HR Conclave 2013: 'Building capabilities for future ready organisations'

The HR Conclave'13 organised by the corporate relations committee, aimed at getting an industry perspective on the measures taken by various organizations to build and develop capabilities in their employees to make them ready for the future .Conducted  on 26th July 2013 in the SIMSREE auditorium, the discussion was around ‘Building capabilities for future ready organisations’ .The event was graced by the presence of dignitaries like Mr Ramesh Shankar S - Executive Vice President & Head of HR, South Asia at Siemens, Mr Chunduru Srinivas - President - Corporate Strategy and HR at Piramal Enterprises, Ms Shraddha Pradhan - Director HR at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ms Aparna Sharma - Country Head-Human Resources at Lafarge India (Cement, Ready Mix-Concrete, Aggregates & KAM Projects) and Ms Emrana Sheikh: HR head automotive division and HR for international operations of auto and farm business Mahindra and Mahindra .

Mr Ramesh Shankar S, the key note speaker mentioned that change is permanent and learning to adapt is important. He advised that learning is a lifelong process and an individual’s responsibility in corporate life. He emphasized on the importance of communication skills, team work, collaboration, dealing with ambiguity, thinking globally, managing change, working with different generations, working across cultures and countries as the key areas which an individual should work on in order to be successful.

 

The discussion was moderated by Ms Aparna Sharma. While discussing what a future ready organisation should be like Ms Emrana Sheikh pointed out that substantial portion of today’s organisation’s workforce is young and that an organization which combines the zeal and enthusiasm of generation Y i.e. new employees with experience of generation X i.e. the existing employees is future ready. She also mentioned that organisations need to consider deploying real time performance management systems and digital communication. Ms Shradha Pradhan gave a perspective that although change is imminent, it is also predictable to some extent and to deal with it organisations can use work-force planning and develop future capabilities. Mr Chunduru Srinivas then commented that to deal with change organisations need to develop generic capabilities which are identifying and giving commensurate compensations, learning and development of entrepreneurial spirit. The next point that was discussed was the competencies today’s organisation needs to develop. Ms Emrana Sheikh identified these competencies as - having global and entrepreneurial perspective and innovative skills and readiness to move from one function to another. Ms Shradha Pradhan stressed on underpinning knowledge for current performance, learning what not to do and working to overcome the things that derail as the key competencies of future ready organisations. Mr Chunduru Srinivas identified the competencies as expertise, innovation, entrepreneurship, integrity, humility (- developed by removal of arrogance) and trust (- developed by being accountable to partners, employees, customers and suppliers).

The last point discussed was what students need to do while pursuing MBA to be competent to work for a future ready organisation. The dignitaries advised the students to develop the will and the skill to do things, to fall in love with reading, to develop skills to handle people, to be agile and be adaptive and to get into the habit of reading company reports.

HR Conclave ’13 was a success and credit for the same goes to the students of the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE who worked very hard from its inception to its execution and ensured that the event went on smoothly.