Learn and Lead: Industry

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Retail – The sunrise sector for employment opportunities

Labels: FDI, GDP, India, Industry, Jobs, NSDC, Retail, Retail Industry, Skill Development, skills 0 comments

I recently wrote an article on the Retail sector in India and the employment opportunities it provides. Here's the link to the original article on ET Retail.

Few months ago, a small paanstall mysteriously appeared on the footpath near our office. I saw a young man at the helm, selling paan, cigarettes, chewing gum and some toffees. As I walked by his stall in the evenings, I occasionally bought a packet of chewing gum to encourage his endeavour. In a short time, I found that he didn't need much encouragement from me. I saw the number of people visiting his stall grow and now he has packets of popular namkeen and chips, cold drinks and mineral water. In just a few months, I saw his stall growing significantly to cater to the office crowd in the area. He still smiles at me and offers me free chewing gum to show his gratitude for encouraging him in his early days.

This young man's journey is also the story of Indian Retail Sector which over the last decade or so has gone through a major transformation. Shedding the initial fears of large corporations displacing small shops, there is now a noticeable shift towards organized retailing. Suddenly you notice malls in every nook and corner, displaying large billboards and proudly lit up at night. Indian brands compete unabashedly with their multi-national counterparts. The un-organized retail has also stepped up, with even the small time kirana stores modernizing themselves in terms of display and operations to keep pace with the growing demands of the customers.

Today, the retail sector accounts for about 22% of India's GDP. According to a recent KPMG report on Indian retail, the overall size of the industry is estimated to be $534 billion in 2013-14 with a CAGR of 15% over last five years. Going forward, the overall retail sector growth is likely to witness a CAGR of 12-13 %, which would be worth $948 billion in 2018-19.

A number of factors have influenced this dramatic growth. Growing youth population, nuclear families in urban areas, a growing middle class with rising incomes and the resulting purchasing power, and higher brand consciousness have driven the demand for retailing. Opening up of FDI has created conducive regulatory environment for the sector. This coupled with rapid real estate infrastructure development, better efficiency in supply-chain, R&D, innovation and new product development has fueled the supply side.

All this translates to the many opportunities for the youth in the country. As per a report by NSDC, India will need around 56 million strong work-force for the booming retail sector. The sector will have one of the highest incremental human resource requirement of 17.35 million by 2022, offering opportunities in sales, merchandising, store management, central management and procurement.

For the youth to avail the upcoming opportunities and pursue a promising career in retail industry, it is important they equip themselves with the right training as different lines of retail business require distinct skill-sets. Some skills and interests that one must have before joining the retail industry are:

Enjoy working with people
Enjoy constant customer interaction
An enthusiastic, flexible and positive attitude
Ability to step in another person's shoes
Empathy and understanding towards a distressed customer

Formal education is not as essential in the retail industry as it is in other areas of marketing. Many senior executives in this industry are people who were hired as retail staff. Their sincerity, hard work, enthusiasm, speed and experience,and an unwavering customer-centric focus resulted in their growth. So with the right attitude, one can easily hope to make it big in the retail industry. Typically, one can enter the retail industry as a class Xth or X11th pass out and with the right attitude and training, over a period of time,can advance to specialized jobs or management positions that offer higher remuneration.

Major proportion of the employment in the retail sector is in front-end/retail assistant profiles in stores. Store operations account for 75%-80% of the total manpower employed in the organized retail sector. Although the skill requirements may seem similar across segments, the type of product retailed, format of the store and customer involvement impacts the intensity of skill requirement across various functions. Soft skills such as communication and interpersonal skills are the key criterion for employability for both the entry-level and middle-level jobs at the retail store.

Retail industry in India has the potential to provide employment to a large number of youth. The latest announcement by the government to allow 100% FDI in retail (e-commerce, wholesale and in the marketing of food products) has already indicated a surge in employment opportunities in this sector. A direct result of FDI would be increase in the number as well as the formats of retail, which would result in the generation of jobs in multiple categories. This development brings with it an unprecedented need for nation-wide availability of skilled labour and an increased demand for comprehensive skills training.

Indian Elearning Industry Size

Labels: 2013, eLearning, elearning industry, Industry, market size, Trends 8 comments

I came across a post on Indian elearning industry size. According to this company’s research, the Indian elearning industry grew at approximately 18% CAGR since 2009. Nearly a third of elearning companies in India are companies with headcount less than 10. Nearly 78% are companies with headcount less than 50.

A near zero entry level barrier for someone to start elearning company would explain the growth in companies with limited headcount. Almost anyone with some experience and basic hardware now claims to be an elearning company. It’s like the training industry where anyone with some training experience forms a training company.

The Indian domestic elearning market is very fragmented. The requirements of the market are fragmented. There are hardly any large elearning initiatives in the country. And where there are, they start very small and are hard to scale. Not too many companies who want to implement elearning have a clear strategy for it. Elearning is still not an integral part of the overall training/learning strategy for many companies. Most companies want readymade elearning content for their needs, with some customization. I wonder if there's scope for more elearning off the shelf product companies in the country.

The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same

Labels: e-learning, eLearning, Industry, Learning, learning industry, Reflection, Trends 1 comments

This year I completed 20 years in the learning and development industry. As I reflect back, some things just remain the same, especially in elearning. Even today when I tell someone that I develop elearning, I get the “Oh that’s an upcoming industry”. Even after 20 years, elearning is still an upcoming industry!!!

Elearning development continues to be riddled with the same questions over the years with no right answers. Many years ago, when I was learning Instructional Design (ID), one of the mentors said the full form of ID is actually “It Depends”. Seems like the same for elearning. “It Depends” on so many factors and even after so many years, it is still the same.

What is one hour of elearning? I explored this question a few years back on eCube blog. I don’t think there’s still any right answer for this. Even when elearning was simplistic frame-based, it was hard to agree on what is one hour of elearning. Now with a host of interactivities, social learning, gamification of elearning, it is even harder to define what is one hour of elearning. And even if we take the simple calculation of frames per hour, there are ranges based on “levels” of elearning. Hopefully we will have new questions with the advent of social learning. Can it even be measured in hours?

What are different levels of elearning? While the amount of interactivity and media treatment in elearning is used to define “levels” of elearning, you also need to keep in mind what instructional objective the elearning is trying to achieve, and the complexity of content being delivered. Still no right answers here.

How long does it take to create one hour of elearning? This question that is asked all the time but still really has no simple answer. “It Depends” on various factors. An interesting resource is a year 2009 ASTD article by Karl Kapp. Even this is not a good enough guideline and no two elearning experts will agree with these numbers.

How much does it cost? “It Depends”. But even after defining the cost affecting parameters, there are still no standard costs in the industry. In one competition analysis, we realized that for the same opportunity the customer got bids from 50K to 500K (INR) for the requirements they floated. Obviously it’s going to confuse the customers completely, especially the ones who are new at embarking on the elearning journey.

How many elearning hours will my existing ILT translate to? First, how many hours is one day of ILT? Is it 8 hours, 7 hours, 6 hours? And what’s the conversion to ILT to elearning? Is it 2:1, 1:1, 1.5:1? No consensus in the industry on that. And there continue to be wild expectations from elearning. One potential customer recently was expecting their 5 day ILT class to be converted into a couple of hours of elearning. Wouldn’t that be nice!

I have all the content. Why does it cost so much? All you are doing is putting it all together. I find this very similar to the question that photographers are asked. Why does it cost so much. All you are doing is pressing the shutter on the camera to take pictures.

Why does it take so long? Of course it can be done faster. But are the customers ready to respond with the speed at which they demand it to be done, and especially if they are attempting to do it the first time? This also will help understand why it costs so much. So are the management structures in place to approve the various stages during development? Even with rapid elearning development models, there’re always too many levels of management having views on what’s being developed and whether it works for the company or not. So while the pure elearning development can be quick, the deployment can take a long time.

How do I measure the effectiveness? The question continues to be asked over the years. While we have evolve from the simple ROI calculation (save travel costs through elearning), there are no right answers for measuring effectiveness of specific programs. Perhaps that’s not right for me to say. There are specific ways to measure effectiveness. However to implement these requires time, effort and more money. So while the customers are looking for effectiveness and ROI measures, they are unwilling to spend on actual implementation of practices to measure the effectiveness.

I need something different in elearning. Err, to be honest I still get away by impressing potential customers with elearning developed 7 to 10 years ago. The elearning content that I see is still the same as it was 15-20 years ago. So we moved from DOS and Video based learning to GUI based to Web based. But it’s pretty much the same stuff. There’re still the same learning paths or table of contents, learning objects that need to be tracked, still the same old next-previous button, still the same show-me/try-it simulations, still the same glossary button. And it’s not that these designs don’t work, they still do. And we continue our quest for finding the next best thing in elearning.

So even though a lot has changed in elearning in the last 20 years, the questions we ask pretty much remain the same.

Questions I Want To Explore In 2012

Labels: Industry, Questions, ROE, ROI, Social Learning, Talent Development, Training, Training Manager, Trends 0 comments

I am promising to myself to read more and blog more in 2012. Here are some of the questions I want to explore in 2012.

What’s changed in the learning and development industry? I will be completing 20 years in the industry and yet I feel the more things change, the more they remain the same.
How are the CxOs and Business Heads really viewing talent development? While most CxOs say that talent development is a key driver to the growth of their organizations, what are they really doing about it?
What’s keeping the training managers awake? What are the training managers’ performance drivers, their goals and the challenges they are facing.
What are the expectations from Social Learning? While social learning is being talked about in the learning blogger circles, are the on-ground managers in synch with it? What is their understanding and expectations from it?
What are the learner’s expectations from talent development interventions? While the focus is on seeking the managers’ views, what about the people who are actual recipients of the talent development interventions? What do they look for?
What’s the new ROI/ROE mantra? With tightening budgets, everyone wants to know the “ROI” of their training spend. ROI has been the holy grail of training, everyone is seeking it, but there are no clear cut answers to this.

Would love to hear from you on these and other things on your mind. Looking forward to your comments and conversations here.

Wishing you and your loved ones a Very Happy New Year.

Progress so far - Unofficial Salary Survey 2010

Labels: Content Development, eLearning, India, Industry, Instructional Design, Jobs, Recruitment, Salary, Survey, Training, training delivery, Work 0 comments

It’s been a slow start to the 2010 Unofficial Salary Survey of eLearning, Content Development and Training jobs. You can now view the responses by following the Responses link.

Some highlights so far:

Functions that have participated are Instructional Designers (33%) and Technology/Programmers (22%), followed by Project management (17%) and Graphics and Media (11%).
Most participants have 10 years work experience (28%) followed by 5 and 3 years (11% each).
So far the survey seems to be dominated by male responders (72%).
Only 28% people switched jobs last year.
Mostly people from elearning/training vendors have participated (72%).
City spread is fairly even with nearly equal participation from NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Surprisingly, Bangalore has had low participation so far.

Some changes I had introduced in this year’s survey were:

Number of years of experience is more specific rather than a range.
Salary details are now a number instead of a range. This will help get better inputs about salaries.
Gender info can help to see if there is any gender inequality in salaries.
Industry info can help identify salaries in different industries.

The survey can be useful only if more people participate. Do spread the word around.

There's nothing official about this survey. The survey is not based on responses by companies but based on responses provided by you, the employee. This survey is not associated with any organization. The survey is anonymous.

This survey is for you if you are an Instructional Designer, Content Developer, Technical Writer, Project Manager, Graphics designer, Flash Programmer, Content Integrator, Tester, Editor, Trainer, Training administrator, SME, or any other role involved in elearning, content development and training delivery.

Click Unofficial eLearning Salary Survey of India 2010 to participate in the survey. I will publish the findings on my blog here sometime in August/September 2010. This year’s questionnaire attempts to find out more about you and the industry to provide a more in-depth analysis.

Help derive maximum benefit from this survey: spread the word about this survey. Email, Tweet, Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn and Blog about this page for your friends and colleagues.

Earlier survey findings:

Unofficial Salary Survey 2010

Labels: Content Development, eLearning, India, Industry, Instructional Design, Jobs, Recruitment, Salary, Survey, Training, training delivery, Work 1 comments

It’s time to launch the 2010 Unofficial Salary Survey for elearning, content development and training jobs in India. There's nothing official about this survey. The survey is not based on responses by companies but based on responses provided by you, the employee. This survey is not associated with any organization. The survey is anonymous.

Click Unofficial eLearning Salary Survey of India 2010 to participate in the survey. I will publish the findings on my blog here sometime in August/September 2010. This year’s questionnaire attempts to find out more about you and the industry to provide a more in-depth analysis.

Help derive maximum benefit from this survey: spread the word about this survey. Email, Tweet, Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn and Blog about this page for your friends and colleagues.

Earlier survey findings:

Innovation in Indian Learning Industry

Labels: eLearning, India, Industry, Innovation, Trends 25 comments

Will Thalheimer wonders what is the state of innovation in the Indian learning and performance industry in his recent blog post. He comments on the NY Times report on India’s anxiety over the slow pace of innovation and wonders what the situation is in the learning industry. Will Thalheimer is a learning-and-performance consultant and researcher who specializes in helping clients build more effective learning interventions.

I guess it depends on what we call innovation. No I am not getting into an academic debate on what is innovation, primarily because I am not good at it. I do believe there is innovation happening in the Indian learning industry. Much of the innovation is focused on solving problems closer to home. These may not always be visible to the world. Some examples:

NIIT and TIS win Brandon Hall and CLO Magazine awards regularly. Other Indian companies in this year’s award list were Aptara and Servetium.
Harbinger and Upside Learning have learning products that are competing with the best and are now quite visible in the US.
NIIT’s Hole in the Wall is a key innovation in how children learn and has the potential to solve the India’s huge problem of educating the masses. The model is now being adopted and implemented in many developing countries, not just India.
NIIT, Educomp, Edurite, Everonn are making significant inroads in introducing ICT and elearning in school education system.
NIIT has been using innovation in curriculum and technology to overcome the problem of shortage of faculty in smaller towns and villages as part of its, not so publicized, affirmative action.
It is hard for companies like Infosys, Wipro, HCL etc. to hire and train tens of thousands each year and put them on the job without innovating in training practices. Some awards by these companies:

Wipro: 2009 ASTD BEST Award
Satyam: 2008 ASTD Training Management
Infosys BPO: 2007 ASTD Training Management
Reliance Industries Limited: 2007 ASTD Organizational Learning

Of course, Indian companies aren’t innovating as much as they can or should. Why?

We did start with ‘low cost’ advantage, a tag that’s hard to shake. One, Indian companies need to learn how to demand more from customers. And two, at the end of the day, low cost is indeed an advantage they will continue to play on it.
Indian industry is traditionally a service industry and has grown significantly doing exactly that. So product development has not been a priority for long. If companies continue grow doing one thing, there’s less of a motivation for change.
We don’t know how to package things well. That means presenting ideas, creating white papers etc. For some reason we don’t seem to pay enough attention to creating a really good document or presentation. This lack of packaging is visible in everything, from emails to project reports.
Indian industry has been focused on volumes. You could debate that there is process innovation. I mean whatever said and done, there is jugaad* required to get large volumes done. But yes, we haven’t quite been focused on product innovation until recently.
We aren’t really focused on academic research (at least I am not aware of it). There is very little connect between academic research and workplace implementation, though I suspect that’s the case in most other countries too.
We don’t know how to sell consulting, research and innovation well. We also don’t have high profile visible individual consultants/experts. I guess Thiagi and CK Prahalad are Indians innovating but don’t quite count as India innovating. It may be some time before an Indian from India is awarded the CLO of the year award.

Innovation is happening in India, definitely. Can more happen? Of course! Should Indian learning industry be worried? I don't know. There will be companies that will continue to push our low cost envelope to the western world. But with the western economies slowing down, and the opportunities now becoming visible within India, I am guessing we will be seeing much more innovation focused on the domestic industry. Not all will be visible to the western world. We are a shy lot and still learning to market ourselves better.

* Jugaad n. /jü-'ga-d&/ (जुगाड़): an improvised or jury-rigged solution; inventiveness, ingenuity, cleverness.

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