19

cover story
JUNE 19-25, 2016

Bhardwaj, CEO of executive

his years of experience and
Indian
search firm Redileon Partners.
the pride of being an L&T lifpromoters are
Unlike Americans, they easily
er, a tone some interviewees
experimental
tread into the personal zone,
may perceive as patronising.
and quick in
asking questions around famiAV Birla Group chairman Kudecisionly. Informal, spontaneous,
mar Mangalam Birla is crisp,
making. They
warm and often hospitable,
business-like, warm, courtesending someone senior in the
ous and has a pet question:
prefer resultsorganisation to pick up the canWhy do you want to join
oriented
didate from the airport is not
us? Hero MotoCorp chaircandidates
unusual. An invitation home
man Pawan Munjal is meticufor dinner with the spouse too
lous about the entire hiring
is par for the course. This is esprocess, perhaps taking a
cue or two from his former Japanese partner, pecially true of the older lot. Younger ones try
Honda. He could spend an hour, reviewing the to keep things separate, says Priya Chettycandidates profile, and then some more dur- Rajagopal, executive director, RGF India.
The hiring process is rarely structured, is
ing the interview to understand the applicant.
Indians love to blur personal and profes- subjective, the position profile is rarely
sional boundaries, says US-based Vikram fleshed out and can change overnight. Often, there is a key set of
trusted people valued by the enterprise whose judgement is relied on,
says Adil Malia, group president
(HR), Essar.
Indian business owners typically look for result-oriented candidates with strong execution skills,
fire in the belly, a sense of ownership and who can align well with
the promoters ambitions. Can he
be trusted with family secrets? is
an important question mulled
over by family businesses. They
expect candidates to have personal integrity.
Mixing the personal and professional also means late-night work
calls, meetings at the owners residence and invitations to family
functions (which you decline at
your own peril). At work, the thrust
is on getting the work done, at
times giving short shrift to processes. Indian executives understand
the Asian thrust on conformity. But
they also have the verbal and intelChina
lectual abilities to take charge and
They prefer people who can follow orders, are great executors, know how to respect
lead, says Santosh Desai, CEO, Fuhierarchy. Do not question. Things can change on a whim. Contract paper that you signed
ture Brands.
be damned. Often there are little processes and structures here, unlike the West. Your job
Remember, different MNCs hire
profile, position, team, salary etc may change at times and you just have to learn to live
with it. The hiring happens very quickly
with very different intent. Americans hire for performance. Deliver
on your quarter-on-quarter targets and you rock. If you do not,
they will have no qualms in letting
Europe
you go. Germans hire for the long
While being western
term and loyalty in a relative sense
in outlook, they think
is at a premium here. Koreans hire
long term and hire
for the project at hand.
for the long term,
The Japanese think long term
relative to the
Americans. They are
and hire a consensus-oriented
also a lot more formal
candidate for the cultural fit. They
than Americans in
will take their time to fully assess
their approach. They
their needs and vet your strengths.
have evolved
Rest assured, they would have in
structures and
mind your trajectory in the organiprocesses for the
recruitment process
sation over the next five years before making
for example, a
you that offer.
company like
For Indians, it is a bit complicated. They
Ericsson has a global
have
a very canny sense of value. They ask
talent board that
the question: What will the candidate bring
interviews candidates
to the table? And then take a call, says Deand takes a decision.
They maintain a
sai. Sometimes they could be simply trophysharp distinction
hunting hiring people whose appointment
between professional
will make headlines, create a splash in the
and personal life. For
market and bring some respectability. At
example, calling a
times, they may hire for the network the canGerman executive
didate brings to the table. A few promoters,
post 4 pm on a
Friday is
looking to professionalise and compete with
not okay
MNC, may hire MNC executives to learn their
structures and processes.

to be more porous. They tend to share information easily, says K Sudarshan, managing
partner of executive search firm EMA Partners
India. It may sound bizarre but once, while hiring a CEO candidate, the prospective employer
(promoter) called the candidates present boss
(another promoter) for a reference check.
There is something distinctive about virtually every major Indian promoters hiring
style. There is RPG Enterprises chairman
Harsh Goenka, who will spend a lot of time
with candidates, delving into their family,
friends, past experience, past employers, past
bosses. Then there is Vedanta Group founder
Anil Agarwal, who eschews long-drawn interviews. Larsen & Toubro Group executive chairman AM Naik, in his 70s, often meets candidates over breakfast. Detail-oriented and
hands-on, the conversation will be laced with

Waves of Change
Despite these stereotypes, the CXO hiring process is riding the waves of change. Roping in an
outsider CEOs is a trend thats catching on. A
recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers
Strategy& analysed 12-year data of the largest,
2,500 public companies to find that the incidence of a board picking up outside CEOs in
planned succession has risen from 14% in the
2004-07 period to 22% in 2012-15. Dramatic
shifts in business environment and new technology-led disruptive forces are boosting the
trend. Social media too is reshaping the recruitment landscape, says Sunit Mehra, managing partner, Hunt Partners.
Biplob Banerjee, executive VP, Jubilant
FoodWorks, says with LinkedIn, it is easy to
scan the web and tap their networks to find the

Interview Tips
for Aspiring CEOs
Talk crisp: Avoid being
ambiguous. Be crisp and direct
while responding to questions

Avoid bragging: Articulate

achievements without sounding over
confident or arrogant

Be authentic: Dont do a hard

sell and pretend who you are not.
Getting the job is only the beginning

Show maturity: Dont be blinded

by the flash. Look deeper
for culture-, chemistry-fit. Dont trash
your present employer
Dont be casual: Right from
dressing formally to doing homework,
take the interview seriously

Talk, not eat: It may be a

breakfast meeting, but be clear it is a
job interview focus on talking,
listening, not eating

Dont obsess about salary:

Avoid excessive focus on salary and
nitty-gritty. Focus on the big picture

Mind the signals: Your body

language matters. Avoid undue haste
or anxiety. While sitting, lean forward
not backward
right candidate in India or overseas.
Krish Shankar, group head (HR), Infosys, felt
it first-hand when he was at Unilever in the
early 1990s when the Indian subsidiary never
hired laterally from outside. By early 2000s, it
evolved a policy to hire laterally. It took us
four years to reach a stage where we began doing it. GE, in comparison, was culturally very
different, used to hiring from outside, he says.
Despite these waves of changes, some cultural stereotypes will remain. Even as the virtual world blurs boundaries and globalisation
forces corporations to think glocal, their
country of origin will continue to shape them
in both subtle and significant ways.