Core sector companies facing acute shortage of talent at senior management

A growing number of Indian companies in the core sector and process industries are facing an acute shortage of talent at senior management levels as their existing leadership teams near retirement age.

The shortage has been exacerbated as companies look to expand and need additional management bandwidth, given the current manufacturing push within India, experts said. Executive search firms and industry experts said the problem has been years in the making as talented graduates have steadily moved away from the manufacturing sector.

Job Location a Key Deterrent
Promising graduates have been preferring jobs in newer industries like information technology over taking up roles in manufacturing firms in sectors such as steel, cement and specialty chemicals, they said.

Job Location a Key Deterrent
Promising graduates have been preferring jobs in newer industries like information technology over taking up roles in manufacturing firms in sectors such as steel, cement and specialty chemicals, they said.

"Over the last 10-15 years, the best technical talent has preferred high-growth newer and emerging sectors like IT/digital over manufacturing," said Santrupt Misra, director, group human resources at the Aditya Birla Group, which has multiple companies in the manufacturing sector like UltraTech Cement, Hindalco and Grasim.

"The talent pool in manufacturing has seen retirement of experienced talent without fast-enough replenishment with talent of equal calibre. Thus, choices get narrower as you go up the ladder seeking both capability and experience," said Misra, who is also group director Carbon Black and director-chemicals at the Aditya Birla Group.

Meanwhile, as companies expand and set up new manufacturing assets, they are scouting for additional employees in senior management roles. "Hiring for replacing people is one thing, hiring for growth is a different problem altogether," said K Sudarshan, managing director at executive search firm EMA Partners India. "There simply aren't enough people at the top."

Companies are now trying to circumvent the shortage by looking at international candidates or even wooing younger talent at CXO-1/-2 levels - one and two levels below CXO roles - by offering rapid career upward mobility as an incentive.

For instance, executive search firm Korn Ferry, which is handling the mandate to look for a CEO for a cement firm, has advised its client to consider candidates from industries like paint and steel. The company was initially insistent on getting someone from the same sector.

“We mapped out the entire cement industry and told them that was not going to happen and advised them to look at other sectors such as paint, processes, steel, etc.,” said Navnit Singh, chairman and regional managing director at Korn Ferry.