If you are sincere, dedicated and committed to whatever assignment you are given, then results

are bound to come. This is what we try to tell our colleagues here. When we are working for an
organisation like ABC, it does not belong to any individual, it belongs to us. Please work here as if
it is your own personal work. Passion and dedication are very important for them to grow, their
business unit to grow and the Company to grow[10].

Constraints/challenges for the organisation

In its report on ABC, Edelweiss Securities Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based financial services firm
pointed out that construction being at the lower end of the value chain, it has become
increasingly difficult to attract younger talent. The report further added that as ABC scales
up the technology chain, providing high-end engineering solutions, hiring talented and
qualified human resources would be a challenge (Business India, 2009, p. 56).
Along with attraction of the right talent, their retention is another challenge. Construction
companies may not be able to pay like IT companies. So keeping the trend with the market in
terms of compensation is not easy. In the current market scenario, when the job offers are so
lucrative, the Company may not able to hold back its employees. In this context, the
chairman observed:
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Please tell me how much capacity of the Indian IT industry is being spent to automate India’s
medical science, health ministry, hospitals, government, etc. We sell our bodies. Infosys and
Wipro do not lose engineers to the Gulf. I lose them to the Gulf; I lose them to IT; I lose them to
multinational engineering companies; I lose them to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, FMCG,
investment banks [. . .] Simultaneously, I should fill in the void. People ask why I don’t pay more,
but my margin is 5%. All my competitors around the world pay less than 5%, which is the industry
margin. Construction business all over the world works on 2%. The IT Industry earns 30%
margins. India is only adding 4% of value in the product cycle. Every year, foreign companies
come here for designing and I know, within three months, I will lose 20 more guys because they
can pay two to three times more. Foreigners get their design done here. We add 4% of the value.
China adds 45%-50% value by manufacturing it too[3].

Therefore, the logic may creep in – why pay everyone the same. Pay little more to the better
performers, and pay something acceptable to the others. As it has a large spread across
industries, ABC, found it difficult to align rewards and expectations across its various
divisions. The top management wanted to ensure that there was not too much variation within
its various divisions. The head (POD) gave an example:
I have to necessarily distinguish between two individuals wherein I tell one of them that you are
performing well but the other person is performing extremely well, so his rewards will be twice
yours. So, we have to force the concept of differentiation and look at performance with a
magnifying glass which we never did earlier. So a little harder look at performance and capability,
competence, etc. is needed[10].

The historical context of ABC played a major role in creating some of the HR challenges
faced by the company today. Since the mid-1970s, there had been a culture shift in ABC due
to a change in the management. As the expatriate managers left the company, the senior
Indian managers of the company became directors. In tune with the times, seniority became
a criterion of assessing performance, and merit-based performance assessment took a
back-seat. There was a lot of resistance to change because people who were in senior
positions were not used to such management styles. They felt that when they had
succeeded all these years, then where was the need to bring in all this change now? As the
organisation was increasingly engaged in projects in global markets, the company’s
management took note of the changing environment. ‘‘To tackle the ever changing dynamics
of the business world, it is very important to continuously develop our human capital to make
them ready to face challenging situations. Our learning and development initiatives are
designed keeping in mind the overall business strategy and organisational requirements,’’
observed the chairman, ABC, in the Sustainability Report for 2010.
The market and the external environment also posed major constraints and challenges. The
head (POD) said:

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