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Shilputsi
in the News
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India's
Hottest Young Executives - Business Today: September 19, 2002
Say
hello to the stars, all 25 of them. They are young-the oldest is 42.
They wield power: some head companies, others, divisions or functions,
and still others are far too young to head anything at all. But each
boasts that mystic, intangible thingamajig that makes it evident to all
concerned that they're headed for greater things. We didn't pick this
list out of thin air. There was a method (See page 48 for Methodology)
to it. Still, the list remains a subjective one, and its exactness is
limited by the collective wisdom of the expert panel that drafted the
shortlist.
Companies share a love-hate relationship with their stars. They love the
results stars produce: no target is unachievable, no task too tall. They
hate managing star egos. And they hate the effect stars have on other
people in the organisation. That, and the fear that others may poach
their best make most companies reluctant to agree to a public display of
their stars. Surprisingly, none of the companies to which the power-25
belong, barring one, had problems parading their stars. The one, HLL,
had two people in the original list of 25, the head of the company's
foods business Gunender Kapoor, and the head of its fabric wash
business, Nitin Paranjpayee. While scotching BT's requests to interview
the two executives, a HLL spokesperson said, "It is not the
practice for HLL, or its managers to speak about themselves."
Although the listing is a diverse one, there are some common threads
running through it. None of these will help you become a star yourself,
but they could help-especially if you are in possession of every other
quality required to become one. If you are the management-type turn to
page 48 for a smattering of these success-secrets. If not, and vicarious
pleasure is all you are in search of, read on...
Jaspal Bindra
42, CEO, India Region, Standard Chartered
Banker #1
The soft-spoken Bindra has wielded a big stick to effect a tricky
integration with ANZ's Indian operations.
There's a new screensaver on Jaspal Bindra's desktop. It is the new
Standard Chartered Bank logo and it has ousted Marilyn Monroe and
Miss-World-turned-actress Aishwarya Rai from their electronic abode-the
CEO is a film buff. A chartered accountant, and a MBA, Bindra signed up
with Standard Chartered Bank in 1998. Two years later Standard Chartered
acquired all Grindlays operations in the Middle East and South Asia from
ANZ Banking Group and Bindra embarked on the most tumultuous ride of his
career. ''People,'' is Bindra's one-word response to a query on what he
considered the biggest challenge posed by the merger. A Mumbai-based HR consultant points out that the bank has witnessed the exit of a
considerable amount of talent in the past two years. Still, that hasn't
impacted its performance: With Rs 29,000 crore in assets, Standard
Chartered is the largest foreign bank in India and contributes 11 per
cent to the balance sheet of the parent, up from 1 per cent in 1999. And
in 2001-02, the Indian operation doubled its operating profit. Business
and political-savvy, Bindra has enough of, courtesy stints in UBs as
head of structured finance, capital markets, and debt, and in Bank of
America. Surprise, surprise, the ace banker has also ended up being a
not-so-bad people manager. ''He is known to be failure-tolerant and
allows his team to make mistakes,'' says Sonal Agrawal, Director,
Accord, a head-hunting firm. The next challenge, in Bindra's own
assessment is to stay number 1: ''The good news is we are number one;
the bad news is we are number one.'' Maybe some of that
failure-tolerance would help.
Anil Chawla37, CEO, Commercial Finance, GE Capital
Hard-nosed Numbers Man
Even in Type-A rich GE, Chawla's ability to meet his targets is
legendary
Since 1996, when chartered accountant Chawla signed on, GE Capital's
commercial finance arm has had no non-performing assets. And the
business has seen its asset-base grow from $507 million (Rs 2,474 crore)
in 1999 to $1.2 billion (Rs 5,855 crore) today. Coincidence? Maybe not.
When Chawla, whose CV shows stints in Citibank, London, ILFs, and Amex,
came to GE Capital, the year-old firm was borrowing money at interest
rates that were way too high, and had a portfolio composed mainly of
not-so-high-quality debt. Chawla started working on improving the
quality of the portfolio. Within a year, he was heading the business'
northern region ops. Then came bigger deals-(GE financed the $150
million (Rs 732 crore) Hutch buyout of Essar's Delhi operations. ''He is
one of the most highly rated managers in the GE system,'' says R.
Suresh, CEO of hr consulting firm Stanton Chase. A beneficiary of his
own CEO's efforts to delegate and empower, Chawla is now working on
building leaders who can take over from him, and dreaming of a new
assignment where he can build a business in a completely different
environment. At GE, he'll surely not have to wait long for that.
Ranjan Chak
41, Vice-President (Product Services), Asia Pacific, Oracle
Software Superstar
Oracle's India Development Centre has trebled in size over the past 18
months: blame it on Chak.
On a typical day, I get up in the morning and board a flight to
somewhere," laughs Ranjan Chak. The prematurely graying Hyderabad-based
six footer has been Oracle's man in India for the past nine years. From
a development resource, Oracle India has become a strategic partner to
the parent's product divisions. Chak has played a big role in this. The
man who holds a honours degree in applied mathematics from Harvard U,
set up both the Bangalore and the Hyderabad centres. Today, Oracle IDC
(India Development Centre) employs 2,200 and contributes to Oracle's
global internet strategy. And for those interested in tech-minutiae,
Oracle IDC's Oracle Database Appliance was named Product of the Year for
1999, by Information Week magazine. Chak's newest mandate is to provide
Oracle's customers worldwide with electronic support and remote
management services out of Melbourne, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. We see
many more red-eye flights in Mr Chak's life.
Amit Chandra
34, Executive Vice President, DSP Merrill Lynch
Rainmaker In Waiting
He's young, but the foremost among India's next generation of I-bankers
India's investment banking business is dominated by the big three
rainmakers, Nimesh Kampani, Hemendra Kothari, and Uday Kotak. Amit
Chandra, an electronics engineer from VJTI, Mumbai, and a MBA from
Boston College is part of the new breed of India's I-bankers. He's
worked in DSPML's international corporate finance group-his first
assignment after he joined the firm from Twentieth Century Finance in
1994-and is now responsible for investment banking, mergers and
acquisition, and strategy and planning. Over the last eight years, he
has managed some of DSPML's key clients such as ICICI and the Aditya
Birla group, and originated and completed some of India's largest
transactions such as the ICICI-ICICI Bank merger, Indian Rayon's
acquisition of Madura Garments, and Sify's acquisition of Indiaworld.
Perish any thoughts of Chandra as a Rolodex-pumping man about town.
Lunch is usually a desk-bound affair-a brown bag from home-and the
evening (Chandra is out by half past six most days), or most part of it,
is spent in a gym. "That's helped me lose weight," says
Chandra. Gymming and all that rainmaking.
Ravi Deol
39, MD, Barista Coffee Company
Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!
How many people can claim to have created a retail-category? Deol can.
In 2000, a head-hunter got a reluctant Ravi Deol, then the 37-year-old
national distribution manager for Coca-Cola to meet with Amit Judge of
the Turner Morrison group. Judge wanted to do a Starbucks in India and
he wanted Deol to head it. Deol liked what he heard; today, two years
later, Barista is one of the largest retailers of speciality coffees in
South Asia (105 cafes, sales of Rs 65 crore) and the FMs alum with sales
experience spanning three companies and as many industries- CibaGeigy
(pharmaceuticals), Wipro (consumer products), and Coca-Cola
(beverages)-has arrived. Only, Deol doesn't think so. "You learn
everyday," he shrugs. "And you change everyday."
Pradeep Gidwani
38, Managing Director, Foster's India
Old Head, Young Shoulders
Thanks to Gidwani, Foster's sells a pint of beer every second in India.
Meet madman Gidwani, the man who turned conventional wisdom on its head,
first when he recruited women managers to sell beer to five-star hotels
and restaurants-he believed they were poorly serviced-and then when he
launched Foster's in Mumbai during the monsoon. "If women can sell
space and hotel rooms, why not alcohol," argues the silver-maned
Gidwani, an alumnus of the Pune-based Symbiosis B-school. "The
marketing and relationship-building skills required are the same."
The Bombay-boy started his career as a management trainee in Brooke Bond
but liquor was his passion. Even today, he can be found hustling up
exotic cocktails for visitors to his Bandra home (Vodka and watermelon
juice and Whisky and pomegranate juice are two favourites) and reads all
he can about liquors. Passion and profession met when he joined
Herbertson's in 1991. Then it was on to United Distillers and lvmh,
before Foster's came calling. The unconventional tactics have helped:
Foster's India returned revenues of Rs 45 crore in 2001-02, not bad for
a four-year-old. Expect more of the unconventional from the man who once
spent a week piloting a hired boat through backwater canals in France's
Burgundy region. There's that liquor connection again.
Rajeev Karwal
39, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics, Philips India
The Celebrated Salesman
He helped Onida and LG create magic and his own brand of it seems to be
working for Philips.
It has been a long strange trip for Karwal. The MBA from IMT Ghaziabad
started his career in 1984 working for Onida on a salary of Rs 1,500 a
month. By 1993, when he left to work for the Chellaram group in the
Canary Islands, Onida was one of the country's pre-eminent brands. Then
it was back to India, three high-profile years with LG (sales touched Rs
1,000 crore in two years), and two, equally high-profile ones thus far
with Philips. "Listen to the market and you will never fail,"
says the sales hound whose aggressive selling has made a difference to
most companies he has worked with. Philips India's consumer durables arm
ended the six-month period between January and June 2002, with a net
profit of Rs 24 crore; two years ago it made losses of Rs 33 crore.
Surely, that can't be luck?
Sankar Krishnan
34, Partner, McKinsey & Co
On Firm Ground
Even in star-studded McKinsey, Krishnan is an out-performer.
Early this year, when Mckinsey's Sankar Krishnan went to Indian
Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on the firm's annual recruitment
pilgrimage-he looks after all recruitment apart from heading the
consumer goods and pharmaceuticals practices-the pre-placement talk
ended up an all-nighter. Krishnan knows the feeling: he was once a
hopeful himself, hired by McKinsey on its first foray into Indian
B-school campuses in 1992 (and from IIM-A). Recruitment, the man claims,
helps him keep his feet firmly on ground. Not that anyone can fault
Krishnan for being carried away: he made global partner at the age of
32. He heard the good news one day, and next morning, he was on a4.00
A.M red-eye to meet with a client. "McKinsey has a way of bringing
you back to earth," laughs Krishnan who has had stints with the
firm in Israel, London, Brussels, and other South Asian countries; more
recently he worked with Indian pharma companies on possible biotech
forays. An engineering graduate from Trivandrum U and the son of a
professor-couple, Krishnan has long-term entrepreneurial dreams in the
pure-research area. "It's not an immediate option, but who
knows?"
Ravi Mehrotra
41, Director & Chief Investment Officer, Franklin Templeton
Investments
The Accidental Fund Manager
Because he played a part in building India's first and most successful
private fund, that's why
He could have ended up heading a market research agency-but a one-year
stint at Marketing and Business Associates motivated him to enroll in
XLRI. He could have worked in P&G-that's the job he landed after
XL-but he instead opted for a job with Bank of America, where he
eventually ended up in treasury operations. And he could have ended up
in financial services-post BankAm, he joined Prime Securities and grew
it from a Rs 20 lakh company to a Rs 30 crore one in two years-but
chucked it all up to join a start-up, Kothari Pioneer in 1993. "I
joined at a fraction my salary because the start-up couldn't afford
much," remembers Mehrotra. "I took a big risk." It paid
off: Kothari Pioneer (later ITI Pioneer and now part of Templeton)
emerged the pioneer in India's nascent mutual fund industry. Says D.
Babu, who heads the personal finance research team at Cholamandalam
Distribution Services, "Pioneer ITI was the first to set up a fund
in 1993, The Blue Chip, that invested in large cap stocks. This set the
trend for other equity investments. The Blue Chip still remains a very
good record.'' Attribute part of that to Mehrotra's single-minded focus.
"You can never count him out on the golf course," says
long-time friend Shreekant Pande, a director with the UK's Newton
Investment Management. Fore!
Darshan Mehta
41, President, Arvind Brands
The Loyal Troubleshooter
From accounting to advertising to durables to garments, Mehta has seen
it all and lives to tell the tale.
It started innocuously. In 1985, Sanjay Lalbhai entered the family
business and embarked on an ambitious diversification exercise. First,
he set off to acquire Flying Machine, among the country's earliest jeans
brands. He needed some help to structure the deal, an acquaintance
suggested he meet with a Mumbai-based consultant with Price Waterhouse,
Darshan Mehta, and thus was born an association that spans 17 years.
Lalbhai liked the then 24-year-old Mehta's work and hired him. And Mehta,
in his own words, became, "a sort of roving ambassador whose
services were utilised to handle crises or tap opportunities."
There were enough of both. Mehta played his part in Arvind's
diversifications into consumer durables (Amtrex and Arvind Electronics)
and financial services (Anagram). He also helped turn around ad agency
Trikaya-founder Ravi Gupta was a close friend of Lalbhai-and even served
on the board of Trikaya-client Real Value (remember the Vaccumiser).
"The real caliber of a professional is a function of how he handles
failures," says Mehta, who has had his share of them. "It
takes guts to bounce back." Predictably, when Arvind Brands
floundered in the face of competition from newer, more aggressive
companies, it was Mehta, Lalbhai turned to. He's due for a slice of
luck.
Phaneesh Murthy
38, Former Head of Global Sales and Marketing, Infosys
The Other Murthy
Allegations of sexual harassment haven't dimmed Murthy's appeal to tech
companies.
We'll keep this simple. Most people reckoned that IIM-A alum Phaneesh
Murthy would one day head Infosys. Then came the sexual harassment suit
over which he resigned but there are several Indian it companies that
are willing to give an arm and a leg to have him on board. Not
convinced? "There are a number of companies out there that would be
more than happy to hire him as CEO," says Gautam Sinha of TVA
Infotech. Here's waiting for Phaneesh Murthy Ver 2.0.
Santrupt Misra
37, Director, Corporate Human Resources, Aditya Birla Group
The HR-method Man
The trained academic has played a large part in the transformation of
the Aditya Birla group.
One office assistant, one stenographer, and a run-down computer in a
dingy basement"-that's how Dr Misra remembers the hr department in
the A.V. Birla Group when he signed on as Group Vice President, hr, in
1996. Six years on, and Misra is the youngest member after Chairman
Kumarmangalam Birla (35) on the board of the Rs 27,000-crore group and
Birla is happy with his hire, then a training manager in HLL. ''Dr Misra
has played a key role in raising our brand equity as a preferred
employer," says Birla. Along the way, the Aston Business School and
TISS academic has reshuffled portfolios, hired new faces, and bid adieu
to long-time Birla loyalists. The affable Misra, son of an Oriya
schoolteacher, has worked his way up, inch by inch in the corporate
world. And while success may have come early, he still remains a simple
village lad-he first went to a formal school only in class 5. After all,
how many hr heads you know still take their old college professor out to
dinner every Teacher's Day?
Nachiket Mor
38, Executive Director, ICICI Bank
The Patient Financier
Mor's larger quest to instill order in the world has benefited his
company.
CEO could have been his middle name. first, there's the education bit:
Nachiket Mor has a MBA from IIM-A and a PhD in financial economics from
U-Penn, Philadelphia. Then there's experience: a short stint with a
Philadelphia-based hedge fund, Quantitative Financial Strategies, two
tenures at ICICI, including a recent, longish stint at treasury
operations. Today, Mor's responsibilities at the universal bank include
managing relationships with non-individual customers, treasury
operations, finance, economics, and derivatives research, and social
initiatives. Finally, there's his current obsession: leadership.
"How do I build a self-sustaining, replicating, organisation?"
muses Mor, who is clearly set to go places within ICICI. That could even
be the top slot-after K.V. Kamath.
Sameer Nair
37, COO, Star India
Soldier Of Fortune
Wasn't it Jack Welch who said "Control Your Destiny or Someone Else
Will?" Well, try telling Nair that.
He's "not the regular corporate guy". If he wasn't coo of Star
India, today's top dog in the channel business, Sameer Nair would
probably be making movies. Don't be deluded into thinking that his stint
in ad film-making is a natural precursor to this: Nair also studied
hotel management, dabbled in advertising, and sold hot dogs in suburban
Mumbai. It was in 1994 that Nair joined the Star Network, in charge of
Star Movies. By 1999, he was bored enough to consider a six-month
sabbatical to get back into film-making-this time with Amitabh Bachchan,
with whom the Economics graduate from Chennai University had struck a
fair rapport during his stint at the channel. Then, things started
happening at Star India. The management was shaken up, and Nair suddenly
found himself pitchforked as programming head of Star Plus. The film
would have to wait. The tryst with AB didn't have to. Kaun Banega
Crorepati started taking shape, and Nair insisted on getting Bachchan
hosting the show, although many at Star felt roping in an "ageing
superstar" wasn't the best way to go about it. There was also the
small matter of convincing AB, who wasn't exactly brimming with
enthusiasm. Long story cut short: KBC propelled Star from No 3 to No 1.
And it didn't end there: Pre-KBC Star Plus had just 2-3 per cent
viewership of Hindi Channels. Today it's around 80 per cent. "I
want it to be 100 per cent,'' says Nair. Adds Peter Mukerjea, CEO, Star
India: "Sameer's a great ally, and his biggest strength is his
ability to combine people skills with a conscientious approach to
work." But Mukerjea better keep an eagle eye on Nair. He still
wants to make that movie. A photograph of Steven Spielberg in his office
serves a resolute reminder of that dream.
Vineet Nayar
41, President & CEO, HCL Comnet and Executive Vice President, HCL
Technologies
The Entrepreneurial Employee
Nayar's progress is proof that you don't have to change companies to
change jobs
He's a HCL lifer but he has changed jobs several times. Vineet Nayar
couldn't have done that at HLL, the other company that made him an offer
on campus (XLRI, 1985). It's SA and the "promise of a
challenge" swung his choice in favour of HCL. He was promoted five
times in the first seven years, but by 1992, he was sure that "this
was not what I wanted to do". After a talk with his mentor, HCL
promoter Shiv Nadar, he spent 12 months in a brown study before coming
up with the idea for HCL Comnet, today a 600-people Rs 200 crore
company. By 1996, he was heading the start-up. And he is part of the
strategy think-tank behind HCL Technologies (he also oversaw its hugely
successful IPO in 2000). A workaholic by choice, Nayar is now working on
building a successful remote-managed services industry out of India.
"To create something," he grins, "you need to be
compassionate within the organisation and aggressive outside." Adds
K. Pandiarajan, Managing Director, Ma Foi, a Chennai-based head-hunting
firm, "Vineet has imbibed the strong entrepreneurial streak of Shiv
Nadar and added to that, his own institution-building capacity." It
shows.
Salil Parekh
38, CEO, CGE&Y India and COO, CGE&Y, Asia Pacific
A Locational Advantage
Parekh believes success is a function of being at the right place at the
right time. He's done that in spades.
The first of august was a lucky day for Parekh, a man who believes
success is 95 per cent luck. On that day, he was appointed Chief
Operating Officer of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's Asia Pacific
practice. That region encompasses China, Australia, Japan, Singapore,
Malaysia, and India and accounts for revenues of $300 million (Rs 1,457
crore). If Parekh's targets for CGE&Y in India are any indication,
he can't wait to get started: over the next three years he proposes to
hike revenues and workforce a staggering 12 times. The firm's it focus
suits Parekh: the aeronautical engineer from Indian Institute of
Technology, Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Computer Science from
Cornell U, and co-founded an India-based US-focused software firm,
SoftTouch. Then came stints with Coopers & Lybrand, and Ernst and
Young in the US, before he returned to India in 1999-a year before
E&Y's consulting arm and Cap Gemini merged-as head of E&Y
Consulting. If Parekh's plans work out, CGE&Y could become the
largest multinational consulting firm in India by 2005. And he is not
leaving that to chance.
Bobby Parikh
38, Managing Director, CEO & Partner, Ernst & Young
The Quiet Accountant
He survived Andersen, and ensured his colleagues at the firm's Indian
ops did too.
At his first meeting after taking over as CEO of Arthur Andersen in
1998, baby-faced Bobby Parikh needed to be prodded to admit that yes, he
was the new boss. A 17-year vet of the company-he signed on straight
after graduation and then worked on becoming a chartered accountant-Parikh
steered Andersen's Indian operations through the most troubled period of
its existence. Left to fend for itself-its parent was busy dealing with
paper shredders-the firm eventually merged with E&Y's Indian arm.
Through the crisis, the man ensured that the firm retained its key
employees . Parikh's non-aggressive demeanour is a big-plus in an
industry replete with big egos. "He comes across as a mild
person," says Ashok Wadhwa, CEO, Ambit Finance, and the man who
hired Parikh in 1996, "but he is driven by a great sense of
determination; the aggression is not in his personality, but in his
manner of working." That's a bonus.
Kanwaljeet Singh
38, Vice President (Strategic Services), Carlyle Group India
The Unlikely Angel
Singh has enjoyed several successes. But being an angel won't be easy
Few people can boast as many blue-chip names in their resume as
Kanwaljeet Singh can. Lipton, where he turned around an animal feeds
business, Lever, and Intel, to which he took his "sales and
marketing expertise" with some effect: its presence increased from
eight Indian cities to 100 by the time he quit in August 2000. The
Carlyle Group, which raised $330 million (Rs 1,617 crore) for a Asia-focussed
it play has invested in eight Indian companies. "The start-ups need
some handholding; Kanwaljeet is the best person to do this," says
Tony Jansz, the CEO of Carlyle Asia Venture Fund. Adds Purvi Sheth,
Director, Shilputsi, a HR consulting firm, "Singh has the ability
to generate exponential growth, compounded values and a winning formula
for the new economy." Carlyle sure thinks so.
Hema Ravichandar
41, Executive Vice President, HR, Infosys Technologies
High Tech, High Touch
Ravichandar heads the HR function at a company that was twice named the
Best Employer in India. Need we say more?
It was a meeting that changed the fortunes of both the company and the
individual. On a bright, sunny, January morning in 1992, Hema
Ravichandar, then the #2 in Mico-Bosch's hr department, met with the two
founders of a company that boasted a turnover less than Rs 10 crore,
Infosys. Mico's turnover then was in the region of Rs 400 crore, but the
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, alum was taken up with what
N.R. Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani had to say.
Today, Infosys boasts a turnover in excess of Rs 3,000 crore and has
11,250 people on its rolls, a far cry from the 250 it had in 1992. And
along the way, the company has become the trend-setter for industry by
aggressively sharing wealth with its employees. Nilekani vouches for
Ravichandar's ability to align hr with business needs. "The
promoters always had a fundamental philosophy of sharing wealth, but it
was Hema who executed this plan." Ravichandar herself downplays her
success and says the now-global company has to now get used to
"integrating people from different national backgrounds," and
cope with attracting and retaining "a different profile of people
as we become more of a consulting organisation". Par for the
course.
Ruchir Sharma
Early 30s, Executive Director, India, Morgan Stanley Investment
Management
A Passion For Markets
Sharma manages a cool $1 billion of FII and domestic funds.
He's so young that he refuses to give his exact age-but he does accept
that he is not yet 32. "The only reason I am in this industry is
because of my passion for markets, especially global ones," says
Sharma. That passion manifested itself (and still does) in weekly
columns for a financial paper. Madhav Dhar, one the most successful
Indians on Wall Street, and then with Morgan Stanley, read Sharma's
column and offered him a job as an associate with the investment
management firm in 1996. And the commerce graduate from Delhi succeeded
Vinod Sethi as Morgan Stanley Investment Management's Executive Director
in early 2001. Today, apart from managing $1 billion (Rs 4,900 crore) of
FII and domestic funds, Sharma covers global macro-economics for the
emerging markets investment team, and is also part of the global asset
allocation team with specific responsibility for currency research.
"Ruchir is undoubtedly one of the brightest stars on the Indian
corporate firmament," gushes Atul Vohra, Partner, Heidrick and
Struggles, a head-hunting firm. "He was the youngest ever VP at
Morgan Stanley.'' For the record, the India Investment Fund Sharma
manages was one of the best performing offshore funds focused on India
in 2001-this, despite the markets being in a bear phase. But isn't there
an old Street saw about the bear phase telling the men from the boys?
Tiger
Tyagarajan
40, CEO, GE Capital International Services
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
Tyagarajan is a roaring success at GE.
Back in school in Mumbai, classmates who couldn't pronounce his name
started calling N.V. Tyagarajan, Tiger. The name has stuck-even the
guards at GECIS' Gurgaon facility call him that-and seems strangely apt.
An IIT-IIM combo, Tyagarajan joined GE in 1994 after stints in Pond's
and Citibank. Although he was involved in the launch of Countrywide,
GE's consumer finance business, it was at GECIS, a back-office to GE
operations around the world that Tiger came into his own. "It was
amazing to see something grow from 700 people to 10,000," says
Tyagarajan who was named CEO of the business in 1999. His years at IIT,
Tyagarajan says, taught him to approach problems systematically; IIM
introduced him to the concept of teams; Ponds gave him insights into the
mind of the consumer, and Citibank endowed him with a perspective of the
banking business. As one would expect with someone who can rattle off
his take-aways from earlier jobs, "discussions with him are always
based on logic, not opinions," says Mudit Saxena, Centre of
Excellence Leader, GECIS. The only negative thread in this tapestry:
with a name like Tiger, the man isn't too hot on golf.
Nirvik Singh
39, CEO, Grey Worldwide India
The Genial Control Freak
Singh is one reason Grey is still around in India.
When Nirvik Singh was 18, he lost both his parents in a span of six
months. At 21, the commerce graduate from St. Xaviers College, Kolkata,
was a tea auctioneer. At 25, he was an account supervisor at HTA. At 26,
he was heading Trikaya Grey's Kolkata branch. Then tragedy struck again:
Trikaya's founder-CEO and Singh's mentor Ravi Gupta died in 1997.
"There were reports every day about how we were closing down,"
recollects Singh. But he persevered: 44 clients and 200 employees were
shown the door and the agency's resources were refocused on its top 50
clients. Today, Grey (the parent's holding has increased to 100 per
cent) boasts revenues of Rs 283 crore and Singh oversees the agency's
operations in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and Bangladesh. A self-confessed
control freak, Singh is now focusing all his efforts at transforming
Grey into an integrated marketing communications company. "There's
nothing like boarding school to teach you to fend for yourself,"
laughs the Lawrence School, Sanawar, alumnus.
Suresh Vaswani
42, President, Wipro Infotech
Driven In Bangalore
It's hard to be a tech biggie in the domestic market, but Wipro Infotech
has done just that.
First the facts: Wipro Infotech contributes nearly a quarter of Wipro
Ltd's Rs 3,400 crore turnover; and it is hard being a hardware and
systems integration company focused on the domestic market. Wipro
Infotech has done just that, and succeeded. If Suresh Vaswani can
legitimately take the credit for the feat (it is nothing short of that):
he turned around Wipro's hardware business and helped the division he
heads make an entry into the systems integration and it services markets
in Asia-Pacific and West Asia. Today, Wipro Infotech addresses the two
biggest emerging markets, China and India. That may seem like a large
portfolio, but Vaswani, says Ashok Soota, his former CEO at Wipro and
now the CEO of Mindtree, "has legendary multi-tasking skills, and
the ability to convert problems into opportunities". With most
Indian it services majors veering around to the opinion that India and
China represent the next big frontier for growth, Vaswani sure is
sitting on a goldmine of an opportunity.
Ravi Venkatesan
40, Chairman, Cummins India and Managing Director, Tata Cummins
Truck Driving Man
A lifer to date, Venkatesan is a star in the global Cummins system.
Call it an obsession with one company: Ravi Venkatesan's first brush
with Cummins was during a student (he is an engineer from IIT, Mumbai)
internship; after completing a masters programme from Purdue, he chose
Cummins over gm; four years later he went to Harvard for a
company-sponsored MBA, and made extra money writing articles on
outsourcing for the Harvard Business Review; and after graduating, he
again chose Cummins, this time over the Boston Consulting Group. Cummins
returned the favour by naming him President in charge of global
outsourcing.
In 1996, when Venkatesan arrived in India to revive the fortunes of Tata
Cummins, he thought it would be "a great option for a few
years". Six years on, TCL is the subject of a Harvard Business
school case-study, exports have doubled, the company has entered the
lucrative truck fleet management business, and Venkatesan has become
chairman of all of Cummins' Indian ventures. "I have already done
what I planned to do in my entire working life," admits a candid
Venkatesan who is now eyeing a group turnover of Rs 5,000 crore by 2005.
A recent vacation at the Isha ashram in Trivandrum, confesses Venkatesan,
has got him thinking on "the larger goals in life". But the Rs
5,000 crore goal will remain.
N. Srinath
40, Director (Operations), VSNL
Man In The Hot Seat
He shot into the limelight when he rolled out the Tatas' telecom
services. Now he's got to perform a miracle with VSNL.
If this were a list of executives with the most challenging mandates,
40-year-old Narasimhan Srinath would stroll in effortlessly. Five months
after acquiring 25 per cent in the public sector telecom giant, VSNL
stands the risk of losing its international long-distance business-which
brings in close to 90 per cent of revenues, via MTNL and BSNL-to private
players. Srinath is hesitant to sign the interconnect agreement with
MTNL and BSNL because of the skewed revenue-sharing terms.
But then this isn't a piece on VSNL. It's about Srinath, the 15-year
veteran of the Tata group, who has the very enviable task of making VSNL
fit as nicely as possible into the Tatas' grand telecom blueprint. And
if credentials were all it took to turn around corporate fortunes, the
fast-talking Srinath-a product of the Tata Administrative Services
(TAS)-would be just the messiah Ratan Tata prayed for. Tata, for his
part, should know exactly what the mechanical engineer from IIT (Madras)
is capable of: he served as Executive Assistant to the Chairman between
December 1988 and mid-1992.
After pocketing his management degree from IIM (Calcutta), Srinath
wasn't too sure of what he wanted to do. What he was fairly sure about
was that he wanted to be associated with a business group scouting for
opportunities in emerging technologies. At the TAS interview, a director
on the panel convinced Srinath that the group was eyeing sunrise areas
like telecom equipment and computer hardware.
As a TAS probationer, Srinath did stints in Tata Honeywell and Nelco,
before moving on to Tata's office. By June 1992, Srinath was a part of
the four-man team that put together Tata IBM (earlier Tata Information
Systems). Three years ago, Srinath was one of the driving forces behind
the roll out of Tata Teleservices' basic telecom services in Andhra
Pradesh. By December 2000, Srinath moved as the CEO of Tata Internet
Services. But even Srinath will agree the seat of Director (Operations)
VSNL is the hottest he's ever slipped into yet.
Numbers don't lie
Ha! Still, if you believe in them, here are some `statistical learnings'
from the list.
You can't go wrong with an MBA 16 of the 25 have one, but you can very
well succeed without one too. Morgan Stanley's Ruchir Sharma and Grey's
Nirvik Singh are both just graduates. Just?
A long-stint with a company helps
Almost everyone on the listing-except Barista's Ravi Deol, and E&T's
Bobby Parikh-has spent more than two years at their present jobs.
Indeed, six are lifers.
The Engineering-MBA combo works...
...especially if it is an IIT-IIM one, but any B-school outside India
will do as well. Six of the 25 have this.
Grasp every start-up challenge you can get
First the numbers: 13 of the 25 have been involved in start-up
situations. Once you succeed in that context, there's no holding back
your career. Just ask the Tata Group's N. Srinath.
If you can't get start-up experience try for turnarounds
That's right: you turn things around and you are a star. Why do you
think people keep speaking about Philip's Rajeev Karwal. Again, six of
the 25 have this on their CVS.
Healthy body, healthy mind
Yes, we know. Some of the people whose photographs appear on the
previous 11 pages don't look like they have ever exercised (relax, we're
not taking names). Still, 11 of the 25 do exercise. DSP Merrill Lynch's
Amit Chandra puts in an hour-and-half everyday in the gym.
Finally, kill yourself working
How do you think the 25 got there: at least 18 of them work over 60
hours a week. Cummins' Ravi Venkatesan works six-and-half days a week
and travels 25 days a month.
Methodology
How We Did It
The methodology behind the listing.
Companies are loath to give out names of their stars, lest they be
poached. So, when BT first came up with the idea of profiling 25 of
India's rising stars, it seemed destined to be that-just a good idea.
Fortunately, there is a community that tracks executives, head-hunters.
We invited the CEOs of all of India's leading head-hunting firms to
participate in this exercise. Five, Stanton Chase, Heidrick &
Struggles, Accord Group, Shilputsi, and Ma Foi agreed. As a first step,
each of the firms sent a shortlist to BT. On August 29, head-hunters
from the five firms-Stanton Chase CEO R. Suresh, Ma Foi CEO K.
Pandiarajan, Heidrick & Struggles Partner, Atul Vohra,
Shilputsi
Director, Purvi Sheth,
and Accord Group Director, Sonal Agrawal-met in
BT's office in Delhi for a day long session to discuss the names. The
discussion was moderated (and the entire exercise co-ordinated) by BT's
Assistant Editor Seema Shukla, assisted by BT correspondent Abha Bakaya.
The discussion focussed on the individual's:
Track record and
consistency·
Progress through the ranks·
Contribution to the·
organization's bottomline and other objectives
Ability to deal with·
start-up, turnaround, and/or fast-growth situations
Ability to align·
individual brilliance with the organization's goals
While the original idea was to look for people under 40, the absence of
enough 'hot young executives' who fit this criterion, forced us to relax
the age-limit: thus, 42 was taken as the cut-off age. However, that did
mean leaving out execs who would have otherwise been shoo-ins: such as
Pepsi's Vibha Paul Rishi, 43, and Color Plus' Kailash Bhatia, 46.
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