He was speaking on the occasion of Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIM I) annual Convocation, held on March 30, 2009.
While throwing light on the unexplored areas of management field and urging students to get into these sectors, “Mr Ramadorai said, “Every Indian sector – Retail, Power, Utilities, Energy, Automotives, Education, each of these is poised for transformation and offers unique opportunities for young leaders to participate in their transformation, they offer students the opportunity to use their management skills. These sectors offer a chance to a wider base of employees to actually be involved in creating a global entity, not just for the man on top. The general trend towards convergence of technologies, the widespread penetration of IT and globalization, has resulted in a new common set of skills in demand.”
Commenting on the benefit of informational technology in corporate sector, he said, “The latest developments on technological front has added fuel to new dimension of technological Innovation, it has been led by IT. Cutting-edge technology is coming face to face with basic challenges of education, healthcare, poverty bringing at this cusp, a unique kind of convergence leading to a unique kind of Innovation capable of impacting the world.”
Commenting on the downturn and its impact on India, Mr Ramadorai said, “Look for new opportunities amidst this critical phase. We need to learn from the present crisis, what opportunities this crisis presents and what all of this means to us. The downturn has turned the business world upside down; heroes have fallen and the so-called underdogs are the new heroes. We have to be very circumspective about where we as a country are heading.”
Emphasizing the role of corporate governance in tough times like recession, he said, “I believe that Good Governance must permeate to dealings with Customer as well and the crisis is a time to come closer to your customer. Another issue that has emerged is that of Governance. How does a company ensure good governance? Firstly the approach should be that we are building not just a company but an institution that creates value for customers and other stakeholders. Firms must document all business processes and then they should be assessed by a team of other group Executives. The model should be holistic and it should demonstrate how the processes lead to the business results that any company achieves. It keeps asking “What did you learn from your processes? What have you improved?”
Commenting on the fast changes taking place in Indian business model, Mr Ramadorai stated, “Looking beyond the current austere times, the future promises some interesting developments. Consider some facts. India is the 5th largest retail destination globally. FDI in infrastructure investments into India is now permitted up to 100 percent in sectors such as roads and highways, ports, electricity generation, transmission and distribution, industrial parks, among others. The Indian Power Industry for instance is transforming from government-controlled PSUs to Business management in a corporate framework. The sector is seeing the active participation of private players - naturally this has created a huge demand in the changed roles of technical & managerial personnel at various levels.”
Advising management students to start their career from the grass-root level to understand the nuisances of business management, he said, “It is useful to understand that life need not start with a bang - you have to build it step by step. Life experiences at the grass-roots level help to build up a huge vocabulary, upon which you can draw as you grow in your career. So, companies such as Unilever & GSK will promptly dispatch the suave MBA into the remotest rural destination to see the transformation happening there and TCS would get its software engineers to write code, companies such as SBI may actually have their trainees deliver to desks as a way to get to know people and their functions.”
“We should always think of ourselves on a learning curve, given that technology has a short shelf life. Learning is a survival tactic. So since the time, you join as a young engineer, you go under training in software tools to master skills, you learn on the job by handling variety a of projects, all these operational experiences prove invaluable later in career,” concluded Mr Ramadorai.
