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Getting Better All The Time
Ford Motor Company, the world's second largest maker of automobiles after general Motors, may or may not be sold on India. But its global management sure gets taken in with the CEOs of its Indian subsidiary. In mid-August, Ford India announced that its CEO Philip G. Spender-Phil to everyone-was to leave his current post by the end of the month. His next stop? Flat Rock, Michigan, where he will, as President, CEO, and COO, oversee the ops of Auto Alliance International Inc., a Mazda-Ford JV and the maker of the Mazda 626, and the Mercury Cougar. Spender, who, at the age of 17, built a Ford Formula racing car and raced it in New Zealand's national championship between 1971 and 1975, can consider this reward for a successful stint in India, highlighted by the launch of Ford's made-for-India car, the Ikon. The other man behind the Ikon, John Fink, left for Detroit earlier this year, as Director, Commerical Truck Sales & Marketing. The man Spender replaced in the country, John Parker, too moved on to better things from India. He returned to the company's Dearborn, Michigan HQ in December 1998, as director of the Millennium Project which was to design and build the next-gen automobile by 2003. By the time this magazine hits the stands Ford India would have announced a replacement for Phil. Let's see if he can make it three-in-a-row. A Perfect Birthday Gift
East India Hotels' chairman Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi who turned 103 on August 15, couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift. British glam-rag Tatler named Rajvilas, the group's Jaipur property, as the Hotel Of The Year 2001; and American lifestyle magazine Town and Country listed it as the Best Exotic Hotel (of the year). With Agra's Amarvilas getting more than its share of media attention-that's where Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stayed during the Agra Summit-the centurion should be happy. Says Oberoi, who now spends his time at a farmhouse near Delhi: ''I have been able to accept the challenge and make good-there is comfort in knowing that whatever little I have achieved has also helped to raise the prestige of my country''. The awards are also recognition of Oberoi's marketing ingenuity: instead of acquiring a palace in Jaipur and creating a heritage resort, he built one modelled on a typical Rajasthani fort and managed to give it a 500-year look. High-Profile Recruit
We're speaking of Sateesh Lele, the ever-smiling exec who has just taken over as the CEO of Systems America. Now, why would someone who has served as the Chief Information Officer for Pepsico's Frito Lays division, Avon, and gm's European operations move to a start-up that is yet to prove itself. All Lele will say is that a passion for entrepreneurship made him take the plunge. The man who drops names like Larry Ellison and Tom Siebel faster than you can catch them hopes to use his self-confessed networking skills to market Systems America in the US and to, of course, find some more money. ''We are already in talks with high-profile bankers and venture capitalists to get the funding in place.'' Systems America, for those in the dark, was promoted in 1995, by Adesh Kumar Tyagi and operates in the systems integration and e-biz domain. It started with a bang, but lost its way in the slowdown. Maybe a little help from (Lele's) friends could set that right. |
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