleµ highlights the way Leaders of highly-regarded Indian
companies focus their energies and how their practices are different from their western
counterparts.

To discover how Indian leaders drive their organizations to high performance, research team
interviewed 98 of the largest India-based companies like Infosys, Reliance Industry, Tata,
Mahindra & Mahindra, Aventis pharma etc. They give credit of their success not to their
strategy or financial markets or mergers or acquisitions but to their employees. Unlike the
Western counterparts Indian companies make aggressive investment in employment
development and strive for high level of employee engagement & openness. Leaders of the most
successful companies do engage with their country, culture and employee and believe in
investing in their people.

Vineet Nayar, CEO of Indian IT service giant HCL have a strong believe in the motto of the
company which is ´Employees first, Customers secondµ. Employees used to evaluate their
bosses & bosses· bosses which were being posted on the firm·s intranet.

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p Our survey revealed an important difference between Indian and Western companies·
leaders in how they focus their energy. Indian leaders prioritize their key responsibilities as:

1.p Chief input for business strategy

2.p Keeper of organizational culture
3.p Guide, teacher or role model for employees
4.p Representatives of owner and investor interests
According to the priority stated by Indian leaders shareholders is given forth place whereas
shareholders is number one concern for U.S. executives. This low ranking of shareholders is
held for global companies as well which are exposed to international capital markets and even
listed on U.S. stock exchange. Although Indian leaders give intense focus on culture and human
capital they cite strategy as their top priority.

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p As have stated earlier employees are the most precious asset of Indian companies and
they believe in investing in their employees. However, motivating the employees and provide
them the job satisfaction helps the organization improve its efficiency. It is done in four specific
ways:

1.p Creating sense of mission: The best of Indian companies have a social mission and a
sense of national purpose because it helps employees find meaning to their work. The
companies are developing Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and it is becoming a
reputational asset of a company.

2.p Yngaging through transparency and accountability: Indian leaders build employee
commitment by encouraging openness. Company looks after the interest of the
employees and their families and in turn wants the same. Vineet Nayar has employed
360 degree review for managers. In this process the reviews are taken from the boss, the
co-workers and also from the subordinates.

3.p Ympowering through communication: company give opportunity to the employees to

communicate their grievances, suggestions and appreciation to the management. Such
communication helps building employee involvement with the company and also helps
in sorting out many problems faced by the company.

4.p Ênvesting in training: 25% of the new hires in United States are not given any kind of
training in first 2 years of employment whereas Indian companies takes an aggressive
 approach to training. Indian IT Industry provides new hires with about 60 days of
formal training. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has a seven-month training program
for science graduates in addition TCS gives a formal training of 14 days every year.
Business process outsourcing and call centers provide 30 days of training while retail
companies require 20 days of training. Pharmaceutical company, Dr. Reddy·s
Laboratories put outsides hires through a year training program.

The article gives an overview of the performance analysis and energy focus of Indian
Companies in contrast to Western counterparts. Most of the best Indian companies unlike
western companies invest a huge amount in their employees and consider it as the reason of
their high performance. Very true, giving incentives to the employees and time to time rewards
and recognition leads to better job satisfaction among the employees which hence increases the
productivity and efficiency of the company and decreases absenteeism.