INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT INDORE

Human Resource Management

Case Analysis

ZENSAR : THE FUTURE OF VISION COMMUNITIES

Submitted by
Section C - Group 03

Ankita Chandak 2013PGP111

Archita Majumdar 2013PGP205

Hariharan A 2013PGP151

Jitin Gupta 2013PGP169

Lokesh Raisinghani 2013PGP202

Sumit Mohite 2013PGP225

Trishal Karan Bhagat 2013PGP426

Introduction
About Zensar

 Zensar Technologies Ltd. Is a mid-sized $200 million Indian IT firm.

 Since the lows of 2001, CEO Ganesh Natarajan has led the company on its path of growth in
the 8 years from 2001 to 2009.
 The industry is dominated by six big players Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Cognizant, HCL and Tech
Mahindra.
 Seeing the increasing competition and the slowing growth rate of the industry, Zensar’s
primary objective was to be the preferred second tier vendor for the clients.
 The firm’s executive differentiates Zensar as one with more nimbleness and having a higher
level of executive involvement.
 The firm is organized into three large business units- Global transformation services (GTS),
BPO and Enterprise Application Services (EAS).
 The company had an annual Vision Community (VC) exercise which was an exclusive forum
for innovation and strategy formulation.

Culture and Ganesh Natarajan’s Leadership at Zensar

 Zensar describes its culture as large enough deliver but Small enough to care.
 Their CEO Ganesh Natarajan has fostered “family culture” at Zensar and the company prides
itself on process and people innovation.
 Employees consider Ganesh as a leader with a high emotional quotient who knows each
individual. He had the ability to connect with people at all levels.
 Despite the emotional connection with employees he was performance oriented.
 He was at ease with both micromanaging and complete empowerment.
 Ganesh used to collect feedback on his ideas and sometimes he used to create conflict and
openly acknowledge opposing views so that they don’t keep their views to themselves.

Zensar’s Goals and Objectives

The Company had the following Goals and Objectives:

 They wanted to be among top 15 IT and BPO services firms based in India.
 Become a $500 million organization.
 Become the preferred second tier vendor for the clients.

To achieve this goal Zensar needed to:

 make cross-border acquisitions,

 double the number of employees and
 become a more culturally diverse organization

1
Engagement with employees

Everybody Meetings (EBM)

Objective: To share business updates, industry scenario and allay any fears amongst employees
Description: This meeting, considered the largest amongst all, was conducted on a quarterly basis to
share key information to all employees.
Benefit: Employees being updated on the key internal affairs of the company and external scenario
is important to ensure that they feel associated and linked to the happenings and growth of the
company.

Pizza and Coke

Objective: To hear from the employees themselves the issues that they face and the improvements
they would want to see
Description: These meetings were conducted by the senior management team in an informal
environment with 12 to 14 randomly selected employees. These meetings were held 2 to 3 times a
month. Questions and responses obtained in the meeting were recorded and uploaded on the
intranet.
Benefit: The direct interaction of the employees with senior managers would remove the fear of
any repercussions, allowing them to freely interact and voice their opinion. By, uploading the
questions and responses and allowing a forum for discussion amongst other employees, the senior
management would be able to get a greater insight into the issues and suggestions to resolve them.

Skip Level Meetings

Objective: To enable an associate meet his or her manager’s manager without an intermediary
Benefit: The direct interaction with the seniors in the same division or line without the interaction of
the manager will allow employees to discuss their careers

Durbar-e-Khas

Objective: To give individuals an opportunity to consult with senior management member regarding
personal issues, grievances and seek guidance.
Description: This was one on one interaction in which each employee was assigned half an hour slot
well in advance to consult with senior management member. Twelve hours per month were set
aside for these meetings.
Benefit: It helps to build trust in employees mind about top management. If there are some serious
issues which are not been taken care of can be consulted.

2
Problem statement
Along with achieving its growth target, the company wanted to know how the Visual Community
(VC) would serve the purpose of a larger Zensar and how it would connect employees spread across
the Globe. The management also wanted to decide the new structure for VC.

Vision Communities

Vision Community was an inclusive forum for innovation and strategy formulation, based on a
unifying theme. It was incorporated in Zensar in 2001 by Ganesh Natarajan, its tagline being: “If you
have an idea, we have a platform.”

Objectives of Vision communities

 To provide all associates a voice in building the organization

 To foster an entrepreneurial culture amongst the employees
 To allow employees experiment with new ideas, which could possibly lead to new services
and products
 To help align ideas generated with the company’s vision and strategy and spot future talent

Timeline

Platform for Validation of Strategy

Strategy
generating Strategic Implementati
formulation
ideas Plans on

1. Phase 1: Platform for generating ideas

In the early days, VC provided a platform for generating ideas, which would help the
company survive. The participants mainly involved middle and senior management.
Implementation was not yet a part of the process.
2. Phase 2: Validation of Strategic Plans
The VC broadened its scope to include participation from younger and less experienced
employees. It shifted to become a vehicle for validating strategic plans developed by the
Management Council.
3. Phase 3: Strategy formulation
The VC came up with new product and service ideas that after validation were integrated
into the company’s strategic plan.

3
 4. Phase 4: Strategy Implementation
Presently, the VC’s have evolved into a focused and disciplined team, which would
implement the strategic ideas they develop.

Vision Community Process

Launch Idea Generation Idea Shortlisting Implementation

The Vision Community process started with the launch meet and continued till the idea generated
would be implemented. The process can be outlined as follows:

1. Launch
The launch of the process begins with an official communication about the theme for the
year and inviting all employees to attend the launch meeting in Pune.
 The meeting started with the CEO addressing the gathering about the theme of the year
and the industry backdrop.
 Ideas generated by all were categorized
 Based on nominations provided by every member, 7 or 8 teams of 25-30 are formed.
 Mentors, usually senior managers were assigned to each team

2. Idea Generation
The second phase of the process, the Idea generation phase involved generating and
developing ideas.
 Teams selected their own leaders and held several rounds of meetings to generate and
develop ideas
 The reasons for dropping an idea by the team was also supposed to be stated
 They had to narrow the list to eight ideas based on few criteria
 During this month long process, a number of workshops and seminars were conducted.

3. Idea Short-listing
Each team presented their top 8 ideas to the management council in a 30 minutes
presentation, where the council selected the top 3 ideas.

4. Implementation
A detailed project report, which would include budget, assessment of support required from
the organization was done. To ensure implementation does happen, functional leaders are
appointed to each group right from the beginning.

4
Future of Vision Communities
Need for change

As Zensar continued to grow, the challenge it was facing was to adapt the VC process to serve the
needs of a larger, more dispersed organization. As the company continues to expand geographically
and add new products and services by expanding business verticals, it would face increasing
challenges in implementing the model in the present format. Would the model work if the
organization grows to 10000 employees in three years?

Critique of options given

Option 1: To continue with the current VC process

Advantages:

 The process has been effective and delivered results since the last 9 years
 Managers and employees alike are likely to be comfortable with the present process

Disadvantages:

 With a growing global workforce, it was difficult for people far from Pune to attend the
meeting
 It could capture and develop only a small number of ideas
 Having only 1 meet in a year, the process was calendar bound, allowing employees a single
window to express their ideas and be part of the process.

Option 2: Online VC

Advantages:

 Broadened access to employees all across the globe

 This would encourage the involvement of senior managers in the process
 Removes the obstacles of having multiple VC meets across the year

Disadvantage

 However this would reduce the level of engagement and enthusiasm among employees
 Since the very essence of a VC is employees sitting and debating together in a room, by
having an online VC, these factors were getting compromised

5
Recommendations:

Clearly there are advantages and disadvantages amongst both the options mentioned above. We do
not recommend the moving of the VC to an online form, as it surely dilutes the very purpose of the
community. The engagement amongst employees desired would drastically reduce. As mentioned
VC meets allowed employees to interact with multiple senior executives, which an online platform
would not be able to implement. Keeping in mind the importance of family culture promoted in the
company, the present basic form of the VC should be maintained. However, we recommend the
following changes in the structure and processes followed by the present VC:

 Biannual VC meets at Pune – A biannual meet would provide not only the employees but
also the company with 2 windows to interact with each other. Employees get an opportunity
to present ideas 2 times a year.
 VC meets at Global locations – Zensar can look at having VC meets in locations abroad to
tap ideas amongst their foreign employees. As mentioned, the US alone contributes to 50%
of the revenue, followed by Europe, which contributes 25%. The company can have one VC
meet in US and one in Europe
 Create area specific VC - this would generate ideas relevant to specific geographies and will
be easy to handle. The Management Council can convene meetings of the really good ideas
with the rest on the heads on a bi-annual basis.

If the online initiative gets a nod, it can be tweaked a little by creating an online competition like the
"Mahindra - Spark the rise". It will have preconceived categories and participants have to give their
idea specific to the category. These entries are checked and filtered and only the really good ones
are accepted and those people are further called for future VCs. As only selected ideas are discussed,
it will be easier to handle and participation from across the globe can be taken.