Kartik Rao, Chief of Staff & Head HR, Bewakoof.com offered an illuminating live webinar session on the topic “ALIGNING TALENT TO BUSINESS REQUIREMENT” at Asian Business School (ABS) on Saturday 25th July 2020 at 4:00 pm under its Leadership & Entrepreneurial Aspiration Development (LEAD) Program.
Kartik Rao is an HR expert with over 10 years of remarkable experience in Business HR Strategy, Organisation Development, Change Management, Talent Management, Performance Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Succession Planning, Organisation Restructuring/Design. He has knowledge of business HR in select regions of Europe & South East Asia and understand working in cross-cultural borders across multiple teams effectively. He is currently working as the Chief of Staff & Head HR with Bewakoof.com (India’s largest D2C Online Brand).
A significant initiative of Asian Education Group (AEG) – considered as the largest centre for professional media, IT, law, management, fashion & hospitality education in Asia with world-class facilities – the webinar was followed by a lively Q&A Session with the eminent guest.
The eminent guest, Kartik Rao opened the webinar session by confessing his excitement and happiness to be with students and welcomed them to this webinar on the very relevant topic of “ALIGNING TALENT TO BUSINESS REQUIREMENT” in the fast changing world due to the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outlining the broad changes underway in the functioning of organizations worldwide, the senior HR professional stated that “the COVID-19 pandemic had changed the definition of ‘Work-From Home’ … made it more comfortable and led to a better recognition and respect of the value of women at home, workplace and society at large. Thus, the pandemic has been a Gender Equalizer.” He further stated that “the pandemic has also become a great Talent Equalizer, whereby new people within an organization have become super stars in matters of adaptability and performance.”
In fact, according to Mr. Rao, “the definition of Talent has also changed and COVID-19 has brought Non-Communicative Managers as well as New Competencies to the forefront of organizational operations. This change has, therefore, opened a whole new world of opportunities for students in the job market. Some of the industries that are surging ahead today in a big way include On-Line Services, Insurance Services and Healthcare Services and students should therefore choose Industries and not Companies while searching for jobs.”
Mr. Kartik Rao also opined that, concomitant to the above radical changes, “the definition of Talent Management has also changed and even the Hiring Process has undergone some drastic alteration.”
As is evident, in order to counter these profound changes in the business world, aligning talent to the business requirement has become the need of the hour. This, according to Kartik Rao, can be achieved “by enhancing one’s skill-sets, embracing mobility, and adding on to one’s agility and speed with natural preference for technology.”
Mr. Rao also stressed upon the need to work closely and intelligently on one’s ‘Resume’, which happens to be the most vital document in the job market. Some of the tips that he suggested was not to copy the ‘Objective Statement’ from anywhere and to focus more on the ‘Achievement’ side of their experiences.
Mr. Kartik Rao then opened the session for questions from the participants. Several questions were put up by the students, most of which were related to HR careers and challenges in the concurrent business and corporate world. To each of these questions, the eminent speaker provided the most convincing answers.
The distinguished HR expert closed his session with a pertinent career advice to his young audience by asking them to “have a goal, but be flexible about the route; be authentic, be who you are … and pursue a career in sync with the passions that excite you as in individual.”