Mr. Mick Bennett, Managing Director, Hewitt Associates, Thiru. Harish Chawla, Chief Executive Officer, CNBC, "Management Gurus" and other distinguished, committed and energetic members of this august gathering!,

I am delighted to be with you today when the “Best Employers in India 2004” Awards are being presented. This, certainly, is a commendable initiative taken by Hewitt Associates over the last four years. It is heartening to find that the “Gurus” of management have been identified by you. I envy them. Today, I also should have been one of the contenders among the best employers. But the destiny has decided for me to be on the other side of the table. And I am here, as the Minister, to award the best ones. This occasion is indeed unique. Typically, we recognize results. Today, we will felicitate the people in organizations who make results possible. Employers, who get the best from their people, deserve this honour. My congratulations to them all. There is no doubt that initiatives, such as, this will go a long way in developing human capital for our nation building efforts.

Managing people is both an art and science. And though the colour of my hair does not show it, I have had plenty of experience. Many organizations encourage “ceremonial manager” who occupies the “Chair” and records his ceremonial presence only; does not contribute much to the functioning of an organisation. He does not take responsibility. He tells his boss that he himself is too small and his boss is superb who can handle any problem. On the other hand, he tells his subordinates that it is he who needs to work and take care of all the work. Thus, he remains basically a file-pusher.

Then, of course, there is the “perfectionist, control-freak” manager. Hard working, but does everyone else’s work also. His team does not grow, because he gives them no responsibility. All I can say, is that his wife must have many…..well…. “not so nice” things to say when he gets home. That brings me to the “effective” manager, he sets goals, like challenges, enjoys work, his team bonds with him, they grow and learn. His team feels motivated to deliver truly extraordinary results. He is a true leader.

I have seen your best employers’ reports, summarized by Purva and Madhvi, both in the context of India and abroad. What I infer, is that in the “Companies which are not the best”, about 14% of the managers are either ceremonial or functional. Even the “Best Companies” have about 4% of this variety. But what strikes the most is the mutual trust and faith of both the employers and employees about the performance of an organization. The responsiveness towards each other’s needs plays a great role in the overall performance.

From what I infer from the Best Employers’ reports, Best Employers have systems which create these leaders. Best Employers have employees who believe in their leaders. When leaders run organisations with “people” in mind and when employers work with the “organisation” in mind, can any of us sitting here doubt that value will not be created?

I am very impressed to read this research work and find out that Best Employer CEOs spend close to 50% of their time on “people” related issues. Their communication transcends their subordinates and reaches out clearly to all employees.

One piece of terminology in the reports which had me a little confused for a while was “employee engagement”. For sometime I was wondering that these great employers have even started arranging marriages for their people. I tell you, I was touched – how well they take care from cradle to all the way in life. It was the footnote on the page, however, which clarified matters. I realized that engaged employees are committed to the organisation’s mission. Best Employers have a lot of engaged employees. My Department also has a lot of engaged staff. I attribute this to the strong leadership they have at present. As you can see, I am not here to be modest.

On a more serious note, I feel that it is very healthy for organizations to have formal means of collecting employee input and suggestions. The employee-related issues which were the focus of the organizations in the past few decades have now changed. We are today looking for world class development leadership ability, talent, quality, productivity performance and effectiveness in our people.

The technology and globalization are working as the main agents of this change. These require manpower to have a different set of competencies, both managerial and technical. Therefore, we need to lay special emphasis on developing appropriate training modules and apprenticeship development curriculum for technical expertise for those who are working at the shop floors.

When the Chairman of Alcatel met me recently, he narrated a different experience. The issue before him was: How do they retain the talent in India? Obviously, the attrition rate was too high. I felt, one of the reasons could be, employees might not have known Alcatel’s ensuing expansion plans in India. I am not a “Management Guru”, but I learnt many of the fundamental principles of management from my father. My respected father used to say that the team should also run when the boss is away. This also implies that we need to build up systems and procedures for the organization in such a manner that it is not individualized. Never tell your employee that “I, as a boss, can do better”. That often kills the initiative and creativity of the team. My father firmly believed that more you share the responsibility and delegate your powers, more you become efficient and powerful. Do not concentrate on powers, be a visionary and guide your team. Stimulate and energize them; and of course, honesty in your approach would prove to be the best policy.

Sitting at the helm of some of the largest employees base of about 4 lakh, managing people is one of my complex responsibilities, no amount of education could have prepared me for this – and I originally thought, Harvard was adequate for the job. Creating a performance culture, structuring for efficiencies, dealing with high-speed growth and building a learning environment are things that I now struggle with. It is beyond my educational background. But my business and non-political exposure helps. I am sure, you share similar experience. In my case, however, compensation is a little simpler to deal with – no prizes for guessing why.

India’s success story, both in the Telecom and IT, is being widely acclaimed across the globe. The sector is growing at about 40%. The number of telephones which was less than 45 million in March, 2002 has doubled and has crossed today the 90 million mark. The number of wireless phones has already overtaken the number of fixed phones. We have become big market for the big players in the telecom sector. We are envisaging that in the next 3 years, the growth would be again doubled taking the total number of phones in the range of 200 to 250 million.

Let us recognize beyond doubt that India is a global leader in talent. Every year, 1,20,000 IT Graduates enter labour market in India as against 25,000 in U.S. and 5,000 in Germany. It is, therefore, critical for the organizations to harness this energy. There is clearly a key competitive advantage for India, as has been proved in the field of IT and IT-enabled services sectors. Today, its share in the global outsourcing business ranges between 70 to 90%. The Software industry, which was worth only Rs.645 crore in 1991-92 has recorded a production turn-over of Rs.78,850 crore and exports of Rs.55,500 crore (US $ 12.5 billion) in 2003-04 - an export increase of 20.4 per cent in Rupee terms and 30 per cent in Dollar terms over the previous year.

I am not saying all this just because I am the Minister for IT. The IT industry has, beyond doubt, shown the way. They have truly grown knowledge workers in the country. I am not surprised to read in the Best Employer reports that almost 1/4th of the large participation is from IT. I am sure, as the evening unfolds, many of them will also be winners.

I am sure, the younger generation, which is represented here in abundance, has much more to contribute. You have immense potential. You must meet the competition. If you do not, you would be creating it to your disadvantage. Therefore, observe your competitors before they first find out your weakness. Finally, you must dream. But dreams come true only for those who work, while they dream.

To conclude, I sincerely acknowledge the path-breaking work being done by Hewitt, the excellent HR practices of Best Employer organizations and the leaders whose people philosophies make this possible. Last but certainly not the least, I extend my congratulations to the employees of Best Employers. This is your Prize.

Thank you.