Mr. Gautam Pandey is one of those success stories that covets the IIPM crown of excellence. A stoic, passionate & self motivated personality,Mr. Pandey has played an instrumental role in all major HR functions in his career which has lasted 16 years, and promises much more with great compassion. He is a real expert in integrating people with organisational values and is always approachable to his people for guidance and motivation. His ideologies and methods of working are evident from his crafted verbosity and focused approach. Mr. Pandey puts lights in the words of the most successful trainer in the world, Mr. Doug Firebaugh – “Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow”
Mr. Pandey was brought up in Bokaro Steel City as his father was an employee of SAIL for over 35 years. Thus a desire to work in the manufacturing and process control industry was cultivated in Mr. Pandey from the early days of his life. This desire took shape during his IIPM course and he got the opportunity to work with Tata Steel during his internships. His role was to work on a project that had the objective of productivity enhancement and cost deduction. He adds, “My role was to meet the people in the shop floor and find out whether they are aware about the various initiatives taken by Tata Steel”. This was an interesting phase in Mr. Pandey’s career as he worked in all the key departments at Tata Steel – production floor, HR, market communications, finance etc. After completing his course from IIPM, he embarked on his career trek on May 15, 1996 with Usha Group’s Malvika Steel Plant in Jagdishpur near Lucknow, as Management Trainee. “The good thing about being a Management Trainee is that you get to do everything from taking out to photo copies to maintaining records across all departments”, he adds. It was a great learning as Mr. Pandey was involved with the shop floor and conducted various surveys, and also had a chance to get engaged in an issue with the Union pertaining to labour laws. The important thing during all these was that Mr. Pandey was always inclined towards learning and never had qualms about taking photo copies etc. “I was always happy doing what I was doing”, he confirms. After two years with this steel plant, he then moved to Bhubaneswar in Odisha with Koshika Telecom which was also part of Usha Group. “It was a different ball game for me as I made the shift from manufacturing to service industry”, he recollects. This was a time when telecom was just an infant with very high tariff plans and expensive hand sets. Mr. Pandey got the responsibilty of the entire Odisha circle, and as Odisha is very particular about labour laws, he had great learning by meeting law officials. He had an overall experience of almost four years with Usha Group.
Mr. Pandey then came to Delhi where he worked for a firm which was into delivering SAP training and had a strong client base that included Goodyear, Nestle, NIIT etc. He feels that this was a new experience again as he was into recruitment of very senior professionals with work experience ranging from 10-20 years. Mr. Pandey then became part of Chennai based Ramco Systems that was into ERP in Delhi. “Ramco Systems had a very strong set of ethics and values and they respect their employees a lot”, adds Mr. Pandey stating the same reason for bare minimum attrition rates at Ramco despite it being an IT company. Ramco he feels had a solid philosophy and their respect for people was simply enormous. At Ramco, Mr. Pandey got the opportunity to work in all HR verticals like recruitment, T&D, PMS etc. and traveled across the country to meet employees who were working on specific projects on various locations during Performance Management Cycle along with their managers to conduct meaningful career conversations. After two years, he was transferred to the Ramco Systems headquarters in Chennai in 2002.
“THE LEADERS IN DELOITTE CARRY THE ORGANISATIONAL VALUES AND ALSO DEMONSTRATE THEM”
“I was then responsible for all the regional offices of Ramco”, he says. Mr. Pandey is quick to remind us that Ramco Systems was not just into ERP, but were also into Networking Solutions and Internet Security Solutions, and at Ramco he had the chance to work with some great leaders and learn from them. He adds, “I also attended a workshop on strategy and leadership which was conducted by the legendary Mr. CK Prahlad”. He also handled recruitment for Malaysia and Singapore divisions of Ramco. “The whole stint helped me in two ways – firstly, it helped me to strengthen my work ethics and values; secondly, it helped me in respecting people even more”, he sums up. During his stay in Chennai, he recalls the fun times with family when they went for long drives on the beautiful ECR (East Coast Road).
Mr. Pandey moved to Hyderabad where he joined Tata Teleservices (Then Indicom; Now Docomo). “Tata was a big brand and was again a company with very strong values and ethics with a lot of respect and support for people to grow”. The AP circle was one of the first for Tata Indicom and it was roping in high numbers as well. He also learned a lot about employee engagement and customer centricity from his leader Mr. TV Raghunath at Tata, “In a sales focused organisation, it is very imperative to keep your employees engaged”. Mr. Pandey then had a very short stay with Bharti Airtel but due to personal reasons he could not continue as he was asked to move to Bengaluru. He adds, “This is when I got an offer from Deloitte to join their Hyderabad office”.
Mr. Pandey affirms that Deloitte is a great place to work and in terms of organisational values, he could see these values imbibed in the people and the culture. The leaders in Deloitte also carry those values and demonstrate their behaviour based on these values. The progress of Deloitte in India is expalined by Mr. Pandey when he says, “When I joined Deloitte in Hyderabad in 2007, they had 7000 employees, and, today they have over 14000 employees”. Deloitte is also the world no. 1 in their industry which has massive names such as KPMG, PWC, and Ernst & Young. “Our team’s primary role is to acquire the best talents from across the country, get them to join Deloitte, and then retain them”, he explains. Mr. Pandey currently reports to Mr. SV Nathan who is one of the finest HR directors in Asia Pacific. Deloitte hires the best talents from top notch institutes like Delhi School of Economics, Lady Shriram etc. For management roles they look at IIMs, XLRIs, and, he confirms that IIPM is also on their carts for hiring. “We have amazing capability building models here which are world class”, he adds. At Deloitte, Mr. Pandey affirms that there is lot of emphasis on developing the careers of women employees through an initiative named WIN (Women Initiative).Mr. Pandey speaks about the numerous HR initiatives at Deloitte like certification programs for youngsters in tandem with premier institutes of India and abroad, and the superb degrees of flexibility at work. “Deloitte is also the most preferred company across India in all the institutes and there are many more accolades that are associated with Deloitte”, adds Mr. Pandey with pride.
Coming to retention of employees, Mr. Pandey says that Deloitte does a lot of things for the same and it is not with an objective to retain talent but he feels that it is part of the Deloitte DNA. “This means investing in your people, best infrastructure, best facilities and best technology”. They also have a Deloitte University in USA which is truly one of a kind. At Deloitte there is such an amazing learning culture according to Mr. Pandey and as a result there are many home grown leaders in their management teams because Deloitte has clear cut career progression avenues which are visible to its employees. “Deloitte believes in holistic growth of its employees which encompasses health and fitness, rewards, recognition, and not just compensation”, he adds. The key is that when people look at the bigger picture, they clearly understand the philosophy of Deloitte – ‘It is not a job; it is a career destination’. Speaking on the vibrant work culture at Deloitte, Mr. Pandey reveals that he is very lucky to see so many young professionals in their workforce and this keeps the energy levels high. He talks about the unique MCC (Mass Career Customisation) process which is a career progression and flexibility initiative. “The work environment is changing but not the workplace as it is still conventional. One has to change the workplace for the new generation and Deloitte are the early adopters of that change, and hence we attract and retain talent effectively”, opines Mr. Pandey. He explains the tremendous flexibility options in store at Deloitte with options like – working from home; flexible work days and work hours. Deloitte also is actively involved in community services through a strong CI (Community Initiative – The CSR body of Deloitte) base with many programs and events on a regular basis particularly on education and community development.
Mr. Pandey adds by speaking on the leadership at Deloitte, “We have leaders with compasses in their heads and magnets in their hearts, who envision things brilliantly and have taken the company to greater heights”. Mr. Pandey’s leadership style is to lead from the front, and he believes in it when he says, “If you want to take your people along with you or if you want to show them the way ahead, you need to lead from the front”. There are no restrictions on people at Deloitte pertaining to using social media or internet applications, as the company trusts them. “If you trust your people, I think they will be responsible”, he adds. Mr. Pandey gives an account of his awesome style when he says that he empowers his people to make mistakes, “We celebrate mistakes but ensure that they do not recur”. Mr. Pandey believes in making and maintaining a personal connect with his people because that is very helpful in retaining talented professionals year on year. Mr. SV Nathan, has been his mentor at Deloitte and all senior leaders ensure that there is a mentorship based culture. Mr. Pandey adds, “At Deloitte, passion, high levels of commitment, network building, and client focus are the key aspects and an integral part of the organisational culture”. These are also the eminent pivotal values around which Mr. Pandey’s life and career has evolved. “The leadership culture at Deloitte revolves around a participative and consensus driven decision making”, he adds with passion.
“AT DELOITTE, WE CELEBRATE MISTAKES, BUT WE ENSURE THAT THEY DO NOT RECUR”
Over the past years, Deloitte has won many accolades for their contribution to the corporate world as well as the society. In 2011, Deloitte was ranked no.1 among the Top 15 companies that visited the Top 25 B-Schools. It is also among the top ranked in Fortune’s ‘100 Best Companies to work for’. In addition to these, Deloitte has been recognized for the sixth consecutive year by the Limca Book of Records for ‘the most number of community service hours on a single day by any corporate in India’. “These are evidence of the amazing success story that Deloitte has been in India, and with crystallic clarity in their culture and values, it will keep emerging as the epitome of excellence and talent pool”, adds Mr. Pandey with total self belief.
Reflecting on his IIPM days, Mr. Pandey reveals that it was full of excitement and fun. He loved the classes by Prof. JK Mitra and Dr. MK Chaudhuri, and made a lot of good friends at IIPM. “My biggest learning at IIPM was the understanding of the nuances of a team and team culture”, he ascertains. To today’s young brigade, Mr. Pandey advices, “Sync your head and heart on to one thing and go ahead”. He feels that one should not have any regrets later on in life, particularly with so many career options that are availables for the youngsters. “The new generation is high on Intelligent Quotient (IQ), but at work you also need
Emotional Quotient (EQ), and an integration between the two is very important”, adds Mr. Pandey.
Mr. Pandey is also a great believer in maintaining a healthy work-life balance. He adds that when there is a busy schedule, people work for 18 hours or so, but when not busy, focus is on spending time with family. Mr. Pandey has two sons – Gaurav and Amitabh, and wife Ms. Shweta Pandey who is a homemaker. “As a family, we often go on road trips whenever we get time off on weekends or holidays”. Mr. Pandey also loves to attend spiritual courses and feels that his father has played a critical role in his success as he was his role model, mentor and his childhood hero.
Cult wishes him a rip roaring career ahead of him full of milestones and establishments as a people’s leader with passion and commitment at the helm.
