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winning through people: (Fourth, fifth, and
sixth, respectively, from left in fron row) Ashok Chhabra, External
Relations Director, P&G India, Bharat Patel, Chairman, P&G
Hygience & Healthcare, and Chester Twigg, Director (Sales
& Marketing), P&G India, with P&G India's team |
A
walk about the imposing glass and chrome headquarters of Procter
& Gamble (P&G) in suburban Mumbai is perhaps the best way
to savour the distinctiveness of this fast-moving consumer goods
(FMCG) major. As I venture forth, it doesn't take me long to figure
out the two most important priorities at P&G: Its people, and
its brands. That in itself may not sound unusual, but what is peculiar
to P&G is the ample demonstration of the strong link the top
brass has been able to establish between the two. It isn't too long
before I see the writing literally on the wall. Posters of Edmund
Hillary's conquest of the Everest line the walls. Nuggets like "it's
not the mountain that was conquered but the self" and similar
bolts of wisdom by the likes of William Blake and company are profound
accompaniments to those pictures. "The theme for the year is
Edmund Hillary and the Everest," explains one wide-eyed executive.
I didn't need to be a genius to guess that, but then P&G-ITEs
probably don't like taking things for granted.
Meandering through a maze of workstations,
I try asking for directions to the Chairman's corner room. Bad idea.
The first P&G-ITE I bump into gives me a clipped reply: "There
are no cabins at P&G." That's good for P&G employees
but it makes my life just a wee bit difficult for me: I've also
got to spot the senior management that's inconspicuously mingling
with the rest of the crowd.
Before that, though, it's time for lunch. At
the huge sky-lit cafeteria, the menu of the company-sponsored lunch
(an everyday feature) is divided into two sections, "health
food" and "regular". A glance at a sample of P&G-ITEs
around me prompts me to believe that the former is more popular.
Post-lunch I am handed the bible that governs
all that P&G professes to live by, "the PVP" book,
PVP standing for Purpose, Values and Principles. The pamphlet concludes
with the lines: "Two billion times a day, P&G brands touch
the lives of people round the world. P&G people work to make
sure those brands live up to their promise to make everyday life
just a little bit better." That's the people-brand connection
once again, in case my memory had been lulled by lunch (the "regular"
stuff for me). Further reinforcement is just round the corner. Hugging
the walls on each floor is a line of conference rooms that for some
reason are bustling all day with meetings and training sessions.
It's difficult not to notice the names of these rooms: Head &
Shoulders, Pantene, Olay, Crest. "Some of our biggest brands,"
one executive helpfully informs me as I am led into "Olay"
for an interview with the CEO.
To be sure I can't blame anybody at P&G
for hammering the people-brand association into my head till it
hurts (actually it doesn't, not yet). After all, making that link
work is what P&G's hr processes are all about. Read on for a
70 mm view of how this machinery rolls itself out every day.
P&G INDIA |
A SNAPSHOT |
Turnover |
Rs 750 cr |
Y-O-Y Growth* |
-2.2% |
BRAND PORTFOLIO |
Vicks range of cold & cough relief
products, Whisper range of sanitary napkins, Pampers disposable
diapers, Ariel & Tide detergents, Pantene and Head & Shoulders
shampoos. Some of P&G's billion-dollar brands sold in India
are Tide, Ariel, Pantene, Whisper and Pampers. |
BREAK-UP OF EMPLOYEES |
In the
general office: |
Managers |
89
|
Administration & Technical staff |
42
|
In the plants: |
Managers |
24
|
Technicians on the shop-floor |
228
|
In the field
(sales personnel) |
Managers |
48
|
Administration & Technical staff |
7
|
*Y-O-Y: Year-on-Year |
Building From Within
P&G does not hire laterally. In simple-speak
that means the company only hires freshers straight out of B-school.
Middle and senior management personnel are never hired so the company
depends entirely on building from scratch with each new employee
and looks at him or her as someone whose entire career will play
itself out at P&G. As one recruitment manager explains: "I
am aware every time a candidate sits before me that I could be looking
at a future CEO so I need to be very very careful about who is being
hired." That literally puts the onus of building the company
on the hr department. Which is why the hr people are never referred
to as "the hr people"-except by me of course-but as Business
Strategy Leaders at P&G. Explaining the rationale for the hiring
freeze following entry level inductions, Shantanu Khosla, Country
Manager, P&G India, says: "It's a choice we have made backed
by the philosophy that we want to grow from within."
The system exerts its own pressures on the
hr department as Sunil Durani, Director (HR), at P&G explains:
"We have to ensure that the interests of the people are inseparable
from the interests of the company and there is ample career growth."
Quiz the duo on the material advantages of this system (what good
is an hr system if it has no material impact on the company's performance)
and Khosla comes up with an interesting insight: "I've been
here 20 years and have established relationships with people from
Cincinnati to Warsaw and today we see this as our competitive strength
in an increasingly globalised world where collaborations and virtual
teams are the order of the day and the key enabler here has been
the promote-from-within philosophy."
Why I Joined P&G
"I am two months old in the company and
already handling a new brand launch," beams Sameer Srivastava,
an excited 23-year-old fresh recruit from IIM Ahmedabad. Srivastava
was clear it had to be P&G at campus placement. He's got his
reasons. "I know they are people-oriented in their policies,
offer international experience and early challenges." The last
factor is probably the single biggest influencer for Srivastava
who wants responsibility "here and now". What's the point
of waiting till you are older before you handle anything important,
he asks pertinently. Well, his wishes have obviously been answered
as he excitedly says: "My boss is out of the country and I
am taking critical decisions on my own."
"We believe in creating entrepreneur managers,
motivated employees who feel like owners. Early responsibility creates
that feeling of an entrepreneur-owner, it makes all the difference
to the business, the enthusiasm and passion is unmatched in these
managers," says Bharat Patel, Chairman, P&G Hygiene &
Healthcare.
It isn't long before the sceptic in me surfaces.
What about the inherent risks in placing crucial decisions in the
hands of new recruits, I wonder, can the system backfire badly thanks
to a wrong or immature decision? "We obviously have a system
(of checks and balances) in place to make sure nothing goes vastly
wrong," says Khosla, using an example to make his case. "If
a new recruit is working on a fresh packaging artwork, he is not
expected to be well versed with all regulatory requirements; so
if he forgets to put the MRP on the pack, it cannot go unnoticed;
we have a legal team that checks on regulatory compliances. Similarly,
we have various line functions that provide the system with a back-up
but at the same time the young managers get a free hand to take
decisions."
Each manager is given a two-pronged agenda
by the company: build the business and build the organisation.
Managers are accountable for the growth of their direct reports,
they are in fact assessed on that. |
Why I Stayed On At P&G...
Chester Twigg is Sales and Marketing Director
at P&G India. He joined the company in 1988 straight from campus
and has had international assignments, including a two-year stint
in the US. Why didn't he ever think of leaving the company? "I
believe that people leave managers, not companies. In that regard
I've been lucky, I've had great managers, I've had challenging assignments
and yet never felt boredom." That's reason enough to hold on.
What's making me curious, however, is his relationship with his
juniors. What prompts him to nurture them? What's in it for him,
I wonder. "It is absolutely a requirement. Each manager is
given a two-pronged agenda: build the business and build the organisation.
Managers are accountable for the growth of their direct reports,
they are in fact assessed on that. It forms a part of their appraisal,"
says Twigg. In addition to this, there is a 360-degree appraisal
system.
Managing Change
Change is inevitable. The trick is in managing
it. If you're wondering why I am mouthing such truisms well just
read on. About 16 months ago, P&G decided to shut down one of
its plants in Goa and consolidate its manufacturing efforts in that
state into one plant. If the company's senior management is to be
believed, the decision was taken with complete involvement of the
plant workers. "Eighteen months before the closure, we discussed
the issue threadbare in our annual strategy development and deployment
meeting that had all the workers involved. We threw up the data
on the marketplace and costs and they themselves came up with the
solution of consolidating operations in the state," says Durani.
While all this sounds almost Utopian, I get the feeling that Durani
takes his hr role pretty seriously. I am pretty convinced about
it when he lets on his department's tagline: "Be In touch,
Involved and In the lead!"
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