Leadership benches to groom IT talents at middle level

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Software companies in India are boosting focus on building a ‘leadership bench’ within companies, as the industry that grapples with mid- management crisis stands at the threshold of a new growth phase. Among its many crucial challenges, “succession-planning” was key for the nearly twenty-year old industry, according to industry experts.

IT major Infosys has set up a leadership institute at its Mysore campus, where it groomed “high potential candidates under a three-tier mentorship programme,” the company said. Under the scheme, an Infosys board-member mentors a top tier candidate or the company’s designated business leader.

According to Mphasis - chief human resource officer Elango R, manpower shortage at middle management level was the largest challenge for the IT sector. “The industry in India is very young compared to peers in countries like the US. Leadership shortage is acute here, given that most of our new age companies are only ten to fifteen years old. In many cases, chances are that people with narrow experience band would have risen up to managerial roles.”

Corporate training company On Trac’s director Ravi Venkatesan said that the relatively young industry, which is still run by its first generation leaders, was getting ready for the next line of leaders. “The software and business process outsourcing industries have not had the opportunity to mature like other sectors such as manufacturing. Companies are now realizing that if they have to grow more, they had to have larger leadership depth.”

Consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in its latest report on talent management, said that improving leadership was among the top three HR challenges in emerging markets such as India and China as in many other countries. BCG - partner and director Vikram Bhalla told FE that leadership building activities like training and conferences usually missed the vital points.