He has the distinction of being the youngest and the fastest growing employee in the organization, to make it to the senior HR level role in a short span of time. Senior manager, ER Planning Team at Hyundai Motor India, Natwar Kadel, says that if you have a good attitude, patience and the ability to trust your instincts, you can beat any competition. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Kadel talks on the ‘attitude’ he learnt, the HR transformation practices and why human element will always remain important while evangelizing technology for overall HR function
My Bachelor’s degree in Commerce probably made me lean towards finance. So, once I completed my graduation, I started working with an audit firm, for about a year, while at the same time undergoing the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program with ICFAI University. Later I realized that I was more of a people’s person, hated being a desktop jockey; and was excited about leading from the front. So, I quit the audit firm and underwent Masters in Social Work with a specialization in Human Resources instead. I chose this course over MBA in HR, because I was clear that one needs to understand the human psyche and it’s complexities, to be able to manage people at the grass root and other levels and to be successful in the HR function. On completing this course in 2007, I was placed in Hyundai and since then I have been in the same organization.
Hyundai is a very aggressive organization. If you delve into the Korean history, the Korean economy came to a naught fifty years ago. Today they have resurrected their economy and are considered to be one of the fastest growing developed country in the world rather than being classified as a developing country. Companies like Samsung, Hyundai, LG, are prominent brands all over the world. What has turned them around in the last fifty years, is their aggressive nature and their flexibility, a trait common with Hyundai. Therefore at Hyundai, we expect employees to be persistent, resilient and flexible. These qualities worked for me, because I am extremely persistent, passionate and highly flexible—so, I managed to fit into the culture very well.
When I started my career, the first thirty days my assignment was to scan papers. It was a shocker, making me wonder if I was indeed recruited for the right job! Any holder of a master degree thinks that they are supposed to get into strategic thinking and innovation right away. I realized that, this was not what a job is all about—you have to start from ground zero and work your way up. However, I took it very positively and I can confidently say that this has held me in good stead today. Those thirty days, I went through the entire history of the organization—all the norms, policies, approvals and how it evolved. In those thirty days, I just didn’t scan the papers but read every bit of it. So, though I am with the organization for last twelve years, I feel like I am with the organization since it started in 1998. Since then I lapped up every opportunity to learn to keep growing. I am the youngest and the fastest growing employee—the youngest department head now.
There was no specific training that I had undergone, there was no classroom training to teach you how to fight battles. My daily routine was my training. One of the skills I learnt was the firefighter skill. A fireman’s job is to extinguish the fire. He doesn’t go out with a plan but needs to think on his feet at the site of how to put out the fire. That is something Hyundai teaches you every day. You may have the best of plans, but at the last moment if things don’t go as per plan, you need to think and act as per the situation to make sure that the outcomes meet expectations. It is this ability to think on ones feet, manage with available resources and flexibility, which will be needed in the future. At Hyundai that is ingrained in us, equipping us to handle complexity at work and other exigencies.
This is a situation every MNC faces. They all come with their philosophy and best practices, but understand that to be successful they have to be respectful to the law of the land and adapt with a healthy mix of their own policies and local practices. At Hyundai, this understanding is further strengthened with the understanding that today’s policies may be redundant tomorrow. In a dynamic world where information is at your fingertips, employees are mobile, expectations are high, and one has to follow international practices and standards with just the right amount of local ethos.
Technology will never replace the human intelligence. Technology will automate routine tasks like payroll, perhaps undertake the analysis of trends, surveys etc. No matter how high the level of technology is, it will never replace the HR function
I don’t think there is any significant difference between an Indian or an MNC company. Indian companies, with high level of diversifications and induction of the foreign educated next gen owners/promoters, have pretty much evolved into global entities. The only difference between these two organizations in the higher incidence of people from different nationalities working together, both sets of employees need to understand and be respectful of each other’s cultures. But, the best advantage that Indians have is that we already live in a country with diverse cultures, languages and practices, so adapting to another way of life is organic. We Indians can go to any part of the world and fit in; it will take just few days to adapt to it. I am very sure that no Indian will face any problem in any MNCs due to this trait of being highly flexible. We are accustomed to diversification from the very beginning, no MNC culture is ever going to faze us.
In the school and college one is taught about the right attitude, but no one makes an effort to explain what this ‘attitude’ is all about. Most of the institutes teach everything that there is to know, but forget the importance of teaching that attitude is even more important than knowledge. Take a look at leading CEOs earning a big package, if you dig deep you will know that what sets them apart is not just their talent, but their attitude on each and everything in their life. So teachers must explain to students, during the course, as to what is good attitude. They have to be prepared to go the extra mile, be down to earth, be highly flexible and willing to learn. Nobody has been successful without starting from ground zero.
I feel that quality is missing amongst the students and I can only blame those around them for this sorry state of affairs. Everybody talks about competition; going to the highest bidder is all that conversations are about. People shun the fact that it is not the salary which determines growth but good attitude, patience, an ability to trust oneself to beat competition, are the steps to achieve success.
I find a lot of dichotomy in this area. On the one hand, students are ill-informed despite having access to information at their fingertips. Neither do they read up the newspaper or news on their mobile phones, yet on the other hand I am surprised how they can crack the tough competitive exams with unheard of marks. They are highly competitive, but do they have the right knowledge? Is the question. During my time, we would read a lot, go to libraries and read up on a variety of subject. That trend is almost extinct. Students have to inculcate the habit of widening their knowledge and be aware of what is happening in the world around them over and above their subjects. Are we providing them the right opportunities? Are we giving them the right value education? Are we quipping them with the right attitude, flexibility, patience to help them move ahead? We need to answer these questions.
Millennial’s today are the larger workforce, they have different work expectations and work ethics. How to match the two while keeping the organization objectives intact is a challenge most HR professionals face today. We need to speak to them in a language they understand, engage them in ways which excite them and make them comfortable enough to give their best to the organization.
We all talk about work-life balance, but what is exactly this work-life balance all about? If you execute the work at the right time—no organization would want to extend your working hours. But, I feel at the initial stage of your career, your work-life balance is not important, what is important is your career—it has to be focused on and self-driven. I say, find your way to balance work-life. Bring some innovation and find smart ways of work—I am sure every organization will be interested in that. The change has to begin within ourselves.
AI and data analytics are tools for taking the right decisions, not a replacement for decisions. One can have enough data and use algorithms but usage and interpretation has to be done by individuals or a team, else all data is useless. I strongly believe that decision making will become sharper and more scientific with these tools, but will never replace the process for decision making itself.
Everybody talks about competition; going to the highest bidder is all that conversations are about. People shun the fact that it is not the salary which determines growth but good attitude, patience, an ability to trust oneself to beat competition, are the steps to achieve success
Like I said before, technology will never replace the human intelligence. Technology will automate routine tasks like payroll, perhaps undertake the analysis of trends, surveys etc. No matter how high the level of technology is, it will never replace the HR function. If I equate the hand to an organization, each finger will represent a function like production, sales, finance, procurement, quality and so on. Each finger can perform only a certain set of tasks independently, but it is the thumb which optimizes the functioning of each finger; without the thumb, they are incomplete. So is with HR—seemingly useless but absolutely necessary for efficient performance.
Having said this, the role of HR has evolved and continues to evolve into that of a facilitator; for example how do we engage millennials? How so ever we help people facing career challenges move into a new role? How do we chart a succession plan for the organization? These are critical decisions which define the future of the organization. These are roles and decisions, where technology can be of immense help, but will still need the final mile connectivity through a skilled professional. So, I believe that the role of HR will exist, albeit in a different form.
Currently, there is a large gap between what industry needs and what academia offers. Colleges focus on theory which is definitely very important, but are a far removed from practical experience. When we interview students, we see that they are academically very good and their scores are very high, but when we ask them to solve a problem, only two out of ten are able to take on the challenge. Rest are fumbling. There has to be lot more industry-institute collaboration, where industry requirements can be built into the curriculum. Field knowledge is very important, but Indian institutes are yet to evolve in that area.
One or two month internship cannot bridge the gap to make students corporate ready. To bridge the gap, industry and institutes should work together, right from designing the curriculum/ program to making internships more meaningful i.e. working on real time projects rather than time bound training, which are low on content. This experience is bound to bring students closer to industry/corporate culture and make them aware of issues and challenges of a real time work environment—it will be an advantage when they take up jobs. In the interim, students can equip themselves by keeping themselves abreast with the happenings in the industry, they must read up on case studies, keep up with trends, talk to people from the industry as often as they can, attend external seminars etc.
By Rajesh Rao
