Corporate training is appallingly bad in India. Most training programs are taken for granted rather than as an opportunity to impart valuable skills to promising managers.

I am aghast with the poor general awareness in many corporate training or education programs. I am equally scared of such companies being run by incompetent managers. Most of them do not read anything worthwhile; they do not seem to read any business magazine or newspaper. The normal explanation is on the lines of “I have no time to read due to work and family pressures”. Here’s another: “Sir, I tried reading but do not understand anything!”
 

According to me, both can be overcome, but requires a lot of patience. So, as long as, one can invest time and effort in reading and seeking information that cannot be understood, understanding will come gradually. Many employees risk being labeled “failures”, if they are not up to the mark. Some of them maybe good in their present roles, but when they move up the ladder, they might get exposed if their knowledge is found to be lacking.
 

I also believe that companies themselves are also responsible for this state of affairs, and employee development and training. They do precious little to make sure that their managers, who going forward will be in line for promotions and will be in decision making positions, are well informed. The inability to understand and comprehend the business environment that is dynamic is a basic problem.  Yet, making decisions on perceived notions is a sure shot way of destroying an organization. It is pertinent to note that all this happens in the so-called age of information and knowledge! A good training programme will abolish preconceived notions and enable managers to think logically and rationally by analysing data in a proper way.
 

Most managers do not even look at their own company’s financial statements and have no idea of the financial performance! If this is the case, how will they possibly analyse markets and competition? How will they possess the required skill to analyse data, not just financial statements?
 

Shareholders of such companies, with incompetent managers, need to be worried. After all, their money is at stake. Do not get fooled when companies say that they spend so much on training and development. The skill sets of the employees are not known and neither is it known as to what they gain out of such corporate training and programs. Barring few companies like L&T and Hindustan Unilever, whose training programs evoke seriousness, most programs that I have seen indulge in training as a ritual, where employees treat it as though it is a paid holiday and for fun! They rarely treat such programs as an opportunity to upgrade their skill sets.
 

Stock market analysts should actually interview managers at middle-level to find out the awareness levels. They will have a fair idea of what to expect from companies they cover in future, when managers they interviewed get promoted. Sadly, analysts themselves are not interested in the long term view and the details of what makes companies tick (i.e. the managers and employees). They are busy giving tips for short term trading. They are only interested in the next quarter performance which, according to them, is the long term view! So, most of them do not really know how competent middle-level managers are!
 

Surprisingly, in corporate education programs you will have managers who have not even heard of Jack Welch or Warren Buffet. They have a vague idea about Porter and they interpret him wrongly most times! They have no idea who AM Naik or YC Deveshwar or Nitin Paranjape is! This is true, even when they are competing with these very companies in the market place.
 

The tribe of “educated illiterates” in India seems to be ever growing and it’s a big worry. It must be tackled soon. It’s not just the government, politicians and bureaucracy that are responsible for the sorry state of our economic affairs. But, it is we, who largely contribute to the mess in our way!
 

(Prof Anil Agashe teaches at Symbiosis and other management schools in Pune)