Indians must develop soft-skills: US firm

Manu P. Toms 

Mumbai, Aug 25

“Organisations are evolving organically, more so than ever before. As a result, we believe that human capital management is a far more representative term than human resource management, which is not just compliance issues or typical standards and procedures,” says Mahesh Krishnamurti, Managing Director India, Resources Global Professionals, a US-based consultancy firm.

The company, with 1,600 clients across four continents, recently started its operations in India. RGP, which offers consultancy services in areas ranging from accounting to human capital management, and information management to finance, boasts a clientele that includes Dell, Microsoft, HSBC and General Motors.

In India, RGP has 70 clients, including the Indian arms of global companies. “One of the real challenges we are facing in India now is reaching out to large Indian multinationals. This is because they do not know us or understand our value proposition,” said Mr Krishnamurti. According to him, the company believes in “word-of-mouth grassroots marketing, in clients telling other prospective clients about us”.

Role of consultancies

“When company A acquires company B, it is a matter of integrating the employees of company B into company A. It involves a classic case of change management with social, cultural and business integration,” he said, dwelling on the role of consultancies. 

Futuristic model

Based on the experience of conducting internal audit of financial and non-financial processes, Mr Krishnamurti said: “In some cases, the companies themselves do not know how messy the situation is. In order to understand problems, we forge relations, spend lot of time and invest emotional energy. I may, for example, call up a CFO and ask him, ‘Hey what is the problem? You can share it with me. Or you can hang up if you don’t want to’.”

RGP has a new model for India, where it has been in operation for a little over two years. “Ours is a futuristic model, where we are talking about a highly flexible, mobile talent pool that is self-motivated and self-driven — people who want to dabble in different things in life and those who want to respond to different callings that would typically evolve over a period of time. Here, people want to work in an open, transparent, trusted environment where they can pick up the phone and say: “This is my skill-set; can you get me a great project?’,” he says.

In India, RGP has a core group of 90 consultants with an average age of 35. On professionals in the consultancy space, Mr Krishnamurti says that while India has people with enough technical skills, there is still a need to develop soft-skills. “People should know how to mainstream themselves effectively and quickly in a work environment. Basic etiquette, like a firm handshake and making good eye contact, are important,” he adds.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated August 26, 2009)