Symbiosis Institute of International Business holds Firodia Memorial lecture on HR challenges

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
September 11, 2007
Pune based Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB) hold the 11th HK Firodia Memorial Series lecture series on topic of ‘Challenges for HR - The Changing Spectrum’ on September 7.

Delivering the keynote address, Mr. Arun Firodia, chairman, Kinetic Group, emphasized on retaining the workforce as the biggest challenge for today’s HR managers. The event also saw eminent speakers such as Mr. Sanjay Muthal, President-HR, Nicholas Piramal; Ms. Kumkum Nongrum, Vice-President, Learning and Development, ABN Amro; Mr. Suresh Pillai, Head HR, Saint Gobain; Mr. Suvamoy Choudhury, Regional HR Director, South Asia, Reckitt Benckiser; and Mr. Vijay Rai, Chief HR Officer, Apollo International.

In his address, Mr. Arun Firodia began by citing examples from the past. He said, “Trying to make the work environment a better place was the only prerogative of an HR manager. But today retaining the work force rather than recruiting is the major issue the companies are faced with.”

Explaining the rationale behind the programme, SIIB director, Dr Rajni Gupte cited the examples of the challenges of strikes and VRS faced by many industries over a long period of time. According to her, “In the present context, however, with the boom in the business world, the impact of HR on recruitments is immense.”

Nicholas Piramal’s Mr. Muthal talked about the paradigm shift in not only the mindset of the people (as the workforce) but also the coming generation. He said, “India’s population is no more a curse but it is the major force behind the Indian economic revival. Today’s age is of the generation of abundance as compared to the mindset of scarcity in the past… A monopolized market changed to a market economy to further a consumer economy as the consumer became king. It is the consumer who makes or breaks a brand as he picks and chooses on the basis of both the quality as well as cost.”

ABN Amro’s Ms. Nongrum said, “There is a great need to channelize thoughts and compartmentalizing minds. In addition to this, students need to be multi-task almost all the time but this will only help you to add skills in your repertoire.”

Saint Gobain’s Mr. Pillai shared his own experiences, as they were very much like the challenges for any HR manager. The main question facing him was whether the decision to be taken was to restructure the entire company or just redesign the entire structure. The Indian market is opening up to global players and thus the time frame decided for any action is just one year. It is crucial to innovate and inspire the labor force by different strategies in order to get them to work together, he said.