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HR helps unshackle people's latent energies: Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd, delivered the valedictory address at the National Conference on Human Resources on October 5 in Mumbai.

He spoke on 'Building value through talent management.' Excerpts:

Dear Friends,

Thank you. I am delighted to be here this afternoon. I regard this opportunity of interacting with the cream of the Indian HR community a great honour.

And I do not say this by way of a ritual. I compliment the National HRD network for choosing a topic, which is of paramount importance for India and the Indian industry.

Your stimulating theme 'HR@Heart of Business' -- triggers a chain of thoughts in my mind. I am happy to share these with you.

As I began to reflect on the timely theme of your conference, the picture of Shri Rajiv Gandhi, India's youngest prime minister began to float in my mind. He had the foresight to create an independent ministry of human resources development.

It is unfortunate that this visionary initiative got trapped in the inertia of outmoded thinking. HR is not a sum of several parts. It is new way of looking at people, business and society.

HRD is not an evolutionary concept. It is a conceptual revolution. A fundamental transformation of the way people learn, do business, relate to each other and seek fulfillment in life and work.

An ideal HR manager is a leader who creates new leaders from the flock of ordinary men and women. A sculptor with the skill and genius to carve a stunning and smiling statue from a piece of stone.

I learnt the enormous value of human resources from an extraordinary person. I believe he was the most outstanding embodiment of the spirit of HR. He was my father Shri Dhirubhai Ambani.

He founded Reliance with virtually no financial capital. But he had an incredible understanding of the significance of human capital. He had amazing insight to spot talent. He had innate capacity to retain it by trusting people.

He knew how to motivate them to climb unscaled heights. He could infuse in them enormous courage and self-confidence. He measured a person's satisfaction and motivation by putting a simple question, Majaa aawe chhe? (Are you enjoying your work?)

He made the most difficult task an exciting blend of adventure and fun. I am sharing with you today what I have learnt from his life and achievements and what I have practiced under his critical and creative observation.

I do not propose to use any jargon. I will attempt to share with you ideas that are simple and therefore beautiful. I believe, profound ideas can be communicated in simple language when the thought is integral to one's conviction. Given the present environment, I am tempted to use the metaphor of war to introduce my theme. I think you will find it apt.

These are times when war clouds loom. On some fronts, enemies are visible. For example, in the case of Iraq, Palestine and the Line of Control in J&K. On some other fronts, the enemy is invisible. For example, the global war on terrorism, against its elusive foot soldiers.

But there are also other wars in which the enemy is invisible. Under-development and scorching drought of talent are two of these most decisive wars of our times.

The world seems to be missing out on these two wars that involve the whole of humanity. The war for progress and the war for talent - one will be fought by the have-nots. The other by the haves. The two are intertwined.

Unfortunately, the world seems to be missing out on these two wars.

The war for development

Economic disparity: The heart of the war for development is the alarming disparity within and amongst the nations. Today, the richer 20 percent of the world's population have access to about 80 percent of global income.

Five billion people are out of the race, of which one billion are in India. This stark disparity is unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of people. In fact, it should not be ignored by any well thinking global citizen.

Globalisation promises to reduce these disparities through export-led growth, expanded international trade in goods and services, access to new ideas, industrial designs and technology.

However, in practice, globalisation does not seem to be doing so. On the contrary, the services of large segments of the working population have become more easily substitutable across national boundaries. The rift is widening between those who have the skills and those who do not have it.

Those with mobility to flourish in global markets thrive and those who do not have such advantages are left out.

Economic volatility: Does it mean there is something wrong with globalisation. I would say; no. In any case, globalization is irreversible. The reason is simple. You can build barriers to obstruct transportation of goods. In the information age, you cannot build barriers to obstruct the flow of ideas. As ideas flow across the world, so will talent and knowledge.

It is true that globalisation ensures that small changes in far away markets increasingly impact local economies and organisations. In that sense, it is a riskier world than ever before. But we cannot wish it away. We have to learn to deal with it. How do we do it?

We should begin by recognising the intensity of apprehensions and anxieties about the consequences of globalisation. And we need to address them frontally, with conviction and sincerity.

Talking of a riskier world, let me share with you a joke about an economist who could no longer take the stress of constantly predicting economic growth rates in a volatile environment. He went to a psychiatrist. On the couch he claimed he was a walking economy. "How so?," asked the psychiatrist. "My hairline is in recession, my stomach is a victim of inflation and both these together are putting me into deep depression!" he said.

Globalization is the inevitable outcome of the knowledge revolution. It has enormous potential to transform the quality of lives of people across continents and cultures. HR is the critical strategic tool to make this possible.

The war for talent

The war for talent is a daunting one. An explosion in technology and knowledge is creating a huge demand for talent. The play of demography is imposing constraints on the availability of talent.

Technology: The twenty-first-century belongs to technology. It has already become the most important driver of economic growth and development.

Two great technologies -- biotechnology and infocom -- will spectacularly change life, living and living systems.

Information and communication technologies are already making a tremendous impact by changing our concept of time, space and size and enhancing human ability. Biotechnology will substantially alter the quality of life, the form of life and the duration of life.

In the 'Old World,' engineering and mechanisation had the ability to add value by 30 per cent to 40 per cent. In the 'New World,' underlying information and communication technologies have the ability to add value many fold.

New vistas of knowledge are being created at an exponential pace. The sum of knowledge added in the last fifty years is greater than all the published works in previous human history.

Knowledge: Consequently, we have entered a new age - the knowledge age. The relationship between people and business in the industrial and knowledge age is fundamentally different.

These are reflected in recruitment policies and strategies for retaining talent. Factors that would attract talented persons today and what would motivate them to give their best have changed beyond recognition.

In the past, public standing of a company was the magnet, promotions and increment the source of motivation and the fear of financial uncertainty the glue that bound an efficient hand to the job. In the knowledge age, excitement of the challenge in a job attracts the talented. It is a powerful magnet.

Creative and democratic environment the source of motivation and the opportunity of continuous growth the glue that binds the talent to a company. As for reward, it is the talent that dictates the terms.

I am not one of those who denounce trade unions because they are critical of globalisation. I believe that in the industrial age, trade unions had a useful function.

They protected worker's interest from the capriciousness and inefficiency of the owners. However, as time passed trade unionism lost its positive role. It began to protect the obsolete, the lethargic and the inefficient. In the knowledge age, trade unionism has become irrelevant because talent is in the driving seat. One who possesses it, dictates. Not he, who pays for it. Much of the opposition to globalisation by workers arises from insufficient understanding of the empowering potential of the knowledge age.

In the industrial age, a new entrant in the workforce considered himself fortunate to get a job in a company with a name. At the end of the day, he would thank his stars if he had a long and stable career. In the knowledge age this is not so. The new generation of entrant has a much higher self esteem. He is looking for a break to face an exciting challenge.

'Luck' is seen by him or her as an opportunity to negotiate the impossible. He is looking for a 'break'. He is excited by such opportunities. He is not looking for stability. He is restless to reap his rewards now and is not ready to wait for the distant future to earn them. All this has unleashed a furious war for talent world-wide.

This war has become daunting, driven by demography, in addition to technology.

Demography: Demography impacts the availability of talent because recent advances in health care have significantly contributed to human longevity. Today, one fifth of the American population are above the age of 60. In 25 years time this number will increase to a quarter of the population.

Germany is worse off. Roughly, a quarter of Germans are now old and in 25 years a third of them will be old. The case with Japan is very similar to that of Germany. China is better off with a tenth of its population now and a fifth of its population in 25 years being old.

Talent shortage:

All these countries will see a decline in their work force and talent. The US is already facing a shortage of skilled professionals. This will further accentuate. Over the next 10 to 15 years, professional workforce shortage in the USA will peak to 15 million.

Europe will see a shortfall of a million professionals in information technology alone. Germany is already facing a shortfall of about 200,000 engineers. China is estimated to need upwards of 1.4 million management graduates.

Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand are forecasting large shortages of professional talent. This shortage will last at least till the middle of this century. By that time, technology would have advanced to make it possible to rely less and less on people.

Warning bells of talent famine are ringing loud and clear. Far sightedness demands that business leaders elevate management of talent to a burning corporate priority. It is not a walk in the park for the talent market.

Quality people are no longer available in plenty, easily replaceable and relatively inexpensive. The gene pool for leadership people is not vast. We have to grapple with the paradoxical scarcity among the apparent plenty of qualified job seekers. Herein lies the key to creating value through talent management. In other words, HR must be at the heart of business.

Given this global scenario, we in India must consider ourselves very lucky. Demography is kind to our country. India has a young population. Just 7 per cent of Indians are above the age of 60. In 25 years, only 12 per cent will be above sixty. India will continue to be young and will see a swelling work force.

India has a large pool of scientific, technical and professional talent. The educational and professional infrastructure built in the past has served her well so far. The Indian professional has proven creativity, adaptability and a spirit of initiative.

But, let me caution. There is no room for complacence.

HR no longer relates merely to packages and perks, incentives and facilities. It involves unshackling the latent energies of people. It involves generating the impulse for setting new benchmarks and then exceeding them.

The most challenging HR task is to bring about a change in attitude; to transform it from negative to positive, from suspicious to trusting, from domineering to motivating, from hierarchical to networking.

HR in the knowledge age must inculcate in people an attitude of seamless thinking and dynamic teamwork.

Imperatives for business

The wars for progress and talent and the imperatives of globalisation present new imperatives for businesses in their strategic and people perspectives.

Strategy: For HR to align itself to this new role, it is crucial for business leaders to comprehend the nature of these changes. They encourage HR to re-invent itself only when it is realised that old-world strategic planning can no longer work in the knowledge age.

The challenges of the new age demand a conceptual revolution. A revolution is not a tea party, where every saucer and plate, every glass and bottle is handled with finesse. A revolution creates a new order on the ruins of the old. It destroys the obsolete and the dying to give birth to the vibrant and the living.

Acquisition, reorganisation, downsizing and job cuts are the hallmark of the upheavals of the knowledge age. These are the inevitable birth pangs of a vibrant tomorrow. The old is yielding place to new. It is no cause to mourn. It is something to celebrate.

We need to discard ruthlessly outmoded assumptions and recognize the new realities. For example, the conventional premise that capital is rare and expensive and the people are abundant and cheap is no longer valid.

Today, capital is mobile and cheap; because it is global. People, specially competent people, are becoming rare because of the same reason. globalisation has opened new vistas for them. There was a time when people were regarded as an item that increased costs.

Today, every additional person, with effective skills and competencies, means additional profit. Earlier companies employed 'hands.' Obviously hands have limited productive potential. Today a company recruits people, it employs additional minds, and a creative mind has unlimited profit potential.

Thus there is a qualitative difference in the field of HR between the industrial age and knowledge age. In industrial age HR was one of the numerous functions amongst manifold operations.

In knowledge age, HR is at the heart of business. Every successful business leader in the knowledge age is a successful human resources manager.

Technology companies have led the way in bringing about this change. Others think they can escape it. They are living in the past. They are not aware that the spirit of the knowledge age has already crept into their own back yard. It is rapidly becoming all pervasive. Those who refuse to see this in time are in for a big shock and severe punishment.

In the knowledge age, business organisations would need to take into account different emerging scenarios. They must keep their options open. Strategy must be seen as a heuristic one, not a deliberate process. Evolving scenarios may often be at variance from the initial intention. This requires an intensity of talent.

For example, in the telecommunication sector new technologies are coming into play rapidly. Industry standards continue to evolve. Customer needs for voice, data, video and value added services are varying.

Product design and service offerings are under constant flux. Prices are on the decline. Strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions are continuously changing the competitive landscape. Above all, legislative policies are unstable. You cannot envy the strategic planners job in this industry.

Non-economic factors: In the knowledge age, a company's market value is becoming less dependent on tangible assets and more dependent on intangible assets such as brands, technology and, most importantly, people.

The way a company manages its work force, how effective it is in recruiting and retaining the best of people matters to the bottom line and its market value.

Investors are willing to pay a premium for well-managed companies. Studies have shown that companies with strong environment management practices were rewarded with valuations up to 5 per cent more than comparable organisations that did not focus on their environment impact.

Companies that do not act in a socially responsible manner would find it difficult to attract or keep high potential individuals.

Likewise, companies that are able to attract and retain top-flight talent would be rewarded with higher valuation.

Talent management: Thus, the quest for top-flight talent is the job of everyone from the leadership to the line employee. In today's context, competition is based on intellectual capital.

Unless talent is managed well, a merry go round will result. You pay more to pinch my manager and I hire from some one else. This goes on till wage levels rise across the board, benefiting just a fraction of the total work force. We are already seeing this in information technology, communications and FMCG sectors.

Talking of recruiting talent, there is a joke about a HR professional who was hit by a truck and died on the spot. God wasn't sure what to do. So he wanted him to experience Hell first before making a choice. In Hell, the HR professional found a beautiful golf course and a country club.

He was then taken to see heaven. Here he found people lounging in the clouds, playing the sitar and singing. Soon, God came to him and asked him to make a choice. "Well, I'd never thought I'd say this. Heaven has been great, but I think I had a better time in Hell," the HR professional said.

So he was ushered into hell and found himself in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. He was furious. "Yesterday, I was here and the place was great, but look at the miserable situation today." The Devil looked at him and grinned: "That's because yesterday we were recruiting you, but today you are an employee."

The bottom line is that companies must walk the talk when dealing with talent. In the new age, companies can retain talent if they are convinced that promises at the time of recruitment are not merely a ruse. But, that they reflect the culture and commitment of the company.

Seeking talent is only a part of the challenge. The harder part is nurturing and retaining them. There are several imperatives to deal with this situation effectively.

The first is to accept the fact that highly talented persons make their own rules. They will hold the winning hand.

Second, progressive companies should endeavour to create talent than to substitute. Recruit people young and nurture them. This is the only way to avoid being caught in a merry go round of job jumpers.

Third, don't hire and hope. Match the right people for the right job.

Fourth, walk the talk in developing competencies. Good talent cannot be motivated by fake platitudes, half-truths and broken promises. Unfulfilled expectations are a nightmare.

Fifth, replace fear with security. Talent will not stay if they cannot deliver fearlessly.

Sixth, place the best managers in HR. Good talent needs smart talent managers.

Seventh, focus on loyalty to the goals rather than to the individual or the organisation. Knowledge workers have little concern for loyalty.

Eighth, create a new ecosystem for people management based on great goals, challenging tasks, meaningful impacts and a conducive learning environment.

Finally, create a fine work-life balance, by helping employees actualise their personal goals.

HR @ the core of strategy

Winning the war in this environment demands that the HR function must be at the core of a company's strategy, since talent will be at the heart of a company's competitive advantage and value creation in the New World.

The history of HR reflects more accurately than anything else, the changing basis for value creation. In the seventies, HR, in the incarnation of a personnel department, was mostly concerned with dealing with labour.

A decade later, HR was concerned with development and retention. In today's context of knowledge-driven businesses, a fundamental transformation has occurred in the HR function.

In fact, HR is no longer a function. It is a strategic partner in adding value; in several ways. HR can fairly forecast fluctuating resource requirements. Translate a company's plans for growth, mergers, divestiture, new initiatives and project immediate and longer-term talent needs. Develop a proactive talent management strategy matrix - designed to attract top-flight talent, nurturing and retaining them.

HR can evaluate the return on human capital, focus on getting more from existing resources through productivity gains and evaluate which functions and resources can be strengthened, shared or outsourced.

HR can make a business case of employee turnover by quantifying relevant costs and benefits. Show how much additional sales units would be required to recoup the cost of losing one talented employee.

HR can foster an environment of learning and innovation. Provide 'internal escape hatches' through opportunities for employees to reinvent themselves, their roles and careers.

HR can use information technology for better productivity. Provide faster, less-expensive and better quality services, reduce HR head count, present a technology sophistication image and integrate new businesses better.

HR can minimise impact of employee turnover through building reserve forces and adopting innovative approaches of 'leave without leaving' through flexi time, flexible careers, telecommuting, retainership and consultancies.

Finally, HR can build employer brand and reputation by embodying the identity of the company as an employer of choice. Communicate overarching goals, connect people and share expertise.

In essence, the HR function now must have the ability to make a company spin in a new direction quicker.

India in context

If this is the picture, where does it leave India? India has the unique opportunity to shed her outmoded mindset and build professional resources on an unparalleled scale. In the process, India can fight the war for progress and benefit from the war for talent.

Mindset: Unfortunately, outmoded mindset continues to rule in the Indian business world. By and large, we persist with the old model where work is broken down into its simplest forms and linked through complex systems and processes. The knowledge component is removed and is the preserve of the top management.

Staff members are provided with just enough knowledge to do their job. Structure, systems, styles and staffing patterns and policies are prisoners of this mental model. Businesses are organised in a hierarchical fashion with large inefficiencies in the value chain. There is an obsession with age and seniority-based hierarchies.

We have to break free from this model. We have to democratise the function of knowledge creation and sharing. Hierarchical and functional organisations must yield to networked organisations that weave competencies. Mechanical integration through industrial age tools must give way to information and communication based online integration of processes and transactions. Systems must shift from being task centric to team centric.

New competencies must be built every three to five years. Not once in a few decades. Power must shift from the owners of capital to the owners of specialist knowledge.

It is disconcerting that professional talent in India is limited to an elite group of 5.5 million people. They constitute about one percent of the 400 million work force. This small fraction garners most of the benefits of economic progress. The rest of the participants in the economy remain on the margins. This picture must change.

In the era of globalisation, businesses with global aspirations require global managers. They must have the innate ability to deal with flexibility, diversity and complexity.

The demand for well-honed global managers offers a tremendous opportunity for Indian talent. To their numerous intellectual and cultural strengths, we have to merely add two components ?

The spirit of team work and the ability to adjust to rapid changes. If this is accomplished Indians can redefine the term globalisation. It would cease to mean Americanization. For this, the Indian talent has to seize the opportunity of the knowledge age and ride on the top of it.

A successful global manager is one who surrounds himself with excellence and is not afraid of it. Mediocrity is the enemy of excellence. It becomes anxious, insecure and apprehensive in its presence.

In the context of globalisation, our professional managers must not be content with being the best in India. Indian companies must be prepared to run the race with the rest of the world, they must pursue world-class standards and institutionalise global benchmarking systems.

Each one of us, as individuals, must be committed to being the best in a global context. Existing businesses must be re-engineered to be competitive. New businesses must be encouraged to be on the edge of continuous value generation.

Professional resource base: India has one of the largest work forces in the world. We have one of the largest scientific talents in the world. India's professional resource base in the fields of information technology, biology and chemistry are internationally known.

Our management talent, whether in the form of products from world-class management institutions in India or global managers of Indian origin, is deep. If we target the rapidly growing talent market, we can change India's economic and social landscape dramatically. As a country, we have a unique opportunity.

Let me illustrate. We have 5.5 million professionals. These include doctors, lawyers, architects, nurses, chartered accountants and others with a wide range of diverse skills. It is not difficult at all to train just one million of them with domain knowledge. They can be easily deployed to work for 2,000 hours per year earning $20 an hour, which is about half the average US salary. They will thereby generate a sustainable income of $40 billion per year.

In turn, income generation on this scale will have a far-reaching multiplier effect. It will generate demand for better houses, improved roads, latest cars, high quality and wholesome entertainment. It will increase manifold the current levels of expenditure on travel and leisure.

All this can catalyse an output of at least $120 billion and provide employment for several million in other sectors. We can then comfortably look at a 30 per cent growth in economic output each year purely on the strength of our professional talent. This single strategic move of harnessing India's professional resources will unleash a self-sustaining economic revolution.

The HR community has the challenge of realising this once-in-a-life time opportunity for talent driven economic revolution. A challenge of raising India's professional resource base twenty fold - from five million to a hundred million professionals out of our 400 million workforce.

A concurrent challenge for the HR community is to inclusively harness the potential talent in women. In the industrial age, professional talent was perceived mainly as a male preserve. In the knowledge age, the scene is changing but not fast enough.

The prejudice against the women for senior positions persists. I hope the changing role of HR in business development will help 'eliminate' this prejudice. Women are 50 per cent of our population. The phenomenon of famine of talent in the midst of underutilised potential of women reminds me of starvation reports when godowns are overflowing with 60 million tonnes of food-grains.

Reliance in context

At this stage in my talk, I can hear the unspoken question stirring in your mind. What have you done in Reliance?' Therefore, it is my duty to share with you our experience.

For this I must turn once again, to our founder chairman, Shri Dhirubhai Ambani. He believed that a company is what its people make it.

His HR philosophy can be put in three words: Trust your people. These are simple words pregnant with profound significance. He translated this philosophy into action and built Reliance from scratch to a Fortune Global 500 company.

He had an unflinching faith in the destiny of India as an economic super power. For him, it was a conviction. An integral part of his being. He motivated the entire Reliance family to work towards that goal. The term 'Reliance family' does not mean his kith and kin.

All our managers, workers, investors and other stakeholders are part of the Reliance family. He had faith that the Reliance family would take his mission forward. Thousands of us are inheritors of this legacy and are committed to enrich it.

Dhirubhai believed that our professionals are next to none in the world. All that was needed is to give them a proper environment and unfettered opportunity. He exhorted hundreds of managers to place trust in people. He encouraged thousands of employees to make the impossible possible.

He energised millions of middle class Indians to democratise the creation of wealth. He enthused over a billion Indians to aspire and achieve.

Shri Dhirubhai Ambani always insisted that we must aim to be better than the best. That the progressive Indian enterprise must be at the cutting edge of technology, must aspire to be a global player and must be committed to serve the consumer better than anyone else.

On these simple principles he bought together the Indian consumer, investor and professionals together.

Reliance imbibed this 'beat the world' spirit and built an array of businesses that are driven by the larger opportunities in the market place - from materials, energy, infrastructure, financial services, engineering, construction, information technology, communication, retailing to life sciences.

Competencies for these businesses were built with unbridled passion. Starting from scratch, 45,000 people with diverse skill sets and competencies were nurtured.

About half of these 45,000 people are professionals. About two-thirds are less than 40 years of age. There are 7,000 ex-armed force personnel. This not only makes Reliance the largest employer of ex-armed force personnel in the country, but also infuses diligence and discipline into work ethics.

I am proud to say that there is formidable breadth, depth, young blood and discipline in this human resource edifice of Reliance. No other organisation in the world has seen an infusion of talent to such an extent in just two decades.

Collectively, these 45,000 people represent three unique competencies.

The first competency is in building world class assets at very aggressive costs and operating them at high productivity. To illustrate, the world's largest green field refinery complex at Jamnagar, with an investment of $5 billion, was built in a record 36 months at a capital cost that is 30 per cent to 50 per cent lower than similar refineries in other parts of the world.

It was commissioned in 90 days as against the international norm of 6 to 18 months. It has consistently operated above its name plate capacity.

The second competency is in coming up with innovative solutions in virtually every aspect of a business -- technology, finance, accounts, legal and marketing and so on. Reliance managers are experts in coming up with solutions.

The third competency is in providing services. Reliance has traditionally engaged customers in the industrial domain with a very strong value proposition.

Today, Reliance is leveraging these three competencies to create explosive value in new initiatives -- infocom, petroleum retailing and life sciences.

Complex project management capabilities are coming into play in building a world class information and communication backbone for India. Chemical engineering abilities are being banked upon to scale up research protocols to commercial manufacture in the life sciences domain.

Service provision capabilities are being honed to delight customers in the infocom and petroleum retailing businesses. These businesses will touch millions of customers. It is unlike anything that India has seen before.

As Reliance builds these imposing businesses, it has the imperative of scaling up on people at a rate of 3,000 additions every quarter. This ramp up of talent is unparalleled in Indian corporate history. It is also a pointer to what India has to do to bring about an economic revolution by bridging the global talent gap.

Ownership and empowerment are important. Reliance endeavours to put every employee in a owner-manager mould. To illustrate, the Jamnagar project was implemented by institutionalising a concept of system wise ownership.

The project was broken into eight major sections, 42 different units and thousands of systems. Each system head was empowered with ownership - for project execution, assets and people. In the process, HR became integral to business.

Thus, Reliance's talent management philosophy ignites the cylinders of its people by setting a challenging horizon, providing several sectoral landscapes, bringing technology into play and striking an emotive chord. The powerhouse of Reliance's people's creative energy resides in the spirit: 'Let's beat the world.'

The testimony of Reliance's philosophy is in a very low rate of attrition. In the 200-odd strong top management leadership team, who are crucial to Reliance's strategy formulation and implementation, the attrition is virtually zero.

This also speaks eloquently for the quality of leadership of HR at Reliance. One person symbolises the Reliance philosophy and has lived it: V V Bhat. He has seen Reliance search for the right mix of policies and perspectives and applied them on the ground. He is also a living example of my father's eye for people with competence and loyalty.

Conclusion

India was decades behind in the industrial age because we did not invest in technology. India is five years behind in the information age because we did not invest in products. India now has the opportunity to run the race in the knowledge age, if we invest in talent.

The HR function has a crucial role to play in this larger end game of talent management. As I see it, this will be the primary role for HR. For the HR pie in the traditional sense is shrinking.

Administrative and training tasks of HR is being taken over by technology in the form of employee self service portals and E-learning systems. The industrial relations component of HR is being overwhelmed by the new ethos of knowledge companies and direct information technology enabled employee communication.

However, HR professionals have the opportunity to take center stage and contribute to business strategy. They have the ability to make the company stay competitive by managing talent and, in turn, building value. HR has a new role in being thought leaders and talent managers.

The Indian mind is subtle, sophisticated and sensitive. This mind discovered zero and set in motion a creative thinking process, which has now culminated in the binary language of the computers. Indian mind's achievements in astronomy, medicine, architecture, metrology and other branches of science show its depth and width.

We need to unshackle this mind and let it realise its full potential. This will place India on the threshold of a quantum leap. Reliance has become what it is today by empowering, trusting and motivating its people. India will make the leap to the great power status by following these principles.

You have a big challenge and tremendous opportunity within your reach. That is why I am really very happy to be amongst you: people who have the potential of enabling India realise her destiny in the 21st century.

At the end of the day, the onus is on the HR function and the HR professional -- whether to be at the fringes of the information age or at its center. Whether to be at the border of business or to be at the heart of business.

India looks up to her HR managers to take the country to the summit of the global economy. Each one of you can help build professional resources on an unprecedented scale. Help fight the war for progress. And benefit from the war for talent.

I am sure we will succeed and will do India proud.

Thank you.

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