Indian manufacturing sector, which has been riding the wave of global growth, remained literally a full generation behind the services sector in the crucial issue of talent. Yet, this got glossed over by the run-away growth. Today, the recession is shining a light on the sub-optimal decisions made during those days.

Automobile industry, the poster child of manufacturing post liberalisation, saw the Toyotas, Hondas and BMWs making a bee-line for India. Old guard like Bajaj, Hero and Mahindra too gained tremendous mileage riding this wave. The growth happened despite the glaring lack of quality talent, especially in the management and leadership levels in the industry. The same was true across the entire manufacturing sector.

Even if the sector had a change of heart and looked to beef up senior management ranks, there was little recourse. Most of the young talent opted for the IT industry straight from college. A large band of the mid-level talent followed. The IT industry became more and more glamorous, even as the manufacturing industry paled. All through the ’90s, even as less and less opted to study mechanical engineering, manufacturing sector recruiters slipped in the priority list of most engineering graduates. In the new century, they almost disappeared from their shortlist. If this was the case with the engineers, CAs, HR execs and MBAs weren’t far behind.

The effect of the erosion has been continuous and insidious. The talent across levels is inadequate and woefully behind times. This is further accentuated by the change in skills required in manufacturing over the same period of time. With manufacturing becoming technology intensive, the sector has heightened requirements of two kinds—tech-savvy talent with ability to increase productivity leveraging technology and an increasing horde of service-focused people in sales, customer service and financial management. And especially at the leadership level, the benchmark for evaluation has become global as the manufacturing industry today is playing in a global field.

So, the focus of the Indian manufacturing sector today, as we transform in sync with the world has to be people and that too leaders. There are quite a few Indian corporations who are ambitious and have everything in their favour to join the ranks of the new MNCs in the making. No doubt, the MNCs have been at this for a lot longer than us, but in today’s globalised world, efficiency and fleet footedness pays off far faster than before. Indian companies with agility to fill the glaring gaps can take on the global biggies with confidence.

But the one key differentiator would be the quality of leadership in the manufacturing sector. The talent shortage over the last two decades means, that internal resources rising up to fill the need is quite impossible. There aren’t enough people and more importantly, the potential talent doesn’t come with the relevant exposure to increasing scale of operation. Some recent cases of unraveling global ambitions clearly point to lack of leadership talent pool. In our favour, the global meltdown has loosened up quite a few of the leadership talents from their perches and Indian manufacturing could easily feature in their choice.

The all round HR transformation needs to be anchored with the following cornerstones:

* Move away from the “labour management” oriented HR practices to a more modernistic talent management approach.

* Move towards flatter organisation, empowering management faster in their career. This will also enable employers to offer more attractive compensation for the key executives.

* Create a better work environment—today’s employee doesn’t want to come into musty looking ancient factory with an apology of a reception and even worse offices.

* Tranfuse global talent to invigorate the culture and bring in the strong global mindset.

* Actively build a leadership talent pool continuously by courting, evaluating and establishing relationship with a broad base of executives across all functions.

* Partner with individuals and firms that can help bring a neutral perspective to evaluating the organisation and initiate the necessary changes.

To achieve this, Indian manufacturing giants need not reinvent the wheel. A perfect role model exists in the form of the IT industry, which has been there, done that.

To think, a little over ten years back, programmers were a rare breed in India and engineering graduates did not see a computer till they got their first job!

The competitive strength of an Infosys or Wipro lies to a great extent in their ability to build, train and retain a ‘Dynamic Talent Supply Chain’ across all levels. Nasscom has played the role of facilitator ably, bringing the polity, academia and the industry together. Nasscom’s talent study with McKinsey was initiated way back in 2000 and continues as a relevant annual exercise till date. Manufacturing industry associations would do well to start afresh like Nasscom did when it came to the job. If Corporate India is serious about becoming a globally relevant player in manufacturing, the transformation has to begin at the top, focused on the future and not on the near term hurdles. The issue is people and the time is now!