| Amount | Contribution(s) |
|
|
XLRI dean pens biz guide | ||
Jamshedpur, Sept. 22: To have a better understanding of the Indian market, B-school students need more books written by Indian authors. Keeping this in mind, Pingali Venugopal, the dean (academics) of XLRI, finished his fourth book Sales and Distribution: An Indian Perspective. The book will be released by Sage Publication on September 24. In the book, Venugopal dealt with marketing strategies like customer centric approach in the Indian market. India has become a lucrative market for many multinational companies but there are some unique characteristics of the market, which throws up variety of challenges. The book offers guidance how to cope with these challenges. Sales and Distribution: An Indian Perspective highlights behavioural transactions which helps in completing a sale and also deals with the service orientation required for selling products. “Although there are many books for management students available in the market, a greater percentage of them are by foreign authors. The marketing scenario varies from country to country. Unlike European and other foreign countries, the market in India is different and thus needs a separate study. The rising need of Indian authors motivated me to start writing on my subject,” said Venugopal. Venugopal is a postgraduate from IIM, Ahmedabad, and is a professor of marketing at XLRI since 1994. He is the visiting lecturer at IIM Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Lucknow and in American University of Armenia. The other three books by Venugopal are Marketing Channel Management: A Customer Centric Approach, Managing Your Sales Force: A Motivational Approach and State of the Indian Farmer: A Millenium Study. “It often happens that students read marketing strategies by foreign authors but face problems while executing those plans here. Not only in marketing but books should be written by Indian authors because with so much interest of the other countries in India now, I think there will be a growing demand for it also,” he said. The book costs Rs 495. |
In the initial phase of the move, a first among B-schools in India, XLRI has received two confirmations: Francis Estrada, president, Asian Institute of Management, Manila, and Abol Jalilvand, dean and professor of Finance, School of Business Administration, Loyola University, Chicago, have agreed to be a part of the 21-member board of governors.
“The mantra for success of any institution is to think beyond India. All the universities I have got in touch with have responded positively. There could have been no better time than this because this is the time when the foreign market wants to tap the potential in India because of the economic boom,” said XLRI director Father E. Abraham about the move.XLRI will be the first B-school in India to include foreign experts into its board.
Although the IIMs — Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Indore, Lucknow — and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, have visiting faculties from foreign universities, none has foreign members contributing in the decision-making process of the institutes.
XLRI, too, has been collaborating with around 15 international institutes and universities for faculty and students exchange programmes.
Talks are on with a few more universities in the US and Europe, but the B-school doesn’t want to divulge details just yet.
“The talks are at a primary stage. But, we will try our best to tie up with more foreign universities in order to lend our faculty and students better international exposure,” said Abraham.
As of now, he is naturally excited about XLRI’s board going international. This, coupled with the existing tie-ups, the director believed, would encourage more foreign students to come and study at XLRI.
“I hope once XLRI is fully established as a global business school, foreign students will get attracted to our campus. As it is education is cheaper in India. Therefore, we can get a better response from students of other countries,” hoped Abraham.
With two international experts having confirmed their participation, XLRI is now looking for more experts like deans, principals and directors from European countries, including France and Spain.
XLRI looks at French connection - B-school to start a teacher exchange programme with foreign institute | ||
Jamshedpur, Aug. 28: Students can wait — teachers will now be heading to foreign shore for an exchange programme. XLRI School of Business and Human Resources will tie-up with Institute of Scientific Economy and Management of Lille (IESEG), France, for a teacher exchange programme to conduct research work. The MoU between the two institutes was signed last year and the teachers would leave for France later this year. Associate professor of management and organisation of IESEG Birgit Kleymann, who is also the co-ordinator of the programme, visited the institute to study the country and find out the subjects on which research can be conducted. “I am here to understand the Indian market. We want to study the market, as every multinational company wants to invest here. We believe in the best therefore we tied up with XLRI. I am the industries, the work they do for thr people at large so that we can chalk out an area of interest. This will help us to chose a common subjects to work on,” said Kleymann. IESEG, which belongs to Lille Catholic University, would take up corporate bigwigs of the steel city as their research subjects. “I feel that Tata Steel can be a subject of research in terms of corporate citizenship, operations and processing. They conduct various responsibility events in the area. There are many aspects of the company that makes it interesting for research apart from it being a global player,” said Kleymann. The professors of XLRI would study the finance, industrial relations and the luxury and fashion market. Jeetu Singh, the professor of general management and human resource, said: “The programme would help us in gaining international exposure. This will help us as well as the students. Our experience would help the students in gaining an insight of industry and relations in the industrial sector. But we have not decided on the topics as yet.” Professors from XLRI would stay in France for six months for the programme. The business institutes are also contemplating students exchange programme. If the talks regarding the event is finalised then four students of the two institutes would get a chance to study in the other institute. Plans are also on to conduct a teaching exchange programme. But talks regarding these are in the nascent stage. “We zeroed in on India as it is easier to understand the country because of the Indo-European history. We want to spread our wings in India and thinking of a similar programme with IIM, Bangalore,” added the associate professor. |
Prof E.M. Rao published his new book "Industrial Jurisprudence A Critical Commentary" (Lexis Nexis Butterworth, 2008). Welcome to XLRI Website ! Your journey through the website will show you the people, the place and the role XLRI plays in the world of management education. For those who are familiar with our old website, I hope, this is a welcome change. The new design, executed with professional help and expertise will please you all. I would like to hear from you. | |
| XLRI with its single vision of Magis, i.e., pursuit of excellence, focuses on three areas: academic excellence, personal values and social concern A special word of welcome to our Alumni, who are eminent, in every walk of life and in every part of the world. This network with your alma mater will bring nostalgic feeling for you. But XLRI has a loving mother's pride in knowing what you are doing, how you are doing and what XLRI you like to see. XLRI spares no effort to make its curriculum world class and deliver it in the most effective manner. It constantly scans the developments in business and in society and tries to proact to meet the challenges. Its world-class faculty with its commitment and deep sense of service delivers the curriculum very effectively. XLRI tries its best to recruit the best faculty, induct them properly and help them to imbibe EXCEL culture and value and serve the students and industry with great dedication. They are also deeply involved in research and consultancy. Their involvement in industry makes their teaching very relevant and current. Our MDP programmes have helped thousands of junior, middle and senior executives across the length and breadth of the country to update their knowledge and their skills. Our outreach programmes Executive-PGP, Satellite-based Programmes, General Management Programmes and overseas have helped many working people to upgrade their knowledge to climb the career ladder. These multiple programmes aim to serve many sections of society and many areas of management. We are also planning to serve you in many other ways. You can browse through the website periodically to know about our future plans. For now, I invite you to our website for an interesting and educative journey. Thank you. God bless you. E. Abraham, S.J. | |
 |
| Madhukar Shukla Professor at XLRI Jamshedpur |
Why do businesses display a herd mentality?
A lot of opportunities spring up when a new sector is opened. Many try to exploit this. Since the sector is new, there are no benchmarks. Capability issues arise only later.
Do they have clear strategies for new opportunities?
They would have, but they would not be tested. They rely on previous experience, what they already know from other sectors and other countries. But that may not work for a new segment and local markets.
What are the risks they face?
When huge markets such as India open up, the picture is always incomplete. The retail sector, for example. More than 95 per cent of the sector is unorganised. The organised players think that even if they capture 5-10 per cent of the unorganised market, it would be great business. But there are too many unknowns. The strategy that worked in other developed markets may not apply in India.
Some businessmen don’t quit even though they do badly...
Sometimes, they stick on the hope that the sector would mature sooner or later. There could be an element of ego at play sometimes that clouds decision making.
Rear Admiral Rakesh Chopra , IN, VSM, (RETD), will be attending the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War as a Visiting Research fellow in Michaelmas, Term 2007.
After serving in the Indian Navy for 38 years, on retirement he took up appointment on the faculty of XLRI Jamshedpur, one amongst the top five B-schools in India, as Professor of Strategy and was subsequently appointed as Chairperson of the Strategy Area.
He studied at Bishop Cotton School, Simla. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Defence Services Staff College, he was a founding member and Chief Instructor of the College of Naval Warfare at Karanja, Mumbai. He has also been one of the guiding members on the Directing Staff of the Staff College and Chief Instructor of the Navigation & Direction School.
A specialist in Navigation & Direction and diving, he has navigated several ships, controlled aircraft from the carrier and commanded three major Indian Ships. He has been moving perfectly between multiple roles assigned to him, as part of his four decade long career with the Navy including National Cadet Corps, Flag Officer Sea Training, Joint Ops, Information Warfare and Weapon systems etc.
He commanded a ship in the 1971 Indo Pak war in the Eastern Theatre and was a member of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1988. Subsequent to this service, he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for exemplary service by the President.
He is an MSc from Madras University and an MBA from a prestigious B school in Mumbai. After doing an MPhil from Mumbai University on “Energy Security”, he was awarded PhD for his thesis on ‘The Strategic Significance of Oil and Gas for the Security of India’.
Prof. Pitabas Mohanty, one of the stalwarts in the world of finance; has added a new feather to his cap. He has now co-authored the book “Principles of Corporate Finance” along with Brealey, Myers and Franklin Allen. This book is a Bible in the world of corporate finance and used by leading universities all over the world. It is indeed a matter of great honour for XLRI to have one of its professors to co-author such an illustrious book. Prof Mohanty has also co-authored another prestigious book “Investments” along with Bodie, Kane and Marcus. Prof Mohanty is the Chairperson of the Finance Area at XLRI.
Prof Mohanty has won the Best Young Teacher Award from AIMS in 2002. He has also won the first prize for two consecutive years in the Capital Markets Conference organized by the UTI Institute of Capital Markets. He has also got the prestigious Citibank Research Excellence Award in IIM Bangalore. To add to his ever expanding list of achievements, he has also won the Best Research Paper Award from AIMS in 1999.
The HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in the more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. It is this requirement that differentiates Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts. In the developed economies,HR requirements are comparatively more stable.
Anjali Prayag
From support to strategic, from backroom to boardroom, from union management to expectation management — HR in the country has transformed itself to suit changing business needs. But the key concern today centres around the talent pool available to fulfil the HR roles that industry demands. Is Indian HR education gearing up to meet these changes? Madhukar Shukla, Professor, OB and Strategic Management and Chairperson, Alumni and External Linkages, XLRI, has catalysed some of the changes in the discipline. In the inaugural issue of People@work, he shares his experiences, insights and perspectives on the HR education industry. Edited excerpts from the interview:
Is HR education getting its due in India? Considering that companies fill HR vacancies with people from other disciplines, is there enough formal training for these people?
The scenario is changing for HR. While it is true that in some cases, HR roles are assigned to people from other disciplines, such instances are becoming increasingly fewer. Companies do look for trained HR professionals to handle HR roles. More often than not, if the role is assigned to a non-HR executive, the reason is not because of the quality of HR professionals, but the dearth of HR professionals.
Most companies do try to provide training to non-HR people through job-shadowing, nomination to HR courses and so on when they are given HR roles. In fact, this need has also sprouted some innovative partnerships between industry and academia. For instance, at XLRI we have two such partnerships, one with Accenture and the other with L&T, to conduct long-duration certification courses in HR. I think one of the challenges for the education sector will be to keep pace with the demand for HR professionals, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Have HR education programmes changed suitably to fulfil the needs of industry? From admin to IR to personnel to HR, it’s been a long journey for the people manager. Can you talk about how XLRI has altered its programme content in keep ing with this change?
Yes, over time, HR education has also changed to meet the needs of industry. HR has moved from a ‘backroom’ function to a ‘boardroom’ function. Educational institutions have also tried to keep abreast of these changes and have updated and revised their syllabi over time. However, I also think this is easier done in B-schools than in universities, because the former have greater autonomy and freedom to revise their syllabi. For instance, at XLRI, the faculty concerned can change and upgrade courses to make them more contemporary. In addition, periodically, every two-three years, we review the entire course structure and pedagogy of our HR programme.
We seek feedback from our own HR alumni, from senior HR professionals, other academic institutions and from industry and build that into our course structure. This has enabled us to keep our syllabi dynamic and in sync with industry needs. We have been able to include new courses, modify some existing ones and even change the focus of the entire programme. In the current format of our HR programme, besides the required HR topics, the students also get significant inputs in finance, strategy, and IT.
Where does India stand in terms of HR education and how would you rate the Indian HR manager vis-a-vis his Western counterparts?
Let me attempt this question from another angle. Some of my HR colleagues in industry say — and I agree with them — that the last few years have been and the next few years will remain, the most exciting time for HR in India. There is a phenomenal growth of the industry and new sectors — insurance, retail, telecom, IT/ITeS — have emerged, all of which are people-intensive. Even in the manufacturing sector, there are strategic moves, M&As, cross-border takeovers, expansion, organisational change and restructuring, which throw-up critical people issues that need to be tackled.
This has two implications. The first is for HR education in India where there will be a need for greater partnership between industry and academia, which, fortunately, has started happening (even though it needs to accelerate).
Besides the programmes mentioned earlier, we also invite practising HR professionals to share their experiences, cases, and practices with students. At other places, professional HR bodies, for example the National HRD Network, have forged alliances with educational institutes to participate in their courses.
The National HRD Network, for instance, spearheaded the design and roll-out of the HR diploma course at MDI, their Mumbai chapter took the initiative to provide mentoring to the HR students in the institutes and so on.
The other implication is for the Indian HR managers’ learning. As a fast-growing economy, the HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. I think it is this requirement and capability, which differentiates the Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts.
In more developed economies, HR requirements are comparatively more stable and, correspondingly, the role of HR professionals more process-driven. In comparison, Indian HR professionals have to be innovative and build HR processes around those innovations.
Has progressive, innovative and people-oriented HR become the preserve of the knowledge-based industries alone? How is the manufacturing industry HR person different today from a few years ago?
The changes in the demands on HR are not just in knowledge-based industries. HR requirements in the manufacturing sector also are no longer what they used to be. Earlier, the primary task of HR was maintenance of the system because manufacturing companies themselves were stable, showing slow growth or change. What we see now is a spurt of restructuring, mergers, international forays through expansion and acquisitions and upgrading of technology in the manufacturing sector. In addition, there is a migration of talent from manufacturing to the service/ knowledge sector, just when the sector requires them.
In many ways, the ultimate success of all these changes and strategic initiatives depends on managing people issues. So, while HR issues in the knowledge and manufacturing sectors may be somewhat different, there is a need to develop innovative HR solutions in both. Consider, for instance, the need for cultural integration, the development of an equitable compensation package and even the alignment of policies and procedures in case of an international acquisition. Earlier, such demands were rare for HR in the manufacturing sector.
During campus recruitment at XLRI, what kind of companies get preference from students?
Well, it is still the same menu — FMCG, consulting, IT/ITeS, banking, like in all B-schools. However, I would not give much weightage to these preferences, since movement out of the first job from the campus is quite high. It is the second or third job which one should look at to conclude the attractiveness of the industry sector for young MBAs.
Your comment on the HR talent pool in the country. Is recruitment becoming the sole focus of this fraternity, sidelining other functions such as managing people’s expectations, training and performance management?
Not really, though there is a large focus on recruitment, it is with reason. With the growth of all sectors, the need for qualified and employable manpower has shot up, and there really aren’t enough such people in the job market. So, if organisations have to grow and realise the opportunities they have, recruitment is actually a ‘strategic function’ for HR. I don’t think the other functions are sidelined.
Given that there is a big supply-demand gap in the talent market, it is essentially the same set of people who keep moving from one company to another, and with an increased compensation with every move. I think, sooner or later, this trend will make the cost of talent unviable and start hitting the bottomline. I personally feel that HR should start looking not only at talent acquisition and retention, but also talent creation. That is, how do we bring in more employable people into the mainstream job market.
Any indication of the numbers (of HR people) needed in the industry; what is the shortfall likely to be and how is industry planning to bridge the gap?
I think this will be the next big challenge for both industry and academia. If we look at the employment potential across industry sectors, it is huge:
According to Nasscom, IT/ITeS will add more than one million white collar jobs in 2008; according to a PWC report on retail, the projections are about 8 million; according to a TRAI 2005 report, close to half-a-million jobs were created in the telecom sector in that year; and an AIMA 2003 report projected that tourism and IT/ITeS would generate between 20 -72 million jobs by 2020.
Most of this employment-generation is happening in people-intensive sectors. Thus, the need for a strong HR backbone.
Even if one discounts for exaggerations in some of these projections, even at a very conservative estimate we are looking at least 5 million new jobs in the next five years. And a quick calculation would show that even if we need one HR professional for 1,000 employees (which by itself is a pathetic ratio), one needs at least 5,000 new HR professionals.
On the supply-side, the situation is far from comfortable. Among the few educational institutes that provide specialised HR courses — XLRI, TISS, SCMHRD, MDI — the total number of students do not add to more than 250-300 per annum, and many of them join HR consultancies rather than industry.
This is one big gap which the HR fraternity, in industry and academia, should be worried about. I don’t think it will be feasible for educational institutions to suddenly scale up their numbers to meet this demand.
What we will need to consider are new models for developing HR professionals as a joint industry-academia effort.
| Perspectives on people policy and its evolution in the country. |
The HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in the more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. It is this requirement that differentiates Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts. In the developed economies,HR requirements are comparatively more stable.
Anjali Prayag
From support to strategic, from backroom to boardroom, from union management to expectation management — HR in the country has transformed itself to suit changing business needs. But the key concern today centres around the talent pool available to fulfil the HR roles that industry demands. Is Indian HR education gearing up to meet these changes? Madhukar Shukla, Professor, OB and Strategic Management and Chairperson, Alumni and External Linkages, XLRI, has catalysed some of the changes in the discipline. In the inaugural issue of People@work, he shares his experiences, insights and perspectives on the HR education industry. Edited excerpts from the interview:
Is HR education getting its due in India? Considering that companies fill HR vacancies with people from other disciplines, is there enough formal training for these people?
The scenario is changing for HR. While it is true that in some cases, HR roles are assigned to people from other disciplines, such instances are becoming increasingly fewer. Companies do look for trained HR professionals to handle HR roles. More often than not, if the role is assigned to a non-HR executive, the reason is not because of the quality of HR professionals, but the dearth of HR professionals.
Most companies do try to provide training to non-HR people through job-shadowing, nomination to HR courses and so on when they are given HR roles. In fact, this need has also sprouted some innovative partnerships between industry and academia. For instance, at XLRI we have two such partnerships, one with Accenture and the other with L&T, to conduct long-duration certification courses in HR. I think one of the challenges for the education sector will be to keep pace with the demand for HR professionals, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Have HR education programmes changed suitably to fulfil the needs of industry? From admin to IR to personnel to HR, it’s been a long journey for the people manager. Can you talk about how XLRI has altered its programme content in keep ing with this change?
Yes, over time, HR education has also changed to meet the needs of industry. HR has moved from a ‘backroom’ function to a ‘boardroom’ function. Educational institutions have also tried to keep abreast of these changes and have updated and revised their syllabi over time. However, I also think this is easier done in B-schools than in universities, because the former have greater autonomy and freedom to revise their syllabi. For instance, at XLRI, the faculty concerned can change and upgrade courses to make them more contemporary. In addition, periodically, every two-three years, we review the entire course structure and pedagogy of our HR programme.
We seek feedback from our own HR alumni, from senior HR professionals, other academic institutions and from industry and build that into our course structure. This has enabled us to keep our syllabi dynamic and in sync with industry needs. We have been able to include new courses, modify some existing ones and even change the focus of the entire programme. In the current format of our HR programme, besides the required HR topics, the students also get significant inputs in finance, strategy, and IT.
Where does India stand in terms of HR education and how would you rate the Indian HR manager vis-a-vis his Western counterparts?
Let me attempt this question from another angle. Some of my HR colleagues in industry say — and I agree with them — that the last few years have been and the next few years will remain, the most exciting time for HR in India. There is a phenomenal growth of the industry and new sectors — insurance, retail, telecom, IT/ITeS — have emerged, all of which are people-intensive. Even in the manufacturing sector, there are strategic moves, M&As, cross-border takeovers, expansion, organisational change and restructuring, which throw-up critical people issues that need to be tackled.
This has two implications. The first is for HR education in India where there will be a need for greater partnership between industry and academia, which, fortunately, has started happening (even though it needs to accelerate).
Besides the programmes mentioned earlier, we also invite practising HR professionals to share their experiences, cases, and practices with students. At other places, professional HR bodies, for example the National HRD Network, have forged alliances with educational institutes to participate in their courses.
The National HRD Network, for instance, spearheaded the design and roll-out of the HR diploma course at MDI, their Mumbai chapter took the initiative to provide mentoring to the HR students in the institutes and so on.
The other implication is for the Indian HR managers’ learning. As a fast-growing economy, the HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. I think it is this requirement and capability, which differentiates the Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts.
In more developed economies, HR requirements are comparatively more stable and, correspondingly, the role of HR professionals more process-driven. In comparison, Indian HR professionals have to be innovative and build HR processes around those innovations.
Has progressive, innovative and people-oriented HR become the preserve of the knowledge-based industries alone? How is the manufacturing industry HR person different today from a few years ago?
The changes in the demands on HR are not just in knowledge-based industries. HR requirements in the manufacturing sector also are no longer what they used to be. Earlier, the primary task of HR was maintenance of the system because manufacturing companies themselves were stable, showing slow growth or change. What we see now is a spurt of restructuring, mergers, international forays through expansion and acquisitions and upgrading of technology in the manufacturing sector. In addition, there is a migration of talent from manufacturing to the service/ knowledge sector, just when the sector requires them.
In many ways, the ultimate success of all these changes and strategic initiatives depends on managing people issues. So, while HR issues in the knowledge and manufacturing sectors may be somewhat different, there is a need to develop innovative HR solutions in both. Consider, for instance, the need for cultural integration, the development of an equitable compensation package and even the alignment of policies and procedures in case of an international acquisition. Earlier, such demands were rare for HR in the manufacturing sector.
During campus recruitment at XLRI, what kind of companies get preference from students?
Well, it is still the same menu — FMCG, consulting, IT/ITeS, banking, like in all B-schools. However, I would not give much weightage to these preferences, since movement out of the first job from the campus is quite high. It is the second or third job which one should look at to conclude the attractiveness of the industry sector for young MBAs.
Your comment on the HR talent pool in the country. Is recruitment becoming the sole focus of this fraternity, sidelining other functions such as managing people’s expectations, training and performance management?
Not really, though there is a large focus on recruitment, it is with reason. With the growth of all sectors, the need for qualified and employable manpower has shot up, and there really aren’t enough such people in the job market. So, if organisations have to grow and realise the opportunities they have, recruitment is actually a ‘strategic function’ for HR. I don’t think the other functions are sidelined.
Given that there is a big supply-demand gap in the talent market, it is essentially the same set of people who keep moving from one company to another, and with an increased compensation with every move. I think, sooner or later, this trend will make the cost of talent unviable and start hitting the bottomline. I personally feel that HR should start looking not only at talent acquisition and retention, but also talent creation. That is, how do we bring in more employable people into the mainstream job market.
Any indication of the numbers (of HR people) needed in the industry; what is the shortfall likely to be and how is industry planning to bridge the gap?
I think this will be the next big challenge for both industry and academia. If we look at the employment potential across industry sectors, it is huge:
According to Nasscom, IT/ITeS will add more than one million white collar jobs in 2008; according to a PWC report on retail, the projections are about 8 million; according to a TRAI 2005 report, close to half-a-million jobs were created in the telecom sector in that year; and an AIMA 2003 report projected that tourism and IT/ITeS would generate between 20 -72 million jobs by 2020.
Most of this employment-generation is happening in people-intensive sectors. Thus, the need for a strong HR backbone.
Even if one discounts for exaggerations in some of these projections, even at a very conservative estimate we are looking at least 5 million new jobs in the next five years. And a quick calculation would show that even if we need one HR professional for 1,000 employees (which by itself is a pathetic ratio), one needs at least 5,000 new HR professionals.
On the supply-side, the situation is far from comfortable. Among the few educational institutes that provide specialised HR courses — XLRI, TISS, SCMHRD, MDI — the total number of students do not add to more than 250-300 per annum, and many of them join HR consultancies rather than industry.
This is one big gap which the HR fraternity, in industry and academia, should be worried about. I don’t think it will be feasible for educational institutions to suddenly scale up their numbers to meet this demand.
What we will need to consider are new models for developing HR professionals as a joint industry-academia effort.
