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Zensar: The future of

Vision Communities

Group 6
Shikhar Kothiyal (29NMP77)
Sumit Mathur(29NMP85)
Swati Rani (29NMP88)
Tushar Prakash (29NMP90)
Saswat
Ashutosh Verma
Pradeep Varshney
Sonal Lamba
Zensar: The future of Vision Communities
CHALLENGE

BEING LARGE ENOUGH TO DELIVER


AND SMALL ENOUGH TO CARE

VISION OF GANESH NATARAJAN

To make Zensar one of the top 15 India based IT and BPO firm by 2013

Cross boarder acquisitions , increasing number of employees from


5000 to 10000

Become culturally diverse company

To scale up the VC exercise to a larger and culturally diverse group

Look for ways how it can be done


Innovation Strategy Focussing Culture
& Norms
Organizational culture is a system of shared values and
norms that define appropriate attitudes and behaviours.
Successful execution of strategy is culture & culture of
business should reflect these values.
Type of culture and specific norms and values help
organization reach its strategic goals. Therefore to have a
strong culture, the norm should be characterized by intensity.
Promotion of the needed norms and diminishing those that
hinder the attainment of task and helps in innovation.
Norms to promote creativity requires support for risk taking
and change and secondly is tolerating the mistakes.
Norms that ensure actions are those that emphasize effective
team work and group functioning and those that emphasize
speed and urgency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRSxmW5Ra5g
Diagnosing culture

Conducting a cultural diagnosis process is important and it


involves identifying the critical strategic challenges .
Linking the strategy fro meeting these challenges to the
critical tasks needed to implement it.
Identifying what norms and values that will help accomplish
critical tasks.
Diagnosing the norms that characterize the current culture.
Identifying gaps between the norms needed and existing
ones.
Deciding on actions needed to reduce gaps.
INDIAN IT SERVICE INDUSTRY

71.7bn
USD

Indian 5.8%
OF
IT Ind. GDP

2.2 mn
people
COMPANY BACKGROUND

Zensar was a mid sized company ,headquartered in Pune

After acquisitions from Fujitsu and finally from RPG group with 30%
stake retained management control the reincarnated company was
named as Zensar meaning essence of knowledge

But the company lacked the leadership control as the top executives
in the management started quitting and financial performance was
plummeting every year

On Feb 8,2001 Harsh Goenka ,RPG Group Chairman hired Ganesh


Natarajan as Zensars CEO,

Natarajan realized that to survive and compete Zensar has to focus on


its positioning. He said Our strategy is built entirely around
innovation.
Survival of Zensar : Positioning

STRATEGY IS BUILT ENTIRELY AROUND INNOVATION


TO BE A PREFERED SECOND TIER VENDOR

DIFFERENCIATED SERVICES

Higher level of Executive involvement

Customer Centricity

Proactive and suggest new ideas

30:70 model - 30 % work onsite and 70 % offsite Reduces cost

Relied on a robust, proprietary development methodology, automated


software tools

Frequent communication

Focussed on people and process innovation


Turnaround, Transformation & Growth
Survival phase 2001-03 Consolidation phase 2003-05

Foundation for future growth


Set new tone of participation and
involvement
Enhance company delivery
Collected the inputs from the
capacity by building strong
employees and then worked on
practices
them
Formulated 12 months turn
Expanded geographical footprints
around plan
to Asian pacific region and South
cost reduction,
Africa
new mgmt. team
new HR policies
Increase focus on platinum
Move from on sight
accounts
revenue model to dual shore
revenue model
Sales team divided into Hunters
Improved invoicing process
and farmers

Within 9 months they Returned to Consolidation of diverse


profitability and paid dividend to geographical sites into single
share holders Pune campus
Turnaround, Transformation & Growth
Transformation phase 2005-08 Reengineering and growth phase
2008-
Foundation for future growth
Set new tone of participation and
involvement
Enhance company delivery
Collected the inputs from the
capacity by building strong
employees and then worked on
practices
them
Formulated 12 months turn
Expanded geographical footprints
around plan
to Asian pacific region and South
cost reduction,
Africa
new mgmt. team
new HR policies
Increase focus on platinum
Move from on sight
accounts
revenue model to dual shore
revenue model
Sales team divided into Hunters
Improved invoicing process
and farmers

Within 9 months they Returned to Consolidation of diverse


profitability and paid dividend to geographical sites into single
share holders Pune campus
Turnaround, Transformation &
Growth
The company trained and sensitized people about
customers culture before sending them onsite.
Reengineering and growth phase(2008-)introduced new
services and pursuit of new markets. During the
recession, Zensar began to offer impact sourcing
which targeted cost sensitive customers.
The firm was organized into three large BUs-GTS,BPO
and EAS.
The detailed long change process had resulted in
sustained, consistent growth in the number of
employees and customers as well as financial
performance.
Culture and talent management

Vivek Gupta, the chief executive of Zensars India


operations observed, It is like a family. There is a
personal connection with every employee. If any person
is in distress, we respond as family members would.
Zensar employed the same approach and philosophy
with acquisitions.
HR practises embodied the companys culture of
responsiveness and caring.
The company had won NHRD Trailblazer Award for best
HR practices in 2006.
Natarajan had entrusted the HR function with the task
of moving from a good to great organization and
creating a company that would aspire to join.
Multiple forums for engagement
Senior management used the EBM forum to share
business updates, convey market & customer
information and allay peoples concern.
Pizza & Coke , less formal lunch meeting chaired by a
management team member and attended by 12-14
randomly selected people.
Both employees questions and managements
responses were written up and circulated and posted on
companys intranet.
Another forum Durbar-e-Khaas, gave individuals to
reach out to a member of senior management team &
discuss personal issues and grievances, seek guidance
and offer suggestions.
Associate Relations Function: HR established and
trained a small group whose sole responsibility was to
meet with employees, listen to their concerns and
strengthen their relationship with Zensar.
AR issues ranged from difficulty securing leave time to
care for an ailing relative to frayed relationships with a
Talent Retention & Critical Talent Identification
Different Strikes for Different Folks model consists of
set of goals, motivators, and modes of engagement
that were tailored to an employees position in the
talent pyramid consisting of software professionals,
Frontline managers, Senior Managers & Business
Leaders.
According to this framework, associates at different
levels had very different aspirations and needs. as
software professionals were hoping to find their dream
company, frontline managers were offered a wide range
of challenging opportunities. Zensar repeatedly
enlarged their roles.
HR devoted considerable time to career planning for
Senior managers.
Finally for business leaders Zensar strove to provide
them with la range of entrepreneurial opportunities.
Zensars management has identified a group of about
300 people at all levels, who were regarded as critical
talent and Zensar groomed these to be leaders of
Vision communities & Process
It had been a part of Zensars identity since 2001, when
Natarajan had convened the first VC with tagline, If you had
an idea, we have a platform.
Over the time VC evolved through several stages and finally
matured to a point where there was strategy implementation
and brainstorming which led to idea development.
This began with an all staff email, introducing the theme for
the year and inviting all employees to participate.
Each had to contribute to at least one idea and then it was
clustered into categories including customer, technology,
people, process and culture.
Teams selected their own leaders and were then evaluated on
enhancing the top line and bottom line, customer and people
delight.
Vision communities &
Process
Teams then made a 30 min presentation outlining the scope, impact,
timeline, success metrics and support required from the company .
Management council then selected the top three ideas for each
group.
For each idea the group then developed a detailed project plan,
budget, and assessment of he support required from the organization.
Approved ideas move on to the final stage.
Over the course of implementation regular review with the team
happened.
Eventually each idea was assigned a functional owner to ensure that
they were integrated into daily work.
Challenges

Adaptation of VC process to serve the needs of a larger, more


dispersed organization and connect them effectively.
If the company further expanded whether this model still work.
Process was calendar bound and people had to wait fro the start
of annual process before proceeding with innovative ideas.
Second option was to put VC process online, would broaden
access and reach and accommodate a more continuous flow of
ideas.
But this had challenge of comprising with the level of
engagement and diluting the enthusiasm.
The magic of a VC inspires employee sitting in room, debating
and finally getting into idea to create a atmosphere of euphoria &
energy.
The VC process might take a turnaround towards either an
incremental change or a radical change
Questions

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