Some HR meetings
I have been fascinated by some recent interactions with executives in the field of Human Resource Management.
Personally, I like meetings with HR People. It’s like going into a ‘battle’ for the work arena. I mean, you need to reply principally to questions, but its more fun when you get to ask the HR rep some interesting questions, so that You can assess them. đ enfin sort of (Don’t forget, they also, they are Humans managed by other Human (any C-level executive for eg. CEO)).
Dear blog readers, let me narrate two meetings with experienced HR Professionals at the top of their career.
The first one is a Group HR Executive who happened to see my award speech on MBC TV. He contacted me concerning a proposal in the IT dept of the company he works for. The company forms part of a big Group in Mauritius and has at least 3 branches in Mauritius and others in India and Madagascar. Hence a workforce of around 1000+ employees to be managed. We met for an interview. At the end of the meeting, I got to ask questions about the profession of an Human Resources Manager. And the answers I got were original, something not to be found in Textbook theories. He told me: “You know, HR is a field where you have to know Emotional Intelligence, Psychology etc. I am going an on advanced training on Profiling next week. One has to be able to choose a candidate who will best be able to adapt and perform a particular job as expected. Ena dimoune plorer dans buro. Moi mo dire, si zot envi plorer, laisse zot. The three main job in HR are: 1) Paperwork, 2) Operations 3) Strategy.” I made reference to the commencement speech by the Mauritius Commercial Bank Chief HR Executive and he added ‘You know, what is important in a person’s life is – what has he been during all these years till now. It’s life experience that will forge the character of a person.”
This was a very nice conversation about Human Resources Management. Its a very interesting job to manage the worklife of around 100 – 450 people according the set objectives of an Enterprise.
The Second HR meeting has been that of today early morning. This time, it was a ‘Big Shark’. A Consultant. He is also an industrial psychologist and at the same time an IT Manager!
There is something that we call Job Profiling that had to be done. The employment consultant has the job to know the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate in order to be able to provide the right talent to the organisation which is paying to recruit the right person or to obtain a short list of CVs.
To admit, I was pretty impressed by this interview. The consultant himself admitted that ‘it was a strange one’. Damn it, by his questions and careful inspection of my CV, he was able to describe my ambitions, my career aspirations and in respect to all the factors he found in my personality, which job would suit me well. And cherry on the cake, he even proposed me that this job vacancy is not what I want, but that this one would better suit me! Alors la Monsieur, Trop Fort! Respect!
That guy, in the middle of the meeting, after asking questions, changed the usual scenario of the interview. He was like an advanced form of Human Resources Professional, one of a mutated or evolved one.
He advised me that by choosing this career pathway, I will be skipping some steps.. and I thought ‘Bingo!’ We exchanged our business cards and then had a relaxed chat about the IT industry and Recruitment of Professionals in this field. He highlighted that there is a shortage of Good IT guys in Mauritius, and even if there are, the few ones are NOT Serious. This is the reason why we have to recruit from India or from Madagascar. Well that’s a pity, and its a fact, I had also written on this topic when I had a nice meeting with key web 2.0 people in Mauritius. It’s true that I have personally witnessed ‘Malgache’ Programmers; they are talented guys and the Indians, in IT they ‘know everything and can do anything’
So folks, next time if you are doing an interview with an HR Professional, if they are really good, even without doing Psychometric Tests, they can get to know you and gauge your job suitability. That’s it.
Le Boss fostering Mauritian Entrepreneurship
The finals of the competition ‘Le Boss’ was held yesterday night (2 July 2011) on MBC TV (http://www.mbcradio.tv/browse/news/local/finale-du-concours-televise-le-boss/). Its for the first time that on MBC, the Development Bank of Mauritius (DBM) created the initiative for ‘re-boosting’ Mauritian Entrepreneurship and Innovation.  The website of Le Boss can be accessed here: http://www.dbm.mu/leboss/index.html . The Youtube videos have been uploaded by Darkprint ltd on http://www.youtube.com/user/quickdarkness#p/u. And the Facebook page link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LE-BOSS/107708422646875
There were 7 finalists who were entrepreneurs in a specific industry who had submitted their business plans to a panel of Jury. On the competition, they were given 6 minutes to answer questions of the jury members, who were professionals in their field. The winner of the first edition of ‘Le Boss’ is Ved Luchmun.
Ved (the banana transformation guy’)was very proud of winning this competition and became emotional at the end of the show, as all TV viewers witnessed. Many Congratulations to him and wish him all the best for his entrepreneurial spirit and his journey towards self-actualisation.
My Personal Opinion:
Firstly, It was nice to have Mr. Francois Woo, Director of Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile LtĂ©e (CMT), the leading textile company on TV. He told his personal experience of how he started to become where he is today. On the web there is already a short description http://www.factory-buildings.com/compagnie.htm , however his live ‘testimonial’ had a greater weight. What I will retain is that: 1) one needs at least 10 years of learning and gaining experience in the field that one wishes to do business 2) hard work and sacrifice is essential as during this period (10-year), one will make savings, that will be invested in the new company that will take birth 3) With your own money invested, you will be more careful and this will have an impact on your decision-making process. Mr Woo had also taken the support of DBM for the financing of his projects and today, CMT can aspire to be amongst the top ten in garment manufacturing. For me, personally, Francois Woo is a role model for new Mauritian Entrepreneurs who are willing to compete on a global stage by seizing Government Support (whether in form of a DBM loan or help in business planning etc.).
Secondly, the members of the jury asked questions requiring critical thinking as they need to defend their business plan and be convincing. I appreciate the nice job of the members of the jury. Their questions liked to sustainability, feasibility of the business model- in the form of ‘what’s your strategy to tackle X and Y Challenge? What is your marketing plan? Management questions – Can you define Success? How can you assure Quality in your products? etc.. However, the thing of ‘buzzers’ – euhh , this concept is a bit ambiguous for me.
Thirdly, given I am in the shoes of a Freelance Web Developer (or Mauritian Technopreneur), it was nice to see a young finalist defending his eMarketing Business plan (SEO, Copywriting etc.) Miss Nabiilah is also a student whilst trying to conduct her business affairs. This is very encouraging to see female entrepreneurs emerging. I hope the ‘glass ceiling’ will eventually not exist. Also, Web 2.0 can provide most businesses a competitive edge and this has been outlined by someone in the audience in the TV show. So allez Nabiilah, ‘manz r li’ with your Mauritian Technopreneur spirit. I know its not easy as I had done the same during my UoM days.
To conclude, Le Boss has a good start. I hope that MBC could inspire a bit from BBC Dragon’s Den http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/ for any further editions.
What do you think of the show? Do not hesitate to comment….
Go: Final BCS Revision!
Having already embarked on the Diploma in IT journey, here we are, with the final obstacle: The BCS Core Diploma Module. Reading the blog post of last year for the preparations for the BCS Professional Examinations, I realise that I am not ready for the exams which is due in a few days only. đŠ
Personally I think the main reason behind this lack of thorough preparation is the Practical Training 2009. I just wanna damn complete this stupid thing as fast as possible so that we could return to the knowledge temple of UoM. đ„
The another reason is: I am passionate about my freelance opportunities. It is a great pleasant surprise to find that loyal customers exist. Its an honour for me to continue working with them and providing quality IT service. It is about this that I have read in the Marketing textbooks:
Marketing is the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.
Thirdly, I cannot resist reading books which are not necessarily related to the BCS exams, for eg. reading psychology books to at least try understand human mind and behaviour scientifically.
Despite all these constraints, bastard you exams, I gonna nail you down. 8) I am even more determined to accept this challenge (this core module has the no 1 failure rate, followed by software development module) and deliver my best shot in the exams room.
Yo Lady luck, are you free tonight? đ
Ashesh R Creative Studio 
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