Managing Massive Change: THE SATYAM WAY

Training & Development, Oct 2007

Satyam Computer Services

Hyderabad, India

In the past two years, Satyam Computer Services changed its business model completely, seeking to retain the entrepreneurial spirit that generates innovation without sacrificing quality in the face of phenomenal growth-from 100 employees in 1992 to more than 42,000 in 2007. The key was to keep the core essentials and avoid stagnation.

The result is the new Satyam-an organization that consists of more than 2,000 independent, interdependent, full lifecycle businesses (FLCBs). Each business unit has a leader who operates much like the CEO of an independent business, and each unit collaborates with other FLCBs within the company for the necessary products and services.

"Each full lifecycle business is run as a small business that aggregates up to the integrated businesses and ultimately to the enterprise called Satyam. This takes outsourcing to the next level, but all of it is conducted within Satyam," explains Ed Cohen, senior vice president of Satyam's School of Leadership. The company evolved from an emphasis on growth to an emphasis on balancing assets and outcomes for greater value creation. This approach has four components: rapid growth, entrepreneurship, innovation, and quality.

Communicating and explaining the advent of FLCBs generated a large-scale change management effort that challenged Satyam's learning and development team. Working with 60 senior leaders who each volunteered two hours, three full-time workplace learning professionals designed and delivered the learning program known as the SatyamWay to 28,000 associates in just 75 days.

Introduction of the change process was achieved through a two-part web seminar. The first part used a prerecorded radio talk show format in which three senior leaders provided foundational information that was enhanced with on-screen presentations. In the second segment-a live, synchronous session-associates were able to ask questions to senior leaders via a moderator. The seminars were accompanied and supported by a book and website published specifically to explain all aspects of the Satyam-Way. A certification exam to measure knowledge acquisition was a critical follow-up element.

According to Rajul Asthana, vice president of Satyam's learning center, "Through the development of this program, we demonstrated that we can quickly participate in any kind of high-level rollout. We had all the right pieces and didn't have to chase anybody down. We showed that senior leaders were involved from the beginning, and we set the expectation for certification and provided resources for that. I think the program proved that learning doesn't have to be mandatory for people to come out in large numbers."

A second requirement of the new FLCB model was to educate those who would be the leaders of the new businesses. For them, the Satyam School of Leadership developed a year-long certification program with four phases, adopting space exploration as a metaphor.

"It's an ongoing challenge to combat turnover among new leaders, and we have learned that the first year is crucial. As we rolled out the FLCB model, we wanted our new leaders to be prepared for maximum success," says Cohen. Five learning professionals worked with leaders across the company for six months to build, test, and measure the program, and also served as personal leadership development consultants to the participants. The end result is a strategy that focuses on success by ensuring close attention to new leaders for the first year.

Phase one-Fueling-welcomes, informs, and prepares the business leaders with resources including the Fueling Kit, a branded box that contains a welcome CD, information on the Satyam Way, and an audiobook, The First 90 Days, by Michael Watkins. Phase two-Ignite-leverages e-learning for competency development and resource awareness. Content includes six modules on internal service offerings, three core Harvard mentor courses, three additional Harvard courses determined by competency assessment, and a one-on-one meeting with the leadership development consultant.

Phase three-Lift-Off-consists of a five-day induction program at the company's learning center. The program includes a chairman's dinner, Harvard case studies, and a real-time business simulation that was developed with Booz Allen Hamilton. Phase four-Orbit-allows participants to develop competencies while focusing on roles and responsibilities. They continue to meet with their leadership development consultants as well as with assigned mentors. They also participate in monthly virtual action-learning sessions to solve real-time organizational challenges selected by senior leaders.

"To design and develop the program, we asked ourselves, "What are the needs of our leaders and how can we help?'" says Cohen. "We interviewed several hundred successful and new leaders, and reviewed data from performance appraisals and exit interviews."

Cohen notes that Satyam's commitment to employee learning is evident in the five-day residential program that makes up phase three. "The only thing we sell is the services of our people. We must respect the fact that this company runs on billable hours. In the past, we have had to fit learning into small snippets of time."