The have reached the pinnacle of their corporate careers internationally. In the past 10 months alone, five Indians have been chosen to lead global corporations, taking the total number of home-bred Global India CEOs to eight. The qualities, skills and strategies that have taken to the top show that there are common threads in these success stories.

By R Sukumar

The Profile of the GIECO

Age of Becoming CEO 46 years Education Probability of being an engineer: 57 % Probability of being an MBA from a US B-school: 29 % Probability of being professionally-qualified: 71 % Years taken to reach the top 24 years First Job Management Trainee/Junior Manager at a transnational in the fast track Skills Functional: Sound conceptional skills in all functional areas, and deep skills in one or two areas Political: Ability to build and sustain networks and relationships within and without the organisations. Team Orientation: Ability to work in, build, and lead  teams of managers at all levels. Opportunism: Ability to spot emerging business areas for the company and opportunities for the self. Career Path Years: 1-6: Junior manager with functional focus; located in India or abroad. Time to identify industry that matches individual expertise, entailing a job-shift or two. Years 7-16: Middle manager in general management role, looking after either a region or a business. Years 17-24: Senior manager at t the global headquarters of the company heading either a function or a division. The narrowing of the pyramid as one nears the top might necessitate a job shift. Year 24+: CEO Personal Qualities Strong work-oriented with a focus on results Clear vision of personal career goals, and the drive to pursue them continuously Sensitivity to other cultures and markets with the willingness and ability to adapt to them. Exceptional survival skills, with risk taking instincts. Self Development Regular upgradation of skills through management development programmes or on-the-job. Short stints in either research or entrepreneurship Leadership Style Post-delegation paradigm of facilitating action.

Mr India is invading the transglobal corner-room. In the corporate equivalent of the Great Indian Rope Trick, he has broken through the brass ceiling to scale the peak of the world's biggest transnationals, whose businesses run from hi-tech to finance, from banking to consultancy, from services to consumer softs. Surprising the world, he has pipped to the post the classic candidate for the CEO of global organisations: the wasp, who is, traditionally, the odds-on favourite. Literally the dark horse in many cases, he has ridden attitudes ranging from patronising indulgence to downright admiration in his ascent. His name varies, as does the company he works for, but, as he is demonstrating, India's managerial capital has become world-class.

As a group, the Global Indian CEOs (GICEOs, pronounced GECKOs) are, at once, heterogeneous and homogeneous. While their educational qualifications range from a bachelor's degree to a doctorate, one of them has spent his entire working-life in one company while another has worked through 5 companies on his trek to the top. While several common threads run through their career-charts, the GICEO has manifested himself in many avatars:

• In May, 1998, Rakesh Gangwal, 44, claimed his place as the CEO of the Arlington-headquartered US Airways Inc., the operating arm of the $8.51-billion US Airways Group.
• Eight months before that, Jamshed `Jim' Wadia, 50, was appointed the Managing Partner of the audit and consultancy firm, Arthur Andersen (1997-98 income: $5.20 billion).
• In June, 1998, Standard Chartered Bank (1997-98 income: ?2.16 billion) chose Rana Talwar, 50, as its Group Chief Executive.
• In 1997, Shailesh Mehta, 49, was appointed the CEO of the San Francisco-based Providian Financial (1997-98 income: $1.20 billion).
• For 4 years now, Rajat Gupta, 50, has been the Managing Director of the world's best-known management consultancy, McKinsey & Co. (1997-98 income: $2.10 billion).
• The Hartford (US)-based Hartford Financial Services (1997-98 income: $13.30 billion) has Ramani Ayer as its CEO.
• Bobby V. Abraham, 56, has been the CEO of the $562-million Paragon Trade Brands, headquartered in Norcross (US), for the last 5 years.
• The next person to head the $4.04-billion New York-based Computer Associates will be Sanjay Kumar, 36, the coo and heir-apparent to founder Charles Wang.
• Close to acquiring membership of this club is Victor J. Menezes, 50, the President (Global Corporate Banking) of the $72-billion Citigroup, who, as the CFO of Citibank before its merger with the $21-billion Travellers' Group, would have succeeded CEO John Reed had the merger not materialised.

Clearly, the Indian manager's surge to the summit represents a convergence of several forces. For instance, the demand for out-of-the-box thinking has led to a search for CEOs from atypical cultural- and educational-backgrounds. The compulsions of managing diversity has made the choice of CEO from a new cultural milieu a smart practice for globe-girding businesses. And the need for picking leaders with the ability to improvise, rather than managers with the skills to analyse, has led to a quest for potential CEOs among people who have operated in diverse markets.

Conversely, just what are the career strategies that have taken the GICEOs to the top? An analysis of the archetypical GICEO provides some answers. His classic pre-CEO working-life, which started when he was 22 years old, lasted for 24 years. Thus, his entry into the board-room at 46 marks him out as an early achiever. The obvious conclusion: his journey did not follow the conventional route, moving vertically, slowly but steadily, through the ranks. That would have taken longer than the years he took. After all, with an average of 8 layers to move up, even a promotion every 4 years means 32 years of pacing the corridors.

By contrast, if the GICEO cut his sojourn at each layer by a year, it was because of his lateral movements, which saw him perambulate between different functions and markets--abandoning the safe haven of a specialisation--greedily lapping up the diverse experiences and the opportunities to make a mark that such assignments have to offer. In the process, bidding adieu to the lifetime-with-a-company-where-you-rise-through-the-ranks, he has changed employers at least twice. Explains Ravi Virmani, 39, the CEO of the human resources consultancy company, Noble & Hewitt (India): "It is imperative to be open to the idea of switching jobs and companies. Your organisation may not provide the scope for building your skills and competencies beyond a certain level. Or your expertise, while still valuable, may no longer be considered critical to the company's success." In fact, this mobility even explains the relative lack of a super-specialised college degree: the greatest probability--57 per cent--is that the GICEO is an engineer by training; the chances of his having an MBA degree are even lower at just 2 out of 7.

Perhaps one singular quality that sets the GICEO apart from others is the CEO-homing instinct. Nripjit Singh `Noni' Chawla, 48, the Managing Director of another search firm, Korn/Ferry International, believes that this in-built radar tells them what to do next. "Most CEOs have some kind of conscious, or sub-conscious, vision about where they are heading. Some can actually articulate it. Others can't, but the vision is still there. A person without that sense of direction can never become a CEO."

This manifests itself as a hunger for opportunities, and a desire to succeed in roles that hold the promise of upward mobility. For example, in a company that believed in growth by acquisition, Computer Associates' Sanjay Kumar acquired a reputation for his ability to integrate the acquired company's workforce into his. Both Rajat Gupta and Jim Wadia proved themselves to be great people-managers--not just good consultants. Indeed, in Robert Blake and Jane S. Mouton's seminal model of leadership, The Managerial Grid, all the members of this elite club would be 9,9 managers, balancing a high concern for employees with a corresponding passion for organisational goals.

Of course, the people skills of the GICEO extends to networking with his peers and superiors--an ideal complement to functional expertise. At United Airlines, for example, Rakesh Gangwal worked in several senior managerial positions with the-then Chairman and CEO, Steven Wolf. In 1996, when Wolf took over as the Chairman and CEO of US Airways Group, the first senior manager he hired was, unsurprisingly, Gangwal.

Commonalties abound in the careers of the GICEOs. Postings that helped them gain invaluable international exposure, an aptitude for challenging assignments, and shifts that display an innate ability to move across functions. Even Arthur Andersen's Wadia, who has spent his life working in London, cut his teeth on tax-planning assignments for several European transnationals after cross-border M&As. Naturally, the differences between a GICEO and his wasp counterpart are legion. Unlike the latter, the former has succeeded only in business areas that are termed "cerebral" by executive search consultant Tarun Sheth. However, although the GICEO hops across functional areas, he also has an obsession for a particular industry. Contrast that with the typical CEO of the illustrative American transnational who comes with a multi-industry, multi-company perspective.

Unparalleled as the package of skills and abilities that each GICEO represents, it is the features common to them that raises the vital question: is there a Factor I-For-India that is propelling managers from India to the top of the global corporations? Yes. And no. On the one hand, the legacy of their country of birth that these CEOs have brought to their career is the ability to battle diversity. Having been brought up in a country where no support or infrastructure can be taken for granted, and where the absence of systems cannot be an excuse for non-performance, the GICEO has survived where others perish, thrived where others survive, excelled where others thrive--and will, probably, perish where others excel.

In a sense, the experience of growing up in India--most GICEOs spent the first 20 years of their life in the country--gives them the ability to handle diversity and ambiguity. As far as their professional disposition is concerned, Indians are similar to people in the developed countries. Sure, both are essential CEO attributes, common not just to Indians, but to people from Asia. This uniqueness, however, is balanced by the Indian's ability to adapt. For, it is by losing his regional identity, and acquiring the status of a true global citizen that the GICEO has earned the mandate of leading multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-skilled workforces and businesses. Therein lies the dualism that has deemed the GICEO fit to lead where others follow.

The real story of their ascent comes from the GICEOs themselves. After all, while the patterns that emerge from their career moves do reveal a template for reaching the top, it is also the uniqueness of each one's worklife that highlights the features that distinguish the CEO from every other manager. To present a guide for tomorrow's GICEO, BT simulates a workshop on How To Make CEO By 45, using our conversations with the GICEOs to punctuate our findings on how to reach the top of the world:

Moderator: Let's get straight to the point. Since all of you have expressed a desire to work towards becoming the CEO of the transnationals you work for in the next 2 decades, I'd like to present to you the real-life cases of 7 of your compatriots who have achieved just that. From their careers, we will try to create a template for the CEO-aspirant.

The Profile of the GICEO  II  The Making of the GICEO

More

Issue Contents  Write to us   Subscriptions   Syndication