Zensar: The future of Vision Communities

CHALLENGE

BEING LARGE ENOUGH TO DELIVER

AND SMALL ENOUGH TO CARE

VISION OF GANESH NATARAJAN

To make Zensar one of the top 15 India based IT and BPO firm by 2013

Cross boarder acquisitions , increasing number of employees from

5000 to 10000

Become culturally diverse company

To scale up the VC exercise to a larger and culturally diverse group

Look for ways how it can be done

 Innovation Strategy Focussing Culture & Norms

Organizational culture is a system of shared values and norms that

define appropriate attitudes and behaviours.
Successful execution of strategy is culture & culture of business
should reflect these values.
Type of culture and specific norms and values help organization
reach its strategic goals. Therefore to have a strong culture, the
norm should be characterized by intensity.
Promotion of the needed norms and diminishing those that hinder
the attainment of task and helps in innovation.
Norms to promote creativity requires support for risk taking and
change and secondly is tolerating the mistakes.
Norms that ensure actions are those that emphasize effective team
work and group functioning and those that emphasize speed and
urgency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRSxmW5Ra5g
 Diagnosing culture

Conducting a cultural diagnosis process is important and it

involves identifying the critical strategic challenges
Linking the strategy fro meeting these challenges to the
critical tasks needed to implement it

Identifying what norms and values that will help accomplish

critical tasks

Diagnosing the norms that characterize the current culture

Identifying gaps between the norms needed and existing ones

Deciding on actions needed to reduce gaps.

 Indian IT Industry

Segments in IT Industry
71.7bn
USD Body shopping : Supplying
overseas firms with IT workers
on short term

Indian 5.8% BPO: Operations and business

OF functions in dedicated centers
IT Ind. GDP

Consulting , R&D: Analytical

value added services
2.2 mn
people

SWITCH
COMPANIES

Revenue > USD 1 Bn; Attracted Best talent & Best

 Company Background

Zensar was a mid sized company ,headquartered in Pune

After acquisitions from Fujitsu and finally from RPG group with 30%
stake retained management control the reincarnated company was
named as Zensar meaning essence of knowledge

But the company lacked the leadership control as the top executives
in the management started quitting and financial performance was
plummeting every year

On Feb 8,2001 Harsh Goenka ,RPG Group Chairman hired Ganesh

Natarajan as Zensars CEO,

Natarajan realized that to survive and compete Zensar has to focus on

its positioning
 GANESH NATARAJAN STARTED LOVE CULTURE

HIGH EMOTIONAL
QUOTIENT

ABILITY TO CONNECT WITH

TAKES QUICK DECISIONS PEOPLE OF ALL LEVELS

PERFORMANCE ORIENTED
VISIONARY &
RESPONSIVE LEADER

COLLECTS FEEDBACKS FORMAL & INFORMAL

PUSHES FOR CHANGE

COLLABORATIVE SUPPORTIVE LEADERSHIP STYLE

 Survival of Zensar : Positioning

STRATEGY IS BUILT ENTIRELY AROUND INNOVATION

TO BE A PREFERED SECOND TIER VENDOR

DIFFERENCIATED SERVICES

Higher level of Executive involvement

Customer Centricity

Proactive and suggest new ideas

30:70 model - 30 % work onsite and 70 % offsite Reduces cost

Relied on a robust, proprietary development methodology, automated

software tools

Frequent communication

Focussed on people and process innovation

 Turnaround, Transformation & Growth
Survival phase 2001-03 Consolidation phase 2003-05

Foundation for future growth

Set new tone of participation and
involvement
Enhance company delivery
Collected the inputs from the
capacity by building strong
employees and then worked on
practices
them
Formulated 12 months turn
Expanded geographical footprints
around plan
to Asian pacific region and South
cost reduction,
Africa
new mgmt. team
new HR policies
Increase focus on platinum
Move from on sight
accounts
revenue model to dual shore
revenue model
Sales team divided into Hunters
Improved invoicing process
and farmers

Within 9 months they Returned to Consolidation of diverse

profitability and paid dividend to geographical sites into single
share holders Pune campus
 Turnaround, Transformation & Growth
Transformation phase 2005-08
Achieve operational excellence
by installing new processes and
systems
Evaluation on INNOWET KRA
system
Acquisition of companies based
out in India, USA and Japan.
Talent management and building
global culture making people
aware of the clients culture
Addition of new customer verticals
and expand the number of practice
areas
Reengineering and growth phase
2008-
Introduction of new services and
new markets ex : Outsourcing
During recession times focused
on Indian market new verticals
like education, media and govt.
Three large business units
GTS,BPO AND EAS.
Team supporting Cisco had
grown from 60 to 1200 people
Rated as ciscos most valued
partner
 Benefits of this transformation - RESULTS

EMPLOYEE GROWTH REVENUE GROWTH SUSTAINED

4800: 2009-10 199.6mn: 2009-10
CONSISTENT

1062 : 2000-01 41.1mn : 2000-01

Growth in no of
employees
CUSTOMER GROWTH PAT GROWTH
Growth in no of
313: 2009-10 19.1mn: 2009-10 customers

Improved
financial
performance
57 : 2000-01 2mn : 2000-01
 Culture and Talent Management
CULTURE
FAMILY CONNECT

CONNECTED ORGANISATION

WORK DONE THROUGH COLLABORATION

APPLIED SAME APPROACH AND PHILOSOPHY FOR ACQUISITIONS

HR POLICIES ALIGNED TO COMPANYS CULTURE OF CARING AND

RESPONSIVENESS

HIRE FOR TALENT WITHOUT ANY OPEN POSITION

PEOPLE SHOULD ASPIRE TO JOIN ZENSAR

 Forums for Engagement
EMS (EVERY BODY MEETINGS)

HELD ONCE IN A QUARTER TO SHARE BUSINESS UPDATES, CONVEY

MARKET & CUSTOMER INFORMATION AND ALLAY PEOPLES
CONCERN

PIZZA & COKE , LESS FORMAL LUNCH MEETING CHAIRED BY A

MANAGEMENT TEAM MEMBER AND ATTENDED BY 12-14 RANDOMLY
SELECTED PEOPLE

BOTH EMPLOYEES QUESTIONS AND MANAGEMENTS RESPONSES

WERE WRITTEN UP AND CIRCULATED AND POSTED ON COMPANYS
INTRANET

DARBAAR-E-KHAAS

THIS GAVE INDIVIDUALS TO REACH OUT TO A MEMBER OF SENIOR

MANAGEMENT TEAM & DISCUSS PERSONAL ISSUES AND GRIEVANCES,
SEEK GUIDANCE AND OFFER SUGGESTIONS
 Forums for Engagement
ASSOCIATE RELATIONS FUNCTION

AR CAME FROM VISION COMMUNITY IDEA- EACH EMPLOYEE TO

HAVE AN HR CONTACT PERSON

HR TARINED AND A SMALL GROUP WHOLE SOLE REPONSIBILITY

WAS TO MEET WITH EMPLOYEES , LISTEN TO THEIR CONCERNS

IN 2009 THERE WERE 14 PEOPLE IN AR DEALING WITH 150

EMPLOYEES , ALL ISSUES RANGING FROM BIG TO SMALL WERE
TAKEN CARE BY THEM

WORKED TO RESOLVE THEM

THE MEMBERS IN THE AR WERE EVALUATED ON BASIS OF

RETENTION RATE OF THEIR ASSOCIATES , IMPORTANCE AND
VOLUME OF THE ISSUES RAISED BY THEM AND THE MOTIVATION
LEVEL OF THE EMPLOYEE
 Talent Retention

DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS

Different strikes for different folks model consists of set of goals,

motivators, and modes of engagement that were tailored to an employees
position in the talent pyramid consisting of software professionals, frontline
managers, senior managers & business leaders.
According to this framework, associates at different levels had very different
aspirations and needs. as software professionals were hoping to find their
dream company, frontline managers were offered a wide range of
challenging opportunities. zensar repeatedly enlarged their roles.
hr devoted considerable time to career planning for senior managers
finally for business leaders zensar strove to provide them with la range of
entrepreneurial opportunities.
Zensars management has identified a group of about 300 people at all
levels, who were regarded as critical talent and zensar groomed these to be
leaders of future by trainings.
 Vision Communities & Process

It is a part of Zensars identity since 2001, when Natarajan had convened the first
VC with tagline If you had an idea, we have a platform
Foster an entrepreneurial culture and allow people to experiment with new ideas

Increase interaction of the members with the senior management

Initially only senior management was involved in making strategy for the company
but through VC it broadened the participation of the younger and less experienced
employees

This began with an all staff email, introducing the theme for the year and inviting
all employees to participate

Each had to contribute to at least one idea and then it was clustered into
categories including customer, technology, people, process and culture

Teams selected their own leaders and were then evaluated on enhancing the top
line and bottom line, customer and people delight
 Vision Communities & Process

Teams then made a 30 min presentation outlining the scope, impact,

timeline, success metrics and support required from the company

Management council then selected the top three ideas for each group

For each idea the group then developed a detailed project plan, budget,
and assessment of he support required from the organization

Approved ideas move on to the final stage

Over the course of implementation regular review with the team happened

Eventually each idea was assigned a functional owner to ensure that they
were integrated into daily work
 Challenges

Adaptation of VC process to serve the needs of a larger, more dispersed organization and
connect them effectively

If the company further expanded whether this model still work

Process was calendar bound and people had to wait fro the start of annual process before
proceeding with innovative ideas

Second option was to put VC process online, would broaden access and reach and
accommodate a more continuous flow of ideas

But this had challenge of comprising with the level of engagement and diluting the
enthusiasm

The magic of a VC inspires employee sitting in room, debating and finally getting into idea
to create a atmosphere of euphoria & energy

The VC process might take a turnaround towards either an incremental change or a

radical change
THANK YOU