Manthan 2005 Concludes at TISS, Mumbai

Manthan 2005 Concludes at TISS, Mumbai
Post-event Press-release

Manthan - An Introduction

Manthan - the mythological churning of the ocean was essentially a quest for 'Amrit' - the nectar of immortality. Amrit is said to be a mixture of 5 elements, namely, Avadoha, Deva, Madhu, Dadhegegena, Pipayata and Tamara. Manthan, by its very name, therefore, is symbolic of the effort expended in the quest for the ultimate elixir.

The effort of the students of the Personnel Management and Industrial Relations batch of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences was to realise this symbolism in the intellectual sphere through Manthan-2005, a business seminar. The purpose of this annual business seminar this year was thus, to clear some amount of ambiguity surrounding the new roles of HR, answers some questions and raise some others that will stimulate new thinking in the field, thereby enabling HR to in effect achieve what was termed 'sustained value creation'.

To facilitate this process, the sessions at Manthan 2005 had been planned, in alignment with a central theme. The theme was "New Age HR - Enabling Sustained Value Creation in Organizations" while the sessions were "Role of HR - An Internal Customer Perspective", "Employer Branding - A Value Proposition", "Leveraging New Technology - Application and Issues" and "Quantifying HR - What gets Measured Gets Done". These were those aspects in HR that the students perceived as being the greatest challenges, at least in the immediate future, covering respectively the domains of Positioning, People, Process Facilitation and Practise Evaluation. The reason behind the selection of such a theme and such sessions was the fact that today HR as a body of knowledge has become diverse, complex and fluid, that is, it is constantly evolving. The theory of HR, be it concepts such as HRM or HRD, has evolved extensively over the last decade. Literature on HR has become easily available and widely read. Certain works such as the 'HR Champions' by Dave Ulrich have virtually gained the status of a cult. HR has come to be regarded as the greatest resource in any organization and every organization would like to see itself, and be seen as, one that values HR. Therefore, at a time when organizations have begun valuing HR, can HR reciprocate by creating value for the organization? And if it succeeds in such value creation, can it ensure that the success is sustained over the long term with incremental value?

Manthan 2005 was held at the Leela Kempinski, Mumbai, on the 29th and 30th of September 2005. The seminar served as a forum for interaction between members of the corporate world, academicians and students, debating and discussing whether the current hype about HR and its integration with business is just a passing phase or a deserved recognition.

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Contributed by -
Ramanathan V.,
Batch of 2005-2007,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.