Syntel CEO wants honest feedback
By Bala Shah

Over the last 12 months, Techgoss had published a series of exclusive reports about all that was happening inside Syntel IT, BPO and KPO. In the first week of May, 2010, Techgoss received an anonymous tip that the highly regarded Syntel KPO Head Ashfaq Ahad has put in his papers.  Also, that all recruitment and PDAC teams had disappeared from Syntel.  The tip was genuine.

So, where is Ashfaq Ahad these days?  A Techgoss tipster emailed in the details that Ashfaq Ahad is now the Vice President HR at Hutchison 3G. 

Who succeeded Ashfaq at Syntel?  Our tipster says Arun Paul has been promoted to DGM and is taking on Ashfaq’s workload at Syntel.  Arun has big shoes to fill and like any change of senior HR management, there have been some resignations in the HR Department.

Arun Paul’s current designation is Head – Staffing, HRM and OD at Syntel KPO.  Arun was the Manager, HR at Tata AIG before joining Syntel in November, 2007.

A second separate Tipster contacted Techgoss to update us on how the new CEO, Prashant Ranade, is doing all he can to get a realistic idea of employee morale.  While the previous CEO, Keshav Murugesh, was a solid finance guy who concentrated on numbers and bottom lines, the new boss Prashant Ranade is a man of his word and a complete people's manager who realizes that services companies cannot be run only on high flying strategies and operational strength. Prashant was keen to introduce an organization wide ESAT (Employee Satisfaction) survey to gauge the mood of the employees and also to understand their perception of the current leadership. Grapevine has it that one of the Business Heads at Syntel opposed it tooth and nail citing a number of reasons including inopportune timing. But insiders paint a very different picture and say this Business Head has good business but sometimes shaky people skills which resulted in more than 100 people leaving his unit. Apparently, he is safeguarding himself against the torrent of potential negative feedback against him. The new CEO Ranade cleverly sidelined this Business Head and set up a committee to conduct the entire ESAT exercise.

Needless to say, the employees are happy with the introduction of such forms of communication between the management and workers.

(Tipsters, Thank you for all your tips. If you need to speak to us in confidence, email us at techgoss@hotmail.com. Anonymity guaranteed. Unfortunately, we cannot use any tips which are not backed up by enough facts)

(Techgoss had published the following article on May 7, 2010)

Syntel KPO: HR Exit?
By Pulkit Sharma

Over the last 9 months, Techgoss had published a series of exclusive reports about all that was happening inside Syntel IT, BPO and KPO.

This week we received an anonymous tip that the highly regarded Syntel KPO Head Ashfaq Ahad has put in his papers.  Also, all recruitment and PDAC teams have disappeared from Syntel. Is Syntel reorganizing its HR Departments?

The Tipster says that Syntel DGM, Gopal Agrawal, has also left and he is joining WNS.  (Gopal, if you have joined WNS, please update your LinkedIN profile). Syntel General Manager Operations, Sanjay Puria, who left recently is also now with WNS.

Keshav Murugesh had dramatically quit his role as President and CEO of BPO Syntel in Feb, 2010 and joined WNS in the same month.  And it seems that he is already missing his old BPO Syntel which was so angry about Keshav leaving that they did not even give him a proper farewell party.  Keshav has plans to hire a number of his ex Syntel colleagues to come and work for WNS.

The highly regarded Mumbai-based Ashfaq Ahad is the Group Head HR of KPO Syntel. Before joining Syntel, Ashfaq was the HRLP at GE and previously Regional Manager HR at ICICI.  Ashfaq is a graduate of Symbiosis International University.

Ashfaq Ahad joined KPO Syntel in 2005 and has been looking after all their HR since.  In those years business has grown from $5 million to $100 million plus.

Anyone got more detailed information? Techgoss appreciates all such tips and inside information.

Tipsters, Thank you for all your tips. If you need to speak to us in confidence, email us at techgoss@hotmail.com. Anonymity guaranteed.