Managing e-commerce

Owing to this sudden and fast growth in the e-commerce space, a huge demand for trained management professionals who can expertly handle the challenges has come up, says Shobhit Goyal

E-commerce is expanding steadily in India. Customers have the ever-increasing choice of products at the lowest rates. E-commerce is probably creating the biggest revolution in the retail industry, and this trend would continue in the years to come.

Owing to e-Commerce a customer can avail comforts as varied as car service or doctor’s appointment with a simple android app. The buying experience has been freed of the bondage of distance or time multiplying manifold the ease of access. Thus, customers can shop from the comfort of their homes. Users have varied choice with a wider range of products and prices from global vendors. Buyers have access to shopping options day or night the year round. This new way of trading has also opened niche and global products to audiences. The augmented privacy of customer is also an attractive feature.

All kinds of retails— big and small— want to leverage the advantages offered by digital retail e-commerce platforms, which enable them to spend less money on real estate while reaching out to more customers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

IS E-COMMERCE SUSTAINABLE?

Due to the numerous advantages, E-Commerce has today made inroads (horizontal e-tailing) in the sale of almost any Product and or Service that one can avail of from a physical market. Its impact is growing in online education, hospitality services, travelling/ticketing, cab aggregators, alternative lending, inventory services, classified portals and hyper-locals.

Owing to this sudden and fast growth in the E-commerce space, a huge demand for trained management professional who can expertly handle the challenges, have come up. Companies are hiring E-commerce specialists in large numbers. But still they are falling short and the requirement is huge.

These trends have been borne out by various growth statistics for the markets in India. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) estimate in India is 28% in the period of 2016-20, having already reached US$ 14.5 billion in 2016. By this rate, it will touch US$ 63.7 billion by 2020 overtaking the US by 2034. The Indian E-Commerce industry is expected to touch US$ 250 billion by 2020, which is 7.5% of national GDP. The proliferation of cashless transaction via mobile wallets and e-payment gateways will lift online sales to 55% by 2020 in India.

JOB PROSPECT

Very few B-Schools in India have been able to keep pace with the changing demand in the skills required to handle E-commerce jobs. The jobs would require skills like big data analytics, logistics management, digital marketing, and technology management among other general management skills.

To analyse, manage and create an e-Business rests on skills that include:

• Implementing digital marketing such as SEO, PPC, SMM, e-mail marketing etc.
• Create appropriate content and design campaigns for a particular target group.
• Optimise practices in e-shopping, e-collaboration and e-distribution.
• Document e-business in relation to authentication, privacy, security and intellectual property law.

The careers here seem to have evolved in three areas. The first is the creative domain which deals with product look and feel, branding, marketing, customer experience etc. The second area belongs to operations concerning logistics, category management, supply chain, warehouse and inventory etc. The third is the Auxiliary filed tackling issues of finance, payments, law, HR etc.

Direct employment can be sought in data entry, product development, web-development and maintenance, internet security, credit card processing and inventory management. Allied fields that offer opportunities include insurance, finance, computer systems design and technical consulting.

The starting salary package offered to e-commerce professionals normally range between Rs 4 to Rs 17 lakhs per annum.

The e-commerce field thrives on interdisciplinary activity that calls for multiple skills to execute tasks.  However, due to the lack of interdisciplinary learning in the traditional education, there is a great deficit of professionals who can directly take job roles in this sector. The extensive business prospects combined with the low availability of skilled workers makes this filed a rich ground for job opportunities.

Interdisciplinary education

Interdisciplinary education enables individuals to customise their learning styles. It is exclusively based in experience-based learning thus facilitating experimental exploration and applications. Students can incorporate varied often disparate subjects in their studies. Hence, they develop lateral thinking, critical ability and problem solving. With so many advantages, interdisciplinary education is the natural choice for future of Indian education.

Since the field of e-Commerce involves interdisciplinary concepts, a traditional pedagogical framework cannot deliver the full gist of this challenging field. An interdisciplinary programme in e-commerce trains the student in all domains required to become a successful manager in the e-commerce industry. With live projects and internships, the students get ready to take on the challenges of the sector.  The programme endows students an option of an international study trip.

The writer is secretary, Quantum University.

Talent acquisition report

Mettl, an assessment and skill-measurement company in India, announces the launch of the first edition of ‘State of Talent Acquisition in India 2018’. The survey report talks about the challenges being faced by talent acquisition professionals, the pace of technological and marketplace changes, along with the increase in the demand for new skill sets and new job roles in the years ahead. The key findings from the survey are:

• 85.7 per cent of the senior business leaders from top five sectors including Pharma, IT, Banking, Manufacturing and Retails feel that talent acquisition will remain a pertinent challenge for them in 2018.
• 76.3 per cent of organisations expect to have an increased recruitment volume this year compared to 64.5 per cent last year
• 87.6 per cent organisations will have an increased hiring budget this year, up from 67.8 per cent last year
• Banking (100%) and IT (87%) sectors feel the need for a highly skilled and stable talent pool, and aptly skilled workforce, and thus, moving away from meeting basic needs to addressing different priorities
• Companies will use social media the most for recruiting (36.17%) candidates this year, followed by other channels such as external recruiting/job fairs, campus recruitments (23.84%) and talent sourcing firms (18.64%).

With unemployment rates increasing rapidly across India after the introduction of GST, New Economic Policies and demand for skilled workforces across sectors, the report highlights the need to develop a blended approach to talent management and recruitment in order to aid the job market’s growth in the future.

The survey also indicates a sharp increase in the budgetary allotments by companies towards hiring the right candidates. In observes how candidates will be looking for organizations that offer flexible working arrangements and congenial work cultures.

Admission test

FIITJEE will conduct admission test on February 4, 2018, to gauge the aptitude and potential of students to qualify JEE Advanced, JEE Main and various other competitive/ scholastic exams. Admission test is an opportunity for students presently in Class V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X & XI to join a FIITJEE Classroom or Integrated School Programme with an Early Start Advantage. It will enable them to start their academic preparation just after final exams, study in a superior learning environment and get sufficient time for self-study, doubt clearance, additional practice tests while gaining better adaptability to the quantum jump in the level of difficulty. With exposure to competitive exams at an early stage, best-in-class faculty and a comprehensive teaching methodology, students will be geared up for scholastic/ competitive examinations like JEE Advanced, JEE Main, Olympiads, KVPY, X/XII Boards, NTSE, Jr. Olympiads. Last date to register for the test is February 1, with a registration fee of Rs 700. For offline registration, students can collect the paper application form from the nearest FIITJEE Centre. For more details, visit www.admissiontest.fiitjee.com.

Sports management

Rajasthan Royals have tied up with Deakin University, Australia to  promote sports education in India and facilitate research in sports management and sports science. Australia based Deakin University will be the official sports education partner for Rajasthan Royals this season.

In a view to promote sports education, Ranjit Barthakur, chairman and CEO, Rajasthan Royals and Deakin University’s VC & President, Professor Jane den Hollander, AO, signed a strategic agreement for the third time.

The most important feature of the collaboration is the mega scholarship provided to an Indian student for a sports management course in Melbourne. The scholarship will provide for full tuition fee waiver, up to Rs 38 lakh for Masters and Rs 43 lakh for undergraduate course.

The duration of the course is three years for a Bachelors degree and two years for Masters degree at Burwood Campus in Melbourne. It will be a full time course with internships and work integrated learning as part of the curriculum.

As per the selection criteria, students with 85 per cent in Class XII for UG and 80 per cent in Bachelors degree for PG will be preferred. Other selection parameters include high achievements in co-curricular activities. Deakin University will soon come out with the detailed criteria, the process of applying and what sort of project students have to submit. The candidates would be shortlisted and interviewed by a panel of representatives from Deakin University and Rajasthan Royals. The name of the fortunate student who will bag this scholarship will be announced during IPL. An internship with the Royals during the season will enable students to learn in a challenging environment.

New programmes

Pearson, world’s leading learning company, in association with edX.org, the leading non-profit online learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT, is launching a partnership to provide access to an array of newage programmes aimed at helping today’s working population to be future ready and equipped with the skill of the future. It includes futuristic courses such as artificial intelligence and robotics from prestigious institutions such as Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania.

EdX programmes will be bundled with Pearson services including instructor support, group discussions and career progression services. These programmes will be offered through Pearson’s enterprise learning suite for Pearson Professional Programmes, which includes new manager entry point training, programmes in the domain of business and management, new-age skills, and custom learning for senior leaders.

The programmes offered by edX are a mix of MicroMasters programmes and Professional Certificate programmes.

MicroMasters programmes are an in-depth and rigorous series of courses, with a path to credit from prestigious universities. The programme offers learners valuable knowledge to enhance their careers and offers a path to an accelerated Master’s programme. Professional Certificate programmes are a series of in-demand courses designed to build or advance critical skills for a specific career. Created by industry leaders and top universities, Professional Certificate programmes offer a flexible, affordable solution to develop the essential skills and actionable knowledge needed for today’s top jobs.

The ‘Future of Skills’ study conducted by Pearson (with researchers from Nesta and machine learning expert Michael Osborne of the Oxford Martin School) recently predicted that roughly seven in 10 people are currently in jobs where we simply can’t know for certain what will happen. However, these findings about skills suggest that occupation redesign coupled with workforce retraining could promote growth in these occupations.

These blended executive education programmes are carefully contextualised and span across a variety of functions and industries. The courses are tailor-made keeping in mind the working professionals offering the much-needed flexibility and relevant, industry-driven topics and themes. The bundled offering is priced for the Indian context and have a high-value proposition for today’s learner seeking to gain practical perspectives preparing them for the future.

MOOC courses

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is offering 226 courses in January 2018. This is higher than the 159 courses offered in the last semester.

Courses on current technology such as such as data mining, machine learning, business analytics with cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) are being offered for a second consecutive term due to their popular demand. Other courses are on topics such as Business English, Spoken English and soft skills. Other institutes of repute such as IISER-Mohali, IIIT Bangalore are joining the NPTEL family to offer courses which broaden the scope of courses offered.

The last date to apply is January 22, 2018, for 90 courses and February 5, 2018, for the rest. To apply, log on to http://nptel.ac.in/.

NPTEL is officially partnering with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to provide technical content for training purposes (www.ciiedugateway.org). Through this partnership, they would explore how the training can be extended to meet industry requirements and come up with joint programmes to fill the gaps in education. The objective is to make fresh college graduates employable and job-ready. NPTEL works with more than 1,300 colleges across India. CII will help close the loop between academia, industry and colleges by connecting them through this initiative.

NPTEL is also launching an ‘NPTEL Industry Associate Programme’ where companies can partner with NPTEL to get their employees trained and reskilled using these courses, with zero financial implication. Companies can use these courses for training fresh hires, for reskilling of existing employees too.

IT programme

Coursera and Google recently announced the launch of the Google IT Support Professional Certificate, a programme that makes a well-paying career in IT within the reach of anyone, anywhere. This will help anyone with no prior experience to be ready for an entry-level IT support job in eight to 12 months.

The industry-relevant curriculum, designed to provide a direct path to employment, will allow learners to share their information with a host of top companies looking to hire entry-level support professionals, including Bank of America, Walmart, Sprint, GE Digital, PNC Bank, Infosys, TEKSystems, UPMC, and, of course, Google.

According to an HBS study on jobs that require training but not a formal degree, IT support offers clear pathways that enable people without a college degree to rise to higher-level positions.

“Finding qualified IT personnel is a challenge many companies face. With 150,000 open roles in IT support, it is one of the fastest growing occupations in the country,” said Ben Fried, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Google.

Learners in the Google IT Support Professional Certificate will benefit from a deeply engaging online learning experience including hands-on labs and widgets, intrapersonal soft skills etc. Registrations for the programme opens on January 16 and all courses will launch on January 23. To register, log on to https://www.coursera.org/specializations/google-it-support.