Foray into Global Corporate Arena

Happy 50th Anniversary, Bangladesh! Under the able leadership of Honourable Prime Minister, Bangladesh has become a role model for development. As a student of Business, watching the corporate India always is fascinating. The way the CXO positions including CEO in Fortune 500 companies are taken over is a treat to watch. This also gives us ray of hope for our future generations taking over helms of these global giants. So here we look at the top CEOs of Indian origin in the world: 

Arvind Krishna - CEO, IBM Group 

An alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Arvind Krishna has been with IBM for over two decades. 

After completing his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Krishna’s sheer brilliance got him the recognition he thoroughly deserved. He replaced Virginia Rometty as the next CEO of the IBM Group on Friday, January 31, 2021.

Sundar Pichai - CEO, Google LLC & Alphabet INC 

Pichai Sundararajan, an Indian American business executive, started his career with Google in 2004. The now promoted CEO of Alphabet, after the stepping down of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had initially joined as a management executive.  Born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu - the now 47 year old - is a prestigious alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Stanford University, California.

Satya Nadella - CEO, Microsoft 

Once responsible for building and running Microsoft’s computing platforms, Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella has been the CEO since 2014. After completing his bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Hyderabad, Nadella went on to do an M.S in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

Born into a humble Telugu family, Satya Nadella worked at Sun Microsystems before shifting gears at Microsoft.

Shantanu Narayen - CEO, Adobe Inc. 

Born in Hyderabad, Shantanu Narayen has been the CEO and Chairman of Adobe Inc. since 2007.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Osmania University, Hyderabad, Narayen achieved an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Born to job-oriented parents, Narayen was hardworking and made it big at Apple before joining Adobe.

Ajaypal Singh Banga - CEO, Mastercard

Born to retired Indian Lieutenant General Harbhajan Singh Banga, Ajay Banga has been a pioneer for Mastercard since the 1990s.

After leading them as their President and COO, Ajaypal Singh Banga was announced as the new CEO in April, 2010. 

Banga, who has been the chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), is an alumni of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and the Delhi University.

Jayshree Ullal - CEO, Arista Networks 

Born in London and raised in New Delhi, Jayshree Ullal is an American billionaire businesswoman who is the CEO of Arista Networks since 2008. After graduating from San Francisco State University, she completed her master’s degree in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University. 

She was named by Forbes magazine as one of the top five most influential people in the networking industry in 2010.

Nikesh Arora - CEO, Palo Alto Networks 

Born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh Nikesh Arora has bee the CEO of Palo Alto Networks since June, 2018.

After serving as a Google executive, Nikesh joined as the President of the SoftBank Group in 2014. Coming from an air-force background, Nikesh toiled hard for his success and is an alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU and Boston College, Northeastern University.

It is interesting to note that a major portion of these Corporate Icons have their education at least till the Undergraduate level in India, not only concentrated in institutions like Indian Institute of Technology or Indian Institution of Management. This calls for a critical review as to what seem to be the ingredients for such recipe for sure successes. Let us look at what makes countries like India a great place for remote talent.

Large pool of talent

According to some estimates, “before the coronavirus pandemic hit the globe, the US issued around 85,000 H1-B visas every year out of which Indians reportedly get about 60,000 visas. Besides this, around 20,000 can be allotted to lateral talent or for those with more advanced degrees.” In this way, US companies employ talent from foreign countries that require specialized or technical expertise in certain fields.Recent research suggests that over 1.5 million engineers are graduating every year in India. Hence when you scout for talent from India, you are exposed to a large pool of talent. You can compare and choose the ‘best’ talent for your company. In this way, you can build an efficient team for your company for every process.

Cost of talent

The exchange rate of Indian currency is less as compared to other European countries. So, even if you give benchmark salaries to the talent, due to conversion rate it works out economical. Also, due to the purchasing power parity in India, the setup cost, infrastructure etc is available at a lower cost compared to developed countries and the exchange rate is favourable too. So, when you hire a talent from India, your costs will be minimal.

Cost of hiring

Each company incurs a spend for every resource it hires. Right from scouting for the talent to scheduling interviews and getting the resource on board, the company must bear a cost at each step. By opting for the remote engineering model, as a company you bring down the costs involved with hiring like waiting costs, training costs, and others.

Education System

A child is taught the basics since the primary level to embrace the global context through excellence in mathematics and language. The writing as well as speaking skills are given proper emphasis.

Remote engineering from India is certainly quite beneficial as quality and quantity is assured. It is soon becoming the new norm that many countries are adopting in the post COVID period.

Talent management is the full scope of HR processes to attract, develop, motivate and retain high-performing employees.This definition has three components:

The full scope of HR processes: Talent management is about a set of HR processes that integrate with each other. This means that talent management activities are larger than the sum of the individual parts. This also means that a talent management strategy is required to capitalize on its full potential. More about this later.

Attract, develop, motivate and retain: This is not a comprehensive list. Talent management touches on all key HR areas, from hiring to employee onboarding  and from performance management  to retention.

High-performing employees: The purpose of talent management is to increase performance. It aims to motivate, engage, and retain employees to make them perform better. This is why the importance of talent management is so signigicant. When it’s done right, companies can build a sustainable competitive advantage and outperform their competition through an integrated system of talent management practices that are hard to copy and/or imitate.

In other words, talent management is a process aimed at driving performance through integrated people management practices. As such, it’s one of the key functions of human resource management.

So, I hear you ask, how does this work in practice? What are the common talent management best practices to apply? Here’s a brief overview.

Employer branding: Having a strong brand attracts even the best candidates.

Employer reputation: Reputation is related to employee branding. However, reputation is more affected by external media the company has less control over. An example of reputation gone wrong is the banking sector in recent years, especially after the 2008 financial crisis.

Candidate experience: The experience of the candidate influences the employer brand.

Selection: Spotting and selecting the best is a critical part of talent management.

Referrals: Talent knows talent. Referral programs are effective as they help to pick up candidates that onboard quicker and perform better.

Onboarding: Getting people up to speed as quickly as possible helps to make them more productive and increases employee retention.

Inboarding: Yes, you read it right. When people are promoted internally, they also need support to achieve maximum productivity. This is called inboarding.

Engagement: Engaged employees are motivated, perform well, and are more likely to stay.

Retention: Retention strategies help to keep the best people on board. An example is succession planning.

Succession planning: You want to be able to fill crucial top positions whenever they become vacant. Having a talent pipeline that ensures succession planning is a key element in this.

Learning and development: This is not only a common talent management practice. Educating employees helps increase performance and retention. After all, once you’ve recruited the best people, you want to make sure they remain the frontrunners in the field, right?

Performance management: An essential part of managing talent is tracking and improving their performance.

HR analytics: As we’ve said before, by leveraging data you can ensure that you’re hitting the right KPIs that have an impact on business outcomes.

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list. There are many more activities that help to build and maintain an effective workforce.

On this 50th anniversary, we dream of our next generation to take the helms of global corporate arena.

The writer is MD and CEO of Community Bank