It’s all about the Learnability Mindset

Recently, I was at the NASSCOM C Summit in New York. An extensive day of conversations and exchange of ideas between leaders from the tech industry and domains like insurance, banks, retail, manufacturing etc. It was fascinating to hear the perspective from both sides and the one belief it completely reinforced is that today, every company is digital! Technology is transforming every business, no matter what the domain and the most crucial success imperative in all of this is talent! The availability of right skills and its usage will define competitive advantage of digital companies ..period! And the leaders were unanimous in their call out for the workforce and future workforce… “?ou have to continuously learn to keep up and be relevant”. 

Infact, all leaders strongly believed that degrees were losing its importance. Skills and not the degrees will be key for future employability.

 The summit was followed by a very interesting roundtable on skilling with global leaders and academia.  It reinforced some my own thoughts on skilling that I have been articulating all along. For a very long time, the pragmatic idea of securing one-time premier qualifications paid rich dividends. It ensured lifelong employment. Well, not anymore!

Don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that young people should not strive to seek admission in premier institutions. Of course they should. What I am really saying is that no one, and I mean absolutely no one, can now remain immune to continuous learning. It is here to stay. Humans can only stay relevant through a process of continuous learning and there’s no other alternative. In addition, the leaders remained emphatic about speed. Precisely, it’s about how quickly relevant talent can be on-boarded.  

Indian tech companies in the US, contribute ~ 53 Bn USD to America’s GDP and employ 500000 people locally; of which, 175000 are in direct employment. In India, the practice of recruiting fresh talent from colleges and subsequently training them - to bring them up to speed - has worked well. This approach is being mirrored in the US as well and it is reaping remarkable benefits. For instance, in the last 15 months, a very large Indian tech company has worked with 10000 American STEM graduates to equip them with new-age skills, particularly in Design Thinking. To take this idea forward, they have started to partner with American universities and ensure, the talent pipeline is not found to be wanting.

Every business is now a tech one. The erstwhile Information Age has made way for the Age of Experience. In this, talent needs to be rewired to approach solutions from an “experience” standpoint. And, not be straitjacketed by the prevalent classification of products / services. As Vala Afshar says, “In an experience economy cover-ups don’t work.” This is a huge shift and cannot happen overnight. That’s why, there’s a definitive need to run significant programs with substantial investments and Indian tech companies are doing just that. Insofar, they are rolling out programs by extensively engaging with universities through co-creation. This helps the latter in designing their course curriculum which will render students to be industry-ready, at the earliest. Imparting soft-skills is equally important. It is also about developing commercial acumen, keeping the business interest in mind at all times, while seeking win-win models of engagement.

Innovation is the pressing need of the hour but it cannot be allowed to go into an infinite tailspin. There’s no gainsaying that the process has to be highly efficient with measurable outcomes. The other, is about interoperability between systems, functions and processes. Arguably, Data Science may well be the most sought after discipline, and it is no exaggeration to suggest that no less than legions of data scientists would suffice. Machines will have to be “taught” contexts. This isn’t easy and would require a multi-disciplinary approach which will complement the tech angle.

Clearly, there are two things that stand out in the learning process. One is about domain expertise and the obvious other - tech skills. And, both are required in equal proportion. While maintaining this vital balance, it’s a challenge which is being felt across the globe and leaders are striving hard to create a virtual environment of learning. Again, the importance of timely intervention cannot be over-emphasized. Like a jigsaw puzzle we will have to fix the disparate pieces real quick, to arrive at the complete picture.      

While we are on the topic of young people, we need to recognize that the millennials seek global exposure as well. Besides making them ready for the future from a skills adaptability standpoint, companies will have to look into this area as well. As newer ideas of professional development emerge, companies would do well to cross leverage their learnings across multiple stakeholders – academia, government etc.

These are very young people and would also require a lot of mentorship. Bright as they are, it’s important that there is an appropriate job-fit; else, it will lead to disillusionment and premature burnout. Driven by incentives as they are, a clear communication line will have to be kept open, 24/7. It’s really a tall order and companies can’t be expected to do all of this on their own. Inasmuch, the support of academia is of utmost importance. Towards this, NASSCOM can play a vital role in establishing vital connects across a diverse range of stakeholders. At this point, a special mention ought to be made of our FututeSkills initiative.

Degrees, will no longer guarantee lifelong employment. We have entered an age where employability will be directly linked to relevance, and this can only be addressed through a process of continuous learning and enhanced skilling. A sine qua non of sorts where only a collaborative approach will work. While different states / countries are trying hard to address these challenges, they will have to learn to work together to leverage the multiplier effect.  

Finally, it’s about a massive shift in mindset. We don’t have much time and will have to do all of this in double quick time to imbibe a culture of shared learning and co-creation, as we go down the path of disruptive innovation.

We’d do well to always remember, that in the world of technology, it’s not about technology alone but really about people and skills. If 65% of children entering primary school today are likely to end up doing jobs which do not exist yet, then it is desirable that one knows how to learn and not simply “know”.