The Hindu Business Line : Silver minds at work

Indian industry, like others the world over, is discovering a new talent pool — retired managers. HR managers and recruiters concur that this is, indeed, a silver-mine of talent that can still bat a good innings. And this is one time when age is definitely not a criterion.

Ganesh Eashwar

S.R. Valluri, R.R. Nair, R. Thothadri, Ganesh Eashwar... are just a few names. The Indian industry, like others all over the world, is discovering a new talent pool that's a little beyond the salt and pepper generation. The 50-plus manager. HR managers and recruiters agree that this is indeed a huge silver-mine of talent that can still bat a good innings. And this section of employees is going to increase in the coming years.

Increasing life span is one fact that will contribute to this expanding group. The projections made by the Population Foundation of India, a voluntary organisation working with the Central Government, says that the section of population aged above 65 years will rise from 5 per cent currently to about 15 per cent in the next 50 years. That is, from 75 million at present to 177 million in 2025 and 243 million in 2051.

This means that if a person retires at 58 and lives up to 80 plus, he or she has about 22 years of his or her life after retirement. Which is more than half his working life before he threw in the towel. And supporting this workforce will be advances in technology, science and medicine. So, will a healthy, alert mind and body look forward to two decades of `retired life'?

Says R.R. Nair, Advisor and Consultant, Organisation Development, HLL and Asia Business Group, Unilever, "I don't wish to call it retirement, it is essentially redirection in one's life. And mind you, retirement is not a function of age."

Nair who has had 29 years of operating experience in the HR area at HLL and Unilever, considers wisdom a subset of skills, experience and competencies. And senior executives should deliberate on what they can do to transfer their skills to the younger lot, feels the former HR chief of HLL. He joined as a Selection and Training Manager and has handled Industrial Relations and went to Unilever, London for a couple of years. He became the member of the Management Committee of Lipton India. He was the Vice-President (HR) of Brooke Bond India. And then became the Director (HR) of Brooke Bond Lipton HLL. Then he was the Personnel Director, Unilever Arabia at Dubai.

"HLL believes in absolute meritocracy and it was because of this that they have invested in me," feels Nair. Apart from this assignment at HLL, he is also on the Boards of BASF India and TVS Electronics, as a Director, and in the Academic Council of Tata Management Training Centre. With this kind of credentials on his side, is it fair to let go of his wisdom and experience?

According to Nair, in the present corporate environment, not only staying relevant is important, but also transfer of one's skills to a new environment is important. "This transferability will prove useful to executives," he feels. Also developing a second career line is what he recommends.

A steady and disciplined career growth in the right kind of environment has made these senior people precious to their industries. S.R. Valluri, former Director, National Aeronautical Laboratories, who also served as Director General, ADA after retiring from NAL says, "I always believed that scientists should be groomed in a culture where the pursuit of excellence is absolutely essential." Valluri's mantra is `constantly upgrade your skills and ensure your capability is better than your adversary's'. "I kept this in mind while running NAL and this has helped me a lot."

Valluri, who was also the Chairman of the Technology Advisory Board after his stint at NAL, studied in the Benares Hindu University before proceeding to the University of California which has produced 20 Nobel Laureates. "The secret is to learn and constantly learn if you wish to remain active in any field." He was the recipient of the Wright Brothers Award in Aeronautics.

Known for his creative copy and sharp mind, Ganesh Eshwar was invited back to the corporate world two years ago to head the marketing and content team of Esconet Services. No, it was not because he was an IT whiz kid or exceptionally well-connected. The selection was obviously on the basis of his solid reputation and the conviction that his 30 years as a marketing and communications specialist could be vital for this fledgling organisation that was on the threshold of success in the knowledge industry.

Eshwar has had successful innings both at Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA) and R K Swamy/BBDO. During his 18-year stint with HTA, he climbed the ladder to the very top and held prime management positions as Senior Vice-President and General Manager. In early 1994, he left HTA for an even more challenging appointment of Executive Director at RK Swamy/BBDO. In about a year, he was invited to join the Board of Directors where he continued for another 15 years till 1997.

R. Thothadri

R. Thothadri, former Managing Director, Life Insurance Corporation of India, currently Director of the M P Birla Institute of Management, Bangalore, an Associate of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, says, "I realised that to continue to be useful to your industry you have to continuously keep in touch, update your knowledge and engage in activities that will give you satisfaction."

Thothadri joined LIC in the first batch of its recruitment of Assistant Administrative Officers in 1961 and rose to the post of Managing Director when he retired in 1996. From 1997 to the year 2000, he became consultant to All State Insurance Company, an American insurance company. "This gave me plenty of opportunity to learn from foreign insurance companies, on how they operate etc even before the country liberalised the sector."

Around this time, the country was opening up the insurance sector to foreign companies and the IRDA was formed. For the insurance industry, his contribution is in the form of lectures at insurance training institutes, workshops for insurance employees and consultancy to the IRDA.

It's obvious that for these people the clock did not stop ticking at 55 or 60. According to Nair, "Retirement is an individual issue and there are people who have closed their innings at 40 or 45 to turn into social entrepreneurs. These are the kind of people who have built a second career for themselves early on in life. But it's important to remember that the learning dimension should never be ignored," he advises. In a knowledge society, there is not only learning but also unlearning and relearning to be done. Now Nair is in an advisory role and assists the Asia Business Group of Unilever. He has developed two networks for the company — the Learning Network and the Global Organisational Effectiveness Networks and has undertaken many other global initiatives.

Eashwar also seems to believe in the same philosophy. He is not one of those straitjacketed corporate executives who know little beyond their work life. Even before he started his working life, he had decided to retire early (what Nair calls social entrepreneurship), and pursue his passion for organic farming. He says, "I wanted to retire by 42 but I managed to do it at 45," and explains, that even though he went into farming and retirement mode he was engaged in corporate consulting.

In fact, he started Tathaastu India Consulting while tilling the virgin soil on the kharab land that he and his wife Jayshree bought at Whitefield, on the outskirts of Bangalore.

"The idea was to give back to the earth from which we had taken so much," he says. Eashwar and Jayshree grew groundnuts, peanuts, pulses and vegetables and made peanut butter and pickle with their bounty.

Eashwar took the Esconet assignment for several reasons. He found it challenging and exciting and the fact that it was in Delhi helped him make up his mind, because that was where he grew up. "For my daughter Vaaruni, the capital city would be a good experience. If you can survive in Delhi, you can survive anywhere."

But at Esconet, Eashwar is doing the opposite of surviving - he's thriving. He's enjoying every moment of it, especially since IT in insurance is an emerging field in the country. As an advertising man, Eashwar is used to a competitive climate and that's what insurance is poised to become."

But does he feel his age amongst a young team? "Youth was never an issue. Advertising was always a young industry and I found the adjustment to internet not difficult at all,'' he says.

Passion for their respective professions is what makes these senior executives part of the economy's silver mine. Says Valluri, "In my 40 years of service to the aeronautical field in the country, one thing I insisted on was hiring the right people." When he became the Director of NAL, he was very clear in hiring only PhDs for the scientific staff. "If you hire bright people you will get results." When he retired in 1986, every third person in the lab was a PhD.

"And dreams are how success stories start off as," feels Valluri. In 1981, he started dreaming of an Indian made light aircraft and in July 1983, he commenced the LCA project programme. "I told the policy makers that we are nowhere behind the US or the European nations and we can develop the technology needed to build this aircraft." Valluri feels that apart from passion for one's profession, it's also integrity that takes one a longer distance. He believes that scientists are trustees for public good and any work of science should be in that direction.

Nair concurs on the issue: "Work excites me. I have a great passion to help and facilitate young professionals. I see a long working life expectancy for myself." But as an outsider (not a regular employee), has his attitude to the company changed? Is he able to take a more dispassionate view of things and issues? "No, it has made no difference to my role here, except that I'm no longer in an operational role," states Nair.

Says Thothadri, "I was among the fortunate few to have a good career path. In 1996 after I retired, jobs were not exactly waiting for me, but I too did not attempt very hard to get into the sector. The All State Insurance Company project happened and I was able to get into the sector again. But with the opening up of the insurance sector, I realise that there are exciting moments ahead."

Eashwar says of his comeback, "It's been fun coming back to corporate environs. The minute I stop enjoying it or there is no challenge left, I'll give up."

Will they?

(With inputs from Preeti Mehra in New Delhi)

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