The Hindu Business Line : ‘HR personnel need to develop global acumen’

Chennai, Oct 26 Only four per cent of the students who study in premier educational institutions such as IITs and IIMs want to go abroad (the US or the UK) for further studies or work. That number was as high as 60 per cent a few years ago.

Four hours is all it takes to get a job when one passes out with an MBA degree in India.

It takes eight days on the average to get a job with a similar qualification in the US.

These are signs of the growing opportunities in the Indian market, said Mr V. Ramachandran, Director, Human Resources, Motorola, Asia-Pacific. He was speaking at a session on ‘Leaders & brands – Institutionalising success traits’, on the second day of Insight 07, the National Management Symposium, conducted by Loyola Institue of Business Administration (LIBA).

HR professionals need to develop global business acumen – understand socio-political developments, acquire geographical, functional, corporate competencies, said Mr Nishant Kolgaonkar, Director HR, CA (India) Technologies. He was addressing the session on ‘Developing global management capability – Building cross-cultural competencies.’

Giving an anecdote, he said when his marketing team in India had told him that they had done a deal, he cautioned them thus: “The deal is not done till the cash comes in.” India being a price-sensitive market, there was always the possibility of deals being lost because of very small differences in prices quoted by competitors even at the last minute.

He also said that HR professionals had to recognise that there would always be ethnocentric and parochial attitudes. He urged them to be aware of it and to respect it.

Delivering his valedictory address, Mr N. Murali, Managing Director of The Hindu group of publications, said students who aspire to be a successful HR professionals must acquire multiple skills. “In India, albeit slowly, HR is dawning now,” he said. Particularly in IT companies, with more global connections, HR occupies the centre stage these days. However, he said though business paradigms are changing very fast, HR has a long way to go to earn a place in the board room of a company in the country.

Talking about the skill gap that is being experienced by the industry today, he said that there is a need for qualitative change in the education system.

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