Dare to Gaze Beyond the HORIZON

Through his corporate experience and academic acumen, Ranjit Khompi has managed to fly higher than what met his eyes. With 24-years of experience in his kitty, he has worked in the corporate verticals of Marketing, Consulting and HR, Talent Management and Strategy, Learning and Development and several others. Ranjit’s mettle to push through challenges has made him reach new heights of success. With this, he is also a Society for Human Resource Management’s volunteer as global SME and an assessor on Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) HR Excellence Awards panel. Currently, he heads Learning and Development for Fashion and Lifestyle Businesses of India’s largest retailer, Reliance Retail. In a tête-à-tête with Corporate Citizen, Ranjit opens his heart about his childhood days that shaped his furture, his highs and lows of his career, business outcome-focused HR interventions, and his purpose in life

"The world is changing fast and continuous learning will help you stay relevant. I soon realised that my learnings of yesterday were not applicable today and will not be relevant tomorrow. Over these years, I have pushed myself to learn new skills year after year"

Corporate Citizen: They say that the place where you are born plays a great role in shaping a person’s career. Walk us through your feelings of how your hometown has moulded you into what you are today.

Ranjit Khompi: Yes, that’s rightly said the city you grow up in shapes your personality. Albeit I was born in Belgaum and stayed in many cities, I take pride in saying that Pune where I have spent most of my life, has shaped me into what I am today. My school, friends, the forts and mountains around and, of course, the beautiful weather, these entities have provided me with an urge to excel in all aspects of my life. The school moulded my character, the forts and mountains ignited the adventure spirit in me, the weather enabled me to be a sportsperson and the eateries around the city have converted me into a lifelong foodie. Being a safe city in those days allowed me to explore and experiment with all that I wished and in the process, evolve to be someone raring to fulfil his dreams.

CC: The education that you garner plays a great role in setting up a path for a person’s success. Do you agree? Also, tell us about one piece of educational advice that pushed you to give your best.

Jnana Prabodhini, an innovative school, which is combining both Indian culture and modern educational technology, has truly shaped my personality and defined my character. The school, apart from teaching us various subjects, also prepared us for the future. What it means to be an entrepreneur was taught to us by way of selling crackers during Diwali. The funds procured were used for various sports activities. The school helped in instilling the leadership qualities, one of the crucial virtues required in the corporate world, in me since the very beginning. Everyone around me was spellbound, where the 11-year-old me, lead the other kids on a trek. This surely is a testament to my school’s values.

Although I was a topper, I had begun to question myself after getting selected in this bright school. It was during those days, my English professor suggested me to read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. It was a piece of life-changing advice, which I follow every time I am at crossroads. I have read this book a zillion times and I also suggest it to anyone who must fight between his head and heart. One sentence from that book that has shown the light at the end of the tunnel is, “Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is a limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know, and you will see the way to fly.” It has encouraged me to fly high and explore new horizons in my life journey.

In our student life, we strive to clear the exams and move ahead in our careers. During the process, we also create impressions on other students and teachers through co-curricular, as well as extracurricular activities. So, after 27 years of leaving the college, I realised this through a pleasant surprise last year. My father had gone to collect a college document that needed the Vice Principal’s signature. While signing, the Vice Principal noticed my name and he rushed out of his office to check I was waiting outside.

My father told him that he had come to collect the document instead of me. The Vice Principal took him inside his office and shared the fond memories that he had about me. My father proudly shared this experience with me. Over these years, the Vice Principal would have taught thousands of students. It overwhelmed me that even after so many years he still remembered me fondly.

My educational journey has taught me to be a learner for life and be grateful for each person who shares his knowledge, wisdom, and guidance with me.

CC: You started working with Mercedes Benz India as their Product Manager, early in your career. How was the experience of starting your career with such a prestigious organisation?

The role that every corporate beginning plays is the key to the rest of your career. Working with Mercedes Benz, as my first job, opened a plethora of opportunities and gave exposure right from the selection process. Although I did not have any formal experience in the automobile sector, the time that I spent in the organisation revealed that my problem-solving approach powered me to be the product manager for passenger cars. From there on, global exposure enabled me to support the company’s multi product expansion. Year on year, new challenges were entrusted to me, which proved that I am ready to take on any challenge. Be it the conquest of setting up the imported car business or profit and loss responsibility for the five countries of the Indian subcontinent region, my zeal to ride the rough new waves and need to keep sharpening my axe during the journey, spoke volumes. And the highlight of my first job was, me orchestrating the first-ever export of 60 Indian made Mercedes-Benz cars to Sri Lanka.

CC: With over 24 years expereince in this industry what has your corporate journey taught you? When you look back now, did you ever imagine that you would reach this far?

The world is changing fast and continuous learning will help you stay relevant. I soon realised that my learnings of yesterday were not applicable today and will not be relevant tomorrow. Over these years, I have pushed myself to learn new skills year after year. As a conscious practice, I also chose a different sector every time I switched to another job. I stretched my career canvas across nine sectors till now, and at every shift, a new guru set me on course to a higher orbit. Having an electronics background with MBA in Marketing, it’s been an exciting journey to be empanelled by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) as well as Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for their Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) exam design and HR Excellence awards assessment, respectively. Also, it is invigorating to share my experiences as a keynote speaker at international HR forums. A combination of openness to face any opportunities, urge to scale up to new expectations, and enthusiasm to take on the higher risks has fuelled my journey.

"Working with Mercedes Benz, as my first job, opened a plethora of opportunities and gave exposure right from the selection process"

CC: You’ve led teams across Asia and Europe. How did you build and manage an effective team across multiple locations?

Like any task undertaken for the first time, managing global teams is difficult to start. It has its own set of challenges of little face-to-face contact, less time-zone overlap, cultural differences, and language backgrounds. I used to start with selecting team members who have the skills, abilities and willingness to work in a global team and brought the existing team members on the same platform. I followed it up with clearly defined organisational strategic initiatives into team member’s task objectives. Through my counterparts in these locations, I ensured the availability of the resources needed by my team member. While I used to ask them to plan their work, I also instilled a sense of urgency in the deliverables in them. I encouraged the proficient use of multiple modes of communication to avoid any communication gap or lag. Once a week, I used to chat with them over virtual coffee to talk about life beyond the office to build a personal connection. That gave me a lot of insights into their beliefs, values, and the cultural nuances of these geographies. I believe respecting cultural differences while taking everyone together was the key to drive global teams.

CC: You head the learning and development at your current organisation. Can you tell us what does this role involve?

This role encompasses leading a team of professionals who ensure current and future talent readiness by driving business outcomes focused HR interventions to achieve organisational strategic goals. The most exciting part of this role is quantifiably impacting business by increasing employee capability either incrementally or through an orbital shift. It has also enthused me to develop copyrighted ‘Training Effectiveness Quantification Methodology’ that predicts and measures the impact of training effectiveness using the system’s thinking approach factoring all the macro and micro-influencers.

CC: What has been your biggest learning from the failures or obstacles that you’ve overcome so far?

I believe that failures and obstacles are a part of life. Every time you try something new, especially, ones beyond your current capabilities, you are bound to get a punch or two from life. Most of the time you can take the hit, but sometimes it may knock you down. It’s not about you falling but how soon can you bounce back and how quickly you can build your capabilities to rise even higher. Earlier, I have been knocked down on various occasions. I analysed my response to my failures. In the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) terms, my Introversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judging (ISFJ) profile was reflective of my inability to envisage and prepare for long range planning or larger projects. So over about four years, I consciously trained myself to shift to an Extroversion, Intuition, Thinking, Judging (ENTJ) profile. It has helped me envision all the possible risks that may de-rail or slow down my ventures while overcoming immediate hurdles and circumventing bigger risks beyond the horizon. I have been able to use my failures as a springboard to bounce back and take life head on.

CC: Being a leader is empowering others and creating future leaders. So, how should one handle such a critical role and how can one be a visionary leader?

In the early years of my career, one of my mentors had told me to start preparing for the higher role as soon as you get the one you desired. After assuming a role, I initiate handholding for my high potential team members. I involve them from visioning to the execution stage. It enables them to undertake higher responsibilities while doing their current job. That builds accountability for their actions. Once the right opportunity is available, it’s easier to deploy them. I am proud to share that many of my team members are now in leadership roles across industries.

CC: The outbreak of the coronavirus was hard on all. How did you manage yourself during this time, and what are your learnings from this situation?

No one in the world had faced a situation of this magnitude before. By following the Chinese and the Italian infection wave surges, we had the early advantage to envisage what to expect whenever this tsunami hits India. Learnings from the lockdowns in some countries demonstrated the domino effect it had on the economy. I mind-mapped multiple eventualities and their risks. This preparation helped us drive changes in working from home, shifting to different business models, and capability building at a different scale.

I have now started valuing my time with my family much more and cherish the last ten months of work from home. Never could I spend this kind of time and togetherness with my family in my career. I have also improved my chef skills. I now turn to homemade coffee, which tastes even better than that of luxury coffee shops. The pandemic has also taught us many things the hard way. For example, by redesigning our way of working for a higher impact, we have observed efficiencies going up during this time. It also taught me to cut through the clutter and unnecessary media-driven thinking. Now I started questioning if we need anything or want it due to external push. Most importantly, it taught me to take care of my body and as Baz Luhrmann in his song ‘Sunscreen’ said, “it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own”.

"My educational journey has taught me to be a learner for life and be grateful for each person who shares his knowledge, wisdom, and guidance with me"

CC: Being a senior leader, how did you keep your team’s morale high through this tough phase?

Like any human, my team’s initial reaction was full of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. No one was sure of how it will unfold nor were we clear about how to respond. A day after the lockdown, I connected with the entire team to share about learning expectations in that situation. I guided the team to create new norms of learning, changed protocols, and co-created a shared purpose to ride through this storm. The team acted swiftly to assess the employee situation at stores. Subsequently, they formulated a plan to support learning and drive the change for all employees. I proactively communicated with the entire team every alternate day so that they understand day to day what they need to do and why. That frequent communication addressed their concerns and anxieties while prompting them to use Covid-19 as a time to reflect. With the daily update of new information, we continued to reformulate our plans. While we pressed for continuing with official tasks, I also connected with my team members individually to check on their family’s physical and mental health and extended support wherever required. We also used the lean time to focus on building the team’s capabilities. All these efforts ensured that the team stays strongly focused on our goals and was enthused to take on the situation.

CC: Learning and development needs took the forefront in a pandemic-hit world. It opened a plethora of new-age learning opportunities, not only for the employees but also for the organisations. Could you add to that?

Sometimes it is hard to believe that Covid-19 has driven more digital transformation than the CTOs and CEOs put together. On a serious note, this disruption has opened new technologies across businesses and L&D benefits from many of these. Learning has suddenly shifted from in-person to virtual. The classrooms, instructor-led training, and coaching are now digital. One can operate from anywhere with mobile based self learning, file sharing, and content co-creation using tools like Whiteboard. Newer technologies like adaptive learning aim to increase the learning speed by dynamically adjusting the level or type of course content based on an individual’s progress. Next generation Learning Management Systems are more dynamic, interconnected, ever evolving community of learners, instructors, tools and content to ensure real time specific learning being available to the learner. Natural User Interface technologies are aiming to make this entire experience humane while being driven by artificial intelligence. The evolution is fast and exciting and sure to captivate learners of all ages.

CC: Walk us through some of the standardised expectations for the HR profession and give us the outline for competencies expected from HR practitioners.

About a century ago, HR was just the admin department responsible for salaries. It started evolving in India during the 1920s when Tatas pioneered employee benefits and leave policies. As industrialisation grew, expectations from this department were to manage labour and unions. With the service industry rising, expectations evolved to engage employees. In the last three decades, it’s moved to managing employees as one of the assets and hence the name Human Resource. Prof. Dave Ulrich from the University of Michigan has been researching HR for the last four decades. He expects it contributes to the four areas of administrative efficiency, strategy development and execution, employee contribution, and capacity for change.

I have seen that the HR competencies defined by SHRM are most effective in the workplace. SHRM’s functional competencies of people, organisation, workplace and strategy provide the knowledge base, the differentiating behavioural competencies of leadership and navigation, business acumen, ethical practice, relationship management, consultation, global and cultural effectiveness, communication, and critical evaluation define the success for the HR leader. During my interactions with global CHROs, I have learnt that these competencies are becoming the guiding light for most HR practitioners in their career journey.

CC: Who do you look up to for inspiration and why?

I adore and look up to people who inspire me by gazing beyond the horizon, create an audacious vision, and execute it extraordinarily for the betterment of the larger humankind. Some of them are Steve Jobs for leading all the innovative businesses and steering Apple to bounce back from near bankruptcy in 1997. Elon Musk for continuously reinventing himself and stretching the boundaries. From a humble start of USD 500 borrowed from dad to becoming the world’s wealthiest person through new age transformative businesses. Jack Ma from being an English teacher to establishing Alibaba with 100 Billion USD revenue. Longest serving PM of Japan Shinzo Abe for his economic and geopolitical policies and Leonardo Da Vinci for fusing science and art to create works that have become part of humanity’s story.

"Newer technologies like adaptive learning aim to increase the learning speed by dynamically adjusting the level or type of course content based on an individual’s progress"

CC: When not working what keeps you occupied?

I work on fulfilling my wish list. I love to travel with my family to explore new places while experiencing the moments I always desired. To name a few, I have scaled volcanic mountains in the Philippines, explored caves in Romania, trekked across Sahyadri and Himalayas, long road trips like driving from Pune to Ladakh with my better half, scuba dived across different oceans. When I am cooling my heels at home these days, I read to keep myself updated with the current and future trends across industries, co-create things like Avatar movie theme based fountain with my daughter, and gardening with my wife. I also fix taps and tube lights at home. No, it’s not a hobby, but the tax I pay for staying at home.

CC: Although we are well into the New Year, tell us about your resolutions & what are your expectations from this year?

Albeit last year, a globally challenging year, it has been full of new experiences for me. I was a keynote speaker and shared my views in a couple of global HR and L&D conferences. I also registered copyright for the training quantification methodology that I developed for my organisation. At the same time, I achieved a couple of my learning goals and fulfilled some of my bucket list items. I wish 2021 brings in a lot more positivity for everyone and provides many milestones across professional and personal goals.

CC: What’s your purpose in life?

That’s a big question that I am still figuring out. I do certain things to impact the community and the people around me. It gives me peace and a sense of fulfilment. For example, guiding friends and acquaintances through their challenges in life, and mobilising resources across a larger scale to support underprivileged kids. Being a pranic healing practitioner, I use this skill to heal the earth and distressed people. So, I am walking on a continuous journey of self-discovery and fulfilment.

CC: How Learning & Development as one of the core areas of HR, can be leveraged in an organisation?

L&D’s objective is to align employee goals and performance with that of the organisation’s by enabling them to acquire new skills, sharpen existing ones, perform better, increase productivity and be better leaders. Since a company is a total of what employees achieve individually, it’s the key people lever for HR and organisations to ensure that employees perform at their peak. To enable an organisation’s near-term results and its long-term direction, L&D leaders have to first develop the mindset of a line of business that feels responsible for driving strategy and leading change. In essence, think bigger and broader. This will advance an ‘outside-in’ focussed thinking to understand and align with the business strategy, creating co-ownership between business and HR. Then apply systems thinking to develop enabling solutions integrating learnings, processes, and technologies with business KPIs while being cognizant of all the macro and micro-influencers to the employee performance. This provides an objective review of the learning strategy’s impact on the organisation’s KPIs.

CC: What are the competencies and skills you look for in an employee required to be successful in their job?

My observations of people around me and of the successful people reaffirm that traits, intents, and motives fuel a person’s success. It also enables them to overcome hurdles or setbacks in the professional and personal journey. I look for these qualities through employee’s passion and focus on their dreams, positivity towards life, resilience, self-discipline, and ownership of results (not reasons).

CC: A popular approach of maximising organisational L&D is the 70/20/10 model, wherein 70 per cent accounts for experiential learning, 20 per cent social learning and only 10 per cent formal learning from courses, classes and training programmes. The question then is, if formal training accounts for only 10 per cent of development, why do we need it?

To value this 10 per cent, we need to understand how all of us as adults learn. We come with developed beliefs, motivators, previous experiences and preconceived notions about the subject matter. Formal training sets the learning direction and establishes learning outcomes that connect to their own goals and progress, in turn answering ‘why should I learn this’. It also facilitates discussions with the trainer and other learners to clarify beliefs while providing opportunities to self-reflect. The discussions also help them internalise the learnings by connecting them to their own unique personal or work situations. This process reduces the fear of applying the learnings to their situations. I would say that this 10 per cent is the launchpad, which balanced the remaining 70 and 20 per cent of learning.