Venkatesh Palakkad is a seasoned Senior Human Resource Professional and serves as the Co-Founder and Principal Consultant of RAB Consulting, a firm operating in Oman and catering primarily to clients in the Middle East region. His extensive career in Human Resources began in 1990 in India when he joined Solidaire India Limited, a television set manufacturing company. Following this, he worked with the LGB group, a prominent player in the automotive ancillary industry, and later had a substantial tenure at Air India, India’s national airline.
In 2000, Venkatesh made a significant move to Oman, where he joined Oman Air, the National Airline of the Sultanate of Oman. Subsequently, he contributed his HR expertise to the Khimji Group and the MB Holding Group, serving as their Global Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). In 2014, he founded RAB Consulting.
Venkatesh holds two graduate degrees, one in Economics and another in Law. He has also earned a specialized Diploma in Labour Law and a Post Graduate Degree in Social Work with a specialization in Human Resource Management. Additionally, he holds an MPhil in Management and is currently pursuing his Doctoral Program. His professional certifications include Senior Professional in Human Resource International (SPHRI) and Global Professional in Human Resource (GPHR) from the Human Resource Certification Institute, USA. Venkatesh also possesses a Level B Plus certification from the European Federation of Psychologists Association and the British Psychological Society in Occupational and Personality Testing.
Venkatesh is a prolific writer with numerous publications to his credit. He has authored a chapter on key competencies for finance professionals in a book on the Finance Sector in Oman, published by the College of Banking and Financial Studies, Oman. His paper on common leadership traits among executives in financially successful organizations in Oman was recently featured in the WestFord University Journal. Additionally, he regularly contributes to various blogs and business magazines.
Having resided in Muscat, Oman, for the past 23 years, Venkatesh has developed a deep connection and affection for Oman and its people.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Tell us about RAB Consulting and its mission.
RAB Consulting was started in 2014 with a mission to provide top-quality digitization solutions and consulting support to its clients and also to promote and support high-quality HR functional excellence. RAB Consulting is leading consulting firm in the region now and represents Cornerstone’s (CSOD) suite of Talent experience solutions from the US, and also represents Splash bi an US based business intelligence platform and Opensesame one of the largest corporate learning libraries and Adrenalin a renowned HRMS solution it the Asia Pacific region. RAB also has its own professional E Learning development studio and develops highly specialised custom learning content for its clients. RAB is also the exclusive representative of HRCI (Human Resource Certification Institute) in Oman and offers all their certification programs in the region
How did you initially get involved in the industry, and what motivated you to pursue a career in this field?
Being a people person, HR has always fascinated me as a profession. I studied HR and have been exclusively working in the HR space for the last 34 years. 25 years employed by various organisation internationally and 9 years as an entrepreneur running a consulting outfit.
How do you foster a culture of innovation and adaptability within your organization, considering the rapidly changing landscape of the business industry?
As an organisation primarily working in the digital space, we are exposed to constantly working with modern technologies. Platforms like CSOD, which we represent, are one of the most technologically advanced HR platforms available in the market today. All our employees therefore spend considerable time and effort regularly keeping ourselves abreast of the latest technological trends and HR innovations.
How do you prioritize customer satisfaction and ensure that the company provides exceptional service to its clients?
We treat every customer as unique with specific sets of expectations; we therefore do not offer any cookie-cutter solutions, and all our solutions are specifically designed and customised to the needs and expectations of our customers. We also study the maturity levels of each customer while offering them solutions so that we do not overwhelm them with technology and sophistication. Most of our customer engagement spans over a long period of time, and we therefore handhold them in their digitisation journeys.
What steps do you take to attract and retain top talent in the industry, and how do you encourage professional growth and development within your organization?
Being a learning and development company, we practice what we preach. All employees work on a structured IDP, which is developed by each one of them keeping in mind work requirements and their own aspirations for learning. A lot of learning happens digitally, and the rest happens through workshops, certifications, and refreshers. We are quite picky with our hiring and rely heavily on assessments, several rounds of structured interviews, and several months of internship work before we do a permanent hire. We also believe in a bit of stretch working, so our manpower plan is always designed to be slightly less than the actual requirement. The slight pressure on our deliverables that we experience in our day-to-day work is something that keeps us on our toes always.
How do you address the increasing importance of digitalization and technology in the sector, and how does it influence the company’s operations and customer experience?
We are a digital-first company. We help companies fully digitise their HR processes and systems. HR systems are constantly evolving, with AI and predictive analytics playing a major role in a lot of future development. We therefore constantly work on educating our clients about their HR process development roadmaps and the most cost-effective options available. We also design the HR systems of our clients in such a way that they are easily portable to another product or technology at a later date.
As Director & Principal Consultant of the company, what is your overall vision for the company’s future and how do you plan to achieve it?
We have aspirations to grow regionally in the GCC and also expand our product offerings beyond HR. As a first step, we already work with an insurance tech startup to represent their claims automation solutions and will be looking at other tech-anchored solutions in the coming years.
Our vision is to be a trusted advisor and systems integrator for our clients and therefore foster long-term relationships with them. So much so, many customers share their medium- to long-term plans with us and take our inputs before finalising them.
What advice would you give to aspiring leaders or individuals looking to join the industry?
My advice for HR leaders is to: a. constantly improve their HR functional excellence; b. understand the business they work for in-depth c. improve their competencies in working with numbers, business plans, and financials; d. propose and develop all HR improvements in organisations based on Roi, cost savings, and internal talent development.
Website: rabconsult.com
