Building Human Capital - 2019

Sumit Kumar, Vice President, NETAP asserts that pharma sector cannot achieve the expected growth if it doesn’t invest in building talent

Jonathan Haskel & Stain Westlake in their famous book called ‘Capitalism without Capital’ mentions about rise of phenomena in 21 st century about investment by developed economies in intangible assets than intangible assets for a long-term success. Countries, companies, investors and managers are exploring avenues to create intangible assets to grow their economies, businesses and portfolio. In 2004, Harvard Business Review came out with an influential paper stating that talent, capability and skills constitutes intangible assets and are far more valuable for an organisation than their tangible assets. Often, employees are considered as tangible assets as they can be seen in their physical form, but more than just the warm bodies, its actually their abilities, talent and skill that is an asset for an organisation. You can replace a talented employee by back filling the position; however the capability of that employee cannot be replaced. It needs to be created.