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Employees First, Customers Second

Employees First, Customers Second

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- One small idea can ignite a revolution just as a single matchstick can start a fire. - One such id

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One small idea can ignite a revolution just as a single matchstick can start a fire.

One such idea—putting employees first and customers second—sparked a revolution at HCL Technologies, the IT services giant.

In this candid and personal account, Vineet Nayar—HCLT’s celebrated CEO—recounts how he defied the conventional wisdom that companies must put customers first, then turned the hierarchical pyramid upside down by making management accountable to the employees, and not the other way around.

By doing so, Nayar fired the imagination of both employees and customers and set HCLT on a journey of transformation that has made it one of the fastest-growing and profitable global IT services companies and, according to BusinessWeek, one of the twenty most influential companies in the world.

Chapter by chapter, Nayar recounts the exciting journey of how he and his team implemented the employee first philosophy by:

Creating a sense of urgency by enabling the employees to see the truth of the company’s current state as well as feel the “romance” of its possible future state
Creating a culture of trust by pushing the envelope of transparency in communication and information sharing
Inverting the organizational hierarchy by making the management and the enabling functions accountable to the employee in the value zone
Unlocking the potential of the employees by fostering an entrepreneurial mind-set, decentralizing decision making, and transferring the ownership of “change” to the employee in the value zone

Refreshingly honest and practical, this book offers valuable insights for managers seeking to realize their aspirations to grow faster and become self-propelled engines of change.

Books in Brief Summary in HR Magazine

"When Vineet Nayar took the helm as CEO of information technology services firm HCL Technologies in 2005, he saw a traditional company that accepted gradual change and clung to a hierarchical structure. But Nayar believed that to survive, the company needed to turn that hierarchy on its head.

Nayar pushed HCL Technologies to change its focus from satisfying customers to enabling employees to make changes. How the firm did this is the story he tells in Employees First, Customers Second. Nayar shows readers how they can apply lessons he and his company learned on the way to being named India’s “best employer” just four years after the changes began.

Key to the turnaround was an initial period when Nayar met face to face with as many employees as possible, soliciting their frank feedback. He calls the process “mirror, mirror” and credits it with unveiling the company’s real issues—because line employees, those closest to customers, are the people most likely to know a firm’s real problems and how to fix them.

Nayar advises on building employee trust by being a more transparent company. When employees know that the company is open with them, they will respond with increased trust and effort, he finds.

The book shows how HCL Technologies used a unique internal system to hold functions and managers accountable to employees; how the firm got employees to take more responsibility for change; and how the firm used 360-degree surveys, employee-focused meetings and “employee first councils” organized around areas of interest."

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