What India Inc looks for in CXOs today? It's not just about bottom line

The dip in hiring is seen across seniority with the CXO hiring noticing a massive normalisation, dropping by 93 percent. This means the competition for senior talent is hot as organisations focus on hiring the best. (Image Credit: Pixabay)

The pandemic has proved how CXOs with the right skills and qualities can steer an organisation and its people from devastating times. Mercury Systems CEO Mark Aslett and Sage CEO Steve Hare received strong praise for their leadership during Covid, according to employee feedback on Glassdoor.

In India too, CXO shepherded employees and companies during turbulent times.

The hiring of new permanent employees has dipped by 61 percent as compared to October 2021, as per Razorpay. The dip in hiring is seen across seniority with the CXO hiring noticing a massive normalisation, dropping by 93 percent. This means the competition for senior talent is hot as organisations focus on hiring the best.

But what separates the best leaders from the rest? Moneycontrol dives deep into the hard skills and leadership qualities India Inc is looking into as leaders of tomorrow.

Experts in change management

Today, CXOs have to change managers. “They need to drive the organisation through changes and uncertainty,” says Virginia Magliulo, President of Employer Services International at payroll and HR solutions provider ADP.

According to her, senior talent must know how to engage and communicate the company's message and agenda to employees at the bottom of the pyramid amid the crisis.

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As Covid-19 changes strategic focus on companies across sectors, Magliulo believes leaders should now be more flexible than ever. “Earlier, strategic plans used to look 10 years ahead but now you look only three or maybe four years ahead because the pace of change is so rapid.”

It's very important to engage with people and bring them on board and make sure they don't just follow orders, she says, adding, “You need to convince them on the strategy and align.”

Ability to unlearn and purpose mindset

CXO hiring experts say tremendous disruption brought about by technology and digital is forcing organisations to reinvent themselves and also to keep pace with digital disruptors.

Here, leaders need to let go of what they believed worked in the past and rapidly learn new skills, says Gurprriet Siingh, MD, Head - Assessment, Culture and Development at Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive search and leadership advisory firm.

Besides, he says the supply challenges created by Covid, China and the Ukraine war over the last three years have forced business leaders and supply leaders to rapidly find alternatives.

“Having dealt with the tactical exigencies, many are now evaluating strategic sources of supply to be better prepared for the next global disruption. However, no one is sure what the impact of yet another war or pandemic might be and therefore the need for greater agility,” he adds.

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Concerning leadership skills, Siingh believes CXOs should have a purpose mindset. “There should be the focus on ESG not because they want to be compliant but because they believe in these issues.”

“Both Anand Mahindra and Ratan Tata are leading when it comes to ESG and sustainability and are ahead of regulation. The Tata group has made giant strides in being inclusive and there has been a huge culture change in the last 4 years under the leadership of N Chandra,” Siingh adds.

Need to master hard skills and prepare future leaders

While CXO hiring in the west leans towards internal candidates, recruitment firm Randstad India has observed that India Inc favours external candidates with roughly 65-70 percent of hires being external and 25-30 percent being internal elevations.

Apart from strategic business management, Randstad sees an increase in demand for skills around AI, ML and data science which can enable the CXOs to drive digital business growth.

“A combination of advanced hard skills and the ability to be agile in learning, unlearning and upskilling equips CXOs to drive growth and innovation in a volatile and uncertain global business landscape,” says Sanjay Shetty, Director - Professional Search & Selection and Strategic Accounts, Randstad India.

Concurring with Shetty, Karan Jain, Founder of HR firm HROne says organisations are relentlessly looking for leaders that can help them harness the value of data assets that has been growing within their enterprises for years now.

“From CMOs to CFOs and CHROs, every C-suite executive needs to bring an exceptional degree of digital quotient to activate data-driven strategies in their respective functions,” he adds.

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In light of the unprecedented social and economic upheaval, Shetty feels India Inc is looking for strong leadership figures who can navigate a large-scale workforce through challenging business scenarios.

“Additionally, CXOs must also have the ability to prepare and nurture the second-rung leadership team by leveraging the resources available within the organisation,” he adds.

Empathetic leadership

While most CXOs come with a stellar track record, experts say all can manage the here and now.

A conundrum that most organisations face is that re-appointment of the CEO is based on the returns they can generate for the stakeholders, says Amogh Deshmukh, MD of leadership development firm DDI India.

But building future leadership is well beyond the immediate short term/ medium term for a sustainable future of the organisation. “The CEOs and CXOs need to also work on this plan in a more structured way,” Deshmukh points out.

Hence, he says CXOs who can bring empathic leadership will be in a far better position than their counterparts in driving good performance with little burnout issues.

Because there is a difference between an organisation or a company and an institution, he says. “Boards of organisations need to adopt a charter to build a stronger institution for the future rather than just a stronger organisation for now.”

Solve the current problem with the future in sight

Whenever companies come to COHIRE, a gig CXO platform, they want a specific domain expert who can not only solve their immediate business problem but also make their process or system foolproof to take on any future business turbulences without impacting their revenues.

“This is unique in the sense that it can make or break the company in case they are at a critical juncture of their business growth,” says Vineet Arya, Founder, COHIRE.

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Arya recently got a request from a publicly listed logistics company that was embarking on a very important aspect of digital transformation but was struggling to get the whole project completed by their vendor because of various technological challenges.

They were looking for an Interim CTO who could address this issue and get the whole project completed on time. This Interim or Virtual CTO not only got the project on track within one month but got many changes done in the stack keeping the next five years of business in mind, Arya adds.

Flexibility of management should be at the core

Staffing experts say well-established organisations look for CXOs with professional expertise. They demand leaders who are adept at managing change and transforming work environments.

“These businesses require CXOs that are more seasoned, have subject matter expertise, and are capable of managing operations on a large scale,” says Bhavna Udernani, Founder & MD at HR firm Adhaan Solution.

On the other side, she adds that start-ups and younger businesses seek CXOs with fresh perspectives and interpersonal abilities. They prefer younger candidates because the founders are quite young, proving that the company's culture plays a significant part in the recruitment decisions.

“These businesses need CXOs that can give rapid turnarounds, scale up with the business, and quickly create value for the organisation.” Hence, each leader should be ready to adapt according to the needs of the organisation.