Learnings from 2006

2006 has been a watershed year. I completed 7 years of HR and L&D work and 10 years of life in the corporate world.

It was the year when I started my first stint with a global professional services firm, and within 7 months decided that if I don't follow my dreams, maybe I will never do it ever.

Being on one's own is tough for a couple of reasons, one, you have to do everything yourself, right from business development to implementation to follow-up. Secondly, the learning systems that exist within an organization in the form of KM systems, libraries and training are missing. My self-learning is yet to start off and in 2007 we both will try and get some formal learnings to keep ourselves more and more current.

However, the best part of being on your own is not worrying about asking permissions. So whether is it about teaching a HR elective at a B School or writing a paper for a magazine, only one person's decision matters, mine. That's a big high. Interacting with students whether it be in the class or judging HR contests at business schools is a major energizing factors. It also brought me face to face with a lot of their queries about HR and about careers that they have, which I also tried to answer, and invited others too to answer.

There is a lot of business out there, but somehow saying yes to all the business is not what is important to us. That's because we want to work in specialised areas, and not grow too fast doing all kind of work. So a lot of effort has gone into saying 'no' to prospective clients. It made us realise that our identity is defined by what we are not, in addition to it being shaped by what we are.

The experiences in interacting with businesses convinced us that HR may be strategic in a few enlightened organizations, but for a lot of firms it still is a 'cost-centre' and overhead. So in addition to my formal role as a consultant, I also try to play the informal role of a HR evangelist for my clients :-)

The really exciting part for me, however, is to define the intersection of blogging for business and the workshop that I did for Pepsico Snacks ( Frito Lay) only confirmed the view.

So here's wishing you all a prosperous and successful 2007!

Wish you all a very happy new year !