"The word “loyalty” has different meaning at Subex when compared to any other companies I have worked in the past. Every Subexian had an option to leave the company when crisis struck, but did not opt to move out and stayed back and we are thankful to every one of them who bailed the organisation out of a probable bankruptcy to make it what it is today"
Mohan Sitharam, Chief People Officer, Subex, is a man who wears many hats; other than being the Global Head for People Initiatives with the leading provider of Telecom Business and Operations Support Systems, he also manages varied functions of HR, Quality, IT, PMO, Admin and Travel. That said, he is armed with plethora of experience in areas such as transformational change initiatives, leadership development, mergers and acquisition, public listing, to name a few. In conversation with Corporate Citizen, he provides an insight into the resurrection of Subex that makes for an inspiring story....
As glorious as it sounds, truth be told is that I am just an HR professional like the many you meet on a daily basis. The additional responsibility of other enabling functions like Quality, IT, PMO, Admin, Travel etc takes me closer to business. Besides, being a CPO does not impart any glamorous status as such, it is just making us more responsible, accountable with anything that is to do with the people of an organisation. If you are a CPO, you are in a servant-leadership role wherein you’re responsible for every concern or a need of the people in your organisation. It’s simply a job with accountability attached to it.
geography, a new product, a new technology or on a new talent. But what’s important for any organisation is to not bet the organisation itself. Unfortunately, there are many acquisitions in the industry wherein the acquiring company bets itself and when it does that, the stakes are high. It just determines the future from thereon. We weren’t immune to that. At Subex, we did make one such “not so intelligent” acquisition, which took us down the ladder. It is said when you are in a deep mess, you have got to keep your mouth shut and it was obvious that we were away from the media while the bricks were put back to the wall. In early 2015, when Surjeet (in his swanky club house) articulated his efforts, I knew I must be on the team, though at that point we still had a daunting debt. The business was a profitable one always and the financials were always in black. We did not look like it because the interest accrual being higher than the EBITDA. The good news is that, thanks to the efforts of the captain and our financial controller among my other senior colleagues, we are a zero debt company generating decent profits now.
Simple answer-it is “Our People”. This is a personal journey for many Subexians. I am inspired by their statements that the only goal they had was to get the company back to where it belongs. The word “loyalty” has different meaning at Subex compared to any other company I have worked in the past. Every Subexian had an option to leave the company when crisis struck, but did not opt to move out and stayed back and we are thankful to every one of them who bailed the organisation out of a probable bankruptcy to make it what it is today.
“If you are a CPO, you are in a servant-leadership role wherein you’re responsible for every concern or a need of the people in your organisation. It’s simply a job with accountability attached to it”
It is a paradox! On one hand, we can take pride in the fact that Subex operates in a niche area, but on the other, must be mindful of the cons. Being in niche space, the advantage could be lesser competition while on the flip, it lends you lesser headroom to grow. We are the leaders in our core products-revenue assurance and fraud management, but catering to only Telcos limits the size of the “prospects” funnel.
We are building an analytical layer to provide business intelligence through data science to our customers. It is the logical ancillary growth for Subex as we have large data of our customers, whom we have served for almost two decades. With all our good efforts and little bit of luck, Subex will be known for its Analytical competency in a couple of years to come. The second strategic initiative for Subex is to provide solution in Internet of Things (IOT) scenario. Please understand when everything is going to be connected, one need not hack your computer; rather hacking your coffee mug, car or camera results in similar damage. With the luxury of IOT, comes multiplied threat of high vulnerability. The hackers then will be active for “breach of control” and not limited to breach of data. From technological perspective, our fraud management products have the capability to identify attempts of control breach on the operators’ network. So, we want to believe we have an advantage to be conspicuous in this space as it emerges.
It may not be a choice but all of us may have to work with some bots in the team. It is important to embrace any change which is good and inevitable too. As far as the job loss due to AI is concerned, it is not an issue of man v/s machine but it is a scenario of relevance v/s not relevant.And it is a scenario of man and machine collaborating in harmony.
During industrial era, we said man is a machine, then we said man is different from machine and now when the world says machine is a man, it is important for an HR person to believe machine is different than a man. Once we are clear on this philosophy, we will do everything to treat our people as people and retrain them to not only face but embrace the new situation.
"During industrial era, we said man is a machine, then we said man is different from machine and now when the world says machine is a man, it is important for an hr person to believe machine is different than a man. once we are clear on this philosophy, we will do everything to treat our people as people and retrain them to not only face but embrace the new situation"
While there are focused effort, we would have loved to see better number than almost 25% of Subexians being women. Even before amendment to maternity benefits, Subex had special needs leave up to a year. Women make use of this post maternity to spend time with little ones. We have recently had our day care called happy feet active within our campus. There can be infants and toddlers at our office while their parents are at work. While there can be many other initiatives, I can only say we are on right track.
During industrial era, we said man is a machine, then we said man is different from machine and now when the world says machine is a man, it is important for an HR person to believe machine is different than a man. Once we are clear on this philosophy, we will do everything to treat our people as people and retrain them to not only face but embrace the new situation
As mentioned, “happy feet” our fully operational day care is a happy place for the children and since it is in the same premises, the mothers can see their kids every hour or so. People have flexi hours and we do not monitor their log in and outs. People work from home every week when they have their errands to run. I did mention about the special leave. We have embraced good practices even before laws have stepped in.
On a lighter side, with a 16 year old girl of mine, I will not benefit that policy anymore. The responsibility of parenting is equal on both and though I honestly think paternity leave cannot be at par with maternity. Most of the companies like us have a week off.
That’s a tough one! Honestly, there’s no particular moment. What I am thankfully surprised is the distance we have covered in building our competence and being relevant to the company and Industry. Someone like me, who studied in a small school in vernacular medium doing decently well in a discipline like HR requires to be thankful to life and people around. It gives an essence of achievement at the same time a giant sense of responsibility. I can never end any conversation without recognising the great team I have always had in every company I have worked. I would have been a lesser professional today without them.
Be yourself, enjoy what you do and do it with professionalism and honesty.
By Namrata Gulati Sapra
