The increase in the number of technology companies with research and development centers in India saw a rapid growth in the last couple of years. This resulted in an acute shortage of resources with experience in building technology products and the mind set to think through problems from customer perspective.
Innovation and product development are still not a mature concept within the engineering talent in India when compared to other global locations such as Silicon Valley. The engineers lack enough mentors who can guide them in building systems that satisfy the needs of a larger number of customers or systems that are designed for high performance and scale.
Both the above mentioned issues makes it essential for the R&D centers to invest in training and building the capability of their engineering resources in innovation and product development. These programs needs to be designed and customized within the organization.
The architects and principle engineers should be required to spend a larger chunk of time in mentoring and training the new engineers.
Proactive capability development at R&D centers in India would provide them with a talent pool that is as productive and effective as the talent pool in other centers. Organizations however should plan for the initial 2 years of investment for them to benefit from the talent pool in India.
