It was an unusually cool morning for late June in Chennai. I was expecting two young business graduates, both of whom I had the pleasure of teaching. I was excited as I was meeting them after about ten years and was keen to know how they were doing!
Shilpa and Pradeep were two bright graduates of a premier management school and were both recruited by this large multi-national in Mumbai. They had both joined the finance function of the business, although they entered it differently. Shilpa got an accounting role, while Pradeep started with internal audit. Both went through their initial rounds of training and then, of course, the time-tested stints in the field, other functions, special projects and so on to get that all important orientation to business.
Pradeep even had a stint in sales before getting back to head business support and treasury. Shilpa took on a management accounting role, becoming part of the planning side of the business. Interestingly, both established their capability and competence straightaway and were seen as success stories.
Tying up ends
Life moved on for the two, one on the engine room side of the business, while the other on a more future looking side! They made progress in terms of taking on more responsibilities. While both were successful in their respective roles, however, slowly but surely, Shilpa was being pulled into the business more and more — the senior management, the board and the investment committee would often look to Shilpa for clarity and advice.
It was evident that Shilpa had acquired something special! She had mastered, beyond her role’s demands, the finer nuances of the business — a superior ability to read the interconnection of some of the important business metrics, be it capital, fixed expenses, profits, margins, working capital requirements, finance costs, earnings, economic profit or ROCE. She brought to the discussions well-articulated, thought-provoking points of view, demonstrating an ability to read the linkages of the phenomenon taking place outside, be it the customer franchise, market share, distribution reach outs, NPD or manufacturing excellence and its impact on the inside, on the bottomline or for that matter on the growth potential of the business. Shilpa had very quietly but diligently worked in gaining this perspective and that made her extremely unique and indispensable to the business.
As they sat down that fine Sunday morning, it was Pradeep who said, “Do you know Shilpa is getting on to an international assignment as the director in charge of mergers and acquisitions?” While I could sense a note of disappointment in Pradeep, I also noted his endorsement of Shilpa having earned her elevation.
As I reflected on the experience of the morning it brought with it a huge lesson for me!
Abstracting from this experience, there appears to be a “go to” competency that every organisation seeks and there is a set of people who are hugely valued for demonstrating these. This ‘go to’ competency is not necessarily a requisite only at the top level. This is a competency that you need at almost every level in the organisation, at every field of its activity. So, be it in a factory, a ware house, in supply chain or be it in finance and accounts or HR, there seems to be a set of people if not just one, who seem to possess this critical ‘go to’ competency. For example, in HR, someone who has honed his/her intuitive skills and has the demonstrated ability to spot good talent — that is surely, a much wanted ‘go to’ competency in today’s context. At a deeper level, almost all of us as individuals seem to seek the sense of being valued and the ‘go to’ competency, thus, becomes a critical leadership capability that one must attain.
Not just business
Let me move from a business organisation to something in the social space.
A small NGO that I was associated with called We care had an ambition to help young children afflicted with dreaded life-threatening illness. In that were working with a group of committed ladies, seeking to be of help and service. They just had about five people, with one part-time accountant to manage the accounts. Meenal, one of the volunteers, came through in shining colours. For everything that was happening, be it the diet schedules, the fun activities, the learning workbooks, after-care schedules, the accounts and expenses, it was always Meenal that the other ladies would go to. Even the children and the children’s mothers would often wait for Meenal to take a call.
If we were to abstract from this phenomena, what Meenal had developed, consciously or perhaps not so consciously, was what I would again call the ‘go to’ competency. A competency which made people go to her, and not only that but also made her colleagues and the people she was serving, rely and depend on her for advice, expertise and her point of view. This made Meenal extremely significant to We care. I dread the thought of what would happen to We care if Meenal were to leave.
So, this is a parallel which I would draw upon to make the point that a ‘go to’ competency is not necessarily restricted to business organisations.
The ‘go to’ competency is what makes for long-term sustainable success — across all platforms in an organisation. It transcends the role that one is performing, moves across the function you are in and make an impact on the results of the organisation and not just in one’s own work area or function. That is what makes the ‘go to’ competency a very valuable asset.
Having said that, at a practice level, ‘competencies’ is not an area that gets a manager’s mindspace easily and not many pay conscious attention to review or develop these. Yet, paradoxically, those who are successful have precisely done that and, hence, the progression in their careers!
(The author is the Lead Director, Diversified Business Group at the Murugappa Group and mentors HR professionals.)