300 Indian Oil employees to take E&Y test

The technical and behavioral competencies of some 300 top executives of Indian Oil, India's largest company, are being examined closely by Ernst & Young's Human Capital Practice in order to prepare leaders who will help the company grow into an integrated transnational energy major.

"It involves the top three layers of decision makers in Indian Oil after the board. All executive directors, general managers and deputy general managers are being assessed," sources involved in the exercise told Business Standard.

Indian Oil has drawn up plans to expand vertically into downstream businesses like petrochemicals and upstream activities like exploration not just in India but also in overseas markets.

"The current exercise is to ensure that the company has sufficient management bandwidth as it embarks on its ambitious growth plans," the sources added.

To this effect, Indian Oil had invited human resources consultancy firms to make a pitch in June 2004.

While six had applied, Indian Oil selected Ernst & Young. In the first leg of the initiative, Ernst & Young has drawn up a map of behavioral and technical competencies required for Indian Oil to achieve its growth plans.

In the next leg, Ernst & Young will run development centres to assess the current competencies of the 300 odd executives and identify the gaps vis-a-vis the required competencies.

In the final leg, Ernst & Young will create a "development calendar" for each of these executives aimed at raising their competencies to the required levels over a period of one to three years.

"This could involve training programmes, mentoring, special tailormade courses, job rotation etc," the sources said adding: "These calendars will start falling into place in the next financial year." In the last few years, Indian Oil has taken steps to grow beyond its original business of refining and marketing of petroleum products.

It has also forayed into marketing of petroleum products in overseas markets like Sri Lanka.

Learning curve

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• Ernst & Young has drawn a map of technical competencies required for Indian Oil to achieve its goals
• E&Y will also run development centres to assess current competencies of the executives
• Indian Oil has drawn up plans to expand vertically into downstream businesses