Sometimes events far away can have consequences in the most unexpected places. As the aftershocks of the tsunami that hit Wall Street on September 15th, 2008 reach Indian shores, the effects are showing. With Lehman declaring bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch being acquired by Bank of America, there is a question that now bothers many multinational company (MNC) employees in India - are their jobs secure?
MNCs collapsing, rightsizing , or getting acquired have created a certain amount of anxiety in the past few years, which the present crisis has served to heighten. “MNCs have always tended to be a high-risk , high-reward career option. Right now, the risk part is in everyone’s face,” says Deepak Gupta, CEO, Korn/Ferry. Slowly but surely, employees perceptions about the safety of MNC jobs have begun to change. The same transnationals which were every MBA graduate’s dream destination are being viewed with scepticism. MNCs are no longer considered to be too big to fail and they are certainly no less vulnerable than Indian companies.
“Two days after Lehman Brothers announced that it was filing for bankruptcy, the HDFC career portal saw a record 2700 hits in a single day. On a normal day, it averages between 800-900 fresh applicants,” says Mandeep Maitra, HR chief of HDFC Bank, which is suddenly considered to be a safe haven in the financial market turmoil.
The collapse of companies like Enron and Anderson were the first reminders to the Indian employees how that cushy jobs can vanish in a jiffy; even earlier, big b-school recruiters like Booz Allen Hamilton had packed their bags and left on the basis of a shift in global strategy.
In the past few years, some of the marquee names - IBM, Pfizer, Yahoo , HUL, Sony - have fired employees in rightsizing exercises, shaking the confidence some more. Lately, employees of MNC subsidiaries like Gillette, PeopleSoft and Aventis have had to deal with the aftermath of M&As , where people were asked to move out because integration didn’t leave them with a job.
There are some factors that are inherent to MNCs that make the jobs more slippery. The matrix reporting structure based on verticalisation or geography is a tricky walk, and many Indian head honchos have slipped in the maze. MNC managers say the time taken in building consensus among various bosses in the matrix is frustrating and becomes downright dangerous if you get on the wrong side of any one of them.
One high profile CEO of a media company, for example, had to quit overnight as one of his bosses complained that he wasn’t being kept in the loop. In such a structure, the job content can be limiting. “The matrix structure of the MNCs leaves you partially in-charge . Then the realisation sets in that you don’t have a full job,” says Munesh Khanna, former head of investment banking, Merrill Lynch and now an entrepreneur.
Source:Financial Crisis: Are MNC jobs secure?- Corporate Dossier-Features-The Economic Times
MNCs collapsing, rightsizing , or getting acquired have created a certain amount of anxiety in the past few years, which the present crisis has served to heighten. “MNCs have always tended to be a high-risk , high-reward career option. Right now, the risk part is in everyone’s face,” says Deepak Gupta, CEO, Korn/Ferry. Slowly but surely, employees perceptions about the safety of MNC jobs have begun to change. The same transnationals which were every MBA graduate’s dream destination are being viewed with scepticism. MNCs are no longer considered to be too big to fail and they are certainly no less vulnerable than Indian companies.
“Two days after Lehman Brothers announced that it was filing for bankruptcy, the HDFC career portal saw a record 2700 hits in a single day. On a normal day, it averages between 800-900 fresh applicants,” says Mandeep Maitra, HR chief of HDFC Bank, which is suddenly considered to be a safe haven in the financial market turmoil.
The collapse of companies like Enron and Anderson were the first reminders to the Indian employees how that cushy jobs can vanish in a jiffy; even earlier, big b-school recruiters like Booz Allen Hamilton had packed their bags and left on the basis of a shift in global strategy.
In the past few years, some of the marquee names - IBM, Pfizer, Yahoo , HUL, Sony - have fired employees in rightsizing exercises, shaking the confidence some more. Lately, employees of MNC subsidiaries like Gillette, PeopleSoft and Aventis have had to deal with the aftermath of M&As , where people were asked to move out because integration didn’t leave them with a job.
There are some factors that are inherent to MNCs that make the jobs more slippery. The matrix reporting structure based on verticalisation or geography is a tricky walk, and many Indian head honchos have slipped in the maze. MNC managers say the time taken in building consensus among various bosses in the matrix is frustrating and becomes downright dangerous if you get on the wrong side of any one of them.
One high profile CEO of a media company, for example, had to quit overnight as one of his bosses complained that he wasn’t being kept in the loop. In such a structure, the job content can be limiting. “The matrix structure of the MNCs leaves you partially in-charge . Then the realisation sets in that you don’t have a full job,” says Munesh Khanna, former head of investment banking, Merrill Lynch and now an entrepreneur.
Source:Financial Crisis: Are MNC jobs secure?- Corporate Dossier-Features-The Economic Times