Sachin Rajan is the Country Manager, India at Russell Reynolds Associates and a member of the executive community, RRA. He advises local and multinational corporations at the board, CEO and CXO levels and coordinates the healthcare practice across the Asia Pacific region.

Sachin joined RRA from a leading global search firm where he served for a time as Office Manager for the India offices. He also co-led the firm's global generics initiative within the Healthcare Sector. While Healthcare was his prime focus, he was also active in the Consumer Sector.

What's your thought about ‘work’ with the Omicron variant of coronavirus destabilising companies' return-to-office plans?

 The "Omicron wave" has perhaps had the least destabilising effect on businesses relative to previous waves. Organisations are well suited to part-time or full-time work-from-home formats at this point; if anything, this has reinforced the need for organisations to embrace hybrid models as a more permanent way of working. 

What are the top two trends that you believe will shape work this year?

Accelerated digitisation of the way we work – internally as well as how organisations go-to-market and engage with customers. Agility to pivot – to new emerging market opportunities, as well as ways in which to conduct business.

What does business transformation mean to you today? 

An opportunity to challenge the status-quo—across customer engagement, physical cost structures, and several other areas. Radically new ways to engage employees in ways that are truly bi- or multi-directional. An expectation of enhanced agility and response time.

What are the top three challenges facing the top business leaders today?

Defining a sense of purpose of their business – one that resonates across the workforce and leadership – transcending generations if necessary. Balancing a need to disrupt and innovate, in the face of unprecedented uncertainty in the business environment and leading from the front with harnessing technology to deliver competitive advantage.

What are the keys to managing employees working in remote and hybrid mode?

Establishing the right cadence of communication and engagement - leaders need to more than ever "read the room" in terms of drivers of fatigue. Balancing employee flexibility with the need to stay connected in teams and seizing the opportunity to connect more across geographies that would otherwise be unwieldy and expensive is also key. Using digital platforms to enhance the customer-centricity of the organisation is important too. 

What do you think differentiates successful healthcare leaders from the rest in today's time?

 The ability to articulate purpose and rally the organisation behind this. The ability to increasingly look outside in – e.g., identify technology vectors to create impact with how healthcare systems are deployed, data is analysed, cost structures are disrupted positives and several other areas.

What can other industries learn from innovation and breakthroughs in healthcare?

The healthcare systems are challenged with delivering in one of the most regulated environments, across sectors; the way positive change has been accelerated in a manner that does not compromise process rigour and the discipline it takes to bring technology/products and services to the market has been refreshingly innovative. It exemplifies the ability for eco-systems to rally behind purpose, while navigating stakeholders, communicating seamlessly, and often in a globally integrated manner.

Can you share the top two priorities for Russell Reynolds Associates to help leaders stay ahead in a disruptive world?

Increasingly, aside from finding leaders for organisations, we have been helping organisations ensure "fit" to the leadership role. Identifying nuanced and layered motivations, derailers in leaders, and meshing these with organisation culture and needs, has become more critical and a top area of impact for RRA.  

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