Making HR the Major Driver of Organizational Innovation

Arun Leslie George

October 4,, 2011

13th annual Thought Leaders Retreat, SHRMChicago

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About

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Merger of many corporate cultures – 224 / 50 / 21

Major businesses include Fertilisers, Specialty Nutrients, Crop Protection and Retail

Revenues: US$ 2 billions

ROE in 09-10: 46%

India’s 3rd fastest growing company in 2010-11

Over 7,000 employees in 509 locations

Ranked among the Top 10 Greenest companies in India by TERI.

Winner of several International and National awards in the areas of HR Excellence, Innovation, People Engagement, Communication, Environment Protection, Energy Conservation, etc

Top 20 Best Employers to work for by MERCER-TNS Business Today.

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The Context

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The Context

Rapid growth and a series of M&A’s

Set itself the target of doubling revenues every 3 years

Strong cash reserves and almost debt free

Risk of Size, Age and Success pulling Coromandel towards stability

Pipeline of ideas not commensurate with investment potential

Turbulent environment

- Slow down in growth of the world economy

- Government regulations

- Inflation and volatility in commodity prices

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The debate!

Innovation journey is risky in turbulent times; we have a good thing going –lets not make big changes

Leaner, meaner, or more tightly run companies may temporarily keep the ship afloat, but just as you cannot shrink a company in order to grow it

Let us continue to focus on areas where we are successful

The keys to past success may also be the seeds of future failure

Look at our past failures; lets think continuous improvement

Real success in the future will lie with those who can innovate and tap into the power of creativity.

Is Innovation about throwing money and praying?

What kind of innovation journey should we pursue?

Can a good innovation program reduce the risk and increase the chances of success?

Through the Innovation Program can we double revenues every 3 years

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Innovation @

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Innovation Readiness Assessment

Innovation Roadmap workshop

Launch

Organize

Adopt Venturing Process

Innovation Structure

Train

Frame

Identified employees as i-Leads / innovation styles

Facilitate Ideas of individuals/team by i-Leads

Review Ideas by i-Sponsor

IC chairman for i-PitchApprove

i-Pitch day – teams present 90 days Plan to IC Conduct

Decide IC makes decision & informs teams

Execute 90 days plan by i-teams and present findings

Embed Additional 90 days to approved i-teams

i-Council

i-Sponsors

i-Leads

i-Teams

Deep Dive

in to idea

Business

Plan (BP)

Execution

of

Strategic

Plans

Context

for

Innovation

Innovation @ Coromandel

Launch

New

Business

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Role of HR - what has HR done?

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Role of HR - what has HR done?

Set Context

• Pushed the need for an innovation program

• Identified the

potential partners for

innovation program

• Change mindsets

• Carried out extensive

communication and

training across org.

Build an innovation culture

• Attracting, identifying and retaining people with innovation orientation

• Redefining leadership

framework to include

innovation

• Reward & Recognize

innovators

• Capabilities building

• Openness to new

ideas

• Reduce fear of failure

• Complying to

challenging

Align Innovation to Business Goals

• Facilitated

collaboration

• Deployed right

process & structure

• Part of 3+1+3

Business Plan

• Innovation part of

Balanced Scorecard

and incentives

• Innovation part of

competency

framework

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Where are we?The Gate 4 ideas have an NPV of nearly a billion dollars

EVP includes innovation. Improved employer branding.

More enthusiasm among people of innovation teams

More focused understanding of business by HR executives – net exporter of talent

Encourage “Fruitful Failures” . Failure is no more a bad word

“ATM -Any Time Meeting”: Leaders are open minded to new ideas & encourage

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The Road Ahead

Handling new ventures

- Staffing

- Structure

- Reviews

Build

- Capabilities

- Unique Identity

- Policy Deployment Linkage

Transition

- Box 3 business to Box 2

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Key 1

Challenge

orthodoxies

and be open

to innovation

Set

aggressive

Vision to

drive

people

towards

innovation

2 43Empower

& support

people to

innovate

Get speed

and

momentum

in to

innovation

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Set

achievable

targets &

review

closely

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Make

innovation

a strategic

focus

takeaways

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For any clarification please contact: arunlgeorge@coromandel.murugappa.com