At the NASSCOM HR summit, Chennai

As I enjoyed coordinating our company's participation and attending the NASSCOM HR Summit at Chennai between 18th and 20th July, I am putting down verbatim, the text of an article that I later wrote for my company's magazine. I have written something after ages and so, it also, so to say, marks my return to writing- somthing I enjoy doing but am not sure others enjoy reading as much !

Since this was written for the company mag, there are some references to names of my colleagues whom you might not know. Here goes :

The War for talent

Building an HR eco-system – NASSCOM, HR Summit 2006

The third week of July! It was that time of the year again when NASSCOM sounds the bell for all members of the IT and ITES industry, particularly the HR divisions, as well as academia, to put on their thinking caps, sharpen their ears and minds, and turn up in large numbers to Chennai. To disseminate information, observe, learn, and absorb from the gathering whatever they can, and when they go back to their jobs try and make their work and life better. This year, though, the bell sounded more like a war horn, for the topic of the summit was, The War for talent: Building an HR eco-system.

The event was scheduled between July 18, 2006 and July 19, 2006; the venue for the summit was regally and aptly named Le Royal Meridien hotel. The hotel with its huge dome shaped lobby, the immensely spacious interiors, and the glittering chandelier lit, the conference hall seemed to be the perfect place for a gathering of senior HR executives, industry gurus, CEOs, and HR product and service providers besides senior faculties from higher educational institutes.

Unisys, like the previous year, was a platinum sponsor this year too, and so sent a team of six of us as delegates to man the stall, network with fellow members of the industry, build a positive perception of Unisys, and of course to participate in the various panel discussions and gain valuable insights and knowledge. The delegates included Benny, Jagnoor, Swarnalakshmi, Vishal, Raisa and Sunder. Mukul Agrawal was a special delegate by virtue of being a chairperson for the keynote session.

The preparation from Unisys for the summit started in right earnest about three weeks before the summit, with plans being made for what we needed to have in the stall. After some brainstorming, we decided we would need to put up Unisys posters, have copies of crisp and slickly designed Unisys or UGSI brochures on the desk, a plasma TV playing the Unisys promo videos, and as an incentive for visitors, attractive giveaways of mouse pads with the Unisys logo, and the five pillars on the pad. To ensure that nothing was left to chance, one of us reached the venue a day earlier, and set the ball rolling, getting in touch with the NASSCOM team. By the early morning of July 18, the Unisys stall was ready with the posters up, the brochures, and give-aways on the table, and the videos playing merrily on the plasma TV.

The first session of the summit on Human Capital Architecture was kicked off by Mukul, who as the chairperson introduced the speaker, Dr. Scott A Snell from Cornell University, USA. Dr. Snell spoke about value creation, human capital and talent management in a very insightful and sometimes witty manner to the delight of the audience. Mukul chaired the session in a structured manner, and his inputs in context to the Indian IT industry were well received.

As the day progressed, we were treated to some of the brightest minds of the country expounding on and exchanging views in various discussion panels on topics ranging from HR best practices in global sourcing, innovative trends in compensation and performance management, to the changing role of HR as a strategic partner. The speakers were senior HR stalwarts from companies like Accenture, Mercer, HP, CTS, Flextronics, EXL, and Symantec. Some of the current issues, like rising attrition rates, lack of employable talent, need for employee empowerment, global sourcing impact and imperatives were discussed threadbare, and the audience enthusiastically participated in well answered Q and A sessions.

Meanwhile, at the stall, scores of people visited and enquired about Unisys, and were handed out brochures and give-aways. As per NASSCOM estimate, there were about 550 people who attended the summit, and most of them now know about Unisys.

The special lunch and dinner provided ample scope for everyone to network. Meanwhile, Benny and Vishal made good contacts. Raisa and Sunder kept track of the logistics and the stall, while Jagnoor and Swarna absorbed knowledge imparted by the HR gurus in the day sessions.

The second day saw a rejuvenated audience ready for another day of bouncing around new concepts and ideas. A very inspiring (and witty) lecture by Prof. Dr. Lawrence Wong, of the NUS, Singapore, had the crowd asking for more. Dr. Wong spoke on the different leadership paradigms, and of how the visionary leader is the one who almost always succeeds in spite of a chaotic and uncertain scenario all around. His speech was particularly liked because of the reference he made to the inherent Indian strength of a heritage of spiritual leadership and the inspiration that was available to be tapped, for today’s business scenario in India. He emphasized that Indians need to pay attention to and build the spirit of the enterprise or company to lead the company to success. The other topics debated on during the second day included, capability development, workforce diversity and workshop sessions on closing the skills gap, driving value to business, and successful models for industry academia. Finally, the evening came to an end, and it was time to leave after a refreshing exposure of two days, to different perspectives in the HR arena.