The Ekalavya Column - March 2012

Over the past now nearly a decade, we at Transforma have assessed thousands from across India. During these assessments, we have always focused on the values and beliefs of those who we have assessed, not their skills and knowledge

Based on the findings out of these assessments, we have made recommendations as to what the organization should do. In a number of cases, we have subsequently worked with these organizations to help them implement these action plans

During this nearly decade-long journey, we have sometimes stumbled upon benefits that have accrued to these organizations that were not part of our central focus when we started out with the first step : assessments based on qualities, not qualifications. One such area is the impact on employee attrition

In the past 18 months, the volume of evidence on this count : attrition rates, has made us sit up and take notice of it in manner that we had not till date. And the quantum of impact has made us recognize that the correlation between actions taken out of assessments conducted by Transforma and attrition rates at these organizations is far wider and deeper than we had envisaged

The Ekalavya Column - February 2012

 Why do we frequently fail in assessing others correctly? Why is it that those we thought to be great candidates while interviewing them turn out to be disappointments later?

Only this morning, we were in conversation with a 52-year old CEO of the Indian operations of a Fortune 500 company, whose CV reads like this : Bachelor’s from one of the most renowned colleges in India, MBA from one the best known institutions in the world, and 30 years of work experience, the first 20 years of which with an MNC that is probably the most respected in India

He brought up the matter of a recent recruit, a Mr. X, with national-level responsibilities, taken on board to provide strategic thrust in an area of critical importance to the organization. ‘The way it’s going, looks like things might not work out with him’ said the CEO

Our immediate response : ‘Things will never work out’. In fact, we’d said so months earlier when we’d met with Mr. X for the first time at one of our organizational transformation sessions

Let’s pause here