Cheers to all: LGEIL's Kang with his flock of designers

Help, Tarun!

In Poirot's Footsteps

They're not quite in the MBA league yet, and it will be premature to say that they're getting there. But India Inc is waking up to their usefulness. The biggies of business are all queuing up at design colleges to recruit as many designers as they can. Automakers like Tata Motors, Ford, General Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Eicher and Hero Honda; consumer durables companies such as LG Electronics, Samsung, Whirlpool, Videocon and Onida; fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies like Hindustan Lever, Procter & Gamble and Marico; it companies like IBM and Infosys Technologies; and big retailers like Pantaloon Retail are all either beefing up their design teams or outsourcing huge amounts of design work to independent design consultancy firms.

According to a survey conducted by the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, Indian companies need at least 10,000 design professionals a year to cater to consumers who are becoming increasingly design conscious. The survey identifies consumer durables, FMCG, healthcare, machine tools, automotive, retail and it among 200 sectors that have a huge pent-up demand for design services.

The country's leading design schools-NID, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore and the National Institutes of Fashion Technology (NIFTs)-produce only about 900-1,000 "industrial designers", leaving a huge unsatiated demand for this tribe. And demand is headed towards the roof.

Home appliances maker Whirlpool, for example, set up its Asia studio, which is part of its global consumer design operations, in New Delhi in 2004. "We are meeting most of our 'conceptual design' needs in-house," says Hari Nair, Director, Whirlpool Global Consumer Design, Asia. The studio currently employs six full-time designers and a few design trainees and "is always looking for good talent", says Nair.

LG Electronics India's (LGEIL's) "substantial" in-house design team meets 40-50 per cent of its design needs, even though India is still considered a minnow in consumer electronics design. Says J.W. Kang, General Manager, Industrial Design, LGEIL: "Our designers play an important role in our understanding the needs of consumers and ideate and conceptualise design solutions across all our product categories." The company is looking for more product designers, but declines to divulge numbers.

The FMCG sector is also generating massive amounts of work for designers, "mainly in packaging design", says Anuj Prasad, Director and Chief Designer, Desmania Design, a Delhi-based design consultancy that serves companies such as Cadbury, P&G, Reckitt Benckiser and Marico. "Packaging design can make or mar a company's fortunes in the FMCG sector, though there may hardly be any difference between its products and those of its rivals," he adds.

The hunt is on: Titan Industries' Kant says designers play a strategic role at her company

"The realm of industrial design is expanding rapidly and now includes a growing array of products and services. Consequently, the role of industrial designers is also expanding. They are no longer perceived just as product designers, but more as professionals who add value to a consumer's experience of a product or service. In fact, the adjective 'industrial' in industrial design is fast going out of fashion," says Darlie O. Koshy, Executive Director, NID. Adds Lalit K. Das, Head, Industrial Design, IIT, Delhi: "Industrial designers are trained to handle the aesthetic, emotional, ergonomic, safety and usability aspects of a product or service, making them great value multipliers for industry."

Michael Foley, former head of Titan Industries' watch design team, who recently started his own consultancy, Foley Design, takes this argument forward. "Malls and supermarkets are exposing consumers to a bewildering array of products and services and they are learning to discriminate between well designed products and others," says the man who designed the Titan Edge, which is billed as the slimmest watch in the world. The organised retail industry, in fact, is turning to designers to "transform" the shopping experience of customers. In the last 4-5 months alone, Pantaloon Retail has hired eight NID graduates as "visual merchandisers" to redesign the look and feel of its outlets, says Sanjay Jog, Pantaloon's Head of hr. "We may recruit about 30 visual merchandisers over the next year," he adds. The company has also hired about 50 textile and apparel designers from various NIFTs this year.

Design conscious: Michael Foley of Foley Design knows the market dynamics well

Revathi Kant, Business Head (Design), Titan Industries, says designers play a strategic role at her company-both at the product design stage as well as in enhancing brand presence in about 225 watch and jewellery stores. Titan's watch design team has 26 members, who design new products, do innovative designs and visual merchandising, among several other things. The company, which also outsources substantial amount of design work, is currently looking for designers to fill up some senior positions.

Corporate India's romance with design solutions has also resulted in massive incremental business for independent design consultancy firms. This is leading to more demand for designers. "We will triple our workforce over the next two years," says Sudhir Sharma, Founder Director and Principal Designer of the Pune-based Elephant Strategy & Design, which employs 50 designers and claims to be India's largest consultancy firm in this space.

NID's Koshy points to another significant trend-of it companies hiring designers for user interface (UI) design and Web architecture. "The Indian software sector has been very successful in building a large pool of professionals, but they need a big infusion of designers," says Desmania's Prasad. Then, there is the automotive sector. Following the success of home grown cars and SUVs such as the Indica and the Scorpio, Indian auto-makers are quietly boosting their design capabilities and resources.

Striving hard: M&M's Jaura wants at least one refreshed design every year

Says Arun Jaura, Senior Vice President (Product Development and R&D), Mahindra & Mahindra: "We are working on several new platforms and will strive to come out with at least one refreshed design every year." The company's design team currently has 14 members. "Indian automakers, excluding the MNCs, will need about 100 automotive designers every year, but, obviously, there is a shortage of good designers," he says.

As companies scramble to hire the best designers-even as they grapple with the skewed demand-supply scenario-salaries in this space have started obeying the laws of economics, rising 25-40 per cent every year. The government last year announced a draft National Design Policy and has drawn up grand plans to beef up education and training of designers at the graduate and post-graduate levels. The proposal envisages the NID and other institutes producing 5,000-8,000 design personnel every year. That is less than even the current requirement. So, it seems as if the shortage of designers will continue for some time-not an altogether bad news for them if you consider their growing salaries. "India's progress towards becoming a leading industrial nation will depend crucially on good design and innovation," says Whirlpool's Nair, putting the issue in perspective.

COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!

Q: I am a 34-year-old working as a Financial Controller with Punjab Technical University. I did my post-graduation in Commerce and also hold an MBA (Finance) degree. I also have around 10 years of experience in finance, accounts and administration with various government and educational organisations. I now want to switch to the corporate sector and have heard that a PG diploma/programme for executives conducted by IIM-A and ISB, Hyderabad would help my cause. Please advise.

I am not sure that the progarmme for executives, which is a short-term or part-time course, will help. I recommend that you apply to the corporate sector-you should be able to get a job, although it may not be too senior. The other option is to do a full-time MBA.

Q: I am a 26-year-old Arts graduate (Economics Hons) pursuing a one-year PGDCA and working as a DTP operator in a private printing press. I wish to join the corporate sector. Please advise whether I need to pursue an MCA or MBA.

You could do either an MCA or an MBA. The former would keep you in the computer/it field, while with the latter, you can pursue disciplines like marketing or finance. You could also do shorter courses in computer graphics, animation and such related fields.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055..

In Poirot's Footsteps
It won't be that exciting, but checking out CVs can make for a good profession.

There is a growing demand for quality pre-employment background screening vendors; they verify educational backgrounds and employment and criminal histories of candidates and (hopefully) keep the thieves at bay. "The industry is still in its infancy but given the scare over recent incidents of employee-related fraud, it is bound to grow rapidly," says Nobby Nazareth of Evaluationz India, a Bangalore-based background verification firm. The IT sector alone is planning to recruit about 100,000 personnel this year. The retail sector will add another million new faces over the next three years. This is likely to translate into 1,000 new job opportunities in the background screening space. "These agencies require people from varied backgrounds ranging from law enforcement (for checking criminal records), management as well as human resources and even hire freshers to undertake some routine work," says Kris Laxmikanth, CEO, The Headhunters, a Bangalore-based hr consultancy.

-Rahul Sachitanand