It is interesting to note that the issues that were the bane of the IT sectorlack of flexibility in line leadership, non-availability of management talent, galloping salaries, and attrition rates that threaten to choke our growthare now being discussed at every industry forum and beginning to spread across all sectors of business and industry.

At a recent discussion (hosted by an industry association in alliance with a global executive search firm) in Mumbai, the three important questions that were raised by a panel consisting of people from manufacturing, FMCG, real estate, IT, and consulting firms were:

• Where are the people? Will the educational institutes stop counting the numbers of people they teach and get money from, and start focusing on providing quality and a real education to learners and ready them for high performance jobs in the industry?
• How do we prepare managers to face the challenges posed by relocation to smaller towns, integration of multiple cultures and processes as a result of M&As and the need to lead at all levels of the hierarchy in the organization?
• How do Indian firms truly develop the global mindset and start embracing local talent rather than relying on sending their own kith and kin to locations around the world in the attack on global markets and production locations?

I remember the early days of my career when the company I joined actually had to dangle a double promotion carrot to lure people from their Mumbai comfort zone to the not-so-distant town of Nashik.

Ganesh natarajan

The recent Women in Leadership movement in Indian IT has shown that there is enough talent and all it needs is nurturing

On a more recent note, our success in attracting and retaining the best talent at Zensar in the extremely competitive city of Pune is largely because the entire CXO team lives and works in the city, providing the much needed access and opportunity that many people in their twenties and thirties value more than just filthy lucre!

The other oft repeated refrain is the ability to attract management graduates, and it was amusing to listen to the usual complaint that the extraordinary salaries in IT are inhibiting recruitment in other sectors.

The context has changed today with sectors like retail and investment banking offering substantially higher salaries on campus and many of us who attract good talent in the premier B-schools are able to do it not because we pay more but because we offer the challenges and opportunities that many young MBAs value more.

Leadership is all about attracting young people with a vision, and is an opportunity to contribute to a larger goal that can empower and uplift them and enable a level of performance for the individual and the organization that surpasses traditional goals and targets.

Another common problem that most industry participants stressed on was our continuing reluctance in India to take big risks with youngsters and gender variety.

The recent Women in Leadership movement in Indian IT has shown that there is enough talent and all it needs is nurturing.

I was, indeed, pleasantly surprised at the recent IT Awards function in Mumbai to present the womens award to not just one but over a dozen women who shine brightly in the firmament of Indian IT and BPO, hopefully a sign that the Top 20 companies of Dataquest will soon boast of at least a handful of women CEOsnothing could be better for the industry!

And to close with what the doyen of consulting, McKinsey India founder Anupam Tino Puri said at the meetingIndia can be the progenitors of best practices in many areaslet us make leadership capabilities in global IT one of them!

Page(s)   1