Talent Mapping Project - MD I Global Leader in Transportation Technology
NGS Global provided an extensive, high-quality evaluation of the potential talent landscape and compensation benchmarks for a succession plan to the incumbent country leader. 98 high-level individuals were mapped and we spoke with 80% of the target universe.
Background
Our client was a global leader in systems, equipment and services for the transportation sector, offering a complete range of solutions. They had established a strong presence in India and employed 8,500 people. They had been investing heavily in production of world-class products in India, and in R&D, to not only serve the Indian market but also the rest of the world.
In view of the growth expected in India, both from a local market standpoint, as well as a base for manufacturing products and supporting engineering for global markets, they were considering a succession plan to their then India MD, who was slated to retire in a couple of years. As they had time for the formal succession, they were initially interested to understand the potential talent for such a role in India and the broad compensation benchmarks, for which NGS Global executed a Talent Mapping Project.
Strategy and Approach
We listed all direct and indirect competitors of our client in the industry sectors/product categories of interest and additionally, considered adjacent industry sectors, eg. automotive (commercial vehicles), construction/earthmoving/mining equipment, electrical equipment, process plant equipment, machine tools, and other capital goods. The focus was on global multinationals with significant operations in India, as well as Indian companies who were global.
From this list of companies, we researched senior executives in #1 and #2 roles, leading the India operations or a set of markets including India. The key criteria for shortlisting the names were individuals who had an exceptional level of both commercial and operational/technical experience. Geographically, we considered executives currently based in India, as well as Indian-origin executives at such companies, who were working outside India, but had previously spent significant time working in the country.
Scope of Data Gathering
For each individual that was identified to be included in the talent map, we obtained the following information; ideally, from their own resumes (if they were willing to provide) or from publicly available information:
• Brief background: education, career
• Key responsibilities, achievements
• Intent to change jobs and timelines thereof (if they were willing to share)
• Cross-cultural team management exposure (based on current scope of markets overseen and whether the person has lived/worked outside India earlier)
• Current compensation data (if they were willing to share).
Contact details of the individuals was out of scope for the project. The sample talent map report is shown below (personal details are anonymized in order to protect confidentiality):
Process and Timelines
The research for the project was based primarily on the following sources:
• Online research (publicly available information)
• Analysis of Registrar of Companies filings of the companies (for insights on key management personnel, etc.)
• Syndicated research reports on the industry (free or paid)
• Primary research: via personal calling to individuals across the target industries, supplemented by meetings where possible, to collect organization/individual related information and any other information that could be useful when building the talent map. In this activity, we did not reveal our client’s name.
The project included these activities running in parallel:
• Primary research
• Secondary research
• Collation of information obtained and report writing.
Project Result
The total project took eight weeks to complete from start to finish and we mapped 98 individuals in all with as much know-how as we could gather from publicly available sources and personal conversations. Not all executives responded, but our engagement methodology resulted in us speaking with 80% of the target universe.
Our NGS Global Value-Add
• Thorough and extensive research covering our client’s direct and indirect competitors and adjacent/similar industry sectors. Structured process to identify candidates with the right level of experience and competencies.
• Forensic and consistent outreach practices enabling quality conversations with key targeted individuals who became willing to share information without knowing who the client was.
• Partner-led execution that ensured focus on quality of research, comprehensiveness of information gathered and timely delivery of the project.
Contact Soumitra Agarwal (Project Head)
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