Talent Crunch in the Logistics Industry
With smooth passage and approval of FDI policy for multi-branding retail from both Houses of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha ,thanks to the support of SP and BSP parties, Indian logistics and supply chain industry is to witness huge spurt in investments to be initiated by multinationals towards improvement of back end infrastructure, made mandatory by government of India in terms of state of art warehouses , cold chain and technology managed supply chain initiatives both inbound and outbound. This shall however require huge trained and skilled manpower in the field of logistics and supply chain management. Sadly lack of trained manpower in the country and matching this burgeoning demand may prove to be as challenging as cleansing of Augean stables .
In most of the Logistics seminars conducted in the country by CII and others, captains of industry and logistics honchos have repeatedly pointed out this lacuna but little has been done in this area by the various stake holders including Government, private industry and academic institutions.
Industry suffers from acute talent shortage and there is a huge gap between supply and burgeoning demand of trained manpower both in terms of quality and quantity. The Indian logistics industry has been growing at a faster pace and is likely to cross the $200 billion figure by 2020. However talent crunch remains a wide gaping hole and shall prove to be the biggest impediment towards path of progress of Logistics industry.
I would enumerate few reasons for this sorry state of affair, which are lack of funds with private academic institutions, lack of quality teachers with industry experience and lack of general awareness about logistics industry among students seeking admissions resulting only in in-take of mediocre students opting for logistics as area of specialization for their undergraduate and post graduate courses.
First, I shall talk about academic institutions. Some are born great and some achieve greatness and on some mediocrity is thrust upon them. Indian academics circle in this area encompassing both teachers and taught barring a few suffers from mediocrity and one can only lament the sorry state of affair because mediocrity has been thrust upon them. There is a dearth of institutions providing degrees in area of Logistics as a core subject. Even IIMs do not offer regular post graduate courses in area of Logistics and supply chain management with a few exceptions of only advanced and short term courses or as a mere subject in core disciplines..
Due to lack of availability of talent, industry continues to employ people with general background rather than with much desired specialization. Some big players in this industry have started imparting in-house trainings to new entrants through customized courses but there is almost a time lag of one to two years before the trainees start contributing to the organization in a matured manner and industry now can ill afford this delay. What industry needs now is a ready made recipe of trained manpower so as to deliver the ROI faster as would be demanded by the shareholders of new investments in this industry.
As such a lot has to be done to towards imparting right education by government with efforts like fresh and quick approval of new academic institutions imparting skilled education at all levels including diploma, undergraduate and post graduate courses with compulsory and regular industry academia interfacing in both directions of academics to industry and vice versa for which salaries of teachers are to made attractive to attract people with industry exposure.
Existing educational institutes which are facing severe cash crunch must be given subsidy by government to modernize their educational system. Incentives by government should be provided to open new institutes providing vocational and skilled trainings and degrees. .
The awareness of importance of Logistics and supply chain management in the minds of public and students and the potential it has for bright careers has to be created by the combined efforts of government, industry and academic institutions. Efforts of CII through its institution of Logistics have to be further strengthened and expanded throughout the country. Present image of Logistics industry must be wiped out which is Moreover, because of the false and poor image of logistics industry as if industry belongs to truck drivers, the industry is not able to attract students seeking sophisticated jobs and female workforce into it.
Logistics and supply chain management has to be recognized as a board level subject as it encompasses the whole gamut of business environment starting from conceptualization of the product and encompassing all areas up to its consumption involving suppliers, manufacturers, logistics providers, dealers, stockists, retailers and consumers. This discipline as such offers tremendous career growth opportunities to new students seeking admissions and new employees can even rise to the level of CEO coupled with the exposure of entire business environment experienced at a macro-level.
It is hoped that retail revolution in the country unleashed by policy approval of multi-branding by government of India and arrival of multinationals in the country like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco, Metro etc. will force and shake the complacency adopted by all the stake holders of this industry so far .
