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Himadri Singha
Abhishek Soni
Background:
The sun was yet to leave its heavenly abode. Mr Aiyer, General Manager (HR) of TCX
Ltd. was staring at the Golden Peacock, placed elegantly in the glass shelf of his big
cabin, which was recently awarded to his company for HR excellence. Mr Aiyer is
having a very hard time to find a suitable Senior Relationship Manager for his new
potential client in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is left with two choices: recruit someone
suitable internally i.e. from TCX only or to choose someone from the CVs lying in his
table. But Mr Aiyer is left with very little time. He has to take a quick judicious
decision.
Company Overview:
TCX Ltd. is the largest provider of IT and business process outsourcing services in Asia.
It is headquartered in Mumbai. It is a truly multinational organisation with offices in
42 countries across the globe. It is world renowned company for its excellent
customer service and end to end business solutions. TCX has recently been awarded
with “Best Place to Work 2010”, awarded for HR excellence, which was sponsored by
a leading Media channel. This award was being given to TCX on the basis of employee
satisfaction survey and innovative HR practices.
Banking and Financial services is one the major source its revenues. After providing
consultancy services across US & Europe, it is targeting the lucrative market of Middle
East countries (Refer Exhibit 1). Recent economic crisis has severely impacted its
business in US and Europe and thus it has become more important for the company
to increase its presence in Middle East.
Client:
Al-Rajhe Bank is one the prominent Islamic bank in the Middle East. It is
headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It demands highest standard of quality in the
services but it is somewhat conservative in its approach.
Location:
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is situated in the Arabian
peninsula on a large plateau. Its population is close to 7 million. Summer
temperatures are very hot approaching 50 degree Celsius. Winters are mild cold.
Overall climate is arid and one can expect dust storm as well.
Arabic is the official language of the region. It is one of the most conservative cities in
Saudi Arabia. Women have very limited rights and are required to cover themselves
with an abaya and headscarf. Most forms of the entertainment are banned. Islamic
laws applicable to this place are very stringent.
But the place is a shopper’s paradise. There are huge malls in the city. Though alcohol
is strictly banned ,eating out is one of the few pleasures of Riyadh — there's a pretty
good selection of restaurants for various cuisines, ranging from cheap and hearty to
fancy and expensive.
Requirement:
Prospective Candidates:
Riyadh as a location was very conservative. Islamic laws prevalent in this region were
quite stringent. Climate of this place was also not conducive. Hence this place was not
the first choice of work for most of the people. Very few people offered their
candidature for the post of Senior Relationship Manager in Riyadh.
Among the five prospective candidates, the candidature of Mr Sharma was very much
supported by Mr Bajaj because Mr Sharma was already an employee of TCX and Mr
Bajaj felt that employees within the organisation should be given the first preference
for growth. Mr Sharma had a total 12 years of experience in Banking and Financial
services but he had very little knowledge of Islamic banking. There was an option to
provide a one month internal training to Mr Sharma on Islamic banking but this could
delay overall recruitment process for the post. Further Mr Sharma has earlier worked
in the liberal American society and had no prior experience of conservative Middle
East culture.
Mr Khan, the third candidate, was a young enthusiastic manager with a renowned
multinational firm. Mr Khan had prior work experience in Middle East country and
during his last assignment he got an opportunity to learn Arabic language as well. The
only thing that goes against the requirement was his lesser experience. He had
experience of total 7 years in Banking domain. He had an MBA degree from a top
grade Indian business school.
Mr Younis, an external candidate, did not have any prior MBA degree. He moved
slowly from a technical domain to a managerial role. He had total 12 years of industry
experience which included 8 years of technical expertise in Islamic banking but just 4
years of managerial experience. He was fluent in Arabic language and was very much
accustomed to Middle East working culture.
Mr Swaminathan was the final candidate. He was a well groomed guy from TCX itself.
He had total 11 years of relevant experience in Banking and financial services with
excellent knowledge of Islamic banking laws. But Mr Swaminathan had no prior
international work experience and during his entire tenure he typically worked from
an offshore location only.
The Dilemma:
Exhibit 2:
Hierarchy Chart:
Senior Relationship
Riyadh (Onsite) Manager
Relationship Relationship
Saudi Arabia (Onsite) Manager Manager
Relationship Manager
Job Description:
Responsibilities:
• Relationship Management
• Driving Business Growth and Targets
• Drive thought leadership and provide business advisory/consultancy to the
client
• Act as an interface between the IT delivery team and customers as well as
other teams.
• Build and Maintain detailed business account plans for respective client
portfolios
• Work with Technology Enablement teams and center of excellences to
architect appropriate solutions to the client organization
• Conduct Quarterly Business reviews with the customer executives
Requirements:
The above situation is very common to many multinational nowadays. It’s very
important for any multinational to adapt with the culture of the people where project
is going on. Al-Rajhe Bank is a new potential client for TCX. It’s very important for the
management of TCX to build up a good long term relationship with the bank.
The Bank is headquartered at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. People and culture of Saudi Arabia
are very conservative. Islamic Banking system is also having its particular norms and
regulations. To do a long term assignment for such a client, a Senior Relationship
Manager should be capable to accustom with the people of Riyadh and be equipped
with greater knowledge of Islamic Banking. Probably last Senior Relationship Manager
resigned from the post because of less adaptability. Also the person should be ready
to stay there for long times, at least 3 years. That is why TCX should think ten times
before recruiting the suitable incumbent.
This is exclusively our Group analysis. Actual decision depends on many other
factors.