CHANGE-MAKERS SERIES Escaping the Past: Mastering Context to Thrive Amidst Change
The only constant across industries, workplaces and geographies and generations is change. All too often we succumb to a false sense of security through promises of best practices and one-size-fits-all solutions. But bringing about impactful changes means that what worked in one place at one time, may not work here and now. If you don’t understand your current context, it’s hard to be successful in evolving your company and in positioning HR for influence. In a wide-ranging discussion, Gautam Srivastava recounts the lessons of a career spanning decades, roles, and industries, his views on the ultimate purposes of HR, and how mastering context has enabled him to thrive across uncertainty and ambiguity.
Learning objectives:
- Explore and understand the relationships and interaction of internal, external and social contexts
- Know how HR professionals can leverage their understanding of context to inform a positive agenda for HR
- Learn how critical focus and process are to HR success
Gautam Srivastava
As Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Gautam oversees all aspects of UMG’s global human resources operations spanning more than 60 countries, including workforce and leadership planning, employee relations, organizational development, recruiting, people development, diversity initiatives, compensation, benefits, pensions and retirement, union and regulatory frameworks, and information systems.
During a career that spans more than 25 years, Gautam has held leadership positions in management consulting, technology, and entertainment, as well as early growth start-ups and larger, global companies.
Gautam’s career started with SCA Consulting, a boutique executive compensation consultancy focused on value-creating incentive plans, in Los Angeles and New York. He left SCA to join i-drive.com, a social, online storage startup, as Vice President, Finance in San Francisco, where he was responsible for raising venture capital and financial operations. He then joined On2.com, as Vice President, Business Development, a startup focused on the development and sale of compression algorithms for video on the Internet. Following i-drive.com and On2.com, he helped to start, and then eventually wind down, Starbox Systems, which sought to bring peer ratings to video store rental shelves. He later returned to consulting as Principal, Mercer Human Resources Consulting, where he worked with numerous technology company clients to develop incentive plans to focus executives on growth.
In 2004, Gautam joined Advanced Micro Devices and held several general operating positions through 2008, including Vice President, Compensation and Benefits; Vice President and Chief of Staff, Sales and Marketing; and Vice President, Sales and Marketing and Managing Director, Middle East Africa and Pakistan, based in Dubai, where he was responsible for driving corporate, retail, and channel sales; marketing; and public affairs.
In 2009, Gautam joined LSI, a semiconductor company, based in Milpitas, California, as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, and in 2011, he was also named Chief Marketing Officer. He was part of the management team that transformed LSI into a leader in datacenter storage and networking with more than $3B in sales, operations in more than 30 countries, and over 5,000 employees; and later sold LSI to what is now Broadcom, for $6.6 billion. In 2014, he was named Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Shutterfly, where he helped prepare the company to go private, which it eventually did not.
In 2016, Gautam was appointed UMG’s EVP of Human Resources and a member of the company’s Executive Management Board which advises on UMG’s global business strategy development. UMG’s purpose is to develop and bring artists, songwriters, and their music to fans across the world. The company’s business is comprised of recorded music from our iconic labels, Interscope, Republic, Capitol, Motown, EMI, Deutsche Grammaphon, Island, Def Jam, Mercury, Verve, Decca, and Virgin, to name a few; music publishing; merchandising; and audio-visual content. UMG is the world’s leading music company, with nearly $7B in sales, operations across 60 countries, and more than 8,600 employees.
Gautam is based at the company’s headquarters in Santa Monica, where he lives with his wife and their teenage sons.
Nick Schacht, SHRM-SCP
Nick Schacht is a highly experienced executive with more than three decades of experience in professional services, education, and corporate learning and development. He has a history of driving product innovation, growth and profitability and he has led organizations operating worldwide.
Nick is Chief Commercial Officer for SHRM, the world’s largest HR professional society. Before joining SHRM, Nick was the founder and CEO of KnowCyber, a learning and development company focused on improving the cybersecurity-related skills of people in all types of organizations worldwide. Prior to KnowCyber, Nick was President and Chief Operating Officer for PetroSkills, a provider of training and development services to the worldwide petroleum industry. Prior to that, he was CEO and President of Learning Tree International, a publicly traded provider of IT and management learning and development. Nick was also the President of Global Learning Systems, a start-up focused on e-Learning and digital content. He served in a variety of capacities at ESI International, culminating in his role as President when ESI was sold to the Institute for International Research (IIR) and then as Group President for the Americas for IIR. He has been a Research Fellow at the Logistics Management Institute, and began his career as a U.S. Navy Supply Officer, on the headquarters staff of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
Nick graduated with honors from the U.S. Naval Academy, and holds Master’s degrees in Administration from the University of Maryland University College, and Information Systems Technology from The George Washington University.