"Think out of the box," says Kishore Biyani

MUMBAI: For corporate India grappling with a talent crunch, here’s a contrarian view from Kishore Biyani, CEO, Future Group. “In a country of over a billion people, there cannot be a talent shortage.

Think out of the box and look for people in the right places. Ordinary people deliver better results than extraordinary ones. You just have to work at it,” he says. Biyani was speaking at the Times Ascent HR Forum on “Fighting the war for talent.”

A packed event with high-profiled panelists, attended by senior HR executives from leading companies in Mumbai, there could not have been a better time and place to debate and discuss an issue that’s giving sleepless nights to CEOs in India.

This is the first of the three HR Forums that Times Ascent is organising — Delhi and Bangalore will follow. India is in the middle of a big change.

“The nation is transforming from agricultural to knowledge to now, a consumption-driven economy,” says Biyani. Speed, agility and imagination are what will separate the winners from the losers.

But this change will have to go deep within, panelists said. From processes, organisational structures to realigning employee aspirations and their management — everything within the organisation will need to be reoriented to make it change-ready.

Employees will be the biggest asset for companies in the knowledge-led world. And how corporates recruit, retain, manage and groom them, will hold the key to their future, panelists said. Retention and recruitment will be critical, but throwing more and more money into salaries may not be the best answer.

“Salary is a hygiene factor. That alone will not tackle the retention issue. Employee engagement is important,” says Anita Ramachandran, director, Cerebrus Consulting.

This is not about old economy vs new economy — technology is impacting all. Empowerment, giving freedom to ask questions, constant communication and flexible processes are what will help companies to be change-ready, the panelists concluded. Focus, focus, focus — that was Covey’s formula to help companies improve their execution gap.