Forecasting has emerged as a critical skill in the rapidly changing nature of business, and a huge premium awaits those who can predict the future, says Deepak Parekh, chairman and managing director, Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC).
"The nature of business is changing rapidly. Forecasting is becoming a very important skill. A huge premium awaits those who can predict the future and change accordingly. But it will be damaging to those who do not change," Parekh said.
He was inaugurating the 26th National Management Convention of the All-India Management Association. The theme of the conference is "Managing Enterprises in the Era of Uncertainty".
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He said the socio-economic environment in which corporates operate is changing. And in these times, there are three factors that are most crucial for corporates_-marketing and innovation, people, and the economics of information.
Parekh pointed out that during the past fifty years, many business houses had survived without marketing and innovation because there was no competition, and they were operating in a regulated market.
He, however, added that "the concept of consumer and customer are still in its infancy in India".
He said the Indian corporate sector had a difficult year in 1998, but it learnt a lot of lessons. It realised that it was not sufficient for manufacturing units to operate in peak efficiencies.
"It was necessary to produce superior quality products at lower costs. But even that was not enough. The situation demanded innovation at the market place," he said. "Consumer tastes are changing. The important challenge for corporations is to have flexibility and speed to meet customer requirement," he said.
Emphasising the process of learning for the employees in an organisation, Parekh said, "The company of the future is its ability to learn faster than its competitors. No one can duplicate an organisations's ability to learn. It is self-reinforcing. Learning is inseparable from everyday work. One must use it to optimise products," he said.
Earlier, delivering the theme address, the Bharat Heavy Electric Ltd chairman and managing director, K G Ramachandran, pointed out that the corporates were living in an era of uncertainity.
"The transition agenda for corporations must cover strategic architecture, social architecture and generate forces to overcome organisational inertia," he said.