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Creating a learning organization
Many companies claim to focus their resources on the development of their people, but few can match the learning culture at Indian IT company, Mahindra BT. Its focus on education and development has led to a rapidly growing business with enviable employee recruitment and retention rates.
TODAY'S IT INDUSTRY IS more competitive than ever. Companies must manage the twin pressures of globalization and rapid technological change and, at the same time, maintain an edge over their competition. In this environment, the quality of a company's employees can be the key differentiator. Nowhere in the world is this message better understood than India, where the benefits of providing high-quality education, training and support to the workforce are widely acknowledged.
The majority of Indian companies see this process in terms of the personal development of the individual. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "the purpose of education is to bring out the best in you." According to the Indian philosophy of Upanishads, education is much more than the transference of knowledge; it is the development of character. The objective should be to empower individuals to create new solutions to new challenges rather than just enabling them to reiterate existing knowledge. This is a view subscribed to by Mahindra British Telecom (MBT), one of India's leading telecoms solutions providers.
Nurturing talent at MBT
MBT believes that talent should be carefully identified and nurtured for future leadership roles. It sees this as particularly urgent because many IT companies are growing so rapidly that a leadership vacuum is being created at the highest levels.
To meet these needs, companies need to create performance differentiators by identifying and rewarding high achievers. Many leading IT companies now have systems in place to groom and mentor future leaders from this batch of high performers. This article looks at how MBT is approaching this challenge by fostering a learning culture through training and development initiatives.
A rich environment for growth
MBT's Indian base represents a key advantage in its approach to education. India provides a vast market of highly skilled and motivated IT staff for companies to choose from. According to research by Advantage Offshore Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd, 35 percent of India's population is aged between 15 and 60, a...