Human Resources

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 16 apr 2015

Using technology to bring social change and improve people's lives is a challenging task. 'One-size-fits-all' approaches to implement technology strategies may not be effective and provide expected results. There is need to have proper context, clarity of purpose and supportive environment to fulfil the promises that technology intends to bring for the well-being and welfare of the society. Professor Kentaro Toyama of University of Michigan, in his latest book 'Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology', argues that technologists undermine efforts at social progress by promoting 'packaged interventions' at the expense of more difficult reforms. Prof. Toyama has worked extensively in India and launched various projects that sought to use computers and Internet connectivity to improve education and reduce poverty. Following are selected excerpts from his Q&A session done by Brian Bergstein, deputy editor of MIT Technology Review - • 'There are already several randomized, controlled trials of schools with and without One Laptop per Child. Generally, what most of these studies show is that schools with laptops did not see their children gain anything in terms of academic achievement, in terms of grades, in terms of test scores, in terms of attendance, or in terms of supposed engagement with the classroom.' • 'I think it's perfectly sensible for parents to want a certain amount of exposure to technology for their children, both as a form of explorative play and as a way to get them used to technology that they'll undoubtedly encounter later in their life. I think the fundamental error people make is that, therefore, we should have the computer be the primary instrument of education for all children...I think one of the issues is we tend to think of education as being the content. We overemphasize the importance of content, as opposed to emphasizing the part that's really difficult in any good education, which is adult-supervised motivation - the motivation of the child to learn something.' • 'If you measure some positive benefit in the technology case, your conclusion is that technology helped. But it was always the people that we worked with, the partners that we chose and the people on the ground who interacted with the people that we wanted to support. All of those human factors were required for the technology itself to have an impact; whether the technology helped or not was really up to people.' Read on...

MIT Technology Review: Putting Technology in Its Place
Author: Brian Bergstein

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 mar 2015

The consistent growth of 'Business Process Outsourcing' (BPO) industry over the last years in India have now transformed it from a simple outsourcing utility to a mature and innovative sector. It is currenty often termed as 'Business Process Management'. This transition has also affected the human resources employed in the industry. There is a trend towards niche expertise and more specialization. According to Muralidhar Teppala of Genpact Headstrong Capital Markets, 'Business Process Manager' is a profile that will be in high demand in the BPO/ITeS industry in 2015. Similar sentiments are echoed by Manuel D'Souza of Serco Global Services, 'As more and more companies realise the impact effective business process management can have on business performance and profitability, the demand for qualified business process managers will continue to grow.' Experts suggest following required skills for effective business process manager - (1) A good blend of communication skills and technical competence like computer proficiency & knowledge of Six Sigma, Total Quality Management etc. (2) Embracing growth and learning. (3) Critical thinking and problem solving. Read on...

The Economic Times: Must have skills to be a business process manager
Author: Neha Singh Verma

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 13 mar 2015

'Make in India' concept has the potential to do for manufacturing sector what economic reforms of 1991 did to the information technology industry (IT services & BPO). Jugaad is an inherent Indian trait to find a fix or an instant solution by applying unconventional and non-standard processes. According to Banmali Agrawala, president & CEO of GE South-Asia, 'The Make in India campaign has been getting a lot of jugaad reaction, particularly in the case of capital goods, to raise import barriers and to go around World Trade Organization norms to impose forced localization. Jugaad is at best a stop-gap measure. To move forward, encouraging creativity and innovation at an affordable price point through serious research and development must become the cornerstone of this campaign.' He points out factors that drive global investments in manufacturing, namely domestic demand, skilled workforce and efficient governance. He further explains and analyzes these three factors in Indian context and concludes - India's domestic demand is modest, requires thrust from government spending, support through competitive financing for exports, production efficiencies and quality output at competitive prices; India have skilled workforce but to leverage its full potential needs focus on innovation, research, design, engineering and high end of value-added manufacturing. Indian companies have to invest more in such manufacturing related activities; Although India has strong institutions in place but there is room for improvement in achieving better and efficient governance with transparency and predicability. Read on...

Livemint: Making in India beyond jugaad
Author: Banmali Agrawala

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 mar 2015

The pharmaceutical industry in India and around the world is one of the fastest growing industry with a total revenue of about US$ 3 trillion. Indian pharma industry's revenue in 2013 was US$ 12 billion and is primarily driven by exports in the regulatory and emerging markets. India has 20,000 pharma companies and 60,000 distributors and large number of big and small retailers. Marketing is one of the most critical component of pharma industry. Continuously chaning business environment due to strict regulations, policies and guidelines have driven companies to adopt innovative ways to expand their customer base and stay ahead of the competition. Pawan Chaudhary, CMD of Venus Remedies, provides his perspective on the evolving aspects of the pharma industry, marketing strategies to survive in the dynamic and competitive environment and the future challenges that the industry faces. According to him, Patent Act of 2005 has shifted the approach of most pharma companies from merely generics to branded generics and towards R&D orientation. They generally spend 8-10% of their total sales on marketing related activities to properly position and promote their products. Due to highly specialized nature of his company's products, he explains the following tools that are used for effective marketing - Key Opinion Leaders (KOL); Webinars; Expositions; Conferences/Seminars; Social Media; Continuing Medical Education (CME) Programs. According to him the challenges faced by the pharma industry are - Rising costs of research and development with 8-10 years of time and US$ 800-1000 million investment to successfully develop a new chemical entity; Increasing regulations and drug policies like National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPA) to reduce prices of essential medicines. He suggests that companies now need more agile, smarter and smaller marketing teams and field staff. They have to focus on new drug development and competitive pricing strategies to provide best value to customers. Read on...

The Financial Express: Art and science of pharma marketing
Author: Pawan Chaudhary

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 feb 2015

Entrepreneur mindsets are key to create innovative and thriving businesses. India's entrepreneurial ecosystem is in its formative stages to attract young minds and provide them with tools, skills, environment and market to succeed in both technology and non-technology businesses. Chirag Kulkarni, serial entrepreneur and CEO of C&M Group, has interacted with around 500 founders who are building startups and noted some often repeated beliefs that seem to be a cause of concern. According to him the following 5 mindsets have potential to hinder the progress of Indian startups - (1) We can't do anything unless a VC invests in us. (2) I need to follow an existing model of success. (3) We can't build a successful company, unless we move to Silicon Valley. (4) Screw marketing, business development, culture, and anything other than engineering, sales, and operations. (5) We don't have the potential to be a billion dollar company. Read on...

VentureBeat: 5 mindsets that may hinder Indian startup success
Author: Chirag Kulkarni

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 feb 2015

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship are important constituents of the business ecosystem and play an important role to build a thriving economy. Entrepreneurs take risks and channelize resources to create products and services, and develop businesses and organizations taking them in the direction they consider would generate profits for the stakeholders. Entrepreneurs need skills, both inherent and acquired, to build lasting and successful businesses. A. K. Mishra, Founder and Director of 'Art of Success', provides set of specific skills for entrepreneurs to succeed in a competitive and dynamic business environment - (1) Creativity (2) Teamwork and Determination (3) Functional Knowledge of Business (4) Risk-Taking Capability (5) Patience. Read on...

The Financial Express: Entrepreneurship skills required for 2015
Author: A. K. Mishra

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 jan 2015

Last year India became the first country to pass CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a law that requires corporates (Net Worth of Rs 500 crore or more; or Turnover of Rs 1000 crore or more; or Net Profit of Rs 5 crore or more) to compulsorily spend 2% of their net profits on social development annually. Recently PM Narendra Modi made 'Make in India' concept as part of government's policy and program to encourage and boost local manufacturing industry and make it a global hub. There are steps that are expected to be taken by the government to promote skill development among the youth to fulfil this mission. According to National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) the growing skill gap in India is estimated to be more than 250 million workers across various sectors by 2022. NSDC is a public-private partnership (PPP) initiated for skill development. Corporates can support the skill development programs and projects as part of their CSR activities. This collaborative approach will be a win-win for government, businesses and public, as it develops skilled workforce for companies, jobs for the unemployed and thriving economy for the nation. Read on...

Forbes: Skill Building through CSR: The Catalyst for 'Make in India'
Author: Vishesh Agarwal

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 nov 2014

Project managers play an important role in meeting important performance indicators in a project. According to PMI's talent report, approximately 9 million new project management roles are predicted to be required by 2020 in India. As project management is a continuously evolving field, thus to be an effective project manager requires both hard and soft skills that should be regularly updated and upgraded. Vara Prasad Rongala, Founder & Managing Director of Invensis Technologies, suggests following essential skills for project managers: Hard Skills - (1) Knowledge of latest technologies (Cloud, Big Data, Analytics, Mobile, Social, Business Intelligence) (2) Knowledge of agile methodology (Agile project management brings aspects like continuous improvement, team contribution, scope flexibility, delivery of quality products and maximization of customer value into focus) (3) Knowledge of program and portfolio management (These practice areas facilitate selection of projects that are aligned with strategy, deliver optimal return on investment and enable organizational growth) (4) Knowledge of new Project Portfolio Management tools (PPM tools facilitate financial and operational overseeing of projects, standardization, measurement, governance and process automation). Soft Skills - (1) Leadership skills (2) Solution-seeker (3) Astute decision-making (4) Communication skills (5) Good learner. Read on...

Business Insider: Essential Skills Of Project Managers In 2015
Author: Vara Prasad Rongala

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 oct 2014

Strategic roles in businesses are often considered to be of functions like sales, marketing and finance, while human resources (HR) is mostly thought to be lacking the strategic outlook. HR has generally been associated with implementing processes and managing employee relations. Research study published in Jan 2013 by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a professional association for HR management professionals, showed that nearly 18% of business leaders are unaware of HR's contribution to business strategy. Moreover 18% say that senior HR professionals have no involvement in business strategy at all. But this is probably going to change as most companies consider their 'talent' as strategic advantage and recent discussions are revolving around HR's ability to influence business decisions. According to global study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2012, 70 per cent of CEOs want their HR directors to be a key player in strategic planning. Some of the strategic HR roles that can drive business direction include where to invest in resources and top-level talent issues, such as leadership development, and how to develop and manage the talent pipeline. Anubhav Srivastav of PeopleStrong HR Services, suggests in detail possible ways in which this can be achieved - Understand the business; Leverage the power of data; Technology and change management; Match strategy with action. Moreover HR can also outsource some of their traditional transactional activities like payroll, compliance, document management and query management, that will leave them with more time for strategic considerations. Read on...

The Hindu: Why HR needs a role in business strategy
Author: Anubhav Srivastav

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 sep 2014

The recent study by Pitchbook Data, based on the funding data between 2009 to July 2014, number of startups and analysis of educational backgrounds of over 13000 founders globally, observed that IIT's (Indian Institute of Technology) are among the top 10 of world's most entrepreneurial universities, with 264 entrepreneurs, who have founded 205 companies and cumulatively raised US$3.15 billion. On the basis of total capital raised, at the top is Stanford University (US$ 3.51 billion) and at the 2nd spot is taken by Harvard University (US$ 3.23 billion). According to Sangeet Paul Choudary of Platform Thinking Labs, 'Less than 2 percent of the applicants get selected, and less than 0.1 percent make it to a top rated branch like computer science or electrical engineering, which is where most of tech-related entrepreneurship and VC activity takes place.' The study by Kauffman Foundation found that 33.2% of all companies founded by immigrants in the US had an Indian co-founder. But a different point that should also be mentioned here is that IIT's are not able to make a higher global mark on the academic basis with most of them being ranked between 351-400, according to The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2013-14. Read on...

QUARTZ: Why India's best tech schools produce more entrepreneurs than the Ivy League
Author: Nelson Vinod Moses

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