Prof. Edwin Jacob

Lawyer at Monard-D'Hulst Brussels
Associate Researcher at ICRI - Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and IT - KU Leuven

Prof. Nahum Goldmann

President, ARRAY Development, is a leading expert and a renowned lecturer on building and securing ebanking and ecommerce, procurement, financial and governance solutions, as well as regulatory and government policy issues.

Managing Change in Global Marketplace

Power Panel Members:

· Dr. Barry Stein, President, Good Measure Inc.

· Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman Nasscom and Global CEO, Zensar

· Mr. Steve Corea, HR Head, Vodafone India

· Mr. Vivek Paranjpe, Consultant and Advisory Board Member - NHRD.

We the students of ZCBI consider ourselves extremely fortunate to get an opportunity to attend the Power Panel Discussion and spend a quality time with eminent, inspiring and dynamic personalities of the Corporate world like Mr. Debi Prasad Das (Head – HR) Atos Origin, Dr. K. Anne Dolly (AVP – Learning and Development), Aditya Birla Group and many more. It was a unique and enriching experience and we took back a lot in term of learning. The experience has helped us in understanding that nothing is permanent and change is inevitable.

The discussion was structured as follows,

• Lecture on Change Management by Dr. Barry Stein,

• Power Panel Discussion on Managing Change in Glocal Marketplace,
• Questions and Answers Session,
• Demonstration of Change Management Toolkit by Dr. Barry Stein.

Lecture on Change Management by Dr. Barry Stein:

Dr. Barry Stein initiated the discussion, lectured on change management and set the ball rolling for the rest of panel discussion. The session put forward one of the important ideas that people do not resist change which is contrary to the general perception that people in organization do resist change. Change is inevitable and people resist change only when not communicated properly or if change alters their span of authority. People require and seek change and the successful change comes from organizational momentum, innovation and flexibility.

Dr. Stein also spoke about “Progress Fallacy” which states that whenever the Goals are set vis-à-vis the timelines to achieve them it we may tend to look at halfway mark and it may happen that the goal achievement may lag behind the timelines. In such scenario, it would not be a good move to disband any of the goals as it is possible that we accelerate in other half and may achieve all of the Goals within the desired timelines.

Power Panel Discussion on Managing Change in Glocal Marketplace with Question and Answers Session:

After the opening session, Dr. Ganesh Natarajan started the panel discussion by giving insight on what Glocal stands for. The G stands for managing the global challenges and local stands for managing the local challenges. It is very true in today’s context as many organizations are trying to manage both local and global challenges facing them.

Most of the questions from the dignitaries present revolved round the premise that people do not resist change and how to initiate a successful change and convince people about necessity to change. Also the question was asked about how to identify the need for change and how to quantify the change. Some of the responses given by the panelist are described as follows.

Mr. Steve Corea shared his experience of changes initiated by Vodafone which has grown more on the back of Mergers & Acquisitions and Outsourcing. According to him, change is inevitable and the response to change may be good or bad. Change brings with it an uncertain environment and the leaders should support their people to manage such uncertainty. Team work is like football where the individual can not reach the goal without the support of other team members and same theory applies to managing change.

The other esteemed panelist, Mr. Vivek Paranjpe contended that change should be introduced with dignity. People resist change if it is not conveyed properly. Front end leadership is most essential to bring change. Leaders have to be relaxed (not indulge in argument) and be committed to change process.

Dr. Stein response was change should be properly communicated and should be introduced with complete clarity and transparency. Leaders should engage people in the change process and no one should feel being left out of the process. He also added that it much easier to identify the need for change but very difficult to quantify the change.

Demonstration of Change Management Toolkit by Dr. Barry Stein:

The discussion was then followed by a demo by Dr. Stein on how to use the web portal www.changetoolkit.com

Dinner:

During the dinner session we got the opportunity to observe how dignitaries of corporate world interact and how they communicate and carry themselves. One of the great learning was network and community building. Also, we got to observe the etiquettes that which they follow. We are thankful to all the dignitaries present as we got to learn a lot by observing and interacting with them.

Overall it was an exemplary and enriching learning experience. We look forward to attend such sessions again in the near future.

By:-

Ajaykumar Shaha