With soaring retail ambitions come hiring headaches. Just weeks after the Bharti Group announced its retail road map, in association with Wal-Mart, it is believed that the group has reached a no-poaching agreement with its biggest competitor- Reliance Industries.
Company officials could not be reached for comment.
This pact, valid over the next one year, ensures that the two giants would not be getting into each others’ crosshairs, at least while hiring retail professionals.
Both Bharti and Reliance have identical business models, wherein each group plans to create a farm-to-fork network for fresh fruits and vegetables, besides many other consumer products. It is only natural that when businesses overlap, hiring from each other’s stable will create trouble for both companies.
As recently as July last year, RIL had hired many senior people working for Bharti’s agri-venture, FieldFresh, triggering a virtual poaching war. The petrochemical major is also believed to have scoured Wal-Mart itself in its search for retail professionals.
High employee turnover in the retail sector, in general, may have also driven Bharti and Reliance to enter the no-poaching pact. Last year, Reliance’s retail team saw some churn when senior professionals such as Rajeev Karwal, who was spearheading their consumer durables vertical, left.
The severity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that after Bharti finally announced it retail road map last month, it sent out an internal communiqué asking many senior telecom professionals if they wanted to switch to either the retail or insurance ventures. It is believed that several hundreds of its telecom people have taken up the offer and agreed to switch to the retail team. The total employee base in Bharti Airtel was over 18,000, as of December 31, 2006. Already, one of its telecom stalwarts, Vinod Sawhny, has been handpicked to spearhead the front-end retail business.
The Reliance-Bharti pact comes at a time when organised retail is poised to take a giant leap and is already facing a severe manpower crunch.
According to industry estimates, there is already a 50% shortage at senior levels across the retail industry, and by 2010, as many as 2 million retail professionals would be in demand.
SOURCE : DNA MONEY
Company officials could not be reached for comment.
This pact, valid over the next one year, ensures that the two giants would not be getting into each others’ crosshairs, at least while hiring retail professionals.
Both Bharti and Reliance have identical business models, wherein each group plans to create a farm-to-fork network for fresh fruits and vegetables, besides many other consumer products. It is only natural that when businesses overlap, hiring from each other’s stable will create trouble for both companies.
As recently as July last year, RIL had hired many senior people working for Bharti’s agri-venture, FieldFresh, triggering a virtual poaching war. The petrochemical major is also believed to have scoured Wal-Mart itself in its search for retail professionals.
High employee turnover in the retail sector, in general, may have also driven Bharti and Reliance to enter the no-poaching pact. Last year, Reliance’s retail team saw some churn when senior professionals such as Rajeev Karwal, who was spearheading their consumer durables vertical, left.
The severity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that after Bharti finally announced it retail road map last month, it sent out an internal communiqué asking many senior telecom professionals if they wanted to switch to either the retail or insurance ventures. It is believed that several hundreds of its telecom people have taken up the offer and agreed to switch to the retail team. The total employee base in Bharti Airtel was over 18,000, as of December 31, 2006. Already, one of its telecom stalwarts, Vinod Sawhny, has been handpicked to spearhead the front-end retail business.
The Reliance-Bharti pact comes at a time when organised retail is poised to take a giant leap and is already facing a severe manpower crunch.
According to industry estimates, there is already a 50% shortage at senior levels across the retail industry, and by 2010, as many as 2 million retail professionals would be in demand.
SOURCE : DNA MONEY
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