Three Executive Directors promoted as bank heads

Executive Directors of three leading public-sector banks were elevated as heads of state-owned banks on Saturday.

• Union Bank of India's Executive Director, R S Reddy has been named as CMD of Andhra Bank.
• Central Bank of India's Executive Director, Albert Tauro has been appointed as the CMD of Vijaya Bank.
• Bank of India's Executive Director, K R Kamath has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of Allahabad Bank.

Beginning of the Banks in news:

Union Bank of India was inaugurated by Mahatama Gandhi and the Bank commenced its operations in 1920.
Allahabad Bank is the oldest public sector bank in India. It was set up in 1865 by a group of Europeans with a seed capital of Rs 2 lakhs. In 2007, Bank's business crossed Rs.1,00,000 crores mark.
Bank of India was founded on September 7, 1906 by a group of eminent businessmen from Mumbai. In July 1969 Bank of India was nationalized along with 13 other banks.
Central Bank of India was established in 1911 by Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala. It was the first Indian commercial bank, which was wholly owned and managed by Indians. Sir Pherozeshah Mehta was the first Chairman of the Bank. In 1969, Central Bank of India was nationalized along with 13 other banks.
Vijaya Bank, was established on 23rd October 1931 by late Shri A.B.Shetty and other enterprising farmers in Mangalore, Karnataka. The objective behind establishment of the Bank was essentially to promote banking habit, thrift and enterpreneurship among the farming community of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka State. The bank became a scheduled bank in 1958.
Andhra Bank was founded by Dr.Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya. The bank commenced business on 28th November 1923 with a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh and an authorised capital of Rs 10 lakh.

Reference: The Hindu, www.hinduonnet.com, Sunday, August 3, 2008

George Joseph is new CMD of Syndicate Bank

George Joseph has taken over as Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director of Syndicate Bank since April 2006. During his tenure as Executive Director of the Syndicate Bank, George Joseph grew the business from INR 91,284 crore to INR 1,60,368 crore.

George Joseph is a commerce graduate with first rank from Kerala University. He stood first among the Indian candidates and 11th in the world in AIB Examination (London) of the Institute of Bankers, London. He is also a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banking & Finance. George Joseph joined Canara Bank as Probationary Officer in 1969 and served the Bank in various capacities. While at Canara Bank, he was deputed to Bahrain as Chief Executive of the Exchange Company under Canara Bank management. George Joseph had served Canara Bank for over 36 years. Before joining Syndicate Bank.

Syndicate Bank was established in 1925 in Udupi, the abode of Lord Krishna in coastal Karnataka with a capital of INR. 8000 by three visionaries - Sri Upendra Ananth Pai, a businessman, Sri Vaman Kudva, an engineer and Dr.T M A Pai, a physician - who shared a strong commitment to social welfare.

Shailendra Bhandari to head Tata Capital PE business

Currently, there are a host of Indian entities which have entered the private equity business including ICICI, Kotak Mahindra, Reliance Capital, IDFC, IL&FS, ICICI Ventures. Tata group company Tata Capital has also planned to enter the private equity business. Tata group company Tata Capital appointed Shailendra Bhandari, the former managing director and CEO of Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP), as head of its private equity business. Mr Shailendra Bhandari will report to Praveen P Kadle, managing director, Tata Capital.

Tata Capital is a non-banking finance company. Tata Capital is likely to launch a mid-sized fund of around $500 million. This fund is likely to be followed by a spate of other fund launches in a quick succession. One of it is also likely to be a fund targeting the small and medium enterprises. Sources said that Tata’s have ambitions to scale up the private equity fund business to a reasonably large size over the next few years.

Shailendra Bhandari has over three decades of experience in the financial services sector. He is former Citi banker, was part of the core team led by Aditya Puri in setting up HDFC Bank. He headed ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, before he was chosen by Rana Talwar’s Sabre Capital to head the beleaguered Centurion Bank. Shailendra Bhandari along with Mr Talwar at Centurion Bank made three acquisitions – BankMuscat’s India operations, Bank of Punjab, and Lord Krishna Bank.

Motorola Appoints Sanjay Jha as head of handset division

Motorola has appointed 45 year yong Sanjay Jha, the chief operating officer of Qualcomm, to head its handset division. Sanjay Jha would report directly to the Board. He will also be co-chief executive of the parent company, sharing the responsibility with incumbent Greg Brown. He has also been named CEO of its Broadband Mobility Solutions unit, which includes its Home & Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions businesses.

Sanjay Jha at Qualcomm oversaw Corporate Research and Development and QUALCOMM Flarion Technologies. He also served as president of its chipset and software division QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. Sanjay Jha served Qualcomm for 14 years.

The great HR Concerns

HR as a function is fast changing, especially in the new economy companies like IT, and BPO. The HR managers here have a multi-task responsibility and they need to manage it well. Earlier the role of HR Managers was confined to administrative functions like looking after manpower requirements and maintaining rolls for the organization. Now it has come out of the shells of administration and operations and is playing more meaningful role. HR in the emerged business scenario is more strategic. The changed role has lot of issues and challenges that are foremost on the minds of HR professionals.

Some of the problems that the knowledge economy faces today are
Managing people
Motivation to adopt change
Recruitment
Training and development
Building trust
Performance management
Compensation management
Talent management and development.
Retention

In the booming economy, growing industries is already under stress on account of persistent problems like attrition, confidentiality, loyalty, etc. Managing human resource in the knowledge based economy is not a cakewalk for HR managers. Today it is a multi-task responsibility, where managers are performing a variety of responsibilities.

Expatriates in Indian Companies

The booming Indian economy is not only offering attractive opportunities to the domestic talents but also offering jobs to foreign workforce. The number of foreigners seeking jobs in India is increasing every year and it is not only the middle and senior level but also young graduates, are taking up jobs in India.

The sectors that offer jobs to expats are information technology, BPO, Pharma, Retail, Telecom, Aviation, and Hospitality. Moreover Indian companies like Infosys, and Wipro inviting summer interns from premier universities like Stanford and Harvard to work with them.

The rate of unemployment is increasing in industrialized economies while the growth opportunities are increasing in South Asian countries including India and China. India, being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, offers growth opportunities to the expats. Moreover the compensation offered to then by Indian companies is better than their home countries.

The Indian companies offer attractive leadership positions to experienced expatriates who bring in global perspective with them. Most of the entrepreneurs also believe that expat managers have more abilities when compared to their Indian counterparts. This trend of expats occupying key positions and leadership roles is hitting the Indian corporate these days. They argue that an expats occupying key role doesn’t come with the commitment to stay for a long term with the company; they have poor understanding of Indian markets and environment; their ability to deal with diverse workforce is always doubtful. For all those who are challenging expats leadership quality must acknowledge that expats demonstrate a higher risk taking ability; they are transparent and accountable; they acts as key source of innovations; they are mostly not the part of corporate politics; they promote harmony and responsibility in the company.

Indian workforce are impacting UAE construction boom

Why would anyone want to leave there homeland and go abroad when the opportunity and remuneration offered to the workforce is at par. The boom in Indian economy has opened the doors of opportunity in few industries at homeland and the construction industry is one among them.

The UAE construction industry is facing brunt of the rapid economic growth, improved career opportunities and higher wages in the Indian construction industry. The UAE construction industry is facing an acute shortage of construction workforce as Indian workers, as a result of economic boom and rising salaries prefer to stay home. This has impacted UAE construction industry in a big way as roughly 43 per cent of all foreign workers in the UAE are Indians.

The regional and international players in India are trying to attract the talent pool by offering attractive salaries and benefits. The salary in Indian construction industry is increasing at roughly 14- 15 percent in comparison to the UAE construction industry where its growing at 10-11 percent. Moreover the declining value of the UAE Dirham against the Indian Rupee is adding to the wages issue.

The UAE construction companies have to offer much more attractive salaries and benefits to the Indian workforce, to attract them, to retain them। It’s high time, acknowledge the change.

Reference: http://www.financialexpress.com, Shortage of Indian workers hits UAE construction boom, July 17, 2008

No to Women Boss - ASSOCHAM

Its official now, we prefer male boss over a female boss. ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India) recently concluded survey - “Preference of Bosses in Emerging Corporate Culture” which declares that more than 68% men and women prefer male bosses at their work.

The survey result which was based on the 2,500 executives feedback suggest that about 68 percent showed preference for male bosses saying male bosses give more operational freedom at work and are faster in decision-making, while the remaining 32 percent did not have any preference. More interestingly, of the 68 percent executives who voted for male bosses, two-thirds were female. The respondents argued that women approach work with more emotion than men. Also, motherhood and family responsibilities keep them from accomplishing assigned work leading to discontentment among the juniors.

The study also shows that women in the workplace do not just prefer male bosses over female bosses; they also feel more comfortable with male co-workers. Men choices were more evenly split, with 17 percent choosing male co-workers and 16 percent choosing female co-workers.

The survey, which comprised 67 per cent women and 33 per cent men, also found out :

Women have to work twice as hard to prove themselves.
Women picked a male boss rather than a female boss,
More men would rather work for men than women; 50 percent of men chose a male boss and 12 percent picked a female boss
Most women, 77 percent, agree that it is still difficult for women to get ahead in the workplace; only 43 percent of men feels that way.
A majority of women, 56 percent, feel that at one time or another they have been disadvantaged in the workplace because of their gender, while 25 percent of men feel the same way.
The better the bosses, the longer the stability factor is yet another key findings of the survey. On working with strict bosses, majority of the executives said they would opt for an early exist as today there are immense opportunities available

Reference: http://www.assocham.org, Male Bosses in Preference, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Attrition in hospitalityIndustry

A study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India reveals that the attrition rate in the hospitality industry in India is set to double to nearly 50% by 2010, up from the earlier 25% growing at an alarming rate of 10% per annum.

The hospitality industry is facing attrition problem from the growing hospitality industry in India and talent pool in India eager to test foreign waters for more lucrative opportunities. Moreover, the hospitality industry talent pool is also exploring better opportunities in industries like BPO, Banking, Call centers etc

The rising attrition rates are posing a major threat to the hotel groups. As per estimates about 80% of people prefer going to UK and Dubai to join the food and retail industry. These are the preferred destination for the hospitality industry professionals to start a career in hospitality industry.

The government and education institutions are working towards bridging the gap but top level management of the hospitality industry should also work towards solving the problem. The hospitality industry to retain people should work on the deferred compensation schemes, improved salary packages, better incentives, attractive perks etc.

Reference: http://www.financialexpress.com, High attrition hits hospitality sector, February 18, 2008

Attrition Hits the Cement Industry

Any fast growing industry has its own flip side and attrition is one of them. The same is true for the Indian cement industry.

Capacity expansion of existing companies and entrance of new players have added fuel to the job market. This is the dream time for professional working in the cement industry. The professionals are happy with the emerged situation as they are in position to demand good compensation and benefits but the employers are facing problem to retain and attract good talent. Attrition in cement industry has increased in recent times. The attrition in junior level employees is high in comparison with the middle and senior level employees. The attrition rate at Ambuja Cements is up to 15 per cent and at UltraTech Cement attrition is around 15-18 per cent. The situation is almost same with other cement manufacturers in India.

The 189-million tonne domestic cement industry is gearing up to tackle attrition in the industry. Ambuja Cements to put a check on the high attrition has increased compensation packages and are even inducting graduate engineers and diploma-holding engineers as trainees. UltraTech Cement has introduced deferred compensation schemes and improved salary packages. Moreover, to beat the attrition and talent crunch in the industry, In the last two years, Ambuja Cements hired over 300 engineers from regional colleges across the country and allocated them to different units.

Reference: http://www.business-standard.com Cement firms gear up to tackle attrition, Chandan Kishore Kant / Mumbai May 13, 2008

Tech Mahindra appoints Damodaran as additional director

Tech Mahindra is a global systems integrator and business transformation consulting firm focused on the communications industry. For over two decades, Tech Mahindra has been the chosen transformation partner for wireline, wireless and broadband operators in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. Tech Mahindra has grown rapidly to become the 6th largest software exporter in India (NASSCOM 2007) and the second largest telecom software provider from India (Voice & Data 2007).

Telecommunications services and solutions provider Tech Mahindra has appointed Meleveetil Damodaran, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, as its additional director with effect from July 22. The Tech Mahindra Board strength, with the induction of Damodaran, would stand at 12.

Meleveetil Damodaran is the Ex-chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the country's financial market watchdog, before which he had headed the IDBI Bank. He belongs to the Indian Administrative Service, Manipur-Tripura cadre.

KPMG India key appointments

KPMG was established in India in September 1993. It has built a significant competitive presence in the country. KPMG operates from its offices in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, and offers its clients a full range of services various domain including financial and business advisory, tax and regulatory, and risk advisory services.

The KPMG to strengthen its presence and market share has restructured its leadership team. The firm as part of strengthening its existing leadership and executive team in the country has made various key appointments
Pradip Kanakia – Head of markets
Abizer Diwanji – Head of financial services
Harishanker Subramaniam – Head of Infrastructure & Government
Sudhir Kapadia – Head of consumer markets
Rajesh Jain – Head of information, communication and entertainment
Yezdi Nagporewalla – Head of industrial markets

Hope the consulting firm KPMG strengthen its presence in India post these appointments.

Rajat Monga is new Yes Bank President

Yes Bank India, founded under the initiative of Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur, is known for comprehensive banking and providing financial solutions to its customers. Yes Bank currently has 80 operational branches and plans to open another 37 in the coming months, it added.

Yes Bank has appointed Rajat Monga as President for financial markets. He was previously with Rabo India Finance as its treasurer.

Rajat Monga, currently Yes Bank's Chief Financial Officer, also worked with the labs and operations at Attributor. Rajat Monga at Attributor was responsible for development of many of Attributor’s core architectural principles. Prior to Attributor, Rajat played a lead role in Search at eBay. He also has extensive experience designing and building complex scalable systems at Quova, Arzoo and Morgan Stanley.

Rajat received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

Exit interview is important

In current business environment when attrition rate is high, in few cases like BPO it is as high as 30 percent, companies are curious to know why employees make that final decision.

Human resources departments, to understand the reasons behind attrition conduct exit interviews. These exits interviews help them gather data which are effectively used in improving working conditions and retaining employees. This is an effort to understand why employees leave an organization. Companies across globe are taking exit interviews seriously and making effective changes on the feedback. Some companies are even taking services of specialized HR companies to conduct exit interviews. Interestingly, the outgoing-employees tend to be more open and speak their mind when a third-party conducts exit interview.

Feedback from exit interviews is helping companies come up with systemic remedies. A few basic exit interview questions which are asked by human resources managers:
Why are you leaving?
What did you like least about your position?
What did you like most about your position?
How do you feel about the company operations?
How do you feel about the company management practice?
Under what conditions would you have stayed?
How did you feel about your pay and other benefits?
How did you feel you were managed during your length of employment?

Exit interviews reveal a lot about the culture of a company, the management style, the compensation and opportunities for growth. A hidden purpose is to help employers avoid costly litigation down the road, caused by "disgruntled" employees.

Indians second largest group of skilled migrants in Australia

Indians second largest group of skilled migrants in Australia

Indians have become the second largest group of skilled migrants to Australia. This migration happened under the temporary skilled migration programme during 2007-2008. Under the scheme almost a quarter of the temporary workers came from the UK, and India came second with 14 percent followed by the Philippines at nine percent and South Africa at six percent.

Australia, to meet the severe national skills shortages, offered 110,570 visas under the temporary skilled migration programme last year, a 27 percent increase on the previous year's 87,310.

Source : The Economic Times