When Xavier Gobille got the job of managing director at Renault South Africa in November 2007, the auto major’s subsidiary was bleeding: Sales were at an all-time low due to poor after-sales service and quality problems. The head office gave Gobille a twin mandate — get the company back in shape and win the perception battle. He knew he had a daunting task ahead of him.
Business schools, on their part, take AMP admissions very seriously. Most schools have very strict criteria on who they take and why. So if a company decides to reward an employee for past performance and send him to an AMP, the candidature would be rejected in all probability. Typically when a company nominates an employee, the institution carries out a series of interviews with the candidate to gauge the level of seriousness and the need. “If we turn anyone away, it’s because their objectives don’t align with what we are offering,” says Paula Beckmann, senior associate director for executive education at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Several companies have already begun to put in place comprehensive development programmes of which AMP is just a part. ICICI is one of them. Ramkumar says the bank starts by choosing areas that are topical, contextual and relevant to it over a two-year timeframe. It then invites professor from institutions like Wharton or Ross School of Business at Michigan University to conduct customised programmes for its employees. Executive coach and author Ram Charan and IMD professor Phil Rosenzweig have conducted such programmes for ICICI. “When we worked with Rosenzweig, one of the themes he covered was on how an organisation changed and grew. We asked him if it was possible for him to tell us about Vodafone’s experience of getting into Africa and Australia, and how they managed the organisation structure and culture,” says Ramkumar. Rosenzweig already had a relationship with Vodafone and knew the details.
(This story appears in the 16 July, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)