Infosys, Wipro, HCL-YOUNG LEADERS..LEAD

27 SEP, 2012, 12.09PM IST, DEVINA SENGUPTA,ET BUREAU 

Infosys, Wipro, HCL and others draw up new checklist of traits in young leaders

BANGALORE: As Indian IT companies try to morph from being mere low-cost service providers to business partners, they are feeling the need for more and better leaders across all levels. InfosysBSE -1.47 %, WiproBSE -1.05 %, HCL and others are drawing up a new checklist of traits they want their next generation of leaders to have.
"One needs to have more courage now," says Matt Barney, Vice-President and Director, InfosysLeadership Institute, referring to employees in leadership roles. "It takes courage to predict what may happen with clients and businesses on a cognitive and computational front." Barney is also on the lookout for those who can learn and are innovative enough to interpret complex problems and come up with practical solutions that clients can apply.
For Barney, such traits are specific to IT because of the faster pace of change. "Till few years back, there was no cloud and before that no Java...one needs to be disruptive here," he adds. Wipro is putting junior and middle management employees through psychometric tests to spot leaders with resilience and detachment. Those chosen are then measured on how they have bounced back from failure. Ability to cope with setbacks is emerging as crucial trait in a volatile economic environment. 
Last year, an MNC IT firm appointed a 39-year-old as head of its business unit in India. Though he was of Indian origin, he had never worked here. He struggled initially. Later, he and consulting firm E&Y changed business tactics. The duo altered business model, made performance management razor sharp and had weekly sales performance reviews instead of bi-annually. He stabilised the Indian business in 18 months.
"While the last downturn was a lesson for senior leaders, this dip in business cycle is for the younger lot to learn from," said Milan Sheth, technical senior trade and partner at E&Y.Business model changes forced by the global economic slowdown are forcing changes too. IT companies are moving to a non-linear model where they are trying to delink revenue growth from the need to hire more hands.In the last five years, the average revenue earned per employee in the sector has increased by 19-20% for companies like Infosys and TCS.
"Earlier, more people on payrolls meant more revenue. But now, clients want more services from a smaller manpower," said PrashantBhatnagar, Director-Hiring and Staffing for SapientNitro, marketing-technology division of technology firm Sapient. "This means hunting for those who are adaptable to disruption and change, can take risks and shorten their tenure of failure quickly," he added. Bhatnagar estimates that around 12% of 2.8 million industry workforce could be thrust in roles that could demand some form of leadership. Sapient employs 7,000 in India, has tweaked its talent selection procedure to seek out candidates who are comfortable with unknown settings. 
IT services firm HCL wants employees who are capable of engaging with clients across different geographies, social and economic backgrounds. "We need employees who are good at problem solving, understand different industries and not just IT. Someone who disrupts our status quo and questions our ideas", saysNaveenNarayanan, Global Head - Talent Acquisition, HCL Technologies. Narayanan gives the example of a junior employee who came up with the idea of an in-house social media portal. Though the senior management was sceptical about the idea, the employee persisted and managed to convince the top brass on need for it. Today more than 3/4 th of the employees are on it...............
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/infosys-wipro-hcl-and-others-draw-up-new-checklist-of-traits-in-young-leaders/articleshow/16564571.cms