Murali MS is the CFO at Capgemini. No, he is not the chief financial officer, but the chief fun officer! So, what does this unique position entail? The CFO engages employees across the length and breadth of the company with the ‘fun’ element, which is what the ‘F’ stands for.
CFO’s role
Murali’s role as the chief fun officer is to ensure a smile on the faces of the thousands of Capgemini employees working in India. It is an extraordinary goal, but the free-spirited CFO relies on the ‘F’ words to shoulder this responsibility, namely fun, family, food and fairy-tale experience. He has crafted a new style of ‘employee engagement’ that ensures enthusiasm and excitement amongst employees using innovative, yet deliverable ideas. The CFO adopts a positive psychology to achieve this and says, “I love my work, and for me vocation is vacation.” His passionate energy is directed towards creating a culture of fun in the workplace so that there is a positive environment conducive for growth and loyalty. “Fun is not just an initiative, but one of the seven core values of the organisation,” says Murali.
Murali MS
“My biggest challenge is that I keep questioning myself and am always in search of next big thing. Finding avenues for fun that ensure maximum participation countrywide, is an impetus and a challenge at the same time.”
The CFO’s Team
Murali works in close association with Sarika Naik, global director, marketing and has a four-member team. His potential as a people person, orator, leader and well-wisher has him connected to all employees at Capgemini, India.
CFO’s achievements
Murali says, “Fun has different meanings for different people, and this is kept in mind while planning activities. We offer a varied palette of activities to involve a wide spectrum of people.”
Rubberband
This music band is for the employees and by the employees of Capgemini. “I created this band keeping in mind the talent and passion that people have. It is about ordinary people having extraordinary passions. In due course of time, the Rubberband was doing shows not only in office but at other corporate events,” says the CFO.
TGIM initiative
The ‘Thank God it’s Monday’ (TGIM) initiative was started to tackle Monday Blues and keep employees’ spirits high on the first day of the week. In about 8000 campuses, every Monday during lunch, a band plays music which engages employees in a pathbreaking way. In these shows, songs are sung in many languages and employees meet after office hours to passionately practise and improve their performances. They have been featured in the Limca Book of Records for the longest-running corporate show. “In our Gandhinagar office, there are not many singers but there are dancers, so they perform dance shows. TGIM has raised the bar for employee engagement as music is the biggest stress buster not only for the performers, but also for the listeners. We have completed 600 shows and continue to get stronger,” says the CFO.
Murali applies the horses for courses approach to design activities suitable for people with different interests and skills. The idea is to engage maximum number of employees in the organisation.
Battle at Basement
This is the name given to fun cricket matches played in the office garage. There are 650 teams, with each team comprising minimum three girls, who play fun cricket with tennis balls. For the intellectual and nerdy ones, there is an exciting quiz (puzzles, riddles, trivia) happening across the country online. “We call it Thank God its 3(pm) and chose that time to curtail the mid-day slump in people. All questions asked are original in nature so that the solution cannot be found online.” There are other activities, such as a talk show, innovative rugby game and so on, which Capgemini employees can choose to participate in to destress and energise themselves.
Why is Murali the CFO?
Murali likes to call himself a happiness mascot. He is passionate about his work and strives to help people in his organisation experience the peak of happiness. He says, “I went through a temporary grieving phase in the past, due to a break up which changed me. It made me hungry for sowing love and creating fairy-tale experiences for the thousands of employees at Capgemini.”
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Challenges faced
“My biggest challenge is that I keep questioning myself and am always in search of next big thing. Finding avenues for fun that ensure maximum participation countrywide, is an impetus and a challenge at the same time.”
The chief fun officer, a designation created by Capgemini, shows the spirit and values the Company stands for. Through this office, it is creating a wave of happiness in its people.
She has been a business writer for a decade now. Besides, she also influences people through motivational workshops. Likes to travel long distances with a book in hand and accounts her travels in a blog. She is very passionate about Yoga and calls it her purpose in life.
