Human Resource Planning And Audit 1st Edition Arun Sekhri

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6. Human Resource
Planning and Audit
Arun Sekhri
Director, Search Right Consultants
Prof. Mahatma Gandhi Mission,
Institute of Management Studies and Research
Visiting Faculty
Institute of Technology and Management, Kharghar
Mumbai School of Business, Belapur
(Navi Mumbai)
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8. Contents
1. THE GREAT HUMAN RESOURCE TURNAROUND 1-39
2. BASICS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING 40-57
3. RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) IN HR PLANNING 58-75
4. CORPORATE MISSION AND VISION STATEMENTS 76-184
5. STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING 185 -215
6. STRATEGIC MANPOWER PLANNING 216-250
7. STRATEGIC PLANNING 251 -276
8. STRATEGIC PLANNING IN CORE AREAS OF HUMAN RESOURCE 277-427
9. STRATEGIC SUCCESSION PLANNING 428-456
10. HUMAN RESOURCE AUDIT 457-550
11. AUDIT OF HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCIES, STRATEGIES, SYSTEMS, 551 -586
STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONAL ROLES OF HUMAN RESOURCE
12. WRITING HUMAN RESOURCE AUDIT REPORT 587-627
APPENDIX 628-667
• CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
• A WORD ABOUT MANAGEMENT GURUS
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES 668-673
AUTHOR INDEX 674-677

10. Learning
Objectives
THE GREAT
HUMAN RESOURCE
TURNAROUND
After Studying this chapter, the students will learn the following
topics:
•
• Making Human Resource Business
• Global Human Resource: A
Resource People.
EperghlgTrends
Pg~adigm$hift
Paradigm Shift Two:
.• ~e~radigh,Shift Three: Erol1'1,?u~iness
Success,· .
• Paradigm Shift Four: From Talent
Management. ...... .
.paradigrTIShift Five; From Cost Centre
• Paradigm Shifts Six: Human
Development ResourCin£,1.

11. CHAPTER ONE
---------'.,,---------'"""'-------------
THE GREArr HUMAN RESOURCE TURNAROUND:
LEVEL ONE: HOLISTIC APPROACH TO HUMAN RESOURCE
HELP ASHOK LEYLAND AND OTHERS TO TURNAROUND
LEVEL TWO: HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCIES NEED TO BE
BUSINESSS DRIVEN
LEVEL THREE: MAKING HUMAN RESOURCE BUSINESS SAVVY
LEVEL FOUR: PARADIGM SHIFT: EMERGING TRENDS FOR HUMAN
RESOURCE.
3-5
6-8
9 -12
13 -39

12. LEVEL ONE
d
HOLISTIC APPROACH TO HUMAN RESOURCE HELP ASHOK
LEYLAND AND OTHERS TO TURNAROUND
THE NEWS WE CAN USE:
"A holistic approach to human resource management, processes and optimal utilisation of resource
have contributed to the turnaround at Ashok leyland's Hosur-I plant and ensured sustained increase
in profits during the current year," said J.N. Amrolia, Executive Director, Human Resource, Ashok
leyland Ltd. The plant, which had, till six years ago, been plagued by labour problems, is set to
sustain its profit, and witness increase
in turnover during the current year.
"The turnaround has been achieved through strategic initiatives involving changes at every level
of management, increased employee involvement and structured communication exercises, removal
of non-performers, building collaborative union initiatives, competency building and employee recognition
mechanisms. Production processes had been revamped, optimising supply chain and rationalizing
resource and cost reduction.
These
had contributed to significant enhancement in indicators of improvement such as production,
productivity, adherence to targets, positive
relationship with workmen and profitability and above all
a total involvement of Human Resource in setting up corporate goals and their achievement,"
he said. Amrolia was addressing a workshop on competitiveness through quality, productivity and
human resource organised by the Employers Federation of Southern India.
G.S. Ramesh, Vice President-HRD, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, said that among the challenges
faced by the company was the bonding needed to be achieved between people from diverse cultures.
This had been achieved through cross-cultural exercises to enhance awareness and creating a
common platform of "Hyundaian" culture. Mechanisms for continuous communication, consultation
and participative management had been put in place, he said.
Bhushen Raina, Managing Director, who made the turnaround pOSSible, changed the way
Tinplate Company of India Limited (TCll of Tata group) used to do business. In twelve years,
renewed vision of the company's aim
to become an industry
leader in value creation, servicing
packaging needs and creating a greener future. Sales/ production increased to 125%, exports touched
28%
and
employees' strength reduced to 1715 through initiatives in leadership development, innovative
manufacturing and export strategies and the participation of human resource function
in organizational development activities at grassroot levels.
Such news, involving human resource function and its participation and contribution to corporate
turnaround - a positive reversal in the performance of a company or the overall market are real but
rare.
Do we need a human resource-turnaround? The issue we face is pretty serious and real
but rare. Are we getting warning signals? Yes! So what are we up to? How are we planning
to face and resolve the issue?

13. Human Resource Planning and Audit
EARLY WARNING SIGNALS OF DECLINE:
"Most ailing organizations have developed a functional blindness of their own defects. They are
not suffering because thEW can not solve their problems but because they can't see their problems"
says John W Gardner (On Leadership 1990) Despite Gardner's statement, it is genuinely difficult
to discern and diagnose company's problems before they threaten the progress or even the very
existence of
an enterprise.
A
2003 Mercer survey of 200 CFOS' showed that 92% believed human capital management has
a great impact
on customer satisfaction, 82% believed that effective management of human capital
has a positive impact
on profitability and 72% believed that human capital practices impact innovation
and new product development.
We face, for a change, some serious questions:
1. This is good news for Human Resource professionals. The world is seemingly ready to accept
everything the profession has to offer. But
is everyone in the profession ready to deliver? No!
2.
Is human resource like an ailing organization, the existence of which is under threat from its own
profile and contents? Yes!
3. Has Human Resource been able to move out from of its 'Back Office' image? No!
4. Are these warning signals real? Yes!
5.
Is Human Resource at a crossroads, and shall either have to face up to the challenges
confronting organizations or becomes a marginal contributor to corporate success? Yes!
6. Do we really need a turnaround in human resource? Yes! Then; What are our compulsions for
a human resource turnaround?
COMPULSIONS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE TURNAROUND:
1. Operating Without Clear Strategic Plan:
WithOtlt -the strategic plan, the human resource is almost guaranteed to have an unfocused
resource and multi-directional activities. The result will be a number of failures, some that are going
to
be seen as dumb ideas. A survey conducted by Society for Human Resource Management and
Balance Scorecard
Collaborative, showed that only 34% Human Resource respondents indicated
that their executives viewed Human Resource as a strategic partner.
2. Poor Communication:
Often a plan is devised by the executive group and then it is not well communicated to the
organization. Hence, the execution is flawed leading to lack of success.
3.
Refusal to Shift Paradigm with Changing Market Conditions:
Once a programme is underway in development, it generates a momentum all of its own and
people/companies are hesitant to make changes, particularly if one has ownership
in it. What was a
good idea at the start becomes a dumb idea
in a changed economy.
4.
Absolute Lack of Business Knowledge:
Human Resource professionals neither understand and speak the language of business nor do
they contribute to the conversation around the strategy table.

14. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
•
5. Pride and Arrogance getting in the Way:
People are generally scared of Human Resource department because they take decisions
based
on ''who is
right" not ''what is right". Human Resource means 'power and authority' and people
see this as being misused.
6. Human Resource Delivery: Human Resource People don't run an extra mile
for their People:
Human resource professional must deliver human resource services seamlessly, if they don't,
how can they ever hope to make strategic contribution to the business of
an o"rganisation?
7. Care about People: It is not everyone's Cup of Tea:
Human Resource professionals who care about
people are able to make strategic decisions that
are based
on
full understanding of how it will impact people.
"Human Resource! What is so great about human resource? Anyone can manage Human
Resource, even a graduate
can
handle Human Resource department, don't worry about Human
Resource ... " A CEO of a pharma company was heard telling his visitors from another company; This
is unfortunate, real but not rare, that right from top to bottom, from CEO down to an officer, all of them
not only feel but believe that anyone in the hierarchy can manage Human Resource.
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
People are attracted, selected and stay with professions that fit their self-image. How do
we change the human resource image in people's mind? This is a huge undertaking for any
organisation
or profession. Let us get ahead with our 'case study' in the next
level to understand
the nuances
of change of image and emerging trends in human resource.

15. •
Human Resource Planning and Audit
. LEVEl. TWO
HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCIES NEED TO BE BUSINESS
DRIVEN
CASE STUDY: GEETA KAPUR & MANISH PURl:
Geeta Kapur, 38, Director -Human Resource, was looking at the absence and late coming
record of the managerial and the unionized staff of the corporate office and the factory of National
Petro Product Limited where she had joined 5 years ago. She was a post graduate in management
from Indian Institute of Management. She had an excellent track record of performance in human
resource and administration at various establishments like Pepsi, Britannia, Wipro and Larsen &
Toubro. She was known as a successful trouble shooter and managing disagreements in her field.
At National Petro Product, She had tried very hard to motivate the staff to be responsible and
get them all in line with some success to reduce the absenteeism, late coming, drunkenness and
mental lethargy. The average monthly rate of late coming and absenteeism stood at 14 and 19
percent respectively.
What caught her attention was the record of Manish Puri whose absence and late coming graph
was steadily increasing beyond the average rate of absenteeism
in the organization.
Manish
Puri is the officer in charge of documentation section of the Production Planning Department
with nearly twelve years of service both
in the corporate office and the factory. His
overall performance
was just satisfactory.
He was
relatively an introvert and showed little interest. His problem was that
he regularly planned and used his sick leave with a variety of short absences. Each of such
absence, one
by one, seemed legitimate. As the officer in charge of documentation, his nuisance value was very high as it meant that some one else had to search the concerned files and the
documents whenever he remained absent.
Geeta Kapur decided to talk to Manish and asked her secretary to send a message to Manish
to meet her
in her office.
A few minutes
later Manish walked-in to Geeta's cabin.
"Manish, can we talk about you today first thing this morning", Geeta asked him looking at him
curiously.
"Yes miss" he replied softly.
"How are you feeling lately?"
"Fine, absolutely fine"
"No problem at home".
"Everyone has got problems" Manish replied with his eyes now staring at Geeta Kapur.
'What kind of problems
do you
have"?
"I got no problems", Manish replied defiantly.
"I thought, may be you have some problems" Geeta replied.

16. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
"Why"?
"Because I notice that your sick leave has been increasing since last year and this year it is
very bad".
"I am entitled to take sick leave. I have twelve years of service to my credit".
"You are entitled to sick leave only if you are sick. But you seem to be sick so often"? Geeta
asked him, this time with little sternness in her voice.
"I can't help if I am sick".
"Well, your frequent absence causes us problems".
"I do my work alright, don't I"?
"When you are present, you do. But you have already missed thirty-two days this year".
"I have earned the leave and I am entitled to take it also" Manish replied, trying to make his point
clear to Geeta.
"You are entitled to use the sick leave only when you are sick".
"I am sick whenever I am absent".
"Are you sure that there is nothing at home which makes you sick so often" Geeta asked him.
"I don't know what you mean, Ms. Kapur, I get sick because I am not as healthy as others are"
Manish raised his voice.
"Your record, which is with me right now, shows that you are absent every fourth day without
any prior permission of your superiors" Geeta told him.
"Isn't that what sick leave is for and to let me stay at home when I am sick, without losing my
pay."
"But, you and couple of others in this company are the only privileged ones who fall sick so
often" Geeta retorted back to Manish.
"That is what I mean. Others get sick too. And when they get sick, they stay at home. I don't
stay at home unless I am sick. I have worked for this company for twelve years and my record is
good" Manish told Geeta tauntingly.
"Well, your record is not good at all and I would like to see it improves fast"
"I can't help when I am sick. My work record is good with this company. You cannot get rid of
me because I am sick little more than others who are lucky to be healthier" Manish told Geeta dryly.
"I did not say that we are going to dismiss you, I only want your record of absence to improve"
Geeta reassured him.
"Why are you putting this kind of pressure on me because I get sick more than others? I do my
best. I cannot help if I am sick"
"Man ish, I am not getting rid of you. The only thing which I want from you is that you must
improve your attendance"
"I will try Ms. Kapur, but this is not ..the way to call me alone here and then threaten me of dire
consequences with termination of my services" Manish told her rudely. .

17. -
Human Resource Planning and Audit
"Look, Manish you are putting the words in my mouth. I never told you that I will terminate your
services. For last 30 minutes, I have been driving it hard to put some sense in your mind that it is
high time that you improve your record of absenteeism fast before it is too late. The company shall
take action against you only when it
is convinced that you have failed to improve yourself beyond
doubt. Have you now understood what
I wanted to tell you" Geeta asked Manish with suspicion.
"I have understood all of your intentions. I always thought that you were a very considerate
manager unlike others. But now I know that you are as good or bad as others are. I shall fight out
your intentions to get
rid of me and
I shall ensure that you even do not call me again in your cabin
and give threats like this. Just wait and watch" Manish suddenly got
up and left her cabin without
waiting for Geeta to react.
Geeta looked at his record once again, shook her head and wondered as to why she could not
convince Manish.
She was feeling miserable that she failed. Was it because she lacked skills to
handle Manish or was it the absence of strategic planning or was it a sheer lack of her counselling
skills or she did not clearly see the objective of meeting Manish or she thought it would be a cake­
walk to crack a grade six officer or she just took a casual decision to speak to Manish at the spur
of the moment and did not work out her strategies before Manish came
in or she did not collect
strategic information about Manish or she did not give a pushing start to the conversation with Manish
to support her case or was it a too small a case to
be managed at her level or she did not realize
that the conversation with Manish was getting out of her control and was turning meaningless or she
was not business like and allowed Manish to duck every warning and caution she gave him or
Manish was just impossible and she gave
up to his non-cooperative and negative attitude or she did
not act street smart and was not diplomatic
in her conversation with him or perhaps she did not want
a solution to Manish's increasing absenteeism and
waitedior the termination of his services by
default or she simply thought that Manish would take her advice seriously and sincerely and improve
his record of absenteeism? The reason could be
anyone of these or all of these together. If nothing
else, Geeta could have been businesslike to convey to Manish to improve his score or perish.
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
The conversation of Geeta with Manish is a real life story of a high profile director of
human resource who left National Petro Products (names changed to protect the identify) a
few months ago. Manish continuous to enjoy his job with no change
in his record of absenteeism
and
late coming.
The story represents scores of Human Resource planners and professionals who are
satisfied with their level of mediocrity and their competencies, performance metrics and attitude,
are neither strategic nor are they business driven. This may be one of the several reasons why
we don't see many of them making to the top as chief executive officers and managing
directors of corporate houses.
Managing Manish alone was not enough. Geeta had to be business driven in her
competencies and skills of managing people.

18. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
LEVEL THREE
rl
MAKING HUMAN RESOURCE BUSINESS SAVVY
HUMAN RESOURCE NEEDS TO LOOK AT ITSELF MORE AS A BUSINESS:
The human resource function today needs to look at itself much more as a business, because
that is how executives are looking at it and expecting it to operate. Researchers at the University Of
Southern California Marshall School of Business propose a new business model for human resource
that will make it a strategic partner.
Edward
E. Lawler
III and Susan Albers Mohrman of the Center for Effective Organizations
propose re-conceptualization of human resource as providing three service lines:
1. The first is the basic human resource administrative services and tasks that are involved in
compensating individuals, hiring them, training them, and staffing positions in organization.
2.
ThE> ~econd is that of a business partner, that helps business units and general managers
realize their business plans. human resource needs to provide advice and services concerning
organizational development, change management,
and the articulation between human resource
management systems and business operations.
3. The third requires human resource to contribute to the organization's strategic direction.
In this
role professionals
in human resource must understand business strategy and human capital,
and their relationship
to organizational capabilities and core competencies to support long-term
success.
A key
question is whether individuals who are currently in the human resource function
are capable of
filling the business partner and strategic partner roles or not. Many human
resource professionals have never worked outside of human resource and as a result have a limited
understanding of what the business
is about and what is the business strategy and human resource
strategy options are.
1. Building Human Resource Business Savvy:
"The human resource function will have to move out of its comfort zone," Lawler states.
"human resource professionals must increase their exposure to business issues and employ
work structures that bring the human resource function together in partnership with the line
units and other functions."
The research suggests that the human resource function has to make the same design choices
as any business about how to organize and deploy resource
in order to deliver value to the customer. "The generalist is close to the customer, representing the human resource function in the business
unit, and is responsible for tailoring and coordinating services provided by other parts of the human
resource organization," said Susan Mohrman.
2. Human Resource at Crossroads:
The research suggests the
"Human Resource function is a long way from being a high
value-added strategic and business partner that delivers high-quality transactional services in
a cost-effective manner, and knowledgeable and skilled
business and strategic input. Further
it shows that human resource is
slow to change"

19. -
Human Resource Planning and Audit
Human Resource is at a crossroads, and will either have to face up to the challenges
confronting organizations or become a marginal contributor to corporate success.
3. Human Resource is Responsible for Transformation of some Indian Global
Companies:
Similar views are expressed by Nirmalya Kumar, co-director of Aditya Birla India Centre at
London Business School, who places more emphasis on human resource than marketing. It
does sound a tad surprising.
Asked about the role marketing played in the transformation of Indian companies into global
giants, Kumar says, "Marketing did perform its part, but what really played a key role in the
transformation of these companies was the way they managed their human resource and
global talent." Kumar's conclusion is drawn from research for his latest book, 'India's Global
Powerhouses: How They Are Taking on the World'
"While a Singapore or Dubai (based) company has the capability to manage expatriate
workforce, many Indian companies are still struggling with it.
The' complexity of people management increases when businesses compete at a global level
and successful companies need to effectively manage, engage and align their global workforce,
which becomes exacerbated by geographical distance, time difference and language challenges as
well as (the) demands of local culture, rules and laws, Companies such as Unilever and Nestle SA
have a history of managing a diverse workforce, but many Indian companies do not have the experience
since the big growth story has happened only
in the last
10 years. It's a big challenge and it's a
competence that companies will have to learn to become truly global." Kumar adds "Bharat
Forge, Infosys, Essel Propack, Marico, Wipro, Mahindra & Mahindra are a few companies,
among several others, where human resource has been instrumental in transforming these
companies into global power houses".
4. Human Resource People: Have They Lost the Art of Diagnosis? Answer is
"Yes":
Human Resource Professionals have lots of ideas trying to simplify the most complex set of
academic theories, approaches and tools (you will find many of them in preceding chapters too) on
almost every concept. But yet, only four out of ten human resource professionals follow and practice
Human resource planning and practice business driven human resource management
in their
organizations.
NR Narayana Murthy, the founder Chairman of
Infosys Technologies, in his book
"A Better India, A Better World" says "No matter how good an idea is, it has no value unless other
people understand it, embrace it as their own and help you to implement it..
... That is why we at Infosys believe in the adage 'In God we trust, everybody else brings data to the table' .... "
Nirmalya Kumar echoes similar belief "Each one of the profiled companies has had interesting
journeys
in the road to becoming
Indian multinationals. But if I have to pick one, it would be Essel
Propack Ltd, a company unknown to me till early 2006, when I was invited to run a workshop for
them. Essel people were full of ideas. They internalised every such idea which led them to consolidate
their relationship with Proctor & Gamble.
Essel Propack, led by Ashok Goel, is a world leader in laminated tubes with thirty-two per cent
market share and a supplier to consumer goods giants such as Procter and Gamble Co., Unilever
Pic. and L'Oreal SA. This revelation propelled me to find out if there were more companies like Essel
Propack.

20. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
The story of Essel's evolution from a one-unit company in Vasind (in Maharashtra) to a global
leader in laminated tubes is the story of evolving with a partner. Essel followed P&G wherever it went,
and like most relationships, (this relationship) evolved through a series of accidents, opportunities and
mutual gain." Kumar adds it with flavour.
5. Does Human Resource mean business: Answer is "No":
"Human resource means business" said Yogibudhahnanda, Head of the Human Resource
(name changed
to protect the identity) of a
well-known temple trust in south India. "We, in human
resource, deliver services to our people. We employ around 2000 people. They get their salaries,
allowances, uniforms, food and other routine benefits in time. Everything here moves as planned.
Almost 200 people are involved in cooking and serving food to the staff in various shifts. Policies and
practices are decided by the trust and any wrong procedure or unjustified policy
is immediately
rectified
by the head of the trust. Any demand or grievance received from the employees is settled
across the table between the staff and the members of the
trust" He looked at us and smiled.
"How do you manage to hire so many people" we asked him." Well, we hire good people who
can be moulded and trained as per our need and who can grow with us. We have four peak and two
lean cycles of hiring throughout the year. The hiring committee consists of six trustees and the human
resource head. Most of our staff is educated
up to 12th standard but we take graduates and post
graduates for managerial jobs. We hire from
India, USA, UK, Nepal, Sikkim, Singapore and Hongkong.
We deal with diverse workforce. We have job profile for every category of staff. For example, I am
a past student of 11M Banglore and working here for last five years. My role profile is well defined and
I know what is expected out of me. With us, there are no shortcuts in Human Resource. We deliver
in every situation" he smiled again when he finished.
This is real but rare.
6. Human Resource always Get, Keep and Grow Good People? Answer is
"No":
Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) told Colman Peterson, Executive Vice-President of Wal-Mart People
Division
'Why not hire friendly upbeat people?" The final consideration was the ''war for talent". We
adopted a
policy on hiring
"Get, Keep, Grow" Coleman told journalists in press meet "on days
when my human resource problems appear to
be overwhelming,
I dissect them into these three
"buckets" for identification and solution. Those human resource professionals who GET good
people, KEEP good people and GROW good people are the real business partners in an
organisation"
"In my forty-eight years in the auto industry, I probably made six hundred speeches about
management. Since my retirement, I have made many more. And I have always said the same thing:
Here
is what human resource management is about: Pick good people and set the right priorities"
says Lee lacocca,
former
CEO of Chrysler & President of Ford Motors, in his latest book 'Where
have all
the Leaders gone?'
"In contrast to sophisticated production and manufacturing processes, Bharat Forge's Baba
Kalyani's approach to human resource management (HRM) was decidedly low-tech. Kalyani referred
to HRM as "people systems". We have very simple employee integration process -we constantly
communicate, share information being very open.
We involve employees actively in the company's
activities and direction setting, and ensure that there
is a strong community involvement on behalf of
the company. The entire human resource team is geared
up to achieve this
objective" Kalyani told

21. -
Human Resource Planning and Audit
Nirmalya Kumar in "India's Global Powerhouses "Moreover, human resource has been our
aggressive business partner
in most of process integrations for our
global presence. One has to have
a global mindset"
7. Gobal Human Resource-A Competitive Advantage: Are We Ready to Take
Off? Answer is "No"
If one has to compete in global economy, one need to develop a global mindset and this is
expected from every manager
in every organization which is competing with the
world. It is imperative
that Indian companies and their promoters learn to speed up their processes to integrate and embrace
a multi-cultural work force. Human resource needs to acquire global competencies to face the challenges
for India's global multinationals. "The need to work constantly to open the organization's windows
to the winds of new ideas and a multiethnic workforce ... " Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman,
Hindalco Industries Limited continues "it is relatively simple to address cross-border issues
pertaining to technology, finance, markets and products but extremely difficult to cope with
challenges relating to human dimension. Being a true-blue multinational is only partly about
geographic spread. It is more about mind-set that wants to leverage resource seamlessly across
geographic boundaries. It is mind-set that is eager to build unique capabilities to transcend the
barriers of language and cultures to create value. It is about being global in attitudes without
letting
go off your roots"
What kind of mind-set is necessary depends up on the competitive position and readiness of a
company. But human resource
professionals cannot remain laidback for ever. Let's cross over to the
next level to find out how and why should they shift paradigm to their advantage.
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
1. What matters for human resource to foster is the alignment and consistency in
understanding the strategy of the company across the whole organization. To meet the
challenges of today, Human resource needs to develop a new mind-set of enquiry and
support centered
on the reconciliation of dilemmas, across the human resource spectrum,
and thereby,
finally fulfilling its true identity. But it cannot afford not to be the 'strategic
business partner'
in business if it has to shed its"back office" image.
2. A new paradigm for human resource is in the offing.
Shift the focus from 'ROI' (Return
on Intangibles) to "ROI" (Return on Tangibles = Investment). Invest in people. They are
the real assets of human resource. There cannot be any strategic human resource
planning without them and their involvement and evolvement. Human resource has to
move out of its comfort zone and contribute to the corporate business module aligning
itself to the business goals of the company.

22. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
lEVEL FOUR
PARADIGM SHIFT: EMERGING TRENDS FOR HUMAN
RESOURCE
DABUR INDIA: CASE STUDY IN PARADIGM SHIFT:
-
In 1998, the 114 years old Ayurvedic and pharmaceutical products major Dabur India found
itself at crossroads. In the fiscal 1998, seventy five per cent of Dabur's turnover had come from the
FMCG. Encouraged by this, Dabur family formulated a new vision in 1999 with the aim to make Dabur
India as the best FMCG Company by 2004. In the same year, Dabur planned to increase the group's
turnover
to Rs.
20 billion by the end of the financial year 2003-04.
To achieve this goal, Dabur benchmarked itself against other comparable companies such as
Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive and Proctor & Gamble. Dabur found itself lacking in many critical areas.
While its PIE ratio was less than 24, for most of other companies, it was more than 40. The net
working capital of Dabur was whopping Rs. 2.2 billion where it was less than half of it for others.
There were other indicators
of an
inherently insufficient organization including its operating profit
margins of 12%
as compared to
Colgate's 16%, P&G's at 18%. The return on net worth was around
24% for Dabur as against HUL's at 52% and Colgate's at 34%.
The Burmans realised that major changes were needed on all organizational fronts. However,
media reports questioned the company's capability to shake off its family oriented work culture.
DABUR HIRED McKINSEY:
Dabur hired Mckinsey in 1994 for organizational restructuring at a cost of Rs. 80 million.
Mckinsey's three-fold recommendations were:
• To concentrate only on few businesses.
• To improve supply chain and procurement processes.
• To reorganize appraisal and compensation systems.
Following these recommendations, many radical changes were made with Surmans' decision to
take a back seat and appoint professionals for running the day to day business.
In November 1998, Dabur appointed Ninu Khanna as the President from Proctor & Gamble.
ASS's Yogi Shriram joined as Vice-president -Human Resource, Deepak Sethi as Vice-President­
Marketing & Sales-Health Care Division and Ravi Shivraman as Vice-President-Finance.
HUMAN RESOURCE TAKES DRIVER'S SEAT TO RESTRUCTURE:
Human resource took the driver'S seat. Yogi Shriram with Ninu Khanna decided to do a complete
overhaul of human resource systems and shift the focus from production oriented human resource
to people centric human resource applications and practices. Khanna extended all the corporate
support to Shriram to do the paradigm shift
in human resource:
1. Compensation and its
valuations were changed and key performance areas (KPA) were
introduced.

23. -
Human Resource Plannmg and Audit
2. Performance appraisal and evaluation was based on achievement of targets and key performance
areas.
3. Concepts such as customer satisfaction, increased sales and reduced costs, return on
intangibles and return on investment and the shareholders value were introduced as yardstick
for appraisals.
4. Employees grievance redressal system was introduced followed by suggestion and welfare
oriented schemes.
5. Soft skills, sales and technical training programme were introduced on the basis of training
needs survey.
6. Company hired Noble & Hewitt consultants to formulate
ESOP scheme. The scheme was
introduced for the senior people from the next financial year.
Restructuring seemed to have been extremely beneficial for all the employees. Besides improved
morale and reduced employees turnover, the strategic planning, structural and operational changes
in human resource created an overall 'feel good' sentiments' in the company. For the first time in the
history of the company, it was a showcase of human resource.
Dabur's sales increased to
Rs. 10.37 billion in
1999-2000 from Rs. 9.14 billion in 1998-99 - an
increase of 13.5.%. Dabur's profits also increased by 53% from Rs. 501 million to Rs. 770 million.
PARADIGM SHIFT AND TRANSFORMATION -DRIVEN BY AGENTS OF CHANGE: THOMAS
KUHN-1962:
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn wrote "The Structure of Scientific Revolution" and fathered, defined and
popularized the concept of "paradigm shift". Kuhn argues that scientific advancement is not evolutionary,
but rather a "series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions", and in
those revolutions "one conceptual world view is replaced by another".
Think of a Paradigm Shift as a change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a
transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. It just does not happen, but rather it is driven by agents of
change.
For millions of years we have been evolving and will continue to do
so.
Change is difficult. Human beings resist change, however, the process has been set in motion
long ago and we will continue to co-create our own experience. Agents of change are driving a new
paradigm shift today. The signs are all around
us.
Dabur's transformation did not happen just by itself. The revolution was driven by agents of
change -Burmans, Ninu Khanna, Yogi Shriram and all those who perceived a big picture of Dabur's
growth over the years. At Dabur, human resource did not take the back seat. The metamorphosis
was lead by human resource. Paradigm shift at Dabur was inevitable.
Kuhn states that
"awareness is prerequisite to all acceptable changes of theory" It all begins in
the mind of the person. At Dabur, the credit for thinking of change goes to Burmans when they
thought of transformation
and decided to take back seat. The paradigm shift from a typical mechanistic
and manufacturing industrial house to
an organic, service based, knowledge centred group was
visible at Dabur.
Change will continue.
It's the only true constant. Let's move ahead and find out what are the
possible paradigm shifts to impact future of human resource function and professionals.

24. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
PARADIGM SHIFT FOR HUMAN RESOURCE:
1. FROM NON-INVOLVEMENT TO INVOLVEMENT
The increasingly global nature of competition requires that companies utilize all of their available
resource in order to survive and succeed. This has resulted in an emphasis on the alignment of all
functional activities of the company like finance, marketing, operations, etc. towards the achievement
of strategic business objectives. This will have impact
on strategic orientation, core competence, and
involvement of human resource executives
in strategic decision-making.
Higher involvement of human resource
in organizational strategy is
strongly related to perceptions
of human resource effectiveness, and its participation
in economic and business decision-making.
This is what
is expected from a
CEO to involve human resource in strategic business planning
and expect human resource to deliver. But this is not happening because 80% CEOs and human
resource people don't trust each other and critical issue of human resource involvement is neither
discussed nor it
is debated as a matter of
policy. At micro level, we have some examples to quote
and get comfort out of feel good factor.
Burmans of Dabur
had a choice to take the back seat, restructure the organization and not
only
involve human resource but gave it the driver's seat to shift the paradigm from zero to hundred
percent involvement to turn Dabur
to
people centric organisation.
2. FROM STRATEGIC PARTNER TO BUSINESS PARTNER
The support against human resource management to this paradigm shift is:
A. Human Resource is not a small Business Unit (SBU):
• Human resource does not understand the business model.
• Human resource does not speak business language.
• Human resource does not provide return on investment on its own.
• Human resource does not sell its business acumen to others.
• Human resource is a support system.
The support
in favour of human resource management for this paradigm shift is:
B. Human Resource has Strategic
Inputs:
• Strategic workforce planning.
• Employee engagement.
• Strategic compensation and benefit planning.
• Retention strategies.
• Succession planning.
C. Strategies for Human Resource to Earn a Place in the Board Room:
• Artificial insemination: Inject Non-human resource people into key positions of human
resource.
• Sharpen the Saw: Send human resource people into other departments for short term
aSSignments.

25. III'
Human Resource Plannmg and Audit
• Profit Centre: Make human resource earn its own money and be self sufficient and help
them understand return on investment.
3. FROM BUSINESS PARTNER TO DRIVING BUSINESS SUCCESS:
PERFUMES & PETALS INDIA LIMITED: SUCCESS OF HUMAN RESOURCE IN MERGER
AND ACQUISITION: A CASE STUDY:
Perfumes & Petals India Limited is the manufacturer and the distributor of India's leading
'Chrysanthemum' brand of ladies perfumes and toiletries. The company is listed on Bombay and
National Stock Exchanges. Within a period of five years, the company has made two acquisitions of
firms
in the business of manufacturing and distributing
ladies perfumes and toiletries.
1. First Acquisition: Some Pitfalls
The first acquisition was made using the traditional approach to due diligence, while the second
used the recommendations made by Human resource expert.
In the first acquisition, the human resource team was not intimately involved in the early stages
of the deal for two reasons:
1. Human resource lacked credibility as a contributing strategic member of the executive deal
team; and
2. "People" issues were not valued as highly as financial issues.
As a result, due diligence from human resource perspective was primarily devoted to discovering
the cost of retirement obligations, which could negate the deal or impact price. Human resource was
not given the mandate for integration until after the deal closed. And, because integration planning did
not begin until well after close, employees of the acquired company did not see themselves as part
of Perfumes and Petals India Limited. As a result they were not a part of the new vision for the
company; they remained uninvolved and separate
in their activities and attitudes.
The gathering of data during the integration stage
also surfaced cultural, contractual and labour
problems that, had they been identified early, may have affected the terms of the deal. Due to these
and other challenges, the actual integration process dragged on for a period of several years, preventing
the company from realizing the full value of the deal in a timely manner.
2. Second Acquisition: Involvement of Human Resource
Then the most important thing happened.
Before the second acquisition, the
Chairman & Managing Director, Dr. Simranjeet
Singh,
hired a new Vice-President. Human Resource, Ritu Sanyal, who had experience with acquisitions
and mergers
and who knew that Human Resource needed to
playa crucial role "early and often" in
the deal to make it successful.
She aggressively leveraged her experience to convince Dr. Singh that human resource should
be involved early and at a much deeper level. She told him, "I know from my experiences that human
resource sitting
on the side
lines and simply reacting to demands from operations and executive
leadership is a recipe for failure. Human resource needs to be an integral part of the deal team."
Dr. Singh thought about what Sanyal had said. He decided to go ahead with a very different
approach
on his next acquisition, which occurred
less than a year later.

26. The Great Human Resou'rce Turnaround
APPROACH OF RITU SANA VAL:
Sanyal's human resource was on the "deal team" from the beginning and participated not only
in the financial due diligence, but used the opportunity to build a human resource integration team and
gather data for purposes of integration planning. For example, based
on discussions with Dr. Singh,
her human resource team and some data mining, Sanyal identified the need to look at certain
employment practices and determined the need to conduct a compliance audit covering the target
acquired company's employment practices and benefits programmes.
Sanyal's approach uncovered some issues with the retirement plans and significant problems
regarding the classification of certain exempt employees - a problem Perfumes and Petals was able
to resolve, avoiding potentially huge liabilities and fines. Because such issues were detected early,
they also could be factored into the final purchase price.
Sanyal was happy that the new approach also allowed human resource
to accelerate the integration
planning. At the
end of Stage 3, when the deal closed, integration plans were ready to be executed
based
on the business rationale for the deal - in a manner consistent with the integration of other
systems and programmes.
The plan was
in place. Sanyal used this opportunity to communicate to both organizations'
workforces and laid out the plan
in a clear and concise manner, managing the expectations of all
employees. The target firm's employees felt, and subsequently acted, like part of Perfumes and
Petals much more quickly. The integration of the second firm was completed
well before the integration
of the first firm.
Perfumes and Petals has just completed a very successful acquisition of a third firm. Ritu
Sanyal was promoted as President-Human Resource and named as one of the most successful
human resource professionals by a leading magazine.
Ritu Sanyal added value to the business success of Perfumes and Petals through her four key
competencies
• Understanding the business model.
• Business Literacy.
• Knowledge and understanding of functional areas within Human Resource.
• Skills of a strategic business partner.
4. FROM TALENT MIS-MANAGEMENT TO TALENT MANAGEMENT:
A. Mis-Management: Several Reasons
Retaining talent is a serious concern for organizations. Each time a talented knowledge worker
walks out of the door, they take valuable expertise and organizationa~ knowledge with them. Why?
At the core of the problem is the fact that talent and their managers are often competitors who
are striving to climb the same ladder to higher levels of the organization.
As a result, their personal
career interests are
in direct conflict with each other.
A key source of this conflict is that people with talent come into organizations eager to learn,
grow and develop their careers
as quickly as possible. To do this they seek opportunities that provide
them with real experience that lead to learning and growth. This includes hands-on experience where
they can make mistakes and then figure out how to correct them.

27. -
Human Resource Planning and AudIt
For managers giving talented juniors stretch opportunities can be risky to their own careers
because managers are ultimately responsible for the work product of their employees. If an individual
fails to deliver or makes a mistake on an important project, it is the manager who must answer for
the ensuing problems. Bosses become insecure when they see that their talented juniors are
in
demand and get noticed by their super bosses.
And so the safest course for a manager
is to err on the side of caution and limit the amount of
responsibility that they give talent until they are absolutely sure that
an individual can handle the work.
The result is that talented juniors
can end up spending months as apprentices and trainees to people
who are
less capable than they but have more experience, or such a talent may be stuck doing
boring jobs that use only half of their brain.
SURAJ KAUL: CASE OF TALENT MIS-MANGEMENT:
Suraj Kaul who completed his MBA-Marketing from IIM-Kolkata, was hired by a prestigious
FMCG firm. He spent the first eight months on the job preparing Power Point Presentations. He
spoke to his boss, Shashi Pradhan, General Manager-Marketing. Shashi told him "Diamonds don't
get a shine unless they go through a tedious diamond shining process. Similarly, you have to rough
it out before you graduate to a more meaningful work". Suraj nodded in affirmation, did not react and
walked out of his cabin. Three months later, Suraj walked into Shashi's cabin and handed him over
his letter of resignation. Shashi asked Suraj his reason for leaving. "Sir, last time you told me that
I am a diamond. I took it seriously. I am joining D'damas." Fifteen days later Suraj left the firm to join
D'damas. Human resource was a spectator throughout
and did not even
hold the exit interview.
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
1. Today's human resource is focussed mainly on its professional practice, which, like
accounting and sales, is important but incomplete.
2. People, intellectual capital, and talent are ever more critical to organizational strategic
success. This observation is
so common today, that it almost goes without saying.
Digitization, labour shortages, growth through acquisitions, simultaneous downsizing
and expansion, workforce demographic changes, and globalization are just a few of the
trends that have made
talent management a top priority.
B. TALENTSHIP & SUSTAINABILlTY: CHALLENGES:
Both the paradigms throw up challenges to human resource professionals. Frustration with the
current state of traditional human resource,
and hopes for something more, are reflected in questions like these:
1. Why is there so little logical connection between our core business management processes
and our talent management processes? Our strategic planning, marketing, operations, and
budgeting processes connect deeply and logically with how we create competitive success and
shareholder value. Yet, at best these processes reflect only general talent goals like headcount,
labour costs or generic human resource programmes. At worst, people issues appear only as
a head count budget at the end of the plan."
2. 'We invest heavily in the latest human resource measurement techniques: human resource
scorecards, human resource financial reports, return
on investment on human resource
programmes,
and studies of how human resource programmes enhance attitudes, skills, and
abilities. Yet, these human resource measures seldom influence key business decisions, such

28. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
as acquisitions and entry into new markets. They provide little insight on how well we compare
with our competitors
in creating competitive advantage through
people. Can talent measures
truly drive business decisions and investments?
3. Ramesh Jhangiani, President of 'Semantic Technologies' puts it well: "I value the hard work of
human resource, but I worry that our organization may not know which talent issues are the
important ones, as against which are mostly tactical. I know how to answer that question in
finance, marketing, and operations. I'm not sure how to do it for talent. I wish human resource
had more to offer here."
4. Human Resource spends a lot of time showing the value of human resource programmes. Yet,
in Finance, Marketing, and Operations we judge their value through results: How much they
help our leaders make better decisions about those resource to drive organizational effectiveness.
Why is human resource different?"
5. The recent surge in human resource measurement systems suggests that many
believe the
solution lies in better metrics. Finance, marketing, and engineering appear to· have better ''facts
and figures" than human resource does. Human resource measurement systems typically
strive to show the return on investments in human resource programmes, or apply scorecards
and six-sigma techniques to human resource processes; however, research shows that two
important goals for human resource measurement, (1) to enhance decisions about human
capital and (2) to connect human resource to strategy, are rarely met (Corporate Leadership
Council, 2001; Lawler, etal., 2004).
6. Human resource measurement cannot solve the problem alone, because today's measurement
systems typically adapt measures designed for other resource and apply them to human
resource. For example, six-sigma initiatives often apply accounting-based cost-efficiency or
operational measures. The best result is less costly and quicker the human resource processes,
but not necessarily better talent. At worst, six-sigma processes achieve gains in efficiency
(which is measured) at the expense of significantly reduced quality of talent (which is often
unmeasured).
7. The same pattern emerges when measures designed for finance, marketing, or process
improvement are
applied indiscriminately to human resource. Examples such as 'Human
resource accounting,' 'Human resource quality,' 'Human resource branding,' 'Human resource
balanced scorecards' can be useful systems if applied properly (Jamrog & Overholt, 2004), but
they typically fail to address the fundamental challenge of improving talent decisions (Boudreau
& Ramstad, 2003).
C. EMERGING SOLUTIONS:
1. Design Human Talent Supply Chains:
• Replicate leanings from the manufacturing sector.
• Leverage technology to eliminate excessive human intervention.
• Think ''talent mass production"
2. Evolve Talent Development from an Art to a Science:
• Move from skills to attributes.
• Assess online.

29. -
Human Resource Plannmg and Audit
• Train holistically.
• Accredit candidates.
3. Build Infrastructure to Support the Supply Chain
• Career Centres, academies and hostels.
• Share burden of skill development between customers and candidates.
• Reduce total cost of talent sourcing and development.
4. Build Long-Term Partnerships:
Build long term partnerships for critical resource, human talent.
5. Develop Vendors:
Develop few vendors and lock them down with long term contracts. Either invest directly or
indirectly to deepen relationships. Encourage vendor to keep inventory for "JIT" resource.
6. Invest in Process Quality:
Invest in process quality (e.g., R&D in manufacturing sector) for long term gains.
7. Provide Forecast:
Provide forecasts (e.g., production/service schedules) to gain visibility into talent pipeline (by
days trained, assessment scores)
5. FROM
COST CENTRE TO PROFIT CENTRE:
1. What is a Profit Centre or a Strategic Business Unit?
A. A Profit Centre or a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) is a business unit within the overall
corporate identity which is distinguishable from other business because it serves a defined external
market where management can conduct strategiC planning in relation to products and markets. When
companies become really large, they are best thought of as being composed of a number of businesses
(SBUs).
B.
In the broader domain of strategiC management, the phrase "Strategic Business Unit" came
into use
in the 1960s,
largely as a result of multi-units of General Electric.
C. These organizational entities are large and homogeneous enough to exercise control over
most strategic factors affecting their performance. They are managed as self contained planning units
for which discrete business strategies can
be
developed. A Strategic Business Unit can encompass
an entire company, or can simply be a smaller part of a company set up to perform a specific task.
The SBU has its own business strategy, objectives and competitors and these may often be different
from those of the parent company. This approach entails the creation of business units to address
each market
in which the company is operating. The organization of the business unit is determined
by the needs of the market.
D.
Traditionally, thought of as a cost centre that is just putting an additional burden on the
company's finances and acting more like an administration partner to the acceptance of human
resource
as an investment centre, the road has been hard and
long, but very fruitful in this span of
time.
E. Companies and
CEOs are still in the process of realising importance of accepting the human
resource function
as an investment centre, with the investment showing amazing returns over a
period of time.

30. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
2. Can Human Resource be a Profit Centre? Answer is "Yes"
Can human resource be a profit centre or a SBU? A place that earns its own revenues, a place
that makes profits just like the sales and marketing divisions, can it be a self-sufficient entity or even
more than that. A tough question to ponder over, but something that
is of great importance to the
human resource managers and companies of tomorrow. The answer is 'Yes'
3. Are There
Examples to Prove it? Answer is "Yes"
A. Ohara Investment: The human resource development of this non-banking finance company
conducts technical and soft skills training programmes for other corporates.
B. Aura Management Services: The Company is in the business of consulting in Management
Information System and corporate turnaround. The human resource function, apart from giving back
office support
to other departments within the company, is
actively engaged in content development
research and publishes books and periodicals specially in developing and writing case studies in all
the areas of management such as human resource, marketing, sales, finance, projects, production,
brand management strategic and succession management.
C. Pooja
Publications: The human resource department arranges and promotes education and
fairs, exhibitions and conferences
& seminars throughout the year.
o.
Ourga Education Society: It runs coaching classes for tenth and twelfth standard students.
The human resource department develops and prepares reading material for distant education
programmes of various universities and business management schools.
E. Brinkman Packaging: The company is engaged in manufacturing stationery and packaging
products. The human resource department has recently got into consulting business in educating and
preparing corporates to introudce the concept of paperless office.
4. Turning a Cost Centre into a Profit Centre:
A. A cost centre may actually provide services that could generate a profit if they were offered
in the open market.
B. But in most corporate environments, cost centres are not expected to generate a profit and
operation costs are treated
as overheads. Departments that are
typically cost centres include
information technology, human resource, accounting, and others.
C. However, the complacent acceptance that some departments will always be cost centres and
can never generate a profit has changed
in some companies. They recognise that cost centres can
turn into profit centres by taking the services they used to
automatically provide to the company's
other business units and making those services available for a fee.
o. The company's other business units are then required to pay for the services they used to
get for free. But
in return, they are
allowed to go outsidie the company and contract with another firm
to provide those services. Likewise, the former cost centre may
be
allowed to sell its services to
other companies. The expectation is that this free market system will improve performance through
increased competition while increasing profits by turning former cost centres into profit centres.
5. Human Resource should Align Itself with thie Organization's Scorecard:
A. While the hum.an resource profit-centre model sounds promising in that it seems to create a
quantifiable value proposition for the organisation (its own revenue generation), the organisation
needs to think about how this change will impact employees.

31. Ell·
Human Resource Planning and Audit
B. Under this model, human resource will need to manage marketing, sales and financial health,
while managers will have to think about human resource "best" practices and how to buy and apply
~em. .
C. This may not be the most effective use of the organisation's skill sets because managers and
human resource will be required to focus on areas that are outside their core competencies. As a
result, their overall effectiveness may be reduced.
D. Areas of focus for human resource will also shift from needs-based to human resource credit­
based.
As a result, employees may be impacted because they
will only be able to use human resource
services if their business area has sufficient credits. Further, a company does not want to end
up in
a situation where internal departments are competing with each other for human resource and possible
equalization of payments. Again, this would take the organization away from the key objectives and
impact company's employee base.
E. Another potential impact on employees is the fact that items such as non-mandatory training,
health and safety, work-life programs and perquisites may
fall by the wayside, affecting morale,
turnover and work-injury claims. This could also have
an impact on the recruitment of future employees,
as they would
be looking for these key offerings when deciding whether or not to join the organization.
F. A company also needs to look
carefully at how profit will be generated using this model, since
it will
be simply moving money already in the organisation from one area to another. As a revenue­
generating model, the organization
will have to determine if this is a viable solution for the long-term.
G. One could do a great deal to show quantifiable human resource value by looking at a human
resource model that offers a consultative and strategic partnership role with management and align
with the corporation's balanced scorecard. This focusses
on numerous stakeholders (employees,
customers and investors) and shows performance
on a number of dimensions.
H. Dave Ulrich, in Human Resource Champions, states that for human resource to be a
strategic partner with senior management, it must
be
equally accountable for all segments of the
balanced scorecard (not just the employee dimension). When it comes to the employee dimension
of the scorecard, he states that human resource needs to show intellectual leadership.
I. David Weiss, in High Impact Human Resource, sees the partnership role as human resource
professionals having meaningful and customer-focused conversations from a business perspective
(and not just a human resource perspective).
He states that human resource will be able to deliver
value by integrating and assimilating information about the business; predicting and determining how
this will impact people, and creating people and organizational solutions that will increase the likelihood
that the business will meet customer needs by implementing its strategic objectives.
J. A human resource team can begin building credibility as a strategic partner by understanding
the needs of the business and how this will impact its employee base. They should
be sure to provide
important human resource services that improve the lives of employees and allow them to best
service their customers. Also, human resource should work towards intellectual leadership and
understanding of
all aspects of employee needs within the organisation. Finally, human resource can
prove its value to the organization's executive team
by aligning itself with
all components of the
organization's scorecard and regularly tracking and communicating performance.

32. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
l1li
6. Steps to Convert Human Resource to a Profit Centre/SBU:
1. Human Resource as a Profit Centre:
Here the human resource department has to compete with similar human resource service
providers to earn revenue.
2. Key Performance
Indicators:
Develop a human resource scorecard to evaluate human resource as a profit centre model.
3. Competitor Analysis:
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors to leverage its own strengths.
4. SWOT Analysis of Internal Human Resource:
Compare and contrast the various internal human resource sub-functions like training and
development, staffing, compensation, and others.
5. Compete in Core Competency:
On the basis of previous evaluation selecting an area that is our core competence and using
that as a base for rolling out the human resource as a profit centre model.
6. Performance as desired:
a. Scenario 1: Yes
i. Full fledged rollout -Once the pilot run is successful, the model is extended across all
departments.
ii. Shift focus to other areas -Replicate the same model in areas of non-core competence.
b. Scenario 2: No
i. Human resource reverts to a support position -The human resource department is not
ready for the human resource as a profit centre model yet.
ii. Critical re-evaluation of internal systems -Try and rework the systems to make them ready
for the profit centre model.
7. Hire New People with Specific Skill Sets:
The profit centre model is taken to a new level wherein the human resource department starts
competing for external clients as well. To take this forward we need to hire people with the
required skill sets and simultaneously develop our internal team for the same.
8. Target
Small Companies:
To start off, we target smaller external clients to ensure adequate ground work is done before
moving on to bigger clients.
9. Performance as Desired:
a. Scenario 1: No
i. Re-evaluate performance -Corrective action needs to be taken to improve performance.
b. Scenario 2: Yes
i. Hire more people -This is
essentially done to build capability for handling bigger engagements.
ii. Target bigger clients -Once the required personnel have been hired and trained we can
move
on to targeting bigger clients.

33. -
Human Resource Planning and AudIt
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
1. Transformation of human resource into a profit centre or strategic business centre is a
viable proposition subject to company's philosophy and the volume of profit generation
and human resource aligning with the organization's balance scorecard.
6. FROM HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
RESOURCING: HRD TO HDR:
CASE OF JAI SHIVARAMAKRISHNAN:
Jai Shivaramakrishnan is working with MB India Limited for last 3 years as General Manager­
Human Resource and Organization Development. The company is in the business of manufacturing
tin, plastic, rubber and paper packaging cans and roll seal closures (RSC) Aerosols, collapsible and
rigid tubes, industrial extrusions, crown corks, screw caps, R.C. pilfer-proof and other closures for
Hindustan Uniliver Limited, Colgate Palmolive, Godrej, Pepsi, Coke and many other big banner
business houses.
Mr. Jai Shivaramakrishnan
is smart, aggressive, quick witted and creative. He is very
popular
among the workforce because of his broad minded approach and smart human relations skills.
MB India factory is located in an eastern suburb in Mumbai. Its eastern and northern sides are
surrounded by small narrow streets, chawls and thousands of slum area huts where one comes
across a lot of dirt, filth and 'waste' all around. Western side of the factory opens to 'Dharavi'. About
80% workers of MB India reside in the surrounding localities.
On 31
5t
December 2006, when everyone in Jai's office was preparing to leave the office to
celebrate New Year eve, Jai received a SOS from the factory that a worker named Santosh was
admitted in hospital as he was at the terminal stage of TB and had remote chances of survival. Jai
immediately rushed to the hospital but Santosh died before Jai could reach him. By January end
2007, five more workers died of TB and 15 others were admitted into infectious diseases NGK
Hospital for treatement of 'Leprosy' which was spreading at an alarming speed. As if this was not
enough, Jai was told by his staff that three prominent workers from RSC department were tested HIV
positive and the hospitals were refusing to admit them for treatment on the pretext that they did not
have infrastructure and amenities for treating HIV patients. Jai moved fast and got them admitted into
a nondescript hospital through his contacts.
While Jai was struggling to overcome these problems, he received an urgent note from Biman
Roy, the Director Human resource, from Kolkata asking him to move fast and come out with some
creative schemes to provide relief to the victims from these three deadly diseases and educate them
as to how to live healthy life. He asked Jai to take help from all government and non-government
organizations and agencies to tackle the problems.
Jai began thinking. Why have all these problems cropped up together? Is it a mere coincidence
or
is there a bigger and deeper issue which has remained unattended? What has
suddenly gone
wrong? Was it that the company was caught unaware and wasn't ready to face and handle the
unexpected situations or was it just his own inability and incompetence responsible for his utter failure
in detecting such deadly infectious diseases? Has he wasted all his years in running after intangible
issues? Is it his single track thinking style which disables him from apprehending the reality side of
human resource development? Could he have prevented these situations by thinking out of the box?

34. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?
Jai made up his mind and called up Biman Roy to clear his confusions and answer the questions
that were bothering him. Biman flew to Mumbai and got into one to one meeting with Jai. He told Jai
that such situations do arise and many a times all of them together. One needs to take a holistic view
of these problems and accept them as a part of work life. Problems do not pre-announce their arrival
but there are always tell-tale signs which alert us of their arrival. Anyone can observe these alerts
if one is careful about smelling the news and apprehending the problems and thus, take preventive
steps to handle them more effectively.
"But sir, is there any system available within human resource development gamut wherein we
may
be
able to predict or foresee, to the best of our efforts, these and such other hundreds of issues
which take a lot of our time as a result of which we are either not prepared to manage them effectively
or end up doing one thing at the cost of another," Jai asked Biman, feeling little better and reassured.
"Jai, you need to innovate a system which may assist you in apprehending the problems and
finding the solutions. But no such system in human resource is fully secure or reliable because we
deal with human beings and issues surrounding their day to day work life which are uncertain and
un-predictable. Accidents, sickness, diseases, deaths and other such unfortunate events are integral
part of human life and need to be looked at from a very different perspective" Biman spoke slowly
to ensure that Jai understands the basic issues.
'What is that different perspective,
sir" Jai was curious to know. "Let's have a cup of tea and relax a while before I explain to you about that different perspective"
Jai called up his secretary to order tea and snacks ...
1. DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESOURCING (HDR):
"The new perspective is 'HDR' meaning Human Development Resourcing. We need to move
from Human Resource Development (HRD) to Human Development Resourcing (HDR). This needs
a paradigm shift
in our approach to
resolve problems and issues faced by our human resource whom
we claim our 'tangible assets" Biman continued, " the problems you faced in the health care recently
cannot be resolved just by admitting the sick employees in the hospitals and then wait to see who
survives and who does not. It is not only the cure or the prevention of a disease; it is all about a
bigger question "can we give our employees a disease free quality life which they deserve as human
beings? Human Development Resorcing comes to our aid
in managing these and such other human
concerns, not
only at organisational and/or national level but also globally".
2. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (HRD) AND HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT RESOURCING (HDR):
1. In Human Resource Development (HRD), we select our human resource and decide what
assistance they need from us to help them to change their vision, sharpen their competencies
and skills
and
multi-skilling, performance management, human relations, leadership effects and
their other abilities and capabilities.
2. In Human Development Resourcing (HDR), we first think of identifying, building and securing
resource for sustained development of human beings (human resource or human capital) such
as financial, economic, social, mental, psychological, spiritual and physical resource for overall
sustainable human development. The development areas include health, nutrition, education,
counselling, population control, enrichment and quality of life and empowerment of women
across the organization.

35. -
Human Resource Planning and AudIt
One of the most common misconceptions is to treat human development resourcing as being
synonymous with human capital and human resource development.
3. Human capital is a term coined by Schultz in 1960s which refer to the stock of skills and
productive knowledge embodied in people. Just as physical, capital (machines, equipment,
assets and so on) make a contribution to the national income, Schultz argued that individuals,
through the human capital embodied in them, also make a contribution to national income. Thus,
human capital and the human resource development framework that is based on the return on
investment, consider human beings mainly as a means to the end which contributes to higher
national income. The investment made in people in terms of education, health, nutrition is
justified
in terms of the 'rate of return' it
yields to the individual and the organisation as well as
to the family and society.
4. The Human Development Resourcing paradigm regards people as ends in themselves, and not
as means to
an end. Human
Development Resourcing (HDR) includes human, social,
environmental and economic development.
3. SIX SEGMENTS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESOURCING (HDR)
There are six basic segments of human development resourcing:
1. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: SEGMENT ONE
The concept of human development was introduced by Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq. Dr. Haq describes
the concept of human development resourcing enlarges people's choices and improves their lives.
People are central to all development under this concept. These choices are not fixed but keep on
changing. The basic goal of development is to create conditions where people can live meaningful
lives. A meaningful life is not just a long one. It must be a life with some purpose. This means that
people must be healthy, be able to develop their talents, participate in society and be free to achieve
their goals.
Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq created the Human Development Index in 1990. According to him, development
is all about enlarging people's choices in order to lead a long, healthy lives with dignity. The United
Nations Development Programme has used his concept of human development to publish the Human
Development Report annually since 1990. Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq and Prof Amartya Sen were close
friends and have worked together under the leadership of Dr Haq to bring out the initial Human
Development Reports. Both these South Asian economists have been able to provide an alternative
view of development.
Nobel Laureate Prof Amartya Sen saw an increase in freedom (or decrease in unfreedom) as
the main objective of human development. Interestingly, increasing freedoms is also one of the most
effective ways of bringing about development. His work exploms the role of social and political
institutions and processes in increasing freedom.
According to
Dr. Haq,
leading a long and healthy life, being able to gain knowledge and having
enough means to be able to live a decent life are the most important aspects of human development.
Therefore, access to resource, health and education are the key areas in human development.
Suitable indicators have been developed to measure each of these aspects.
Very often, people do not have the capability and freedom to make even basic choices. This may
be due to their inability to acquire knowledge, their material poverty, social discrimination, inefficiency
of institutions and other reasons. This prevents them from leading healthy lives, being able to get
educated or
to have the means to
live a decent life.

36. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
Building people's capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resource is therefore,
important
in
enlarging their choices. If people do not have capabilities in these areas, their choices
also get limited. For example, an uneducated child cannot make the choice to be a doctor because
her choice has got limited by her lack of education. Similarly, very often poor people cannot choose
to take medical treatment for disease because their choice is limited by their lack of resource.
2. MEASURING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: SEGMENT TWO:
The human development index (HDI) ranks the countries based on their performance in the key
areas of health, education and access to resource. These rankings are based on a score between
o to 1 that a country earns from its record in the key areas of human development.
The indicator chosen to assess health is the life expectancy at birth. A higher life expectancy
means that people have a greater chance of living longer and healthier lives. The adult literacy rate
and the gross enrolment ratio represent access to knowledge.
The number of adults who are able to read and write and the number of children enrolled in
schools show how easy or difficult it is to access knowledge in a particular country.
Access to resource is measured
in terms of purchasing power. Each of these dimensions is
given a weightage of 1/3. The human
development index is a sum total of the weights assigned to
all these dimensions.
The closer a score is to one, the greater is the level of human development. Therefore, a score
of 0.983 would be considered very high while 0.268 would mean a very low level of human development.
The human development index measures attainments in human development. It reflects what
has been achieved
in the key areas of human
development. Yet it is not the most reliable measure.
This is because it does not say anything about the distribution.
The human poverty index is related to the human development index. This index measures the
shortfall in human development.
It is a non-income measure. The probability of not surviving till the age of 40, the adult illiteracy
rate, the number of people who do not have access to clean water, and the number of small children
who are underweight are all taken into account to show the shortfall in human development in any
region. Often the human poverty index is more revealing than the human development index.
Looking at both these measures of human development together gives an accurate picture of the
human development situation at organizational and/or national level. The ways to measure human
development are constantly being refined and newer ways of capturing different elements of human
development are being researched.
3. RESOURCING: SEGMENT THREE:
In human resource development, we first think of areas of development where people need
assistance from
an organization such as
developing leadership or communication skills and
competencies. In human development resourcing, we identify the potential areas which can support
us in pooling financial and monetary, physical and spiritual and mental and psychological resource
to aid our human development programmes.
The participation,
in
pooling the resource for implementing the pre-determined and identified
human development programmes, is sought from various quarters:

37. &I
Human Resource Planning and AudIt
1. Organizational funding by monetary and physical resource which is popularly known as
'corporate social responsibility'.
2. Governmental funding in private-public participation.
3. Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)
4. Philanthropic Trusts and Organizations.
5. Sewa Mandals and Non-Religious Organizations.
6. Educational Institutions and Trusts.
7. Non-Profit Organizations.
8. Community development Institutions and Associations.
9 .. Environmental Management Institutions.
4. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR): SEGMENT FOUR:
The role of corporates by and large has been understood in terms of a commercial business
paradigm of thinking that focusses purely on economic parameters of success.
As corporates have been regarded as institutions that cater to the market demand by providing
products and services, and have the onus for creating wealth and jobs, their market position has
traditionally been a function of financial performance and profitability.
However, over the past few years,
as a consequence of rising
globalisation and pressing ecological
issues, the perception of the role of corporates in the broader societal context within which it operates,
has been altered. Stakeholders (employees, community, suppliers and shareholders) today are
redefining the role of corporates taking into account the corporates' broader resl.:onsibility. towards
society and environment, beyond economic performance, and are evaluating whether they are
conducting their role in an ethical and socially responsible manner.
As a result of this shift, Corporate Social Responsibility (from purely economic to 'economic
with
an added
social dimension'), has become one of the most important segments of Human
Development Resourcing.
MODELS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
1. ETHICAL MODEL (1930 -1950): One significant aspect of this model is the promotion of
''trusteeship'' that was revived and reinterpreted by
Gandhiji. Under this notion the businesses were
motivated to manage their business entity as a trust
held in the interest of the community. The idea
prompted many family
run businesses to contribute towards socio-economic
development.
2. STATIST MODEL (1950 -1970): Under the aegis of Jawahar Lal Nehru, this model came
into being
in the post
Independence era. The era was driven by a mixed and socialist kind of
economy. The important feature of this model was that the state ownership and legal requirements
decided the corporate responsibilities.
3. LIBERAL MODEL (1970 -1990): The model was encapsulated by Milton Friedman. As per
this model, corporate responsibility is confined to its economic bottom line. This implies that it is
sufficient for business to obey the law and generate wealth, which through taxation and private
charitable choices can be directed to social ends.
4. STAKEHOLDER MODEL (1990 -PRESENT): The model came into existence during 1990s
as a consequence of realisation that with growing economic profits, businesses also have certain
societal roles to fulfil. The model expects companies to perform according to ''triple bottom line"

38. The Great Human Resource Turnaround .
. ;'
_ ................. .l1
approach. The businesses are also focussing on accountability and transparency through several
mechanisms. societal roles to fulfil.
5. CAPABILITY MODEL: This approach is associated with Prof. Amartya Sen. Building human
capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resource is the key to increasing human
development.
DEFINING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
1. Philip Kotter and Nancy Lee (2005) define Corporate social responsibility as "a commitment
to improve community well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of corporate
resource" whereas, Mallen Baker refers to Corporate social responsibility as "a way companies
manage the business processes to produce
an
overall positive impact on society".
2. According to World Business Council for Sustainable Development "Corporate social
responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic
development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the
local community and society at large".
3. Archie Carroll describes Corporate social responsibility as a multi layered concept that can
be differentiated into four interrelated aspects -economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic
responsibilities. Carroll presents these different responsibilities as consecutive layers within a pyramid,
as such that ''true'' social responsibility requires the meeting of all four levels consecutively. The
model probably is the most accepted and established.
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
While the definitions of corporate social responsibility may differ, there is an emerging
consensus on some common principles that underline corporate social responsibility.
1. Corporate social responsibility is a business imperative: Whether pursued as a voluntary
corporate initiative or for legal compliance reasons, corporate social responsibility will
achieve
its intended objectives only if businesses truly believe that corporate social
responsibility is beneficial to them.
2. Corporate social responsibility is a
link to sustainable development: Businesses feel
that there is a need to integrate social, economic and environmental impact in their
operation.

39. Human Resource Planning and Audit
3. Corporate social responsibility is a way to manage business: Corporate social responsibility
is not an optional add on to business, but it is about the way in which businesses are
managed.
5. THE FOUR
PILLARS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESOURCING: SEGMENT FIVE:
Just as any building is supported by pillars, the idea of human development resourcing is
supported
by the concepts of equity,
sustainability, productivity and empowerment.
1. Equity: refers to making equal access
to opportunities available to everybody. The opportunities
available to people must
be equal irrespective of their gender, race, income and caste.
For example,
in any country, it is interesting to see which group the most of the school dropouts
belong to. This should then lead to
an understanding of the reasons for such behaviour.
In India, a
large number of women and persons belonging to socially and economically backward groups drop
out of school. This shows how the choices of these groups get limited by not having access to
knowledge.
2. Sustainability: means continuity in the availability of opportunities. To have sustainable human
development, each generation must have the same opportunities.
All environmental, financial and human resource must be used keeping in mind the future.
Misuse of any of these resource will lead
to fewer opportunities for future generations.
A good example is about the importance of sending girls to school.
If a community does not
stress the importance of sending its girl children
to school, many opportunities will be lost to these
young women when they grow
up. Their career choices will be severely curtailed and this would
affect other aspects of their
lives. So each generation must ensure the availability of choices and
opportunities to its future generations.
3. Productivity: means human labour productivity or productivity in terms of human work.
Such
productivity must be constantly enriched by building capabilities in people. Ultimately, it is people who
are the
real wealth of nations. Therefore, efforts to increase their knowledge, or provide better health
facilities ultimately leads to better work efficiency.
4. Empowerment: means the power to make choices.
Such power comes from increasing
freedom and capability. Good governance and people-oriented policies are required to empower
people. The empowerment of socially and economically disadv~ntaged groups is of special importance.
6. SUSTAINBILITY REPORTING: SEGMENT SIX:
Sustainability Reporting (SR) is also gaining prominence and recognition as a value added tool
for displaying a corporate's commitment towards transparency and accountability towards its
stakeholders.
It helps a company to report on the social, environmental and economic impact of its activities,
along with a report
on the internal state of its management and employee welfare system in a manner
as rigorous and transparent as financial reporting.
A well-drafted sustainability report provides a balanced and reasonable representation of the
sustainability performance of a reporting organisation (both positive and negative).
It helps the
organizations to define and communicate their overall context and rationale to solve global problems
through its specific business model or elicit whether its business model design is influenced by those
problems. It is also increasingly recognised as a tool for brand and image building.

40. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
WHY CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) CANNOT SUBSTITUTE HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT RESOURCING (HDR)?
Whatever may be the model of corporate social responsibility currently doing the rounds of the
Indian or the Fortune 500 companies, we cannot deny certain facts that:
1. Corporate social responsibility is business driven.
2. Since the business houses invest the money, time and the efforts in initiating the development
projects under corporate social responsibility, they expect a definite return on their investments.
3. Businesses decide the modus operandi of the corporate social responsibility initiatives.
4. Stakeholders are not involved from the onset in defining an initiative to make it successful on
the assumption they do not understand the needs of a community.
5. Corporate social responsibility initiatives are, by and large, image building exercises for the
corporates.
6. Corporate
social responsibility is interchangable with corporate sponsorship, donation or other
philanthropic activities.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESOURCING: RATIONALE:
1. Human Development Resourcing (HDR) as an Objective:
Viewed as
an end in
itself rather than a means, human development resourcing is about enriching
human lives. Material enrichment -producing a larger volume of goods and services -may contribute
to this but it
is not the same thing.
Indeed it is by now widely understood that there is no one-to-one
correspondence between material enrichment (measured, say, by gross national product per head)
and the enrichment of human lives (measured, say, by the human development index). The human
development approach thus, implies the dethronement of national product as the primary indicator of
the level of development.
The objective of development is not to produce more "stuff", more goods and services, but rather
to increase the capabilities of people to lead full, productive, and satisfying life.
A larger volume of output per head of the population may ofcourse increase the capabilities of
people, and thus, should be warmly welcomed, but increased output should be seen for what it is,
namely, an intermediate product that under appropriate circumstances can enhance human well­
being. Ultimately what is of concern is the ability of people to lead a long life (as measured by life
expectancy at birth), to enjoy good health (as measured by morbidity rates), to have access to the
stock of accumulated knowledge (as approximated by enrolment and literacy rates), to have sufficient
income to buy food, clothing and shelter, to participate in the decisions that directly affect their lives
and their community. In formulating development policies, programmes and plans it is important to put
people first, to specify objectives in terms of the enhancement of human capabilities.
2. Human Development Resourcing (HDR) as a Means:
The economic benefits received by people -whether in the form of money income, material
goods and services received
in kind,
self-produced items of consumption or production, or capabilities
such as a long life and good health which may be only partially mediated by relations of production
and exchange -can be understood as flows originating from the stock of capital. The stock of
capital, in turn, can be divided into three components: 1. the stock of natural capital, 2. the stock of
man-made physical capital, and 3. the stock of human capital.

41. Human Resource Plannmg and Audlf
The stock of natural capital consists of the natural resource of the globe, including the atmosphere
and oceans, the flora and fauna, the soils and mineral deposits and sources of fresh water.
The stock of physical capital consists of the produced means of production, i.e., the plant and
equipment used
in the
agricultural, industrial and service sectors, the physical infrastructure (roads,
bridges, ports, pipelines, railways, airports, irrigation canals) and the stock of dwellings.
The stock of human capital consists of the knowledge, skills, experience, energy and inventiveness
of people. It is acquired in a variety of ways: through training and apprenticeship programmes, while
on the job through learning by doing, in the formal education system, through informal contacts by
word of mouth, through newspapers, radio and the information media generally, in institutions devoted
to pure and applied research and through private study and reflection.
A distinctive feature of a human development resourcing is the emphasis placed on human
capital formation. This does not mean that additions to the stocks of natural and physical capital are
ignored -that would be a serious error -but it does mean a major change in priorities in favour
of human capital. The justification for this change in priorities is, first, that the returns on investing in
people are in general as high as if not higher than the returns to other forms of investment, second,
that investment
in human
capital in some cases economises on the use of physical capital and the
exploitation of natural resource and, third, the benefits of investing in people are in general more
evenly spread than the benefits from other forms of investment. Thus, a greater emphasis on human
capital formation should result in as fast and perhaps even a faster pace of development, more
sustainable development and a more equitable distribution of the benefits of development.
Thus, a human development resourcing has numerous advantages. First, it contributes directly
to the well-being of people. Second, it builds from a foundation of equality of opportunity. Third, it helps
to create a more equal distribution of the benefits of development. Fourth, it enables the linkages
between the various types of investment in people to be fully exploited and, fifth, it takes advantage
of the complementarities between human and physical capital.
3. Human Development Resourcing (HDR) as a means for Sustainable Development:
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while
preserving the environment so that, these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future
generations. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the
most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with
the social challenges facing humanity. As early as the 1970s "sustainability" was employed to describe
an economy "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems." Ecologists have pointed to the
"limits of growth" and presented the alternative of a "steady state economy" in order to address
environmental concerns.
The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three constituent parts:
environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and socio-political sustainability.

42. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
-
;
,
.........
4. Human Development Resourcing (HDR) as a means for Participatory Development:
In the final analysis human development resourcing cannot be separated from participatory
development. The goal of human development is to help people realise their own potential, to develop
their intellectual, technical and organizational capabilities. Thus, human development inescapably is
development by the people if it is to be development for the people.
5. Corporate Social Responsibility to move from Image Building Model to Sustainable
Human Development Resourcing Model:
1. A study conducted by KPMG India on "Corporate Social Responsibility: Towards a Sustainable
Future" observed that action in corporate social responsibility in India largely spans a diverse set of
thematic areas -health, education, livelihood, poverty alleviation, environment, water, housing, energy
and microfinance. However, some other areas like women empowerment, child development and
infrastructure also appeared in the case studies.
2. Based on the comparative study of the 24 companies, it was found that while some companies
chose to narrow their focus
on a few thematic areas, others took a broader view and undertook a larger scope of areas to focus on. Out of 24 case studies that were analysed, it was found that there
were
as many as 16 corporates focussing on 3-5 thematic areas and remaining eight stuck to six
or more thematic areas.
In terms of the area focus, environment garnered the maximum attention from
corporates while women empowerment and poverty alleviation were neglected areas with minimal
corporates focusing on the same.
3. It was observed that for 37 percent corporates, the Corporate social responsibility initiative is
being implemented through a well-structured separated Foundation. Among 58 percent corporates
there is a separate corporate social responsibility department that takes care of the activities to be
implemented.
4. The importance of building strong public-private partnerships as well as working closely with
NGOs as implementation partners is being increasingly realised by corporates. It has been observed
that 58 percent of the corporates within the surveyed sample partnered with the government
departments. The number is higher for the engagement with NGOs, where approximately 67 percent
corporates have formed linkages. Twenty-one percent corporates were working in partnership with
multilateral or bilateral organisations.
5. Stakeholder engagement has become one of the important aspects of corporate social
responsibility practices, though, there are different sets of stakeholders that can be taken into account
while implementing corporate social responsibility.

43. -
Human Resource Plannmg and AudIt
The World Business Council for Sustainable Human Development has noted that a coherent
corporate social responsibility strategy based
on integrity, sound values and a long-term approach
offers clear business benefits to companies and contributes to the well-being of society. As companies
move forward to design a corporate social responsibility strategy that provides the intended leverage
point as intended, key success factors for it to move
to a state of sustainable human development
resourcing are:
• Focusing on priorities.
• Allocating finance for treating corporate social responsibility as an investment from which
returns are expected.
• Optimising available and expected resource by ensuring that efforts are not duplicated and
existing services are strengthened and supplemented.
• Monitoring activities and liaising closely with implementation partners such as NGOs to ensure
that initiatives really deliver the desired outcomes through participative development.
• Reporting performance in an open and transparent way so that, all can celebrate progress and
identify areas for further action.
CASE STUDI~S IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESOURCING:
1. AMBUJA CEMENTS LIMITED:
Thematic Areas: Poverty Reduction, Reducing Child Mortality, HIV/AIDS, Education and
Environment
Case
Study:
Ambuja Cements Ltd. established a foundation, called the Ambuja Cement Foundation in 1993.
With its cement plants being situated
in the rural areas, the company realised the need to address
the needs of the rural people. These people formed direct or indirect stakeholders of the Company
and therefore were important for the company's sustainability. Consequently, the ACF's focus has
been
on integrated rural development programmes. The Foundation works with the mission to "energise,
involve and enable communities to realise their potential".
It upholds as its guiding light the parent company's core values and alongside pays due attention
to international trends
in social development, expressed through guidelines like the millennium
developmental goals, poverty alleviation, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality,
improving maternal health, combating
HIV/AIDS and ensuring environmental sustainability is all integral
to the work of the company and its Foundation.
The Foundation
in each location begins by working at the micro level in a small way with the
villages impacted by the company's operations and gradually over time as partnerships develop
expands its"area and scope of work. The Foundation at present reaches out to over 1.2 million people
in about 670 villages spread across ten states in India. The large chunk of work of the Foundation
is carried out by a team of well-trained and experienced professionals.

44. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
2. APOLLO TYRES LIMITED:
Thematic Areas: Health
Case Study: HIV-AIDS Programme in Apollo Tyres Ltd.
Background:
Apollo started its fight against HIV-AIDS in a project called Healthy Highways. The project was in
partnership with DFID and started in Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in the year 2000.Today Apollo has
a comprehensive programme
on
HIV-AIDS focussing on its employees, customers and supply chain.
The programme focus is
on building awareness and prevention aspect of the epidemic. The
approach is to forge strategic tie-ups with organisations, which bring the technical skills and capacity
building aspects into the partnership. Apollo Tyres Health Care Centres:
Apollo Tyres Health Care Centres are targeted interventions for truckers. The location for clinics
is identified on the HIV prevalence, density of trucking and mobile population and the current level
of work being done by other organisations
in the area. Currently, the company has 7 clinics running
in North, West and South of
India. All clinics are strategically located in transport nagars. They are
positioned
as general health clinics to avoid stigma attached to
HIV-AIDS, however the focus of the
services provided
is on
HIV-AIDS. The main components of the programme are:
(A) Behaviour Change Communication (BCC):
The communication is directed at increasing awareness regarding the basics of
HIVIAIDS. The
communication addresses
the modes of transmission, myths regarding
HIV, connection between sexually
transmitted diseases
and
HIV through one-to-one and one-to-group interactions.
(B) Peer Educators:
Building
an effective peer educator network is the most important link of the entire programme.
The peer educators become imperative given the geographical spread of the transport nagars and the
mobile nature of the population.
(C) Condom Promotion:
Condom promotion takes place through free distribution
as
well as social marketing of condoms.
These condoms are available at various outlets and strategic pOints within the transport nagars. Also
the out reach workers and the peer educators emphsise and educate the target audience
on the
correct usage and disposal of condoms.
3. BHARAT PETROLEUM
CORPORATION LIMITED:
Thematic Areas: Health, Education, Infrastructure, Income Generation, Vocational Guidance,
Livelihood and Environment and Conservation.
Case Study: Community Development at village 'Ramthenga', Jajpur Dist, Orissa.
Objectives of the Project:
• To help the village become socially conscious .
• To improve the general health of the villagers.

45. III·:
Human Resource Plannmg and Audit
• To improve community participation.
• To help them become self-reliant.
This village is dominated by the tribal population -'Santhal Tribe'. Their socio-economic status
was highly impoverished. Most of the villagers worked
in the neighbouring mines. Due to prolonged
and non-conducive working environment, they
had developed severe respiratory/skin infections. The
children did not attend any school and the nutrition status of the children was very poor. There was
also a severe problem of alcohol abuse amongst the men. The women were suppressed and worked
in the farm as well as in the mines. Lack of availability of water was also one of the main concerns
of the villagers. There were bore wells but they were
non-functional.
Major interventions were required in the area were:
• Health.
• Education.
• Awareness about health/ sanitation/ hazards of working in the mines.
• Precautions to prevent respiratory illness.
• Making water available.
Having understood the need of the community, BPCL constituted a team to implement the work
in the community.
The main participants in the
project were: • Villagers
• NGO partner -Research Analysis Consultants
• BPCL LPG team based in Bhuvaneshwar and Khurda headed by TM Khurda
• BPCL Human Resource Team at Kolkatta headed by Human Resource Chief and corporate
social responsibility co-ordinator.
• BPCL Corporate Social Responsibility Team headed by GM (Admin).
4. MAHIN ORA GROUP OF COMPANIES:
Corporate Social Responsibility in human develpment resourcing has always been an integral
part of the Mahindra Group's vision and the cornerstone of Core Value of Good Corporate Citizenship.
The Mahindra Group defines corporate social responsibility
as making socially responsible
products, engaging
in socially responsible employee relations and making a commitment to the
community around it. At the Mahindra Group, corporate
social responsibility is not just a duty; it's a
way of life. In 2005, the Group celebrated its 60th anniversary by renewing its commitment to
Corporate social responsibility. It pledged to dedicate 1 % of its profit (after tax), on a continuous basis
towards Corporate Social Responsibility. A unique kind of ESOPs -Employee Social Options were
launched to enable Mahindra employees to involve themselves
in socially responsible activities of
their choice. The Group also announced a special gift: to provide free cochlear implants to
60
profoundly hearing-impaired, under-privileged children. In addition to giving impetus to the Nanhi Kali
project for the girl child and the Mahindra All India Talent Scholarship for the economically
disadvantaged, the Mahindra Group is planning to set
up two Mahindra Pride Schools. These schools
will offer a variety of courses, with
an emphasis on employability, including training for
Information
Technology, Retail, and Automotive Engineering etc. They will provide new skills and capabilities to

46. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
the weaker sections of society, particularly the scheduled castes and scheduled tribe youth. While
these projects are already underway, plans for more social initiatives are on the anvil.
5. MOSER BAER:
Corporate Social Responsibility Policy:
At Moser Saer, we believe that Corporate Social Responsibility is the way to conduct business that
achieves a balance or integration of economic, environmental and social imperatives while at the same
time addressing stakeholder expectations. Under its corporate social responsibility policy, the company
affirms its commitment of seamless integration of marketplace, workplace, and environment and
community concerns with business operations. Moser Saer uses corporate social responsibility as an
integral business process in order to support sustainable development and constantly endeavors to be
a good corporate citizen and enhance its performance on the triple bottom line.
Corporate Social Responsibility Mission:
Whilst being committed to excellence and total customer satisfaction through team work, ceaseless
innovation and timely delivery of quality products of international standards, we recognize our
responsibilities towards social and environmental dimensions of our business and thus, aim to visibly
playa leading role within our spheres of influence.
We will strive to be a leader while continuing our business in a socially and environmentally
responsible manner. We affirm our commitment to contribute to nation building measures through
improving quality of life of our workforce, their families and the communities of the area we exist and
beyond.
The Structure:
1. Community Development
vehicle, Moser Saer Trust is headed by Corporate Social Responsibility
Head of Moser Saer.
2. Trustees are senior leaders from the company.
3. Functional scorecard and KRAs align initiatives with company's strategic objectives.
4. Regular board level reporting to Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.
5. Programmes evolved after stakeholder dialogue and have independent budget, action plans
and targets.
6. Community programmes designed to meet Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in MSIL's
sphere of operations as contribution to nation building.
6. INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES:
Corporate Social Responsibility:
At Infosys, the distribution of wealth is as important as its legal and ethical creation. A strong
sense of social responsibility is therefore, an integral part of our value system.
Infosys Foundation:
We are committed to contributing to the society and established Infosys Foundation in 1996 as
a not-for-profit trust to support our social initiatives. The Foundation supports programmes and
organizations devoted to the cause of the destitute, the rural poor, the mentally challenged, and the
economically disadvantaged sections of the society.

47. .,. _r Human Resource Planning and Audit
The Foundation also helps preserve certain cultural forms and dying arts of India. Grants to the
Foundation aggregated Rs. 19 crore during the fiscal year 2007, as compared to Rs. 13 crore in the
previous year.
Community
Service:
Through the 'Computers Classrooms' initiative launched in January 1999, Infosys donated 2,567
computers to various institutions across India. Additionally, they have applied to the relevant authorities
for permission to donate computers to educational institutions on an ongoing basis
in the future.
Microsoft Corporation continues to participate in this initiative by donating relevant software.
Social Commitment in Education:
Infosy's Education & Research group has the pride of anchoring the Infosys Extension Programme
(IEP), which consists of the Infosys Fellowship Programme, Rural Reach Programme, Catch Them
Young and Train the Trainer.
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
Leading a long and healthy life, being able to gain knowledge and having enough means
to be able to live a decent life are the most important aspects of human development resourcing.
r---------
~ ..•.•••••.••.••...... ~ :!!: __ J
r------,
I Unions I
-------..1
The figure shows the beneficiaries in the Participative Model of Human Development Resorucing
Therefore, access to resource, health and education are the key areas in human
development resourcing. Suitable indicators have been developed to measure each of these
aspects. Very often, people do not have the capability and freedom to make even basic choices.
This may be due to their inability to acquire knowledge, their material poverty, social
discrimination, inefficiency of institutions and other reasons. This prevents them from leading
healthy lives, being able to get educated or to have the means to live a decent life.

48. The Great Human Resource Turnaround
••
Just as any building is supported by pillars, the idea of human development resourcing is
supported by the concepts of equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment. Corporate
Social Responsibility has to move from image building exercise to a more meaningful concept
of Sustainable Human Development Resourcing to maximise the gains of participative
management and implementation of Human Development Resourcing.
EXERCISE FOR PRACTICE
1. Define the concept Turnaround'. What is Human Resource Turnaround? Explain in details with examples.
2. What is the meaning of 'Holistic Approach' to Human Resource Management?
3. Why do we need Human Resource Turnaround? What are the various compulsions for seeking Human
Resource Turnaround?
4. Why are Human Resource professionals not business driven? What are their compulsions? Explain in
details citing the excerpts from the case study of 'Geeta Kapur & Manish Puri'.
5. What went wrong between Geeta Kapur and Manish Puri? Do you think Geeta Kapur did not possess
adequate Human Resource skills and competencies to handle Manish Puri? Who comes across as the
winner in the end? Cite excerpts from the case study in support of your answer.
6. If you are 'Geeta Kapur', how would you handle Manish Puri? Re-wtite your conversation with Manish PurL
7. Why is Human Resource at crossroads? Have the Human Resource People lost their art of diagnosis in
handling and managing people?
8. Why is Human Resource function generally taken for granted? Why do people feel that "there is nothing great
in Human Resource" and "anyone from top to bottom in the hierarchy can manage Human Resource "?
9. What is the meaning of Global Human Resource Management? Do, as human resource processionals, we
need "Global Human Resource Competency? Are we ready for this competitive advantage?
10. Why did Simranjeet Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of Perfumes & Petals India Limited involve
VP-Human Resource Ritu Sanyal in merger and acquisition second deal? Why Ritu Sanyal succeeded in
finalising the deal? How the company benefited by involvement of Ritu Sanyal?
11. What approach was adopted by Ritu Sanyal in dealing with second merger and acquisition deal?
12. "Pick good people and set the right priorities". In what context did Lee lacocca make this statement?
13. Explain the concept of "'Get, Keep, Grow". Who is the originator of this concept and in what context did
he
make this statement?
14. How did Dabur
India achieve painless restructuring? What were the benefits of the organizational restructuring?
15. Do you agree that Human Resource needs transformation of image to be business driven, if
Human
Resource Strategic
planning has to succeed?
16.
What are the various paradigm shifts for Human Resource professionals?
Explain in details.
17. Write your plan of action the way you would like to transform your Human Resource department to profit
centre
or strategic business unit
(SBU).
18: What is globalisation? Do you think that Human Resource is really going global because everyone talks
about global Human Resource competencies? Explain it with examples.

49. Learning
Objectives
BASICS OF HUMAN
RESOURCE
PLANNING
_____ =t
following
'.

50. LEVEL ONE
LEVEL TWO:
CHAPTER TWO
BASICS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING:
PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING 42 -45
IMPORTANCE -DEFINITIONS -NEEDS -OBJECTIVES -SCOPE 46 -52
AND BENEFITS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
LEVEL THREE: THE FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING 53 -54
LEVEL FOUR: HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING TOOLS 55 - 57

51. LEVEL ONE
PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
1. HUMAN RESOURCE PERCEPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT BUT IT IS NECESSARY TO
ALIGN THESE WITH THE CORPORATE GOALS AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT:
"Human Resource is like carpentering ", Suresh Oberoi, Senior General Manager-Human
Resource of Alternate Energy Group of Companies told Vi nay Malhotra."You are absolutely correct,
Suresh. We are not using any functional expertise in this recruitment drive; our role here is similar
to that of a ... " added Vinay with sarcasm. Vinay is the Vice-President -Human resource with
Navjivan Pharma since 5 years. "I agree with both of you. Human Resource is always treated as a
stepchild by the top management, they don't take
us
seriously and the middle and the junior management
staff don't confide
in
us" said Amrish Punewalla, a senior Vice-President-Human resource with 0 K
Constructions Limited.
"You are right to an extent but things are changing. The corporate world has started building
Human Resource as the core function to take care and control human assets without whom the
organization cannot grow and generate revenue" said Nirmoy Oasgupta, Vice-President -Human
resource with Bollywood Software Technologies "I am sure that all of us shall observe a vast change
in the attitude of Corporate India accepting Human resource as a mainstream function rather than a
mere back office department
in the next
couple of years" he added further.
Four senior Human resource professionals, four interesting perspective and
in four different
contexts. Perceptions
help in building values for Human Resource Planning Philosophy.
2. MAKING IT HAPPEN:
.
What is the basic "philosophy" that underlines the domain of Human Resources and Human
Resource Planning? Is it a clearly defined and commonly accepted philosophy? If not, can we derive
some sort of 'emergent philosophy' from the way the craft of Human Resource is practiced? How has
this philosophy been evolving?
3. ONLY TEN PERCENT MANAGERS ARE COMMITTED: BRUCH AND SUMANTRA
GHOSHAL:
Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal explains this admirably in a Harvard Business Review
article (February 2002) which places managers in four compartments, depending on the 'focus' and
the 'energy' they bring to their tasks. The manager with high focus and low energy is described as
'disengaged' whose lack of commitment means loss of effectiveness. The manager with low focus
and low energy is a 'procrastinator', who puts off until tomorrow what should be done today -and
tomorrow, all too often, never comes.
The high-energy, low-focus type is 'distracted'. This is the manager who throws himself into
Pareto's 80% of time-wasters. But Bruch and Ghoshal's research has a painful message. These three
ineffective types are
in an overwhelming majority: they account for
90% of all the managers studied.
That leaves a tiny tenth of the managerial workforce whose high energy and focus make them
'purposeful' people, who are committed activists - 'making it happen'.

52. Basics of Human Resource Planning
-
4. REVENUE, COST & QUALITY: ONE SONG ONE DESTINATION:
In the final analysis, management comes down to three simple words: REVENUES, COSTS,
QUALITY. The purpose of any manager must surely include raising revenues, reducing costs per unit
of output, and notably improving the quality of internal processes and external perceptions. Get these
three right, and much else will fall neatly into place. The
RCO formula is essentially simple, but it does
involve asking some penetrating questions and getting answers which imply and demand action:
1. Do you have a business plan to raise revenues, reduce costs and improve quality?
YES/NO.
If not, do you want one? YES/NO
2. Do you know why your customers choose to buy from you, rather than from anybody else?
YES/NO. If not, would you like to? YES/NO
3. Do you know what percentage of the customers you had a year ago still buy from you today?
YES/NO. If not, would you like to? YES/NO
4. Do you have plans to enter new markets, either in new regions or new product lines? YES/NO.
If not, do you want to? YES/NO.
5. Do you know whether your profit margins are rising, static or falling? YES/NO. If yes, do you
have plans
to increase them?
YES/NO.
6. Do you know how your costs compare with best practice by competitors and others? YES/NO.
If not, would you like to? YES/NO
7. Do you know which 20% of activities account for 80% of your direct costs? YES/NO. If yes,
do
you concentrate on making them lower?
YES/NO.
8. Do you know how many of your customers regard your goods and/or services as good or
excellent? YES/NO if not, would you like to? YES/NO.
9. Do you know which of your critical processes could be speeded up and made more cost­
effective? YES/NO. If not, would you like to? YES/NO.
10. Do you plan to introduce new or radically improved goods/services over the next year? YES/
NO. If not, do you want to? YES/NO
With this knowledge, you can plan your activities so that the balance shifts decisively towards
the purposes to which you are now committed. Again, there are four simple questions, adapted from
a well-known
Peter Drucker catechism:
1. What is my purpose?
2. What am
I doing to achieve that purpose that can only be done by me?
3. What am I doing that can be done by others?
4. What am I doing that need not be done at all?
You obviously delegate (3), scrap (4) and concentrate on (2). That will accomplish less than you
need, however, unless you
can also fully identify your delegates and other colleagues with your
purpose.

53. III
Human Resource Planning and Audit
5. POWER OF CHALLENGE AND CHOICE: THE CASE OF LUFTHANSA AIRLINES
TURNAROUND:
Bruch and Ghoshal emphasise the power of 'challenge and choice' in achieving this outcome.
Lufthansa
is their case in point. The airline was heading for a financial crash in 1992. The
CEO called
in 20 senior managers, admitted that he had no solution, and gave them three days to develop ways
to save Lufthansa. If they determined that it could not be saved, then he would accept bankruptcy.
Once initial shock had been absorbed, the managers quickly formed ambitious purposes, adopted 130
proposals for radical change (of which 70% were enacted), and turned Lufthansa round from loss to
profit.
6. CONGRUENCE
OF STATED & ACTUAL VALUES:
We also have to be mindful of the possible conflict between the stated Human Resource Planning
philosophy in an organization and the 'actual' Human Resource philosophy practiced in the organization.
What really matters is the Human Resource Planning philosophy (basic assumptions about HRP) that
emerges can
be inferred from (or gets reflected in) in the decisions made by the organization.
It will be both tragic and comic situation if an organization says that 'people are our greatest
assets/people are our main source of competitive advantage' and at the same time practices 'downsizing'
and/or 'cutting employee benefits and training' as the first response (instinctive response) to any
business downturn. There
is no better way to create mistrust and cynicism in the organization. The
same holds good at the level of managers also. Managers represent/symbolize the 'organization' to
the employees and the real 'Human Resource
Planning philosophy' of the organization (as perceived
by the employees) is the one that gets reflected
in the behaviours of (or in decisions made by) the
managers. Though, we can't over emphasize the need for congruence between the 'articulated Human
Resource
Planning philosophy' and the 'Human Resource Planning philosophy in practice' but it
cannot be ignored.
7.
EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE:
Human Resource Planning is an expression of this philosophy in the most important area of all,
the effective employment of people. The changes and pressures brought about by economic,
technological and social factors compel organizations of all kinds to study the costs and human
aspects of labour much more seriously and carefully than ever before.
8. EMERGENCE OF KNOWLEDGE WORKER:
Fundamentally the market has changed. The methods and the techniques of doing and managing
business have undergone a paradigm shift. It is world of the knowledge worker. The rise of the
intellect has been imminent. Human Resource Planning no longer can confine itself to the traditional
sources for hiring and retaining. The skills of yesterday are neither available and nor are these being
sought after by the new generation.
9.
EMERGING WORLD OF THINKER DOER:
The human resources of today see their roles having changed from that of a doer to that of a
thinker and
in most occasions' thinker doer. Organizations in contrast have continued to nurture and
retain a set of human resource that have become more redundant than ever before.

54. Basics of Human Resource Planning
III
SIMPLY SPEAKING ...
1. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence,
knowledge, truth, beauty, law, justice, validity, mind, and language. Philosophy is
distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or
mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned
argument.
2. Philosophy is:
(a)
the attempt to acquire knowledge (distinguishes philosophy from creative
disciplines
such as literature or music)
(b) by rational means (distinguishes philosophy from mysticism and some varieties of
religion)
(c) about topics that do not seem amenable to empirical investigation (distinguishes
philosophy from the empirical sciences)
3. The 'philosophy of Human Resource Planning in a specific organization context shapes
the way the employees are managed in
that organization.
4. Lack of a
clearly articulated and understood 'Philosophy of Human Resource' can make
the organization susceptible
to 'taking up the latest fad in people management and
discarding
it soon after to take up the next one'.
It can also result in highly inconsistent
attitudes/practices in managing the employees. This can cause a lot of avoidable confusion.
5. Logica"y speaking, philosophy of Human Resource Planning of an organization should
be closely linked to (or even derived from) the core values of the organization.
6. Human Resource perceptions are important but it is necessary a" these align with the
achievement
of corporate
goals and strategic management policies and practices.
7. In the final analysis, management comes down to three simple words: REVENUES,
COSTS, QUALITY. The purposes of a Human Resource Planning Philosophy must
include raising revenues, reducing costs per unit of output, and notably improving the
quality of internal processes and external perceptions
8. We also have to be mindful of the possible conflict between the stated Human Resource
Planning
philosophy in an organization and the 'actual' Human Resource philosophy
practiced in the organization. What
really matters is the Human Resource Planning
philosophy (basic assumptions about HRP) that emerges can be inferred from (or gets
reflected in) in the
decisions made by the organization.
9. Human Resource Planning Philosophy must ingrain an
a" time value: Effective management
of people.
10 Fundamenta"y, the market has changed. The methods and the techniques of doing and
managing business have undergone a paradigm shift. It is world of the knowledge
worker. The rise
of the
intellect has been imminent. Human Resource Planning Philosophy'
must inculcate it as a value addition in its tenets.

55. Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:

56. ANDY TELLS THE STORY OF THE OLD MAN OF THE
MOUNTAIN.
"These unjust suspicions of murder and robbery against an innocent man
continued to rankle in the minds of the valley folks for more than two years,
until a most surprisin' event took place on the mountain, to the great
disappointment and annoyance of those gossips who had been loudest in
their charges against Jo-siah Woodring. Hit happened that two bear-hunters
from the settlement found themselves belated in the neighborhood of this
very bridge one September night, and, bein' worn out with the chase, they sat
down to rest in the shadow of an old chestnut, where they soon fell asleep.
They awoke just before mid-night, and were about to start on down the
mountain when they heard footsteps coming up the trail, and presently, dark
as the night was, they saw a man with a keg on his shoulder a-walkin' toward
the bridge. The man was Jo-siah; and after restin' his burden on a stump and

57. wipin' the sweat from his forehead, he shouldered hit again and tramped on
over the bridge.
"The hunters were bold men and well armed, and, having had a good rest,
they followed the man at a safe distance until he came to the ledge of rocks
which you-all will view for yourselves by sun-up, and there he was met by a
man with a ladder, who stood out on the rocks above. The hunters noticed
that the stranger was a small man, and just then the moon came out from
behind a cloud, and they knew him for the little old man who was supposed
to have been murdered.
"When the hunters told what they'd seen on the mountain, you may
believe," said Andy, "there was right smart excitement in Cashiers, and some
disappointment to find that Jo-siah was neither a murderer nor a robber.
They went on hating him all the same for driving two steers to his cart and
for having deceived them so long about the man on the mountain, and then
they started the story that he was feedin' his prisoner on whisky, and that it
was only a slow murder, after all. After that, one day, when Jo-siah had gone
away to market, half a dozen of the valley men, with the two hunters to
guide them, went up the mountain for the purpose of liberating that poor
prisoner o' Jo-siah's.
"They carried a ladder along, and when they had climbed up the ledge
they found a little log shelter not fit for a sheep-hovel; and as for the
prisoner, he kept out of their way, for it was a pretty big place, with plenty of
trees and rocks to hide among. Well, as the years went on, Jo-siah brought
back less and less of suspicious packages in his cart when he came up from
the low country; but it was known that he still went up the mountain on
certain dark nights with a keg on his shoulder. The strange old man himself
was seen at a distance from time to time, but at last his existence on the
mountain came to be a settled fact, and the people ceased to worry about
him.
"Well, five years ago, as I said," continued Andy, "Jo-siah took sick with
a fever, and come down into the settlement to see the doctor; and he was that
bad that the doctor had to go back with him to drive the cattle. He rallied
after that so as to be about again, and even out at night; but three months
from the time he took the fever he died. The doctor was with him at the time,

58. and the night before he breathed his last he told the doctor that the little man
on the mountain was dead. After the funeral another party went up to the top
of the mountain, and, sure enough, there was the grave, just outside of the
miserable shelter he had lived in so long; and it looks like he did, sure
enough, drink himself to death, for there was no sign about the hovel that he
ever cooked or ate ordinary food.
"The strangest thing about the whole strange business," said Andy, getting
on to his feet, "is that there was nothing in Jo-siah's poor cabin worth
carrying away; and if the old man didn't build this here bridge with his own
hands thirty year ago, hit stands to reason that he helped Jo-siah."
CHAPTER III
THE MOUNTAIN OF THE TWENTIETH RED PIN
A fortnight before the events described in the opening chapter of this
story, the topographical officer attached to General Sherman's headquarters
might have been seen leaning over a table in his tent, busily engaged in
sticking red-headed pins into a great map of the Cumberland and Blue Ridge
Mountains. The pins made an irregular line, beginning at Chattanooga, and
extending through Tennessee and North Carolina at no great distance from
the Georgia border. Altogether there were just twenty of these pins, and each
pin pierced the top of a mountain whose position and altitude were laid
down on the map. After this officer, who was a lieutenant-colonel, had spent
half the night, by the light of guttering candles, in arranging and rearranging
his pins, he sent in the morning for the adjutant of a regiment of loyal
mountaineers. Beginning with the first pin outside of Chattanooga, he
requested the presence of a mountaineer who lived in the neighborhood of
that particular peak. When the man reported, the colonel questioned him
about the accessibility of the mountain under the first pin, its distance from
that under the second pin, and whether each peak was plainly visible from

59. the other. The colonel's questions, which were put to the soldier in the shade
of the fly outside the tent where the map lay, brought out much useful
information, and much more that was of no use whatever, because half the
questions were intended to mislead the soldier and conceal the colonel's
purpose. Sometimes he changed a pin after the soldier went away; and at the
end of three days of interviewing and shifting the positions of his pins, the
twentieth red head was firmly fixed above the point laid down on the map as
Whiteside Mountain. Still a little farther along a blue-headed pin was set up,
and then the work of the topographical officer of the rank of lieutenant-
colonel was done.
These pins represented a chain of signal-stations, nineteen of which the
captain of cavalry, with Andy Zachary to guide him, had now established
one after the other, with as much secrecy as the lieutenant-colonel had
employed in selecting the positions. And now the gray dawn was coming on
the side of the twentieth mountain as Andy finished his story. In fact, as the
last word fell from his lips a lusty cock tied on one of the pack-saddles set up
a shrill crow to welcome the coming day. Although tall pines grew thick
about the bridge-head where the troopers were still sleeping, it was light
enough to see that only low bushes and gnarled chestnuts grew on the other
bank. The noisy branch kept up its ceaseless churning and splashing among
the rocks far down in the throat of the black gorge, and the great height and
surprising length of its single span made the crazy old bridge look more
treacherous than ever. It swayed and trembled with the weight of the captain
by the time he had advanced three steps from the bank, so that he came back
shaking his head in alarm. By this time the men were afoot, and Andy asked
for an ax, which at the first stroke he buried to its head in the rotten string-
piece.
"Just what I feared," said the captain. "Do you think I am going to trust
my men on that rotten structure?"
Andy said nothing in reply as he kicked off with his boot a huge growth
of toadstools, together with the bark and six inches of rotten wood from the
opposite side of the log. Then he struck it again with the head of the ax such
a blow that the old sticks of the railing and great sections of bark fell in a
shower upon the tree-tops below. The guide saw only consternation in the
faces of the men as he looked around, but there was a smile on his own.

60. "Hit may be old," said Andy, throwing down the ax, "but there is six
inches of tough heart into that log, and I'd trust hit with a yoke o' cattle."
With that he strode across to the other side, and coming back jounced his
whole weight on the center, with only the effect of rattling another shower of
bark and dry fungi into the gorge.
"Bring me one of the pack-mules," cried Andy; and presently, when the
poor brute arrived at the head of the old causeway, it settled back on its
stubborn legs and refused to advance. At this the guide tied a grain-sack over
the animal's eyes and led him safely across. Lieutenant Coleman led over the
second mule by the same device, and Bromley the third. By this time it was
broad daylight, and the captain detailed three men to help in the unpacking.
These he sent over one at a time, so that after himself Philip was the last to
cross.
Beyond was an open field where blue and yellow flowers grew in the
long, wiry grass, which was wet with the dew. This grass grew up through a
thick mat of dead stalks, which was the withered growth of many years.
Under the trees and bushes the leaves had rotted in the rain where they had
fallen, or in the hollows where they had been tossed by the wandering winds.
There was not a sign of a trail, nor a girdled tree, nor a trace of fire, nor any
evidence that the foot of man had ever trodden there. The little party seemed
to have come into an unknown country, and after crossing the open field they
continued climbing up a gentle ascent, winding around rocks and scraggly
old chestnut-trees, until they arrived under the ledge which supported the
upper plateau. This was found to extend from the boulder face on the Cove
side across to a mass of shelving rocks on the Cashiers valley front, and was
from thirty to fifty feet in height, of a perpendicular and bulging fold in the
smooth granite. After a short exploration a place was found where the ledge
was broken by a shelf or platform twenty feet from the ground; and just here,
in the leaves and grass below, lay the rotted fragments of a ladder which had
doubtless been used by the old man of the mountain himself.

61. CHAPTER IV
A DAY OF DISCOVERIES
Meanwhile Andy, with the help of the detail, was cutting and notching the
timber for ladders, the captain and the three young soldiers of the station
made a breakfast, standing, from their haversacks and canteens, and looked
about them over the wild country at their feet, and off at the blue peaks
which rose above and around the valley of Cashiers, and then at the ridges in
the opposite direction, drawn like huge furrows across the western horizon,
showing fainter and fainter in color until the blue of the land was lost in the
blue of the sky.
The men worked with a will, so that by ten o'clock the main ladder, which
was just a chestnut stick deeply notched on the outer side, was firmly set in
the ground against the face of the cliff. The landing-shelf was found to
extend into a natural crevice, so that the short upper ladder was set to face
the bridge, and so as to be entirely concealed from the view of any one
approaching from below.
When everything was in readiness, Lieutenant Coleman was the first to
ascend, with the powerful telescope of the station strapped on his shoulders;
and the others quickly followed, except the three troopers who remained
behind to unpack the mules and bring up the rations and outfit for the camp.

62. "LIEUTENANT COLEMAN WAS THE FIRST TO ASCEND,
WITH THE TELESCOPE OF THE STATION STRAPPED ON HIS
SHOULDERS."

63. At the point where they landed there was little to be seen of the top of the
mountain beyond a few stunted chestnuts which clung to the rocks and were
dwarfed and twisted by the wind; and nearly as many dead blue limbs lay
about in the thin grass as there were live green ones forked against the sky.
There was the suggestion of a path bearing away to the left, and following
this they came to a series of steps in the rocks, partly natural and partly
artificial, which brought them on to a higher level where an extended plateau
was spread out before them. On the western border they saw the line of trees
overhanging the Cove side—the same that had looked like berry-bushes the
night before from the cabin where they had halted for the moon to go down.
From this point the crest of the Upper Bald was in plain view across the
Cove, but, anxious as they were to open communication with the other
mountain, the flags had not yet come up, and there was nothing left for them
to do but continue their exploration. It was observed, however, that the trees
overhanging the Cove would conceal the flagging operations from any one
who might live on the slopes of the mountains in that direction, and,
moreover, that by going a short distance along the ridge to the right a fine
backing of dark trees would be behind the signal-men. Philip would have
scampered off to explore and discover things for himself, but the captain
restrained him and directed that the party should keep together. Andy carried
his long rifle, and Philip and Bromley had brought up their carbines, so that
they were prepared for any game they might meet, even though it were to
dispute progress with a bear or panther. Since they had come up the ladders
the region was all quite new to Andy, and he no longer pretended to guide
them.
Back from the last ridge the ground sloped to a lower level, much of
which was bare of trees and so protected from the wind that a rich soil had
been made by the accumulation and decay of the leaves. At other points
there were waving grass and clumps of trees, which latter shut off the view
as they advanced, and opened up new vistas as they passed beyond them. It
could be seen in the distance, however, that the southern end of the plateau
was closed in by a ledge parallel to and not unlike that which they had
already scaled, except that it was much more formidable in height.
There was a stream of clear, cold water that was found to come from a
great bubbling spring. It broke out of the base of this southern ledge, and

64. after flowing for some distance diagonally across the plateau tumbled over
the rocks on the Cashiers valley side and disappeared among the trees.
After inspecting this new ledge, which was clearly an impassable barrier
in that direction, and as effectually guarded the plateau on that side as the
precipices which formed its other boundaries, the captain and his party
turned back along the stream of water, for a plentiful supply of water was
more to be prized than anything they could possibly discover on the
mountain.
"There is one thing," said Andy, as they walked along the left bank of the
stream, "that you-all can depend on. Risin' in the spring as hit does, that
branch will flow on just the same, summer or winter."
"Probably," said Lieutenant Coleman; "but then, you know, we are not
concerned about next winter."
A little farther on a rose-bush overhung the bank, and at the next turn they
found a grape-vine trailing its green fruit across a rude trellis, which was
clearly artificial. A few steps more and they came to a foot-log flattened on
the top; and, although it tottered under them, they crossed to the other side,
and coming around a clump of chinkapin-bushes, they found themselves at
the door of a poor hut of logs, whose broken roof was open to the rain and
sun. The neglected fireplace was choked with leaves, and weeds and bushes
grew out of the cracks in the rotting floor; and, surely enough, in one dry
corner stood the very brown keg that Josiah Woodring had brought up the
mountain. In the midst of the dilapidation and the rotting wood about it, it
was rather surprising that the cask should be as sound as if it were new, and
the conclusion was that it had been preserved by what it originally
contained.
Just then there was a cry from Philip, who had gone to the rear of the
hovel; and he was found by the others leaning over the grave of the old man
of the mountain, and staring at the thick oak headboard, which bore on the
side next the cabin these words:
ONE WHO WISHES TO BE FORGOTTEN.

65. The letters were incised deep in the hard wood, and seemed to have been cut
with a pocket-knife. It was evident from the amount of patient labor
expended on the letters that the work had been done by the unhappy old man
himself, perhaps years before he died. Of course it had been set up by Josiah,
who must have laid him in his last resting-place.
"That looks like Jo-siah was no liar, any more than he was a murderer and
robber," said Andy; "and if the little man could live up here twenty-five
years, I reckon you young fellers can get along two months."
A spot for camp was selected a few rods up the stream from the poor old
cabin and grave. This was at a considerable distance from the ridge where
the station was to be, but it had two advantages to balance that one
inconvenience. In the first place, it was near the water, and then no smoke
from the cook-fire would ever be seen in the valley below. Accordingly, the
stores were ordered to be brought to this point, and Corporal Bromley
hurried away to the head of the ladders to detain such articles as would be
needed at the station on the ridge. Below the ledge the mules could be seen
quietly browsing the grass, and, to the annoyance of Lieutenant Coleman, a
blue haze was softly enveloping the distant mountains, as in a day in Indian
summer, so that it was no longer possible to think of communicating with
the next station, which was ten miles away.
That being the case, the afternoon was spent in pitching the tents and
making the general arrangements of the camp. Owing to the difficulty of
transportation, but the barest necessaries of camp life were provided by the
government; and, notwithstanding his rank, Lieutenant Coleman had only an
"A" tent, and Bromley and Philip two pieces of shelter-tent and two rubber
ponchos. It was quickly decided by the two soldiers to use their pieces of
tent to mend the roof of the hut of the old man of the mountain, and to store
the rations as well as to make their own quarters therein. From the
Commissary Department their supplies for sixty days consisted precisely of
four 50-pound boxes of hard bread, 67 pounds 8 ounces bacon, 103 pounds
salt beef, 27 pounds white beans, 27 pounds dry peas, 18 pounds rice, 12
pounds roasted and ground coffee, 8 ounces tea, 27 pounds light-brown
sugar, 7 quarts vinegar, 21 pounds 4 ounces adamantine candles, 7 pounds 4
ounces bar soap, 6 pounds 12 ounces table-salt, and 8 ounces pepper. The
medical chest consisted of 1 quart of commissary whisky and 4 ounces of

66. quinine. Besides the flags and telescope for use on the station, their only
tools were an ax and a hatchet. On ordinary stations it was the rule to furnish
lumber for building platforms or towers, but here they were provided with
only a coil of wire and ten pounds of nails, and if platforms were necessary
to get above the surrounding trees they must rely upon such timber as they
could get, and upon the ax to cut away obstructions. Fortunately for this
particular station, they could occupy a commanding ridge and send their
messages from the ground.
Philip had by some means secured a garrison flag, which was no part of
the regular equipment; and through Andy they had come into possession of a
dozen live chickens and a bag of corn to feed them. On the afternoon before
the departure of the troopers, the captain, who had now established the last
of the line of stations, confided to Lieutenant Coleman his final directions
and cautions. He asked Andy to point out Chestnut Knob, which was the
mountain of the blue pin, and whose bald top was in full view to the right of
Rock Mountain, and not more than eight miles away in a southeasterly
direction, and, as Andy said, just on the border of the low country in South
Carolina. This was the mountain, the captain informed Lieutenant Coleman,
from which in due time, if everything went well in regard to a certain
military movement, he would receive important messages to flag back along
the line.
What this movement was to be was still an official secret at headquarters,
and Lieutenant Coleman would be informed by flag of the time when he
would be required to be on the lookout for a communication from the
mountain of the blue pin. At the close of his directions, the captain, standing
very stiff on his heels and holding his cap in his hand, made a little speech to
Lieutenant Coleman, in which he complimented him for his loyalty and
patriotic devotion to the flag, and reminded him that in assigning him to the
last station the commanding general had thereby shown that he reposed
especial confidence in the courage, honor, and integrity of Lieutenant
Frederick Henry Coleman of the 12th Cavalry, and in the intelligence and
obedience of the young men who were associated with him. This speech,
delivered just as the shadows were deepening on the lonely mountain-top,
touched the hearts of the three boys who were so soon to be left alone, and
was not a whit the less impressive because Andy plucked off his coonskin

67. cap and cried, in his homely enthusiasm, that "them was his sentiments to
the letter!"
It was understood that there should be no signaling by night, and no lights
had been provided for that purpose; so that, there being nothing to detain
them on the plateau, they decided to accompany the captain and Andy back
to the bridge and see the last of the escort as it went down the mountain.
Two of the troopers, contrary to orders, had during the day been as far as
the deserted cabin of Josiah Woodring, and one of these beckoned Philip
aside and told him where he would find a sack of potatoes some one had
hidden away on the other side of the gorge, which, with much disgust, he
described as the only booty they had found worth bringing away.
So great is the love of adventure among the young that there was not one
of the troopers but envied his three comrades who were to be left behind on
the mountain; but it was a friendly rivalry, and, in view of the possibilities of
wild game, they insisted upon leaving the half of their cartridges, which
were gladly accepted by Philip and Bromley.
The moon was obscured by thick clouds, and an hour before midnight the
horses were saddled, and with some serious, but more jocular, words of
parting, the troopers started on the march down the mountain, most of them
hampered by an additional animal to lead. The captain remained to press the
hand of each of the three young soldiers, and when at last he rode away and
they turned to cross the frail old bridge, whose unprotected sides could
scarcely be distinguished in the darkness, they began to realize that they
were indeed left to their own resources, and to feel a trifle lonely, as you
may imagine.
Before leaving that side of the gorge, however, Corporal Bromley had
shouldered their precious cartridges, which had been collected in a bag, and
on the other side Philip secured the sack of potatoes; and thus laden they
trudged away across the open field and among the rocks and bushes, guided
by the occasional glimpses they had of the cliff fringed with trees against the
leaden sky. It was of the first importance that the cartridges should be kept
dry, and to that end they hurried along at a pace which scattered them among
the rocks and left but little opportunity for conversation. Lieutenant Coleman

68. was in advance, with Philip's carbine on his arm; next came Corporal
Bromley, with the cartridges; and a hundred yards behind, Philip was
stumbling along with the sack of potatoes on his shoulder. They had
advanced in this order until the head of the straggling column was scarcely
more than a stone's throw from the cliff, when a small brown object, moving
in the leaves about the foot of the ladder, tittered a low growl and then
disappeared into the deeper shadow of the rock. At the same moment the rain
began to fall, and Corporal Bromley stepped one side to throw his bag of
cartridges into the open trunk of a hollow chestnut. While he was thus
engaged, with the double purpose of freeing his hands and securing the
cartridges from the possibility of getting wet, his carbine lying on the ground
where he had hastily thrown it, Lieutenant Coleman fired at random at the
point where he had indistinctly seen the moving object. The darkness had
increased with the rain, and as the report of the carbine broke the quiet of the
mountain a shadowy ball of fur scampered by him, scattering the leaves and
gravel in its flight. The mysterious object passed close to Bromley as he was
groping about for his weapon, and the next moment there was a cry from
Philip, who had been thrown to the ground and his potatoes scattered over
the hillside.
"Whatever it was," said Philip, when he presently came up laughing at his
mishap, "I don't believe it eats potatoes, and I will gather them up in the
morning."
As it was too dark for hunting, and the cartridges were in a safe place,
Lieutenant Coleman and Corporal Bromley slung their carbines and
followed Philip, who was the first to find the foot of the ladder.
It was not so dark but that they made their way safely to the camp, and,
weary with the labors of the day, they were soon fast asleep in their blankets,
unmindful of the rain which beat on the "A" tent and on the patched roof of
the cabin of the old man of the mountain.

69. CHAPTER V
THE CIPHER CODE
On the morning of July 4 the sun rose in a cloudless sky above the
mountains, and the atmosphere was so clear that the most remote objects
were unusually distinct. The conditions were so favorable for signaling that,
after a hurried breakfast, the three soldiers hastened to the point on the ridge
which they had selected for a station. Corporal Bromley took position with a
red flag having a large white square in the center, and this he waved slowly
from right to left, while Lieutenant Coleman adjusted his spy-glass, resting it
upon a crotched limb which he had driven into the ground; and at his left
Philip sat with a note-book and pencil in hand, ready to take down the letters
as Lieutenant Coleman called them off. There are but three motions used in
signaling. When the flag from an upright position is dipped to the right, it
signifies 1; to the left, 2; and forward, 3. The last motion is used only to
indicate that the end of the word is reached. Twenty-six combinations of the
figures 1 and 2 stand for the letters of the alphabet.

70. "CORPORAL BROMLEY TOOK POSITION WITH A RED FLAG
HAVING A LARGE WHITE SQUARE IN THE CENTER."
It is not an easy task to learn to send messages by these combinations of
the figures 1 and 2, and it is harder still to read the flags miles away through
the telescope. The three soldiers had had much practice, however, and could
read the funny wigwag motions like print. If any two boys care to learn the
code, they can telegraph to each other from hill to hill, or from farm to farm,
as well as George and Philip. You will see that the vowels and the letters

71. most used are made with the fewest motions—as, one dip of the flag to the
left (2) for I, and one to the right (1) for T. Z is four motions to the right
(1111); and here is the alphabet as used in the signal-service:
A, 11, O, 12,
B, 1221, P, 2121,
C, 212, Q, 2122,
D, 111, R, 122,
E, 21, S, 121,
F, 1112, T, 1,
G, 1122, U, 221,
H, 211, V, 2111,
I, 2, W, 2212,
J, 2211, X, 1211,
K, 1212, Y, 222,
L, 112, Z, 1111,
M, 2112, &, 2222,
N, 22, ing, 1121,
tion, 2221.
When the flag stops at an upright position, it means the end of a letter—as,
twice to the right and stop (11) means A; one dip forward (3) indicates the
end of a word; 33, the end of a sentence; 333, the end of a message. Thus 11-
11-11-3 means "All right; we understand over here; go ahead"; and 11-11-
11-333 means "Stop signaling." Then 212-212-212-3 means "Repeat; we
don't understand what you are signaling"; while 12-12-12-3 means "We have
made an error, and if you will watch we will give the message to you
correctly."
Now, if Lieutenant Coleman wanted to say to another signal-officer
"Send one man," the sentence would read in figures, "121, 21, 22, 111, 3, 12,
22, 21, 3, 2112, 11, 22, 33." But in time of war the signalmen of the enemy
could read such messages, and so each party makes a cipher code of its own,
more or less difficult; and the code is often changed. So if Lieutenant
Coleman's cipher code was simply to use for each letter sent the fourth letter
later in the alphabet, his figures would have been quite different, and the
letters they stood for would have read:
W-i-r-h s-r-i q-e-r.
S-e-n-d o-n-e m-a-n.

72. So, after fifteen minutes of waiting, during which time the flag in Corporal
Bromley's hand made a great rustling and flapping in the wind, moving from
side to side, Lieutenant Coleman got his glass on the other flag, ten miles
away, and found it was waving 11-11-11-3—"All right." Corporal Bromley
then sent back the same signal, and sat down on the bank to rest. What
Lieutenant Coleman saw at that distance was a little patch of red dancing
about on the object-glass of his telescope; he could not see even the man
who waved it, or the trees behind him. Promptly at Bromley's signal "All
right," the little object came to a rest; and when it presently began again,
Lieutenant Coleman called off the letters, which Philip repeated as he
entered them in the book. For an hour and a half the messages continued
repeating all the mass of figures which had come over the line during the last
three days.
When the mountain of the nineteenth red pin had said its say as any
parrot might have done, for it was absolutely ignorant of the meaning of the
figures it received and passed on (for the reason that it had no officer with
the cipher), Lieutenant Coleman took from his pocket a slip of paper on
which he had already arranged his return message to Chattanooga. When this
had been despatched, the lieutenant took the note-book from Philip, and
went away to his tent to cipher out the meaning of the still meaningless
letters.
They were sufficiently eager to get the latest news, for they knew that the
army they had just left had been advancing its works and fighting daily since
the twenty-second day of June for the possession of Kenesaw Mountain. The
despatches were translated in the order in which they came, so that it was a
good half-hour before Lieutenant Coleman appeared with a radiant face to
say that General Sherman had taken possession of Kenesaw Mountain on the
day before. "And that is not all," he cried, holding up his hand to restrain any
premature outburst of enthusiasm. "Listen to this! 'The "Alabama" was sunk
by the United States steamer "Kearsarge" on the nineteenth day of June,
three miles outside the harbor of Cherbourg, on the coast of France.'"
Corporal Bromley was not a demonstrative man, yet the blood rushed to
his face, and there was a glittering light in his eyes which told how deeply
the news touched him; but Philip, on the contrary, was wild with delight, and
danced and cheered and turned somersaults on the grass.

73. CHAPTER VI
MESSAGES OF DIRE DISASTERS
"What a pity," cried Philip, "that the boys on the next mountain should be
left in ignorance of these victories when we could so easily send them the
news without using the cipher—and this the Fourth of July, too!"
That form of communication, however, was strictly forbidden by the
severe rules of the service, and it was the fate of Number 19 to remain in the
dark, like all the other stations on the line, except the first and tenth and their
own, which alone were in charge of commissioned officers who held the
secret of the cipher.
The news of the destruction of the "Alabama," which had been the terror
of the National merchant-vessels for two years, was of the highest
importance, and would cause great rejoicing throughout the North. Although
the battle with the "Kearsarge" had taken place on June 19, it must be borne
in mind that this period was before the permanent laying of the Atlantic
cable, and European news was seven and eight days in crossing the ocean by
the foreign steamers, and might be three days late before it started for this
side, in case of an event which had happened three days before the sailing of
the steamer. After several unsuccessful attempts, a cable had been laid
between Europe and America in 1858, three years before the beginning of
the great war, and had broken a few weeks after some words of
congratulation had passed between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan.
Some people even believed that the messages had been invented by the cable
company, and that telegraphic communication had never been established at
all along the bed of the ocean. At all events, news came by steamer in war-
times, and so it happened that these soldiers, who had been three days in the
wilderness, heard with great joy on July 4 of the sinking of the "Alabama,"
which happened on the coast of France on June 19.

74. The garrison flag was raised on a pole over the "A" tent, and the day was
given up to enjoyment, which ended in supping on a roast fowl, with such
garnishings as their limited larder would furnish. On this occasion
Lieutenant Coleman waived his rank so far as to preside at the head of the
table,—which was a cracker-box,—and after the feast they walked together
to the station and sat on the rocks in the moonlight to discuss the military
situation.
If General Grant had met with some rebuffs in his recent operations
against Petersburg in Virginia, he was steadily closing his iron grasp on that
city and Richmond; and not one of these intensely patriotic young men for a
moment doubted the final outcome. Philip and Lieutenant Coleman had been
much depressed by the recent disaster, and the news of the morning greatly
raised their spirits. If Bromley was less excitable than his companions, the
impressions he received were more enduring; but, on the other hand, he
would be slower to recover from a great disappointment.
"The reins are in a firm hand at last," said Lieutenant Coleman, referring
to the control then recently assumed by General Grant, "and now everything
is bound to go forward. With Grant and Sheridan at Richmond, Farragut
thundering on the coast, the 'Alabama' at the bottom of the sea, and Uncle
Billy forcing his lines nearer and nearer to Atlanta, we are making brave
progress. I believe, boys, the end is in sight."
"Amen!" said Corporal Bromley.
"Hurrah!" cried Philip.
"You boys," continued Lieutenant Coleman, "have enlisted for three
years, while I have been educated to the profession of arms; but if this
rebellion is not soon put down I shall be ashamed of my profession and leave
it for some more respectable calling."
So they continued to talk until late into the night, cheered by the good
news they had heard, and very hopeful of the future.
The following day was foggy, and Philip went down the ladder to bring
up the potatoes, which he had quite forgotten in the excitement of the day

75. before. Bromley, too, paid a visit to the tree where he had thrown in the
cartridges; but the opening where he had cast in the sack was so far from the
ground that it would be necessary to use the ax to recover it, and as he could
find no drier or safer storehouse for the extra ammunition, he was content to
leave it there for the present. Lieutenant Coleman busied himself in writing
up the station journal in a blank-book provided for that purpose.
When Philip found his potatoes, which had been scattered on the ground
where he had been thrown down in the darkness by the mysterious little
animal, he was at first disposed to leave them, for they were so old and
shrunken and small that he began to think the troopers had been playing a
joke on him. But when he looked again, and saw the small sprouts peeping
out of the eyes, a new idea came to him, and he gathered them carefully up
in the sack. He bethought himself of the rich earth in the warm hollow of the
plateau, where the sun lay all day, and where vegetation was only smothered
by the coating of dead leaves; and he saw the delightful possibility of having
new potatoes, of his own raising, before they were relieved from duty on the
mountain. What better amusement could they find in the long summer days,
after the morning messages were exchanged on the station, than to cultivate
a small garden? If he had had the seeds of flowers, he might have thrown
away the wilted potatoes; but next to the cultivation of flowers came the
fruits of the earth, and if his plantation never yielded anything, it would be a
pleasure to watch the vines grow. Lieutenant Coleman readily gave his
consent; and, after raking off the carpet of leaves with a forked stick, the
soft, rich soil lay exposed to the sun, so deep and mellow that a piece of
green wood, flattened at the end like a wedge, was sufficient to stir the earth
and make it ready for planting. Philip cut the potatoes into small pieces, as
he had seen the farmers do, and with the help of the others, who became
quite interested in the work, the last piece was buried in the ground before
sundown.
On the following morning the flags announced that, in a cavalry raid
around Petersburg, General Wilson had destroyed sixty miles of railroad, and
that forty days would be required to repair the damage done to the Danville
and Richmond road. During the next three days there was no news worth
recording, and the fever of gardening having taken possession of Philip, he
planted some of the corn they had brought up for the chickens, and a row
each of the peas and beans from their army rations.

76. The 10th of July was Sunday, the first since they had been left alone on
the mountain; and Lieutenant Coleman required his subordinates to clean up
about the camp, and at nine o'clock he put on his sword and inspected
quarters like any company commander. After this ceremony, Philip read a
psalm or two from his prayer-book, and Corporal Bromley turned over the
pages of the Blue Book, which was the Revised Army Regulations of 1863.
These two works constituted their limited library.
There was a dearth of news in the week that followed, and what little
came was depressing to these enthusiastic young men, to whom the
temporary inactivity of the army which they had just left was insupportable.
On Monday morning, however, came the cheering news that General
Sherman's army was again in motion, and had completed the crossing of the
Chattahoochee River the evening before.
On the 19th they learned that General Sherman had established his lines
within five miles of Atlanta, and that the Confederate general Johnston had
been relieved by General Hood.
The messages by flag were received every day, when the weather was
favorable, between the hours of nine and ten in the morning; and now that
the campaign had reopened with such promise of continued activity, the
days, and even the nights, dragged, so feverish was the desire of the soldiers
to hear more. They wandered about the mountain-top and discussed the
military situation; but, if anything more than another tended to soothe their
nerves, it was the sight of their garden, in which the corn and potatoes were
so far advanced that each day seemed to add visibly to their growth.
On the morning of the 21st they learned that Hood had assaulted that
flank of the intrenched line which was commanded by General Hooker, and
that in so doing the enemy had been three times gallantly repulsed. The new
Confederate general was less prudent than the old one, and they chuckled to
think of the miles of log breastworks they knew so well, at which he was
hurling his troops. General Sherman was their military idol, and they knew
how well satisfied he would be with this change in the tactics of the enemy.

77. By this time it had become their habit to remain near the station while
Lieutenant Coleman figured out the messages, each of which he read aloud
as soon as he comprehended its meaning.
On Saturday morning, July 23, while Corporal Bromley leaned stolidly
on his flagstaff, and Philip walked about impatiently, Lieutenant Coleman
jumped up and read from the paper he held in his hand:
"Hood attacked again yesterday. Repulsed with a loss of seven thousand
killed and wounded."
With no thought of the horrible meaning of these formidable figures to
the widows and orphans of the men who had fallen in this gallant charge,
Philip and Bromley cheered and cheered again, while the lieutenant sat down
to decipher the next message. When he had mastered it the paper fell from
his hands. He was speechless for the moment.
"What is it?" said Philip, turning pale with the certainty of bad news.
"General McPherson is killed," said Lieutenant Coleman.
Now, so strangely are the passions of men wrought up in the time of war
that these three hot-headed young partizans were quick to shed tears over the
death of one man, though the destruction of a great host of their enemies had
filled their hearts only with a fierce delight.
During the Sunday which followed there was a feeling of gloomy
foreboding on the mountain, and under it a fierce desire to hear what should
come next.
On Monday morning, July 25, the sun rose in a cloudless sky, bathing the
trees and all the distant peaks with cheerful light, while at the altitude of the
station his almost vertical rays were comfortable to feel in the cool breeze
which blew across the plateau. Lieutenant Coleman glanced frequently at the
face of his watch, and the instant the hands stood at nine Philip began
waving the flag. There was no response from the other mountain for so long
a time that Corporal Bromley came to his relief, and the red flag with a white
center continued to beat the air with a rushing and fluttering sound which
was painful in the silence and suspense of waiting.

78. When at last the little flag appeared on the object-glass of the telescope, it
spelled but seven words and then disappeared. Philip uttered an exclamation
of surprise at the brevity of the message, while Bromley wiped the
perspiration from his forehead and waited where he stood.
In another minute Lieutenant Coleman had translated the seven words,
but even in that brief time Corporal Bromley, whose eyes were fixed on his
face, detected the deathly pallor which spread over his features. The young
officer looked with a hopeless stare at his corporal, and without uttering a
word extended his hand with the scrap of paper on which he had written the
seven words of the message.
Bromley took it, while Philip ran eagerly forward and looked tremblingly
over his comrade's shoulder.
The seven words of the message read:
"General Sherman was killed yesterday before Atlanta."
CHAPTER VII
IN WHICH THE THREE SOLDIERS MAKE
A REMARKABLE RESOLUTION
Lieutenant Coleman, although stunned by the news conveyed by the
seven words of the message, as soon as he could reopen communication with
the other mountain, telegraphed back to Lieutenant Swann, in command of
the tenth station:
"Is there no mistake in flagging General Sherman's death?"
It was late in the afternoon when the return message came, which read as
follows:

79. "None. I have taken the same precaution to telegraph back to the station
at Chattanooga.
"LIEUTENANT JAMES SWANN, U.S.A."
After this, and the terrible strain of waiting, Lieutenant Coleman and
Corporal Bromley walked away in different directions on the mountain-top;
and poor Philip, left alone, sat down on the ground and burst into tears over
the death of his favorite general. He saw nothing but gloom and disaster in
the future. What would the old army do without its brilliant leader?

80. "POOR PHILIP, LEFT ALONE, BURST INTO TEARS."
And, sure enough, on the following morning came the news that the
heretofore victorious army was falling back across the Chattahoochee; and
another despatch confirmed the death of General Sherman, who had been
riding along his lines with a single orderly when he was shot through the
heart by a sharp-shooter of the enemy.

81. Every morning after that the three soldiers went up to the station at the
appointed hour, expecting only bad news, and, without fail, only bad news
came. They learned that the baffled army in and about Marietta was being
reorganized by General Thomas; but the ray of hope was quenched in their
hearts a few days later, when the news came that General Grant had met with
overwhelming disaster before Richmond, and, like McClellan before him,
was fighting his way back to his base of supplies at City Point.
One day—it was August 6—there came a message from the chief signal-
office at Chattanooga directing them to remain at their posts, at all hazards,
until further orders; and, close upon this, a report that General Grant's army
was rapidly concentrating on Washington by way of the Potomac River.
They had no doubt that the swift columns of Lee were already in motion
overland toward the National capital, and they were not likely to be many
days behind the Federal army in concentrating at that point. Rumors of
foreign intervention followed quick on the heels of this disheartening news,
and on August 10 came a despatch which, being interpreted, read:
"Yesterday, after a forced march of incredible rapidity, Longstreet's corps
crossed the Upper Potomac near the Chain Bridge, and captured two forts to
the north of Rock Creek Church. At daylight on August 9, after tearing up a
section of the Baltimore and Ohio's tracks, a column of cavalry under
Fitzhugh Lee captured a train-load of the government archives, bound for
Philadelphia."
Thus on the very day when General Sherman was bombarding the city of
Atlanta, and when everything was going well with the National cause
elsewhere, these misguided young men were brought to the verge of despair
by some mysterious agency which was cunningly falsifying the daily
despatches. Nothing more melancholy can be conceived than the entries
made at this time by Lieutenant Coleman in the station diary.
Returning to the entry of July 26, which was the day following that on
which they had received information of the death of General Sherman, the
unhappy officer writes:

82. "My men are intensely patriotic, and the despatch came to each of us like
a personal blow. Its effect on my two men was an interesting study of
character. Corporal Bromley is a Harvard man, having executive ability as
well as education far above his humble rank, who entered the service of his
country at the first call to arms without a thought for his personal advantage.
He is a man of high courage, and if he has a fault, it is a too outspoken
intolerance of the failures of his superiors. Private Welton is of a naturally
refined and sensitive nature, and at first he seemed wholly cowed and broken
in spirit. Bromley, on the other hand, as he strode away from the station,
showed a countenance livid with rage.
"After supper, for we take our meals apart, I invited the men to my tent,
and we sat out in the moonlight to discuss the probable situation. We talked
of the overwhelming news until late in the evening, and then sat for a time in
silence in the shadow of the chestnut-trees, looking out at the dazzling
whiteness of the mountain-top before retiring, each to his individual sorrow."
In the entry for August 6, after commenting somewhat bitterly on the
report of the defeat of the Army of the Potomac, Lieutenant Coleman says,
with reference to the despatch from the chief signal-officer of the same date:
"The situation at this station is such, owing to our ignorance of the
sentiment of the mountaineers and the hazard of visiting them in uniform,
that I find a grave difficulty confronting me, which must be provided for at
once. Our guide to this point has returned to Tennessee with the cavalry
escort, and I have now reason deeply to regret that he was not required to put
us in communication with some trustworthy Union men. The issue of
commissary stores is reduced from this date to half-rations, and we shall
begin at once to eke out our daily portion by such edibles as we can find on
the mountain. Huckleberries are abundant in the field above the bridge, and
the men are already counting on the wild mandrakes.
"August 8. Nothing cheering to brighten the gloom of continued defeat
and disaster. The necessity of procuring everything edible within our reach

83. keeps my men busy and affords them something to think of besides the
disasters to the National armies. Welton discovered to-day four fresh-laid
eggs, snugly hidden in a nest of leaves, under a clump of chestnut sprouts,
interwoven with dry grasses, three of which he brought in."
These entries referring to trivial things are interesting as showing the
temper of the men, and how they employed their time at this critical period.
On August 18 came a despatch that the Army of Northern Virginia was
entering Washington without material opposition. Lieutenant Coleman, in a
portion of his diary for this date, says:
"After a prolonged state of anger, during which he has commented
bitterly on the conduct of affairs at Washington, Corporal Bromley has
settled into a morose and irritable mood, in which no additional disaster
disturbs him in the slightest degree. With his fine perceptions and well-
trained mind, the natural result of a liberal education, I have found him
heretofore a most interesting companion in hours off duty. My situation is
made doubly intolerable by his present condition."
At 9:30 A.M. of August 20, 1864, came the last despatches that were
received by the three soldiers on Whiteside Mountain.
"Hold on for immediate relief. Peace declared. Confederate States are to
retain Washington."
The effect of this last message upon the young men who received it is
fully set forth in the diary of the following day, and no later account could
afford so vivid a picture of the remarkable events recorded by Lieutenant
Coleman:

84. "August 21, 1864. The messages of yesterday were flagged with the usual
precision, and we have no reason to doubt their accuracy. Indeed, what has
happened was expected by us so confidently that the despatches as translated
by me were received in silence by my men and without any evidence of
excitement or surprise. I myself felt a sense of relief that the inevitable and
disgraceful end had come.
* * * * * *
*
"Last evening was a memorable occasion to the three men on this
mountain. We are no longer separated by any difference in rank, having
mutually agreed to waive all such conditions. In presence of such agreement,
I, Frederick Henry Coleman, Second Lieutenant in the 12th Regiment of
Cavalry of the military forces of the United States (formerly so called), have
this day, August 21, 1864, written my resignation and sealed and addressed it
to the Adjutant-General, wherever he may be. I am fully aware that, until the
document is forwarded to its destination, only some power outside myself
can terminate my official connection with the army, and that my personal act
operates only to divest me of rank in the estimation of my companions in
exile.
"After our supper last night we walked across the field in front of our
quarters and around to the point where the northern end of the plateau joins
the rocky face of the mountain. The sun had already set behind the opposite
ridge, and the gathering shadows among the rocks and under the trees added
a further color of melancholy to our gloomy and foreboding thoughts.
"I am forced to admit that I have not been the dominant spirit in the
resolution at which we have arrived. George Bromley had several times
asserted that he would never return to a disgraced and divided country. At
the time I had regarded his words as only the irresponsible expression of
excitement and passion.
"As we stood together on the hill last night, Bromley reverted to this
subject, speaking with unusual calmness and deliberation. 'For my part,' said
he, pausing to give force to his decision, 'I never desire to set foot in the
United States again. I suppose I am as well equipped for the life of a hermit

85. as any other man; and I am sure that my temper is not favorable to meeting
my countrymen, who are my countrymen no longer, and facing the
humiliation and disgrace of this defeat. I have no near relatives and no
personal attachments to compensate for what I regard as the sacrifice of a
return and a tacit acceptance of the new order of things. I came into the army
fresh from a college course which marked the close of my youth; and shall I
return in disgrace, without a profession or ambition, to begin a new career in
the shadow of this overwhelming disaster? I bind no one to my resolution,'
he continued in clear, cold tones; 'all I ask is that you leave me the old flag,
and I will set up a country of my own on this mountain-top, whose natural
defenses will enable me to keep away all disturbers of my isolation.'
"I was deeply impressed with his words, and the more so because of the
absence of all passion in his manner. I had respected him for his attainments;
I now felt that I loved the man for his unselfish, consuming love of country.
Strange to say, I, too, was without ties of kindred. My best friends in the old
army had fallen in battle for the cause that was lost. On the night when we
sat together exulting over the double victory of the capture of Kenesaw
Mountain and the sinking of the 'Alabama,' I had expressed a determination
to renounce my chosen profession in a certain event. That event had taken
place. Under the magnetic influence of Bromley, what had only been a threat
before became a bitter impulse and then a fierce resolve.
"Taking his hand and looking steadily into his calm eyes, I said: 'I am an
officer of the United States army, but I will promise you this: until I am
ordered to do so, I will never leave this place.'
"Philip Welton had been a silent listener to this strange conversation. His
more sentimental nature was melted to tears, and in a few words he signified
his resolution to join his fate with ours.
"We walked back across the mountain-top in the white light of the full
moon, silently as we had come. After the resolve we had made, I began
already to experience a sense of relief from the shame I felt at the failure of
our numerous armies. The old government had fallen from its proud position
among the nations of the earth. The flag we loved had been trampled under
foot and despoiled of its stars—of how many we knew not. Our path lay
through the plantation of young corn, whose broad, glistening leaves brushed

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