6 min Read
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) used to be our client for a long time. During this period, I had the opportunity to interact with a number of Executive Directors (PR & Publicity). Each one had spent a few decades in LIC – and every one had the most interesting anecdotes to share!
From these anecdotes, I could piece together LIC’s long-term plan to identify & develop their pipeline for senior management.
The strategy involved a two-pronged approach:
An intense plan ensured that all the prospective Executive Directors (EDs)
worked / managed ALL the major depts. & functions of the organisation. Starting with the core business of managing insurance agents & solving their problems to understand the ultimate client. Followed by stints in Actuarial, Legal, Payroll, Personnel, IT, and PR/Publicity. Some shortlisted candidates could even be posted to head a subsidiary or affiliate co. – while they waited for their target seat to be vacated.
Indian markets are incredibly diverse both culturally & economically. (Not to mention that there are over a score of languages & hundreds of dialects.)
Regular branch transfers ensured that every candidate was exposed to the hundreds of divergent markets within India. With this planned exposure, all the candidates were familiarized with even the remotest regions of India.
It was from an ED that I first heard of Tawang – then a lawless town on the North-eastern border of India & China, where citizens routinely packed pistols & knives to settle scores – in a way that was reminiscent of the Wild West. This ED had recently spent a year in managing LIC branch operations in Tawang. Great town for setting up a life insurance business!
In those days, when the official description of the length & breadth of India as from “Kashmir to Kanyakumari & Dwarka to Kolkata”, the average Indian was totally unaware of the North East.
After a well-planned program was completed, the creme de la creme of the candidates would be appointed as Senior Manager with some becoming Executive Directors. Of these EDs, a handful would be appointed as Managing Directors. And one of them would be designated as Chairman (title now changed to CEO.)
Imagine the collective wisdom of this Board of Directors!
LIC was formed in the 1950s, by nationalizing hundreds of private Indian insurance companies (many of them openly corrupt). Today, LIC is probably the largest public sector life insurance company in the world, indirectly controlled by politicians & bureaucrats. Despite this control, LIC has managed to steer clear of major scams & controversies as well as employee unrest for 7 decades.
Perhaps LIC’s unique, autonomous management steered by its uniquely experienced Board, made politicians & bureaucrats steer clear of the behemoth that they could not fathom! Much like Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani who backed out of his proposed take-over of Larsen & Toubro another autonomous, private-sector Indian engineering giant – after he reportedly spent a few months in their Mumbai head office.
Look forward to your point of view.
Biswajit Das
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