XLRI JAMSHEDPUR

TCX Limited: A case study

on Recruitment Assignment of HRM

Submitted to Prof P.Ray

TCX Limited

Himadri Singha

Abhishek Soni

Background:

The sun was yet to leave its heavenly abode. Mr Aiyer, General Manager (HR) of TCX

Ltd. was staring at the Golden Peacock, placed elegantly in the glass shelf of his big

cabin, which was recently awarded to his company for HR excellence. Mr Aiyer is

having a very hard time to find a suitable Senior Relationship Manager for his new

potential client in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is left with two choices: recruit someone

suitable internally i.e. from TCX only or to choose someone from the CVs lying in his

table. But Mr Aiyer is left with very little time. He has to take a quick judicious

decision.

Company Overview:

TCX Ltd. is the largest provider of IT and business process outsourcing services in Asia.

It is headquartered in Mumbai. It is a truly multinational organisation with offices in

42 countries across the globe. It is world renowned company for its excellent

customer service and end to end business solutions. TCX has recently been awarded

with “Best Place to Work 2010”, awarded for HR excellence, which was sponsored by

a leading Media channel. This award was being given to TCX on the basis of employee

satisfaction survey and innovative HR practices.

Banking and Financial services is one the major source its revenues. After providing

consultancy services across US & Europe, it is targeting the lucrative market of Middle

East countries (Refer Exhibit 1). Recent economic crisis has severely impacted its

business in US and Europe and thus it has become more important for the company

to increase its presence in Middle East.

Client:

Al-Rajhe Bank is one the prominent Islamic bank in the Middle East. It is

headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It demands highest standard of quality in the

services but it is somewhat conservative in its approach.

Location:

Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is situated in the Arabian

peninsula on a large plateau. Its population is close to 7 million. Summer

temperatures are very hot approaching 50 degree Celsius. Winters are mild cold.

Overall climate is arid and one can expect dust storm as well.

Arabic is the official language of the region. It is one of the most conservative cities in

Saudi Arabia. Women have very limited rights and are required to cover themselves

with an abaya and headscarf. Most forms of the entertainment are banned. Islamic

laws applicable to this place are very stringent.

But the place is a shopper’s paradise. There are huge malls in the city. Though alcohol

is strictly banned ,eating out is one of the few pleasures of Riyadh — there's a pretty

good selection of restaurants for various cuisines, ranging from cheap and hearty to

fancy and expensive.

Requirement:

Mr Singh, Current Senior Relationship manager of TCX in Riyadh has unexpectedly

submitted his resignation citing personal issues as the reason of discontinuation of his

services but most of the people felt that there was significant amount of rift between

Mr Singh and his offshore team based in Chennai. While some people felt that Mr

Singh could not adapt to stringent Islamic culture and left the job unexpectedly within

six months of joining.

Currently there is an immediate requirement of a suave senior relationship manager

with minimum ten years of experience in banking and financial services. The senior

relationship manager will deal directly with clients and within TCX organisation will

report to Mr Bajaj, Regional Head, Saudi Arabia of TCX (Refer Exhibit 2). Knowledge of

Islamic banking law is must for the post. Job expects a high degree of interpersonal

and managerial skills. Further the conservative society of the location demands a

higher degree of cultural empathy, adaptive and supportive family. Knowledge of the

Arabic language and prior experience in Middle East country would be an added

advantage.

(Refer Exhibit 3)

Prospective Candidates:

Riyadh as a location was very conservative. Islamic laws prevalent in this region were

quite stringent. Climate of this place was also not conducive. Hence this place was not

the first choice of work for most of the people. Very few people offered their

candidature for the post of Senior Relationship Manager in Riyadh.

After completing initial screening of resumes of candidates (both internal and

external), Mr Aiyer, GM (HR), zeroed with a list of five final prospective candidates.

Among the five prospective candidates none of the candidate was hundred percent fit

for the job but urgency of the requirement was forcing Mr Aiyer to select best

candidate out of the available pool.

Among the five prospective candidates, the candidature of Mr Sharma was very much

supported by Mr Bajaj because Mr Sharma was already an employee of TCX and Mr

Bajaj felt that employees within the organisation should be given the first preference

for growth. Mr Sharma had a total 12 years of experience in Banking and Financial

services but he had very little knowledge of Islamic banking. There was an option to

provide a one month internal training to Mr Sharma on Islamic banking but this could

delay overall recruitment process for the post. Further Mr Sharma has earlier worked

in the liberal American society and had no prior experience of conservative Middle

East culture.

Another prospective candidate, Mr Agarwal had 15 years of rich experience ( 7 years

in a Retail industry and 8 years of relevant experience in Banking and Financial

services). He was currently staying in Mumbai along with his wife and two young

daughters. But Mr Aiyer felt that Mr Agarwal marginally lacked the desired

experience of 10 years in Banking and Financial services. Further Mr Aiyer was

sceptical whether Mr Agarwal would be able take up the long time assignment in

Riyadh. It might be difficult for Mr Agarwal to stay in Riyadh for a long term

assignment along with his wife and two young daughters as Riyadh is a conservative

place which offered limited rights to women. Mr Aiyer didn’t want to invite the same

situation once again.

Mr Khan, the third candidate, was a young enthusiastic manager with a renowned

multinational firm. Mr Khan had prior work experience in Middle East country and

during his last assignment he got an opportunity to learn Arabic language as well. The

only thing that goes against the requirement was his lesser experience. He had

experience of total 7 years in Banking domain. He had an MBA degree from a top

grade Indian business school.

Mr Younis, an external candidate, did not have any prior MBA degree. He moved

slowly from a technical domain to a managerial role. He had total 12 years of industry

experience which included 8 years of technical expertise in Islamic banking but just 4

years of managerial experience. He was fluent in Arabic language and was very much

accustomed to Middle East working culture.

Mr Swaminathan was the final candidate. He was a well groomed guy from TCX itself.

He had total 11 years of relevant experience in Banking and financial services with

excellent knowledge of Islamic banking laws. But Mr Swaminathan had no prior

international work experience and during his entire tenure he typically worked from

an offshore location only.

The Dilemma:

As an HR Manager, Mr Aiyer has to consider various perspectives before finally

deciding on the best candidate. The post and designation both are very lucrative.

Both external and internal candidates are very keen to take charge. Apart from the

relevant domain knowledge it was very important to give due weightege to cultural

adaptability of the candidates so that a candidate can help TCX in building a long term

sustainable relationship with its client Al-Rajhe Bank. Neither could Mr Aiyer

undermine the importance of managerial and interpersonal skills. Mr Aiyer took his

favourite black coffee and started thinking again. He wanted to be sure he found the

right person for the job.

Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 2:

Hierarchy Chart:

India (Offshore)

India (offshore)

Saudi Arabia (Onsite)

Riyadh (Onsite)

Riyadh (Onsite)

Saudi Arabia (Onsite)

Regional Head

Senior Relationship

Manager

RelationshipManager

Account Manager

Project

Manager

Project

Manager

RelationshipManager

Account Manager

Project

Manager

Project

Manager

Relationship Manager

Account Manager

Project

Manager

Project

Manager

Exhibit 3:

Job Description:

Responsibilities:

• Relationship Management

• Driving Business Growth and Targets

• Drive thought leadership and provide business advisory/consultancy to the

client

• Act as an interface between the IT delivery team and customers as well as

other teams.

• Build and Maintain detailed business account plans for respective client

portfolios

• Work with Technology Enablement teams and center of excellences to

architect appropriate solutions to the client organization

• Conduct Quarterly Business reviews with the customer executives

Requirements:

• Prior knowledge of Islamic banking laws

• Thorough understanding of industry trends, how it impacts the client’

business, competitive environment

• Experience in Managing Client Relationship at CXO Level, Business

Development, Sales and Operations.

• Ability to bring new customer referrals in TCX

• Program Management

• Ability to work with Cross cultural and matrix teams to drive customer

satisfaction

• Excellent Oral and written communication skills

• Result-driven-environment experience

• Proven conflict resolution experience

• Prior experience in Middle east countries (preferable)

• Knowledge of Arabic language (preferable)

*Disclaimer: Actual names have been changed to maintain adequate confidentiality.

Analysis of the Group:

The above situation is very common to many multinational nowadays. It’s very

important for any multinational to adapt with the culture of the people where project

is going on. Al-Rajhe Bank is a new potential client for TCX. It’s very important for the

management of TCX to build up a good long term relationship with the bank.

The Bank is headquartered at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. People and culture of Saudi Arabia

are very conservative. Islamic Banking system is also having its particular norms and

regulations. To do a long term assignment for such a client, a Senior Relationship

Manager should be capable to accustom with the people of Riyadh and be equipped

with greater knowledge of Islamic Banking. Probably last Senior Relationship Manager

resigned from the post because of less adaptability. Also the person should be ready

to stay there for long times, at least 3 years. That is why TCX should think ten times

before recruiting the suitable incumbent.

From the profiles of the prospective candidates, we can come to following

conclusions:

1. Mr Sharma and Mr Swaminathan are internal candidates, having great deal of

knowledge about Banking and Financial domain. But the main disadvantage

with them that they don’t have any prior work experience in Middle East.

Though Mr Swaminathan has great deal of knowledge about Islamic Banking,

he has no international experience. Also, Mr Agarwal is settled in Mumbai. A

long term assignment in Middle East may repeat the present situation once

again. Mr Sharma has prior experience in liberal western countries; neither

has he had any prior experience in Islamic Banking system. So, Mr Aiyer should

look for alternative option.

2. Mr Younis knows about Middle East culture and Islamic Banking system but

we feel he might lack sufficient managerial skill. He has only 4 yrs of

managerial experience.

3. As per our analysis, Mr Khan is the most suitable amongst all other candidates.

He is a young manager from a top notch business school, aware about Middle

East culture, can speak fluently Arabic and has a great amount of knowledge

about Islamic banking. The only apprehension he is bit less experienced for the

post required. But 3 years of less experience can be compromised for other

qualities. He may learn many aspects of a Senior Relationship Manager once

he takes charge of the assignment. Also as Mr Khan is an external candidate, it

would not raise any conflict between other two internal candidates.

This is exclusively our Group analysis. Actual decision depends on many other

factors.