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 Corporates
in search of developing the cutting edge have experienced that it
is the knowledge worker who has to be developed, trained and retained
to survive in the wake of the opening up of the Indian economy,
says Kesho Prasad
The
emerging values of humanism and humanisation coupled with the burgeoning
focus on creativity, the autonomy, which people are acquiring progressively
and the focus of supply and demand have forced CEOs to acknowledge
‘people power’.
Moreover,
people’s expectation is fast changing and they cannot be taken
for granted. They have the motivation to work and are to be treated
different from other resources. As such, the conventional approach
of Personnel Management to people treating them as a resource, as
unnecessary evils who can only be motivated through fear, punishment,
money or comfort has undergone a sea change.
 “Knowledge
is the only meaningful resource today,” said Peter F Drucker.
An organisation is run through many resources like material, money,
machines, land, building,capital, etc, and access to them is no
longer limited. As access to people the most vital resource, is
limited, they dictate the market forces of supply and demand, as
they are knowledge workers. People being the most fragile, sensitive
resources are also costly to maintain. An expenditure on them is
an investment, for, this resource accelerates in values whereas
the other resources depreciate over a period of time. Hence, the
need to give greater importance to them.
Being
aware of their importance to the corporates in India, which is emerging
as a mighty industrial order of the East, the new entrants to organisations
look upon employment as an opportunity to test their knowledge and
apply the same to the work situation. The CEO of Core Health Care
opines that today’s professionals have been much more demanding
than their predecessors. These professionals have the potential
to determine their own performance. The emerging trends of the new
paradigm of business involving open market operations in the labour
market, viz, free competition, total quality movement, mergers as
well as alliances of Indian companies with known cash-rich MNCs,
have prompted obliging CEOs to give special importance to people.
Meeting
the challenges of the business and trade with opening up of the
Indian economy to the world and acquiring a higher share of the
market is no longer an easy task. Corporates in the search for developing
the cutting edge have experienced that it is the knowledge worker
who has to be developed, trained and retained. The earlier view
that the cost of labour in the country being comparatively low,
cheap labour is an asset for Indian companies no longer holds good.
Today skilled and trained labour is a costly factor of production.
Indian companies need managers knowledge-workers who can bring knowledge
and expertise into the business. The three strengths needed today
for corporates to be effective, one, being innovative in market,
two, developing originality of service and three, a deep understanding
of needs of the customer, can be acquired through knowledge and
that is the people.
 According
to the CEO of Mastek, real value addition is knowledge. We are moving
towards a knowledge-based society. Management of the knowledge worker
therefore is crucial. Organisations with vision to be world class
entrepreneurs have to nurture knowledge workers, feels the CEO of
Glaxo. This is absolutely necessary for two reasons namely, that
the human resource has the potential to create competitive edge
for the organisation but is it is a scarce resource. Further, significance
is being attached to people since today it is the only resource
which corporates are unable to transfer freely across national boundaries,
which is a matter of necessity in today’s business. Therefore,
those corporates who operate as boundarlyless information, technology
and capital, is an indication of how to do away with the old concepts
of business at home. Thus these corporates are able to train and
develop people of one nation to take up positions in the newly set
up operations anywhere in the world. Success of such boundaryless
corporates entirely depends upon the availability of local top class
intellectual capital that which has accentuated the value of people
and as such acquisition of the right talent has turned out to be
crucial.
Human
beings, being the makers of knowledge juggernaut according to the
CEO of Ester Industries, due to their expert knowledge will be able
to deal with the diverse nature of functions of the entire corporate
activities, leading to customer satisfaction.
Earlier,
this role was played by the corporate’s chief strategist, ie,
the CEO and his top management team. This is the changing role of
the knowledge worker. Since we know that contemporary CEO’s
prime concern of late is for customer satisfaction both internal
and external customers, satisfying customers needs is an act, which
involves leveraging knowledge of the organisation’s potential
to provide satisfaction to the customer. This is to be done through
the people who are the fountainhead of knowledge.
Increasing
importance of people therefore is due to the ever-increasing demands
of the customers. All corporate strengths depend upon the people,
according to CEO of Godrej Soaps. Thus, it is the people who have
the knowledge and can develop the competitive edge of any organisation.
People thus are the centre piece of all organisational activities.
This can be seen in Fig 3.1.
People
are also being valued more since they are the fountainhead of all
winning concepts. New products are created by intensive and extensive
planned research and development. Developing successful products
is the product of knowledge deployed as a core competence of the
corporate. In manufacturing operations too, the role of people is
most vital due to use of high precision, high-tech equipment and
machinery in shops. Today induction of CNC/NC machines and automation
has revolutionised the industry and led to reduction in use of manpower.
Individuals are to operate as part of an effective team and their
contribution is crucial to the performance of the entire group/section.
As such, success of a manufacturing organisation will depend not
merely on its use of updated sophisticated technology but also what
may be called the intrinsic way the people use the technology optimally
and purposefully.
In
the field of marketing, organisations are covering the clone products
with layers of unique service in an effort to introduce novel and
attractive types of customer satisfaction. But, the ‘quality
of the service’ component which is crucial for generating customer
value is contingent upon the individual person’s ability to
deliver the same. Hence the need for a knowledge worker who has
the capability to perform in the present day situation, is underlined.
The organisation’s focus on customer satisfaction is further
reinforced by the marketing professionals’ emphasis on developing
a healthy relationship between the buyer and the organisation by
offering different services. While service has progressively become
the hallmark in the global economy, people are the more being looked
upon as the most vital instrument for providing satisfaction to
the customer.
(Excerpt
taken from Getting The Right People by Kesho Prasad, Macmillan India
Limited)
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