The sheer scale of the Indian market and its demands on leaders make Indian corporate leaders ideal to take on global challenges, said Ms Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank Ltd. She was delivering the inaugural address at the fourth HR Summit on the theme ‘Leadership in Action' in Mumbai on Friday, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“India offers a unique learning ground for young leaders. It exposes them to a huge scale of operations. Also, the Indian market puts a huge demand on affordable innovation. As we see more globalisation, India can create leaders for the world,” she said.
According to her, ideal leaders should not be typified as ‘growth leaders' or ‘change leaders', and rather be dynamic in tune with organisational needs.
She said, ‘A leader should be one who can deliver what an organisation needs at a particular point in time. They should be able to identify what the organisation needs at that point, and get their teams to deliver on that.'
Grooming Talent, Leaders
Responding a question on attrition at the lower rungs of organisations, Ms Kochhar cited how ICICI had approached the issue. Training fresh graduates on the job only to lose them out in one or two years has been addressed - and minimised - she explained.
She said, “Rather than invest in fresh graduates and train them, we decided to groom talent for the sector itself (banking, insurance, etc.) with partners like NIIT. Some of them will come to us; some will go to other companies. The view is to create a ready talent pool for the industry at large.”
Ms Leena Nair, Chairperson - CII (Maharashtra), and Executive Director - HR, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, in her welcome address said that leadership is context based.
“Contrary to popular belief, leaders are made rather than just being born,” she contended, underlining the need on the part of organisations and HR Departments to identify and groom leaders.