Dr Bala gave the welcome address in which he mentioned that aIndia is standing tall because of its HR practicesa. Dr Bala said that the times are changing very rapidly and talked about the changes in the next 3 to five years. Some of the changes he mentioned were aThe change will be accelerating. The number of knowledge workers will outnumber the companies. The money value of time will replace Time value of money. In the times to come, jogging may not be enough, companies will have to sprint to compete and sustain their current levels of growth.a He also talked about the importance of cross cultural and global hiring.

Dr TV Rao, who is also the founder President of the National HRD Network and former President of the Indian Society for Applied Behavioral Science (ISABS), said, aHR today is termed as people whose work is recruitment and negotiates on salaries. In 1980s technology was a strategic variable for an organization. The focus on the variable changed to finance then marketing and in todayas world and future the variable is Human resource. Human resource has become a strategic variable for a companyas success.a About the Current and future state of HR, he said aShort term priorities like recruitment play a more important role than the overall objective of talent management. HR in future has to be focused on cultural related issues. Professional bodies have to play an important role in this regard. They have to evolve in handling cultural related issues. And HR bodies have to understand what is it to hire from diverse cultures and retaining them.a

Mr. R. Chandrasekharan said, aGlobalization is no more by choice but embedded in the growth strategy.a He talked about the importance of cost and intellectual arbitrage. Elaborating on intellectual arbitrage, he said aIt is important to understand the DNA of Organization because the strategy has to be defined based on DNA. If DNA is not understood in the right spirit further processes may not be effective and put to best use. In the global sourcing of employees from different countries itas important to source talent at different locations. A key competence of the organization is ability to source talent from different countries. A key issue is keeping the different cultures motivated to work for the organization. Organization puts a global and open mindset in its HR policies. HR facilitates different teams interacting among in a virtual environment. With different cultures and value systems in place, itas important to ensure uniform performance standards across subsidiaries of the Organization.a

The inaugural session was followed by keynote addresses on the theme aIntegration of Corporate Cultures, and People Management Post-Mergera. The panel for this session included Dr. Chandrasekhar Sripada – President HR, Capgemini Consulting India Pvt. Ltd., Mr Allen Sequeira – Sr. VP HR, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Anuj Kumar – Associate Director HR, CSC, Dr K Prabakar – VP Corporate HR, Apollo Hospitals. The session was chaired by Mr Ganesh Chella a Founder and CEO, Totus Consulting.

In the post-lunch session, Prem Chand Gupta, Honable Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, talked about India being a young nation with large cultural diversity and a diverse talent base, which is difficult to find anywhere else.

This was followed by a session that had Industry-specific talks from representatives belonging to various sectors of the industry. The panel for this session included Mr B Venkatramana – Sr. VP HR, Reliance Retail Ltd., Mr Steve D Rich – Shared Services Manager Indian & ASEAN HR, Caterpillar, Mr. Lancelot Cutinha – VP HR, Big FM, and Mr. Boddapati Balaji – Director, ADP Private Ltd. Mr. C. Mahalingam – Executive VP & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services, chaired the session.

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