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Technology
companies worldwide realised sometime ago that India is both a
high end R&D destination and one of the world's fastest-growing
markets. Now, after the lag of a few years, they are re-ordering
India's position in their global hierarchies and tweaking their
human resource manuals to square with this new reality. Result:
a lot more thought is going into the recruitment of their country
heads for India.
An understanding of local market conditions
and the ability to manage large delivery centres-key criterion
till not so long ago-are considered givens. The new requirement:
country managers must have the ear of the global management team;
direct contact with the global Chief Executive is a bonus. Multinational
tech companies are riding the reverse brain drain to place mid-
or senior-level Indian managers in their ranks as heads of their
fast-growing operations in this country.
Rajiv Nair, recently appointed Managing Director
of the Indian operations of desktop software giant Autodesk, was
also Microsoft's first employee in India and is credited with
building its Indian operations from scratch; he was also instrumental
in convincing Bill Gates to commit a $1.7-billion (Rs 7,650 crore)
investment in India. For years, Autodesk's India operations were
seen as an extension of its Singapore office, but that has been
changing over the last 12 months, culminating in the appointment
of Nair in March this year. "We are witnessing a period of
very rapid growth in the region," says Jack Q. Gao, Vice
President, APAC Emerging Geo. "Rajiv's appointment reflects
Autodesk's (a design and engineering software tools vendor) increased
focus on the region. He brings with him immense experience which
Autodesk can leverage in India to achieve our business goals."
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| Changing attitude: Rangu
Salgame of Cisco India (above) & Ajay Marathe, President,
AMD India |
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Apple's recent announcement that it will soon
open an R&D centre in India (some say as soon as mid-April)
is a victory of sorts for Mohan Kharbanda, head of the pc-maker's
global services business, who lobbied for it. Kharbanda was earlier
handpicked by Dell founder Michael Dell to manage its fast-growing
services and contact centre business in India. Apple will obviously
leverage his experience of managing a large team, remotely delivering
projects and providing customer support in India. Kharbanda won't
actually manage the operations on a day-to-day basis, but will
hold overall responsibility of Apple's global services projects.
While Apple has been late to establish an R&D centre in India,
it is expected that Kharbands's experience in setting up and rapidly
scaling up projects will help it make up for lost time.
Biswadeep "Bobby" Mitra, Managing
Director of Texas Instruments (TI) India, is another such manager.
In 1986, Mitra joined TI's fledgling operations in Bangalore as
a fresh graduate from IIT, Kharagpur, rose up the ranks to become
Director, Americas Product Development and Customer Programs,
and later the Worldwide Program Manager for Low Power Digital
Signal Processor Development, before flying back home to head
the operations he started his career with. In the five years that
he's been in charge of the India ops, two global CEOs, Tom Engibous
and Rich Templeton, have visited India twice each (the latter's
second visit came after he became Chairman).
According to senior TI India executives,
Mitra played a key role in getting his global bosses to commit
multi-million dollar investments in Bangalore and open several
new R&D development programmes in India's silicon city. TI
India, for instance, played a key role in the development of the
single-chip cell phone and the digital light processing technology
that offers an alternative to high-end LCD and plasma screen displays.
"India is an important part of our global set-up and Bobby's
presence is a key reason for our success here," TI chairman,
and until recently Chief Executive, Tom Engibous, had told BT
on his last visit to India. The self-effacing Mitra, who is reportedly
hiring aggressively in Bangalore, is reticent about his role.
"I think the success of the India centre speaks for itself
and my job is to only support this growth," he says.
| HOMING IN |
WHO?
Most large tech companies now prefer to appoint Indians or
Indian-Americans with experience at headquarters or heading
a significant business unit of a large global company as their
India country heads.
WHAT'S THE JOB CONTENT LIKE?
R&D centres are recruiting by the hundreds if not the
thousands each year; so man and project management skills
are key. In sales, India heads have to be able to look beyond
the obvious markets to small towns and small businesses
and cater to their specific needs.
WHAT'S THE PAY LIKE?
Since Indian R&D centres are no longer considered tech
sweat shops, only highly rated personnel are chosen as country
heads. Their salaries are at par with what similarly ranked
pros get in the US-$300,000-$350,000 per year. Sales heads
earn about Rs 1.2 crore to Rs 1.5 crore annually.
DOES IT HELP THEIR CAREERS?
Yes. India is a key growth market and R&D centre
for most companies. A good showing here opens up doors to
the upper echelons of the corporate hierarchy. That's because
India is no longer seen as short-term hardship posting.
Experience here is often seen as an acid test of an individual's
team building, leadership and management skills.
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It's not long-time company execs alone who
are winning the trust of their CEOs and landing plum assignments
in India; some relative greenhorns are doing the same. Rangu Salgame,
who was president of Edgix, an internet infrastructure company,
took over the reins of Cisco India in 2005. He convinced his bosses
in the us to shift their intense focus on China and take a hard
look at the company's Bangalore-based sales and R&D establishment.
Cisco India had, for years, remained just another Cisco outpost.
But Salgame's arrival a couple of years ago changed the scene
dramatically. "Rangu managed to completely overhaul the attitude
of top management, including (CEO John) Chambers, and convinced
it of the potential here," says long-time Cisco India hand
B. Ashok, Senior Vice President, it Services. Cisco has been one
of the biggest beneficiaries of China's scorching 9 per cent-plus
growth rate over the last few years, but over the last few months,
senior managers seem to be convinced that India can begin to challenge
its dominance. So much so that Salgame's hardsell of his motherland
convinced Chambers to green signal his plan to double staff (to
1,000) and approve a $1-billion (Rs 4,500 crore) investment in
India in October 2005 spread across its R&D, venture capital
and customer support operations.
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| Flying back home: Biswadeep
Mitra, MD, Texas Instruments India |
Headhunters and analysts say there is a definite
change in thinking of large MNCs. Says Venkat Shastry, Partner
at leading executive search firm Stanton Chase and head of its
Tech Practice: "India country managers today must have the
ability to influence the company's global strategy and, at the
same time, have minute knowledge of the Indian market. This is
a direct function of the India's newfound strategic importance
in the global scheme of most MNCs. India country heads are no
longer self-deprecating bag carriers." Clearly, being sent
to India is no longer seen as a punishment posting. "MNC
tech companies now want their India country heads to have some
experience of working at their global head office or a stint with
a global corporation. These companies are now ramping up their
operations here rapidly and they want people who can work on a
macro scale and manage a diverse operation," says Kris Laxmikanth,
CEO, The Headhunters, another leading search firm.
In October last year, chip maker AMD announced
India's first big-ticket chip fabrication facility. What is little
known is that it was its India President Ajay Marathe who convinced
the company's top management team to locate this $3 billion (Rs
13,500-crore) project in India. "We will remember this day
as a historic milestone in India's economic and manufacturing
progress. AMD is committed to succeeding in the global high-growth
markets," AMD CEO Hector Ruiz said after signing the deal
with SemIndia.
India is beeping loudly on the radars of
most global CEOs. The time is just ripe for ambitious Indian managers
to showcase their skills to the people who matter. Who knows?
If the current trend continues, a tour of duty through India might
be considered de rigueur for a shot at the corner room.
COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!
I am an academician in a management institute with 15 years of
experience. I am 36 years old, have specialised in finance and
know a few computer languages. I want to shift to the corporate
sector. Please advise whether a PhD or any other qualification
would help me make the switch?
I would advise you to look for a corporate job with your current
qualifications as doing a PhD would be time consuming. And since
you have specialised in finance, apply for jobs in that area.
Alternatively, you could also opt for a CFA programme.
I'm 30-year-old and working as a Sales
Manager in an insurance company. I have four years of experience
in the sector. I am a commerce graduate with a Diploma in Risk
and Insurance Management. However, I am not interested in insurance
and want to set up my own business. I am in a dilemma, please
advise.
If you feel strongly about doing business,
you should crystallise your ideas and prepare a concrete plan.
After that you can think about funding and investment. Once you
have a business plan, it will be easier for you to implement your
ideas. You could also do business in the insurace sector i.e.
take an agency. That way, you can put your experience in the insurance
sector to good use.
Answers to your career concerns are contributed
by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing
Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write
to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor,
E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055..
Brush
Up On Your SOX
CAs are raking in greenbacks certifying compliance
with the Sarbanes Oxley Act.
There's
a demand for a new breed of professionals-those who know how to
certify compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley Act (sox), 2002, of
the us, which makes it mandatory for corporations to have internal
controls in place to ensure the integrity of their accounting
procedures.
Who can certify sox compliance: Says Satyavati
Berera, Executive Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers: "There
are no prescribed qualifications for this. But chartered accountants
with thorough knowledge of sox and experience in setting up and
reviewing internal controls are ideally suited for these assignments."
Who needs these services: All companies listed
in the us need to comply with the provisions of sox. The Indian
operations of us companies and Indian companies which have outsourcing
contracts from the us also need to follow these norms.
How much does it pay: In keeping with the
practice in the us, sox professionals typically bill their clients
by the hour. Normal fees range from $30-$150 (Rs 1,350-6,750)
per hour. Mid-level consultants charge about $85 (Rs 3,825) per
hour, but rates for senior consultants at top firms can shoot
up to $190 (Rs 8,550).
What's the demand like: No one can put a
figure on the number of sox-compliant professionals in the country,
or on the likely demand, but it's fair to say that the demand
runs into thousands. And this is likely to grow as the Indian
and us economies form more linkages.
-Shalini S. Dagar
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