The MNC from India

The Human Factor
November - December 2009

For someone who had no formal education till class five and was soon after appointed the "Safai Minister" of his school to help clean up rainwater and cow dung on the premises, Dr.Santrupt Misra, CEO of Carbon Black Business and Director-Group HR of Aditya Birla Group, went on to win four gold medals for academic excellence while pursuing his courses in Political Science, and PM and IR. Along the way, he also earned two PhDs — one from Utkal University and the other from Aston University — in his career, spanning stints with JK Group (his first job),TISS and HUL (a job offer that was the indirect result of him discussing his thesis over lunch with a friend).

In fact, the venture into HR happened by accident when his course at TISS demanded two days to be spent with companies. Says he when quizzed about his prolific journey. "The PhDs were important for me because I wanted the highest academic qualification, and second, I wanted to c;reate more options for my career in case I discontinued from organisational work", Dr. Misra clearly believes that hard work pays, irrespective of the profession.

Dr. Misra took over the reins as Group VP-HR, soon after Mr. Aditya Birla passed away which resulted in a "crisis of confidence". This called for a need to r;estore faith and this is exactly what Dr. Misra and his team set out to do. "Firstly, we set in place robust processes that had clear sub-systems to propel such a large organisation. Second, having realised that we had many people on the rolls who were related to each other, we set down an employment policy for family relations, with focus on merit. Third, rather than having a large number of employees with less pay, we opted for fewer people with greater capability, so that we could pay them the market rates; done through a retirement policy." The company also adopted globally-recognised HR processes, offering mobility within businesses, and instituting strong talent management initiatives for the employee base.

With the evolution of HR in the Group, Dr. Misra was soon made the youngest Director in the company at the age of 35. Awarded "The Best Employer in India and among the top 20 in Asia" by Hewitt-ET and WSJ Study 2007, the Aditya Birla Group has operations in 25 countries and employs more than 1,30,000 people from 30 nationalities. With brands like Grasim, Hindalco, UltraTech, and Idea Cellular in its kitty, the Chairman of this giant conglomerate has been able to "use HR well as a business partner and is clear about what he expects from it", says Dr. Misra. He "gave resources and freedom", while the young employees imparted "passion and a belief that things can be done". He affirms that the company, which has grown from a USD 2.5 billion enterprise to about USD 30 billion, has been able to offer a platform of opportunities to all those who work hard.

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Being part of an Indian conglomerate, it certainly may be a challenge managing a diverse workforce, so we ask Dr. Misra about this. He says that the company faces three challenges, "The first is that of leadership development in a high growth organisation — how fast we can prepare people to take on bigger responsibilities. The second is that of the time taken in helping employees from different nationalities interpret the Group's values.

No matter how one performs, you are not welcome here if you do not stick to the company's values. The third challenge lies in continuously encouraging people to invest in their individual development and creating new opportunities for them to do so. For instance, we provide an e-MBA programme for our employees and we let them complete it at their own pace, but the challenge is to make them understand the importance of building capabilities."

Most CEOs in India Inc. today have come from finance or marketing backgrounds, and Dr. Misra points out that Manoj Kohli is one of the few exceptions. HR people may not be as decisive as the job demands, he says. He explains, "I do not think that an HR person's ultimate deliverance is in becoming a CEO". He also points out that HR has become a strategic business partner because human resources today, especially the most talented ones, are expensive and have multiple opportunities across industries.

Talking about senior roles, we ask Dr. Misra his personal leadership style, and he says, "I am very transparent and open — what you see is what you get. I am not insecure; I can eat from roadside stalls and five-star hotels, I can wear shorts as well as ties! More importantly, I try to inspire my people and tell them that achievement, rather than money, should be their prime motivator."

Despite such an illustrious academic and career background, Dr. Misra recounts to us some of the uncomfortable times he has had and how he has learnt from them. For example, when he was to speak for five minutes during eighth grade in his first English debate, he got so nervous that he could only speak for a minute.

He is glad to admit that, nowadays, he can speak on stage even without preparation. Another time, when he was in UK for his second PhD, he picked up the directory and started calling people with an Oriya last name for a get-together as he had no friends there! This extra bit of effort truly paid off as he has been friends with those very people for more than twenty years now.

The discussion on friends brings us to how he manages his work-life balance, and Dr. Misra has strong views on that, as he says, "My way of managing work is to not treat work as work. A lot of people think that being away from office is life, but I think life is about fulfilment and enjoyment. So, getting time for doing what is important to you is work-life balance. After all, work is life and life is work!" He rounds up the talk with a piece of advice to those aspiring to become successful in HR: Believe in yourself and keep learning.