Leanne Cutts, 37, VP (Marketing), GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare In India since February 2003. For Cutts, the decision to move to India was easy as her current job is considered one of the best marketing assignments in GSKCH.

When the position for marketing head at fast moving consumer goods company GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare fell vacant in January this year, the company posted an internal ad globally. Leanne Cutts, who has visited India more than a dozen times as a global strategic management director of GSKCH UK, was the first to apply for the job. In less than a month, Cutts, 37, was packing her bags to New Delhi with her husband Fernando Gros, a PHD candidate in philosophy and ethics at King's College in the University of London, and their two-year-old daughter Carmen in tow. For Cutts, it was a field visit she made to Kolkata in 2000, that made India's case. "I visited about 50 stores in Kolkata and realised that I was working on products that touched everyday lives of the people in India," says Cutts. And so, despite the fact that Gros had a year more to go to finish his PHD, Cutts was ready to relocate to India immediately. Today, she is in charge of GSK's consumer healthcare products, a portfolio that includes the Rs 800-crore Horlicks brand (India is the No.1 market for Horlicks and the fourth in consumer healthcare). "India is one of the most prized marketing jobs in gsk international," says Cutts.

Brownouts may be a way of life in most Indian cities, the water-supply erratic, and the traffic unorganised and sometimes deadly, but with a billion-plus people, diverse cultures and a growing economy, India is the place to be for expat managers. Indeed, with the exception of China, no country poses the kind of challenges and holds out the kind of opportunities that India does to expat managers. From steel to non-ferrous metals to insurance to telecom to consumer durables to FMCGs to hospitality to software services to business process outsourcing to automobiles to healthcare, India is among the most-happening markets in the world. Which could explain why there are, by some estimates, some 15,000 to 20,000 expat managers working here, a number that has increased by 10-15 per cent a year over the past five years. It isn't just Cutts. In June, Raymond Bickson, a 47-year-old American who signed on with Indian Hotels as coo in December last, was elevated to the post of CEO when the incumbent R.K. Krishnakumar retired. And 2 per cent of Infosys' 15,000-strong workforce is expats. And to think that India was once considered a punishment posting.

Andrew Holland, 43, Chief Administrative Officer & VP (Research), DSP Merrill Lynch In India since March 2002. His attraction to India stems from the country's happening stock and debt markets, which he thinks are among the world's best organised and regulated.

India Is A Great Place To Be...

To resort to stockmarket terminology (you'll realise why in a minute), expats-in-India is a secular trend. Andrew Holland, Chief Administrative Officer and VP (Research) of DSP Merrill Lynch, has been in and out of India since 1997. "In the mid-1990s, expats were limited largely to finance, manufacturing and to some extent FMCG," he says. "Now you meet expats across sectors." For 43-year-old Holland, the attraction to India largely stems from the country's action-packed stock and debt markets. "(India's) derivatives and debt markets are among the world's best organised and regulated," he gushes. Which could explain why Holland chose to come back to India in 2002 after brief stints in Thailand and Malaysia. The icing on the cake: unlike Korea, Thailand or Malaysia, India didn't pose a language problem for Holland, and the work culture is pretty similar to that of the UK, his home.

Expats are also increasingly becoming aware of the benefits of working in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. "If you want to be part of a growth market, India is your country," says Deepak Gupta, Country Head and Managing Director (India), Korn Ferry, a global headhunting firm. Vincent Mazolla, CEO of Lucent Technologies, came to India in October 2002 after a three-year stay in Japan, "simply because of the growing business opportunity". The Indian telecom industry may not be as big as Japan's, but it was its potential for growth that attracted Mazolla. "The negative perception among expats about the Indian posting is changing," says Atul Vohra, Partner, Heidrick & Struggles, an international hr consulting firm. The perception about India's notorious steel frame is also changing. In 2000, when Aviva was looking for a JV partner, it was Insurance Regulatory Development Authority Chairman N. Rangachary who helped it find a match in Dabur and the deal was signed in record three months. Says Aviva's MD Stuart Purdy, "The whole reputation of Indian bureaucracy was turned on its head."

Graham Wing, 50, Executive Director, Xerox Modicorp In India since May 2002. He expects managing government sales (60 per cent of the total) and juggling with sales tax and octroi to enrich his skills as a manager.

If it is the thrill of managing over 3,500 people in 24 cities that excites Christopher Low, who took over as CEO (India Region), Standard Chartered Bank, in January 2003, then it is the very different nature of the Indian market that enthuses Graham Wing, who signed on as Executive Director (Sales) of Xerox in May 2002-in India, 60 per cent of Xerox's sales comes from the government, and this is a complex tendering process. The challenges vary across industries, but there's one constant: India presents expats with an opportunity to do the kind of things they'd never do elsewhere. For instance, GSKCH's Cutts recently supervised the relaunch of Horlicks, a process that involved the creation of 56 advertising films in nine languages.

...And The Rewards Are Good Too

The rewards are commensurate. Y.S. Kim started up Hyundai Motor's operations in India and served as its managing director from 1996 to 2002. Last year, Kim was hand-picked to set up a greenfield project in Alabama in the US, the car maker's third global plant after India and China. His experience in setting up a manufacturing plant in Chennai (Hyundai's largest outside Korea) and in steering the firm to a predominant position in the Indian market helped him land the job. Almost predictably, Hyundai Motor India (HMI) is now attracting top expat managers from first world markets like Australia and the UK. Current MD, J.I. Kim, came to the company in mid-2002 from Frankfurt, where he was heading Kia Motors (Europe). Another top exec, B.G. Lee, who was heading Hyundai's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Australia, came to India as ed (Marketing & Sales), little over a year ago. Says Lee, "India is a distinct market as you need a diversified range of products to reach each segment or demography." He expects his experience here to improve his chances of landing even more challenging assignments. Ditto for Jae H Park, who came in last year as VP (Manufacturing), LG Electronics, to take charge of the 1,200 employee-strong plant.

Bong Gou Lee, 53, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Hyundai Motor India In India since September 2001. Lee expects his experience here to improve his chances of landing even more challenging assignments within the Hyundai organisation.

Then, there's the lure of compensation. There may be some parity in the basic compensation package of an Indian CEO and his expat counterpart, explains Sunit Mehra, country manager of Hunt Partners, a headhunting firm, but when it comes to perquisites, the expat scores over the Indian every time. Mehra rattles off the perks the expat CEO of a bank could hope to land in Mumbai, perks that an Indian in the same post may or may not get: A plush Malabar Hill flat, a couple of club memberships, a sedan and children's education in international schools. In the UK, the same person could earn between 75,000 and 85,000 pounds, but the net compensation in India is much more, says Mehra. "For him it's a quantum shift in lifestyle."

The quality of life in most large Indian cities has improved. Between them, the four metros boast over a dozen golf courses, scores of clubs and about 50 five-star hotels. International schools are common, as are pubs and gourmet restaurants. DSP Merrill Lynch's Holland recollects that "back in 1997, the only places one could dine out in Mumbai apart from the Taj and Oberoi was Khyber; now there is a whole range of options from Lebanese joints to Spanish hang-outs". Andreas Nauheimer, gm, Hyatt Regency Mumbai, who came to India only last month is already bowled over by the country. While struggling at the airport with his wife, two kids and eight suitcases, the immigration official actually opened up a new line just to help him. "The pace at which my work permit and other documents got approved is amazing." Most of us who have passed through Mumbai may attribute that (probably correctly) to luck. Still, there's no doubt that India is, today, a happening place for expat execs.