Around the world, the debate around women and work-life balance has never been more urgent, strident and engaging, and TOI decided to bring this debate to life on our pages through a panel discussion featuring three smart, opinionated, and articulate achievers whose arguments combine a global viewpoint with keen cultural understanding of the Indian scenario.

To begin with, is work-life balance a ‘women’s issue’ at all? The discussion started off with that counter-intuitive question from Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, partner and global VP – Corporate Initiatives, Stanton Chase International. “Policies friendlier towards women tend to be family-friendly, and benefit men as much as women,” said Chetty-Rajagopal. “They work out in everyone’s favour. Around 40-50 % of these solutions are used by males in the office,” she said.

Sunita R Cherian, VP & Global Head, Human Resources, Wipro, agreed. “Most of these solutions tend to be gender-agnostic. It’s not a women’s issue,” she said. “It is also true that women don’t need these solutions at each phase of their lives. For a young executive just out of college – male or female – they probably don’t make much sense. These young people are eager to prove themselves and to spend all their energies at work. Who are we to tell them what they should or should not want?” asked Cherian, quoting the example of a young worker at Wipro who did not want to be moved out of night shifts as part of an HR endeavour to ensure safety. “She said she joined the company because she wanted to work nights! Who are we to argue?”

Yet, Cherian feels, the knowledge that policies that enable flexibility exist and can be availed of by any employee create a sense of well-being and empowerment.

As someone who has been an employee at busy hospitals as well as an employer at Teleradiology Solutions, a clinical processes outsourcing firm she co-founded, Dr Sunita Maheshwari says she worked hard to create an environment that would offer women much-needed flexibility. “As a doctor, I can admit that my life had no balance. It was only when my daughter, then seven or eight years old, asked me if I loved the babies in the hospital more than her that I was brought up short,” said Maheshwari. One of the changes she made at that point was to tell her boss that she would take Wednesday afternoons off – a small change that made a world of difference to the quality of her relationships. “Often, women are scared to ask. They don’t want to be seen as unprofessional,” she added. “We’ve got to admit that women face a number of issues that men simply don’t, or which they know their wives are handling. The nanny didn’t come in, the mother-in-law fell sick – these are everyday issues the working woman has to face and we must acknowledge that.”

It is a fact that in the IT sector, women constitute around 40% of the workforce at the entry level, 25% at mid-level roles, and only 8% at the top level. Why are these women falling through the rungs and not making it to the top in larger numbers, as they logically should given their neck-to-neck performance with men at the starting block? The panelists were of the view that the surge in the numbers of women joining the corporate sector is less than a decade old, and given time and nurturing by their employers, the numbers at the top will begin to match those at the gates. “One theory is that the decision to hold back is a choice some women make. As long as the organization they work with is inclusive and doesn’t have discriminatory policies, we should accept that with grace,” said Cherian, who created a moment of shared laughter and empathy when she said the one piece of advice she always gives young women is to do with the kind of man they marry. “I tell them they have to choose the right spouse, someone who will support and respect their career, who will share duties equally and be a real partner,” she said.

An interesting – and often ignored – insight that came from the discussion was about the quality of work, which often tends to be forgotten in the desperate quest for a better quality of life. Some experts are of the view that when work is designed for maximum productivity, employees enjoy both work and life without needing any intervention.

“Flexibility and work-life balance shouldn’t end up as words that get lip-service because it’s fashionable or because in a global firm, memos from headquarters dictate that you do so. Many brilliant, successful women, who would have been excellent role-models, have stepped back from this kind of debate because they are suspicious of this element of tokenism. The changes have to come from an organisation’s heart and soul,” said Chetty-Rajagopal.

Priya Chetty-Rajagopal

Principal Consultant
Business Excellence – Corporate Initiatives
cr.priya@stantonchase.com

Priya is a very well known industry figure in Bangalore. As the head of Corporate Practice, her focus with Stanton Chase Bangalore is to implement a non IT focus in a completely IT-oriented city. A member of Stanton Chase International’s Business Excellence Committee, Priya has also played a large role in establishing its Global Diversity Practice. She has successfully led Chief Executive Officer level search assignments for a diverse selection of companies in India.

Hahn and his team of seasoned industry experts form the headhunting firm most preferred by discerning companies around the world, wherever and whenever the need for quality talent arises across a wide range of industries.

As one of Asia’s most respected headhunters, Stanton Chase serves old guard and new blood alike, with an enviable mix of clients including established Hongs and trailblazing newcomers. Hahn’s ability to bridge East with West is well regarded, and as a resourceful, sharpshooting headhunter, his network is legion. Today, social networks are modernizing a somewhat traditional industry, bringing him unprecedented access to the finest talent and mind-blowing market intelligence.

“It’s Not All Clicks, It’s People!”

LinkedIn has revolutionized headhunting. Since it triggered the era of online networking, the world has transformed into a global village, with information being shared 24/7. But quality assessment remains at the very heart of the industry, for which you need human resources. After all, it takes people to understand people. Social networking may complement this fundamental function but it cannot replace it.

“Social networks bring people together across boundaries but you need an experienced professional to act as the synapse across which the magic can happen. You need an expert whose experience transcends cultures, who understands cross-border professional relocation issues, has a broad understanding of competitive compensation trends, and is conversant with an array of corporate cultures. For that you need more than bricks and clicks. You need people to help people and fortunately, that’s where we got it right from day one. Today, the Internet is enhancing, not replacing, the foundations of our business.”

Greater China Prospects

The Greater China region is the new arena for global business. Not only because of China’s own growth, but also thanks to the humungous potential of the developing Asian markets, the stagnating American and European economies, and the progress of industry in giants like India and China.

Social networks can help identify new opportunities like never before, for firms like Stanton Chase to cash in on.

“The trick is to cope with this swelling wave of business without compromising the quality of our service simply because every new mandate is seen as the first of many.

Sectors like banking and finance, logistics, law, manufacturing, IT and industry are experiencing exemplary growth in emerging Asian markets. This means increased demand for local and foreign talent to soak up the glut, but it is for our industry to remember that we are about more than mixing and matching for a profit.

We must ensure each mandate continues to be seen as a reflection of our ability to bring about lasting, perfect matches between employers and employees,” says Hahn.

Growth Assured

“Yes, LinkedIn is certainly boosting business and with its anticipated multi-lingual capabilities, the sky is the limit. Thanks to resources like LinkedIn we have more transparency, the greatest possible reach, and the ability to collect and share insights like never before. It has contributed vastly to the efficiency and agility of the industry and I am delighted to see just how well this has worked for us at Stanton Chase. Social networking not only exposes opportunity but also showcases quality headhunting experts on a global platform and that is hugely encouraging,” says Hahn.

Stanton Chase’s four regional Greater China offices (Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai) are staffed with experienced Asian and Western Consultants speaking over fifteen different languages.

Hahn says, “Using cutting-edge online MPA psychometric assessment tools, we ensure timely and effective evaluation of the ‘best’ candidates from defined target markets whilst focusing on retained, long-term partnerships.”

Stanton Chase specializes in board level appointments (including independent non-executive directors) and other senior functional positions in management, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, operations and IT, with a focus on:

• Consumer Products / Retail / Services;
• Life Sciences and Health Care;
• Industrial (including Automotive, Natural Resources/Energy);
• Logistics and Transportation;
• Technology
• Professional Services
• Financial Services

“The fun has only just begun,” says Hahn rubbing his hands playfully. With Stanton Chase’s international presence, the power of social networking, and the demand in Asia, good times have arrived! It’s up to us to make the most of it and we will,” concludes Hahn.

“Our aim is to offer seamless executive search services to premier financial institutions across Singapore and Greater China,” says Edwin Yeo, Managing Director of Stanton Chase International Singapore, “which, most importantly, benefit our clients with the right expertise in addressing their pressing talent acquisition challenges”, he adds.

Ivo Hahn, CEO Greater China concludes, “the key financial hubs in our region are already interlinked, and highly complementary in nature. Managing the FSI sector from one hub allows us to leverage on our expertise, facilitate cross-border market access and penetration into Mainland China, which adds tangible value to our clients in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Mainland.”

“I am delighted that Wayne Mason, who has been promoted to Managing Director FSI Greater China & Singapore, has meanwhile accepted this new challenge and will spearhead our landmark initiative. I have no doubt that Wayne, supported by his highly capable team in Hong Kong and Singapore, will succeed in this important mission by setting supreme client satisfaction standards.”

Mason Wayne – Managing Director FSI Greater China & Singapore, Stanton Chase International

About Stanton Chase International
Stanton Chase is ranked within the global Top 10 global retained executive search firms. Mediazone ranks Stanton Chase amongst Hong Kong’s Most Valuable Companies and Asia-Pac Victory places Stanton Chase as #1. With proven expertise in key sectors of the global economy, Stanton Chase has 9 international Specialist Practice Groups that operate as international teams. Stanton Chase is owned by its partners who take individual responsibility for delivering outstanding quality for each assignment. Stanton Chase is a member of the Association of Executive Search Consultants www.aesc.org. For all information about us, please visit www.stantonchase.com.

Instead, I want him to constantly reset the performancebar, demand results from his teams quarterafter-quarter. Indian promoters and their boards are increasingly of the opinion that their CEOs are less “ruthless” in pursuing business objectives than their counterparts elsewhere.

Lately, the trend is for the board to point out specific non-performance areas to their CEOs, say for example revenue performance, frequency of new product launches, input costs, energy efficiencies and productivity. One may argue that Indian CEOs are 24×7, often clocking more than 60 hours a week without complaining about the loss of family time.

But they have to note that the concern area is not so much CEO’s own commitment or application, it is more on how organised and hard driving they are in demanding work. The boards feel if their CEOs do not constantly push for higher levels of performance, their team members may simply become sub-optimal. Aspiring CEO should make note of this apparent shortcoming, even if this isn’t universally true.

Statements such as: ‘Let me show you what we want on a board and we will collectively build it’, sound American or Japanese, but Indian CEOs are doing it too.

A new trend of starting the day by thinking and making decisions is catching on. And the best way to run large operations is think collectively and bullet-list the plans, which a white-board offers.

Extrapolating this concept a bit, if aspiring executives can lead such discussions it is a sure-short manner to get noticed. While-boards offer team members the chance to express their thoughts and the leader to capture them real-time, add his/her own intuition, represent the milestones analytically and create excitement. Excitement is partially instilled by the engaging leader, as much as futuristic plans themselves. Whiteboards are turning out to be an important component of leadership, probably even more potent than emails and PowerPoint’s which give a feeling of being pre-conceived!

These puddles of success may not be pulling the weight of the whole business unit or the enterprise in the right direction — and only time will tell that.

Successful CEOs, however, focus their energies on bottlenecks, and not on areas which are already under control. They do not softpedal challenges which are staring at their businesses.

They start review meetings by diving into the discomfort zone and asking tough questions. They will take on the most delayed order, unfinished part of a critical project or the most dissatisfied customer for discussions, while the team is looking to hear generous remarks.

As VPs and GMs graduate into top jobs, their checklists should contain sticky issues and unresolved problems plaguing the progress and not run-ofthe-mill operational issues, which can be resolved by operating executives. High performers constantly attempt to remove bottlenecks, paving way for enhanced future performance.

They ask tough questions so that underlying problems can be solved.

Who is responsible for crafting the strategy, making the investment and scaling up from the initial base?

Sometimes it may truly be a committee developing the strategy and rationale for scaling up decisions – in which case, the key question is whether the CEO aspirant is an active member of that committee.

When evaluating candidates for a CEO role, aspirants are tested for their intellect to take on high impact commercial decisions, involving capital expenditure.

The reason why companies look for a superior academic background and track-record of independent decision-making is precisely because they want their CEO to have the intellect and conviction to view the environment differently and commit resources today for a scenario which will emerge in the future.

Intellect here means the search for relevant facts (read signals) and interpretation, rather than elaborate analysis. Often a question is asked in an evaluation round, to enumerate major decisions taken by the aspirant that impacted the company.

Hence for qualifying to be a CEO, the intellectual bandwidth and thinking power of the candidate is a key factor. Companies do not want someone who is a mere executor of someone else’s decisions.

The common belief is that once you move out of an established role, you might not get back another meaty enough role if the startup fails to take off. On the contrary, the CEO’s role in a start-up unit offers an accelerated learning curve and complete ownership of the mission.

And when the project succeeds, it positions him or her as a missionary leader. Highly successful startup CEOs recount their stories of how they moved into a shoe-string operation, employed the first engineer and then talk with pride about the size of operations which they achieved.

On the flip side, the candidate has to sacrifice the comfort zone of the preferred location, established corporate brand, luxury of all expenses being paid off by a steady income, working with elaborate infrastructure, well-oiled team, et al. Eventually, it’s the mission and not money which is important in grabbing a start-up opportunity.

As a functional VP or a unit head (typical terminology in India for a location head), you are pre-occupied with ‘Operational Stats’ that you are trying to optimise 24×7. With so much enterprise software under deployment, you are forced to grapple with the minutest metrics and they inadvertently get into your bloodstream.

This syndrome of MIS engulfment tends to distance you from the ‘big picture’ and ‘end-results’. The CEO role demands focus on both of the above. When aspirants to CEO roles are quizzed for their performance track record, the expectations are that they dwell upon ‘final-end stats’ and not restrict themselves to operational metrics.

Their dashboard should represent the dynamics of performance at the balance sheet level as much as functional levels. We want CEOs to have the abilities to translate operational metrics to financial impact. They should be comfortable with metrics such as top-line growth, Ebitda, debt-service ratio, net earnings, P/E, P/ExG and Mcap.

Hardcore CEOs know their balance sheets and P&Ls backwards and can forecast these statements for three years forward. We often encounter CEOs who remark: we look at the share price movement in the morning newspaper for two reasons: It’s a surrogate of all our efforts and two, it also reflects our compensation (read ESOPs)!

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The biggest challenges CEOs face are shifting market-forces, followed by organizational power-centers. Often times the organizational sentiments are so negative, that any new initiative may get into a downward spiral. A significant part of a CEO’s energy is invested in rallying the organization rather than getting into the nitty-gritty of strategic-interventions.

Ironically, the operating teams at the trenches are raring to go, but senior management may become a roadblock. Invariably, the senior team often projects sluggish near-term but bright long-term results to save their skin. They rationalize status-quo and externalize the problems. They often are silent during review meetings and may accept the planned agenda, but become critical and even rebellious during implementation. CEOs are rated on their ability to drive success against ‘insubordination’.

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