Collywood : People in the News

Steffi Graf-Kerala’s ayurveda ambassador?

From the hard and grass courts, tennis legend Steffi Graf may soon be appointed the Ayurveda brand ambassador of Kerala. The state tourism department had mooted a proposal to make her the brand ambassador as part of its new ‘Visit Kerala Scheme’. The department has an informal agreement with the former world number one tennis player, who has bagged 22 grand slam single titles. Now a formal signing of the agreement will take place as per the convenience of Steffi Graf. The idea behind appointing her is to promote the ancient system of traditional health care to woo tourists from abroad. After consulting with Graf, the tourism department will be charting out a series of programmes to launch the campaign outside India.

Padmasree Warrior to be Cisco advisor

Padmasree Warrior, one of Silicon Valley’s high-profile female executives, has stepped down from her post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at global IT giant Cisco after a significant restructuring of top management under incoming CEO Chuck Robbins. India-born Padmasree, named last month by Forbes among the world’s 100 most powerful women, will move into a strategic advisor role effective immediately and will stay on in this new role through the transition until September, Cisco said. Under the restructuring announced last week, the ten leaders who will sit on Cisco’s new executive leadership team will include India-born Pankaj Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer. Padmasree, 54, had joined Cisco in 2008 and had served as CTO and senior vice-president of engineering during her seven years at the company. This highly respected leader has been a champion internally for innovation, strategic partnerships, investments and mergers and acquisitions.

Crompton Greaves ropes in Khosla

Shantanu Khosla, the Managing Director of Procter & Gamble India, will join the consumer business of Crompton Greaves to spearhead the company under its new private equity owners. Khosla is coming on board in a senior leadership position and is likely to be the vice-chairman and managing director, according to sources. Crompton Greaves’ consumer division, Crompton Greaves Consumer Products, is being spun out and getting demerged from its parent into a separately listed company through a court approved process. The 55-year-old, who will switch shampoo and detergents for fans and lighting, will have a board seat and a chief executive under him to drive daily operations.

Murdoch’s sons to take over empire

Lachlan Murdoch is still seen as well placed to take over the Murdoch global media empire despite his younger brother James’s resurrection as 21st Century Fox chief executive. The current CEO, 84-year-old media magnate Rupert Murdoch is expected to formalise his succession plan and a timetable to hand over the reins at the company’s board meeting. It would mean president Chase Carey standing aside after six years from the day-to-day running of Fox for 42-year-old James. While some view the decision as an anoint ing of James as heir, the 43-year-old Lachlan has also been promoted from a non-executive to hands-on executive co-chairman role with his father, who has not given any indication of retiring. According to the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, James and Lachlan would run 21st Century Fox similarly to Mur doch and Carey’s arrangement, with one focused on the long-term and the other the operations. Lachlan is more familiar in Australia, where he lives and has held a series of high profile business roles outside and within News Limited before his resignation in 2005

IT Majors get innovative to serve clients better

T firms are doing what would have once been sacrilegious -- holding coding marathons to develop innovative fixes and deploying units to resolve client problems. Infosys, Wipro and others have kept pace with mushrooming start-ups, but the rate of revenue growth has more than halved since 2011-12, and this is mainly due to the competition in the field. Young set-ups go beyond cookie-cutter solutions and do the job more quickly and for less. They also attract the crème de la crème of India’s engineering graduates with their culture of bubble chairs, breakfast bars and table tennis at work. Client demands are similarly changing. Major telecoms, retail and banking firms want more than an outsourced help desk, right from solving a server crash overnight to building an app. To deal with this, Wipro, for example, has set up small “commando force” units that help get swift solutions. It has also introduced gaming-like training sessions and so-called hackathons to solve both fake and real client problems. Earlier this month, Infosys, long known for its inflexible rules of employee decorum, did away with a formal dress code. Earlier, it had relaxed rules preventing workers from accessing social networking web sites at work. Client demands are similarly changing in India’s $147 billion IT outsourcing industry. Major telecoms, retail and banking firms want more than an outsourced help desk, and now demand everything from help solving a server crash overnight to help building an app, industry veterans say. To be sure, it is hard for large IT companies, with an army of thousands of employees, to change overnight. Yet, steps as small as implementing a casual dress code and allowing employees to use their own tech devices mark a major cultural shift in an industry that still relies heavily on manpower to win business.

Selvakesari gets elevated at Citi

Citi has appointed Anand Selvakesari as Head of Consumer Banking for Asia Pacific. Anand will manage all of Citi’s consumer businesses in Asia across the 12 markets that Citi offers retail banking, wealth management, cards and mortgages in the region. During his 23 year Citi career, Anand has led Citi’s consumer bank in China and India and was most recently Southeast Asia Cluster head for Consumer Banking. Anand’s appointment is effective July 1 and he is taking over from Jonathan Larsen. Jonathan will focus on his role as Global Retail Banking and Mortgage Head with the additional responsibilities of US Retail Banking and Mortgage. Anand was formerly Head of Consumer Banking for ASEAN & India. In this role he took charge of in December 2013, Anand was responsible for the consumer banking businesses in the ASEAN cluster, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam as well as India. A Citi veteran, Anand began his career in India in 1991, and has more than 23 years of experience in Consumer and Commercial Banking. As India Consumer head, he helped transform the business in India, re-defined consumer banking and today the India franchise holds leadership positions in cards, wealth management and digital banking.

Software giants, Wipro boosts operations at Bhubaneswar

Wipro has committed a massive expansion of its facilities to house 28,000 employees. This is after the Odisha government ticked off Wipro for going slow on its development centre. However, the software giant has not spelt out a timeline for implementing its ambitious expansion plan. Wipro in a letter to the government has stated that it had approached the Centre for approval to be the co-developer for the special economic zone (SEZ). The matter is likely to be taken up at the next meeting of the Board of Approvals (BoA) for SEZs under the Union Commerce and Industry ministry. The company’s response comes in the wake of the state government’s recent warning that it would take back the 26 acres of land allotted at a prime location in the city if the project was delayed further. The company is likely to add 1,800 employees in the next ten months.

By Joe Williams