SAP Labs Book Club

In Feb 2008, I got a call from VR Ferose, the MD of SAP Labs, to address his employees in their Gurgaon office. No, this was not a talk on how to motivate employees. The employees were planning to start a book club and had invited me to talk about my books Mediocre But Arrogant and Married But Available. Ferose has brought his passion for books, quizzing, soccer, running and more to the office. That enthusiasm I suspect rubs off on the employees too. Today SAP Labs has more than 25 "interest groups" - everything from music to trekking. It binds the employees in ways that formal employee engagement programs cannot. Since these are owned and run by the employees, they feel this is their own space and not an official initiative.  Economic Times carried a neat write up on them recently. Here is the article in the Eco Times dated 17 July 2011:

"India-born British writer Amit Chaudhary was in Kolkata early this year when he got a call from a Bangalore-based software engineer who invited him to a book-reading session at SAP Labs India. He immediately said yes, because he was impressed by the caller's knowledge of his oeuvre and the prospect of interacting with an "unusual" audience."I found the crowd perceptive...their response to literature and the arts was brilliant," says Chaudhury, who discussed both his music and writing with the young crowd at the Bangalore office of SAP Labs India, a subsidiary of the Walldorf, Germany-headquartered SAP AG. "It is nice to see that they are breaking the monotony of a techie's job, by talking to writers," adds Chaudhury.Sumit Shetty, a book worm, is the coordinator for Literati, SAP's book-reading club, which has so far invited writers with varied tastes and outlook either in Bangalore or at its Gurgaon office - the names include Mark Tully, Vikas Swarup, Anita Nair, Shashi Deshpande, Shobhaa De, Alice Albinia, Abhijit Bhaduri, Advaita Kala, Mukul Kesavan, Rana Dasgupta, Sarnath Banerjee and CP Surendran.Shetty says behind this initiative is the thought that "a creative mind, which needs to write a code, should be exposed to a lot of ideas, especially from the non-technical stream". Such interactions stimulate and expand your mind, says he, adding that after the chat with Albinia, whose work Leela's Book draws on The Mahabharata, one of his colleagues came up with the idea of creating a "family tree software application". "You return cleansed," he says. Such sessions are held during work hours for one full hour.Less than three years old, SAP's author-interaction club has started working with publishers such as Harper Collins and Random House who alert Literati when authors are "in town", says Shetty. Lipika Bhushan of Harper Collins says Literati is "sort of unique" and highly organised. "Authors are excited about it...they often give very positive feedback." What she finds commendable is "its regularity in organising events". Random House's Rachel Tanzer says Literati sessions "are an interesting diversion to the standard hotel or bookstore events". Bangalore-based writer Anita Nair, too, says the sessions at SAP Labs are well-organised. The first book-reading session at SAP was held in February 2008 with Abhijit Bhaduri, the author of Mediocre But Arrogant. The company doesn't pay the authors, but does buy some 50 of their books.Literati is just one of the 27-odd "interest groups" SAP's 36-year-old managing director VR Ferose - who founded the book-reading group at the company - is banking on to improve what he calls overall productivity at work. Attrition, he says, is not a cause for concern, but activities that these groups promote have ensured that members of such groups stay a tad longer in the company. Nearly 50% of SAP Labs India's 4,000 employees are members of one interest group or the other. At SAP Labs, on an average, in the past 10 years, employees who were members of such groups put in six years compared with non-members who worked for four years.Ferose, who joined SAP Labs 13 years ago, is a soccer player and a marathon runner and he was instrumental in setting up many of these groups. At SAP, they have interest groups for badminton, chess, quiz, cycling, running, soccer, etc. The list goes on. After he was named the managing director of its Gurgaon centre three years ago, Ferose started more such groups, which were later extended to the Bangalore centre last year when he got the additional charge as MD of SAP Labs, Bangalore.Says Ferose: "Our objective is to create an environment which is unique and appreciated by employees." Sure, he is used to the initial disinterest among employees to anything new. Though SAP has had many interest groups, when the book-reading sessions were launched, there were skeptics. "However, since this is now a sustained initiative, there are several converts. The response has been phenomenal. For instance, a book-reading session by (former Infosys director) Sudha Murthy saw over 500 attendees compared with the first session which had 35 people...our LTS, too, has on an average of over 500 people attending it," says Ferose.

---------------------Read about VR Ferose herePhotograph courtesy Faraaz Kazi, author of Truly, Madly, Deeply