Synopsis: When steering an organization in an emerging sector without precedents, leaders should define key success factors per role. Skills may come from adjacent industries, drawing examples from telecom, edtech, and healthcare sectors, illustrating adaptable skills for renewable energy, e-commerce, space tech, and EV industries.
Leaders often learn from each other to steer the organisation in the right direction and at the right speed. But what happens when a company is testing the waters in a new or emerging sector and the leaders have no examples for reference?
The first step in such a case is to define what are the key success factors for every role, says Harold D’Souza, Co-Founder and Director at WalkWater Talent Advisors. The skills required will flow from that definition.
For example, he explains that a business development leader in a fast-growing manufacturing business will need to have the skills to understand the products , the buyer ecosystem, demand generation and sales motions, the channel environment and the collection mechanisms. So the leader needs to be highly skilled in B2B business models. Adjacent industries could be consumer durables, FMCG or even telecom; similar models exist here and professionals in these companies are skilled in these areas.
An example of these moves is when the telecom industry started in India and hired most leaders from the FMCG industry as they understood sales, distribution and territory-based customer acquisition and engagement.
Ishwa Consulting says another example of a leadership gap being filled from adjacent industries is in education technology or edtech. When edtech was growing fast, there was a sudden spurt in need for strategic digital engagement as well as content innovation. The solution was looking at people with UX/UI, digital content creation skills apart from pedagogy experience, be it from OTT platforms or from publishing, travel sectors.
Past Emerging Sectors We Have Worked With
| Sector | Leadership Gaps | Adjacent Industries | Required Skills |
| EdTech | Strategic digital engagement, content innovation | OTT platforms, traditional education, publishing, travel, logistics, and other B2B sectors | Digital content creation, UX/UI design, educational technology, pedagogy |
| Renewable Energy | Scaling renewable operation, project management | Manufacturing (solar/wind), agriculture (biomass) | Engineering (solar/wind), sustainability, project management, renewable energy policy |
| E-Commerce | Supply chain optimisation, omnichannel strategy | FMCG, logistics, retail, IT, telecom | Supply chain management, digital marketing, customer service, e-commerce logistics, customer engagement from telecom |
| Telecom | Digital transformation, customer-centric innovation | FMCG, IT | Network management, digital strategy, customer relationship management, 5G technology |
| Healthcare | Integration of tech in health services, patient data management | Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, IT services | Telemedicine, AI in diagnostics, health data analytics, regulatory compliance, electronic health records |
Source: Ishwa Consulting
Healthcare also needs leaders to integrate tech into health services. This gap can be filled using professionals from pharma, IT or biotech sectors who have skills in health data analytics, regulatory compliance and such areas.
Agreeing with the dependency on adjacent-sector skills, D’Souza says, “We have done similar work in technology, energy industry and in pharmaceutical. Senior tech leaders who have specific functional expertise can move to adjacent industries as well. For example, senior tech leaders in engineering roles with experience in finance-related technology have moved to the BFSI industry. There are multiple examples.”
Ishwa points out that emerging sectors exploring a similar playbook are space tech, EV, climate tech as well as agritech. These businesses need a new set of leaders and the companies are looking at adjacencies in industries or transferability of skill sets.
Future Emerging Sectors
| Sector | Leadership Gaps | Adjacent Industries | Required Skills |
| Space Tech | Commercialization of space, advanced tech innovation | Aerospace, robotics, advanced manufacturing | Satellite technology, robotics, materials science, space law, AI in space exploration |
| Electric Vehicles (EVs) & ClimateTech | Sustainable product development, tech integration | Automotive engineering, electronics, software development | Battery technology, sustainable design, software integration, electric propulsion systems |
| Agritech | Tech-driven agriculture, data utilization | Biotechnology, AI-driven tech, traditional farming, Environmental Science | Precision agriculture, AI in farming, biotech knowledge, agronomy |
Source: Ishwa Consulting
Page Source: The Economic Times