Meet Sanjay Singh, Vice President of HR, Whirlpool Asia - Talent Landscape In India, Part 1

Posted on January 6, 2008
Filed Under ERE EXPO, Global Staffing Perspectives, India |

By Dave Mendoza, Master Cybersleuth, Affiliate Partner, JobMachine Inc.
(720) 733-2022

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Sanjay Singh
Vice President, Human Resources
Whirlpool India
Email
Linkedin Profile
Whirlpool of India, Limited
Plot No. 40, Sector 44
Gurgaon-122 002, Haryana, India
India Tel: +(91) 124-4591-420
Mob: ++(91) 98-118-74309

Meet my friend, Sanjay Singh, Vice President of Human Resources at Whirlpool Asia, an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur. His 15 years experience spans pedigreed companies like ITC, GE, Coca-Cola & Gillette with high quality HR practices in place. Sanjay is an innovative team builder and who is implementing an environment of change and challenging the status quo.

I first had the pleasure of meeting Sanjay at ERE Global in Amsterdam last November. He provided in-depth, subject matter expertise on India’s Talent Landscape as a presenter, outlining current trends in the job market and economy, competencies in the Indian workforce, forecasts into 2020 and the overall risks and benefits of the talent lanscape in India. You can download his exceptionally informative powerpoint “Talent Landscape in India,” in pdf, … HERE.

At Whirlpool, Sanjay in responsible for Human Resources operations of Asia Pacific: including India, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia & South East Asia. Sanjay is located at the Corporate Office, in Gurgaon, and reports to the Managing Director and is a member of the senior leadership team. Whirlpool’s workforce numbers 971 permanent employees, with approximately 800 contractors spread across three manufacturing facilities, two technology centers and 18 sales and services branches, Sanjay is responsible for setting direction and achieving the strategic HR objectives of Whirlpool across India. Before joining Whirlpool, Sanjay worked in HR at Gillette, General Electric, and ITC (A British Amercian Tobacco Subsidiary)

Under Sanjay’s leadership, Gillette getting ranked in the Hewett – CNBC Best Employer Awards for the Top 25 Employers in India. AT GE India he earned the President’s award for “Outstanding contributions to Leadership Development thru Personal Initiatives” in 2001. In 2000, Sanjay also earned the President’s award for ELFUN – Community service in 2000,

Sanjay was recruited by ITC on Campus where he played an important role in managing a turbulent IR situation in Munger factory and successfully insulated the operations from IR flux. He was the lead resource in creating and instituting self managed teams on the shop floor. Sanjay pioneered and implemented the concept of pictorial and symbolic communication to drive change messages to a poorly literate workforce. In Saharanpur he negotiated a very successful wage settlement. Sanjay also played a lead role in instituting BAT quality protocols which included negotiating, communicating, training and 1st time implementation of these protocols with senior managers at ITC. He also designed and implemented several change initiatives at the shop floor.

At GE Motors, Sanjay led the development of GEMI’s first business plan from leadership level down to the associate level with clear metrics, goal setting and review rhythm. The critical part was to bring together the ‘acquired’ and ‘new employees’ by evolving work processes and metrics that focused on results and key behaviors. Sanjay also led the 1st 360-degree feedback process at GEMI. He helped the sales team to successfully relaunch the FR56 motor by integrating CAP with the launch process. This launch succeeded in the backdrop of 2 previous failed launches.

As Head – HR, GE Industrial Systems India, Sanjay successfully executed significant leadership changes within GEPC India with Barcelona (HQ). Participated in the due-diligence, acquisition & integration of a new acquisition in India and Middle East Asia. Facilitated the development of a competency based assessment process. This laid the foundation for creating a “specialist career path” Developed the career path modules and led the effort to formalize the same with Plainville (HQ).

In 2002 as VP-HR GE Finance Centre of Excellence, Sanjay initiated a dual career path model to retain Subject Matter Expertise within the Centre of Excellence. He helped develop a business HR Plan to enhance employee touch, career paths and rigorous execution of performance.

As GM-Coco Cola India in 2003, Sanjay provided HR leadership & support to the quick signing of the wage agreement in Dasna, Coke’s 2nd largest plant in India.

As Business Unit Partner - HR for Gillette India in 2003, Sanjay played a key role in designing a new, Channel based Customer Development Organisation – to attain growth strategies and product / distribution objectives for the sales organization in India. This led to a 13% YOY growth in 2004 also reduced an organization layer that led to reduction of 10% headcount while managing high growth rates. Supported the Value Chain leadership in India & Asia, Middle East, Europe HQ, to adapt new organization design for India. Played a lead role in driving innovation as a Change Strategy and which was a key source of competitive advantage. Initiated a focused mentoring process to develop and retain hi-potential talent.

The spectacular transformations and focus on Employee Engagement that occurred during the course of his two years of leadership, made Gillette one of the admired companies. The Gallup score moved from 3.7 to 3.92 (55th to 69th percentile).

Whirlpool acquired Kelvinator India Limited in 1995 and marked an entry into Indian refrigerator market as well. The same year also saw acquisition of major share in TVS joint venture and later in 1996, Kelvinator and TVS acquisitions were merged to create Indian home appliance leader of the future, Whirlpool India. This expanded the company’s portfolio in the Indian subcontinent to washing machines, refrigerator, microwave ovens and air conditioners.

Today, Whirlpool is the most recognized brand in home appliances in India and holds a market share of over 25%. The company owns three state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities at Faridabad, Pondicherry and Pune. Each of these manufacturing set-ups features an infrastructure that is witness of Whirlpool’s commitment to consumer interests and advanced technology.

In the year ending in March ‘06, the annual turnover of the company for its Indian enterprise was Rs.1,375 Crores. According to IMRB surveys Whirlpool enjoys the status of the single largest refrigerator and second largest washing machine brand in India.

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