I am just coming back from the campus presentation of Arcelor Mittal. The presentor were CEO of Arcelor Mittal China, (European) and the HR person, a (Chinese).
Truly they have got a lot in them to be the world’s Number-1. I liked the way they presented …particularly avoiding the subject of high energy usage, pollution and global warming from their talk, rather adding those of CSR and communities building . ...But what I also saw is that they are missing something very important… read below…!!
During the Q&A session, one guy asked “whether Arcelor Mittal is an Indian company?” CEO explained to him the formation of the company and stated that the company is headquartered in Europe and is not an Indian company. In my opinion the fact and figures of this explanation were enough to make any of the CEIBS guy clear on this point. But then what I saw simply astonished me. CEO, China said “How it can be an Indian company, we don’t have even a plant in India”.
What he stated did not make me surprise, but the way he said it (with a smile), made me realize that the magazines and reports about Arcelor employees’s outlook were not wrong. The people who worked long for the Arcelor, could not accept and appreciate the fact that Mittal’s takeover of Arcelor is for the good of economic decisions. Moreover some probably did not feel good because Mittal steel was a smaller (than Arcelor) company run by an Indian, Mr. L.N.Mittal.
Of course, there must be his reasons and thoughts behind what he said, but here I my perspective on his wordings.
Additionally, I endorse CEIBS’s emphasis upon organizational behavior studies and truly our OB’s Professor, has done a great job of making us sensitive towards such issues. :-)
