It is an all too common fact that out of the 100s of MSMEs that spawn every year, globally speaking, an overwhelming majority of such MSMEs do not survive beyond the first 5 years of their existence. While there are a host of interesting reasons and theories that explain the early demise of MSMEs ranging from Leadership to Learning, one of the most common factors that gets missed out in the regular postmortem is People Management. For very often, those…    Read More >>

Earlier this year Japan was hit by a severe earthquake and tsunami that mauled their 35-year old nuclear power generation complex in Fukushima. Recently Tepco, the power company responsible for running the plant, invited journalists to a guided tour to show how well the damage is being managed. One condition: no women were to come.Reason: there were no toilets for women in the entire complex. It is shocking to learn that a hightechnology complex that had been running for more…    Read More >>

Today’s dynamic environment signifies that the nature of workforce is changing rapidly. A large number of the staff is young, energetic and tech savvy who are well connected to their peers, friends and all those who matter to them. Social media platforms with their user friendly and interactive features that help transcend geographies and cultural boundaries have ensured that this generation stays constantly connected. Also, ‘anywhere anytime’ internet access through mobile phones allows this workforce to be well informed and…    Read More >>

Any discussion on personality assessment would be incomplete without Projective Techniques. Projective Techniques have had a lengthy and vital history in personality assessment, however they have evoked minimal interest in Human Resource Professionals. There are several reasons for this : Lack of training/expertise in their usage, obscure quality of instruments and psychometric limitations have restricted their usage. It would be interesting to reintroduce this important technique to the readers through this article. Projective techniques A Projective technique or test is…    Read More >>

Gallup polls a sample of US employees every month to assess their perceptions along multiple dimensions and publishes the findings as the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. This was started in Jan 2008. Given the recession in the US economy its is no surprise that the score in the Work Satisfaction category of questions was lower last month than ever before. Frozen or declining wages and the shrinking number of jobs cannot lead to anything but gloom. What does this mean for…    Read More >>

For MSMEs that grow slowly or exponentially, pertinent challenges exist in identifying and managing critical HR requirements in a systematic manner. In the absence of a clear understanding about current and future HR needs, MSMEs also tend to define the HR Department or HR Personnel’s role in an ambiguous fashion. It does not help then when the professionals joining such roles are themselves less sure about what they plan to do. In such instances, a proper diagnostic of the organization…    Read More >>

Amar Bahadur Chowdhury, AB, as he was popularly known, was worried. Mr Chowdhury is the quintessential self made tycoon. Hailing from small town Bihar, he came to  Kolkata in his teens, with nothing but the blue sky above him and the park benches of the city to sleep on. Through sheer grit, he worked his way up, doing odd jobs and educating himself, to reach a good middle management position in Shaw Wallace. That was when enthusiasm around the IT…    Read More >>

John Maxwell once famously said ‘Leadership is influence, nothing more than that.’ This line perhaps best summarizes the idea behind CEOs who capture the imagination of the public at large. The topic ofcourse reads Larger than life CEOs and these men and women at the top of affairs could justify the tag in different ways as we would see through examples cited further in this article. But the general notion behind the idea of Larger than Life CEOs would be…    Read More >>

Most business executives pride themselves on their focus on merit while hiring, promoting or rewarding their employees. They often deride the caste and language-based prejudice prevalent in the country and consider themselves immune to any bias towards any attribute unrelated to merit. They could be wrong. Four studies from the US provide sobering food for thought. In an Economist blog posting, Schumpeter describes an experiment where people were asked to rate companies that had African-American (-read, Black) executives in the…    Read More >>

A central challenges facing leadership in MSMEs is the limited information the owners have about their own efficacy as leaders. In most cases, this information tends to flow in through a reliable or highly unreliable set of intermediaries. In such instances, the information giver may tend to relay the information keeping in mind his or her interests. Formal 360 Degree Feedback exercises conducted by independent parties offer an opportunity here for those owners who wish to receive feedback on their…    Read More >>