Mohla (Managing Director), Neeta Mohla (Joint Managing Director), Khurshid Bandhyopadhyay (Director), Megha Wadhwa (Manager, Leadership Practice) amongst others.

The objective of Tony’s visit and his engagements in the country was to increase awareness about CHPD and bring visibility to its range of solutions in leadership development. In keeping with that, CHPD India partnered with the premier national HR body of the country, the National HRD Network of India to host special panel discussions with Dr. Cockerill as the key note speaker. The events were held in Delhi (September 15) and Mumbai (September 18) on the topic: High Performance Leadership: Rapid Development and Deployment Across Organizations.

The strong panels in Delhi and Mumbai included esteemed members of the industry. They included HR heads from organizations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Philips and Max New York Life Insurance in New Delhi, and IBM and Aditya Birla Group in Mumbai.

Office bearers of the NHRD Network facilitated the sessions: Mr. S.Y. Siddiqui (Suzuki) President of the NHRD Delhi and Mr. Rajeev Dubey (Mahindra and Mahindra) President NHRD Mumbai. The events were widely attended by close to 300 key HR and management professionals of the corporate sector in India. Tony’s visit also received media coverage in leading business dailies of the country: Financial Express, Times of India and CXO Today.

Dr. Cockerill’s presentation addressed the application of CHPD’s research on High Performance Behaviors: how companies can use the know-how to develop and implement talent management strategies to improve business performance and manage the challenges of leadership in the Indian context.

Through the discussions, it emerged that there is a consensus on the increasing need for leadership development. India has progressively become a microcosm of the global economy, bringing various challenges with its accelerated pace of growth. While the rest of the world has evolved steadily, in India the speed of people development and especially leadership development has not kept pace with that of market opportunity.

As HR professionals and top management of companies are entrusted with the challenge of bridging the leadership gap in the short span of time, it is important to not only identify the High Performance Leaders, but also rapidly assess and develop them across levels and numbers in an organization.

Over all, it was a stimulating discussion and the time was well spent on exchanging ideas, experiences and thoughts on strengthening leadership abilities of organizations in India. After Dr. Cockerill’s presentation, the house was thrown open to questions and the panelists offered real time examples to enhance the discussion and allow practical understanding of the topics discussed.

Additionally, Dr. Cockerill also had one to one interactions with two of the biggest corporate houses in India: the TATA Group and the Aditya Birla Group, where CHPD solutions in leadership development were discussed and showcased. The interest from large business houses and wide attendance from organizations across various industries (Telecom, BFSI, Retail, Manufacturing, etc) demonstrates that the market in India is ready to focus on leadership development in a big way, especially in the context of today’s dynamic and competitive environment.