Management trainees will stay relevant in the future

INTERVIEW Sunil Alagh, former MD and CEO of Britannia Industries Limited

- ABHINAV SINGH

Sunil Alagh is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta. He has worked with ITC, Jagatjit Industries and Britannia Industries. At Britannia, he was managing director and CEO from 1989 to 2003, and was pivotal in developing leading brands like Tiger, and successfully diversifying into dairy. Alagh is now chairman of SKA Advisors, an advisory and consultancy firm with a focus on marketing and brand-building strategies. He spoke to THE WEEK about how the role of the management trainee (MT) has changed in recent decades and how it will evolve in the future. Excerpts:

Q/ What was the role of an MT earlier, say three to four decades back?

A/ India in the 1970s and 1980s had very few business schools and fewer MT jobs, in a few large multinational companies. It was a dream to bag an MT job and they underwent one year to one-anda-half years of rigorous grassroots training in the field or on the shop floor or on the commercial side or human resources functions. They were looked upon as people who will execute what is laid out as a task by the companies and were basically operational executives. The older, more experienced managers were generally wary of the MTs, and bosses were quick to tell them that though they had more book knowledge they had to prove themselves in the job. The MT of yesterday had salaries of around ₹12,000 per annum. They were however, provided chummeries (quarters) and a few perks.