Managing Talent |Update|

(A weekly update on Management )
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Tight Deadlines, work pressure and repercussions of the ongoing slowdown have forced the current workforce to lead an erratic lifestyle where health is last priority.
Ø  In a survey conducted by Healthon foundation, most corporate executives are suffering from stress injury related problem. Salary cuts and increased pressure at workplace has added to their anxiety level. As per Dr David Rajan, CEO, Ortho One, who deals with such problems, says that some of the patients (corporate executive) are suffering from “carpel tunnel” symptom with end up in surgery.

Ø  Companies are taking initiative to reduce stress during this slowdown. For instance, Chimes Group Pvt Ltd has conducted fitness competition at workplace. Such activity increases the awareness about health and encourages employees to maintain healthy lifestyle.
Times Accent, Wednesday, July 15, 2009

“Digital space helps SITG to get bigger in a time of Slowdown”, Says Harish Bahl, founder and CEO, SITG
Ø  According to him, there are 40-50 million Internet users in India and the growth in the industry has been phenomenal, at 25-30% year-on-year, yet the penetration is still only about 4% in India. So there is still a lot of room to grow and there is a huge opportunity for international businesses to have an online presence in India.

Ø  The $24 million company has grown approximately 50% year-on-year and is now adding a pharmaceutical vertical to its kitty of six companies. SITG is focusing on digital production offshoring as foreign firms increasingly use the online platform to test the response to their services or products in India.
Mint, Tuesday, July 14, 2009

MOORAD CHOUDHRY, GLOBAL FINANCIAL EXPERT, talks about the future of investment banking, credit derivatives market &lessons from the slowdown.
Ø  He suggested financial institutions to be back on basics with an emphasis on loan originate standards with knowledge of risk. During slowdown, focus must be on better ways to capture & present management information & more transparent understanding of credit risk & growth risk at company board level.

Ø  He suggested that the impact of future crisis can be mitigated by targeting a sustainable ROCE, preserving bank liquidity, maintaining a counter cyclical capital issue and avoiding excessive leverage ratio.
Financial Express, Thursday, July 16, 2009.

Focus on Strengths: In business, as in life, it pays to allow a person to play to his strengths rather than focus on his weakness.
Ø  According to Tracy Clarke, Standard Chartered Bank’s Group Head of HR says that there is need to drive high performance and to remain true to our culture and values. We can respond to these requirements only if we focus purely on individual/team strengths and work towards allowing people to play to their strength in their roles.

Ø  Also, continuous focus on strengths with ‘military precision’ will prove to be the fulcrum of success across the gamut of HR interventions which organizations may adopt for responding to today’s challenging business needs.
Business Line, Monday, July 13, 2009

Technology sector taps growing market for Talent Assessment.
Ø  Last week, Pranab Mukherjee, finance minister has increased the budget for higher education by Rs 9,600 crore with additional allocation of Rs 2,113 crore for IIT’s and NIT’s. This has attracted technology vendors like IBM, Sun, HP and others to explore this field.

Ø  IBM signed an MOU with IGNOU & Advanced Center for Informatics and Innovative learning for Certification in open source medium, including in Insurance, healthcare and retail. Similarly, Pearson Plc is investing $30 million in India to acquire stakes in two Indian education companies.
Mint, Thursday, July 16, 2009.

Complied By
Priti Patwal
Skyline Business School