The Hindu Business Line : Betting on homegrown leaders

In what can be seen as testimony to the growing need for in-house leadership training by corporates, pharma major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has set up an exclusive Leadership Academy which will become operational next month.

The Hyderabad-based company, which has a total headcount of 9,300, will commence training in a range of leadership and management practices in the new Leadership Academy, Prabhir Kumar Jha, Global Head, Human Resources, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, told The New Manager.

The academy, set up on the company’s sprawling Bachupally campus on the outskirts of Hyderabad, is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. “The main idea is to make learning for our employees simple and exciting by leveraging technology such as video-conferencing. As we have a presence almost across the world, we need to inter-connect our people,” Jha said.

The academy has facilities to conduct training programmes for 500 people at a time. The curriculum, which is currently being finalised, will involve basic management principles, with a special focus on the expertise needed for the pharmaceutical industry. “There will be special programmes and assignments for people in different roles. We have enough quality among our people. What is needed is to ignite a particular skill through training,” a Dr Reddy’s official said. Efforts are now on to identify talented, full-time faculty. The collaboration model with reputed business schools is being looked into, he added.

Dr Reddy’s now has a tie-up with the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies, Mumbai, to offer an MBA in pharmaceuticals to its employees through the ‘learn while working’ model. “Around 39 employees have completed the course. The second batch will soon begin. We might look at similar arrangements for the Leadership Academy too,” Jha explained.

Self-managed teams

To tide over manpower issues at some of its remote plants, Dr Reddy’s has adopted a ‘self-managed teams’ model in Yanam (Puducherry) and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh).

“We pick up youngsters of around 18 years and offer them jobs with the facility to pursue a B.Sc in Chemistry through the distance mode. They will be responsible for plant management. Apart from addressing the issue of manpower availability, it will also allow us to pick people with higher qualifications. We call them self-managed teams,” Jha said.

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