The Hindu Business Line : Indian CEOs find favour with new economy MNCs

A dipstick survey of 100 top multinational corporations, that have their presence in the country through wholly or majority owned subsidiaries, suggests that most top jobs in the new economy sectors are occupied by Indians. This is the case particularly with MNCs in the IT and telecom sectors.

In contrast, old economy sector companies, including those in core manufacturing areas such as automobiles and ancillaries, electronics and consumer durables still continue to be dominated by expat CEOs. Other old economy sectors such as FMCG, pharmaceuticals and chemicals seem to show a preference for Indian talent.

Analysts point out that this could be largely due to the fact that many of the MNCs in the sector have been operating in India for a long time.

"India is now experiencing globalisation in its true sense. MNCs are bringing in expats to cater to global customer requirements.

"In manufacturing-intensive sectors, such as automobiles, the facilities in India are catering to the worldwide market in terms of spares, components among others, so it makes more sense to bring in someone with a global perspective who has worked in other developing markets", said Mr Ravi Bhatia, Managing Director of executive search firm, Gilbert Tweed Associates Pvt Ltd.

Sample this. Of the 14 major MNC automobile companies included in the survey, an overwhelming 13 have expats at the helm. The sole exception is General Motors.

Other auto companies surveyed included Honda, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Fiat.

In the case of the consumer durables sector, the balance is also tilted towards expats, largely due to the presence of Japanese and Korean firms.

All the Korean and Japanese companies in the sector, including LG, Samsung, Sony, Casio, and Matsushita (Panasonic) have expats on top. And this phenomenon is not restricted to this sector. In fact, all the top 15 Japanese and Korean MNCs operating in India are headed by expats.

"As far as the Japanese and Korean MNCs are concerned, they follow the same regimen in almost all countries they operate, except in North America. It is part of their working style and culture," Mr Bhatia said.

In contrast, the American and the European companies seem much more "liberal" when it comes to hiring Indians for top jobs. The survey revealed that an overwhelming 31 of the 43 major American companies and 15 out of 34 European companies have Indians at the top.

However, this could be explained because of the larger presence of American/European companies in new economy sectors such as IT and telecom. In fact, 17 out of 22 IT and telecom MNCs surveyed are headed by Indians. According to an AT Kearney executive, "There is a general perception that Indians have a very strong skill-set when it comes to sectors such as IT and telecom. MNCs, therefore, prefer to go in for the local talent when it comes to the top job in these sectors".

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