The business world is changing rapidly. "Human Resource" is a critical and intangible resource of any organisation. Management and development of employees, who are the internal customers of an organisation, is becoming a challenging task in the changed context. With the rapid growth of business across the borders, the most important corporate resource will be human capital. Developing global management is a key challenge for fast growing corporations.
Globalisation of business implies free flow of goods, services and people from one country to another. In this borderless world with integrated economies, local markets get merged into global markets. Excellence in the competitive global market can be developed through innovation, quality and speed. Globalisation brings both challenges and opportunities.
Globalisation of markets requires global mindset, global talent, international commitment, cutting-edge technology, innovative and competitive strategies, risk management, people centric initiatives, global skills and above all, cultural integration. Global business is getting more and more complex and variables are changing fast. To manage these complexities and converting them into opportunities, new management skills are called for successful global managers cope with global externalities by integrating internal resources of people, processes and structures.
Indian companies are going global, expanding and interacting with diverse cultures in new business setting. In addition to knowledge of new markets and technology, the process also requires managers to learn and practice new skills. The softer skills, which play a more important role in global context, include negotiation, persuasion and motivation. 60% of top 100 companies earn around 10% of their revenue from international sales. 20 of India's top 100 companies, ranked by market capitalisation, generate 50% or more of their revenues from international sales.
A globalizing company has to acquire the following attributes to become a world class organisation.
Global companies, aspiring to become global leaders have special characteristics:
i. They reinvent/redefine the existing business.
ii. They develop a differentiated business model.
iii. They are normally the lowest cost producers globally, with high investment in research, quality, safety and environment.
iv. They deliver superior returns over an extended period.
v. They are adept in the transfer and use of organisational knowledge
vi. They are quick to innovate and integrate
All this is possible if they can develop unmatched execution capability of people. HRM in this context plays a crucial role.
In a domestic setting, many a times HRM is a series of fragmented responses to separable problems. In an international setting, HRM will have to play a pivotal role in creating an effective organisation and common underlying processes in different aspects of internationalisation. The discipline, theory and practice of HRM will address issues which are fundamental to the growth of firms, instead of HRM function as an activity. HRM, as a partner in business strategies, can assist international firms by mobilizing, within their structures, knowledge accumulated in a variety of networks and apply these to new markers or to gain better synergies in existing markets.
Role of global HRM
1. The role of HRM should be directed towards building a global mindset.
2. Train managers in handling relationships, networking and global team management.
3. Initiate research and identify common HRM concerns facing firms as they globalize as a common entity regardless of their countries or origin.
4. Develop innovative, effective and performance linked HRM strategies.
5. Recognise and redefine the range of issues pertaining to all categories of staff across functions and tasks.
6. Build multi-country, multi-teams to support HRM strategies and practices.
7. Initiate and reinforce HRM processes for managing global cultural diversities.
8. Engage in proactive communication with people at all levels.
9. Organise get together meetings of inter-country personnel for positive interactions for achieving business goals and objectives.
10. Motivate HR managers across countries and business segments to make and lead change in organisations.
11. Develop attitudinal skills to handle global success.
(The author is an associate consultant with Interlink Marketing Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.).