DIAGNOSES
presents analyses of the
management case by
academicians and practitioners
The current issue of Vikalpa
has published a Case titled,
Lupin Pharma Limited, by
Kirti Sharda. This Diag-
noses features analyses of
this Case by Rituraj Sar and
TV Rao.
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 3 • JULY - SEPTEMBER 2012
Managing Talent at Lupin Limited
Kirti Sharda
Case Analysis I
Rituraj Sar
Head-Learning & Development
Lupin Pharma Ltd.
e-mail: riturajsar@lupinpharma.com
“Talent management is not an end in itself. It is not about developing
employees or creating succession plans, nor is it about achieving specific
turnover rates or any other tactical outcome. It exists to support the organi-
zation’s overall objectives, which in business essentially amount to making
money.”
— Peter Cappelli “Talent Management for the 21st Century.”
Harvard Business Review. March 2008.
T
his management case presents the basic challenges that Lupin faces on the
front of Talent Management. After the annualized attrition figures of the
Managers pegged at 12 per cent for the first quarter of 2010-11, the suste-
nance and continuity of the same looks to be a bigger problem for the Company.
With these figures, the Company seems to be doing everything just right, even bet-
ter, in comparison to its Competitors when it comes to the HR practices, initiatives,
and processes, but, in an industry which has grown at a rate of 14 per cent in 2005-
2010 and is expected to grow at the same pace, if not more, doing things just right is
not good enough especially for a Company which itself is growing at a pace of 20
per cent annually from 2005-2010, which is almost double the growth rate of the
industry.
What Lupin as a Company Did Well and Can Do Well?
Lupin, as an organization, needs to accept the fact that proactive talent management
that makes a positive business difference will ask difficult questions and force awk-
ward choices to prioritize and focus effort. This is more important when Lupin has
been doing brilliantly well both on the Business as well as People front and has been
consistently featured amongst the ‘Best Companies to Work For’ in 2011 at the 2nd and
in 2012 at the 1st rank in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Sector. Being featured in
the Top 30 Best Companies to Work For (in 1000+ employees category), things seem
to be just perfect for Lupin. This is when most of the Companies get myopic and lose
145
the focus. Jeffrey R. Immelt faced the same situation
when he was handed over GE (which was already at
number one place) and was asked to make it successful.
This case is to be looked keeping the fact in mind that
Lupin has been doing quite well and all it needs is to
relook its people strategies and connect the dots for hav-
ing a sustainable competitive advantage over its com-
petitors. Lupin’s management therefore needs to be
prepared to challenge the established activities to assess
its fit for future purpose. They should also be willing to
implement new processes and practices that call for a
shift in operating style, anticipating political opposition
from those who would prefer the familiarity of the sta-
tus quo.
A good move for Lupin now will be to institutionalize
and consolidate on each of its initiatives. This would
require some actionables in the following areas:
Communication: The kind of communication that is de-
sired here is the one which initiates response back and
forth. This will ensure that not only do the initiatives
get communicated down the hierarchy but also the feed-
back, response, and impact of these initiatives get com-
municated back upwards. Lupin has created many
opportunities to initiate conversations with the employ-
ees. What it further needs to ensure is that these oppor-
tunities for communication create a transparent open
culture and at the same time keeps the interest in the
employees constant.
Tracking Impact and Effectiveness: A sound tracking
mechanism needs to be in place to ensure that the im-
pact and the effectiveness of the initiatives get captured.
In the fast growth phase that Lupin currently is in, it is
imperative that the impact is measured real time and
accordingly changes made if desired. Lupin can put in
place an integrated strategic Talent Management met-
ric so that it can measure the impact created by the vari-
ous programmes that it has put in place. Also these
analytics will enable better workforce allocation deci-
sions. Improving the Talent Management strategy could
mean rethinking the entire process and rapidly work-
ing on building skill sets that will meet the ever chang-
ing business needs.
Re-establishing the link between Business Goals and
Talent Management Requirements: An organization’s
talent management strategy will need to be closely tied
to the overall business strategy (or mission), focusing
146
on positions that enable marketplace differentiation.
Without this common set of guidelines and principles,
it is easy for organizations to squander their limited re-
sources through fragmentation and duplication of tal-
ent management efforts. Lupin has over the past few
years started taking a more strategic view of the talent
management practices. What the Pharma sector includ-
ing Lupin needs to ensure is a sustained execution of
these strategies over a period of time that will lead to
results that impact not only the bottom line but also act
as a panacea to many of the issues that have been plagu-
ing the Pharma sector.
Talent management at Lupin needs to be underpinned
by a guiding philosophy that shapes the organization’s
full range of employee practices and processes because
a talent management system that, for example, recruits
outstanding people, but allows them to be badly man-
aged or unfairly rewarded is not only expensive, but is
likely to be highly disruptive as well. It is to be noted
that effective talent management policies and practices
that demonstrate commitment to human capital results
in more engaged employees and lower turnover. Lupin
has been falling slightly short of the benchmark on this
front. Though there are good people practices, they are
not fully consistent and uniform across the teams and
units. There is also scope for improving the connect to
the big picture. While Lupin has been consistently work-
ing towards designing and crafting interventions like
Udbhav, Buddy, ATR, LMBLP, etc., which help them
create umpteen touch points during the complete em-
ployee life cycle, it now needs to move forward and align
them to the Company’s overall objectives, mission, and
also to their own internal processes and policies.
The starting point of an effective Talent Management
strategy is to permeate the right kind of talent in the
system. A structured and scientific Recruitment and
Selection (R&S) process becomes the starting point. Lu-
pin needs to design a process/system which enables
hiring for better compatibility — the “fit” between em-
ployer and employee both in terms of job as well as or-
ganization — is critical. To recruit the best, Lupin needs
to follow the credo of selecting ‘right people, right place’
to have a better cultural fit of incoming employees. This
means that the values of the potential employees must
be in line with the values of the organization, the reason
being that values are difficult to be trained. Formal quali-
fication may not always be the best indicator of talent.
DIAGNOSES
The question to be asked here would be: Is Lupin pur-
suing the right people at right levels? How successful is
Lupin in attracting the right candidates? Given the cur-
rent process of selection, chances are that there is scope
for improvement.
Hiring employees only based on interviewing or 40 min-
utes of face-to-face talk or discussion is not enough for
an organization which is looking out to gain sustain-
able competitive advantage over the competitors in this
extremely dynamic and cut-throat market place. The
decisions taken are more feeling-oriented than data-ori-
ented. Research says that the success rate of such un-
structured interviews is as good as 20. That means only
1 out of 5 people selected will be the right person for the
job. Through such unstructured processes, neither of the
fits – job as well as organization – can be assessed and
may lead to wrong hiring and then early departure
thereof. This gets seconded by the Co-Head of Market-
ing and Sales who says “… in our organization many peo-
ple come by default also. They might not be talented. In the
beginning they may appear fine, but after 2-3 years they might
not turn out to be so.”
A more structured and Competency Based R&S might
help Lupin to have the right talent. It is proven, when
combined with an assessment of knowledge and expe-
rience, that using competencies improves accuracy in
assessing people’s suitability or potential for different
jobs. They help prevent interviewers and selectors from
making hasty decisions or from assessing interviewees
on the basis of characteristics that are not relevant to the
job. This will also help to structure the selection process
– interview and tests and assessing a candidate against
specific competencies clarifies their strengths and weak-
nesses, making it easier to target any development that
may be needed should they be appointed. Quoting the
Head of Operations – API who feels the same “…no for-
mal process exists to identify an employee’s appropriateness
for a role, to identify his strength areas. We have not matched
inherent strength to role. E.g. sometimes good people with
quantitative skills are put in MIS.”
Though the Competency-Based Approach works, in or-
der for this approach to work successfully, Lupin needs
and will have to align its competency model with its
business strategy or objectives. This model will have to
be aligned with the complete HR Architecture right from
R&S to Induction to Performance Appraisals to Train-
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 3 • JULY - SEPTEMBER 2012
ing and Development to Succession Planning, etc. In
order to do this, Lupin must take the time to determine
which major themes of behaviour or competencies —
e.g., innovation, customer engagement, action orienta-
tion — needs to be demonstrated across the organiza-
tion in order for the business strategy to work. Lupin
also needs to make sure that competency models should
be defined at different levels for the approach to get suc-
cessful — from organization-wide models to single-job
models and at various levels in between. At one extreme
shall be “one size fits all” or organizational competency
models — where a single set of core competencies is stra-
tegically defined as expected of all organizational mem-
bers. At the other end of the spectrum shall be systems
of competency models where each model applies to one
or a handful of positions. In the middle will be a hybrid
approach that tries to incorporate the best aspects of the
one-size-fits-all approach and more customized ap-
proaches. This is where the thin line of success or failure
is drawn. For an effective Talent Management strategy,
Lupin needs to adopt/customize a model which fits its
requirements as the best approach depends on the stra-
tegic goals of the organization and applications for which
competency models will be used.
In the current knowledge economy, while Competency
Based R&S will surely help Lupin to have a fit talent
pool, it is also extremely important to evaluate the ex-
isting pool on the same competency and then develop
them to perform and exhibit these competencies in a
better way. A competency approach brings a different
perspective to performance management because with
this approach, performance is viewed in terms of the
process/efforts/syntax employees use to achieve their
job results and not mere numbers. It combines planning,
management, and appraisal of both performance results
and competency behaviours. It assesses what employ-
ees accomplished and how they did it (with personal
characteristics they possess that predict superior per-
formance in present jobs, or in future jobs). As per Head
of Marketing and Sales, “… there was no focus on these
competencies earlier because the meetings focused on num-
bers only… their role should not be limited to numbers”.
Performance and competence are balanced in a compe-
tency-based performance management system. A more
focused and systemic change in the Performance Ap-
praisal Process will help in better evaluation and justi-
fied appraisals. For example,. in a line job, achievement
147
of performance results may be weighted 70 per cent and
demonstration of competency behaviours only 30 per
cent. At the other extreme, an appraisal form for a serv-
ice position might weight competence 70 per cent and
the technical competence as 30 per cent. Performance
objectives for a staff job might give equal weight to re-
sults and demonstration of competency behaviours, etc.
With a fair/just/structured and transparent Perform-
ance Appraisal System, many issues of justifying the
ratings/appraisals by the supervisor to the subordinates
can be taken care of. A system which is more specific in
nature will help many other HoDs like the Head of Sales
and Marketing who says, “…. It really disturbs the boys
because they work in the same pool. It creates tremendous
pressure when it comes to motivating employees. I want my
team to have high morale. I would like it if they were pam-
pered as well, of course, within some boundaries. However,
the performance management system is demotivating the
employees.”
While regular constructive feedback, mid-term reviews,
providing timely development plans, and systematic
improvement guidelines will help the expectations of
the supervisor and deliveries of the team members to
meet at a common ground, it will also help the Manag-
ers not to feel bad about rating their people low if they
have actually performed badly and will also take care
of what has been mentioned by the Head of L&D, “….the
managers think that if I have given a poor rating, how do I
face my team member?” While it is extremely important
to rate the employees as per their actual performance, it
is equally important to showcase the talented employ-
ees and project them as role models without anyone ask-
ing them to nominate such people. Superior performance
should be felicitated without anyone asking for it as to-
day, only when HR asks for ‘Top 100 List’ the HoDs put
forth a name. But no feedback is provided otherwise. It is ex-
tremely important for Lupin to clearly and without any
guilt identify its high performing people and focus on
them. Though a structured 9-box performance-poten-
tial plotting, which has become the standard tool in tal-
ent management to prioritize individuals, does exist, it
could be made more robust in implementation. As a
mechanism to filter quickly from a large target popula-
tion, it has the virtue of simplicity. Its simplicity is also
its vice.
Taking people for granted is an all-too-common prob-
lem in the business world. Most of us take good per-
148
formances for granted and we only truly realize how
much that employee, boss or colleague meant to us af-
ter the fact. One reason could be that we do not want to
disturb the flow of a good performer. “….sabko kaam karne
do. Disturb mat karo’ is the response which HR President
gets by his counterparts. It is important to confront, face
and deal with difficulties (e.g., rating people low if they
actually are); however, we don’t have to get obsessed
about the bad performance and let it run us. There can
be a conscious choice to focus on the good performance
and in the process, appreciate the good and talented
people with whom we work. While developing the low
performers is our responsibility the other strategy/ look-
out can be that there is no point wasting too much time
and energy focusing on what we don’t want, what we
are worried about or what we think needs to be fixed,
changed or enhanced. What if we stopped this negative
thought of line and start paying more attention to the
good stuff and appreciate it? Appreciation, if provided,
at different levels/stages by different people at differ-
ent forums creates extraordinary performances out of
ordinary employees. Managers at Lupin may do well to
understand better “...that the best guys need to be showcased,
but the rest are important too. They are the backbone of the
organization.”
Lupin also needs to understand and act on the fact that
lack of executive talent can have a catastrophic impact
on a business. In general, today’s organizations are fac-
ing higher demands and the widening talent gap.
Though not much data is provided about the Succes-
sion Planning at Lupin, in order to achieve results, Lu-
pin needs to start with the basics, create a strong process,
and then invest in the tools and technology to instill a
talent development mindset in the organization. In ad-
dition, Lupin like every other company, needs to un-
derstand that a good succession management develops
a pool of talent with skills, attributes, and experiences
to fill specific, often high-level positions. This not only
helps the organization to avert the risk of untimely exits
but also keeps the employees excited about their own
career path/developments.
There is an on-going discussion about whether talent
can and should be bought or built within an organiza-
tion. Lupin needs to think about what happens when
they recruit talent from other organizations. Will this
talent also perform to his or her full potential in a new
environment? Thus, the question is whether all talents
DIAGNOSES
are free agents in the sense that they are “workers who
can pick up and take their skill sets into any environ-
ment”. While recruiting a fresh talent, it needs to be
questioned if a talent will be of the same strategic value
within another organization, since the value is also de-
pendent on the environment of the talent, not just on
the talent itself. Talented resources are hard to copy and
difficult to develop here and now. Therefore, one can
question if a talent will still be a resource, once moved
out of the environment he or she was valuable in. This
shows that hiring talents can be risky. Research revealed
that talents’ individual performance often declines in the
new organization.
Commitment to the former employees’ and organiza-
tion-specific resources might have had a very strong
influence on the talent’s performance. Moreover, when
a hired talent is entering a team, this might lead to a
decline of morale and productivity of the entire team,
as the old team might start wondering why they are
getting less attention and money. All this shows that
Training and Development are crucial in managing the
available talent. Motivation and a high performance of
talents are mainly influenced by training opportunities,
coaching, and mentoring. If Lupin selects a group of
high-performing, highly-motivated young employees,
and stretches them to the peak of their capabilities, then,
two years later, it will have a home-grown, readymade
management team. This will not only keep the talent
pipeline filled but at the same time keep the performers
excited and on their toes for the next big challenge. Lu-
pin is already growing fast in size and it needs to take
greater advantage of its growing scale for people growth
opportunities. The benefits that Lupin can reap out of
its growing scale are:
• More set of opportunities to experiment with
• Greater momentum to drive initiatives
• Raise the bar of challenge for different teams
• Establish robust processes.
Though Lupin invests heavily in the training and devel-
opment of their talents (as 2% of total employee cost),
these initiatives need to be aligned with Company’s stra-
tegic objectives and plans.
If an organization spends a lot of time, effort, and money
in the recruitment of talents and in their training and
development, it can be assumed that this results in the
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 3 • JULY - SEPTEMBER 2012
wish to retain these talents. Organizations like Lupin
often strive for high levels of retention, not only because
of the knowledge employees take with them when they
leave, but also because of the investments that have been
made. The costs of losing an employee can range be-
tween 1.5 to 2.5 times the annual salaries of the leaving
employee
With strong Reward (both monetary and non-monetary)
and Recognition policies in place, Lupin ensures that its
employees are incessantly charged up and feel excited
to come to work. It is to be noted that Rewards and Rec-
ognition also help both to retain talent and to improve
performance. A Carlson/ Gallup study on employee
engagement and business success showed that employ-
ees who were extremely satisfied at work were four
times more likely than dissatisfied employees to have a
formal measurement process in place as well as receive
regular recognition. Lupin needs to devise a reward sys-
tem that should not only be effective when it comes to
attracting people; it should also be able to motivate them
and push employees to a higher level of performance.
Moreover, it should be able to retain the right persons,
not just attract them. Lupin should avoid attracting
employees because of rewards and other offers, e.g.,
training, and then see these employees leave to work
for the competitors. Instead it should encourage new
employees to stay with Lupin for longer associations
with mutual benefit. So, offering faster career progres-
sion opportunities through initiatives like Expanding
Horizon etc., than the competition seems an effective
way to put talents on different compensation trajecto-
ries than their fellow employees.
In the current knowledge economy, companies must
continually invest in human capital. In the role of busi-
ness partner, HR leaders work closely with senior man-
agement to attract, hire, develop, and retain talent. Yet
the skills shortage presents both socio-economic and
cultural challenges as talent crosses-borders. Thus, in
view of workforce trends such as shifting demographics,
global supply chains, the aging workforce, and increas-
ing global mobility, forward-looking organizations like
Lupin might like to rethink their approach to talent
management to best harness talent. By doing so, they
will be positively positioned to succeed in a highly com-
petitive marketplace. In addition, organizational culture,
employee engagement, and leadership development
149
have a significant impact on talent retention. Taking
these factors into consideration, an integrated approach
Case Analysis II
T V Rao
Professor
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
e-mail: tvrao@tvrao.com
T he main contribution of good talent management is
in building the intellectual capital of a company.
Good companies use the best HR practices, and have
competent HR people handling these practices, as part
of their talent management strategies. They use a devel-
opmental approach to ensure the creation of a learning
culture in the organization.
Effective Talent Management Practices
Good companies have the following systems, processes,
competencies, and outcomes, for talent management:
Systems and Processes
• A well-articulated vision, mission, values, and cul-
ture, that are communicated internally to all the staff
who, in turn, should express their commitment to
the organization and value its internal processes and
systems.
• Projection of the true picture of the organization to
the outside world and build an employer’s brand
through good employee management practices.
• A scientific and competency-based recruitment sys-
tem to ensure recruitment of competent people and
their integration through a good on-boarding pro-
gramme. On-boarding is extended normally to sen-
ior level and lateral appointments.
• Continuous competency utilization and motivation
practices that would ensure optimal use of talent.
• A good learning culture and a variety of mechanisms
for continuous learning and development.
• Periodic review and HR audit or a self renewal
mechanism to see that talent is not wasted.
• Processes that are sensitive to employee retention.
Succession planning and career development prac-
tices should also ensure the same.
150
to talent management offers a pathway toward sustain-
ing outstanding business results.
Competencies
A competent HR team should have the following com-
petencies as outlined in the HRD Score Card 2500 (Rao,
2008a):
• Knowledge of the business in which they are facili-
tating HR, and strategic thinking
• Functional knowledge of HR including a vision and
entrepreneurship to put the function in the driver’s
seat
• Leadership and change management qualities or
personal qualities, and attitudes needed to initiate,
facilitate change, and execute various HR interven-
tions
• Execution skills including personnel management
knowledge and skills
• Personal credibility and learning attitude
• A learning desire on the part of employees at vari-
ous levels, and a developmental approach on the part
of the top level management, including the CEO.
Outcomes
Outcomes of a good Talent Management programme
and its implementation include:
• A high contribution of employees to productivity
resulting in a good output and profits
• Building of intellectual capital of the company
• Low attrition, high morale, and commitment.
Management of Talent at Lupin
The case of Lupin is examined from the perspective out-
lined above. The pharma industry has witnessed high
growth in the last decade or so and many Indian pharma
companies have in fact begun to make a mark. How-
ever, a few of them have not paid adequate attention to
DIAGNOSES
talent management issues, and have witnessed ups and
downs due to their neglect and other strategic mistakes.
Most industries that have gone global have done well.
The main challenge they have faced is in managing the
global workforce, for which they had to learn about vari-
ous cultures and countries.
Lupin as an organization seems to have done well in
terms of most of the outcome variables mentioned above.
The fact that it ranks among the first three in the world
in 18 of the 22 products it manufactures is evidence of
its good performance in products and sales. Its financial
performance also seems to be good. Like many other
companies in the pharma sector, Lupin seems to have
done well in developing world-class manufacturing
practices. However there is no evidence of people prac-
tices that would sustain low cost and high quality manu-
facturing practices. The declining attrition rates at 12 per
cent seem to be encouraging as compared to 35.5, as
claimed by the HR Manager. With 9,421 employees in-
cluding around a thousand managers, the company
seems to be doing well in terms of its productivity and
profits.
Systems and Processes
The employee cost of 1-11 per cent of the turnover and 2
per cent on training, with nearly Rs 40 million spent on
HR, are quite impressive and suggest that the company
is making reasonably good investment in HR. As per
the BT 500 data, Lupin had a market capitalization of
Rs. 7,410 crore with an asset base of Rs. 3,386, crore indi-
cating that its intellectual capital is nearly 55 per cent of
its market value in 2009-10, for which the data are avail-
able. Compared to 37 per cent of DRL, 76 per cent of
Sunpharma, 65 per cent of Cipla, 63 per cent of Glaxo
SmithKline, this is impressive and indicates that Lupin
has made a mark in terms of its intellectual capital and
brand.
Lupin was started with a vision by a Professor: “My
dream of contributing to the process of nation-building and
vision to fight life-threatening infectious diseases by manu-
facturing drugs of highest national priority were the compel-
ling reasons and guiding principles that led to the formation
of Lupin.” The focus of the dream was thus infectious
diseases of national priority. There is no evidence on how
well this vision is percolated to employees. There is also
scope for revisiting the vision statement and making it
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 3 • JULY - SEPTEMBER 2012
with a better punch. Vision has a great value for making
successful companies.
On the other hand, Lupin’s vision is stated in terms of
dollars and regions (transnational), and setting stand-
ards and benchmarks. It does not focus on customers
and employees and services though they are implied in
the original vision. This is compensated however by the
stress on customer orientation, respect for people, and
the culture of working together. Performance and en-
trepreneurship still figure in the values. The thrust from
all this appears to be more on tangibles than intangibles
like service and other soft areas. Very rightly, the em-
ployment development plan puts the onus of growth
on the employee and links it to performance.
The focus of the orientation programme, Udbhav, for new
recruits, on self-awareness besides preparing them for
their respective roles, is significant. Any induction pro-
gramme should initiate the new recruit into the com-
pany and its culture, vision, values, and standards, role
of the incumbent, personnel policies, and the various
practices and the business itself. There could possibly
be some gaps in its induction programme in relation to
all these components.
The Buddy Programme of Lupin, that connects the new
employees with some of their seniors who guide them
and facilitate their integration into the company culture
and values, is a noteworthy programme. The two-day
module on Buddy training gives the impression of lop-
sided inputs to buddies. The training emphasizes assert-
iveness, listening, and interpersonal skills. There is no
evidence that this is based on the real needs and dilem-
mas of the new employees.
As Downey (2001) observed, a successful assimilation
is one in which both the individual and the organiza-
tion are transformed for the better and are able to lever-
age each other’s strengths to achieve mutually beneficial
goals. The individual and the organization need to work
together for this purpose.
Assimilation of new leaders occurs in four stages. It be-
gins at the point of hire and is completed when the indi-
vidual becomes a full contributor and is no longer an
outsider. The journey towards assimilation is a continu-
ous negotiation between the two extremes, and a bal-
ance needs to be struck (Downey, 2001), between various
pairs of extremes:
151
• Being patient vs becoming productive
• Setting one’s own pace vs following the organiza-
tion’s pace
• Trusting one’s intuition vs making data-based deci-
sions
• Pleasing various stakeholders vs addressing one’s
own priorities
• Implementing change vs respecting the culture of the
organization
• Demonstrating competence vs seeking advice when
one needs it
• Building relationships based on trust vs testing as-
sumptions about others
• Intervening appropriately vs waiting until one has
all the relevant information
• Drawing on past experiences vs not letting the past
bind one
• Acting with authority vs staying in the learning mode
• Not leading egoistically vs staying on with confidence
• Making one’s position clear vs seeking feedback
• Associating with people vs maintaining boundaries,
etc.
“The HR department as well as the top management
and other line managers have a responsibility to ensure
that managers inducted at the top levels assimilate the
company’s culture, the competencies associated with the
role and other aspects of the company fast, and manage
the contradictions mentioned in the foregoing list. This
alone will ensure that retention is higher and top man-
agement personnel recruited into the firm give their best
and yield a high ROI” (Rao, 2011).
LMBLP is the most important highlight of the talent
management practices of Lupin.
Developing employees through cross-functional meet-
ings and presentations is another good practice of Lu-
pin. The extent of involvement of the HR Department
in this practice is not known. It may do well in monitor-
ing such interventions. A recent HBR article (Watkins,
2012) indicates that such cross-functional work can go a
long way in converting managers to be leaders.
The two challenges pointed out by the HR President are
indicative of the current talent shortage. HR could think
of solutions like promoting scholarships and adopting
institutions that prepare talented candidates. In some
ways, the President’s observations seem to be true of
152
every sector. If the IT sector can manage by recruiting a
large number of people without the needed skill base
and train them, why not the Pharma sector? The solu-
tion for this challenge seems to be within the sector it-
self and there is a need to think out of the box.
Performance Management System
The Chairman seems to be focused on picking up the
top 100. In the process there may be a danger of losing
those who are the next 100. There seems to be an over-
obsession with differentiation.
Most pharma companies in India including Dr. Reddy’s,
Wockhardt, and AstraZeneca have been successfully
using 360 Degree Feedback and also assessment centres
where talent is assessed and fed back to the candidate.
Lupin has perhaps a long way to go in adopting such
processes or experimenting with the same. They seem
to be struggling with performance appraisals on which
there have been lot of developments (for example, see
Rao, 2008b).
Competencies
There is little evidence of the competencies of HR team.
The case indicates a high degree of sensitivity of the
President HR to future issues of talent acquisition and
retention and development. He rightly identifies the
culture as highly relationship-oriented and also hierar-
chical. The hierarchical nature of the company is partly
the creation of the company itself as admitted by some
of the Heads of departments. The HR President may
need to focus on developing the HR team in new HR
technologies and processes which could further build
on the human capital already built. A competency audit
of HR team may be worth undertaking.
The talent management system in Lupin seems to be
Chairman-dependent. He seems to have a keen power
of observation and judgement. Such one person depend-
ent polices may not help in building a lasting culture. It
may create talent management issues in the long run.
On the whole, the aspect of talent management that is
worthy of acclaim in Lupin is the interest taken by the
Chairman in identifying and encouraging top talent,
annual talent review process where talented people are
identified and encouraged to develop faster and also get
promoted, and the on-boarding and leadership devel-
opment processes in manufacturing.
DIAGNOSES
However, it is useful for Lupin to revisit their vision,
values, and culture and affirm more customer and em-
ployee-oriented vision while continuing with the drive
to get business results and be on the top. There is also a
need for developing an HR vision. Lupin should use
some of the recent advances in HR and use technologies
like the 360 Degree Feedback for leadership develop-
ment while continuing with its current practices like
cross-functional teams and communication between the
departments. The HR team could play a more active and
energetic role of working with the managers and mak-
ing everyone a leader, rather than merely trying to iden-
tify the top 100 leaders and de-motivating the rest of the
team. It is said quite often that 80 per cent of the work is
done by 20 per cent of the people, and Lupin’s talent
management as described in the case tilts towards the
VIKALPA • VOLUME 37 • NO 3 • JULY - SEPTEMBER 2012
philosophy of investing time and effort on these 20 per
cent who deliver 80 per cent of the results. We believe
that Lupin should now shift its focus to making every
one of the 80 per cent deliver better results.
Downey, Diane (2001). Integrating and assimilating new leaders:
The key to executive retention. New York: American Man-
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Rao, T.V. (2008a). HRD score card 2500. New Delhi: Sage Re-
sponse Books.
Rao, T.V. (2008b). Lessons from experience: A new look at per-
formance management systems. Vikalpa, 33(3), 1-15,
Rao, T.V.(2011). Hurconomics for talent management. New Delhi:
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Watkins, Michael D. (2012). How managers become leaders,
Harvard Business Review, June.
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