Dun & Bradstreet India hosts the first People Leader’s Summit

Dun & Bradstreet India hosts the first People Leader’s Summit

Mumbai, May 31, 2013: In today’s rapidly changing business environment, organisations are realizing that their greatest asset is their employees, and that effective people management is a key factor in their overall success. Keeping this in mind, Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the world’s leading provider of business information, knowledge and insight organized a seminar ‘People Leader’s Summit’ in Mumbai today.

The summit was based on ‘Evolving Dimensions of Managing Human Capital’ with a focus on integrating diversity and inclusion into the business culture, managing paradigm shifts in HR transformation, optimization & functional strategy and the importance of Social Media, Mobile & Big Data in bringing about a revolutionary change in the way we think about managing human capital.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Kaushal Sampat, President & CEO – India, Dun & Bradstreet said, “Traditional HR practices are going through a paradigm shift with strong focus on diversity at leadership level, human capital optimization and workforce engagement through social media.  Organisations globally are working along with the Government to strengthen policies towards gender equality, managing talent and innovative technologies to connect with the workforce. “

Talking about human capital management, Dr. L.R.K. Krishnan Senior VP & Head – HR, Reliance Communications said, "Effective Management of investment in your People - improves organization performance."

Indian workplace, historically, has been a fortress of male dominance. However, in the recent past there have been a number of changes and trend developments that have had significant impact on business and other organizations who seek to thrive in the modern economic environment. The People Leader Summit delved into deep discussions on the current outlook in India and suggested strategies to encourage diversity & inclusion and engage everyone to gain greater appeal, sustainability and global impact.

Expressing his perspective on corporate diversity & inclusive initiatives, Mr. Ashish Chauhan, MD & CEO, BSE Ltd. said, “Diversity is an essential part of the organization culture and ethics. Diversity has to be looked at from several perspectives. The larger areas are easier to identify. However, the organization’s own situation needs to be factored in for creating a diversity strategy and execution plan.”

Further elaborating on importance of gender diversity, Ms. Anjali Bansal, Managing Director – India, Spencer Stuart pointed out, “Inclusion of diverse perspectives leads to richer debate and better decisions.  The focus on gender diversity in leadership and boardrooms in India is a welcome development”

The summit also threw light on various talent management challenges at the organizational structure and key aspects of workforce cost optimization while managing quality and cost paradox.

Discussing this further, Dr. Wing Lam, Vice Chancellor of GlobalNxt University, a pioneer global online University, “Workforce optimisation is not simply about the utilisation of human resources, it is concerned with the strategic deployment of human capital in areas that create value for the organization.”

The business environment, currently, is going through an innovative phase where the use of social platforms, the booming mobile usage and a plethora of available data are briskly changing how organizations are strategizing to compete in a dynamic marketplace. Taking into consideration, the revolution of the aforementioned three trends, the summit addressed  the opportunities these three forces offer and how talent is managed in a mobile, social & data focused universe and the ensuing impact on the HR organization of the future.

Speaking on the innovative social media strategies to connect with the workforce, Mr. Vinay Deshpande, CPO – Financial Services Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra said, “Leaders are able to quickly communicate & respond to their stakeholders which includes employees also. The emotional connect arising out of this interaction on social networks is as intense as a personal interaction, most of the times.”

Mr. Raman Madhok, Group Director – HR, JSW Steel further added, “Connected workforce will work and live in a real time environment and expect more of gutsy rather than data based decision making.”

“Social Networking and technology innovation are modern day realities as the result of an evolution of the worker and work itself; not mere trends that can be wished away. These are going to shape the work place context and the organizations would be better off looking to adapt and leverage the context rather than be held prisoner to the same”, pointed out Dr. D Prasanth Nair,Global Head – HR, Cipla Ltd.

Also present at the Mr. Vivek Paranjpe, Group CHRO, Reliance Industries Ltd; Mr. Nishant Rao, Country Manager, LinkedIn and Mr. Prabir Jha, Senior VP & CHRO, Tata Motors along with prominent leaders from the HR industry.

About Dun & Bradstreet (D&B):

Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB), the world's leading source of global business information, knowledge and insight, has been enabling companies to Decide with Confidence® for over 171 years.  D&B's global commercial database contains more than 220 million business records. The database is enhanced by D&B's proprietary DUNSRight® Quality Process, which transforms the enormous amount of data collected daily into decision-ready insight. Through the D&B Worldwide Network -an unrivaled alliance of D&B and leading business information providers around the world customers gain access to the world's largest and highest quality global commercial business information database.

Customers use D&B Risk Management Solutions to mitigate risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability, D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions to analyse markets, locate prospects and increase revenue from new and existing customers; D&B Learning Solutions to facilitate professional growth and excellence among their executives and D&B Economic Analysis Group to derive pragmatic and solution-oriented analyses of strategic economic and business developments, thereby aiding informed decision making.

D&B featured on FORTUNE Magazine's Most Admired Companies Industry List for four consecutive years (2006 -2009), ranking first in the Financial Data Services category. D&B ranked first in the areas of employee talent, financial soundness, long-term investment, quality of management and use of corporate assets. In 2011, D&B featured on the World’s Most Ethical Companies list in the Business Services category by Ethisphere.  The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action.