Leadership pipeline or building of a middle level management team is crucial for succession planning in any organisation. Atleast that’s what Lafarge India, an arm of French building materials company Lafarge thinks. The company has put in place what they call a ‘development centre’ for creating tomorrow’s leaders.

“Keeping our growth ambitions in view there was a need for developing managers in the middle level to build a leadership pipeline for succession planning for future challenges. Development centre (DC) programme is expected to help us view the manpower planning with a new perspective,” Reva Prakash, senior VP (HR), Lafarge India, told Financial Chronicle.

“We have many people development processes for the senior team and entry level employees with hardly any interventions for middle management which forms a substantial chunk of the organisation,” said Prakash.

The DC workshop is designed in a way that all participants undergo multiple exercises assessed by panel of assessors. Prakash said, “The line manager plays a key role as without his/her co-operation the individual will not be able to undertake development actions.”