IT majors focus on grooming next generation leaders

Sudipta Dev/ Mumbai

It is estimated that by the year 2006, most global organisations will lose 40 percent of their top executives, leaving a vacuum that has to be filled by the rising stars in the company. In an era of stiff competition for seasoned professionals, it has become necessary to identify and develop leaders from within the organisation (from succession lists) and empower them with additional responsibility to assume increasing levels of leadership. This means identifying the future leaders, developing them aggressively, blending their mindset with the culture and corporate vision of the company, and of course rewarding them substantially. In most global organisations, leadership development initiatives are considered an integral part of the corporate strategy. In fact, a recent survey carried out by the American Management Association found that companies spend the largest part of their corporate training budget on leadership development.

Global human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates had conducted a leadership study earlier this year which revealed that 91 percent of the top 20 companies have a process for early identification of leaders compared with 61 percent of the rest; also, 82 percent of the top organisations have formal mentoring programmes in comparison to half of the others. IBM, which led the list, has 11 leadership competencies for all management levels. Potential leaders from within the organisation are assessed on the basis of these competencies and are included in the succession planning process. Microsoft, which ranked second, is known to attract rare talent, and it is right at the hiring stage that the potential stars are identified to be aggressively groomed later.

Focused strategy

The leading Indian IT companies—Infosys, TCS, Wipro—have leadership strategies firmly in place, with the top management focused on creating the next line of successors. The Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI), located in a sprawling 217 acre facility in Mysore was set up in 2001, with the objective of “transforming” the company and developing the next generation leaders. “The ILI has designed and facilitated a series of highly successful, innovative and dynamic leadership workshops under the Leaders Teach Series. ILI will train 220 high potential employees every year to meet the challenges of a changing environment,” says Dr Jayaram, director of ILI. The Leaders Teach Series are a set of learning interventions, designed jointly by the Board members of the company and the ILI faculty. The company leaders share their experiences in their field of interest or specialisation, with these high-potential candidates. Every year, each leader allocates 12 days on topics like transformational leadership, strategy, organisation change, relationships, creativity, nurturing performance excellence and thought leadership.

Apart from the Leaders Teach Series, the ILI faculty has also been conducting stand-alone classroom sessions and internal consulting engagements, according to the specific needs of the audience. The high-potential employees at Infosys are selected by the top management, based on their performance and potential. Candidacy for the programme is open to all Infoscians.

Growth pattern

At TCS, leadership programmes are focused around ‘practices’ (industry verticals or services) and ‘geography’ (for marketing). “In each ‘practice’ we have a systematic process for succession planning. As regards ‘geography’, there is a pool of people who can take over the function. In addition to this, we have a “Think Tank”, made up of people both at the senior management and one level below, who are carefully selected for their strategic view and technology/domain competence. The Think Tank membership, which is changed every two years, is yet another mechanism for creating and nurturing leaders,” says S Mahalingam, executive vice president of TCS, who also heads the HR function. There is constantly a lookout for people who can assume leadership roles in the organisation.

The CEO is personally involved in selecting the leadership teams at each ‘practice’ and ‘geography.’ High-fliers are identified at the time of appraisals and their progress is monitored. The constant movement of professionals across projects, practices and geographies ensures that a person does not only move in a narrow hierarchical structure. When somebody gets identified as an exceptional performer by more than one manager, he/she comes up for positioning in the succession planning system. The process however just does not stop at identifying the successors. “The need is also to provide challenges and motivation to those who have been identified as successors. Therefore there has to be an excellent career planning process and talent mindset,” adds Mahalingam.

Wipro has had leadership programmes in place for the last eight years, called the Life Cycle Stage Leadership Programmes, based on various phases of an individual’s life. The Strategic Leaders Programme (for the top management) helps in creating a global mindset and international best practices in strategic architecture; the Business Leaders Programmes (for the middle management) is for building future senior managers who will take an integrated view of business and make the necessary decision; the Wipro Leaders Programme is for those who are seen to lead the company in the near future, allowing them to interact with the top management, share their views and insights into the future; the New Leaders Programme (for first time leaders) gives an insight into building and maintaining an effective project team. “To produce good leaders we require a comprehensive quality course. We have designed our courses in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management and Indian School of Business, and will have faculty from Wharton University and the London School of Business,” informs Ranjan Acharya, corporate vice president, Human Resource Development, Wipro. The flip side of the programme, he admits, is the fact that it is so extensive that 2,500 people have been covered, which has led to large utilisation of resources.

The selection process at Wipro varies according to the position. Those chosen for the Strategic Leaders Programme are in strategic positions. The Business Leaders Programme and Wipro Leaders Programmes are for the top 25 percent in the company who are identified for senior management roles in the near future. The New Leaders programme is aimed at people who have been in a management role for less than two years or will take up such roles in the next six months.

Alignment with business goals

The leadership programmes are evidently designed to integrate the vision of the organisation with the long-term business planning. Wipro’s vision of becoming a diversified global organisation with a multicultural workforce is clearly incorporated in the programmes. Says Acharya, “This global work culture will require the leaders to have a global mindset along with the ability to lead in cross culture environment, which is developed through these leadership programmes. They also help in developing managers with a customer focus vision and the ability to deliver quality solutions to the client.” He reminds that sustainable competitive advantage comes not so much from technology and process, but from an organisation’s people.

The learning philosophy of ILI is also aligned to the larger business goals of Infosys. According to Jayaram, the Leaders Teach Series provides conceptual inputs to the participants on well-researched paradigms, while internal consulting helps them solve their everyday business issues. Apart from 24 consulting engagements, Action Learning engagements (focused on turning adversity into opportunity) and annual Strategic Planning Meeting (STRAP) are also organised by ILI. “We believe the leadership institute will play an instrumental role in equipping Infoscions to be leaders, contributing to the growth of the company,” adds Jayaram emphatically.

Leadership strategy is a critical part of TCS’s business planning process. Succession is planned in each ‘practice’ which happen to be the business units of the company. “They get to understand the strategic issues and through this a leadership team emerges,” points out Mahalingam. Interestingly, a leader is also judged on the basis of the succession plan in his/her group.

While training is necessary, it is not sufficient to complete the learning experience for the next generation leaders. That comes only through exposure to various situations. Acharya agrees, “It is important to ensure that we create opportunities for people to grow by moving across various functions, roles and by living and working in different countries. Leaders need to be coached specifically for different skills and be mentored by others.”

For an industry that thrives on the dynamics of constant change, only those succeed who have the foresight and the ability to counter unexpected challenges. The whole process of training these future leaders is evidently time-consuming and requires a lot of additional resources, but in the long run it is a worthwhile investment that is essential for the survival of any organisation.