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Ahmedabad March 30, 2014

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RAMESH AND GARGI (A)1
Ramesh Sharma, the head of Learning and Development (L&D) at Chrysalis Pharmaceuticals,
had enjoyed his lunch meeting with the Human Resources (HR) head of a large retail company,

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but he drove back to his office with mixed feelings. He was both happy and unhappy at the
same time; happy because he had options to fall back on if he decided to quit Chrysalis
Pharmaceuticals, and unhappy at the thought of leaving his dream job. Chrysalis
Pharmaceuticals, a large multinational drug manufacturer, had set up shop in India in 2009 and
had its corporate headquarters in Chennai, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Ramesh had been handpicked by its CEO, Raman Murthy, and vice president of HR, Kamla
Saxena, to head the L&D department. Kamla had been Chrysalis’s third employee and Ramesh,

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its fifth. Chrysalis had grown from strength to strength in the last four years, had set up
manufacturing plants in four cities in India and currently employed 1,200 people. During this
period, Ramesh had partnered with Kamla not only on the onboarding, training and career
planning of new hires but also on putting in place sound HR policies and practices. However,
the last six months had been strange and discomforting, and he was unsure of the messages he
was receiving from Kamla.
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When Raman and Kamla invited him to interview for a role at Chrysalis, Ramesh was elated
that his potential had been recognized. He had worked at a large oil company in all the
divisions of HR for more than 15 years. The organization employed 25,000 people across 15
locations and had complex HR systems and processes in place. An alumnus of the Personnel
Management and Industrial Relations (PMIR) program of Xavier School of Management (XLRI),
Ramesh had stayed on in his first job and risen to become the deputy HR head there. Raman’s
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vision and Kamla’s positive energy had attracted Ramesh to Chrysalis. Having worked so long
for a large and bureaucratic process-driven organization, he felt he was ready to work for
change and to test his abilities in an entrepreneurial culture. Implementing the same old
practices in the same, predictable environment was becoming a tad tedious.

Now, driving through the streets of Chennai, he replayed the sequence of events of the last few
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months in his mind, but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to comprehend what had
happened and how he had arrived at this point. It was in August, about seven months earlier,
that he had first met Gargi Sinha, a young MBA graduate from the Tata Institute of Social
Sciences (TISS). He had bumped into Gargi and Kamla in the elevator. Kamla introduced Gargi
as a new Chrysalis recruit who would join the L&D department and have the additional
responsibility of handling corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the company. Ramesh was

1 Names of the company and characters in this case have been disguised for reasons of confidentiality. The case is
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based on an actual situation.

Prepared by Professor Neharika Vohra, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Professor
Snigdha Pattnaik, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.
Cases of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, are prepared as a basis for class discussion.
They are not designed to present illustrations of either correct or incorrect handling of administrative
problems.
© 2014 by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

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taken aback; he had neither requested an additional team member, nor had Kamla mentioned

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anything to him about a new hire during their frequent meetings. His four-member team was
functioning well and was able to service the needs of the organization, or so he had thought.

Gargi followed him into his office and made herself comfortable, rather too easily Ramesh
thought. She talked animatedly about how excited she was to be part of his team and her ideas
for training women and setting up diversity initiatives and wellness camps for employees of

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different age groups. She told him about her experience at Microsoft, which she had joined
straight out of college and where she had worked in L&D for three years. Gargi also mentioned
that Kamla had spotted her at a “women in industry” seminar two weeks earlier and had
approached her about joining Chrysalis. To his astonishment, Gargi told him that Kamla had
informed her that building a diversity and inclusion initiative was an area of requirement for
Chrysalis. It was the first he had heard of it.

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Gargi further volunteered that she had taken a brief sabbatical for her wedding, after which she
had moved with her husband to Chennai. She had no plans of returning to Microsoft and had
thus accepted Kamla’s offer to join Chrysalis. Gargi added, “I liked Kamla very much and was
excited about working with her on the diversity and inclusion initiative. The meeting happened
at the best possible time.” Ramesh was somewhat disconcerted by her openness and
informality. Kamla wanted her to devote about 60 percent of her time to setting up the CSR
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initiative, Gargi continued. Ramesh felt a wave of relief that he would not have to work with
her all the time.

Gargi was ebullient, dressed in western clothes, mostly in bright colors, laughed easily and
loudly, and seemed to have no inhibitions. Ramesh was impressed with her confidence and
articulateness. Gargi appeared to be very well informed about Chrysalis and its HR processes.
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Kamla must have spent time with her and briefed her well about the organization, he thought.
Ramesh was a little startled when Gargi abruptly got up to leave, mumbling something about
running late for a meeting that she had set up with the finance and production heads.

In his meeting with Kamla the following day, his plans to talk about Gargi’s onboarding
remained unfulfilled because Kamla spent the whole time praising Gargi, talking about what a
great catch she was and how much convincing she had had to do to persuade her to join the
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team. Kamla said that Raman had been impressed by Gargi and her resume, and thus had been
enthusiastic about bringing her on board even though there were no immediate plans for her.
She wound up the meeting by asking Ramesh to help realize Gargi’s potential. Ramesh came
out of the meeting gasping, as though he had been punched in the stomach; he felt blindsided.

Gargi walked into his office the next morning, without an appointment, to talk about her plans
for setting up a virtual women’s forum on the company intranet. She had already secured
Kamla’s approval and had a discussion with the Information Technology (IT) department. One
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of Ramesh’s team members, Fiona, had also chipped in and developed some content for the
webpage. Ramesh had the distinct feeling that he had boarded the slow train while Gargi flew
past on the express. Events seemed to be unfolding around him at a terrific speed, while he
could only watch. He congratulated Gargi on having gotten so much done so quickly and
offered his help if she should need it. In an attempt to familiarize her with the way things were
done at Chrysalis, Ramesh explained to her that the culture of his team was to discuss a new

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initiative with the team before starting work on it. He told her how, in the past, several new

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ideas had been improved and embellished with additions from the other team members. Gargi
readily agreed to the value of working in teams. She also added that the idea for a women’s
forum was not part of L&D. Ramesh was left feeling unsure of what message Gargi had
received.

Over the next few weeks, Ramesh’s peers spoke appreciatively of Gargi to him on several

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occasions. Vikram Agarwal, the head of finance, praised Gargi for her understanding of the
balance sheet and the detailed and relevant budget for CSR that she had presented to him.
Vikram had joked, “Gargi will be my assistant in helping you understand the ’cost’ of L&D in
HR language.” Ramesh was taken aback to hear the notoriously hard-to-please Vikram praising
anybody and was unable to appreciate the joke. Then, during the monthly executive committee
meeting, Raman made special mention of the diversity and inclusion initiatives that were being

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developed by L&D. Kamla had beamed knowingly at Ramesh.

Ramesh could count several instances in the last few months where he had heard about a new
diversity and inclusion initiative only when it had been launched or just before its formal
launch. He bristled as he recalled the time he ran into a former colleague from his previous
organization while shopping with his family at the department store, Westside, one evening.
She spoke enthusiastically about the panel discussion she was going to be a part of the
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following day at Chrysalis and praised him for making progressive strides in the area of
women’s leadership. Ramesh had not known how to respond. He tried hard to maintain a
poker face and not reveal that this was the first time he had heard about the event. To his
surprise, he found himself saying, “It must have been Gargi’s idea. You will meet her
tomorrow. She is very talented and a high performer.” His wife was baffled by his sudden
change of mood as he dragged his family home from Westside, effectively putting an end to the
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anticipated shopping and movie outing.

The next morning, Ramesh checked his inbox, not expecting to find any information about the
event. He saw that Gargi had marked a copy of the event flyer to him as information. Her email
had been sitting unopened for the last three days. He had not attended to the email because it
had not been specifically addressed to him. He had been busy with something else and had
only opened emails that were directly addressed to him or were marked urgent. Gargi’s had
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been a general email.

He realized this had been a pattern with Gargi. She always copied him and Kamla on her emails
about her various activities and plans but never approached Ramesh to discuss them or seek his
advice or suggestions. On the few occasions that there had been a discussion of her activities at
a team meeting, Ramesh’s recommendations had not found their way into the final plan.
Ramesh, on the other hand, discussed everything with Kamla and valued her perspective. He
believed that it was important that any major activity concerning L&D be discussed by the
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whole team; good ideas had emerged when they had planned collaboratively.

The following morning he went to Kamla’s office intending to tell her that he really did not like
being surprised about things that were happening in his department. “What did you think of
the diversity and inclusion discussion yesterday?” Ramesh began. “It was very good. It is about
time we started these initiatives,” was Kamla’s reply. “As the head of L&D, do you think I

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should be involved in the planning of such activities in the future?” Ramesh asked, tentatively

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broaching the topic of Gargi’s running-with-the-ball tendency. “By all means,” replied Kamla.
Encouraged, Ramesh remarked, “Oh, Gargi does not often discuss these things with me”. But
Kamla was pressed for time; she had forgotten that she had a meeting to attend. “Why don’t
you just sort it out with Gargi? Give her space and teach her about the culture of the place,”
Kamla suggested as she gathered her things. She also observed that, at the end of the day, he
must be pleased with the excellent work being done in his department. After all, it was for the

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benefit of the organization. Kamla told him how pleased she was with the rapid progress the
L&D department was now making. It was obvious to Ramesh that she was proud of Gargi and
appreciated her very much. Kamla was usually not very effusive in expressing her feelings;
however, in this case, there was no hiding the fact that Gargi had become her favorite.

Gargi was hardworking and focused on her responsibilities and was independently able to

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handle complex tasks. Since CSR was a new inititative, she reported directly to Kamla and the
head of finance, Vikram, for 60% of her role. For the remaining 40%, she reported to Ramesh. In
casual conversations with Vikram, Ramesh had tried to gauge his assessment of Gargi. Vikram
had been noncommittal. He would only say that CSR was a new initiative and he was waiting
to see how it would unfold. Ramesh often heard Gargi’s loud laughter across the hallway and
wondered how Kamla could be so enamored by her. Kamla was a reserved, no-nonsense,
conservative woman.
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Ramesh had observed that Gargi maintained very erratic timings. He had sometimes found her
logged in at 4 am and missing during the day. She would travel to various locations on
diversity and inclusion or CSR business without informing him. At Chrysalis, the culture was
informal and self-driven. People planned their own work schedules. Informally, however, team
members would let each other and their leader know their general whereabouts.
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Gargi was also often unavailable for regular L&D activities and had once refused to coordinate
an event that he had organized for senior management on strategic planning, saying that it was
not part of her role. However, he also noted that she was able to garner the support of members
of his team for some of her events. Apart from Fiona, who was the senior L&D coordinator with
20 years of experience, his team comprised of Debjeet and Saurabh, who looked after regular
technical training programs for the operational staff, and Naresh, who worked closely with the
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marketing head and was in charge of training medical representatives. Ramesh’s team had run
like a well-oiled machine, with its members supporting each other, building on each other’s
ideas and pitching in for each other. They had worked seamlessly in delivering L&D’s agenda.
They also had had a culture of mutual respect, of keeping all team members in the loop,
decision making by consensus and striving for excellence.

Ramesh noticed that Fiona and Gargi were spending more time together. They would take tea
and lunch breaks at the same time. On a couple of occasions when Naresh and Debjeet had
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raised the subject of Gargi missing meetings or not seeming like a team member, Fiona had
discouraged further discussion. Ramesh worried about the impact Gargi may be having on the
team. Lately, Debjeet had uncharacteristically asked for permission to come in late or leave
early a few times. Naresh had started a new initiative for medical representatives, which
Ramesh only came to know about from the marketing head, Abhinav Sood.

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Ramesh recalled that whenever he had taken his annual mandatory three-week vacation in the

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past, Kamla would call him several times to discuss various issues she was facing. Being on the
phone with Kamla had kept him in touch with what was happening in the organization and
made it easy for him to slip back into work on his return. However, during his most recent
vacation, Kamla had not called him once. When he had called Fiona a couple of times to remind
her of some deadline or other, everything seemed to be going perfectly. Ramesh wondered if
Gargi’s presence had something to do with this state of affairs. When he spoke to his wife about

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his misgivings, she pointed out that he had taken his vacation during his lean period that year.
In the past, he had vacationed in the summer, when more L&D events took place. Ramesh
dismissed his wife’s observation and continued to feel left out during his time off from work.

On Kamla’s recommendation, Gargi was selected to coordinate the “Great Places to Work”
survey for Chrysalis. Chrysalis was participating in the survey for the first time, so a lot of

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legwork was required to compile all the necessary information. Gargi worked hard to collect the
data and present it to the visiting team. A week before the results were to be announced, Raman
received an advance copy of the results, which included a special mention for Chrysalis for its
diversity and inclusion practices. The company was also named the “Most Promising New
Entrant” in the list of Great Places to Work. Delighted, Raman forwarded the letter to all the
division heads and arranged a celebratory dinner for them.
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Ramesh was surprised to see Gargi at the dinner. She was neither a division head nor senior
enough to be invited. With her lively manner and friendly personality, she endeared herself to
everyone there. Ramesh saw her chatting familiarly with several senior people. He was sure she
was meeting many of the division heads for the first time. There would have been no reason or
occasion for her to have met them before this event. He was impressed by her ability to connect
so easily with people. Raman made a speech congratulating all those present and made a point
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of applauding Gargi’s hard work, which had made it possible for Chrysalis to receive this
recognition.

When he went to congratulate Gargi in person, he found her in a serious conversation with
Kamla and Raman. They were asking her about her comfort with other aspects of L&D and her
possible interest in expanding her role. Ramesh felt certain that he had overheard a
conversation that was not meant for his ears and quickly walked away. He felt deeply
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unsettled, and, on an impulse, left the party soon after without having even congratulated
Gargi. His wife was surprised, and more than a little concerned, to see him return from the
dinner so early without having eaten. He had been unable to explain to her how and what he
was feeling. Neither did he tell her that on his way back home, he had answered a couple of
pending messages from headhunters.
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copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860