an icmr-iipm think tank publication - Cycbth.org
an icmr-iipm think tank publication - Cycbth.org an icmr-iipm think tank publication - Cycbth.org
GANESH NATARAJAN "YOUNG PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS WILLING TO CHANGE" IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MRINMOY DEY, VICE CHAIRMAN & CEO OF ZENSAR TECHNOLOGIES, GANESH NATARAJAN HIGHLIGHTS THE POWER OF EMPOWERMENT IN TRANSFORMATIONAL PROGRAMS AND PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT Vice Chairman & CEO of Zensar Technologies Limited of RPG Group, Ganesh Natarajan is one of the most successful professionals in the country's IT industry. During his stint with Aptech Limited, a global retail and corporate training company, the company's revenues increased considerably fifty times was listed on both BSE and London Stock Exchange. He has also authored many books on Business Process Reengineering and Knowledge Management. Zensar featured amongst Fortune’s top 10 global Offshore outsourcing companies from India. How had Zensar Technologies charted its density? It was in 2001 when Zensar started becoming a software vendor after shutting down our hardware assistance system. Now, we are ranked amongst India's top 20 software services companies by NASSCOM and are operational in more than 21 countries. What changes you have brought in Zensar over these years? The main changes that we have done are included in 'the five act' - (i) The first step was enabling people to think fast; (ii) very strong focus in a particular area; (iii) increasing flexibility in terms of workplace, role of the employees; (iv) collaborating culture with organisational hierarchy (v) five point Green agenda towards creating ecological sustainability. Moreover, we have initiated an annual Vision Community exercise where selected employees from all levels join in after-hours brainstorming session to identify ideas that could lead to new products or services. We are focusing on using social media and mobility solutions and we have a major partnership with Google in this matter which would enable employees to collaborate with each other easily. Over the next one year we want to encourage 30% of our employees to spend 2-3 days in a week working from home with the same enthusiastic level. What hurdles have you faced after implementing these changes in the company? Young people are always willing to change. But sometimes what might come in the way could be the middle management who are used to a certain working style and might not be comfortable with everybody having access to everything. We also faced similar hurdles dur- ing transformation. What are the future plans of Zensar and are there any new tie-ups in the pipeline? We want to further strengthen our partnership with Microsoft and Google. We are also looking at the tie-ups with small business solutions companies which have similar kind of architecture. We have three to four new tie-up in the pipeline and we are looking at subsidiary in China and UK. Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman & CEO of Zensar Technologies WE ARE FOCUSING ON USING SOCIAL MEDIA AND MOBILITY SOLUTIONS WHICH ENABLE EMPLOYEES TO COLLABORATE WITH EACH OTHER EASILY count your chickens before they hatch 31 april 2012
EXCLUSIVE COLUMN THE 'HOW' OF TRANSFOR- MATIONAL LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP FOCUSES ON LEADING CHANGE AND MOTIVATES FOLLOWERS TO WORK FOR THE LARGER GOOD A mother once brought her child to Mahatma Gandhi, asking him to tell the young boy not to eat sugar, as it was not good for his diet or his developing teeth. Gandhi replied, “I cannot tell him that, but you may bring him back in a month. The mother was frustrated as she had expected the great leader to support her parenting. Four weeks later she returned, not too sure what to expect. The great Gandhi took the child’s small hand into his own hand, knelt before him, and tenderly cautioned, “Do not eat sugar, my child; it’s not good for you”. Then he embraced the child. The mother, grateful but perplexed, queried, “Why didn’t you say that a month ago?” Well, said Gandhi, a month ago I was still eating sugar myself.” Gandhi knew that to effectively lead others he must first lead himself. Gandhi wrote “How can I control others if I cannot control myself?” Gandhi believed that an ounce of practice is more than tons of preaching. This subject could not have started without above example, the illustration which is so simple in reading but so in depth and complex that it may take some time before some of us absorb the essence of transformational leadership practice which is “Be the change you want to see in the world” as well defined by Gandhi who gave definition to Transformational leadership style. It will also be important to note that transformational leadership is required at its maxima when you are leading volunteers and is not supported by any external mechanism except to follow the principles yourself, otherwise, for example in Industry/ Corporate its comparatively easier to implement this style with very high productivity because of support from external factors such as employee’s salary, perk growth and security which is absent when you are leading volunteers. In simple words, let’s define transformational leadership as: "Leadership that motivates followers to ignore self-interests and work for the larger good of the organisation to achieve significant accomplishments; emphasis is on articulating a vision that will convince subordinates to make major changes." These leaders have a profound effect on their followers’ beliefs regarding ASHOK MALHOTRA CEO Spark Leadership Inc count your chickens before they hatch 32 april 2012 what the organisation should become and also on their subordinates’ values. Some examples of individuals who are considered transformational leaders include Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, Michael Dell of Dell Computer Corporation, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Lou Gerstner of IBM. It is also true that people who have the potential to become transformational leaders can easily lose this opportunity by making serious mistakes. Indeed, President Clinton may be an example of an individual who botched the opportunity to become a highly successful transformational leader, because of several mistakes. Though in between a course correction was done to some extent. There is a significant amount of evidence that transformational leadership is more effective than transactional leadership in achieving higher productivity, higher job satisfaction, and lower employee turnover rates. To explain this further, we need to reiterate here that one of the most comprehensive leadership theories of organisational transformation is the theory of transformational and transactional leadership as quoted by Left to Right: Mahatma Gandhi, Bill Clinton & Dalai Lama – the epitome of transformational leadership
- Page 1 and 2: AN ICMR-IIPM THINK TANK PUBLICATION
- Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS 12 Marshall Goldsmith Auth
- Page 5 and 6: FLASH POINTS INTERNATIONAL FACEBOOK
- Page 7 and 8: KICK OFFS YOGESH BANSAL “WE HAVE
- Page 9 and 10: INFOGRAPHICS BEYOND NUMBERS CHANGE
- Page 11 and 12: INTERNATIONAL COLUMN CAN LEADERS CH
- Page 13 and 14: INTERNATIONAL COLUMN THE CHARACTER
- Page 15 and 16: INTERNATIONAL COLUMN CULTURE CONTRO
- Page 17 and 18: TCOVER STORY he Dodo, a flightless
- Page 19 and 20: COVER STORY “LEADERSHIP IS ALL AB
- Page 21 and 22: COVER STORY “THINGS MAY NOT BE SU
- Page 23 and 24: COVER STORY “CHANGE IS INEVITABLE
- Page 25 and 26: COVER STORY “THE PROS & CONS SHOU
- Page 27 and 28: COVER STORY “TITAN STANDS FOR SOM
- Page 29: COVER STORY “YOU HAVE TO SEE BOTH
- Page 33 and 34: INTERNATIONAL COLUMN WHY IT WORKS A
- Page 35 and 36: INTERNATIONAL COLUMN TRANSFORMATION
- Page 37 and 38: FAIR FORWARD “THE AMALGAMATION IS
- Page 39 and 40: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW "TIME MANAGEMEN
- Page 41: POSTSCRIPT THE FORTUNE BENEATH INTE
GANESH NATARAJAN<br />
"YOUNG PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS<br />
WILLING TO CHANGE"<br />
IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MRINMOY DEY, VICE CHAIRMAN & CEO OF ZENSAR<br />
TECHNOLOGIES, GANESH NATARAJAN HIGHLIGHTS THE POWER OF EMPOWERMENT IN<br />
TRANSFORMATIONAL PROGRAMS AND PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT<br />
Vice Chairm<strong>an</strong> & CEO of Zensar<br />
Technologies Limited of<br />
RPG Group, G<strong>an</strong>esh Nataraj<strong>an</strong><br />
is one of the most<br />
successful professionals in the country's<br />
IT industry. During his stint<br />
with Aptech Limited, a global retail<br />
<strong>an</strong>d corporate training comp<strong>an</strong>y, the<br />
comp<strong>an</strong>y's revenues increased considerably<br />
fifty times was listed on<br />
both BSE <strong>an</strong>d London Stock Exch<strong>an</strong>ge.<br />
He has also authored m<strong>an</strong>y books on<br />
Business Process Reengineering <strong>an</strong>d<br />
Knowledge M<strong>an</strong>agement.<br />
Zensar featured amongst Fortune’s<br />
top 10 global Offshore outsourcing<br />
comp<strong>an</strong>ies from India.<br />
How had Zensar Technologies<br />
charted its density?<br />
It was in 2001 when Zensar started<br />
becoming a software vendor after<br />
shutting down our hardware assist<strong>an</strong>ce<br />
system. Now, we are r<strong>an</strong>ked<br />
amongst India's top 20 software<br />
services comp<strong>an</strong>ies by NASSCOM<br />
<strong>an</strong>d are operational in more th<strong>an</strong><br />
21 countries.<br />
What ch<strong>an</strong>ges you have brought<br />
in Zensar over these years?<br />
The main ch<strong>an</strong>ges that we have<br />
done are included in 'the five act'<br />
- (i) The first step was enabling people<br />
to <strong>think</strong> fast; (ii) very strong<br />
focus in a particular area; (iii) increasing<br />
flexibility in terms of<br />
workplace, role of the employees;<br />
(iv) collaborating culture with <strong>org</strong><strong>an</strong>isational<br />
hierarchy (v) five point<br />
Green agenda towards creating<br />
ecological sustainability. Moreover,<br />
we have initiated <strong>an</strong> <strong>an</strong>nual Vision<br />
Community exercise where selected<br />
employees from all levels join in<br />
after-hours brainstorming session<br />
to identify ideas that could lead to<br />
new products or services.<br />
We are focusing on using social<br />
media <strong>an</strong>d mobility solutions <strong>an</strong>d<br />
we have a major partnership with<br />
Google in this matter which would<br />
enable employees to collaborate<br />
with each other easily. Over the<br />
next one year we w<strong>an</strong>t to encourage<br />
30% of our employees to spend 2-3<br />
days in a week working from home<br />
with the same enthusiastic level.<br />
What hurdles have you faced after<br />
implementing these ch<strong>an</strong>ges<br />
in the comp<strong>an</strong>y?<br />
Young people are always willing to<br />
ch<strong>an</strong>ge. But sometimes what might<br />
come in the way could be the middle<br />
m<strong>an</strong>agement who are used to<br />
a certain working style <strong>an</strong>d might<br />
not be comfortable with everybody<br />
having access to everything.<br />
We also faced similar hurdles dur-<br />
ing tr<strong>an</strong>sformation.<br />
What are the future pl<strong>an</strong>s of Zensar<br />
<strong>an</strong>d are there <strong>an</strong>y new tie-ups<br />
in the pipeline?<br />
We w<strong>an</strong>t to further strengthen our<br />
partnership with Microsoft <strong>an</strong>d<br />
Google. We are also looking at the<br />
tie-ups with small business solutions<br />
comp<strong>an</strong>ies which have similar<br />
kind of architecture. We have three<br />
to four new tie-up in the pipeline<br />
<strong>an</strong>d we are looking at subsidiary in<br />
China <strong>an</strong>d UK.<br />
G<strong>an</strong>esh<br />
Nataraj<strong>an</strong>,<br />
Vice<br />
Chairm<strong>an</strong> &<br />
CEO of Zensar<br />
Technologies<br />
WE ARE FOCUSING ON USING<br />
SOCIAL MEDIA AND MOBILITY<br />
SOLUTIONS WHICH ENABLE<br />
EMPLOYEES TO COLLABORATE<br />
WITH EACH OTHER EASILY<br />
count your chickens before they hatch 31 april 2012
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