In 2012, Aon Hewitt in association with a group of progressive thinkers, academicians and practitioners conceptualized the Think Tank Research Program.
Aon Hewitt Think Tank’s mission is to encourage and support world-class, India-specific research in the areas of HR and Leadership with an objective to:
- Attract the best talent to pursue India-specific research on HR and Leadership
- Support high quality research through:
- Direct and indirect financial assistance
- Better access to data from the industry
- Ongoing guidance and mentoring from senior academicians and industry professionals
- Act as a center for discussion and dissemination of research on HR and Leadership in India
Work Streams:
- Generate research themes based on relevance to industry and selection of the right talent to undertake research:
- Agree on 2-3 research ideas we want to support
- Identify the scholars whose interests match with the themes identified by Think Tank
- Connect with the CEOs to get their inputs on relevant research themes
- Organize industry-academia meetings to translate practical problems faced by industry into researchable questions
- Support Action Research methodology
- Improve access to the industry for quality research
- Drive 'research orientation' in industry through CEO conclaves and industry forums to build appreciation for research
- Build awareness in the industry on problem solving through different research methodologies
- Involve senior business leaders as sponsors for each research topic
- Support data collection efforts of each scholar through organizational infrastructure and networks
- Provide direct and indirect financial assistance to selected scholars
- Explore institutional support to position Think Tank as a Center for Excellence for HR and Leadership
- Ensure research output of highest quality
- Facilitate thorough review of the research proposals by competent groups and individuals
- Create a robust structure for ongoing mentoring and guidance from academia and industry
- Provide best practice guidelines and lay down quality process for scholars
- Build different platforms for dissemination of high quality, India-specific research in the areas of HR and Leadership
- Tie up with a reputed journal for publication of research output or launch own journal on HR and Leadership in collaboration with a leading academic institute
- Launch an annual event (like a Research Olympics) around selected themes where scholars are invited to participate and share their research with the industry