Reinventing The Role Of Executive Coaches In A New Corporate Era
India’s recent high-profile win of the T20 World Cup brought to spotlight the critical role of coaches in cricket, and sports in general. It has been accepted that Rahul Dravid, the Indian team’s coach, who, through his resilience and understated leadership managed the superstar players and challenges head-on, to play a crucial part in the success of the team. The same is expected of the new coach Gautam Gambhir.
Like sports coaches, executive and chief executive officer coaches have been playing an important role in the corporate landscape in India. In the backdrop of India’s economic liberalisation in the early 90s, some high-profile coaches emerged. That generation included influencers like Mritunjay Athreya in New Delhi and Walter Vieira and Tarun Sheth in Mumbai (then Bombay). While Athreya’s strength was in organisational structuring and restructuring, Vieira focused on marketing and Sheth on strategy and human resources.
Best Known Executive Coaches
Even though most coaches of that generation have given way to a new set, Ram Charan, who, even though based in the United States and is in his eighties is still called upon. For example, he has coached business leaders in the Aditya Birla and Max groups and ICICI Bank Ltd.
Indian family business groups have required a high-level of handholding and one of the best-known coach in this genre is Professor Kavil Ramachandran of the Indian School of Business. While his reach is across the country, another well-known family business advisor is MSA Kumar, who is popular in south India.
Among the younger generation of in-demand business coaches is Tarun Sheth’s daughter Purvi Sheth. She is also among the select group of female coaches and advisors.
Shifting Sands
However, today, the sand is rapidly shifting from beneath the corporate landscape. While every Indian business group worth its salt has gone global either through exports and overseas presence, the new geo-political and economic order in the last few years need companies and their leaders to step up to a fractured world order. At a time when scale and skill are the new requirements for companies, can CEO coaches fulfil this tall ask?
With many family businesses dwindling and dying in an era when most of them do not survive beyond three generations, can business advisors help them in longevity?
Finally, with Narendra Modi having given the clarion call for Viksit Bharat by 2047, can India’s corporates and their CEOs rise up to the challenge of delivering their part towards a developed India? Like how Rahul Dravid delivered Team India in the world cup, can they deliver on the promise and challenges of India Inc?
Tomorrow’s Coaches
Therefore, CEO and executive coaches have to reinvent themselves in the coming years. In the last decade or so, many CEOs who retired from companies took a course from the popular Chennai-based Coaching Foundation of India and started practising. Executive coaches came out from these courses by hundreds. And, many of them had expertise only in one or two disciplines like strategy or operations.
But tomorrow’s coaches will need a more holistic approach. Not only would they need to know different aspects of a company, but they would also require understanding of economics, foreign policy, finance, geo-strategy, law and public policy. Also, the line between consulting and coaching would become blurred.
Further, the coach of the future would be younger people because corporate India is increasingly being led by younger business leaders. While a new generation has taken charge in India’s family businesses, India’s startups are being led by young founders. For example, quick commerce startup Zepto’s founders Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha are just in their early twenties. Coaches need to come to their wavelengths and age
Further, the landscape of India’s startups is getting increasingly competitive and crisis-ridden, as we have seen in the cases of Paytm and Byju’s. What some of the leaders in companies like these require are also psychological counselling for managing acute stress and anxiety. Executive coaches need to rise up to this new need.
Finally, to become a Viksit Bharat by 2047, the role of Indian businesses is crucial. Many of the large companies and even MSMEs will be called upon by the government to contribute to this new vision and goal. We need business leaders with a new vision and a macro perspective. Executive coaches have to deliver here also.
Clearly, tomorrow’s CEO and executive coaches would be allrounders. They can definitely learn some lessons from cricket and Rahul Dravid.
George Skaria is a senior journalist and co-author of the recent book, Beyond Three Generations: The Definitive Guide to Building Enduring Indian Family Businesses.
The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.
