Naresh K Matta

How I got here

I did not start in HR. I started in 2002 selling audio equipment across the north region for BST, part of BPL. It was a year of carrying a target, and it permanently changed how I think about the people function — HR that does not understand how the business makes money is HR that gets ignored.

The next two decades took me through most of the ways an HR function can be difficult. Corporate and plant HR in optical media manufacturing at Moser Baer. Building a training and organisation development function from absolutely nothing at a greenfield cable plant. Talent management at a tractor manufacturer. Then five years running HR and administration across a fifty-branch cable and media network for the Hinduja Group — which is where I learned that HR at distance is a different discipline entirely. Then HR lead for a solar EPC business, where headcount follows the project pipeline and nothing follows an annual plan.

Along the way I ran domestic enquiries, drafted the disciplinary notices, sat in conciliation before the Labour Cum Conciliation Officer and the ALC, and represented management in Labour Court. That part of the work is less common than it should be among HR consultants, and it is the part that changes how I advise on every difficult exit.

Since 2019 I have worked independently — as CHRO, Head-HR and advisor to organisations that needed the function built or repaired. A law firm. An analytics business. Waste management. Digital marketing. Consulting and investment firms. In 2024 I co-founded an IT venture, which has taught me more about the distance between a plan and its execution than any consulting engagement could.

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