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The rise of the global Indian executive is a relatively new phenomenon. To sustain this trend it is necessary for multinational companies' (MNC) subsidiaries - a prime source for managerial talent from India - to evolve a strategic approach to talent management and leadership development. Defining distinctive competencies, mapping job assignments to competencies and aligning individual and organizational development goals should be a part of this strategy.
Recent years have seen several executives of Indian origin assume CXO roles in large global organizations. A decade ago, these appointments were primarily of expatriate Indian executives working abroad. Recently, however, we are seeing the appointment of several domestic Indian executives - who may have had short- or long-term assignments abroad - to regional or global CXO roles.
The emergence of India-based subsidiaries as sources of high-quality technical and managerial talent is not exactly new; firms like Unilever, ITC, P&G and similar MNCs have been making waves for some time now. However, this trend has become sharper over the past few years, primarily owing to the evolution of India-based subsidiaries that were set up since the economic liberalization in the 1990s into mature organizations functioning as an important constituent of the global organization. To a more or less extent, the experiences of executives in these organizations have given them perspectives and competencies that are similar to their peers elsewhere in the world. In many cases, the experience of executives in the India subsidiary, having led the evolutionary process of the India operation, are something that is highly valued in global organizations that are looking to set up new operations elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, the complexity of the socio-economic environment in India presents significant challenges to these executives that enable them to have a much wider and richer experience. This puts India-based executives in a relatively advantageous position in the race for global roles.
As a consequence of this trend, the bar for success for an Indian executive is now much higher. It is not uncommon for mid to senior executives to aspire to expatriate assignments in bigger and professionally challenging roles. Also, the export of managerial talent is being viewed as, de facto , a criteria for these organizations to be viewed as successes. Considerable executive...