Lessons from the Indian armed force to the corporate world

Abstract

In the corporate world, a very popular question that is still unanswered is “how to keep our employees motivated?” Motivation can be gained by training, by practice or by experience. But in reality, motivation is realised to be the causal factor for the congruent success of the employees and thereby the success of the companies. Companies spend in millions every year in designing and experimenting new strategies to keep their employees motivated. Though very few have succeeded, it still remains a myth to many. Studying the most successful firm in the corporate environment and listing the success factors would have been one solution to the previously stated question. But we decided to step far away from the corporate world and look into the completely contrasting world of the Indian Army. We chose the army because it is one place where the cadets (employees) are ready to do anything their job requires them to do (without any second thoughts). The motivation levels of the army men are overwhelming. The Human Resource Management team faces a lot of problems in addition to low levels of motivation among the employees such as recruiting the perfect fit, imparting the necessary training, allocating the person in the right space, promoting the employee through a fair process and most important of them all - high attrition rates. We set to explore the Army world, understand how things work and how these corporate problems are handled.