HR INTERVIEW: DOMINO’S INDIA PVT. LTD. Sell More Pizza, Have More Fun! Basab Bordoloi (VP-HR, Domino’s Pizza India Ltd.) talks to Aditi Sharma about the ‘make it, bake it, take it’ philosophy, and becoming an employer of choice across retail and services industries |
 Meet Mr. Basab Bordoloi, VP-HR at Domino’s Pizza India, and the man who has spearheaded the rise of Domino’s to the very top of the QSR (quick service restaurant) industry in India, as the 2009 Best Employer survey by Hewitt proves. The pizza major Domino’s has taken a leadership position within the industry by establishing a reputation as a home delivery specialist capable of delivering its pizzas within 30 minutes from its chain of stores across the country. Mr. Bordoloi talks to The Human Factor in this exclusive interview, sharing with us strategic plans for the coming year, and the best ways to retain young employees.Q. Please tell us about your early career and education. Where was your first job and how was the experience? How did you get into the field of HR? A. After completing graduation from Gauhati University, Assam, and management from AIMA, New Delhi, I started my career with Elbee-UPS as a management trainee. There, I grew through the ranks and worked in various aspects of HR and training across many regions. The range of experience and learning at Elbee-UPS was immense. In fact, I consider those 5 years the best period of my professional career. Q. Tell us about Domino’s Pizza operations in India. A. Domino’s Pizza opened its first store in India in January 1996 at New Delhi. Today, we have grown into a countrywide network of around 250 stores in 50 cities. With a team of over 6000 people, we are the largest QSR brand in India. Over time, Domino’s has established its reputation of being a home delivery specialist capable of delivering pizzas within 30 minutes to its customers from all stores around the country, or else free. Domino’s is the market leader in the pizza home delivery segment, with over 65 per cent market share. In the overall organised pizza segment, we have a market share of 45 per cent. Q. What do business plans for the coming year look like? A. Strategically, 2009 will not be different from 2008. Last year, we launched our new positioning through the ‘Khushiyon Ki Home Delivery’ concept. We intend to take it forward this year and continue building upon it. We expect to grow rapidly in 2009, with sustained focus on value for money, new product launches and plans for rapid store expansion. In terms of our reach, 2009 will see us entering many new cities alongwith the development of new stores in existing cities. We plan to increase our store count from 250 to approximately 320 by the end of the financial year. |
 Q. What is the HR vision at Domino’s India? A. One of our ambitions had been to become one of the best employers in retail and services industries in India by the end of 2008. In 2007, Hewitt recognised us as the 16th best employer in India, and we were rated 3rd amongst retail and services industries. Going forward, we would now like to become the best employer across this category in India. Although the Hewitt Best Employer survey conducted in 2009 has already rated us 1st amongst retail companies in India and 3rd in services industries, we believe there is still a lot to be done. Q. What are the initiatives that you are taking in order to get to that number one position? A. To achieve the number one ranking and actualise our vision, we are conducting large scale training and development programmes, driving employee engagement across the organisation, and institutionalising best-in-class HR policies and processes. Q. After being chosen by Hewitt as amongst the top 25 employers in Asia, tell us about the HR outlook and motivation that led to this achievement. A. It will be simpler to answer this question by listing down the criteria used by Hewitt to evaluate organisations. Hewitt looks for the following parameters while choosing the best employers, and I think all of these are evident at Domino’s: effective and committed leadership, ownership by the CEO of talent and leadership development, high performance workforce, effective HR, and strong customer focus. Q. What would you say has been the biggest HR challenge for you, especially since most employees are young and have graduated quite recently? A. Well, I would say that the biggest HR challenges for us have been to manage the aspirations of generation Y, hiring quality manpower, and building the desired culture and organisational values amongst all employees, especially when we are growing so fast. Q. How strongly does Domino’s believe in training and development, even during times of economic downturn? A. Oh, even during the recession, we have increased our training budget by 33 per cent! Throughout this downturn, we have strongly believed that rather than creating a sense of fear amongst our employees about them losing their jobs, we prefer to invest in them and prepare a strong training strategy that is linked to business requirements. Investing in people through training and development will ultimately enhance their skills and knowledge, while improving organisational productivity. Q. Share with us some examples of work culture in the company, especially in terms of grooming store managers and the ‘make it, bake it, take it’ philosophy. A. Our people philosophy relates to the theme of ‘by the people, for the people, with the people’. Thus, we believe in the concepts of total employee engagement, a strong culture and providing a fun place to work for. We often chant the phrase, “sell more pizza, have more fun”, which incorporates the aspects of both culture business. For those people who are not directly impacting sales, the mantra is, “If you cannot make it, bake it or take it, then support those who do it.” This mentality helps us drive consumer centricity across the various levels and functions of the organisation. |
