Vineet Nayar, the entrepreneur who trusted his employees to take HCL to the top

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Getting engaged employees is the goal of any leader and any company, as it has been proven beyond a doubt that employee commitment and loyalty are key to company productivity. That is what Vineet Nayar , the Indian-born businessman born in 1962, has achieved. Today he has become one of the most inspiring leaders of the last decades. Thanks to his work at the head of HCL Technologies , this Indian technology company went from being a bankrupt project to a global giant . But beyond what he did, what is important is how he did it: blindly trusting his employees and managing to turn them into engaged employees .

He joined the Indian company in 2005 under rcs data europe guidance of its founder Shiv Nadar , who appointed him president (2005-2007) and CEO (2007-2013). He entrusted him with the mission of reversing the bad moment that the organization was going through. At that time, HCL Technologies was immersed in a crisis that not only affected its numbers, but also the productivity and motivation of its employees. In just eight years, Nayar managed to reverse the trend and achieve incredible growth: revenues sextupled and its market value grew to unsuspected limits . But, in addition, he managed to get the company distinguished as the most democratic workplace in the world , the most innovative in Human Resources and the Best Employer in both Asia and England .

He published the secrets of his success a few years later in the book ' Employees First, Customers Second. How to Transform Conventional Business Management from Top to Bottom '. In it he explained that change within a company begins when managers realise that they can delegate power to employees and give them “ownership of knowledge to turn it into added value for the company”. In this sense, Nayar began his adventure at HCL by gaining the trust of his employees by betting on transparency: “If you are on one side of the glass and I am on the other, there is no reason to distrust because you see everything I do”.

Once he had captured the attention of the staff, he empowered all workers , including those on the front line who dealt directly with customers. According to Nayar, it was precisely these engaged employees and consumers who formed the true value zone of a company. That is why the managers, who until then barely knew the names of these workers, became their direct managers. The result? An inverted pyramid, with more engaged and motivated workers , and incredible growth in just over five years.