Saturday, November 25, 2006
Indian managers storm another bastion
25th November, 2006 – Economic Times
If this continues any longer, Indians could be penalised for breaking one glass ceiling too many. The latest one to crack under the weight of their talent is that of management committees of global mega corporations.
Citibank has nine Indians, including India CEO Sanjay Nayyar, in its 40-member council. Rivals StanChart, Deutsche and HSBC have one Indian each in their management councils.
StanChart has Jaspal Bindra, who is one of the only two members outside the board of directors to be part of the governing body. Anshu Jain, the head of Deutsche Bank’s global markets, is the only Indian in the bank’s eleven-member management council. HSBC has SN Mehta, a group MD who is an integral part of the group management board.
Guess how many Indians are part of Arcelor Mittal’s management committee? Well, the steel behemoth has five Indians in its 24-member global management committee — CEO Lakshmi Mittal and son Aditya, along with group HR co-head Inder Walia, M&A head Sudhir Maheshwari, and Asia and CIS CEO Narendra Chaudhary.
Now, guess which sector has the least number of Indians in management committees? Believe it or not, it’s the IT industry! Apart from Vyomesh Joshi, who is part of HP CEO Mark Hurd’s 12-member management team, not many tech companies have Indians in their management committees. Companies like Accenture, IBM, Microsoft and Cisco have no Indians in their management committees despite having a large number of Indians in their ranks, and a large presence in India too.
The management committee is a body of senior executives responsible for delivering growth and profit numbers, and working directly under the board. These managers are often key geography heads, and leaders of major functions who decide on operational issues and bring together a global perspective in MNCs. Resource allocation in the company is one of the key functions of management councils. While banking leads the way, Indians are entering the hallowed management circles in other sectors too.
FMCG major Procter & Gamble has Ravi Chaturvedi, the North Asia president in its committee. Rakesh Kapoor, executive vice president of category development, is part of Reckitt Benkiser’s nine-member management committee. And of course, Unilever has two Indians in its eight member executive committees — Vindi Banga and Harish Manwani.
Experts say that the trend is another vindication of Indian talent at the global level, and the rising importance of India globally. “It’s recognition of India as an important cog in the global economy, as well as of the impact of Indian managerial talent in global corporations,” says Atul Vohra, managing partner, Transearch.
“It’s a natural progression. A lot of these non-resident Indians have been working in global corporations for over 10-15 years, and they are now hitting the management councils,” says Accord CEO Sonal Agrawal.
And in some cases, the experience of working in a challenging environment like India that has both scale and complexity, is just the skill set these executives are looking for in managing a global enterprise.
If this continues any longer, Indians could be penalised for breaking one glass ceiling too many. The latest one to crack under the weight of their talent is that of management committees of global mega corporations.
Citibank has nine Indians, including India CEO Sanjay Nayyar, in its 40-member council. Rivals StanChart, Deutsche and HSBC have one Indian each in their management councils.
StanChart has Jaspal Bindra, who is one of the only two members outside the board of directors to be part of the governing body. Anshu Jain, the head of Deutsche Bank’s global markets, is the only Indian in the bank’s eleven-member management council. HSBC has SN Mehta, a group MD who is an integral part of the group management board.
Guess how many Indians are part of Arcelor Mittal’s management committee? Well, the steel behemoth has five Indians in its 24-member global management committee — CEO Lakshmi Mittal and son Aditya, along with group HR co-head Inder Walia, M&A head Sudhir Maheshwari, and Asia and CIS CEO Narendra Chaudhary.
Now, guess which sector has the least number of Indians in management committees? Believe it or not, it’s the IT industry! Apart from Vyomesh Joshi, who is part of HP CEO Mark Hurd’s 12-member management team, not many tech companies have Indians in their management committees. Companies like Accenture, IBM, Microsoft and Cisco have no Indians in their management committees despite having a large number of Indians in their ranks, and a large presence in India too.
The management committee is a body of senior executives responsible for delivering growth and profit numbers, and working directly under the board. These managers are often key geography heads, and leaders of major functions who decide on operational issues and bring together a global perspective in MNCs. Resource allocation in the company is one of the key functions of management councils. While banking leads the way, Indians are entering the hallowed management circles in other sectors too.
FMCG major Procter & Gamble has Ravi Chaturvedi, the North Asia president in its committee. Rakesh Kapoor, executive vice president of category development, is part of Reckitt Benkiser’s nine-member management committee. And of course, Unilever has two Indians in its eight member executive committees — Vindi Banga and Harish Manwani.
Experts say that the trend is another vindication of Indian talent at the global level, and the rising importance of India globally. “It’s recognition of India as an important cog in the global economy, as well as of the impact of Indian managerial talent in global corporations,” says Atul Vohra, managing partner, Transearch.
“It’s a natural progression. A lot of these non-resident Indians have been working in global corporations for over 10-15 years, and they are now hitting the management councils,” says Accord CEO Sonal Agrawal.
And in some cases, the experience of working in a challenging environment like India that has both scale and complexity, is just the skill set these executives are looking for in managing a global enterprise.
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