The Hindu Business Line : Hunt for talent in logistics sector

While the threat of job loss looms large over many sectors, there is a crying need for skilled people I the logistics industry in India. The logistics spend in India is over Rs 9,00,000 crore, but the industry is hugely short of talent.

Though the industry has been growing at a rapid pace, it is yet to overcome the skilled manpower crunch. The industry will require around 420,000 skilled people in the senior management category alone, said Mr Atul Kulkarni, Senior Manager, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, recently at a logistics seminar in Chennai.

Critical need

The Indian logistics industry employs over 4.5 crore (both direct and indirect) employees. While the cross-section of industry players recognises the critical need for manpower development in this (logistics) sector, precious little has been done to investigate the core issues and identify initiatives to address this situation, KPMG, in association with CII, said in a white paper titled ‘Skills Gaps in the Indian Logistics Sector’, released at the CII organised Logistics Summit 2007 held in Chennai last year. The situation has not changed in the last year, said an industry source.

Says Mr E. Balaji, CEO, Ma Foi Management Consultants, a Chennai-based HR company, India is known as a country with abundant cost-effective, quality talent for various industries. This had led to the incredible growth of information technology and IT-enabled service companies.

At the same time, many global retail companies have also recognised the opportunity and have set up their global sourcing back-offices here. In addition to the back-office movement, the growth of the manufactured goods industry and Indian companies increasing their share of the global markets have fuelled increased logistics activities. Both have contributed to the growth of job opportunities in this sector.

Analytics skills

The main challenge in the logistics sector is to recruit candidates for the top positions and those with analytics skills. There are also challenges in recruiting talent at the middle level, especially managers with good people-management skills. A branch manager may have to manage more than 100 people and handle customer and profit responsibilities, says Mr Balaji.

While experience and an MBA or a post-graduate degree with specialisation in logistics/supply chain management is a basic expectation, people management skills are critical for operations roles. Knowledge of IT and statistical tools are important for analysts and knowledge of vendors across the world and industry practices is crucial for buyers, he says.

Says Mr Janardhanan, who heads the non-IT wing of a leading Chennai-based recruitment agency, the gross mismatch that prevails in any industry / any vertical prevails in the logistics sector too. This industry is in infant stage and a highly unorganised sector — around 80 per cent of it is in the unorganised domain. The shortage of people is mostly at the senior and top management levels.

The advent of good business schools focusing on logistics as a core subject, and good management degrees with a technical bent augur well for this industry, he adds.

Role of academia

The Indian Institute of Materials Management is introducing logistics for hospitality and infrastructure sectors — two industries growing at high speed. With multinationals taking interest in the sector, it is sure to attract the industry-academia attention, he says.

The CII Institute of Logistics conducts two executive programmes on supply chain management, strategic supply chain in foreign trade and finance; and retail supply chain management to update the knowledge of company professionals and executives on the logistics industry, says Mr Balaji.

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