Executive Management Training: Building India’S Middle Management Layer
Education Times
It is certainly an exciting time to be in India. The country is on a growth curve, logging in higher and higher GDP and making its presence felt in the global markets. Business intelligence firms, global consultants and analyst organisations aregung hoabout India's growth story and believe the country can sustain its existing momentum over the next few decades.
A recent study by Goldman Sachs, titled "Dreaming with BRICs: The Path to 2050," places Brazil, Russia, India and China (identified as BRIC countries) among the fastest growing economies over the next 50 years.
According to the Study, the Indian economy could be larger than that of Japan by 2032 in terms of nominal US dollar and the BRIC economies together could exceed the G-6 countries (including the US, Japan, Italy, France, Germany and the UK) in size by 2039. If the predictions are accurate, India can very well emerge as the third largest economy in the world in 2040 and the largest economy in 2050.
India has the potential to grow the fastest among the four BRIC countries over the next 30 to 50 years-higher than five percent over the next 30 years and close to five percent as late as 2050, Goldman Sachs says.
India's manpower: Key resource
The reason for this is the fact that the fall in the working age population will happen later for India and Brazil than for Russia and China. It is expected, for instance, that in 2010, India will have a high 53.9 percent of its population in the age group of 15-59 years.
By 2020, the tide will turn even more in India's favour. According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group and All India Management Association, the developed countries will face a net workforce shortfall of 32-39 million by 2020. India, on the other hand, will have a surplus of people in the working age group by 2020. Clearly, this represents a huge opportunity for the country, where India can build a truly awesome global edge.
Coupled with significant economic performance, based on robust macro-economic policies, political stability and improvements in the education system, India can indeed fulfill the vision outlined by Goldman Sachs.
Indian industry: Facing the challenges
However, key challenges remain that can mar this rosy picture-Talent generation and management. While the country is expected to have a surplus of people in the working age group, the key concern is whether these impressive numbers will be employable and industry ready.
Industries such as the IT-BPO sector, which has emerged as a key driver of the Indian economy, is likely to face a shortage of skilled manpower in the near future. There is a need, for instance, to expand the existing pool of relevantly skilled professionals and convert the surplus"working age population" into a viable, ready-to-work manpower base.
The paucity of talent has hit segments such as Banking, Finance and Insurance, Retail, and HR too. Manpower shortage is being felt particularly in the middle-level management space.
Executives take on to Learning to fill the gap
Global training companies such as NIIT, have already put in place initiatives that will help strengthen India's middle management layer over the next few years. NIIT Imperia, a path-breaking partnership with India's finest B-Schools-the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Indore-marries the immense domain knowledge and faculty base of the IIMs and NIIT's immense capabilities, strengths and experience in delivering education with predictable quality.
This has turned out to be a step in the right direction helping address a massive market for executive management training, which has traditionally remained beyond the reach of thousands of Indian professionals. Executives from the senior and mid-rungs of the corporate ladder that are either taking on, or readying themselves to take on newer job responsibilities are using this training to move up their career graph.
No wonder then that NIIT Imperia's specialised programmes in areas such as Retail Management, Financial Practices, Strategic Communications, besides other General and Senior Management programmes, have drawn a huge response from both IT and non-IT companies in the first six months itself. While almost one-third of Imperia students are from premier IT firms such as Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Delloite & Touche, Accenture, TCS, Cognizant, Dell, Ernst& Young, Boston Consulting Group, Yahoo and Oracle, professionals from the Financial, Manufacturing and the Services sectors, from organisations such as Reliance Industries, Bharti Enterprises, Dr Reddy's Labs, HSBC, HCL, HDFC, ICICI Bank, L&T, State Bank of India, Citigroup, American Express, Godrej, ITC, Motorola and Siemens, have also enrolled for the programmes.
Initiatives such these are going to play an important role in enabling India to sustain its competitive advantage in the emerging Knowledge Age. By building 21stcentury professionals, across all levels of management, India will have People power-a key imperative for economic success in the decades ahead.
The author is associated with NIIT Imperia. NIIT Imperia Centre for Advanced Learning, has been specially created to provide quality management education and customized learning solutions for organisations and working professionals.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Executive Management Training: Building India’S Middle Management Layer