But who will train the HRD department in these functions? It is precisely toaddress this need that Grey Cells, a Mumbai based HRD training and placementconsultancy firm, has set up its Skillshops. The Skillshops, which arebasically train the trainer workshops, give its participants the rareopportunity to examine the programme both as participant and trainersimultaneously.

Grey Cells, which aims to be a one-stop solution provider for all HRDproblems, was envisioned as an HRD departmental store by Mehul Kuwadia,chief executive, and came into being on June 1, 1995. Today, Grey Cells hasa strong team of eight qualified professionals, servicing a client base of75 Fortune 500 blue chip companies.

Kuwadia himself has more than 14 years of experience in the fields of HRDand training. His skill building and behavioural programmes are well known.Kuwadia regularly conducts in-house training programmes for his clients onsuch topics as Managerial Effectiveness and Executive & Staff Development.

Till date, he has trained more than 6,000 managers and executives throughmore than 300 programmes. He has also trained more than 200 trainers toconduct such programmes on 11 different topics. According to Kuwadia, GreyCells is the first and the only service provider in India to have conceivedand conducted topic based train-the-trainer workshops, which he callsSkillshops.

Like the departmental store it purports to be, Grey Cells offers a widerange of HRD related products and services under one roof. These include HRDconsultancy, training consultancy, general management consultancy, in-houseemployee development programmes, trainers' training, trainers'manual/packages, personality assessment tools, employee assessment,placement and recruitment and personnel research.

As an HRD consultancy, Grey Cells also offers Organisation Diagnostics andDevelopment, Employee Morale Survey, Personnel Policies and Manuals,Organisation Culture or Climate Survey and Job/Role Description. It offerstraining consultancy in the areas of Training Need Survey, Training Systemsand Procedures and Continuous Support On Contractual Basis, too.

As a general management consultancy, Grey Cells helps organisations tosharpen their abilities and competencies by offering their services in salesand marketing, accounts and finance, production and operations, and systems.Besides, Grey Cells regularly conducts in-house employee developmentprogrammes for managerial effectiveness, executive development and staffdevelopment for several organisations.

According to Kuwadia, Grey Cells is the only training agency in India toregularly offer topic based trainer's training skillshops and modules. Tilltoday, they have trained 200 trainers in 11 different topics.

A trainer's manual is a structured manual specially designed for HRDprofessionals. It has structured instructions to help acquire the skillsrequired for conducting an in-house programme on a particular topic. GreyCells' trainer's manuals can help any organisation to budget its trainingneeds by obviating the need to hire an external trainer because it provideseverything that is needed to conduct a training programme.

Some of the training manuals Grey Cells has on offer include those onTransactional Analysis, Leadership Skills, Appraisal Skills, Leadership &Team Building Skills, Communication Skills, Six Modules for PersonalEffectiveness, Time Management, Written Communications and ComputerSimulated-Territory Management Games. The last is aimed at the pharma andhealthcare industry.

In addition, Grey Cells has re-compiled the 12 tools for PersonalityAssessment, Skill Assessment and Aptitude Assessment. Each tool'saccompanying literature provides its theoretical background, aquestionnaire, response sheet, key for scoring, interpretation andmethodology. These tools help to scientifically assess a candidate'sstrengths, weaknesses and aptitude, according to international standards.They also support and validate observations with unbiased data. They can beused to assess the career growth potential of existing employees. Thesetools are especially helpful to HRD professionals who have theresponsibility of selecting employees for hire or are involved in improvingindividual and organisational effectiveness.

Grey Cells can also provide a company the right employee through itsData-Bank, Headhunting, Outsourcing Assignments on Turnkey Basis and PackageDeal for Walk-in-Interviews programmes. It can conduct research in variousareas of personnel function and provide a company with inputs like salarysurvey, geographical survey, and personnel/HR practices in the industry. Thesystematic research helps the organisation gain insights into the problemsand handling them effectively.

Among the well-known companies that feature on Grey Cells' client list areABB, Arvind, Bayer, Birla, Bharti Telecom, BHEL, BPL, Cadila, Castrol, Ceat,Colgate-Palmolive, Escorts Yamaha, Glaxo, Global, Goodlass Nerolac, Godrej,Grindwell Norton, Herbertson, Hero Honda, Hindalco, Hinduja, HLL, Hoechst,IDBI, IOL, IPCL, ISRO, the Indian Navy, L&T, MBT, M&M, Mafatlal, MarutiUdyog, NALCO, Novartis, Onida, OTIS, Pepsi, Pfizer, Philips, Rallis,Ranbaxy, Raymonds, Reliance, Rhone Poulenc, Siemens, Smithkline Beecham,Sony, STAR TV, the Tata group, Thermax, TVS, Unichem, Voltas, Whirlpool andWockhardt. How's that for an impressive CV?

For more details, you can contact:
Grey Cells, 7, Banarasi Mansion, Shivam Shopping Complex, SV Road, Malad,Mumbai-400 064. Tel: (022) 889 5288, 889 6594