The Indian Business Scene, Challenges of Change, and Capacity-Building through People-Management Strategy

In today's business world of chaotic high incidence of competition, managing change is one of the most critical factors for corporate success. Studies show that Indian corporate leaders of the pre-reform era have not been able to sustain their growth rate in sales and profit. They have not been able to withstand the winds of change caused by the new economic realities. Even those players who have demonstrated greater incidence of success have not been seriously considering internationalization of their businesses. This paper discusses the opportunities offered by the new economic policy (NEP) to corporates in India; some of the achievements attained by them; and the problems and challenges they face in this regard. It identifies the need for change as a corporate strategic priority. The paper argues that for organizational capacity-building for performance excellence, Indian companies need to invest in learning and benchmarking in different spheres of organizational working; and also resort to leveraging the empowerment model of human resource management (HRM) strategy as a way of organizational life.