If the Indian growth story has to continue, then development of the India Human Capital is the key. That’s the message coming from Harish Manwani, Chairman, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), when he was addressing the company’s AGM on Saturday, July 17, 2010.
 
Manwani said that in these difficult times, Asia is showing the way to the world, but the focus has to be on development of Human Capital. “The Asian economies have emerged from the global financial crisis with a powerful story to tell. While the developed world is struggling, the developing and emerging (D&E) economies, particularly in Asia, stand out with their strong performance. It is now an accepted position that the economic centre of gravity is shifting to the D&E world. But underlying the growth in economic capital has to be an equally strong foundation of building the human capital of the nation,” said Manwani.
 
According to Manwani, the future growth of India is hinged on quality of skilled workforce. He added, “India has to grow at a GDP growth rate of around 10 per cent if it has to make a transition from a developing economy to a developed economy and alleviate poverty. This means that we must have an all-round growth in agriculture, manufacturing and services. This requires a substantial uplift in the skills and capabilities of our workforce as well as building higher levels of productivity and employability. But where do we stand on this critical input?”
 
Taking about the importance of Human capital, Manwani said, “We clearly have an urgent and important task ahead of us. We have a large army of youth. But this demographic dividend can be encashed only if this large army is well prepared to handle posts, positions and workstations – in offices, on shop-floors and on sites across the nation and indeed the globe. In a situation of rapid change, this preparedness must be fast tracked to empower our people for the enormous opportunities that lie ahead of us.”
 
India faces the skills challenge – developing business leaders and developing skilled workforce. “India faces a skills challenge at two distinct levels: a) We must build business leaders to lead us through a changing and growing India; b) We must simultaneously prepare the vast majority of our people to be employable across the spectrum of operational roles,” said Manwani. 
 
How can India bridge the skill gap? According to Manwani all three stakeholders’ i.e. government, industry and institutes have to play a role in solving this crisis.
 
Pointing at the steps taken by HUL, Manwani said, “As a multinational with a heritage of over 100 years in India, HUL has played a proactive role in grooming business leaders. The first Indian chairman of HUL (then HLL), Mr. Prakash Tandon, was the founder of IIM Ahmedabad, a distinguished institution of higher learning. More recently, HUL was a founding member of yet another fine institution, the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. These institutions have provided the country countless business leaders.” 
 
Giving the HUL’s mantras for leadership development, Manwani said, “HUL has a unique and well recognized management training scheme which recruits widely from various educational institutions across the country. We have groomed thousands of young graduates into eminent business leaders who are now serving both Unilever and the Indian industry. Building business leaders cannot be a casual exercise undertaken every once in a while. It has to be a part of the DNA of the organization.”
 
HUL as institutionalized the process of attracting, developing and retaining top talent. Some steps in this process are:
 
• Get them early
• Train them well
• Build careers
• Encourage diversity
• Reward top performance
• Instill values

To fulfill its role, HUL is increasing its engagement with MBA institutes. “We define education and skill development in terms of our ability to create employability. This year, we provided sales internship opportunities for more than 1000 students from Tier II and Tier III MBA colleges, exposing them to best practices in industry and providing them with valuable work experience, thus enhancing their employability,” said Manwani.

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