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THE VIEW FROM INDIA
”I believe that Work, like Energy, cannot be created nor destroyed, it just changes form,” remarks Dinesh Mirchandani, president, Boyden International. Neither generalists nor specialists need worry, for if Mirchandani is correct, only the “Incompetent” will get squeezed out. “Today, being a good Generalist is actually a Specialist -`cross-functional’ -skill. It requires application, careful career planning and great interpersonal skills, as these are high on human interface. However, specialisation is becoming more and more the order of the day.”
Agreeing tangentially, H Tripathi, vice-president, HR, Infrasoft Inc, reels off, “Resource management will become important. Most jobs would involve a line function (interface at the field level). Pure strategists with no implementation experience will find it difficult. Customer Relation Paradigm will see a change where more strategies will be based on Web Technologies. In the near future, only some areas will absorb pure specialists, while most others will require multiple skill sets.”
“In an industry where concepts have a short life versatility is a compulsion. Specialisation teaches concepts and technology to be productive and versatile easier. With these virtues what leads your idea to success is your timing, communication, perseverance and the team,” suggests Dhana Suresh, TCS.
Some of the new skills demanded sit oddly in a post-modern age. Most HR personnel moan the lack of good resumes. “One still gets letters that use obsolete phrases like `for your persusal’”, moans Vinaya Shetty, HR management consultant, who however thinks that it is the age of the generalists. Among the other must-have skills that companies and execs are leveraging are networking and computer-literacy. Moneypenny is on her way to becoming a relic as flatter organisations have senior managers short-cut to their own mail via formatted company letters, intranet and email. “A lot of decisions are being taken on email, which is cutting down on bureaucratic skills,” says Madhavi Lal, head of compensation, Standard Chartered Bank. “It has been easier to adapt than was expected.” “Employment contracts will undergo radical changes and that would mean paradigm shifts in viewing competencies and saleable skills,” says Shetty.
From IT to finance to IT is the Shyam Aiyer lesson in point. In the last seven years, he has been “catapulted from being an ordinary mortal to portals of economic power, handling money of the order of 8-9 digit numbers routinely, only to be thrown back to rags and in debt.” A victim of a fraud (on his fledgling company), he lost Rs. 7 crores four years ago, spent a year futilely chasing the police and sleeping in courtrooms, joined a multinational investment bank, where he rose to head operations, and became jobless after the Hong Kong-based bank filed for liquidation. At 35, after 15 years of a career, Aiyar was unemployed and penniless, hitting the streets for a finance job with prospective employers cold-shouldering him for his lack of qualifications in the finance stream. Today, he is in London working for the reputed infotech consultancy he had first started his career with, but his heart is not on the job. “Having tasted success, and at the very top, the present assignment makes me claustrophobic. I prefer finance to IT but I am lucky to have a job, and one that a lot of people envy.”
Continued...
(page 3)
NANDITA MUKUL
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