People; People:The Employee Entrepreneur

Tectonic shifts are changing the very contours of the economic and business environment, regardless of geographic boundaries. Digitalisation, deregulation, and globalisation have altered the corporate landscape, and ushered in an era of discontinuity. To cope with these seismic changes, organisations are reconstructing their very business architecture. In this process of reinvention, there is a growing realisation that it is not technology, not the Net, but intellectual capital which will see companies through the 21st Century. A strong talent-base will be the key differentiating factor.

Attracting, managing, and nurturing talent will be the single-most critical issue that we will have to grapple with in the new millennium. Doing this calls for a slew of proactive measures on 3 fronts. First, companies have to create an organisational ambiance where talent can bloom. Second, they have to put in place systems that help unleash their potential. And third, they have to build in a reward-and-recognition-mechanism that provides value for people.

People
People
AVB Group's K.M.Birla
Cerebrus' Anita Ramachandran
XLRI's Madhukar Shukla
TISS' Shweta Tangri
Organisational Structure
BPCL's S. Sundarajan
BCG India's Arun Maira
IIM-A's Indira J. Parikh
XLRI's Zubin Mulla
Leadership
ITC's Y.C.Deveshwar
BAH's L.Zappei & N.Bahadur
XIMB's E.Abraham
XIMB's S.Sankalp

THE SYSTEMIC CHANGES. The new avatar of talent in the millennium will be the knowledge professional: innovative and with business-savvy, quick on the uptake, with an instinctive ability to network, and possessing unbridled ambition. Mavericks, entrepreneurs, and risk-takers all, they will be propelled by an urge to experiment. They will scan avenues that can spur their creativity. Talent will gravitate to an organisation that is flexible, has strong values, and a robust performance ethic. The knowledge professional will opt for organisations that make him or her feel constantly stretched.

Thus, profound systemic changes in the way companies are structured will be needed. The concepts of leadership and managing people will have to undergo a radical rethink. Boxes, hierarchies, and rigid structures will be passé. Talented people will have to be given a free hand. They will expect enormous latitude in the way they work, and the manner in which they take their work forward. On the one hand, companies will have to live with flexitime, round-the-clock accessibility to the workplace, in-house health clubs, and full-fledged day-care centres. On the other, they will have to contend with workstations at home, remote access, video-conferencing, and reporting by exception. And the work itself will be centered around projects-not tasks.

NURTURING TALENT. To stay a step ahead of the aspirations of their people, companies have to do more than provide a stimulating work-environment. Senior managers must focus on nurturing talent, and possess the ability to manage a talented band of renegades. While conventional development programmes will continue, firms will need to look to keep talented employees enthused by continuously upgrading their knowledge- and skills-set. This will take the form of cross-divisional transfers, working with vendors, collaborating with competitors in the knowledge arena, and building relationships with academia. This will enable the knowledge-worker to pursue multiple careers within a single company.

The pace of change in the knowledge arena will be killing: knowledge will constantly render itself obsolete. Sabbaticals will become part of the organisational culture. First-class corporate universities will dot the horizon. Competing companies will bunch together to set up such knowledge networks. Collaborative consortium learning will be the name of the game.

ENGENDERING THOUGHT LEADERS. A few knowledge workers will don the role of teachers. This will facilitate the creation of thought leaders: people who are willing to think laterally and out of the box, and go that extra mile to make a huge positive impact on the organisation, far beyond the call of duty. Thought leaders bring a visionary, strategic, and global perspective to the decision-making process. To engender thought leaders, organisations will have to create a cultural context that encourages greater participation and constructive dissent.

CREATING ENTREPRENEURIAL ISLANDS. This millennium will also witness the rise of novel entrepreneurial opportunities that will wean talent away from even the best companies. The emergence of fast-growth small- and mid-size firms will prove extremely attractive. The opportunity to make a mark will be quicker than in faceless monolithic corporations. Surprisingly, small companies will also provide greater opportunities for wealth-creation than large ones. Thus, the take-home pay-cheque will cease to be a major motivator. Exciting, upstart start-ups that give meaning to work, and endow it with a sense of fun will be the preferred choice.

To turbo-charge talent-retention, firms will have to create small entrepreneurial islands, where an organisation can house its best talent to pursue experiments, innovate, develop cutting-edge products, dream up new and better ways of running a business, and create value in an unrestrained manner; yet, one where there is positive value-addition to the organisation. As these teams do just this, time and again, their aspirations will take a new turn. From employees, they will want to become employee-partners in business. If their organisation is unwilling to make provision for this, they will move out, and set up shop on their own.

PARTNERING ORGANISATIONS. Companies will start a seed-fund or a venture-capital arm to support the entrepreneurial initiatives of their best employees. This will spawn sub-firms that could grow to become a major resource for the corporation. This millennium will also witness the emergence of a new breed of entrepreneurs. Dreamers and visionaries who, while enjoying their jobs, will set up parallel entrepreneurial non-competitive ventures. Given the sparseness of cutting-edge talent, companies will have to create the space for this.

NOVEL REWARD SYSTEMS. Reward-mechanisms will also undergo a radical change. Ferreting out talent for postings abroad, job shadowing as part of learning and succession-planning, and the experience of filling in for heads of functions when they are away will become reward-mechanisms.

Stock options are also key to motivating talented employees. Instantaneous performance rewards, quarterly bonuses, and quality of life enhancers will also become ways to recognise performance. The firm will also have to become a prestigious brand with which the knowledge-worker can identify. That brand will have to evoke all that is positive in business and in life: integrity, quality, energy, innovative leadership, perfection, and, above all, character.