Tata Sons' Ratan Tata: No respite at the top

RATAN TATA
Busy Retirement
Seeing through TCS' IPO and finding a successor are just two of his post-retirement tasks.

Usually, when corporate chieftains retire, they either look for a sinecure or the more creative ones pen their memoirs. Nothing of that sort will happen with Tata Group head honcho, Ratan Tata. For two reasons: One, he isn't just any other corporate chieftain. Two, he isn't retiring yet. Sure, on December 28 last year, Tata turned 65 and in accordance with the group's policy, he retired. So, while Tata retired as the Executive Chairman of Tata Sons, the group's holding company, he continues as its non-executive Chairman and will, therefore, continue to be the Tata Group's moving force for the next five years.

Meanwhile, he has a busy year to look forward to. Tata Consultancy Services, the IT services division of Tata Sons, should launch its much-awaited IPO. The stockmarket has been buzzing with excitement for more than 18 months now. And understandably so. TCS is the largest it services company in the country, and some analysts expect it to be valued at Rs 60,000 crore when it lists this year. So 2003 may be the year when Tata unlocks value for shareholders of Tata Sons, and hopefully pulls some small investors back into the primary market.

TCS IPO apart, Tata has a more pressing job at hand. He must start the process of identifying, selecting, and grooming a successor to his post. As he told BT early last year, he will step down from chairmanship in end 2007, and a successor will be "identified and designated a couple of years before I leave''. For obvious reasons, corporate India's biggest succession story will be keenly tracked by one and all.

-R. Sridharan

Scandent's Vangal: IT's it

RAMESH VANGAL
Future-Scan
Ramesh Vangal is betting that he isn't late to the IT party.

He has run beverage companies-Pepsi's Indian operations and Seagram's Asia-Pacific ones-founded a venture capital firm (At India LLC), even sold soap for Procter & Gamble. Now, 47-year-old Ramesh Vangal wants a piece of the Indian it pie. Put it down to his experiences on the board of software blue chip Infosys Technologies between 1997 and 2001. So, Vangal's Scandent Group, founded in November 2001, with help from Vivendi Vice Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr and former Pepsi Chairman and CEO Christopher Sinclair, is trying to vend solutions in infrastructure and application management, engineering consultancy, and embedded cad services. ''It is never too late,'' says Vangal. ''We are not a me-too company.''

-Venkatesha Babu

Electrolux CEO-designate Karwal: He must like red

RAJEEV KARWAL
Third Time Lucky?
Can marketing whiz Rajeev Karwal work his magic at Electrolux?

Enough and more has been written about Rajeev Karwal's career. The MBA at IMT Ghaziabad, a second-rung B-school, the sales and marketing successes at Onida, the Chellaram group (in the Canary Islands and it was in consumer durable retailing), and lg. The exclusion of Philips from that sentence is deliberate. True, between December 1999, when Karwal signed on as Senior VP, Consumer Electronics-he was given a mandate to turn the business around-and September 2002, Philips improved its marketshare in audio systems from 27.8 per cent to 43.5 per cent and CTV sets from 3.6 per cent to 6.6 per cent. The company is also likely to show a profit for this year (Rs 50 crore). That's some achievement, but for a man who cut his teeth selling TV sets, Karwal's stint doesn't seem to have done all that much for Philips TVS. So, can the man turn around the fortunes of Electrolux Kelvinator when he takes over as its CEO on February 1? Well, Rs 422 crore of accumulated losses and an unwieldy four-brand portfolio isn't exactly the best of legacies. But Karwal says he has a plan. Watch this space.

-Suveen K. Sinha

JWT India's Oberoi: He'll tee off in April

KAMAL OBEROI
Life After Mike
Come April and Oberoi will take over as CEO of JWT India.

It isn't easy replacing a legend, but that's what 47-year-old Kamal Oberoi will do when he takes over from JWT India ceo-of-18-years Mike Khanna. Oberoi is seen more as a number-cruncher than a typical advertising type. With O&M India having appropriated the mantle of creativity, Oberoi has his task cut out. "The greatest challenge for me is to create an environment of freedom, freedom to fail," he says. That'd be a start.

-Shailesh Dobhal

Jumbo's Chhabria: Managing conflict

VIDYA CHHABRIA
Mother Liquor
Can Ms Chhabria keep it all together in 2003?

When Vidya Chhabria-she comes in at #44 in Fortune's listing of the most powerful women in business outside the US-succeeded her late husband Manohar Chhabria as the Chairperson of the $2-billion (Rs 9,600 crore) Jumbo Group, her ambitious daughters were relegated to the background. The eldest, Bhavika Godhwani, couldn't stomach the fact that the second, Komal Wazir, was positioning herself as the inheritor of their father's leadership legacy. But the squabbling sisters quietened down when Vidya Chhabria took over-youngest daughter Kiran keeps a low profile and manages the group's corporate communications from Dubai. In the last days of his life, Chhabria mended his fences with estranged brother Kishore. Now, it remains to be seen whether, in the tradition of the best Bollywood pot-boilers Manu Chhabria adored, the widow and the brother get together to give it to UB. Or, will sibling rivalry crack an empire that has seen better days? Only Vidya Chhabria can tell and the lady is willing to speak only about her energy and consulting businesses.

-Moinak Mitra

Alliance's Arora: Time to buy

SAMIR ARORA
From Manager To Owner
Alliance Capital's Samir Arora is attempting a MBO.

It is one of the top three mutual funds in the company and its composition and performance is widely perceived to be a manifestation of the personality of the man who runs it. So, when Alliance decided to sell its mutual fund in India-it manages around Rs 3,600 crore of assets-it was only apt that its Singapore-based CIO, Emerging Markets, Samir Arora, put in a bid for it. Wait till mid-January for the shortlist.

-Shilpa Nayak

M. DAMODARAN
Redemption Song
UTI's Chairman has to still fight fires.

UTI's Damodaran: A May test

For some 18 months 55-year-old Meleveetil Damodaran, a career bureaucrat has been chief firefighter (he is designated Chairman) at India's largest mutual fund company, Unit Trust of India (UTI). To give the man his due, he has brought about changes in the way the Trust manages its funds, in investor communication, and in marketing. That's some achievement given the timing of his appointment-in the wake of a crisis that almost forced the Trust to freeze transactions on us-64. But on May 31, 2003, Damodaran will face his toughest test yet. That's the day the government's guaranteed repurchase of up to 5,000 units of us-64 for Rs 12 comes to an end.

With a current Net Asset Value of Rs 6.26, it is inconceivable that investors will choose to stay invested in the fund. That could see a run on the us-64, even wipe out its capital.

-Roshni Jayakar

BPL's Chandrasekhar: Fighting on all fronts

RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR
The Cookie Crumbles
BPL Communications' CEO must be hoping for a better 2003.

In january 2002, former Intel employee and CEO of BPL Communications, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, was on top of the world: the merger with the Birla-Tata-at&t combine seemed set to go through with BPL emerging the single largest shareholder and he himself looked a shoo-in for the CEO's post. But litigation with BPL's shareholders delayed the merger and the combine (now called Idea) seems to have lost interest. So Chandrasekhar is left to nurse four cellular circles, 1.1 million subscribers, and Rs 1,400 crore in debt. As Chairman of the Cellular Operators Association of India, Chandrasekhar must be hoping the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal creates a level playing field in telecom-it is currently skewed in favour of basic telephony companies. And that the merger goes through.

-Suveen K. Sinha

Disinvestment Minister Shourie: Rock solid

ARUN SHOURIE
Mr Persistence
Shourie wants to privatise. Can he?

After several setbacks-including opposition from several of his Cabinet colleagues-the Union Disinvestment Minister had finally managed to get the disinvestment process back on track by 2002-end. The new year will bring with it a fresh set of challenges and the same old opponents. Shourie is ready for them all.

-Ashish Gupta

Barista's Deol: Enjoying his cuppa

RAVI DEOL
Coffeemaker To The World?
Ravi Deol wants to take Barista global.

Fine, Ravi Deol made Barista one of India's fastest growing brands-and its fastest growing coffee chain-in 2002, but that is not why he figures here. Deol's sights are now set on a global presence for the chain. In 2002, he roped in Yogesh Samat as Chief Operating Officer (coo); Samat will focus on the Indian ops, leaving Deol free to realise his global ambitions for the chain. On December 19, 2002, Barista took its first tentative step towards becoming a global chain by opening an outlet in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Next stop: Dubai, and then, Europe. "We created the largest speciality coffee chain in South Asia in two years," gushes the former CibaGeigy, Wipro Lighting, and Coca-Cola India exec. "Now we are ready to roll into larger and more evolved geographies."

-Abha Bakaya