India Inc's management confidence improves post COVID-19: AIMA-KPMG study

Indian enterprises are feeling more confident about their management competence as they recover from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic crisis, stated a study of management capability of Indian enterprises by All India Management Association (AIMA) and KPMG.

The study shows that this year's overall Management Capability Development Index (MCDI) score stands at 74.5 compared to 71.6 in 2018. In fact, the self-rating scores have improved on all 10 parameters assessed in the survey, it added.

Further, the study also highlighted that in terms of gender-based variations in responses to the questions on individual yardsticks of their organisation's management capability, women are more confident than men as they rated the parameter higher than men on the majority of the 10 yardsticks, including vision and strategic leadership, performance leadership, financial leadership, external relationships, integrity and corporate governance, and innovation and adaptability.

However, women score their organisations lower than men in the areas such as people leadership, organisation , and application of technology and knowledge. Both genders agree in their rating on the criterion of focus on getting results, it further added.

Additionally, the study also stated that lack of substantial score upgrades in the areas of application of technology and knowledge as well as innovation and adaptability. The score on application of technology and knowledge has gone up slightly, from 72.1 in 2018 to 74 now, despite the wave of digitalization during the past couple of years. The score on innovation and adaptability has also improved a little - from 70.3 to 71.6. "It indicates a significant bump in the level of thresholds in the areas of technology adoption and business creativity," it added.

The decadal trends of self-rating by Indian management showed a strong bias towards ethics. Over the past five MCDI studies, India Inc has consistently given itself the highest scores on integrity and governance - in high 70s or low 80s. This year, the score on integrity and governance has peaked at 80.4.

The areas of biggest concern through the past decade have been the organisation capability and people practices, but there is a recovery on both counts this year. On organisation capability, since 2011's peak score of 76.2, there have been dips but now the score has recovered to 71.5. The people leadership score has also recovered this year to 73.2 after dips through the past decade.

The decadal variations have been minor on many management parameters. The scores have hovered around mid-70s on competencies such as vision and strategic leadership, performance leadership, financial leadership, and external relationships.

“The MCDI report provides important insights to Indian management leaders to bolster their organisations as they prepare for realigning their organisations in a changed world,” AIMA President CK Ranganathan said in a press note.

"It takes immense management capability to navigate through uncertainty and ambiguity," Ranganathan said.

"Given the unprecedented circumstances, it is even more pivotal to evaluate the management capability of the leaders of India," says Ms Vishalli Dongrie, Partner & Head, People & Change Advisory, KPMG in India.

The 2022 MCDI study was conducted across different sectors and different types and sizes of organizations to make it representative of Indian management.

The AIMA-KPMG MCDI survey 2022 included a set of 78 questions spread across 10 dimensions. The respondents were asked to rate these statements on a 6-point Likert scale. More than 550 responses were received, out of which 507 responses formed the basis of the findings in this report. Respondents answered each question on a scale of 0 – 5 which was consolidated for each dimension and converted to a 100 per cent index.