The paradox of HR in a people dependant business

I just finished reading Anant Rangaswami's free ebook "Elephants in the Room" on the future of the Indian advertising industry. You can download the book for free here.

Once upon a time, I wanted to be a copywriter in the advertising industry. Then I sat for XAT and got into XLRI and discovered HR. But the fascination with the (what I thought) glamourous world of advertising never went away. When I was at 2020 Social my colleague went to the "Cannes of the Indian ad family" Goafest, and I so wanted to go for it too.

So when Anant's book was free for download, I was amongst the first people to download it. He talks about the big challenges facing the advertising industry (the "elephants in the room") and how the industry can meet it.

There were two big "elephants" that stood out for me when I had put on my HR hat. One was, clients were dependent on "people brands" like Piyush Pandey, R. Balki, Prasoon Joshi in the ad industry. Anant says that the clients want great creative people to work on them, so creating a second line of "people brands" is critical once the older folks retire. And yet, no one seems to be doing anything about it.

The other interesting part of the book, is where Anant draws out the HR challenges of the advertising firms, starting with the fact that many of them to do not have full fledged HR managers or follow HR systems and processes.

That triggered this thought in my mind, "why does an industry which is so dependent on people, not invest in HR"

Thinking about it, I have come to the same sorry conclusion as in the past - great HR happens when work is commoditised. When work/people are a differentiator to bring in revenues as in a case of an ad agency or a professional services firm, HR is seen as expendable, without people realising then that it's the most critical.

Even tellingly, better HR professionals don't think of joining as HR managers/heads in industries like media and advertising adding to the vicious cycle of mediocre HR practices and people decisions being taking whimsically by business heads.

Dell launches India Blog

It's exciting to note that Dell has launched its India Blog this week. It's a mix of content focusing on varied consumer groups. Looking forward to more initiatives by the Dell India team in embracing social business like it has done worldwide. In fact, there's the Take Your Own Path India community where people can share their entrepreneurial stories and it also has a business forum.

When it comes to embracing social technologies for business - Dell is an organization that is always a case study for the various communities it has created. Starting with almost a negative brand - Dell has leveraged conversations, community and collective intelligence using its properties like Idea Storm (a platform where anyone can submit ideas - and they are voted on by the community - and then chosen ideas are implemented)

Dell also has a vibrant support community - where users solve other users queries about Dell products. Then there's a vertical community for Small and Medium Business Owners, where SMB owners get advice from other entrepreneurs on running their business.

Then of course, there are the "social outposts" on Twitter like the DellOutlet which has helped Dell USA earn millions of dollars in revenue, and the SMB page on Facebook.

Check out Dell's slideshows that explain how Dell engages with the tools and listens and reaches out social media, blogging and responding.

Disclaimer: I am a Dell Alumni - having worked there as a HR generalist in 2005. In addition, my current employer 2020 Social works with Dell on their social media initiatives, like Dell Go Green - although I am not part of the team working with Dell. 

McKinsey and Nielsen form JV for Social Business Consulting

The industry of Social Business Consulting just became a little more interesting. McKinsey - the big daddy of the traditional Strategy consulting firms and Nielsen - the maker of the Nielsen Buzzmetrics, social media analytics and listening tool (which helps in listening and responding as explained in this blog post), announced a Joint Venture to help clients leverage the social media data being gathered.

Here's Clickz's news report:

Nielsen has formed a new social media consulting company through a partnership with McKinsey & Company. The firm, called NM Incite, includes executives from both Nielsen and McKinsey, and is intended to help brands act on social media research and analysis provided through Nielsen-owned BuzzMetrics offerings.

Over the years, Nielsen has served some of the same clients as McKinsey, a global strategic consulting firm with consultants based in more than 50 countries. The new venture brings the companies together formally in order to serve senior level executives. While Nielsen monitors social media to isolate brand strengths and weaknesses and consumer insights, the combined NM Incite will help clients apply that intelligence on a more strategic business level.

"Our clients have been asking many questions with regard to social media...as to how to use it to their advantage," said NM Incite's president of media products and advertiser solutions, Steve Hasker, who spent 12 years with McKinsey before moving to Nielsen and helping to get the joint venture off the ground.

Hasker said Nielsen's traditional clients in CPG, retail, and media have shown an interest in the new company's services, in addition to pharma and financial services. "The large clients will be a focus here," he added.

"There's a big area around product development," he said. NM Incite will focus on "how brands can leverage social media to harness consumer insights to develop better products and optimize the launch of those products," he said.

I personally think McKinsey's entrance into this space brings a larger sense of credibility to the social business consulting world - and along with folks like Dachis Group, Altimeter Group in the US, and 2020 Social in India, will be growing and maturing the market. I expect to see other large consulting firms like Booz & Co., BCG, Accenture and Bain to also actively look to enter the space via the JV, acquisition or "building a practice" route.

Check out NM Incite's blog posts here.


Yes, exciting times ahead.

Which are the Indian IT Brands most mentioned in Social Media?

I blogged about this report earlier, and so the time has come to share the full report with you.

To analyse the conversations and mentions of an Employment Brand on the social web we looked at them in these ways:

• What are the work and HR related conversations that people are having? These would be linked to an employee’s personal work or a prospective employee’s perception of work in the organization.
• What are people mentioning about the Organizational Culture?
• What are people mentioning about the Leadership/Leader of a firm
• What are the news items around deals, results that are being mentioned and referenced on the social web?

Some highlights:

Analysis of Conversations related to Human Resource issues

• TCS HR issues were mentioned the most followed by Infosys
• Negative mentions in this category were most for Infosys

Organizational Culture issues are a key component of discussions

• Culture gets defined externally by various organizational activities from CSR to Sports
• Such activities are mentioned in an overwhelming positive tone on the social web

TCS and Wipro led the conversations when it came to news - The nature of news determines the tone with news about salary increases being cheered by the online crowd.

Social Businesses: 2020 Social's report on IT Brands Mentions on Social Media sites in March

View more presentations from Gautam Ghosh.

Insights

1. There is a lot of discussion about IT firms related to work and HR related subjects .
2. There is little or no engagement that the organizations are taking to connect with influencers and to drive the conversations
3. Whatever the representation these firms have on the social web , is primarily driven by corporate communications
4. We believe that HR and Recruitment groups who own the perception of the Employment Brand must engage with the conversations
5. These conversations should be linked to an online platform where people can connect with subject matter experts and recruiters and to get to know first hand information about the firm.

Arun of Trak.in shared a very good round-up of the report on his blog. Go ahead and read his full analysis there.