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Is India producing original thought leadership on human resources and innovation? Where are the Indian business leaders who can inspire innovation and build a long term competitive edge? By Steve Manallack. How many Indian businesses are using the current outsourcing boom to lay the foundations for their long term success through innovation and knowledge? Some of the larger companies are, that is well known. But how many businesses are just too busy getting on with the job? If too many are just coping with current demands, just getting on with the job, then they are laying shaky foundations for the future. It must be tempting for business and government leaders to feel either confident or overwhelmed by demand. After all, positive indicators for the Indian economy are a stable 8-per cent annual growth, rising foreign exchange reserves of more than $150 billion, a booming capital market with the "Sensex" just short of the 11,000 mark, flowing foreign direct investment in excess of $10 billion and a 25 per cent surge in exports. What a great success story! But it would be potentially tragic for the Indian economy in the long term if current leaders felt that they had got it all, or that they had too much to do or that the current success story will just keep on flowing. Busy as these leaders are, they must use the good times to find time for innovation, because without this leadership, where will the Indian economy be in 10 or 20 years time?
We often debate whether "what you know" or "who you know" are the most important for success, yet in many ways this is a false debate. After all, to succeed in business you need both; but to truly succeed long term you need to build an innovation and knowledge driven organisation. Today, it is the ability that a company has to assimilate and act on change that will determine its fate. Dr Sattar Bawany is the leader for Mercer's Singapore Global Information Business and he urges organisations to develop an innovative knowledge driven culture through: -
introducing and managing innovative thinking
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promoting "intrapreneurship"
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training and support for information sharing
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creating a climate pro knowledge and innovation As Dr Bawany says "If a knowledge management system is right for your company, the benefits seem endless," but he also warns that in order to see results a company should have the proper training, technology and employee cooperation. One of the challenges most organisations face is getting employees to share knowledge. Many of us believe "knowledge is power" so we hang on to it. A key here is to ensure that there are obvious benefits in sharing what you know. Communication is essential to show that knowledge sharing helps us all become more productive. This sharing of knowledge can only happen in a climate of trust, so senior management must earn that trust and demonstrate the benefits. Too many organisations see technology as the "driver" of knowledge management, but like all management the real driver is people. Technology is the enabler in many cases, but people are central to the process. There is a tendency for too many senior management to have a form of blind faith in technological solutions without thinking through the people processes. Dr Bawany points to a key benefit: "When knowledge management is implemented effectively, encouragement is given to the free flow of ideas, which in return fosters innovation and a high retention rate for employees." So, how do you promote innovation?
The challenge for Indian business management is to open its mind and the minds of its key people. Many of us are risk averse and do not readily share information and knowledge. A good way to get this happening is to communicate and publish stories about role models who do openly share knowledge, or to provide success stories and best practice examples. You might need to do this again and again, over some time, before the light goes off and your people pick it up. Then you will need to address reward strategies, processes and systems, how to support people with ideas, how to build innovation groups and so on. But it all begins with communication. This strategy also helps ensure you get the best out of the people you already have on the payroll. India must be recruiting more than any other country right now, but the problem has got to be a "competence gap" - can you find more and more people with the competence you need? This is another good reason to generate innovation from inside, so that the people you already have develop with your business. For many CEO's these issues of human resources and organisation building are the hot points today. While these CEO's look further afield for talent, they also have to focus on those already on the payroll and ensure that these people become more valuable over time. It comes back to the communication ability of the CEO, enthusing their leadership team, encouraging innovation, appealing to partners and customers and selling the message of knowledge sharing at all levels. Too many are not well equipped or well trained for this communication role. We need a new wave of Indian management thinking on these key issues of human resources, internal communication and innovation. We need Indian CEO's who have the ability to get the message across, to describe the present and paint the picture of the future. In other words, CEO's who can communicate in a way that inspires. You will not do this with detailed power point presentations and endless statistics, because this communication has to draw on a passion for innovation. Just consider how these issues really took off in the US during good economic times of the 1960s and 70s, with the emergence of thought leaders, research and extensive dialogue across innovation and management. For many CEO's in the US, the task of motivating others and capturing the spirit and soul of innovation took as much as 50 per cent of their time. They made speeches, talked to groups small and large, went back time and again to their staff, went on the media, took every opportunity to get their message across. Is this focus on communication for change happening among contemporary Indian CEO's, too? The emphasis for these leaders in the US was on how to build their own ideas and approaches, instead of just borrowing from the world. Is this happening today in India? Is India producing original thought leadership on human resources and innovation? If this leadership is not happening, India will be wasting a unique opportunity to use current growth for future success.
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