The Ekalavya Column - January 2012

 Transforma is not a consultancy. It is not a training agency. And certainly not a HR firm

We define our involvement not in terms of the input side, but the outcomes achieved. And we work long years with our clients to achieve, not trivial improvements in performance, but of a magnitude that defies conventional logic

None of these dramatic improvements has been achieved by a focus on the commonly followed path : processes. Our obsession has always been people. The right people. People not with the right qualifications, but with the right qualities : the only thing we look for in our assessments

The conviction to do so is underlain by the story of our inspiration, - Ekalavya, one who overcame the status he was born into and rejection by the teacher he so craved. Through sheer tenacity, long years of application and a steely determination, not the resources poured into him, he got to being acknowledged the most skilful archer in the Mahabharata. It’s these qualities that made the non-availability of resources irrelevant as an impediment to his extra-ordinariness

We find a real-life echo of this in a study of 7000 SMEs undertaken by Keith McFarland recently. 9 of these broke through from an SME to being a large company. A primary driver of their breaking through was ‘people’. So what is noteworthy about ‘people’? Two eye-openers :

Live Webcast - Workshop On Strategic HR at the Auto Summit

9 Jan 2012.

You are not in Delhi today ?  Missing - "Ordinary Men. Extraordinary Deeds – Meet Our Ekalavyas at the Workshop On Strategic HR at the Auto Summit in Delhi. ".

Do not worry - we have arranged for a live webcast of the event, so that you do not miss out on this interesting event. The telecast starts from 1615 and ends at 1730 ( IST).

Click on this link for live webcast: www.livestream.com/gotransforma

Enjoy the Workshop!

Team Transforma

Ordinary Men. Extraordinary Deeds – Meet Our Ekalavyas at the Workshop On Strategic HR at the Auto Summit - II

Transforma is not a consultancy. It is not a training agency. And certainly not a HR firm

We define our involvement not in terms of the input side, but the outcomes achieved. And we work long years with our clients to achieve, not trivial improvements in performance, but of a magnitude that defies conventional logic. Let’s try some of the numbers below –

·         A 1200% increase in productivity in an exchange business : from 12 vehicles done by a team of 5, to 100 vehicles done by a team of 3

·         A 140% increase in the number of rotations : from 5 times in a year to 12 times in a year, underlain by a reduction in credit period from 75 to 30 days

·         A 1000% increase in productivity in new vehicle sales : from 1.25 per person to 12.5

·         A 84 % reduction in repeat repairs : from 10.28% to 1.71%

None of the above has been achieved by a focus on processes. Our obsession has always been people. The right people. People not with the right qualifications, but with the right qualities : the only thing we look for in our assessments of employees at dealerships

Not a single member of the team that achieved any of the above has any academic qualification that would make you take a second look at them. But while assessing them 2 years ago we saw them as Ekalavyas. Ordinary men. Capable of extraordinary deeds

At the Auto Summit ’12, held at  Le Meridien Hotel, New Delhi, at 1600 hrs on Mon, Jan 9, we proudly present members of this team, out of a dealership in Vijayawada. So that you can listen to them. Speak to them. Ask them questions

Do join us

Team Transforma

Ordinary Men. Extraordinary Deeds – An Invitation to the Workshop on Strategic HR at the Auto Summit

Transforma was founded on the belief: ‘Talent is universal, opportunity is not’. Out of this belief, we defined our mission: ‘To make opportunity a little more universal’

While in effect the belief might not sound as being exceptional, what is starkly different about us at Transforma is the way we define, assess and identify true talent: based on attitude, not aptitude. During assessments, we at Transforma ignore completely the functional competencies an individual possesses; - we look only for behavioural competencies. Not by administering tests at a distance, but by direct observation, in the person

Once we have zeroed in true talent we deploy a 2-year development initiative: The Ekalavya Program, named in honour of the one iconic figure who best exemplifies the belief we were founded on

Since our establishment, we have consistently endeavoured to bring to life this mission with the organizations we have worked with. In the process we have delivered spectacular results: outcomes that were not even expected by the clients, and in the targeted areas, a quantum of improvement that defies conventional logic

At the Auto Summit ’12 in Delhi, where Transforma has been invited to deliver a workshop on Strategic HR, we proudly present to you at 1600 hrs on Mon, January 9, ’12, a team from RAMCOR and Garapati, Vijayawada: dealerships we have been working with, to enable you meet with and hear directly from a team what are the magic moments they have been able to generate for their organization

For us at Transforma, it would be a delight to have you there to meet true Ekalavyas: Ordinary Men. Extraordinary Deeds

 

The Ekalavya Column - Dec '11

‘Finding good manpower is such a big problem’

Heard that one? Ask what is meant by ‘good manpower’, and the answer you’ll get is : ‘qualified people’. Not ‘quality people’ mind you, but ‘qualified people’

 

So why do we want ‘qualified people’? In the belief that those with academic credentials, industry experience and domain knowledge can guarantee results? And that’s why, while interviewing a prospective employee, we focus only on gauging what he already knows about the job we are planning to recruit him for

So let’s deal with this profile : has had a total of 3 months of official schooling ( his teacher called him ‘addled’), been with hearing problems from an early age, sold candy and newspaper on trains as a child, supplemented his income by selling vegetables, and finally, the seventh and last child of a father who was a runaway because of his participating in an unsuccessful rebellion