The Harvard Business Review—March 2010: Training and Development : Post # 3

“Leadership Lessons from India” (by Cappelli, H. Singh, J. Singh and Michael Useem)

India’s leaders of its best and fastest growing companies put a high priority on training and development, a long view of leadership development, and place such development above short-term stakeholder interests. These leaders “create a sense of social mission that is central to company culture….and they recommend this approach [investing in training and focus on the social mission of the company] to Western leaders." When asked to prioritize their key responsibilities, Indian leaders ranked the top four responsibilities this way:

1. Chief input for business strategy.
2. Keeper of the organizational culture.
3. Guide, teacher, or role model for employees.
4. Representative of owner and investor interests. (note:investors came out last, not first on their list of priorities.)

Some interesting stats from this article:
--81% of heads of HR of Indian firms surveyed think employee training and development was essential to being competitive. However, only 4% of U.S. chief learning officers held that view.][
Skills Indian Leaders Value Most:
--61% said envisioning the path to the future, strategic thinking, and guiding change.
--57% said being inspirational, accountable and entrepreneurial.

Check out the article for the other stats worth reading.