If looks could skill, India can get global

Companies are widening their leadership funnel by investing in CXO retraining to deliver on India's growth prospects and reduce management churn. This is good business. Indian companies will have to grow much faster to make India a global manufacturing base. Critically, as markets for Indian goods and services expand, managers must be brought up to speed on skills that are required in the global marketplace. This has two positive effects. First, it widens the managerial bandwidth for entrepreneurship. Second, it allows companies to attain the necessary managerial diversity.

Since companies are proactive about attaining competitiveness, their skilling initiatives are unlikely to be restricted to top brass. The requirements are more intense at the bottom entry layer, and GoI has begun incentivising them. If India Inc. acquires a global scale, its manpower requirements should grow in step. Companies need to implement more aggressive skilling programmes to compensate for the gaps in educational outcomes. Industry must work closer with academic institutions to make the young workforce more employable. This is predicated on the growth the current managerial talent pool can deliver in a global marketplace.

Pushing employment ahead of scale is a bit like redistributing wealth before it is created. It leads to a loss of competitiveness, and companies are best placed to decide on their manpower and skill requirements. Incentives can play a limited and time-bound role here. The sustainable solution to India's employment issue is faster business growth. Since employment is more intensive in small enterprises, policy should prioritise their growth. This segment also needs external assistance to close the skills gap.