BUSINESS STRATEGY

What is an organizational or business strategy? In ancient Greece, the term Strategoswas used in military science and implied the plan to win a battle. However, in business, strategies are more about understanding the competition and preparing a plan to match/surpass the potential of the rivals, and to build or increase the market share for services offered or products being sold by the organization or business.

“Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term. It helps achieve an advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and fulfill stakeholder expectations.”

It is important for business leadership to not only define the strategy but also identify what success/ expected outcomes looks like. KPIs- Key Performance Indicators are useful and are critical for tracking, monitoring and assessing the progress made by the business/ organization towards its strategic goals. KPIs can vary based on the strategy; customer satisfaction, revenue growth, employee hiring, employee retention, employee engagement, project completion or product ready timelines to align with its ‘go to market’ strategy,..

A CASE EXAMPLE

An American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in early 1900s, has expanded to become a Fortune 500 company and one of the world's largest shipping couriers. It is the largest courier company in the world by revenue, with annual revenues around US$100 billion in 2022, far ahead of its competitors.

In order for the company to service the large volume of customers in 1991, the organization developed technologies to improve efficiency. A handheld device called "Delivery Information Acquisition Device" (DIAD) was created to record and upload delivery information to the organization network immediately upon pickup by every package car driver. in the organization. In the year 1992 itself, organization began tracking all ground shipments electronically. 

In March 2020, the company has appointed a new chief executive officer who was not someone who has served the company earlier. It was viewed as a move to steer the parcel delivery company through the turbulence of trade wars, technological disruption and the risk of a pandemic-induced recession. The new CEO brought in a few other leaders from outside the organization, including the chief information officer (CIO) with a mandate to evolve strategies to succeed in the face of major technological disruptions impacting the industry, and to remain ahead of competition.

In the year 2022, the new CIO came on board and crafted a strategy to lead the organization forward. One of the strategic goals was to build digital mindset among the leadership and then cascade it to the managerial level. The C-Suite and the executive management of the organization partnered with Emory School of Management to build Digital Fluency curriculum relevant to its business strategy and had everyone go through the course to help them adapt and adopt the new technological shifts to aid the business operations and sustain or grow its revenue stream.

Yet another strategic goal was to build for the first time a Technology centre (GCC), outside the US, and Europe. India was the chosen destination, to leverage the availability of technology talent market pool in the country and also to expand into/ offer its services in the India market.

Establishing the GCC in India: The strategic choices and challenges

CIO in partnership with the CHRO and the business leadership team scouted for suitable organizational leaders to build the GCC in India; the Talent Leader for the region and the Site leader for the GCC. The People Leader was identified and extended an offer by end of 2022, and strategic goals were shared with the HR leader.

Location strategy was built- a tri-city plan over 3 year span with presence across different geographies pan India was made to ensure business continuity and absorbing any external contingencies; floods, power shutdowns, political unrest, etc. The three cities identified for the setting up off Technology Centres were Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune, given the fact that Bengaluru seems to be saturated. However, the first city chosen in India to establish the Technology Centre for the Global Shipping & Logistics Major was Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu. Thus began what would be considered as a whaling voyage*.

Whaling voyage as you know can be gruesome but adventurous, unpredictable    but patterned, and high-risk but high-reward. It was also a long    haul—if ships were at sea for 18 months, that was an incredibly short trip, and it wasn’t uncommon for voyages to last a decade or longer. The goal was to snag as many whales as possible, in pursuit of their highly valuable whale oil (extracted from blubber), sperm oil, and whalebone.

The reason it was considered as risky as a whaling voyage is because Tamil Nadu state while it is phenomenally well ahead of the other states in India in the manufacturing and automobile sectors, it is not known for technology, though it is a short distance away from Bengaluru which is compared to the ‘Silicon Valley’ given its tech ecosystem. Getting the right tech talent from across India to come and live in a city which is xenophobic towards non-south linguistic groups, and while it offers delectable palate for South Indians, will not have the cuisine for western, eastern, northeastern, or North Indians. Also, the traditional and protective / non-inclusive mindset of the locals is found to be a huge deterrent for migrants from other parts of the country. It’s not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, but it is uncanny: By calculation, about 34% of whaling voyages kicked back a zero or less return, and 32% of  funds across that data generated zero or negative net IRR. But someone had to make it possible for a ship to get out to sea at all, and that’s where some brave and diligent sailors make it possible. In this case example, a capable HR team with an expert Talent Acquisition Lead brought on board, deploying the relevant Talent Strategy of “buy, build, borrow” is the catalytical agent, responsible for attracting and hiring the right talent for Chennai centre. A huge part of the people leader’s remit was due diligence and pattern recognition to build brand for the organization, the upcoming workplace, the potential work, the culture, etc. to make the strategy come alive. The plan for the centre in India was to hire 1500 by the year 2026- each year 400-500 and establish the other city offices- one in each year. Mid 2023 is when the GCC site leader came on board.

Talent Strategy: Buy

The experienced Talent leader, given the global exposure, and previous experience of setting greenfield projects chose her team well and brought in a results-driven, accountable TA Manager to lead a couple of recruiters, and drafted in 3-4 TA vendors to keep feeding the sourcing funnel to hire 40-50, experienced technical engineers/ software developers, a month. The end-to end recruitment cycle was owned by the TA Manager with just a lean but determined recruiters’ team. June to November 2023-6 months- offer roll out targets were met, despite multiple challenges- no physical office, no brand recognition of the organization in the country, the location is not a tech talent magnet, etc. Job fairs, Social Media posts, leveraging professional networks, credibility of the people leader, videos promoting the brand of the organization and its 100+ year history and strong culture have all contributed to creating a buzz and attracting the relevant talent.

CIO set a seemingly impossible goal of 100 employees on seat by August, the inauguration of the office space and Founders’ Day celebrations. Why is that considered an impossible task- India talent market has a 60-90 day notice periods, unlike western geographies wherein it is 2 weeks. If June is the month of commencement of hiring experienced professionals, not fresh out of college hires, and the hiring cycle itself takes a minimum of 4 weeks, how can one ensure meeting the goal of 100 on seat by August end?

Talent Strategy: Build

One of the rewards of setting up the first centre in the city of Chennai was the incentive scheme floated by the Government to help build the technology industry muscle in the state. So, leveraging one of the government schemes called “Naan Mudhalvan” adopted various 2 tier and 3 tier engineering colleges across the state, for employability readiness of the students was embraced as part of the Talent strategy, and the final year engineering students of such colleges have been selected for the 6-month internship (in the last semester) on site, effective January 2024, and offers were rolled out 4 months’ prior. These internship cum placement post successful completion of internship offers were handed over on the Founders’ Day Celebrations held during August 2023 by the Chief Guest, who is the Hon. Chief Minister of the state. This had also helped build the face and brand recognition for the organization.

Talent Strategy: Borrow

A critical strategic choice was also made by the CIO in addition to setting up the GCC in India-vendor consolidation (Moving and minimizing work/ projects assigned to Four IT service provider vendors to two and bringing in core IP related work into the India tech centre).

It is like fixing the tyres on a moving airplane- We are referring to 4000+ knowledge resources business critical technology work.

It is critical for HR partnering with business to ensure moving of resources is perfectly timed so as not to jeopardize the project milestones and focusing on the knowledge transfer from the vendors being released to the vendor partners’ or India tech centre resources. It is done in phases with clinical precision.

KPIs - Expected Outcomes vs Actual Results

1. A goal of 100 On-seat employees by the time of Launch on August 28,2023- accomplished
2. Hiring experienced tech professionals and achieving the goal of 500 on seat in 10 months- accomplished.
3. Run-rate adjusted based on the targets;
   1. Initial 6 months (40-50 per month),
   2. Next 6 months it increased to 100 + offers per month - this change was necessitated by change of original strategic goal of hiring 1000 by 2025 to mid- 2024
   3. Vendor consolidation resources rebadging to Tech centre- 3 phases-450 resources in 6 months
   4. Note: This pace of offers also took into consideration, the drop out/ no shows/infancy attrition/ offer declines =15% to 18%
   5. Early joiners/ resources serving notice period/immediate joiners were actively sourced to attain the goal of 100 on seat by August end.

Resource Pyramid:

60% -Senior roles                              21%  -Intermediate roles

12.6% -Lead/ Manager roles                6.4%  -Associate roles (Build)

Conclusion

Nothing is as exciting as reaching the finish line, and when the target becomes aggressive and yet you can push yourself, keeping up with the team motivation and help the organization attain the goals.

This is the proof of concept that focus, planning, organizing, directing and controlling (Fayolian Model) still works!