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Tag: Sanjiv Mehta

  • Volatile market conditions, demanding stakeholders and in some cases, poor performance, force CEO churn in consumer-facing companies

    The Great CEO Churn: 16 CEOs from FMCG, auto & telcos switched jobs in 2013!

    By Kala Vijayaraghavan, Lijee Philip & Deepali Gupta

     

    At least 16 high profile CEOs from three consumer facing industries – FMCG, automotive and telecom – switched jobs in 2013. Volatile market conditions, demanding stakeholders and in some cases, poor performance, led to the unprecedented churn at the top, say industry leaders and top officials at executive search firms. “Companies doing badly tend to rope in a new CEO hoping for a turnaround from somebody with a fresh perspective,” says RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki. A few changes though were also routine rotations made by multinational companies.

     

    Many other changes in the FMCG sector, executive search firms say, have been almost incestuous, with companies tapping a very limited pool of tried and tested CEO talent. For instance, when Anand Kripalu moved from Mondelez India to Diageo, former Pepsi CEO Manu Anand moved in as Mondelez CEO and former Nokia India MD D Shivakumar filled the vacancy Anand left at Pepsi.

     

    “Three CEO changes can lead to CEO changes in 10 other companies,” says Navnit Singh, Managing Director-India Korn/Ferry International. “Usually, only a few known faces are part of this merry go round. We have been advising companies to ensure that there is a strong succession pipeline within.” The same trend was also partly visible in the automotive sector, where Maruti Suzuki, Volkswagen, Toyota Kirloskar, Ford, Skoda and Fiat and Chrysler all saw new CEOs this year.

     

    A shallow talent pool, particularly of senior managers, is providing top executives opportunities to move across companies. These external CEO replacements are a reflection of the senior-level gaps in organisations, says RR Nair, ex-HR head of HUL and a CEO coach and advisor. “Organisations also opted for talent with an outsider perspective to drive change at a faster rate,” he adds.

     

    Several other consumer-facing companies also had new CEOs – Sanjiv Mehta at HUL, Gopal Vittal at Bharti Airtel, Varun Berry at Britannia, and Vivek Gambhir at Godrej Consumer Products. Nestle India predictably placed another expat Etienne Benet as the MD. He took over from Antonio Helio Waszyk, another expat.

     

    Britannia CEO Berry attributes the big changes to “very tough economic conditions and intense competition that have forced consumer goods companies to fight for a share of meagre growth”. For example, Indian subsidiaries of Volkswagen and Toyota Kirloskar have initiated major reshuffles in the top management as the two car makers take fresh guard to tackle the slowdown.

     

    Uncertainty and slow growth which marred the business environment during the past six months to a year could be one reason behind the churn, adds Sunil Goel, MD, GlobalHunt. Mahesh Kodumudi, president and MD of Volkswagen India, has just taken on additional responsibilities at Volkswagen Group after Gerasimos Dorizas, the chief representative of Volkswagen Group India, left citing personal reasons. The changes are coming when the group’s mass market brands have seen a decline in sales. “There is a lot of pressure to generate and sustain revenues. Organisations expect leadership to be innovative,” says Global-Hunt’s Mr Goel.

     

    Toyota Kirloskar MD Hiroshi Nakagawa is moving back to Japan and is expected to be replaced by Yoshimasa Ishii. And at Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest car maker, Kenichi Ayukawa succeeded Shinzo Nakanishi as the new MD this May. At Ford India, Joginder Singh succeeded Michael Boneham about a year ago. Fiat and Chrysler appointed Nagesh A Basavanhalli as president and managing director.

     

    2013 was a forgettable year for consumer-facing companies, says Sunil K Alagh, chairman of SK Advisors. “There were arrogant innovations and a lack of communication with consumers. New CEOs have to quickly understand consumer needs and work out a refreshing growth strategy,” he says.

     

    In the telecom sector, a different set of dynamics was at play, causing CEO-level churn. Except for Airtel and Jio Infocomm, all other CEO changes in this sector have been through internal promotions as companies deal with regulatory uncertainties and an urgent need to arrest losses.

     

    Russia’s Sistema, which operates under the MTS brand, replaced CEO Vsevolod Rozanov with Dmitry Shukov. The change of guard was on account of Rozanov being promoted to group CFO. In Rozanov’s words: “I came here because I wanted a challenge. Now, I need a new challenge and Dmitry is here.” Yogesh Malik, the India head of Norway-based Telenor’s Indian arm, quit only five months after taking charge. Asia head Sigve Brekke is stand-in chief for now.

     

    Most of Aircel’s top management quit over the last two years, and stand in chief Kaizad Heerjee, was promoted from COO to CEO after a year’s trial and achieving operational breakeven.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • The GDP may be falling but top executives from HUL, P&G, Pepsi and others return to India on growth hopes

    Return of the global desis

    By Kala Vijayaraghavan & Ratna Bhushan

     

    Sanjiv Mehta, who took charge as MD and CEO of HUL early last month, has never worked in India before. But he has headed two countries and a region (north Africa and Middle-East) in his 21-year career in Unilever. Sources within Unilever say he specifically asked for an India posting.

     

    Like Mr Mehta, over half-a-dozen top-level executives from P&G, PepsiCo, Mondelez, Coke and Reckitt Benkiser have given up global roles to move back to India in the past six months.

     

    “India provides a unique leadership experience,” says Samik Basu, chief people officer, PepsiCo India. “It is a highly competitive and complex market and provides an opportunity to combine global learning with local resourcefulness.”

     

    Gautham Mukkavilli, CEO-beverages, and Chetan Mathur-controller, Pepsico India, both moved back to India from Dubai in mid-2012.

     

    At Coke, Venkatesh Kini spent three years at the beverage firm’s head office Atlanta as global vice-president for juices, before moving back to Gurgaon as deputy president, India and South West Asia.

     

    P&G’s Sonali Dhawan moved here as the India marketing leader after leadership roles in Singapore on hair care and more recently as the pet care marketing leader for Asia & Australia-New Zealand.

     

    So has Vivek Sunder, who has spent a decade outside India in various roles across Thailand, the UK and Singapore, before coming back here in a leadership role in the India sales & distribution team. At least three senior managers from Mondelez International – Arjun Bhowmik, Sid Mukherjee and Venkat Venepally – have also done the same.

     

    “The most exciting reason for me to come back was that the India business of Mondelez International has been growing at a rapid pace and is one of the key priority markets for the company,” says Arjun Bhowmik, director, expansion, Mondelez. “Also, I wanted to be closer to family and was keen that my daughter should complete her secondary education in India.”

     

    He worked in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia for over seven years. Industry watchers say even with a 6-7 % growth, India fares better than other developed markets.

     

    “Several managers who had moved straight into global roles are now keen to work in India,” says Rajesh Ramanathan, HR director of Mondelez India. “Those with developed markets exposure now want developing markets and India experience on their CVs.”

     

    In advertising, Leo Burnett’s Saurabh Varma and Lowe Lintas’ Vikas Mehta both moved back from Singapore.

     

    “India postings have become hot property since it is an exciting growth market and offers diversity of experience,” says Suchet Narain, MD, DRH International, a global executive search firm.

     

    “Global organisations are also happy to send their managers to markets such as India to ensure implementation of global best practises such as corporate governance, safety or environment issues.” Most managers have children studying abroad, so they move in with their spouse but may not necessarily stay here long term. India’s infrastructure still compares very badly with other cities globally. “But having India on their CV gives them that depth of experience,” he says.

     

    Several top managers such as Atul Singh of Coke and V Chandramouli of Cadbury who have been offered global postings are opting to remain in India. Gopal Vittal, former director of HUL’s home and personal care business, once seen as a top candidate for the CEO job, chose to opt out of a plum global posting and quit early last year. Vittal, officials close to the development say, was unwilling to move out of India. He now heads Bharti Airtel in India.

     

    Says Sameer Wadhawan, VP, HR, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia: “India is emerging as one of the nodal points of the world economy and one-fourth of the world’s population is centred in Asia. India can be an operational hub for global CEOs.” But not all executives want to come back home. “Many young executives in their late 30s or early 40s are still open to take diverse challenges in different countries,” says Sangeeta Pal, partner at search firm Transearch.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish