In a first of its kind initiative, HR and Talent Practitioners in Mumbai converged on 30th September 2015 for the Talent Workshop “Navigating Talent in a VUCA World”

Conceived and led by the Talent Management work stream of the HR Committee, this Workshop was facilitated with the objective of bringing together HR and talent thought leadership and co-create a framework for managing talent in our workplaces of the future. The workshop was well attended and senior management participants represented a cross section of industry from across BFSI, consulting, retail, technology and information services sectors. The workshop was kicked off with a presentation from the Talent work stream, covering the various macro trends in the environment, their impact on the emerging workplace of the future, the talent challenges faced by organizations, the shifts required to move from the current to the future and the best practices employed by organizations to equip themselves for navigating talent management effectively.

Post this, the participants were introduced to the Talent Management Framework that is being developed as a talent management ready-reckoner for organizations, and were segregated into smaller break-out groups to brainstorm on the challenges and come up with their recommendations for managing talent of the future. As the participants, had already been familiarized with the Framework through a pre-work mechanism, they were quick to leverage the opportunity to share, discuss and define strategies for the talent management of tomorrow.

After animated discussions and exchange of best practices within the break-out subgroups, each of the sub-groups presented their ideals to the larger group facilitating further discussion and augmentation.

The workshop, which ran well over 3 hours achieved two critical outcomes:

Consolidating the Talent Management approach and best practices of a set of companies
Building the blue-print for Talent Management practices for the future in the form of a Talent Management Framework, through the collective input and experience of over 20 HR and talent practitioners.

The Talent Work stream plans to build further on the Framework by bringing together business leaders and managers of Talent in a similar workshop, to test and reaffirm the recommendations of this workshop and is scheduled for November 2015.

It is a year since U.S. Consul General took charge of the U.S. diplomatic mission at Chennai and AmCham members wanted to hear from Consul General Phillip Min, his experiences and thoughts on the past year.

Consul General Philip Min said he was happy to talk to AmCham members in Chennai, emphasizing that the Consulate will continue to support AmCham in all activities and support American businesses. Consul General Min explained his role as the Principal Officer at the American Consulate General and his responsibility for the safety of both American and Indian personnel working at the mission. He added that the smooth working of various departments was part of his responsibilities. The territorial jurisdiction of the mission at Chennai extends to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Pondicherry and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands besides Lakshadweep.

One of the first things Consul General Phillip Min did soon after arriving in Chennai was to interact with other diplomats in the city to get a feel of the business environment and life in the state. From these meetings CG Phillip Min learnt that the basic requirements were persistence and patience. He said that the Americans are very good at being persistent but they had over time mastered the art of patience.

The CG spoke about the recently concluded Global Investor Meet in Chennai and complimented the manner it was organized. He said that it would be in the states’ best interest to follow up on the investment intentions as the state has great potential in terms of talent, infrastructure, ports etc.

Consul General Min also dwelt on how life in the south of India was good with very hospitable people. He added that for him and his wife, living in Chennai meant being at home, since they are quite used to living in the tropics.

He also said that all the officers at the Consulate and him are willing to be available to AmCham members to help American business grow. The meeting ended with a very lively interactive session with members.

AmCham Eastern Region, organized a “Welcome to Kolkata” interactive breakfast session for the U.S. Consul General Craig Hall on Monday September 28, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency.

Ms. Amada Kidwai, Regional Director gave the introductions. Mr. Dinesh Agarwal Chairman AmCham Eastern Region in his welcome address briefed the Consul General on the role of Amcham in Eastern India and spoke about the diversity of events held in this region. He mentioned about the Road Shows that AmCham Eastern India is organizing for the Government of West Bengal on investment opportunities in the State at New Delhi for AmCham members interested in doing business in this region. He said that this was being followed up at Bangalore in the coming months.

Mr. Shiv Bhowmik, Country Head, Joy Global spoke about the ease of living and working in West Bengal, Mr. Rajib Basu, Partner, Risk Consulting, KPMG gave a presentation on the Ease of Doing Business in West Bengal and Eastern India and Mr. Debdas Sen, CEO TCG Digital highlighted his Group Company’s achievement in the state. NEB Vice Chairman Mr. Gulshan Sachdev also spoke about the Ease of Doing Business in Eastern India and highlighted Amcham East activities in the region.

Mr. Hall in his remarks mentioned that he was extremely pleased to be in Kolkata and his first impressions were very positive. He said that the role of the U.S. Consulate in Eastern India was to foster good relationship between various Eastern Region Governments and the U.S. He looked forward to working with AmCham Eastern India to encourage business investment both in the East and the U.S.

Mr. Suranjan Bhanja, past chairman of AmCham Eastern Chapter, in his concluding remarks and vote of thanks also spoke about the support the U.S. Consulate provided to AmCham and its members and looked forward to this continued relationship.

Kolkata, September 23, AmCham Kolkata in association with the Public Affairs office of the U.S. Consulate Kolkata organized a talk on Cyber Safety and Security: Taking control of our cyber future.

Ms. Amada Kidwai, Regional Director AmCham Eastern Region did the introductions, Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Chairman Amcham Eastern Region in his welcome remarks spoke about the importance of safety and security of cyber space. Mr. Andrew Posner, Director of the American Centre introduced Ms. Melissa Hathaway to members present. Ms. Hathaway, former acting senior director for cyberspace at the National Security Council, has joined Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs as a senior advisor to its cyber security initiative, Project Minerva, a joint effort between the Department of Defence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University. The project explores a wide range of the issues within cyber security from the contexts of international relations theory and practice.

In her briefing, Ms Hathaway said that modern societies are in the middle of a strategic, multidimensional competition for money, power, and control over all aspects of the Internet and the Internet economy. She spoke about the increasing pace of discord and the competing interests that are unfolding in the current debate concerning the control and governance of the Internet and its infrastructure. Cybersecurity, she said, is a major concern at companies of all sizes and has a measureable impact on many facets of operations, and certainly profitability. Yet the scale of that impact is often obscured or lost in translating the size of the risk and the steps to mitigate it may not be clear. Instead, Hathaway says, the risks need to be translated into a language most directors know well: dollars and cents. She said that in our current state of cybersecurity, breach, crime, disruption and destruction are growing in unacceptable ways. Key indicators suggest that we are not making enough progress and in fact, are possibly going backwards. Hathaway gave an overview of the latest developments in cybersecurity from a US and then global perspective—and discussed what is at stake for companies and nations.

The session was concluded by Mr. K.P. Sengupta who gave the concluding remarks and vote of thanks. The event was hosted by Data Core Systems.

The annual AmCham India Door Knock Delegation to Washington D.C. was led by Chairperson, Ms. Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Director – India / South Asia, IBM, on 20th-22nd September, to coincide with the U.S. – India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. The delegation interacted with some of the key players in the dialogue and other decision-makers.

On the afternoon of Sunday, 20th September the delegation met with Mr. Arun Kumar, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the Foreign Commercial Service, U.S. Department of Commerce and Mr. Vinay Singh, Senior Advisor – Global Markets, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Later in the evening the AmCham India delegation had a meeting at the Willard Intercontinental with Mr. Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India. Also in the meeting was Mr. Rajiv Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India and Mr. John McCaslin, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia in Global Markets, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

On Monday, 21st September the delegation met with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Staff which included Ms. Carolyn Leddy, Senior Professional Staff Member for East Asia and the Pacific, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Mr. Frank Polley, Policy Analyst, Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The delegation also met with Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA), Co-Chair, Congressional Caucus on India and Mr. Akshai Datta, Senior Legislative Assistant for Congressman Ami Bera.

In the afternoon the delegation proceeded to the Capitol Building and met with Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), Co-Chair, Senate India Caucus and Mr. David Hanke, Counsel for National Security Affairs for Senator John Cornyn.

In the evening the AmCham delegation participated in the USIBC 40th Anniversary Leadership Summit. Featured speakers included:

S. Vice President Joe Biden
John Kerry, Secretary of State, U.S.
Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, GOI
Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce
Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State, Independent Charge, for Ministry of Commerce & Industry, GOI
Piyush Goyal, Minister of State, Independent Charge for Power, Coal, and New & Renewable Energy, GOI

On Tuesday 22nd September the day began with a briefing by Ambassador Tim Roemer, Senior Director & Strategic Counselor, Global Political Strategies, APCO Worldwide (former US Ambassador to India).

Immediately following that, the delegation met with the staff of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Mr. Jonathan Hale, Senior Advisor to Senator Cantwell.

The delegation met the staff of Congressman Matt Salmon (R-AZ), Chairman, House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific (House Foreign Affairs Committee), Ms. Lorissa Bounds, Deputy Chief of Staff.

In the afternoon the delegation met with Ambassador Robert Holleyman, Deputy, U.S. Trade Representative and Ms. Dawn Shackleford, Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for India, USTR.

The door knock program concluded after meeting with Ms. Lee Zak, Director, United States Trade & Development Agency (USTDA). Others present in the meeting included:

Henry Steingass, Regional Director for South and Southeast Asia
Katherine Michaud, Country Manager, South Asia and Southeast Asia
Jamie Merriman, Country Manager, South and Southeast Asia

The AmCham India Door Knock Delegation to Washington D.C. 2015

Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Director – India/South Asia, IBM India
Kaku Nakhate, President & Country Head – India, Bank of America
Madan Mohan, Executive Chairman, S&P Capital IQ India
Phil Shaw, Chief Executive – India, Lockheed Martin India
Air Vice Marshal (Retd) AJS Walia, Regional Executive – India & South Asia, Sikorsky
Gaurang Pandya, President – United Technologies Corporation (Building & Industrial Systems) – India Region
Samit Ray, Director Government Affairs, UTC India
Chris Cerone, Vice President Global Government Affairs, Zimmer Biomet
Ajay Singha, Executive Director, AmCham India
Valerie Swope, Program Coordinator, AmCham India

The AmCham Sports began on 20th September with Basketball match at the CA Technologies premises. Nine member companies participated in this event. The event was conducted on September 20th, 26th and 27th. The finals were held between Deloitte and Wells Fargo. However, Deloitte won with a good margin. The Cricket matches started off on 3rd October at Vijay Anand Grounds and continued on 4th October at NFC and ECIL Grounds, while the Throw ball match was conducted at the L B Stadium grounds.

A total of eighteen companies are participating in the Cricket tournament which will culminate in 2nd week of December. Throw ball which is only for women saw a participation from 10 member companies. Due to the rains on Saturday night and the ground being still wet, and a continuation of the rains in the afternoon, the matches were called off and will be conducted during the weekend of 10th October.

We thank our Sponsors – DST Worldwide Services, D.E. Shaw, Qualcomm, S&P Capital IQ, Synchrony Financial and UTC Fire and Security.