The Hindu Business Line : A platform to air their ideas

Forty-eight young managers drawn from across four companies of the Rs 11,500-crore RPG Group have been selected to bring in new business ideas and give adequate mind space and focus to issues that may have been ignored by the top management.

In the process, these young managers would attempt to put aside hierarchy and at the same time place themselves on a fast-track career growth path. In essence, these youngsters form a sort of ‘shadow management committee’ that will ideate over strategic issues facing the company and, perhaps, suggest solutions for them.

About six months ago, the Kolkata-based RPG Group which has diverse business interests, decided to set up Advisory Management Councils (AMC) in four of its companies: KEC, Ceat, Saregama and CESC.

Young talent (12 from each company) with a consistent track-record over two years were selected to the AMCs.

According to the President, Corporate Development and Human Resources, RPG Group, Arvind Agarwal, being on the AMCs gave these youngsters the opportunity to view the organisation from beyond the narrow confines of their functional jobs. It also gave them the chance to direct and shape the future of the organisation as they attempted to bring about a transformation within the company.

The AMCs would bring together high calibre creative talent from critical areas within the organisation. Since a position on the AMCs was also a unique means of recognising high potential managers, selection to the forum could ultimately become a short-term aspiration for them. Young managers would thus get an opportunity for self-development in leadership roles, strategic thinking, management of resources and innovation, says Agarwal.

Each AMC would remain in tenure for two years, after which a new council would be formed.

Potential AMC members would be high-performing managers, not necessarily MBAs, below the age of 40, from different functional areas. They would be shortlisted by the Head-HR and selected by the managing director in consultation with the management committee.

The AMCs would work closely with the managing director and would periodically present updates on the progress of their tasks, key findings, obstacles encountered, if any, and seek support to overcome these problems.

Each member of the AMC was assigned a specific area of responsibility and it was the responsibility of each member to obtain the information required by the project. AMC members were, therefore, empowered to access any information they wanted, says Agarwal. However, the AMCs would serve as advisory bodies to the managing director and their recommendations would be purely advisory in nature, he said. “The recommendations of AMCs, while being mandatorily tabled before the MD and the managing committee, are not binding.”

However, the most important factor in setting up the AMCs has been communicating their role to other employees, says Agarwal. “The concept and the need to set up such councils has to explained to all the employees because it needs the support of the entire organisation.” In addition, the expectations of the AMCs are also communicated by the managing director.

The 40,000-employee strong RPG Group has around 2,000 managers. According to Agarwal, the AMC concept was expected to improve retention levels in the company. “Retention levels, currently around 85 per cent, should reach 90 per cent soon,” he says.

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