Clockwise from top: Star India COO Sameer Nair, Grey's Nirvik Singh, and ICICI Bank's Nachiket Mor

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.

-Roshni Jayakar

Anil Chawla
37, 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.

-Abha Bakaya

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.

-E. Kumar Sharma

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.

-Roshni Jayakar

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."

Abha Bakaya

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.

-Abir Pal

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?

-Abir Pal

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