January 2008 NHRD Journal Vol. 2 No.1 104 W ith the changing role of HR and Indian companies becoming more global, what needs to change in the HR manager? HR has now become mainstream and part of corporate strategy. In the 21st century companies are only going to succeed if they are able to attract the best talent in the market place and develop leadership which is visionary. Today capital is freely available, markets have become global and open and the only winning formula is great talent and innovation. People make the difference. In fact if you study the fortunes of any great corporate today you will see that the differentiating factor is the quality of the human talent. Within corporations too in India, HR is being seen in a different light. HR leaders are being invited to participate in corporate strategy setting and execution. Their advice is sought in many intricate issues determining the future of the corporation. CEOs have realized that talent is getting scarce and expensive and hence there is a greater need to attract, empower and retain talent. The role of the HR manager too has changed. He needs to be a thinker, a person of conceptual ability, who understands the working of the corporation and the intricacies of the business, an innovator and above all a person of vision, who stands on his own as a leader in the business and nor a mere follower. He is a business person with a deep HR perspective. Only those HR managers who are able to cultivate or demonstrate these attributes will succeed in climbing the corporate ladder. The HR manager should have the capability to be the CEO of tomorrow. The role gets more complicated as corporations globalize. Suddenly the framework and work content extends to a larger plane. Now the HR manager has to understand different cultures, how people think and react in different countries, what motivates them and what succeeds elsewhere. He should be able to build an employee brand in new countries, be the ambassador for his corporation and compete for talent. It is a wholly different game globally. HR manager has two fold role - one to reorient himself/ herself and also to prepare the employees as global employees. The HR manager has to change his own T. V. Mohandas Pai is a Member of the Board and Director - Human Resources, Education & Research, and Administration,Infosys. He joined Infosys in 1994 and has served as a Member of the Board since May 2000. He served as the Chief Financial Officer from 1994 to 2006. In 2006, he voluntarily remitted the office of CFO to lead efforts in the areas of Human Resources and Education & Research. He has been active in working with regulators to improve the business ecosystem. He was also a member of the Kelkar Committee constituted by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, for reforming direct taxes, the Non-Resident Taxation Committee, and High Powered Committee on e-Commerce & Taxation. He is currently a member of the SEBI Accounting Standards Sub-committee and the empowered committee for setting up the Tax Information Network. He also works with the Union and State Governments in education, information technology and business. He is a Trustee of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation, the body that oversees the International Accounting Standards Board. He is working with governments and decision-makers across India to improve the quality of education and availability of skilled manpower in India. He is involved in Akshaya Patra Foundation, a project that provides mid-day meals to over 450,000 children across India and aims to reach out to one million children. He has B.Com. from St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore, and LL.B. from Bangalore University. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant. A CONVERSATION WITH MOHAN DAS PAI BIMAL RATH AND P V R MURTHY