V. NAGARAJ

V Nagaraj

Co Founder & Chapter Head (South India) of Indian Academy of Entrepreneurship® (IAEGlocal)

 

Profile

Mr V Nagaraj is the Co Founder & Chapter Head (South India) of Indian Academy of Entrepreneurship® (IAEGlocal) with his base location in Bengaluru (Karnataka). A seasoned Senior HR Professional with 34 years of HR Development work of which the past 20 years have been in Retail Industry. Some of the innovative & Branded HR practices to retain & grow large talented Retail Corporate & Frontline workforce have been ‘award winning’ leading to top ranking by Great Places To Work Institute. Have held Top Leadership positions in some of the finest Indian and Multi-National companies in People intensive industries such as Brands & Retail / Telecom, FMCG, Engg & Automotive Companies such as Arvind Fashion, Reliance Retail, Bharti-Airtel, Gillette, Saint Gobain Group, etc.

Over the years, have made significant contribution in the areas of Building b HR Strategic frameworks, Aligning organization culture / talent management practices with business objectives, Nurturing a high-performance work-culture thru innovative and branded people engagement initiatives, Building long term strategic organizational capabilities and capacity for profitable growth by focusing on continuous learning and strengthening leadership pipeline.

For the past 3 years (August 2016 onwards), have turned an ‘Entrepreneur’, Business Coach & Mentor & Consultant. Have successfully Co-Founded two E-Comm ventures in online fast fashion in Women Wear and Boutique Digital Marketing services. Currently in the capacity of an Independent Consultant, I am engaged in helping Organizations to review, restructure and recast HR Goals/ org Culture / people practices to align with Business Objectives. Have well defined Talent Management plan, Employee Engagement & Retention initiatives, developing internal leadership strength and keeping a hawk’s eye on Costs.

Have been a Management Committee Member and Senior VP & Chief People Officer at Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd for 8 ½ years. ( from January 2008 to July 2016 ). It’s among the largest companies in apparel Retail & Brands business and has the largest portfolio of brands in India such as the premium international Apparel Brands such as Calvin Klein, Arrow, US Polo, Nautica, Flying Machine, the high-end apparel retail brand stores ‘Gap’, ‘Sephora’ etc.

With sustained efforts and a long term vision to organization development and managing growth, the company

grew from a humble 800 people with 5 key brands in 2008 to a very b retail company with award winning People Practices Company in 2016 with 10000 people b with a huge portfolio of 30 b brands with a topline of 3000 crores in 2016 registering a 10x growth in 8 years.

Accolades & Achievements

An alum of Osmania University, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIMBI) & ISTD, New Delhi

  • An ‘ET NOW Talent & HR Leadership Award Winner as ’40 Most Talented HR Leaders in India’ in February 2013.
  • Happy to share that Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd where I have working till recently was ranked No 1 Company to Work for in Retail Industry and all India No 36 by Great Place to Work Institute, USA for 2012.
  • Served on the HR Committee of Retailers Association of India (RAI) and regularly get invited to speak / facilitate discussions in various professional forum and management institutions.
  • Has also successfully managed IR situations at large factories / warehouses, mentored and provided leadership for Supply Chain, Logistics & Quality teams and have been an executive coach to several senior leadership team members

Have served corporations like Reliance Industries Ltd, Reliance Infocomm Ltd, Heinz India Pvt, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Bangalore, The Gillette Company, Esanda Finanz & Leasing Ltd. (an ANZ Grindlays Bank company), Grindwell Norton Ltd.  (a St. Gobain Group co of France), Hindustan Motors Ltd., Indore, MP…. From 1986 till date

Indian Academy of Entrepreneurship®

IAEGlocal South India Chapter (Bengaluru)