Why Ericsson is offering global roles to more Indian executives

Ericsson, the world's No. 1 telecom equipment maker, is handing out plum global assignments to Indian managers to retain top talent, beat attrition and obviate career growth challenges in the country.

The Swedish company recently posted several senior Indian executives overseas as part of a process to induct managers who possessed strong leadership skills into the company's global talent pool, a top company official told ET. Two Indian executives in leadership roles have been moved to its UK unit and a third to Qatar. Sandeep Gupta has been named commercial management head of Ericsson's western and central European operations. 

Ajay Sood, who till recently headed the global customer unit in India, has relocated to the UK to drive Ericsson's network managed services busi ness while Divya Anand, who till recently was GM (pricing) at Ericsson India, now heads commercial operations of the company's global customer unit in Qatar. 

"We are developing a global talent pool that knows Ericsson's systems, products, processes and can work in any geography, and several Indian managers have recently taken on global roles contributing to the larger organization," said Sameer Khanna, vice-president and HR head, Ericsson India. 

Khanna added that employee engagement exercises, talent management and global mobility programmes contributed to the Swedish company's "low attrition rates" in India.