Human systems

HOW DARWINBOX IDENTIFIED A STRUCTURAL GAP IN ENTERPRISE HR, BUILT AN ASIA-FIRST PRODUCT AROUND IT, AND SCALED IT INTO A GLOBAL PLATFORM

- S SHANTHI

THE MOMENT THAT nudged Jayant Paleti towards entrepreneurship came on the day he graduated from IIM Lucknow in 2010. His father, who had grown up with limited means, told him he had never been able to take risks himself and wanted his son to try. He transferred a modest sum of money and said he would not ask questions if it was lost. The gesture stayed with Paleti, an IIT Madras graduate, long after he joined investment banking.

The idea for Darwinbox emerged a few years later, during a merger and acquisition assignment. While working on a deal, Paleti realised how little clarity companies had about their own people data. Information on talent quality, attrition and retention, which are critical to valuation, was scattered and often unreliable. It took him over a week to assemble numbers that differed sharply from what management believed to be true. The experience exposed a structural gap: organisations did not have a clear, unified view of their workforce, even though people costs and productivity were central to performance.