The Gen-Nxt Model of Western Coalfields Limited

Case Study Authors:

1. Sekhar Rayaprolu - Assistant Manager (Community Development)
2. Shridhar Chilka - Assistant Manager (Finance)
3. Ritu Singh Khokhar - Assistant Manager (HR)

Organization - Western Coalfields Limited - Nagpur, Maharashtra

INTRODUCTION
It was high-time for a giant company like Coal India to realize the urgency of
transforming its young workforce into future leaders in a scenario when the recruitment of
officers started approximately after a generation gap of about 20 long years. It has become
inevitable that the young officers be courageous enough to accept the responsibility and prepare
themselves accordingly to take the charge as corporate leaders at a much early stage compared to
their seniors.
It was in this context that the Gen-Nxt model was introduced by Chairman Cum
Managing Director(CMD) of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) in the company in September,
2014. The Gen-Nxt initiative seeks to nurture the leadership skills of its young officers of
E2/E3/E4 grade. This is very important considering the fact that the majority of the middle
management will retire in about 5 years of time and a majority of this responsibility will fall on
the young officers. To cater into this need of the company and to prepare a second line-up to be

at the helm of affairs in near future, leaders were being selected to participate and involve
themselves in the decision making process of the Company. This initiative aims at enriching their
knowledge with practical orientation and brings them into mainstream functioning of the
Company. The leaders also act as representatives of the entire Gen-Nxt team and ensure that all
members are actively involved in the affairs of the Company.

THE WCL - GEN-NXT MODEL

It all began when a new Top Management joined the helm of affairs in WCL and one of
their first initiative was to address each and every Gen-Nxt officer of the company. It involved
meeting Gen-Nxt officers throughout the company through cluster meetings in batches. This
direct contact with the new-age workforce of the company by the highest order of the company
motivated and made these officers believe the imperative of putting in their whole hearted efforts
for the benefit of the company. The young officers were made to align themselves towards the
vision and mission of the company.

Phase-I (Nov-2014 to Oct-2015) - Institutionalizing Gen-Nxt

Post cluster meeting, Gen-Nxt began to take an institutional form. A series of workshops
were held (Nov-Dec-2014) wherein Gen-nxt officers spanning across different disciplines and
geographical expanse of companys operations were made to speak up their ideas from their own
field of specialization which would impact the way of doing things to improve the efficiency and
productivity of companys operations. This brain-storming session boosted the confidence of
those who were hesitant to come forward and share the best practices. The workshop served as a

medium of Ice-breaking session to the young officers posted in the different areas and an
opportunity to know each other.
During one of these workshops, a batch of 23 leaders were elected from 10 Areas and
Headquarters with 2-3 leaders from each area for period of 3 months. These leaders formed the
core group of Gen-Nxt and had interactions with Top Management on behalf of entire Gen-Nxt.
Many initiatives were taken by different leaders in their respective areas during this phase which
are elaborated later in the case study.

Phase-II (Oct-2015 to Jun-2016) - Scaling up

In the next phase, Gen-Nxt evolved by scaling up from Subsidiary level to company
level. The overwhelming success of Gen-Nxt model made our parent company Coal India adapt
it across all its subsidiaries. The scaling up of Gen-Nxt model to all 8 subsidiaries of Coal India
took place at a Mega Conclave (held in Oct 2015) wherein young officers from Coal India and
all its subsidiaries were represented by 10 to 15 people each. This conclave transpired as a
medium to spread the concept to other companies thereby tap the synergy and potential exhibited
by the young officers across Coal India family. The conclave facilitated the sharing of best
practices from the respective company and pondering upon the challenges that lay ahead for the
company. A grand vision for Gen-Nxt till year 2020 was evolved. The leadership was now scaled
up at Coal India level, where a core group of 30 leaders was formed across the Coal India who
coordinated with respective subsidiaries in ensuring the grand vision is implemented
successfully.

Phase-III (June-2016 to Till Date) - Empowerment through Decentralization

While WCL itself was chalking a remarkable turnaround with increased production,
record land acquisition and opening of new projects every month, we believed this was an
opportune moment to rebrand itself to deliver an experience of satisfaction to all the stake
holders. In this phase Gen-nxt grew beyond its customary leadership and every individual was
given equal opportunity to present their ideas and showcase their talent to the senior management
directly. This led to a Mega workshop on Corporate Branding and Benchmarking being
organized(in June 2016) which saw participation from Gen-Nxt across all areas on selfnomination basis. This time the platform had self motivated youth alongside experienced Senior
Management, who were determined to create a brand about the company in the minds of all its
stakeholders, at the same time benchmark the best practices for optimum utilization of the
companys resources. 6 Mission Mode projects (Care for Efficiency, Care for Consumers, Care
for Employees, Care for Community, Care for Environment & Care to Connect) were identified.
A Grand Coalition of Gen-Nxt and Senior management under the Tag - Team_WCL evolved and
were made responsible in implementation of these projects, which marked the culmination of the
evolution of the Gen-Nxt model.

RESPONSIBILITIES TAKEN UP BY GEN-NXT

1. Cultural Transformation
Creating Management Trainee(MT) Support Cells
Knowledge Sharing - Intra Department Meetings and Brainstorming sessions
Revisiting Job Description - Defining own Job Roles; Revisiting KPIs
Induction and Training Policy - Cross Functional trainings
Leadership Role - Representation of Gen-Nxt in Management Committees

2. Digital Transformation
Digital Concurrence - Sharing of IT Solutions and applications
E-Applications - Health Care portal, Gen-Nxt Portal
Digitization of documents - Assets, Operation and training Manuals
E-Learning - Educating Seniors for faster adoption; Also for Project Affected Persons
3. Recreating Brand Coal India
Organized Business and Sports Events on behalf of Coal India
Branding of Gen-Nxt - Anthem, E-Magazine, Facebook/Twitter Handles
Customer/Supplier/Contractor Relationship Management - Adopting Corporate practices
4. Giving back to the Community
Formation of Voluntary Clubs - Sahyog by Gen-Nxt to directly help the community
with voluntary contributions under which we have adopted orphanages, old age homes,
distributed stationary to Schools, organized health camps, awareness campaigns, etc. All
these activities are planned, executed, sustained completely voluntarily by the highly
spirited Gen-Nxt Officers.
Gen-Nxt officers also conducted skill development training to rural youth/Project
Affected Persons at many training centers of WCL.

IMPACT
1. The traditional leadership pyramid is not producing leaders fast enough. Gen-Nxt provided a
platform for the officers; and a springboard for the company to build a strong leadership
pipeline

2. Gen-Nxt Officers have outgrown their roles of being just Managers to Leaders and developed
a strong learning culture across the organization at all levels
3. Gen-Nxt Officers are not psychologically bound to our authority/designation and strive to
maintain a flat hierarchy with interactions across all levels improving communication and
process efficiency.
4. Gen-Nxt Executives are embracing digital technologies faster to reinvent the workplace
operations.
5. This model provides to the young and impatient officers what is most needed to themIntrinsic motivation, the desire to do a job for its inherent rewards; manager evaluation of
subordinates the characteristic of traditional performance evaluation can crowd out creativity;
Its only the inherent motivators that drive superior performance and ethical behavior in long
term.
6. Being in their prime, Young officers learn/adopt to the changing times very quickly. Be it use
of technology or going over the board and breaking stereotypes, Gen-Nxt officers have done
it all. Out of the box ideas presented by Gen-Nxt have significantly impacted the business
processes of the company propelling it to chalk out a remarkable turn around in last 2 years.

INNOVATIVENESS OF THE INITIATIVE

1. While India is on the cusp of an historic opportunity of reaping the benefits of its
demographic dividend, the Gen-Nxt Model demonstrates an actionable way to harness the
demographic dividend in a diverse country like India.

2. Gen-Nxt has succeeded in moving away from hierarchical line and block chart type
organization to creating a cross-functional networks of teams, thereby harnessing the synergy
of working in a coordinated manner.
3. Unorthodox means of communication have been adopted by Gen-Nxt to interact with Senior
Management. There are many WhatsApp groups over which CMD and Directors directly
interact with Gen-Nxt officers. This enables the Gen-Nxt to act as the Eyes and Ears of the
Top Management at ground level creating an instant feedback mechanism for quick decision
making.
4. Gen-Nxt also led to the creation of other innovative HR practices like the setting up the of
Institution called SAMVAAD-20; SAMVAAD Groups of 20 people each were formed in all
ten areas including headquarters of WCL to introduce positive changes in day to day
professional and personal life of WCL personnel. The groups includes members from nonexecutive staff, young and senior officers, so that the issues of all the levels down to top may
be communicated and resolved at their own level and important issues may be brought to the
notice of Top Management who regularly interact with these SAMVAAD Groups.

SUSTAINABILITY - SCALABILITY - INCLUSIVITY

Having pioneered this initiative, need was always felt to sustain the momentum with
which it had been launched and the enthusiasm with which it was being propagated among the
other sister companies of Coal India Family. There are some unique features of this model that
made it sustainable, scalable and inclusive.
1. Rewards and Recognitions

2. Workshops and Regular Interactions - paved the way to give adequate exposure to the
Gen-Nxt members about the collaborative decision making process. These workshops in
a way exhibited the maturity developed by the Gen-Nxt members for carrying this
initiative a long way in a sustainable manner.
3. Democratic Institutional Setup - Elections through voluntary self-nomination and online
polling; Regular Gen-Nxt Sabhas - where all Gen-Nxt interact with their leaders;
4. Encouragement by Top Management and Acceptance by Senior Management - Both the
factors are equally important. It is impossible to lead without authority; Acceptance of the
initiative by the broadminded Seniors to empower their juniors played a crucial role in
success of this initiative. They encouraged the Gen-Nxt to think out of box and guided
them whenever needed to put their Ideas to a logical and practical end.
5. Creating a Brand Gen-Nxt across the company - Every communication - internal/external
was pitched in creating an identity for Gen-Nxt. Every meeting was used as a platform to
encourage Gen-Nxt participation. Every interaction with Management showed their
confidence on Gen-Nxt which empowered them.
6. Tapping into the Innate nature of Youth to look for something more than regular work This was a small but very important point that was grasped by our Top management in
creating this platform to create a Win-Win situation where the employee gets motivated
by working more and company benefits by delegating more responsibility.

GEN-NXT - THE FUTURE

We at WCL, now aspire to spread this Gen-Nxt model both Horizontally and Vertically
Horizontally - Across our organization among Non-executive cadre as well

 Vertically - Across other PSUs through forums like SCOPE

CONCLUSION
Youth means to place your firm confidence in yourself & exercise your hopeful determination and
resolution and willing good intentions in this beautiful task of self-culture. This will truly bring supreme
satisfaction and fulfillment not only to you, but also to all concerned
- Swami Vivekananda

As these words reverberate in our ears, its high time we realize that we have a historic window of
opportunity to reap demographic dividend of the supremely confident and highly abled youth of
India. Innovative initiatives like these are rare in a Public sector set-up. The success of the
Initiative is not only apparent but impending. We have to succeed in harnessing the potential of
the New-Age Workforce in this Globally competitive world. Through Gen-Nxt, Western
Coalfields Limited demonstrates that this is not only possible but also implementable and
achievable.