Nurturing talent: ICICI, Infy among world's best

As many as five Indian firms, including ICICI Bank and Infosys Technologies, have made it to the list of top 12 companies in the Asia Pacific region for being instrumental in building leadership capability within their organisation.

According to the list compiled by HR consulting firm Hewitt in partnership with RBL Group and US magazine Fortune, ICICI Bank emerged at the top, followed by China Mobile Communications Corp and TCL Corp, a China-based electronics goods maker.

The Indian arm of global FMCG major Unilever, Hindustan Unilever, was ranked at the fourth spot, Aditya Birla Group was at the sixth spot, Infosys Tech was ranked eighth and another IT major Wipro cornered the 10th slot.

Among others on the list, agricultural products firm Olam International was positioned in the fifth place, beer and wine products producer Lion Nathan was at the seventh position.

The New Zealand Refining Company was ranked ninth and TrustPower Ltd and British American Tobacco Berhad stood at the 11th and 12th positions, respectively.

Meanwhile, in the global top 25 firms list, there were as many as three Indian companies -- ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Infosys Technologies.

Regarding the decent presence of Indian firms, Hewitt Associates talent and organisation consulting (business leader) Ajay Soni said: "It comes as no surprise that Indian firms have a good presence in these lists. These companies are well-positioned for growth despite the economic challenges."

In the global list, ICICI Bank was on the fifth spot, Hindustan Unilever stood at the 10th spot, while Infosys has made a space for itself on the 24th slot.

The global top 25 list was topped by technology giant IBM, followed by Proctor & Gamble, while General Mills and McKinsey cornered the third and fourth positions, respectively.

The others in the list include fast-food chain McDonald's (sixth), US-based conglomerate General Electric (seventh), Titan Cement (eighth) and China Mobile (ninth), Colgate Palmolive (12th), Whirlpool Corporation (15th), PepsiCo (20th), American Express (21st), Intel Corporation (23rd) and FedEx Corporation (25th).

On ICICI Bank, the survey said: "ICICI Bank doesn't just have recruiters trolling for talent outside the company; it also has 600 employees who act as talent scouts internally, identifying coworkers with leadership potential."

Hindustan Unilever, which has 15,000 employees, calls it a "70-20-10" model for developing its workforce that is 70 per cent of learning happens on the job, 20 per cent through mentoring, and 10 per cent through training and coursework.

Wipro HR head Prateek Kumar said, "We cannot build leadership overnight it is a continuous process, we have to nurture leadership within the organisation."

Soni further said, "Indian companies come with a mix of cutting edge leadership practices, innovative procedures and the zest to create a robust leadership pipeline."

Imgae: ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochchar