Not many have the nerve and freedom to voice their opinion in the office, irrespective of being assured that it would work, especially to the CEO directly. While some do not have the courage to face criticism, there are many companies where employees are not encouraged to do anything other than what is penned down by the company as their job responsibility, on paper. However, not all companies are the same. Reliance Industries Limited is an exception for that instance. Robin Cherian explains his case where he progressed along with the company and did not have to think twice before sharing his idea with Mr. Mukesh Ambani, CMD of Reliance Industries. An immediate response from the country’s most powerful business magnate spoke volumes about the encouraging atmosphere in the company. Robin joined as a procurement expert in the company a few years back where his objective revolved around finding the cheapest source for buying raw material equipment with respect to logistics, costs, locations etc. on an international arena. With the company foraying into telecom and retail, he scouted more and mapped out a pilot project that would make the venture cost effective. A green signal from the company to implement the idea was nothing short of a windfall for him.
Robin Cherian is not one of a kind in RIL. In fact, the conglomerate devised a special program, Reliance Accelerated Leadership Programme, (RALP) that acts as a drive to awaken and hone the entrepreneurship skills in the middle level managers. The first phase that rolled out last year will last for a period of two years. It chipped in around 32 RIL top executives after a rigorous testing process. This test will enable them to have a hands–on experience about the working of the company with a multi- pronged approach, with respect to the diverse fields that it deals with. It has always emphasized on the fact that Human Resource is its greatest asset and has often initiated training programs to leverage this resource. Project implementation fuelled by employees who are well trained and equipped to understand the trends and challenges enabled the company to benefit during the year of 1991, when globalization and liberalization gained ground in India.
These programs and training initiatives designed by Reliance Top Management have benefited the company to a great deal, as it does not have to hunt for fresh employees when it ventures into a new field, which has happened many a times.
Reliance comes to the fore and constantly takes the effort to explore new opportunities, resulting in its embarking upon new projects on a constant basis. Be it the upcoming 4G project or the pressure to be the frontrunner in the petrochemical arena, the human resources are always groomed and trained to modify their approach depending upon new projects or the advancements that the company opts for.