Welspun, a global conglomerate with diverse businesses in line pipes, home textiles, infrastructure, warehousing, oil & gas, steel, advanced textiles and flooring solutions, has launched a digital-leadership programme. Launched on June 29, the first session of the programme — on ‘The Post Digital Era’ — took place on June 30, 2021.
Need for the digital-leadership programme
The digital-leaders programme consists of a large overall programme and two main tracks post a mandatory journey. The programme is meant for mid-level and senior-level leaders. It is designed to equip leaders with the latest learning in digital technology in operations such as how to use block chain in supply chain management, and artificial intelligence and its application in marketing. The participants are grouped according to their expertise in the specific field and become part of the lectures aimed to build their capabilities and expose them to the latest in digital transformation with respect to their domain. The programme will include webinars, covering various topics related to upskilling leaders in digital skills.
Design of the digital-leadership programme
The programme has been designed to offer individualised learning tracks and post-discovery conversations with learners and HOD. It is created to impart digital-leadership skills, such as digital procurement, digital transformation in financial services and so on.
Peer-to-peer learning and cross-industry learning for the participants are some of the key features of the programme. It also includes a learning and action diary for better retention of concepts.
As per the Company, 100 mid-level and senior leaders are part of this programme.
“We will soon announce some other very exciting industry-level programmes for skilling our workforce. Many more upskilling programmes for the workforce in association with NASSCOMM are in the pipeline”
Bidisha Banerjee, global group vice president – learning, culture & employer branding, Welspun Group
“Multiple webinars on ‘Scouting digital technologies’, ‘The human factor in digital transformation’, ‘Lean and digital technologies’, ‘Digital marketing strategies and new revenue models’, ‘Digital transformation in financial services’ will be taking place to enrich the knowledge base of the managers and help them be more future ready,” shares Bidisha Banerjee, global group vice president – learning, culture & employer branding, Welspun Group.
Objective of the digital-leadership programme
The initiative to launch this programme comes straight from BK Goenka, chairman, Welspun Group. The Company’s vision is to be a transformative organisation and make all employees digitally savvy. To make this vision come to life, the learning and culture team at the firm came up with the concept of Welspun Digital Play Book, which integrates all of the Company’s digital learning platforms under one large initiative.
The Welspun Digital Playbook is a futuristic set of interventions aimed at equipping the employees with future skills across the organisation. The first intervention under this umbrella is the Digital Leaders Programme. Banerjee shares with HRKatha that the Company will launch other skilling programmes for all of its employees in collaboration with NASSCOM. “We will soon announce some other very exciting industry-level programmes for skilling our workforce. Many more upskilling programmes for the workforce in association with NASSCOMM are in the pipeline,” reveals Banerjee.
The Company believes that the future belongs to technology and it wants all its employees to be equipped with the skills required to stay relevant in the times to come. “We want all our employees to be ready for the future, as the current scenario has only taught us that the future is uncertain. The people along with the organisations that are ready to accept change and work in accordance will be the ones to thrive. Hence, we came up with this programme to ensure that Welspunites are ready for whatever challenge is thrown at them,” tells Banerjee.
Impact of the digital-leadership programme
The impact of this initiative will be felt all across Welspun, as the learning of the mid-level and senior-level leaders will cascade down to their team members. Apart from that, the Company already has plans to launch various other digital-learning initiatives to equip employees at the lower levels with digital-transformation skills.
After the completion of this programme, the participants will be considered for horizontal and vertical movements. However, the larger philosophy of this digital-leaders programme is to build skills for the future. All the participants will be awarded certificates on completion of the programme. “We envisage that these leaders, going ahead, will contribute to various aspects of the business in many roles, and have an enlarged portfolio of responsibilities,” asserts Banerjee.
1 Comment
The need for Digital Leadership has been very well analyzed thereby bringing the importance of the programme.