Talent Hunt

India and China are the two countries that have a greater
manpower demand and supply problem, says Michael Bekins, senior client partner
and regional market leader, Asia Pacific, Advanced Technology, Korn Ferry
International (Hong Kong). However, the crunch is causing concern not only to
the two economies, but also to other countries, he adds.

The manpower challenge is gradually leading toward a war for
talent, setting the HR time bomb ticking on one hand, and pushing up the salary
bar for the right talent on the other, as companies get ready to pay the premium
to attract the limited talent available in the market. As Bekins points out,
every company tries to chase the most talented candidates for their company.

Throwing light on the key challenge faced by the IT industry
globally, Bekins points out that the industry is changing so much, but it is not
able to develop the talent fast enough. Today the inflow is growing and there
are more people coming from the systems in India and China, but the problem is
that the pipeline is not growing and developing fast enough to keep pace with
the demand.

There is hyper growth in the outsourcing industry, global
development centers by MNCs and global business in India. All this frantic
growth, in turn, is forcing companies to hunt for talent faster. With a lot of
oldies now on their way to retirement and the industry not producing talent fast
enough to keep pace with the rapid growth, there is not enough talent pool
globally. The dearth of talent availability is going to be marked in the middle
to top rungs. "We're getting a lot of fresh talent, but not enough of
developed talent. The talent pool at the middle and top management is not being
developed fast enough. There is going to be a dearth of experienced leadership
who can respond to the change fast enough," says Bekins.

Inculcating flexibility, global thinking and global experience
are some of Bekins' suggestions for the Indian IT industry for developing the
right talent pool for the next generation leadership. "Today an executive
in India needs to play at the global level with global standard even if he is in
a domestic role. The world is so inter-connected that one can't isolate the
Indian market from the rest of the market place. It's the global executive
that's in short supply," he adds.

Therefore, in order to support growth in the long run, the
Indian IT companies will need to develop manpower with global standards.
Increasingly, the companies are going to be looking at executives who can
operate at a large scale. For the top rung IT companies in the billion-dollar
club, the challenge will be how to climb higher in the value chain. Scaling up
from a $3 bn company to a $ 30 bn company will require developing the
leadership.

Shipra Arora


shipraa@cybermedia.co.in