Ketan Murali

15169
It was an absolute pleasure to attend a guest lecture on Talent Management by Dr.
Ashok Bhatia, President of Zydus Cadila Pharmaceuticals in class today. Dr. Bhatia
borrowed heavily from his rich career experiences spanning four decades as he shared
anecdote after anecdote, life lesson after life lesson and left us with several ideas on
how to manage the talent pipeline at our future organizations effectively.
The discussion started with Mr. Bhatia emphasizing the need for Goal Clarity at an
organizational level, as he recounted his experience at Zydus Cadila over the past
couple decades. The Chairman would time and again set sales and revenue targets for
the company that seemed impossible when announced, yet surprisingly were always
met or exceeded by the inspired management and employees. He was of the opinion
that accurate goal setting and communication by top management would result in a
motivated workforce that trusted that their targets, while challenging, were achievable.
Next he touched upon the importance of Role Clarity by sharing one of the questions
he always asks his juniors What specific piece of work or activity would stop
happening in your team if you were to take a six month leave of absence? He said that
the employees answers would help to separate out those who were aware of the
distinct roles they performed at work from those who didnt.
Dr. Bhatia then proceeded to present the class with a hypothetical case involving two
employees, A and B, who are both up for promotion in a company and considered to
have more or less similar potential for growth. A takes a target of 10 and achieves 11,
while B takes a target of 13 and achieves 12. The question posed was Which one of
the two would you promote? An overwhelming majority of the class immediately
responded with B, but Dr. Bhatia was quick to point out how most organizations are
designed to reward the As for exceeding their stipulated targets, while the Bs would
typically not receive any appreciation for setting more ambitious targets for
themselves. He followed this up by explaining why we should try to be B type
employees, in addition to knowing how to identify and reward B typers as far as we
can. In his opinion, B type employees were less likely to be complacent owing to
overachieving their targets, proved to be less conservative and risk averse, and made
for outstanding teachers and mentors for their juniors.
Dr. Bhatia quoted the results of a research paper that surveyed peoples work levels
and informed us that 90% of people globally worked just enough to fulfil their
requirements, whereas only 5% were truly motivated to overachieve their goals at
work. Using this data he mentioned that while there was a lot of talk about the ever
increasing competition at the workplace, at the end of the day our real competition was
going to be just 5% of the population if we resolved to work hard and stay committed
to our goals.
Next came up a discussion on Adaptability versus Adoptability. Adaptability was
mentioned as the traits exhibited by someone who joins an organization fresh from
outside and merely tries to fit in by knowing the likes/dislikes of their bosses,
understanding the various power centres connected to their work, adjusts quickly with
the culture and generally meets expectations. Adoptability, on the other hand is
demonstrated by someone who challenges the status quo, demonstrates, exceeds
expectations and is thus recognised as a change agent in an organization.

Prof. Dheeraj Sharma ended the discussion by asking Dr. Bhatia how he was able to
successfully and repeatedly assign stretch goals to his employees. Dr. Bhatia
responded with a couple brilliant anecdotes from his time in South Africa and
presented the view that as a manager, we should never set targets for our juniors; in
fact, we should take targets from them. This helps build consensus and agreement and
makes for a lot easier discussions at the end of the review period. Next, he mentioned
that a manager must try to involve the doers as much as possible in the goal setting
discussions, attempt to win their trust and confidence by sharing his wisdom and
insights, motivate them every step of the way to achieve ambitious targets and reward
them profusely once they are met. Essentially, the discussion must revolve around the
sales/revenue Aspiration the manager has for his employee and not merely the target.
Overall, it was a highly engaging session and everyone present in class enjoyed every
minute of it. Dr. Bhatia threw a lot of light on PASS (People, Attitudes, Situation,
Success) and how the right strategies can help in recruiting, motivating and retaining
the very best people for your organization.