Experiment or Strategy? CHRO from business.

Pidilite Industries Limited brings back a business leader, Ashish Prasad, back into the CHRO role. Last time this was held by an IIM A grad, Rahul Sinha, and now an IIM C grad takes over from Rahul Gama...
This is not a coincidence or a random event; it's strategy...
Richard Rekhy experimented with this belief at KPMG India, and Shalini Pillay, a CA and celebrated business leader, was made CHRO for 5 years.
Gama is an HR veteran and global HR leader and also comes from SIBM Pune, where I went later to do my MBA in HR. Gama had a very short stint at Pidilite (June 2024 to Nov 2025, when he resigned). Though Samriddhi Srivastava, in her People Matters article (https://lnkd.in/gKy8KHYU), says it was a "long" association!
What intrigues me is the decision to bring Gama, an all-HR guy, to the CHRO role after Pidilite had experienced an IIM A's marketing and strategy leader in that role for 7 years (can we call this "long"?), and immediately after Gama's resignation, an all-business guy and IIM C grad has been brought in!
Lessons out of such experiments must be shared with industry and the HR community of elite B schools and in general notice! Would you do it, KPMG India and Limited? I hope so, as Google brought out their Project Aristotle and Oxygen for the world to learn!

Comments

What is The Hay Group Total Reward Framework

The Hay Group Total Reward Framework A new way of understanding reward Reward strategies must be anchored in business reality to be effective. Which means linking it to your business strategy – and the needs of your employees as well as your organisation. Our Total Reward Framework helps you optimise reward, no matter how challenging the conditions. The issue Remuneration tends to be one of the worst-managed parts of an organisation’s cost structure. But with 10-70 per cent of total costs wrapped up in it, reward cannot be ignored, particularly in a downturn. To be effective, reward programmes must reflect the needs of the business, now and in the future. Only if they are tied closely to company strategy, business performance and the needs of employees can reward programmes deliver the ROI that is needed in tough times[MK1] . The Hay Group Total Reward Framework takes strategy as a starting point – and it focuses on total reward: every financial measure together with no...

Aon Hewitt Total Rewards Framework

Aon Hewitt Total Rewards Framework The Aon Hewitt model and approach believes in considering Total Rewards as a business tool and very much linked to overall business objectives! Reward as understood is a very complex mechanism and some efforts of correcting the base pay and titling in a hurry by many MNCs in India have done a bigger crime by trying to correct it by market adjustments without looking at the talent map, complexity and expectations out of role and mapping it against the benchmark. Titles in India are a big misnomer and hardly any survey on compensation ever probes and captures and calibrates the tangible outcome based bench marking! If we dive deep, we will find that the key factors of Education, Experience and Quality of Education, Quality and relevance of experience and education are not calculated granular! A diploma holder technical manager gets the salary benchmarked for the top T-school manager with top quality experience in a challenging and break-through...

Tech Recruiting in the AI Era: How LLMs Are Transforming Sourcing and Screening

Recruiting for technology roles has always been a high-stakes game. If sourcing and screening go well, recruiting wins; if not, it’s a black hole. These two functions are the backbone of hiring—everything else is communication. But in the age of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) , the rules have changed. The Old Way: Conventional Tech Recruiting For decades, recruiters relied on: Boolean searches on job boards and LinkedIn. ATS keyword matching for skills and experience. Hygiene checks like education, years of experience , and past employers. While these methods worked, they were rigid and often failed to capture the nuances of evolving tech roles. Recruiters were constantly playing catch-up with new stacks, frameworks, and delivery models. The Modern Way: AI-Powered Recruiting Enter LLMs and AI-driven platforms —game-changers for sourcing and screening. These tools don’t just match keywords; they understand context , generate structured outputs , and scale personalizati...

Reflections: the stoic way!

Search This Blog