Rajesh Tripathi

Story goes back when I had just joined a large conglomerate. My reporting was to the  CEO . Following the 'corporate rituals' meant for the   CXO s, I too was asked within few days of my joining to formulate a befitting functional strategy for HR and present the same to the board. Although the company was having a 'working' strategy for the past more than a decade. Keeping in view the prescribed thumb rule that says that all the functional strategies should be in line with the overall Business strategy of the company, one fine morning I reached out to the CEO innocuously, requesting him for his time to discuss the business strategy. Additionally, at the back of my mind, I was carrying the impression that as he being my manager and also the CEO of the company, he is the right person to hear from him about strategy. My first mistake in the company. Anyhow, story went on like this. My first assumption was wrong, still I dared to continue with it. One day I got a c...

In the first decade of the 21st century, the idea of “Cultural Fitment [Fit]” started gaining momentum. CXOs in general started recommending the practice to their respective organizations and ensured that it being followed in principle. People’s theories around the practice and HR interventions were in full bloom for its adoption. It continues even till now, although not as vigorous as it was. In events after events, HR professionals & 'experts' were astutely recommending it to fellow professionals. Companies after companies incorporated it in their basic HR structure. Everyone around could be seen following the recommendations. Most of us were swept away with this 'flavor of the time'. I, as an young HR professional also fell prey to the sweeping notion without realizing its pitfalls and started designing HR interventions around the concept. It went to the extent that I could influence one of my CEOs I worked with so much that he went onto announcing that e...

On the periphery of a business stands HR . Its birth is circumstantial. Richard Arkwright, who is widely considered as the father of the modern factory system, did not conceive a place for today’s HR. He and other entrepreneurs of the day were only interested in people who were directly helping them in meeting the demand of the time. Later came in picture, a person who generally was seen riding a horse, having a felt hate on his head and a ‘ Productivity tool ’ in his hands, called hunter. He had only one mandate - highest possible production by all means. We can draw a lineage of HR of today with this ‘Gentleman’? Then came a ‘ Period of Revolt .’ Agitations by workers were common all around the world. Governments of the day were pressurized to write labor laws on the one hand; and on the other hand, good Samaritan psychologists started giving various people centric theories.   One the best to quote here is Edwin Locke’s Goal Setting Theory of Motivation . Things started chan...

Since many decades, organizations have been advised to have business centric Competency Frameworks, suiting to their unique business natures and defining the core of their businesses. Frameworks are must for organizations because they help in identifying distinct ‘ Organizational Capabilities ’ and their continuous development to provide much required edge over their competition. Products, Processes and Marketing, may provide initial edge to organizations but they remain vulnerable due to their easy imitations by the competition. What makes organizations impregnable is their organizational capabilities. And what does make organizations impregnable? Their possessing  right Competency Frameworks . Frameworks which provide comprehensive directions to organizations, right from defining & driving core values, chosen paths to tread through their thoughtful  purposes and visions; take into account proven hierarchical and functional contours in terms of requisite competencies....

The Industrial Revolution had been the precursor of the Workforce Planning & Budgeting process. By adopting the process, factories owner of the time used to plan their production. As time passed by, the importance of this process went up manifold. Prior to Information Technology age, the workforce mobilization cost was second to the raw materials cost. With the advent of IT, the workforce cost now ranges from the first to the second position of any organization depending upon the nature of the industry one is operating in. With Glocalization, organizations again came under tremendous stress to compete and remain viable. The factor of workforce cost has taken such an importance at the global macroeconomic level that this decides the movement of investment into suitable economies. Economies are considered favorable or unfavorable for investment depending upon the cost and the quality of workforce. Workforce related cost issues affect efficiency and even the survival of the o...