Board
Boards are increasingly expected to contribute to the effective running of the company by offering their insight and knowledge. Additionally, they are being held accountable for the missteps and even misdeeds, if any, of the corporation.
It has never been more important to ensure the right mix of experience and skills in the Board which will help the company and its executive leadership successfully navigate the challenges of a competitive world while steering its way through rough waters and the temptation to take short cuts.
With its ongoing process of expanding its reach among global business leaders, Ushankk is positioned to be your partner in identifying and sourcing directors. Even before DEI became a thing, our efforts at getting the most suitable candidates for board positions have resulted in diversity candidates being included on account of their suitability.
CXO
Hiring a CXO has never been a process of matching the skills and knowledge required by the job with the person who is able to provide it. That is a given. It goes well beyond skills and knowledge into areas such as cultural fit, people orientation, industry standing, independent views as shared on social and other media, and many more.
The world understands this today. We have understood this for many years. Just as the right CXO can multiply the growth and development of a company, a poor fit can erase years of hard work in this direction.
For Ushankk, the engagement never ends. Important as the identification and hiring of a CXO is, their onboarding and settling down in the role and company is equally important. It requires change and adjustment not only on part of the new hire, but also from the people in the company they will be working with. We support our clients in the transition as well as in creating succession plans for senior leaders.
Marketing and Sales
Business growth is achieved through revenue expansion. Going a step further, the primary reason for the existence of a business is the generation and multiplication of revenue. Revenue is often the primary hurdle to be crossed, since it is generated from people and entities external to the business, by getting them to pay for its products and services. The leadership team at Ushankk understands it as well as any CEO in any company.
Who leads the way for a business in this process? Marketing and Sales. Hence, in the executive leadership of a corporation, these functions often have pride of place with the incumbents
frequently going on to occupy the CEO position either in their own or another company. Their remit often extends to areas like customer experience and service, digital outreach, product lifecycle, product management and development, channel strategies, partnerships, and many more.
On occasion, the two roles are merged into one. Alternate nomenclatures such as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) have also emerged over the years. As long as the responsibility for revenue expansion is with it, the role is one of the most critical ones in the company, by whatever name it may be called. This applies regardless of the industry, stage in its life, the nature of its incorporation, or ownership.
Finance
The focus of Finance leaders in business has expanded and has become a business-support role than its traditional focus on control; ensuring money is spent only where absolutely necessary and accounted for to the last paisa. The expanded role includes compliance, but also takes ownership for providing financial reports and information to the leaders to support business decisions. It engages with investors in a bid to keep them informed and ensure that they are aligned with policies and are a supportive group that help in amplifying the company’s messages. They also ensure that they have an eye of capital flows in and out in order that the company can make the most suitable use of its funds.
Today’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) could be unrecognizable from the CFO of yore. He could be called the CEO of the Finance function, ensuring that the money resource is utilized in the best possible manner, even blurring lines and making recommendations to other functional leaders.
Ushankk’s consultants have closely watched these changes unfold and have been working with boards and CEOs, and family businesses and startups, in making sense of these changes and helping fit them with the best people. As a close confidante of the CEO, the CFO continues to occupy an important chair at the high table.
Human Resources
Eventually, there are people. Over and above technology, ideas, money, strategy, and all other resources. People are needed to run the show and take decisions. And people need to be guided, coached, managed, developed, trained, hired, fired, motivated, evaluated, appraised, etc.
The people agenda of an organization continues to be owned by the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). They are the thread of consistency and continuity that runs through all people-related subjects in an organization. This is important to note since much of the decision-making related to people has passed into the hands of the business unit or team for which they work. The CHRO does not have direct control but needs to exert the influence, perhaps unobtrusively, to ensure that people decisions across the organization are consistent and help in attracting and retaining the best, most suitable talent.
Ever since India stepped onto the path of liberalization, successful companies have grown manifold, with their employee headcounts also increasing substantially, if not proportionately. As a resource that can think, has moods, can deliver variable performance from one day to another, human resources need close management. The CHRO is no longer a back-bencher at the C-suite table. He/ she is showing the way to his/ her peers in ensuring human resources keep creating value.
While Ushankk often works with HR leaders, apart from CEOs, in supporting an organization’s talent requirements, its own wide footprint in the HR space, with a robust staffing practice, often results in synergistic partnerships.
Technology
“Every business is a technology business.”
The parentage of the popular phrase is unclear, even though it is an abundantly quoted one. And one that most will agree is true.
Technology is evolving faster and faster, and completely upending some of the ways of life that were taken for granted earlier. Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, 3D Printing, Internet of Things are a few names that most people would recognize.
There was a time when a business would need technology to enable it to do its work better. Today, many companies could justifiably claim existence as pure technology companies, even though they may be a bank or insurance company or a healthcare provider. Most startup enterprises are the result of a technological breakthrough or a smart application of existing technology.
In a world where technology is everywhere, changing everything, the role of technology is key, and of the people who man the tech stations. Are they ready for their role? Do they even know that others might look up to them for direction and leadership?
The benchmark is constantly being reset, and the bar pushed higher. Nearly everyone with some authority is expected to be reasonably facile with technology. Existing talent needs to be evaluated and upskilled, while the technology filter needs to be added to every role and function.
Ushankk works with corporations of all sizes to ensure that their technology leaders can take them forward. It also integrates technological facility in search criteria for other roles, as suitable.
Operations
Today the bulk of most Operations are handled by technology of some sort, leaving people to exercise oversight and control and ensure that what needs to be done is being done.
There are, of course, many areas where handoffs are required, either between systems, or between companies, or physical movement of goods, where technology falls short. Supply Chain and Logistics could be an example, which often has one end in the backyard of the manufacturing facility and the other facing the customer or a B2B client. Procurement, distribution, shipping are some of the functions that happen here.
Companies working with us keep their operations teams well-oiled and well-staffed, taking advantage of our experience in this area.
Legal and Compliance
Changing business models and new technologies are only some of the new-age risks that a corporation needs to guard itself against. Regulatory changes, regime changes, political turmoil and conflict, could be some others. Companies also have to grapple with conflicting legal requirements of other jurisdictions as they go in search of new lands for their product to conquer, a direct result of global expansion. Of course, transactional issues pertaining to quality, customer grievances, cybersecurity and shareholder activism continue to arise from time to time.
In the modern enterprise, legal and compliance experts have their tasks cut out. Not only do they need to handle issues that arise, they are expected to see into the future and sense the direction of the blowing winds. They are expected to foresee and head off potential issues each time the company wishes to make changes.
Ushankk strives to identify and hire legal and compliance leaders who can work in lock-step with the CXO team.