Face to Face with Mr. Arun Balakrishnan, Chairman & MD, HPCL

Mr. Arun Balakrishnan,
Chairman & Managing Director
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd
5-August-2009

The first face-to-face session of the current academic year was an insightful interaction with Mr. Arun Balakrishnan on the transformation of the HR function at HPCL and the various aspects of the petrochemical sales and distribution business.

The strategic decision to leverage on IT for mundane HR tasks (1) eliminated human bias and made processes transparent, (2) it became easy to track performance and reward meritocracy (3) freed the HR personnel for valued adding roles like implementing Balanced Scorecard, competency mapping and training and development. For the Rs. 116,000 Cr public sector entity, it was an experience of making the elephant to dance. It took several cross-functional teams sent on a holiday to brainstorm on the change to be brought about, numerous interactions with customers to know their perception about the company, and finally a national level conclave to discuss and choose the course of action. Decisions were passed without delay and the resultant actions have resulted in a public sector company of which the employees pride, which in turn is a pride for the nation. Recently when all the oil companies in India went on strike, HPCL employees refrained from joining it and the company supplied 60% of nation’s demand for those days and kept the economy in motion. If it wasn’t for the discipline and solidarity of the employees such a feet was unthinkable. The company too recognized the efforts, loyalty and dedication of its human assets and rewarded them to keep them encouraged.

Answering to students queries, Mr Balakrishnan said that prices of the petroleum is high because of the high taxes imposed on them. Nearly 50% of state budget is financed by oil taxes hence state governments are reluctant to reduce the rate of tax being imposed on petroleum products. Moreover, the collection charges are low because it is collected from few oil companies, making it convenient for the governments. Mr Balakrishnan also enlightened the students on the alternate fuel initiative of HPCL, its retail business, and other issues pertaining to the oil industry.