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Letter From The
Editor-In-Chief
 As we step
into the dawn of the new millennium (the real new millennium, as the
purists would say), it is evident that the way we live and work will
change to a script that's still being written. In some ways, the nature of
work in the future is a fall-back to pre-industrial times. Then, commerce
was driven by expert artisans; in the future, it will increasingly be
driven by knowledge workers. Accept that fundamental premise and
everything else follows. The workplace, styles of management and
leadership, work processes, and everything else related to work will
undergo a change. We've tried to capture a unique blend of that possible
transformation: the theories and practices we've written about are global;
the organisations, local.
There's nothing local about the people
policies of the companies that have emerged as the winners in the
first-ever Business Today-Hewitt Associates study on The Best Employers in
India: these can stand up to any global benchmark. The range of industries
that the top 10 belong to-software services to soaps; hardware to
financial services; consumer durables to petroleum-shows that it is
possible for any company to follow the same kind of people policies that
these companies do. At the core of their efforts is the realisation that
the employee is their most valuable asset. Maybe, if more companies were
to accept that fact, we could turn the numerical edge India enjoys in
terms of its people into a competitive advantage.
Stories about the efforts of leading
companies to sustain their competitive advantage dominated our coverage
during the year that was: from the Murugappa Group to HLL, Zee to HFCL,
and HDFC to Rediff. I'm tempted to say the stockmarket will be the
eventual judge of these efforts, but the irrational exuberance of the
Sensex at the beginning of the year that was, and its inexplicable
despondency at the end prevents me from doing so.
The year also saw the boom and doom of many
dotcoms although the relentless advance of the internet continued. We live
truly in an age where we are flooded with information not only from all
directions, but in various forms. It is with this environment in mind that
BT underwent some change in styling and design itself. The product you
hold in your hands is and has been, since April last, more contemporary
and a snappier read than its earlier avatar. That's a good note to end on.
Here's wishing you a prosperous (real) new millennium!
(Aroon Purie)
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