There’s nothing like getting insider information and this is especially true for leadership specific scenarios. I recently touched base with Krish Shankar, Head of HR at Phillips in India who provided some insightful views on talent challenges in Asia, HR in India, gender diversity and the brain drain faced in the region. As an HR professional who believes in a holistic view to life and work, he provides views from his extensive experience in Asia. There really are some good tips here for anyone working in frontier markets to implement.
Q. What are the different talent challenges that you have seen in the different countries of Asia you’ve worked in?
A. Every country has its unique challenges and these are determined by:
- the education system,
- the drivers of the talent market,
- and the degree of ‘the war for talent’ among firms.
For instance, India has a large pool of talent at the entry level, but these are generally poor quality. So the challenge firms have is to hire the best, but also train them. Early training is key to having the best talent in India, which companies like Unilever have done well.
Q. How about leadership characteristics?
A. Given the huge ‘competition’ amongst firms in India which leads to competition for talent, we see high attrition in the early stages, which then comes down to about 6-10%. Qualitatively, leaders in India tend to be strong in their execution focus. Deep consumer intimacy and strategic transformation capabilities tend to be areas of relative scarcity. In some ways, China is also similar to India. One would have to depend on Chinese with overseas experience for good leadership capability but that is changing fast. In some SE Asian countries we would get good technical skills and great market knowledge, but our challenge would be in getting the right transformational leadership capability there.
Q. What are the main leadership and talent challenges companies are facing in India?
A. The Indian market went through many changes and fast growth until 2010, which slowed down but is showing signs of revival now. Indian firms are becoming more aggressive with global aspirations growing operational work, innovating locally and increasing penetration. However, the future needs more disruptive product development and innovation.
Good Indian talent is attracted by global opportunities. The question most firms struggle with is “Do we have the leaders who can grow our business in the future combining deep insights for innovation, as well as strategic leadership capability?”. Moreover, the new age leaders need to be very inclusive and visionary – identifying and building such leaders would be a challenge.
Q. What are the hot button topics for HR in India at the moment?
A. Sometimes I worry that HR in India has too many hot buttons – diversity, employer brand- especially in social media, being a great place to work, building leaders, retaining high potentials, building capability, developing leadership and succession, hiring key leaders, organization design, etc. which just shows the complexity of the challenges. However, one thread I see is that most organizations are transforming and building organizational capability for the future. This involves building the right leaders, creating the right mindset in employees and putting a comprehensive plan of building new capabilities by training, coaching, etc.
Q. Is gender diversity an issue for Indian companies? If yes, what are the best companies doing about it and what do you think every company in India could / should do to drive gender diversity?
A. Yes, increasingly it is becoming a big issue. But companies are also taking some bold steps from mentoring women, to providing an inclusive work environment to hiring large numbers, especially in key roles. Sales and manufacturing, where traditionally we didn’t have many women, now see an increasingly large number coming in and companies are creating an environment for that.
Having more women role models in senior positions who can mentor and support other women is important. Lastly, leadership has to set the ‘tone at the top’ for an inclusive workplace. These may be small things but they go a long way in symbolically creating a safe and inclusive workplace.
Q. India has experienced a brain drain and more recently a re-verse brain influx. What is the consequence of this for Indian companies and how do companies manage the re-integration of returning talent in the organization?
A. It’s easier to reintegrate Indians who go out for higher studies and work for a few years and then come back. Challenges start if people stay overseas for too long; it takes longer to integrate back. There has been mixed success here – people with technical, research and development background get integrated much faster, whereas it is more challenging in the business operations side. We will have to give this time so most companies start by getting them back in key technology or specialist roles and then slowly move them to business roles. Or get them first in sales where they have to deal with overseas clients and then plan other moves once they settle in the company.
Q. Competition for talent must be significant in India. How does your company differentiate itself to build an employer brand and retain talent?
A. In Philips, the heart of the company is innovation. We have numerous businesses that we have or can grow based on innovative products and services. The diversity of our business provides opportunities to people to be entrepreneurs to lead a business. We give our leaders the opportunity to grow their own businesses so innovation and entrepreneurship are the key to our DNA, which helps us retain people. And we also focus on their development.
Q. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give the next aspiring CEO?
A. I would echo Marshall Goldsmith:
“What got you here won’t get you there!”
Things are changing fast – the CEO of tomorrow has to be humble, and keep learning. Inspiring people and having a great purpose would be key to getting his team together so she needs to build on those!
If you want more from Krish, his blog Creating the Future has more HR and Leadership topics to read on. He’s definitely got a good feeling of the pulse of HR in the region. If you’d like to add you views on the questions that I asked him please feel free to share them below.
Photo Credits: Will Marlow via Compfight cc
Hi Guys, Please dont join philips. There is a lot of corruption and employee harassment. Their ethics are misplaced and they don’t support investigation into complaints against management.