Rethinking the Value Zone: Why Focusing on its Employees First was the Right Move for HCLT

Guest Post by David Burkus

In February 2006, Vineet Nayar, the president and CEO of HCL Technologies, one of the largest IT service providers in India, made a shocking announcement to a global meeting of their biggest customers. In short, he told them that they were no longer his top priority. In fact, HCLT had decided to fire some of its customers.

Specifically, Nayar was announcing a reorganization of HCLT’s structure and its priorities around a new strategy that he labeled “employees first...