One of the members of the Sanmar Group Corporate Board, who recently visited our Mettur and Viralimalai facilities, is Preety Kumar, Managing Partner, Amrop International India, the well known global executive search firm. An authority in her field, Kumar shared some of her views on the principles and practices of her chosen area of work and her impressions of the Sanmar Group with Matrix. Here are some excerpts:
Can you throw some light on the global ethical standards prevalent in the area of executive searches? Are you satisfied with the adherence to ethics by Indian executive search firms as well as their clients?
Global executive search companies operate at the highest level of management and are typically involved in inducting CEOs, functional leaders and Board related professionals. Hence, the typical needs of the industry are those of confidentiality and discretion of very high levels. Good search firms build their reputation not only on the basis of their performance and delivery capabilities, but also on their adherence to a strict standard of ethics.
V Ranganathan, Chief Executive, welcoming Preety Kumar and P N Kapadia, both members of the Sanmar Group Corporate Board to Chemplast, Mettur.
These ethical standards typically demand that the firm does not divulge confidential information of clients and candidates and that it manages that process sensitively. Other issues are around staying off-limits with clients and not accessing their senior people, etc. Most international executive search firms adhere to these ethical standards as part of their philosophy. However, the arena is wide and different players may not always understand or follow these standards. Globally, the Association of Executive Search Companies (AESC), headquartered in the US, drives a range of ethical standards in this profession. You have said in the course of an article for Businessworld,
“We must, as a nation, focus on building our capacity to innovate by nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit. This capacity to innovate will lead to productivity enhancement at the national level, driving our economic and corporate framework to behave differently and, hence, demand a different kind of output.”
Can you give examples of some of the steps we must take (as government, as employers, as parents) to foster such a spirit?
Talent is the raw material for the spirit of performance and hence entrepreneurship. A nation, society, family or individual that is geared to recognize, build and nurture talent is going to be more successful than others. To do so, each of these different players performs a different role.
As a society, we place more value on success and status than on talent. Hence the safe paths to success have traditionally scuttled talent. To me, entrepreneurship means being different, not following the beaten path, doing what you want to versus what is only right by the standards of society. In the past it was a safe, predictable bet to be a doctor, IAS officer, Engineer, or MBA and all of us were expected to tread that path, at least the intelligent ones. How many budding and talented musicians, potters, choreographers have been stopped in their tracks as these have not been traditionally seen as success oriented-professions!
The other issue is respecting and valuing work. I am not sure that we as a society respect work enough. In our own hierarchical ways, we demean some work as ‘lower level’. This then lowers respect for ‘that kind of work’. How then can we be a nurturing society? Success has no correlation with ‘work dignity’. This phenomenon then has an automatic impact on how these jobs are paid and hence how they attract people. Unless we teach ourselves to provide ‘work dignity’ there is no way we can truly have talented people going into different kinds of professions and finding diverse entrepreneurial opportunities.
Talent spotting
Our education system needs to squarely deal with the area of talent scouting. Even in the more well managed, good quality institutions, I find an overemphasis on studies, marks. Talent spotting, showing students different paths to achievement, is not something I see institutionalized. As parents, we must encourage our children to be different, allow them to pursue something that is not weatherbeaten and recognize their achievements, even though it may not be the most remunerative or recognized profession from the standpoint of society.
N Sankar with V Narayanan of the Sanmar
Group Corporate Board.
As a top flight executive search
professional,
what synergies with the
group do you find in your
role as a
member of the Sanmar Corporate Board?
In executive search now for 16 years, I have been associated with a very diverse set of clients and seen them build their businesses. Further, I have intimately understood the impact of good quality leadership on a business, its strategy and its success. With Sanmar’s diverse business portfolio and its journey for growth and success, I very much identify with this phase and can hopefully contribute in looking at the leadership issues. Further, having been on the Amrop Hever Global Board, I enjoy Board work and feel that the right Board can play an extremely important role in the successful running of a business and can be a very effective body.
What are your impressions of the group
after
your recent visits to its various
locations?
I have been very impressed with what I have heard about the businesses and what I saw on the ground in terms of operations connect, quality of execution and the overall sense of commitment by the management team. Clearly Sanmar’s success lies in its ability to have a strong execution framework and I was certainly able to see that in action.
V Ranganathan, M N Radhakrishnan and Adit
Jain during the Sanmar Group Corporate Board’s
visit to Mettur.