A senior HR leader with a demonstrated success in HR leadership for over 30 years, J Ravikanth Reddy, founder and CEO, PQuest Human Resources Pvt Ltd, is a self-driven, innovative, business-focused senior HR professional. He has the ability to relate to people across all hierarchical levels in an organisation and has worked on devising unique processes to enhance value creation. His honours and awards include Man of Excellence Award 2011-Indian Achievers Forum, HR Manager of the Year 2003-Hyderabad Management Association, Centre for Trade and Development (CITD) Gold Medal, 1993. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, he talks on how he managed transformation and enhanced overall performance with his HR initiatives, motivated people to achieve organisational objectives and his 30 years’ career journey
There is a desire to learn continuously. I spent lot of time on learning so as to do something useful and meaningful for me and to others. For example, in my 30 years, initially it was welfare and the focus was on canteen, incentives, industrial relations, trade unions, managing the workmen’s committees, managing and discussing with leaders, and so on. All through my life I never did any underhand dealings with anyone. One of the greatest things in the whole process has been that nobody has lost trust in me, even till today. From day one I started working, till I left L&T, my relationship with people has been excellent. Even today people relate to me and come to me.
My role, from welfare it became IR; it then moved to performance management and then it moved to HR, leadership, succession planning and so on. There is a big transformation from dealing with departmental functions to now the focus on the metric orientation high. Those days if you had an agreement every three years, you had done a great job. So, one thing great for me was that wherever I worked, there was no union—that was the trust we built. Now I deal with strategising at various levels. Another change that has happened is that from manufacturing sector, now more focus is on fancy IT service providers. Because they bring in dollars, their paying capacity is far better than manufacturing companies. And that is not a wholesome work, but still people are focusing on it by engaging consultants from MNCs and doing very well. That’s another big change that I have seen.
What inspired me to go for personnel management is connecting with people, managing people and influencing people, and that perhaps made me take people-related MBA-HR programme. At a very young age I would take part in school debates and elocution competitions and for almost seven-eight years I was amongst the top three. That’s how I thought of going into personnel management, thinking it would be a good choice for me.
There are huge opportunities in the HR field, but as regards competency, many people need to concentrate on enhancing their competencies, to become wholesome and move towards metric orientation.
There is a huge gap—what they learn in the colleges and what is practised in the industry or offices is totally different. There are few institutions that are designing industry-specific programmes by involving the industries—it is there for past 30 years, but that is not very effective. I feel there is still lot of improvement to come in. Earlier, in our days, getting admission to MBA course was not that easy and was considered a prime achievement. Today, lot of B-schools have come in and everybody is an MBA or an engineer, but the quality of education has come down. Quality output from colleges is low and employment for these people could be a challenge. However, some people learn on the job and prosper.
Many woman HR leaders are already playing leading roles in various sectors. There is no problem for them to occupy important positions in any organisation, there is no discrimination as far as I know, especially in the IT sector. In manufacturing sector, yes the challenges are a little different. However, in fact, more women are in HR roles now.
It is said that the HR process is regenerating into a different form.
I wish it should and that is the reason I moved into total quality management, business excellence model—I do more of a strategic business excellence model. HR is a very generalised role—it is a facilitating role and many people are not able to contribute to enhance the top and bottom line. The appreciation of HR is very less.
"There are huge opportunities in the HR field, but as regards competency, many people need to concentrate on enhancing their competencies, to become wholesome and move towards metric orientation"
I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. We are three brothers, one elder and one younger. My father was a schoolteacher and mother, a homemaker. My family hails from Medak District, which is very close to Hyderabad city. My father passed away when I was studying in ninth class and my mother and elder brother guided me on my educational and career path—how I need to pursue life.
I did my schooling in Hyderabad and graduated with B.Com degree from Badruka College of Commerce and Arts, one of the prominent commerce colleges and number one under Osmania University. After that I moved towards Cost Accountancy and gave the examination conducted by Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI). Then I went to Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, in 1983, to do my MBA-HR. Basically, I was very keen to do something that deals with human resources. As I could not get through the entrance exam at Osmania University for the MBA programme, I chose to go to Symbiosis and passed its entrance exam and the group discussion round. I completed my MBA programme from Symbiosis in the year 1985. Those days the course I did at Symbiosis was called Personnel Management and not HR Management, as it is called today.
Getting a job was not at all a problem for us, the Symbiosis brand was very strong. In the campus placement, I got an offer from Bajaj Tempo, in Pune, and also in CEAT Ltd, in Mumbai. I did not opt for it because in those days while working in the personnel department, knowledge of the local language was required, which I didn’t have. Therefore I came back to Hyderabad and I got placed in a company called Priyadarshini Threads, of Priyadarshini Group of Companies, in the year 1985.
I joined Priyadarshini Threads as a management trainee and within six months I was promoted to the post of an officer and I worked for around four years in Priyadarshini. It was a great beginning and fortunately the promoter of the organisation, Mr Krishnamohan, was a very dynamic person. They were establishing a new company and he gave me an offer. There was no other officer except me and I was told to scout for people. I was also told that if I do well, there will be no one above me. It was the first sewing thread manufacturing company in the state of Andhra Pradesh. As no Telugu-speaking technicians and technologists were available in the AP state, all the people were recruited from Coimbatore, who didn’t know the local language.
The challenge was how to manage the show. I had recruited people with a qualification of 9-10 standard-grade, but based on specific skills. One, they should not have colour blindness; two, have finger-dexterity, and third was having numerical ability (reading ability). I had designed my own tests, putting together some numbers, made them read and showing some colours, checking their finger-dexterity by making them move rings through the threads. The other part was understanding their behaviour pattern and attitude to learn. Thousands of people would come and I would put them under training. I also took in a few supervisors, who could also be translators and converse with the people, to remove the language hurdle. My role was more of a facilitator and moderator.
"Today, lot of B-schools have come in and everybody is an MBA or an engineer, but the quality of education has come down. Quality output from colleges is low and employment for these people could be a challenge"
J Ravikanth Reddy receiving the Centre for Trade and Development (CITD) Gold Medal 1993, from the then President of India, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, in New DelhiAfter Priyadarshini, I joined Swan Vaccum Systems, a company promoted by former CMD of Andhra Bank. Every organisation I moved into, I looked for an opportunity as to what I can do on my own for the organisation. This company had an HR department, so from Industrial Relations, I moved to Human Resources to become assistant manager, HR. There was not much of difference between IR and HR, except for the training. The HR fundamentals that we talk about now were not there, at that time. Working there for over four years, I faced challenges of a different nature. I had to put in place the whole HR processes and the department, including establishing the materials department. Whatever was required was established by me. They also gave me very important job of liaising, which also I did it very successfully. So, I was involved in establishing the HR department, transport, security, personnel functions, industrial relations, training and development, and so on. The major obstacle that I faced in the company was related to the union problem and to resolve that was a big challenge. But I managed to convince the union to agree with my suggestions.
Then I joined a startup company called Sulakshana Circuits Ltd, which is the first printed circuit board manufacturing company in Hyderabad. It was started by NRIs, with the invitation of the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, NT Rama Rao. There I introduced structured HR initiatives. For my work in Sulakshana I received the CITD Gold Medal in 1993, in New Delhi, presented by the then President of India, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, for enhancing the overall performance of the organisation through HR initiatives.
When I moved to Rane Engine Valves Ltd in Hyderabad, there was a lockout, and I was the person responsible for lifting that lockout. After lifting the lockout, I put the processes in place and settled a few factory issues. I wanted to do something that can permanently solve this problem, with HR intervention, which makes all the people to get involved and also helps build trust. I did a survey, made an analysis and realised that interpersonal trust and the teamwork among the employees and the employer were the major issues. There was no employee involvement and employee belongingness. Then I designed a programme called ‘5S’, which I started this at personal level converting into work level and organisational overall performance level..
We, as a team, had divided the whole factory into 20 zones and identified groups of employees to take care of the division, forming small teams and a supervisor as facilitator, and put them for a daily morning meetings to discuss about the check list during morning tea-time with an audit board. There used to be lot of differences of opinion about role of the leader and leadership. I created a system wherein every auditor would visit a different zone for one week and he will put the score on the board, which would be there for everyone to see. Everybody will compete and every week we used to announce the scores of the each zone to show the performance of each team. Every quarter we will take out the average; whichever zone scored the highest, would receive some token of appreciation in the open house. That had worked very well and within one year, there was complete transformation. There were many other HR interventions and it worked for 14 years and the employees dissolved the union. This work is recognised in professional bodies and I have been awarded Best HR Manager Award 2003 by the Hyderabad Management Association, for the same.
I joined NCC Ltd in 2007, as Vice President- HR and the role meant you are a business head and the only person to deal with all the directors and business heads. The mandate was to ensure implementation of OD initiatives started by the former Dy. Managing Director. In project focused organisation the challenge is always on boarding the critical resources to execute the projects— you are always on your toes to deliver the requirements for nine verticals, which are independent divisions lead by the promoter director. We have given the resources on dot, on all the requirements including on boarding the Business Heads—this was on growth path. When I joined the employee strength was 3000, with turnover of Rs.3000 crores and when I left, the employee strength was 9000 and a turnover of Rs.8700 crores. This initiative worked out well and was one of the best training programmes designed for all the level of employees including the succession planning. A world class Performance Management system was introduced—the best system in the construction industry in India.
For the largest construction company in India, L&T Construction, I was pursued and advised to establish HR Special Initiatives Department with a focus on developing a process for the employees working at the sites and the contractors, as they are the key to turnaround the project on time, quality and as per the budget planned. Data complication and analyses, identification of the gap and a new initiative in performance rating was introduced. Small teams were formed after training 300 staff members, to improve the productivity and these small teams worked on improvement of metrics on all the technical parameters. The small teams have made presentation improvements on savings—Rs.10 crores in first six months. The same has been documented and presented to top management and the management had appreciated the same-the same system is still working to sustain the momentum.
"The belief system of Gen Y is something different from Gen X. We cannot do anything with that because the environment is influencing these people and the industry requirement is influencing this system"
It all depends on what kind of an ecosystem the industry has created. Digitalisation has made life a little faster than what it used to be before. The belief system of Gen Y is something different from Gen X. We cannot do anything with that because the environment is influencing these people and the industry requirement is influencing this system—unless we work on that environment and the ecosystem, we cannot blame them, because their belief is a pattern picked up from the ecosystem.
It is a good profession but they should spend more time and they should become very metric-oriented. Today, being an HR is seen as a very respectable contributor to the organisation.
The social media, according to me, has improved the visibility of the individual with their networking, but how much they have improved on competency, we don’t know. Definitely knowledge-sharing has improved-how knowledge is being imbibed, how it is being used to enhance effectiveness, we don’t know.
PQuest is into organisation development, organisation transformation, leadership development, leadership coaching, leadership excellence, business excellence, senior-level recruitment, training and development, performance management system—that’s what we do. I started the company when I was holding my job, in 2013. When I was in NCC in the year 2011, I decided to start my own organisation, PQuest, to help organisations in Organisational Development (OD), using Business Excellence Models. This is to help the Small and Medium organisations. I started PQuest to engage myself for long years and also earn.
Trust and faith are the two pillars of a successful marriage and senior HR professional, J Ravikanth Reddy, founder and CEO, PQuest Human Resources, and his wife G Sunitha Reddy, a post-graduate in Science and one of the directors of PQuest, both agree that these pillars are absolutely necessary in order to enjoy the blessings of a successful marriage. While she is a harmoniser and a peacemaker, he is workaholic, strong-willed, strategist and the action man. Ravikanth is an experienced corporate leader in the HR, OD field, but he equally admires and respects his wife’s role as a homemaker and a co-director. In a candid talk with Corporate Citizen, the dynamic duo talk about their life journey, education, career, family and more
Ravikanth: One fine day we met, saw each other, liked each other and agreed to marry—it was so simple. We got married in the year 1989 and it was an arranged marriage. When our son was born, she was working.
Sunitha: After completing my graduation, in 1989, we got married and I started working immediately after. I started my career as an executive in quality department in a pharmaceutical company, SIRIS, in Hyderabad. I did my post-graduation in Organic Chemistry in 1988 from Women’s College, Osmania University, Hyderabad. I have a sister, who is an MD in Gynaecology and a brother, a senior corporate leader in General Motors in the USA.
Ravikanth: Luckily for us the advantage was, our house was near to my in-laws’ place, so my wife got all the support that can be had from them.
Sunitha: When we both were away for work, my mother would take care of our son, Akhilesh. We were lucky to have them nearby but she moved to US, to stay with my brother. My son was studying in the fifth class, and I felt the need for me to be there while he was growing up. So after working for nearly 10 years, I decided to leave my job and become a full-time homemaker.
Sunitha: It was difficult to be a homemaker after working for 10 years—killing time was the most difficult thing. But, slowly I got myself engaged with taking care of my son, managing the house, cooking and reading. Because of me taking the role of homemaker, Ravikanth is able to do his work and devote so much time to it. He is an HR professional and manages people, but I manage the house, the kitchen, the family. So, I feel the role of homemaker should be recognised like any other management role.
Ravikanth: I agree, if this house is an office, she is the CEO of this office and I am only a supporter of some of the activities.
Ravikanth: She is a harmoniser and a peacemaker. We respect each other’s space. She is simple, straightforward, balanced, and with very little demands. Whatever the situation is, she will manage. She always manages with whatever resources we have and still we are quite wholesome. She lives in reality and not superficiality. She is very accommodative— there is a call every day at 9 pm for me from her, asking me where I am and what time I will come home. She wants to be informed— through out the day, she will not make any calls. That is the trust we have in each other.
Sunitha: One thing I like about Ravikanth is that he is a strong-willed person and always active— even when he is not feeling well or ill, he is eager to go to office and work. I rarely see him sitting idle, he always keeps himself engaged in some work. But, I like when he is idle, because that is when we get a chance to go out for a movie or to eat out. I love travelling, going out for a movie or eating out, and like family get-togethers. I never call him on phone all through the day, but after 9 pm, I start calling him till he picks the phone. I understand his work, but after 9 pm, I want to know where he is and when he is coming home.
Sunitha: When our son, Akhilesh, was in high school, I thought he should become a doctor, but he showed interest towards engineering. After doing his graduation in engineering, he did MBA in HR. Like father, like son—we both had advised him to do MBA in Marketing, but he chose HR and disclosed it to us a little later. I think he got inspired by his father, as Ravikanth would sometimes take him along to conferences and other HR events.
Ravikanth: His career choice was his own decision, I did not influence him in any way, he has always been an independent person. He also started an NGO called ‘Street Cause’ at a very young age against our wish. It has completed nine years’ service to humanity and is doing well.
"He is an HR professional and manages people, but I manage the house, the kitchen, the family. So, why shouldn’t homemaker be a designated role, like any other management role?"
- G Sunitha
Ravikanth: Our difference of opinion arises out of two things—number one, her demand is that I should spend my Sundays at home and if I am at home, it is a time for us to go out somewhere. She always expects that I should take her someplace on Sundays, but she never expresses where she wants to go. Secondly, she learnt cooking when she left work and took the homemaker’s role and we moved into a residential flat—so our second difference of opinion is about the taste of food she cooks.
Sunitha: He used to be and is even now entire day busy with his work, so I didn’t get any help from him in managing the house and taking care of our son. Besides that one regret, he is a nice and caring person. However, one thing I would want to change in him is his temper, that sudden outburst. If he gets angry, I keep quiet and if I lose my temper, he remains silent, that’s how we harmonise with each other.
Ravikanth: The first quality is understanding and accommodating each other. But if you take my wife or any married woman in this case, they do more work than their husbands—Sunitha not only takes care of her work at office, she comes home and takes care of the kids, kitchen and also the husband. To some extent we men may share the responsibility, but most of the time the load is taken by the women. The ability to absorb and manage is far superior in women than men. They always manage the balancing act. Women are anytime more mature and balanced than men.
Sunitha: Trust and faith is what we have in each other and that is the secret of a successful married life. Nowadays, young people get married before they know each other well—whether it is arranged or love marriage, it is important that the couple give time to know each other very well. It took me nearly two years to understand and know Ravikanth.
Sunitha: One moment which I still remember is when my son had an EAMCET exam. The same day he fell ill and was not able to write the exam. We had accompanied our son to the exam hall. He appeared for the exam but could not complete the test. That day for the first time I saw tears in my husband’s eyes. But, surprisingly, our son managed to get a good rank in the EAMCET exam.
By Rajesh Rao
