A workshop question changed my view of hiring

The application form asked for a degree. The vacancy was for an entry workshop role in which candidates would learn under qualified technical colleagues, and the degree did not establish the practical ability we actually needed to see. I had allowed the requirement to remain because it made shortlisting manageable. When Rohan Tevzuri asked what it proved about careful handling, listening and following a repair instruction, I could not give a satisfactory answer. The change began with admitting that HR had made its own process easier while narrowing the workshop's choices.

I grew up in Kohima and completed a hospitality-management degree at the fictional Nerzali School of Business in June 1999. In July I joined Qorveth Hospitality as a guest-services coordinator. The business employed 240 people and recorded ₹34 crore revenue for the year ending March 2000. I belonged to a twelve-person service group, with no direct reports or independent spending authority. Guests could hear a polished explanation while still waiting for the practical problem to be resolved. I learned to distinguish a convincing account of service from the ability to deliver it.

The move to learning manager in April 2005 brought six trainers and ₹42 lakh annual learning expense. Qorveth had grown to 390 employees and ₹73 crore revenue for the year ending March 2006. We worked alongside operational supervisors rather than replacing their judgement about service standards. I became more interested in observing a task, asking the learner to explain a choice and understanding what support made improvement possible. A part-time human-resources diploma at Belvori Personnel Institute, completed in November 2010, gave me a broader account of employment while I continued working.

I joined Dorqani as a people partner in February 2011. The company then had eleven shops, 210 employees and ₹61 crore revenue for the year ending March 2012. Eight people-function colleagues worked through two supervisors within ₹76 lakh annual function expense. Musical-instrument retail was a different setting from hospitality. Some colleagues played professionally outside their jobs; others had learned restoration through practical experience that did not arrive neatly packaged as a familiar qualification. I needed to understand their work before designing a process that would claim to assess or organise it.

In July 2016 I became head of people. Dorqani had seventeen shops, 330 employees and ₹112 crore revenue for the financial year ending March 2017. Eighteen colleagues worked through three managers within ₹2.3 crore annual function expense. I spent more time with workshop and store leaders, particularly when a staffing proposal carried assumptions about where people could live or how often they could travel. My responsibility widened, but technical decisions remained with those accountable for instrument care and service. An HR title did not give me the expertise to judge whether a repair was safe or appropriate.

The CHRO appointment followed in September 2021. Today I lead thirty colleagues through four managers within ₹4.8 crore annual function expense. The twenty-four-shop company employs 480 people and recorded ₹188 crore revenue with ₹13.7 crore operating profit in the year ending March 2026. The fictional Irish private parent Elzavern Sound Holdings owns 65%, and Indian founders own the remaining 35%. CEO Maya Khervali takes enterprise recommendations to the board. I present the employment implications without a statutory directorship or an independent right to approve the commercial plan.

The workshop hiring review produced a paid assessment for sixty-two adults and ten appointments, seven of them candidates without degrees. It did not remove genuine technical requirements or establish that qualifications never matter. A later field-service proposal led us to fund four regional bases instead of concentrating the team in one place. That approach took longer and cost more than the central model, but it made the travel commitment explicit and gave existing colleagues workable choices. Four moved into local workshop vacancies rather than take regional field roles.

I also changed my own recommendation on outside work. My first proposal was a broad restriction; the eventual approach examined the actual conflict in each disclosed arrangement. In a separate pay pilot, we removed a per-unit new-instrument bonus and examined whether qualified repair assessment occurred before a purchase recommendation. These are different decisions, linked by a willingness to question what an employment rule is really asking people to do. I have not yet joined the IICA independent directors databank and claim no completed assessment or exemption. A provisional twenty-two days could support preparation for one first outside role, subject to the actual calendar and consent. I would bring experience of connecting a commercial promise with the human arrangements required to deliver it, while learning the different discipline of collective board oversight.

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