ANDRE NAIR: chose the calculator over the couch

Both share their first names (well, almost), both lead the only two global agency groups' network-wide integrated media units that have set-up shop in India. And both love travelling.

But that's where the similarities end, personally and for the organisations they lead. For the 46-year-old Andre Nair, the CEO (South Asia) WPP Marketing Communications, it is squash and movies, whenever he gets time out from managing the Rs 1,300-crore media buying/ planning business of most WPP group agencies in the country, including Hindustan Thompson Associates, Ogilvy & Mather, and Contract Advertising.

It is bridge and tennis for the 40-something Andrey Purushottam, Managing Director of Rs 350-crore Starcom India, bcom3's media specialist arm in India, which represents Leo Burnett, Ambience D'Arcy, and Orchard Advertising. ''(The game of bridge) is highly intellectual and competitive,'' rationalises Purushottam. And while Andrey got christened so by nurses at the Moscow hospital where he was born, Nair's first name reflects his multi-cultural parentage-an English mother and a ''mallu (Malayalee) father'' as he puts it.

ANDREY PURUSHOTTAM: he's done it all

While Nair manages a structured business through three divisions in MindShare, Maximize, and Fulcrum (each with its own independent business head to eliminate conflicting client interests), Purushottam relies on good old-world confidentiality, and works via organisational silos. ''We handle Fiat Palio in Mumbai and Toyota Qualis from Bangalore, two competing businesses, quite like two competing organisations.''

And while for the IIT-grad Purushottam, the number-crunching media function should have come quite naturally, Nair traded the couch for the calculator, after a degree in Psychology, joining Ogilvy & Mather in Singapore as media manager, way back in 1980. While Nair has largely stuck to media function and mostly with WPP, barring a brief stint when he set up Starcom in China, Purushottam has dabbled with client servicing and media (Lintas), brand management (Hindustan Lever), and even a dotcom (as CEO of Asiacontent.com India). Chalk and cheese, did you say?

Another advertising heavyweight, The InterPublic Group is yet to name the head of its integrated media specialist unit, Magna Global, in India. We'll know there's more to the name if that person also happens to be called Andre(y). Head hunters, take note.

Prince's Lost Charm

PRANAB BARUA: an abrupt end

In the end, Pranab 'prince' Barua couldn't cherry Blossom the future of Reckitt Benckiser India, which he led since July 1998, and left late last month amidst rumours of mismanagement that resulted in both falling sales and profits. The man, however, says his exit was planned. ''Although my exit sounds abrupt, I had planned it with the company all along. And in this market, you'll agree, most companies are facing problems with topline growth.'' Sad for a man who had one of the most impressive portfolios in the industry, with brands such as Dettol, Disprin, Cherry Blossom, Lizol, Mortein, Harpic, and Robin.

Indeed, Barua was roped in to shake things up at Benckiser, but what followed was a series of mis-steps not entirely of his making though. Consider: although Reckitt and Benckiser merged globally in December 1999, the Indian arm took a long time bringing new products in; Reckitt's four-year-old venture with Nicholas Piramal broke up; and its forays into room freshners and incense sticks simply bombed. Barua's next stop? ''I have couple of options, which I can share only at the end of the month,'' he says. Watch this space...

Yogi As Businessman

KRISHNA SHRIRAM: it'll be a new tune

Four years ago, he told his father that he would return to India and the family business only if he could be his (dad's, that is) boss. Krishna Shriram, wasn't joking. Now it turns out, neither was his father Siddharth Shriram of Shriram Industrial Enterprises Ltd (SIEL). Last fortnight, the option was given to the 31-year-old Krishna to become the chairman of SIEL. But the company's losses and crippling debts aren't the only reasons why the music-loving, English literature graduate from Delhi's St Stephen's college is still weighing the offer. ''I don't want to take on any responsibility that I can't deliver,'' says Shriram Jr, who'd rather go back-packing than sit in a corner room. Also, his business philosophy is quite radical for an old-economy set up. His idol is N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys. Reason: ''The best way to run a business is to be a yogi, somewhat detached from it. Just like Narayana Murthy,'' Shiram explains. Don't think SIEL's lenders are going to like that very much...