How, where and when did you start your career in HR?
After completing my MA in Social Work (MASW) in PM & OB (1982-84) from Loyola College Chennai, I had the unique opportunity to teach my immediate juniors as Associate Professor in the same department. Teaching no doubt was interesting but I felt the need to be “hands on“ and hence joined the English Electric Company of India Limited (became part of Alstom and now GE ) as their first ever MT-P&A, truly an inspiring start; naturally I was quickly groomed to handle multi-disciplinary roles ranging from recruitment, training, industrial relations, labor disputes besides entrusted with the responsibility as Editor – the youngest ever – of the House Journal (EE-Family). The most remarkable achievement was winning a few labor disputes, unheard in the history of the company, due to sheer determination and working closely with highly reputed legal counsels, providing right information at right time.
Why did you choose HR as your field?
I always love challenging the status quo, politely but firmly. When I did my BA in Literature from Loyola College, Chennai (and having been conferred Gold Medals and several accolades in co-curricular activities), I was told that only Bachelors in Commerce (B.Com) graduates could get seats in MASW – and only those especially specializing in Personnel Management.
I wanted to change this misconceived notion, as the minimum qualification then was that any graduate could apply and not necessarily those with B.Com. Therefore, I applied for MASW and was selected to undergo the course and thus became the first ever Literature student to get into HR. Naturally, my (Humanities) background helped and helps even today. So why did I choose HR ? Because it was denied to a section of students and I wanted to remove this arbitrariness and paved the way for self and the Gen Next thereafter.
Describe the initial years of your career.
I would consider my initial five year stint at English Electric (1984-1989) as the rock solid foundation, which has given an all round exposure to me to various facets of HR, and more importantly in gaining the confidence of top management.
All this did not come easily; one has to walk the extra mile – even during odd hours. For example, during my first Diwali after marriage (called Thalai Deepavali), I was at the factory at midnight displaying the notice of suspension of manufacturing operations on the following day. When my first child was born, I was away in the High Court getting an injunction order against the agitating workmen and the union, for free ingress and egress of men and material including finished goods. On the developmental side, I would proudly say that we were the first company to sign a 12(3) settlement not just for improved wages, working conditions and productivity but also for a workmen career development plan, a quarter century ago.
When I decided to change my job for better prospects, I joined the Swedish MNC Wimco, followed by short successive stints in Korean and Chinese MNCs wherein I could establish sound personnel systems and more importantly transparent production incentive schemes, removing arbitrariness. Thus, I created a truly win-win environment for the businesses and people.
Having left English Electric and having experimented with a few stints as mentioned above, I decided to come back to reputed MNCs. When Hindustan Lever Limited (currently HUL) was setting up its Green Field wool on sheep skin tannery near Neyveli in Tamil Nadu, as part of its Exports Division in technical collaboration with Sawyer of Nepa, California, I became their natural choice. I worked closely with the technical team from the US and facilitated dream ramp up of the project, achieving global productivity and quality in record time with focus on “Think Global & Act Local“ by hiring talents who are trained in traditional tanning from the renowned Gandhigram Institute in Dindukal, near Madurai.
I also ably handled the pressures from local political and vested interests firmly and thus became the obvious choice for HUL to head HR for all their units (Detergents, Personal Products and Beverages) in Pondicherry, in addition to the acquired units of erstwhile Pond’s India Limited. I enjoyed this role – something like a mini Regional Role, interacting with Business Heads of various Product Lines and thus was actively involved in supporting greenfield projects, achieving record productivity, signing productivity linked settlements, introducing world class practices in manufacturing like TPM and integration of TOMCO and Modern Foods Units in the southern region. What was unique in implementing greenfield projects was that I tried to follow a first things first approach.
There were huge external pressures, naturally for an ethical company like HUL, and by then I had become the external face of HUL at Pondicherry, I had to face enormous pressures from the bureaucrats and political leadership. I took all such pressures in my stride and upheld the ethical principles of the company by being straightforward, transparent and consistent in my approach to one and all using humour occasionally, like saying, “We are constrained and hence can’t help (bribing you) but please use our Lux soap to wash your hands (sin) after receiving help (bribe) from others,” and thus adapted a unique approach which can be termed “Fair and Lively”.
While handling labour relations too, I always followed the fair and firm approach but with utmost empathy. When workmen decided to ‘gherao’ me as part of ongoing agitations one day, I never called in the security or Police, but came out of my cabin, saw hundreds of workmen toiling in the sun and told them that they can continue their ‘gherao’ but under the shades of the nearby trees.
I slowly walked through the crowd towards the tree and sat under it. The agitation could not continue for more than 5-10 minutes, as soon as the first eye contact was made. In fact, it was laughter that broke out that day than violence.
Thereafter, Go-Slow, Sit-in-Strike, Token Strike and Indefinite Strike etc came to an end with the signing of a Good Conduct Assurance Bond by the workmen as part of the 12(3) settlement signed before the Labour Department, and thus created history in the sphere of industrial relations. Even today (nearly after 15 years) I am being quoted by a few socially conscious workmen, which I value most than the promotions and career advancement that one usually is proud of.
What might be described as the best moment of your HR career?
Post HUL, I had a two year stint (2002-2004) in TVS Electronics based at Chennai, as Head- Employee Relations, wherein I learnt Six-Sigma and CAP (Change Acceleration Process) of GE, as we used to be their preferred supplier of UPS for one of their business division, GEMS (GE Medical Systems) besides TQM from JIPM, exemplary welfare orientation of TVS culture and key lessons including interpreting personnel policies (if in doubt, interpret in favour of employees) and dignity of labor (we used to clean workers’ toilet on May Day). I also signed the Wage Settlement Agreement with the INTUC-led Union.
During early 2004, when Sterlite Industries India Limited (Now part of Vedanta Limited) was on the lookout for GM-HR, for their Copper Division based at Tuticorin, my inner voice directed me apply for the same and there was no looking back since joining them in April 2004. I was astonished at the size and scale before joining and surprised by the simplicity and humility of the management, post joining and more importantly the relentless focus on empowering young talents. Having quickly established core HR function and figuring as one of the top ten companies in HR metrics in a business magazine’s survey, I started contributing passionately in other functions like TQM, CSR and PR as well as bringing several laurels.
All of you must be aware of Post-Merger Integration. But in my own way, as a passionate HR professional, I volunteered to experiment an unique Pre-Merger Integration exercises in the employee relations space, when Vedanta was in talks with the Government of Zambia to acquire their Konkola Copper Mines. Though invited as an observer for one of the Executive Committee meetings in which discussions on the above was taking place and when every other members were updating status regarding their respective stakeholders, I raised an unconventional question as to whether the trade union of KCM had been taken into confidence.
When the answer was obviously a big no, the Chairman did not waste a single minute and gave me unstinted support to go ahead with what I felt was the right thing to do. I invited KCM’s Under Ground Mining Manager (where huge expansion was planned), HR Head of KCM and a few representatives of KCM’s workers’ union to India and took them personally to all our strategic Mining and Smelter locations from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu and arranged exchange of views/best practice sharing sessions with local management teams. This sent a strong signal that “we are willing learn from each other” and enabled smooth integration soon thereafter.
The competency based assessment and global leadership program piloted by me in the copper business became the model across the group companies soon thereafter. I too had unparalleled career growth, becoming VP-HR and Sr.VP-HR in the Copper business and eventually moving to Mumbai as Head-Corporate HR in September 2007.
That was when the then top management picked me from down south and entrusted me with the prestigious role of Global HR Head for the entire Vedanta Resources Plc. I was also inducted as a Member of the Executive Committee and subsequently got elevated as President – Group HR, driving strategic HR initiatives such as leadership hiring, revitalizing performance pay and long term incentive schemes, implementing HR scorecards across group, senior management compensation and employer brand building besides improving diversity across levels. I also actively supported my overseas HR colleagues at KCM-Zambia, Anglo-Zinc facilities at South Africa, Ireland and Namibia besides Copper mines at Australia.
As a pragmatic HR head, I supported CEOs of various businesses like Copper, Zinc, Iron Ore and Aluminium keeping a unified approach for HR across businesses but not necessarily maintaining uniformity. This helped us to leverage strengths of each other and not be constrained. We at Vedanta headquarters, always believed in getting connected at grassroots level; I travelled extensively with Navin Agarwal, Vice-Chairman, to all our locations across the globe and ensured that we spent adequate time with a cross section of employees over and above routine business reviews.
What I am really proud of is that we could improve diversity not only at entry level but at leadership level too. We used to conduct exclusive workshops for women professionals with Anil Agarwal, Chairman to inspire women to occupy leadership roles. I really cherish the moment- when I received feedback from Vedanta’s Global CEO, Tom Albanese while getting relieved from Vedanta on 31 May, 2015. He said, “Thiru… I know you have a passion for people’s development and alignment with the company, but you also have a heartfelt commitment to integrity, something I’ve deeply appreciated.” This aptly described what I stand for.
I assumed my current role – primarily influenced by the ever inspiring quote of Late Lala Lakshmipat Singhania “We seek a society which is proud of its past, conscious of the present and full of hope for the future- a society where every citizen would be equally conscious of its rights and responsibilities”- as President-Corporate HR for JK Organisation (EZ) based at New Delhi from June, 2015 providing Strategic HR inputs to our group companies – entities such as JK Tyre, JK Paper, JK Lakshmi Cement, JK Fenner, JK Seeds, Umang Dairies, GST, CLINRX, JK Risk Managers and Insurance Brokers and the prestigious JK Lakshmipat University. While my previous role at Vedanta was quite challenging, my current role at JKO is extremely interesting as it offers more than a century old cultural heritage to count on and naturally a few legacy issues to battle with. While building on the existing systems in Talent and Performance Management, I am now focusing on revisiting the decade old competency framework and employee engagement index besides revamping campus hire, inducting high quality mid career profiles from reputed B-Schools, CXO succession planning and a few select processes as part of Top Ten CHR Priorities and thus gearing up for Vision 2020.
In addition two major annual events like Udaan 2015-2016 and HRM Conference 2016 were given a complete facelift like measuring Agility Quotient as pre-requisite for making presentation on the Udaan 2015-2016 theme,” Building Competitive Advantage for JKO through Innovation and Agility ” and encouraging participants of the annual HRM Conference 2016 on the theme, ” Reimagining HR – Leading Change for Future Ready JKO ” to reach out to Best Practices on the sub-themes and present during the 3 day conference held in Feb.2016 wherein highest ever number of external speakers ( 14 eminent personalities including 5 women professionals ) inspired the participants to take the HR Best Practices to the Next Level.
How have your experiences transformed you personally and professionally?
I learnt that ‘Learn ability’ has nothing to do with your education and job profile/designation. When I attended a yoga program conducted by Isha Foundation along with general public nearly two decades ago, the person sitting next to me – an ordinary cycle-rickshaw puller progressed faster than I could. This, I would say, reinforced my belief in humility further.
At the professional front, on a lighter note, I would say I am yet to achieve self-actualization or reach the summit of my Mt Everest. However, I can say I have experienced, if not selfactualization, a fulfilling moment professionally when I got a call in early 2015 from an individual whom I had terminated a few years ago. The above individual seemed to have had an impression that I may be looking for greener pastures outside Vedanta and asked me if it was the case, he could refer my candidature to his Managing Director. Now look at what is happening. A person who was terminated by me was volunteering to help me. I was pleasantly surprised but not shocked as I always treated employees with dignity, even while terminating, except for cases which involved compromises in integrity and cases of sexual harassment. If there’s a message that I would like to pass on to Gen-Next, that would surely be: “Always treat people with dignity.”
On a serious note, I strongly believe that all seasoned and experienced professionals need to disseminate their knowledge to others in their respective fields.
I have also started practicing this, though late than never, agreeing to participate in the National/ Regional level HR seminars/conferences once a quarter and visiting reputed campuses of colleges in Engineering and Management. My latest speech was on “Transforming HR” given at Delhi Management Associations’ HR Conclave at New Delhi and also on “Attracting Millennial to Traditional Organizations” given at AIMA’s HR Conclave at Goa in June, 2016.
I also recently addressed students giving a speech on “Expectations of industries from engineering & management students” at JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur and on “Emerging challenges in the business environment “ at BIIM, Pune July, 2016. This, to me, is really a fulfilling experience and also provides an opportunity to un-learn and re-learn.
