(From left to right) Adlabs' Shetty, iFlex's Hukku & CRISIL's Mohan: They continue to play key roles in their companies

Entrepreneur Clyde Cooper today does not own a single share in Blue Dart Express, which he had set up with co-founders Khushro Dubash and Tushar Jani in the mid-80s. Cooper lost the promoter tag after the co-founders sold out to dhl Express in 2004. The latter now holds 81.03 per cent in the company, but has retained Cooper as a Director. He continues to play a key role in shaping the company's business in India.

Ditto for professional managers like Rajesh Hukku and Deepak Ghaisas of i-flex Solutions. Oracle bought up the company in August 2005, but retained Hukku and Ghaisas in their positions of Chairman and CEO (India), respectively.

There are many such examples where a change of control hasn't resulted in a change of management. And examples include both professional managers and former promoters. Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs (now part of R-ADAG) and Hemendra Kothari of DSP Merrill Lynch (now owned by the us principal), who nursed their respective companies from inception, continue to play important, even pivotal, roles in the new set-ups. Ravi Mohan, Managing Director, CRISIL, and Anil Singhvi, Managing Director, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, are two more members of this growing tribe.

What is it to work in one's old position but under a new owner? Well, for one, it involves reworking one's priorities and processes in line with the thinking of the new masters.

Gujarat Ambuja's Singhvi

"Adlabs has become a lot more aggressive," says Shetty, who retained his position as Managing Director after Anil Ambani bought his company. Once entrepreneur, Shetty retains a minority 18.32 per cent stake in Adlabs, but still calls the shots like he did earlier. "We used to face financial constraints earlier, but not anymore," adds Shetty, whose former co-promoter Vasanji Mamania exited from the business in 2006 after offloading his entire 31.51 per cent equity to Ambani, who now holds a majority 54.91 per cent equity in the company.

Standard & Poor's, which bought a majority 55.08 per cent stake in rating agency CRISIL in February 2005, has also retained Ravi Mohan, who was Managing Director under the previous set-up, in the same position. "We are now part of S&P's global network. This not only opens up global opportunities for us, but also improves our own rating systems and management processes," he says.

Anil Singhvi, Managing Director, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, who retained his position when the company was taken over by Swiss major Holcim, is driving the transition at this former family-run company. "We are transforming from an entrepreneur-run company to a people-driven company."

-Anand Adhikari

Media, Entertainment Sector is on Steroids

The Indian media and entertainment sector is surpassing projections. Last year, the FICCI-PWC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) report on the sector had projected a size of Rs 45,000 crore by 2009; this year's report, titled "The Indian Entertainment & Media industry: The Growth Story Unfolds", unveiled at the 2007 ficci Frames conference, the seventh such, held in Mumbai on March 26-March 28, says the industry clocked revenues of Rs 43,000 crore in 2006, and so, is set to exceed the 2009 projections by a fair margin. The industry is now expected to grow to Rs 1 lakh crore by 2011, a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent. The biggest contributors to this steroid-charged growth: television, followed by films, in that order. "One of the key reasons for the high projected growth is the fact that the entertainment and media industry is cyclical in nature and grows faster when the economy is expanding," says Timmy S. Kandhari, Executive Director and Leader (Entertainment and Media Practice), PWC.

Last year's focus on technology and digitisation of entertainment continued and is expected to remain the mantra for the Indian entertainment industry for the next five years. Another theme that seemed to pervade the convention was that too much regulation would be an overkill for this growing sector.

The three-day FICCI Frames Convention, Asia's biggest global convention on entertainment, had 1,975 delegates and 250 speakers from 20 countries attending its 35 sessions.

-Anusha Subramanian

IT's Raining Advisors in India

On the growth path: Pai

A decade ago, Avinash Vashistha relocated to India and helped telecom equipment major Nortel expand its Indian R&D centre from 250 people to 2,000 in three years. Then, rather than move to another MNC and set up its India ops, Vashistha started his own venture, NEOIT, in 1999 to provide advisory services to the then fledgling it services market. Eight years on, India's market has grown to over $30 billion (Rs 1,32,000 crore) and Vashistha has moved on to his second enterprise, Tholons. "There's tremendous interest in India; At least $6.5 billion (Rs 28,600 crore) will be invested in the IT and BPO market this year," he explains.

TPI is, perhaps, the best known name in this business. "I set up the India operations alone and we now have 20 advisors and are growing," says Sid Pai, Partner at TPI, who is part of a global network of consultants that advises on deals worth $25-$30 billion (Rs 1,10,000-1,32,000 crore) annually. And several other players, such as pa Consulting, Zinnov Consulting and Alsbridge, have all followed this trend and set up offices in India.

-Rahul Sachitanand