The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) recently organised its annual HR Summit on ‘Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talent’. The event witnessed participation of business leaders, academia and HR professionals from the pharma and allied industry. At the event, distinguished speakers discussed the HR challenges of the pharma industry and drew upon experiences from other industries to provide likely solutions to these challenges.
In his inaugural address, Dr Shailesh Ayyangar, President, OPPI and Managing Director, India and Vice President, South Asia, Sanofi said, “Each business leader needs to be a good HR manager. It is important that the pharma industry is cognisant of the current HR challenges. Innovative talent development programmes alongwith competency and skill development workshops are the need of the hour to harness young talent.”
Ayyangar further stressed that the generation Y has to believe that this industry is indeed a great place to work in. This can happen only when they are empowered with independence along with accountability.
While moderating a CEO’s panel discussion during the summit, Ajay Bhatt, Regional Human Resources Director, Abbott India, said, “It is only when the talent can see a clarity of role, a clear career path and more importantly feels valued that he/she finds fewer reasons to leave. The onus is on business leaders and HR managers to provide this clarity and create a participative environment.”
Moorthy Uppaluri, Vice President, Randstad, mentioned that the Indian pharma industry is on the verge of leveraging a large number of talent and we need to maximise this opportunity. Sudarshan Jain, Managing Director -Healthcare Solutions Abbott stressed on the point that today the critical thing among the pharma senior leadership is talent development.
Ranjit Madan, Chief Executive Officer, Life Sciences Sector Skill Development Council informed about the annual spending of both Indian as well as multinational pharma companies on building up re-skilling programmes. He revealed on the fact that 50 per cent CTCs of individuals are being put on re-skilling by pharma companies.
Alok Sonig, Senior Vice President and India Business Head – Generics, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories provided various facts and figures related to the Indian pharma industry’s growth. He began his speech with a prediction that the Indian pharma market will touch $25 billion by 2030. Overall another $20 billion incremental growth would be coming in from the Indian pharma companies in the US, Europe, Russia and China.
He emphasised, “We really need to invest in talent management for India and overseas market for developing and accelerating management skills.” He predicted that one third of Indians will be employed in the overseas markets in next 10 years.
Venkat Changavalli, a leadership mentor and management consultant, and Santosh Babu, an organisation leadership development consultant, spoke on various HR issues and stressed on the importance of mentorship and inclusive leadership.
EP News Bureau– Mumbai