To Hard Skills, With 100% Softness

RAJIB KUMAR

Following is an excerpted version of Rajib Kumar’s deliberations at the 5th Material World Anniversary Debate


Chairman Sir, An employer ultimately hires you for your hard skills; if you do not have the core skills does it make any difference whether you are well groomed or whether you speak in unaccented (or superficially imposed accent) English?
These lovely ladies and gentlemen sitting in call centers of mobile phone service providers…. how many times are they actually able to address a slightly out of the turn problem you are facing amidst the much touted “this call could be recorded for training purposes”?

And doesn’t “have a nice day” give you a taste of gall and wormwood when you still continue to suffer?

There is a tendency to project that soft skills are the only skills required in certain sectors. Tell me something, you are out on a date with your fiancée and the very handsome 6 something steward first serves water on your food because his angle with the targeted glass went all wrong and then spills coffee on your most expensive coat. And so what do you say to him, Mr. Handsome, please come again…?

Similarly, if the food in some star category hotel tastes awful does it really help if the fat or huge chef comes to your table gives you the most delicious smile?

Excuse me, he is hired to make delicious food in the first place, the smile can come as an extraneous benefit but surely not at the cost the former…

You have a soft skills trainer in every para and by para in Kolkata. The story is much the same in other big cities in the country. I am told its good business so I tell my students even if you do not get jobs you sure can try your luck as a soft skills trainer…
Soft skills are basically accessories; extraneous…you have a building and then you put in the glass and then paint on the wall. Things to decorate…

When you go to buy a mobile set…. first and foremost you look for a “good set”. And then you see whether it has the add on features…

Chairman Sir, let me say something…. if you do not know your subject and you have excellent soft skills you can fool your target audience a few times…but surely you cannot fool all the people all the time…. on the contrary the man or woman with his excellent hard skills shall at some point feeler it out to you that he or she knows his subject.

I recall a Pure Science teacher when I was in school. He had practically no what is today attributed as soft skills. We used to dismiss him as a time waster…we never took his classes seriously. One fine day on a request from someone he gave about 10 of us a special class. We still remember how he explained Resonance – “one fox howls, all the foxes starts howling”. Today I realize his lack of engagement in regular classes was perhaps because our care less 50 + class was not able to motivate him enough…

Why can’t I laugh the way I want? Why do I need to be amused even when I find something very un-amusing?

In the run up to this event, I sent an SMS to my wonderful friend Janemoy Patnaik, Principal of Central Bank Officer’s Training College.

I kept receiving “pending” reports throughout the day. I call up customer service late in the afternoon. I am advised to take off the sim and battery and put them back after 5 minutes.

“The problem shall go” he asserts. Like an obedient student I comply. Nothing really changes. I call up at around 10 pm. This time the fella at the other end tells me “it is not your problem. It a problem at the other end to you whom you “sended” the sms. (True to my ever-online training and teaching mode) I correct his English in the process. ..Not sended dear…sent.

I start getting irritated…dear, I want to know when this damn thing will stop…so I can be at peace…do you have a clue? “Yes” he insists….”Por Favor”- what is it? “No Problem at your end; problem at your end.” He repeats.

What is the problem? I thundered this time.

“ I don’t know Sir”- he finally confesses. Chairman Sir, soft skills training these days are ignoring the basic facet of communication. Use of correct grammar is one area, which is among the first of casualty. Very soon we shall be in a position when we wont be able to understand each other’s language.

I shall end on a serious note…what are we teaching in these soft skills? A certain way to smile, a certain way to respond to something, a certain way to greet somebody…. you walk into an office and you see everybody smiling at you at the same way…. where is our identity and individuality…. Are we not taking our uniqueness in the human resource-the heterogeneity- for a ride in the process?? Isn’t this obsession with soft skills bent upon creating human clones?

Isn’t this kind of education stifling our children’s creativity and innovation?
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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily purport to constitute an official position of Offline or Material World.

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Material World Anniversary Debate 2008 Reports


Perhaps the overpowering presence of academia in the Material World Anniversary Debate Panel this year saw an unconventionally “less competitive” debate with speakers complementing each other in their deliberations.

If DP Chattopadhyay of Globsyn Business School (the only panelist who did not refer to any paper for his deliberations) with his captivating extempore and a very stylish accent used human anatomy to highlight the importance of peaceful coexistence of the hard and soft skill, RP Yadav, CMD of Genius Consultants resorted to poetry…

“Song Without Music
Ice cream Without Ice & Flavor
Food Without Salt & Spices”

Such was the feeling of bonhomie that Prof Chattopadhyay turned down the Chair’s (Mr. Biswajit Matilal, Veteran Media and PR Personality) offer to refute the opponents’ views in the second round. “Chairman Sir, I would neither counter the views of the opponents’ nor reinforce the views of my colleague.” he asserted.

It was left to Rajib Kumar, CEO of Material World and Jt. Secretary, National HRD Network, Kolkata and Dr. Subhashis Majumder, Principal, Bhavan’s College of Communication and Management to fight out in the end. Kumar’s views appear above; Dr. Majumder underlined the poor state of hard skills training in institutions.

In the end everybody was talking the need to balance though…Dr. Majumder’s opinion of the need to find equilibrium between hard and soft skills was welcomed by Kumar. But then he asked…who decides on that equilibrium? Education after all is a business today.

And the light mood continued when Kumar responded to Yadav’s family example with “Yes…we sure need soft skills training in the family. All married men know that.” The audience and the panel burst into laughter.

Even the generally sober Mr. Matilal couldn’t help grinning and chipped in ”I can see Mrs. Kumar’s face. Mr. Kumar should remember he has to return home after this.”

To Hike or Not To Hike

Samir K Barua


As all of you are aware, IIMA has been in the news regarding the fee it has proposed to charge for PGP from the academic year beginning June 2008. This is to clear the several misconceptions about the issue that arise due to often incorrect and incomplete information conveyed by the media. Let me do so through a series of questions and answers:

Why has the fee been raised?

The fee for the PGP has always been a fraction of the cost incurred by the Institute for the programme. The programme is subsidized by the surplus the Institute generates essentially through executive education and consulting. The extent of subsidy would become quite large on implementation of the sixth pay commission’s recommendations. The Board of Governors of IIMA therefore decided that the fee needed to be raised so as to reduce the subsidy and to use the surplus from other activities for the much needed expansion of infrastructure – classrooms, seminar rooms, dormitories, etc. to deal with the voluntary and involuntary expansion of the long duration teaching programmes of the Institute. The corpus that the Institute had built over a decade from 1992 to 2002 has depleted significantly since it has been spent on creation of additional academic infrastructure (the new campus) over the last few years. The Institute has received no grants from the government over the last several years. The Institute believes that as a responsible and established institution in the education sector, it must remain financially independent of government support so that the funds available with the government can be used for more needy institutions and programmes.

What is the proposed fee?

The media has been highlighting just the maximum fee of Rs. 5.5 lakh that is proposed to be charged for the first year to the batch joining in June 2008. In fact, the fee to be charged is income dependent – it varies from NIL (for students with annual family income of up to Rs. 1 lakh) to Rs. 5.5 lakh (for students with annual family income of Rs. 6 lakh and more). Based on the declared family incomes by students who have been offered admission at IIMA for the programme starting in June 2008, the average fee the students would have to pay would be about Rs. 3.80 lakh. This would amount to fee waiver (or subsidy) of over Rs. 4.50 crore for the year. The average fee collected would decline and the quantum of fee waiver would rise with implementation of reservation for non-creamy OBC applicants (as the proportion of relatively lower income candidates would rise).

What would be the average subsidy to PGP?

The maximum fee is based on the assessed cost of the PGP. The average fee charged would still imply a subsidy of a little over 30% of the full cost of the programme.
How many students would receive education at zero cost?

The proposed fee structure along with the need-based scholarship programme being offered by the Institute would make IIMA the first Institute in the world to award an MBA at zero cost to candidates who come from low income families. Based on the income data for the incoming batch, about 22 students (with annual family income of up to Rs. 1 lakh) would be educated at IIMA at zero cost to the students.

How does the proposal compare with fee proposed by other IIMs?

The income criterion used to identify non-creamy category is annual family income of Rs. 2.5 lakh. The minimum and the maximum fee to be charged from students who belong to families with annual family income of over Rs. 1 lakh and up to Rs. 2.5 lakh would be Rs. 1.0 lakh and Rs. 2.6 lakh respectively. This is significantly less than the flat fee of Rs. 3 – 4 lakh being charged from ALL such students by other IIMs. These students would also be eligible to apply for scholarship being provided by the Institute. Over 20% of the students who have been offered admissions are expected to benefit from the lower fee being charged and the need based scholarship being provided by IIMA to students from these income levels.

Are banks willing to provide funds to students?

The Institute has received full funding proposals from five banks. The terms on which funding is being made available is generous and within the reach of all students who have been offered admission. Therefore, funding would not be an issue. Besides, the BOG of IIMA has taken a decision that it would ensure that no student who has received an offer of admission is unable to go through the programme because of non-availability of funds.


Is the fee affordable?

Based on the average compensation packages offered for placement within the country, the pay back period at a fee level of Rs. 5.5 lakh would be about 4 months. By any yardstick, therefore, the education at IIMA is financially affordable.


The above proposal meets the following objectives: a) providing relief to students who come from relatively lower income families, b) continuing to significantly subsidize the PGP from the surplus generated from other activities of the Institute, c) ensuring that the Institute is able to set aside resources for adding to infrastructure for growth as well improving the quality of infrastructure.

(Courtesy: Prof Varun Arya, Director, Aravali Institute of Management and alumni, IIM-A)

Samir Barua is the director, IIM-A. The views expressed above are the author’s own.

(Offline, Volume-5, No- 3, May 2008)

Designing A Corporate HR Plan

INDRANIL BANERJEE



As the business year has completed and the industry and the stakeholders are anxiously waiting for the results, the corporate world hardly has time to take rest, rather the honchos are gathered to develop new strategy to chalk out the corporate plan for new financial year. The corporate plan whether involving issues ranging from creation of a new image building drive or setting up of a new division or outsourcing of some non-core activities involve vital inputs from its HR department. To offer meaningful inputs in the business process of organization value chain during recent time the role of HR became noteworthy. HR just cannot remain isolated or behave like a mere headcount in the Corporate Think tank team. In order to ensure proper assimilation of Company objective with the aspiration of its people during recent past the need of a corporate plan for HR department of the organization has strongly been felt. Such plan if developed thoughtfully helps the organization to build its roadmap and thus may act as a useful strategic management tool. The following issues are required to be kept in mind at the time of developing plan to ensure its deliverable value.

· Role expectation of HRM wing :

The general expectation in corporate circles is to let HR perform its support service role, remain busy with people centric issues, maintain industrial peace and so on. Strangely, a good number of HR people are happily carrying out such maintenance role and thus when they look back find difficulty in counting one’s “Key Success Areas”. This issue becomes evident especially when they make self-assessment at the year-end. Finding very little alternative became force to express their performance for the preceding years only on generic terms. It is true that service role is important; rather it is the foundation on which business houses are built upon. But out of absolute volatile nature of stability of the business houses in this era of competition it is the need of the hour to look after the detail of deliverables rather than remain happy with doables only.

· Culture related issues :

HR often attributes lack of appropriate culture as the stumbling block for them to extend strategic support to the organization. They find difficulty in generating support whenever they come out with any proposition of change. Unless the Organization harness the HR philosophy how could one deliver? But rather than expecting somebody else to clear the path it would be better if HR itself shoulder this role. Definitely it is easy saying than practicing. But then, what is easy in this world – digging a well or opting for a vacation at space. If the organization could be focused with its target to acquire a definite part of pie of market share through its sales organization why not HR team would not strive for achieving desired level of cultural change indices. Even for choicest organization, there is a propensity to opt for professional service for culture survey without analyzing its utility value. If designed properly survey outcome may act as an important source of information but it would be futile if HR is not sincere to solve genuine people issues and mixes with all stakeholders.

· Customer orientation of HR :

To ensure that HR deliver on change initiatives processes the HR team is required to be exposed to both internal and external customers of the business house. It is required to act as a glue for cross functional alignment which may range from arranging cross functional meeting on Monday morning to participate Yoga class with all corner to mobilizing fund for marriage gift of employee ward. Other than transact Company policy with employee representative exchanging views on contemporary issues always add value for relationship building thus create a positive atmosphere for acceptance of change initiatives thus works excellently as Salesmanship. This is a phase where HR’ization of organizations’ IR department takes place and is viewed as a launching pad for building a learning and knowledge Organization.

· Alignment of organization goal to HRM function :

At the time of building corporate plan the HR team must be equipped with vital inputs of corporate objectives. Financial statements of the organization as well as its competitor, growth plan along the value chain and demographically, plan for capturing market share are a few illustrations which required being readily available to the top team of HR to work upon. In spite of imparting training on general topics like “Finance for non-finance executives” the top team preferably equipped by imparting industry specific training on “Interpretation of financial statement” and “Financial implication of HR Decision”. This initiative generally builds interest level for active participation of managers to the programme and helps to visualize Industry realities and appreciate issues while framing corporate plan.

· End-to-end architecture of plan :

Generally, Organization plans for setting target. Once the year ends effort of going for another round of target setting drive may turn to be futile if we not look back. It is worthwhile first to study previous years’ Corporate plan, check out the goal set, measure the achievement made, analyze the gap, if any, and cause thereof and once these processes are over then only plan for setting target for next year.

· Measuring Indices :

We all know – if we are not planning for success, we are simply planning for failure. To check out our wards performance we anxiously look for school annual report, before make investment decision look for Company balance sheet. It is time to consider that if measurement process is accepted practice for judging value contribution at every walk of life why the same is relevant for HR. Similarly, if compensation is determined for every additional number of units sold by a salesman why the same analogy is not applicable for HR. Here lies the importance of measurement. However, before we develop a measurement system it is imperative to know what to measure and then derive the inherent how part. These days it has become one significant issue for corporate to address. Whenever we check up for revamping our existing measurement system it should be remembered that Measurement is a key driver for performance and not the Performance itself. Also at the time deriving corporate plan the periodical benchmarking of individual HR process necessarily be aligned to get best result out of the plan. The HR team preferably must develop its own system of measurement and thus needs to be provided with relevant software and desired training for this purpose.

· Transaction approach :

Normally, cascading of management decision run down the hierarchy and thus essentially a Top-down process. There is common grievance of the operating level management regarding unilateral approach of top management of imposing decision to execute without assessing prevailing ground realities and thus advocate for Bottom up approach. Providing democratic platform for operating level Manager to encourage information flow to reach to a decision is welcome but the issues cannot be left to mercy of individual wishes and proposition. A sensible balance of both approach make the corporate plan realistic and contribute significantly not only to express comprehensive mission statement of the HR organization but also act as a control devise.

· Level of specialization :

HR is not administration but definitely has evolved out of administration. The HR started with its welfare role and significantly moved to the direction of employee development for better productivity. At the time of holding corporate plan meeting it is also advantageous to have the generalist people of administration, sharing the corporate objectives and funding issue. Many a time HR thinks due to lack of administrative support the best of plan remained non-implemented. Thus, it is worthwhile to discuss budget constraints and implementation timeline for individual agenda. While handling HR specialization initiatives like Training & Development, it is worthwhile to keep the long-term objectives of the Organization in mind. Similarly, issues related to Compensation & Benefits need to be dealt after comprehensive study of available salary survey of the industry and contemporary HR market. The robust Performance Management linked with C&B and T&D are guiding factors of Talent management practice and thus is helpful as attrition control device. There is a general propensity to undermine the Personnel Service function although it delivers the final product. It is true that now-a-days the companies are forging ahead to reach absolute specialization but what is the use of designing great HR policies if the same is not implemented and the benefit are not passed onto the all stakeholder. The spirit should be acknowledging the contribution of Personnel Service provider at operating level and request for their support for future implementation.

· Conclusion :

If the corporate plan of the organization is considered as part of initiation of scheduling project the same analogy is equally applicable for HR plan too. The process should ideally be started by mid March and finalized by mid April and communicated across the organization in a documented manner, which would work as guiding principle to achieve corporate HR goal. Recently across the corporate corner there is hue & cry to implement Balance Scorecard. More specific HR Scorecard is also floating. The scorecard an internal control devises works as motivator if properly displayed for both internal and external customer. It may have a significant impact for large diversified complex organization. However it would be a prudent step to check up relevancy of same for smaller organization. The experience says much effort on measurement may lead to shift of focus from performance to presentation. The corporate HR Plan as we found is a strategic tool and must have some uniqueness every year. It should reflect seriousness of the HR team to help bottom-line of the organization without being any source of embarrassment for the top management. It should be transparent without any hidden agenda concerning the employees in general. To generate support from all corners and enhance buy-in of the Plan, it should be launched by CEO of the organization.

(Offline, Volume-5, No- 2, April 2008)

Indranil Banerjee is Manager (P&A), WB State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. Kolkata. He can be reached at indranil.hr@gmail.com
The views expressed above are the author’s own and does not necessarily purport to constitute an official position of Offline or MW.

To Appraise Or Not To Appraise


RAJIB KUMAR

Exploring the sensitive gamut of faculty evaluation by students

The other day there was a brawl at the quarterly faculty meeting of a leading management institute on the sensitive issue of introduction of faculty evaluation by students.

Two senior academicians got into a heated debate; “Some 20,000 students are getting into WBUT affiliated institutions every year now…do you know what kind of students are getting in…you want them to evaluate me? Excuse me…” one thundered at another.

I listened with interest the passionately expressed views of the 60 something professor whose lectures I had attended some 15-20 years back. Surely he had a point. After all, our educational systems are a different ball game and it would be suicidal to implement predominantly western models like these before careful introspection.

Faculty evaluation forms at the end of every course every quarter end has been a regular feature in the United States for more than two decades now. In small and mid sized American private universities and colleges one particular faculty member designs his or her own programs; he then delivers the same and finally assesses student knowledge intake –before that he or she also has to choose an appropriate mode of doing so…. with such an expanse…all the more reason why an appraisal is required perhaps!

On completion of the course, students assess the program as well as the delivery skills of the faculty. Students may decide to remain confidential. The forms are filled up on the last class day and then one particular student collects all the forms; puts them into an envelope, duly seals it and ferries it over to the Dean’s (Academic Affairs) office or uses the campus mail room service to do the needful.

The importance of student feedback should never be undermined; after all they are the customers of our product. The success and failure levels of a faculty, unless under certain extraordinary circumstances (eg. unpopular decisions like frequent class tests or disciplinary action for sidetalking etc) should in all probability be quantified in terms of the success and failure of the students. After all don’t we contemplate on changing the home tutor of our ward if he or she gets a lesser grade in the exam than what is expected of him or her?

Students may often tend to judge a teacher based on so called “extraneous” criteria like her attire, his or her presentability, accent, the extent of his or her IT savvy ness etc. I have the views of a Chennai based lady faculty expressed in a recent edition of the National HRD Network Journal at hand. But the question is can we call these “extraneous” anymore?

Personality Development & Grooming have become a mandatory requisite for even Chartered Accountants, leave alone management students who are anyways expected to be suave. Just like a doctor must take care of his own health first, we, faculty members, need to equip ourselves with all these new age skills known by a variety of names-soft, finishing school, multi tasking and what not.

In my opinion, at the end of the day a performance appraisal of a faculty person must incorporate methods normally associated with appraising a corporate executive as well; namely, self-appraisal, peer evaluation and immediate superior evaluation addressing the needs of 360°

In addition, the faculty’s involvement in research and publication must also be an important component in the entire process. Faculty members must be constantly encouraged to write whether for the in house newsletter or relevant fraternity journals.
Whether we like it or not student feedback systems should be a part of the system but it should definitely have its “checks and balances” so that a bad fish or two do not misuse the system to settle personal scores with a faculty member. The final appraiser must carefully review the grades or comments made and try to first interpret any grossly adverse feedback in terms of real “extraneous” factors- disciplinary standards set by the faculty, the student evaluator’s personal records on absenteeism, performance in other classes, general attitude etc.

(Offline, Volume-5, No- 4, April 2007)

MATERIAL WORLD ANNIVERSARY DEBATE 2007- A Report


In his welcome address Rajib Kumar, CEO, Material World shared some lighter moments of his stay in the United States. He listed the advantages and disadvantages associated with getting educated overseas. In an era where international degrees are available right here in India where exactly does overseas education stand? Kumar invited the distinguished panel to deliberate on this.

Inaugurating the anniversary celebrations Rathin Datta, Sheriff of Kolkata said he had an “institutional interest” in the topic in light of his association with the Indian Institute of Management.

Guest of Honor Khokan Mookerji, Secretary General, Bengal Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that we (in India) do not have enough good learning institutions and that we desperately needed to upgrade the quality of our higher education.

Dr. Anuradha Das, Principal, Calcutta International School said a large percentage of students from her school go abroad for higher studies. She was therefore speaking from that perspective (and experience). Overseas education gives a lot of flexibility and a greater level of confidence to students with which they can come out as winners in professional and personal life. She mentioned the very admission process in overseas institutions is a lesson in time and stress management.

Prof Ananya Chakraborty, Professor In Charge, Departments of Journalism and Film Studies, St. Xavier’s College countered Das’s assertion. "What is the percentage of population going abroad for education? How many can afford overseas education in India?" she asked. This was essentially a luxury of the elite she asserted. Chakraborty mentioned that he knew people who went abroad for education and experienced immense trauma in their 1st year- “uprooted from their own culture”. They experienced not only geographical alienation but also alienation within the student community she asserted.

Dr. Sushanto Banerjee, Director of the American Center Library at Kolkata countered Chakraborty’s assertion that students get traumatized in foreign nations. Students are given full orientation before they begin their stay he reassured the house. Banerjee mentioned that the demand of getting educated in the US is so high that it is difficult to find a space to sit in the United States Educational Foundation in India. He said, currently, there are about 76,000 students from India in institutions in the US. He cited examples of Prof Amartya Sen, Prannoy Roy and Azim Premji all of who excelled, he said, with the help of the education they attained in overseas nations. Through overseas education one becomes a “complete man” Banerjee opined. Political interference in educational institutions in India was rampant Banerjee said. There are good institutions in India like the IITs, IIMs or ISIs but very few can get in these the ex-ISI noted.

Sushmita Chakraborty, English teacher of La Martinere for Boys analyzing the motion said with the medium of Internet at everybody’s access level- why would one have to venture outside to gain information or know about other cultures? She said though she too spent an extended period of time in the UK for her education she feels it is not a “necessity”. “Its not air, water or shelter” she quipped. Sushmita paralleled overseas education with a mobile phone with “added features”. A mobile phone is a necessity today but a mobile phone set with added features like camera, megapixel, MP3 Player etc and so on is a luxury.

Dr. Das said overseas education empowers the student to choose what he or she wants to learn. She cited the example of the year’s ISC topper who gave the IITs a miss and went to Singapore for higher education. “We must value the decision of a topper,” Dr. Das told the house building a strong case in favor of the motion.

Ananya Chakraborty wondered if overseas education was that great why are medical and business establishments in countries like United States still dominated by Indians and Pakistanis? Where are the “complete” men? Countering Sushanto Banerjee’s example of Amartya Sen, Chakraborty said Sen’s roots are firmly here. “Amartya Sen has not given up his Indian citizenship,” she reminded her worthy opponents. Chakraborty was critical about the American system for international students. The visa fees, fees of TOEFL are exorbitant she opined. The system, she felt was not transparent and all this was a “huge source of income”. She also questioned the justifiability of taking the TOEFL for a Masters in English. “I do not see those long cues in front of the American consulate any more” Chakraborty commented.

Dr. Sushanto Banerjee said gone is the age of Nalanda University. Most campuses in India lack basic technologies like Wi Fi. Contrary to the conventional wisdom and views of his opponents, Banerjee mentioned that many students are going overseas from middle class families with the help of financial aid from US universities and funding agencies. He cited the example of the son of driver at the American center who made it to the US with the help of scholarship assistance.

Veteran PR and Media personality Biswajit Matilal was the moderator.

The House remained divided on the issue. The Motion, therefore, remain open ended.

(Editorial Team, Offline)

Material World Anniversary Debate 2006

For India Inc, Corporate Social Responsibility Is Just Another Jargon

Material World CEO Rajib Kumar delivering the welcome address

Fire On The Rocks: Barun Das at his fiery best

Journalist Snehashish Sur has a go at Barunda

Chief devastating his opponents with gentle smiles

Dr. Nazrul Islam, IPS, Inspector General of Police, WB (Enforcement), releasing
Annual Offline 2006 (Print Edition # 2) as Rajib Kumar looks on