2. 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
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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
Relationship
Manager
Account Manager
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Relationship
Manager
Account Manager
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Relationship Manager
Account Manager
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
6. 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.
7. 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.
