Mahesh G - What You May Not Be Able to Create/Copy Is the Competitive Advantage That Is Generated by Its Employees (Head HR, Five Star Business Finance)

I always wanted to be in a job where the impact on people would be high and hence chose HR as my specialisation by end of first year MBA. I personally felt that if I am in a function which designs and supports implementation of HR policies my impact would be larger and hence choose HR.

Tell us about your background, upbringing and journey.

I am born in Karimnagar (Telangana) in an upper middle class trading community family. I was very mischievous child and would avoid going to school.

For my betterment, I was put in Sri Sathya Sai School hostel where I completed my education till BCom in various campuses - Rajahmundry, Ooty, Puttaparthi and Bangalore. The focus on Education at Sri Sathya Sai school was on holistic development - physical, mental and spiritual development. Apart from academics, we were encouraged to take up different sports, athletics, cultural and spiritual activities with emphasis on human values.

I am extremely thankful to my parents for giving a strong foundation in my life through this wonderful education system. This education taught me the importance of being able and noble. Able is excelling in what we want to do and noble is adhering to basic human values of truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence.

After my BCom, I took one year gap and helped my brother in his business while I prepared for my MBA entrance.

I completed by MBA from the student city of Manipal. Apart from regular subjects taught in regular MBA, we had an outbound program where we were trained for jungle survival for 3 days and then tested in the jungle for 3 days. This and the T-Sensitivity lab exercise geared us for understanding human behaviour under different circumstances and how there is always scope for all to come together for a larger cause.

Post my MBA, I have got the opportunity to work in various companies and industries across the country.

I started my career in L&T at Vadodara doing talent acquisition for Power projects that took me for mass hiring and selective hiring across India.

I moved to Infosys where I was part of employee relations team and worked in Chandigarh, Pune and Mysore Development and training centres.

I moved to Bharti Infratel where I was a part of the Circle HR Team at Bhuabneswar for Odisha circle and later at Patna for Bihar and Jharkhand circle.

I moved to RCom where I was initially handling the HR activities for Andhra Pradesh and Telanagana circles and later handling the entire south region based at Hyderabad.

3 years back I moved to Five-Star Business Finance as an HR head where we are catering to the credit needs of small business people.

I have been fortunate to have had good managers, mentors, friends and teams who have helped me in making this professional journey so enjoyable.

As my journey took me across various states and interiors of these states/ regions I got a chance to explore the culture of these places through their food, music, history, dresses and their approach to life. It satisfied the traveller and seeker in me.I have made some wonderful memories and very good friends in the journey so far.

When & how did you narrow down on what you wanted to do?

Coming from a trading community, I had an affinity to commerce and hence chose to specialise in Commerce in my intermediate and BCom in my degree.

I always wanted to be in a job where the impact on people would be high and hence chose HR as my specialisation by end of first year MBA. I personally felt that if I am in a function which designs and supports implementation of HR policies my impact would be larger and hence choose HR.


What is the most important quality one must have in order to be a successful HR person?

The most important quality to be a successful HR is to have personal credibility.

If there is personal credibility, people are willing to listen to trust you. And when there is trust you can succeed.

Personal credibility is built when others see that “one walks the talk” despite the circumstances not being favourable, when one is consistently unbiased in their interactions and transactions, one is seen as fair.


What according to you is the role of ESOPs in building a large and an impactful venture?

ESOPs is wonderful tool that helps in building a large and impactful venture.Any journey begins with a small step and when a company is not known much in its initial stages, you want the best people to be with you.

In the early stages of the company when company cannot pay as much as established companies, ESOP helps attract the best. It also helps in keeping them engaged for the long term and importantly helps in wealth creation or the ESOP holder.

Qapita helps founders, CFOs and CHROs to organize their equity ownership record at one place making it the single source of truth. You can use Qapita to run scenarios, issue ESOPs and communicate their value to employees, run buyback or liquidity programs and engage with your employees effectively. Do click here for a demo. 

How do you communicate the value of your ESOPs with your employees today?

The value of ESOPs is communicated to employees by plotting the future growth of the company, how employee would be part of the journey and how the employee would gain from this journey and contribution to the journey.

Communication encourages them to see the future that they can create and also benefit from it.


How important is building a culture in an organization and what is your view on hybrid working?

You can always replicate the physical assets of any good organisation.

What you may not be able to create/copy is the competitive advantage that is generated by its employees. On looking deeper into this one finds that culture plays the most important role in creating the competitive advantage.

Also building a culture helps in creating organisations that last.This of course takes lots of efforts and also requires sacrificing short term gains for long term culture building in some critical situations.


Which is your favourite book and why?

I read a lot of comics and stories. I do occasionally read business and non-fiction.

The Mahabaratha is my favourite book and there are many reasons for it:

- To begin with it is full of stories

- It wonderfully explains how there is no one method to achieve our goals.

- It shows in many places that the intent behind the act is equally important than doing the act itself.

- It also illustrates how there is no ”black or white”, there is a lot of grey.

- It has all the good and bad that we see in human relations.


Brief Bio :

A seasoned Executive Leader with 18 years of successful track record in driving business excellence by steering strategic HR functions and implementing best practices for realizing business goals of the organziation. I am presently working as Head HR with Five Star Business Finance Limited at Chennai. I love travelling, reading and experimenting with food.