Of late, Infosys has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and the exit of the top guns has been the main focus. The reasons may be genuine, or it may be seen as infighting within the stakeholder campus. But the general public felt sorry for this IT company which has been the flag bearer for other IT companies in India. Nandan Nilekani has now taken over as Non-Executive Chairman and Director, after CEO Vishal Sikka called it quits.
There has been discord between the founder, N R Narayana Murthy and Sikka. After Sikka put in his papers, R Seshasayee followed suit. It is given to understand that Ravi Venkatesan, who was Co-Chairman, will stay on as director while U B Pravin Rao will continue as interim CEO and MD. There have been ripples in the stock market as well, soon after Sikka stepped down. The Infosys stock lost more than Rs. 30,000 crore of its market capitalisation. This has disturbed shareholders, as they are unlikely to be reassured that the company has a stable management until the company is able to recruit a new MD and CEO. This has also raised doubts in the corporate world, as analysts have expressed concerns about the company being able to attract talent after the manner in which Murthy took on the board in a public offensive. Sikka stepped down after a continuous assault on him and the board by Murthy, who alleged corporate misgovernance, especially in connection with the $200-million acquisition of Panaya and the severance package of former CFO Rajiv Bansal.
Going by the way things are moving, it is likely that TVS Logistics Services Ltd (TVS LSL), part of the TV Sundaram Iyengar Sons Group is looking to buying logistics firms in Southeast Asia, a region that offers an opportunity worth $500 billion to $600 billion, according to sources. The Chennai-based firm is moving with freight forwarding companies in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It is understood that the acquisitions were aimed at enhancing the ability to serve customers better. The firm is looking at acquisitions in the home market, but that will not necessarily be a driver towards being a billion-dollar company by 2021. With its global revenue crossing $1 billion, TVS LSL is setting focus firmly on its India operations to achieve its billion dollar revenue target in the country. There have been some changes that this move has brought about, as the company has also restructured its business and appointed R Shankar as Chief Executive of its India operations. Besides other factors, growth will be boosted by the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which opens up a lot of opportunities for organised logistics firms.
Robin Leopold has been appointed as Head of HR at JP Morgan Chase. Till now, she was HR head for the organisation’s corporate and investment bank. She takes charge from John Donnelly, who will now take charge as Vice Chairman and senior adviser to the Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Dimon.
Donnelly has been the CHRO since 2009 and has spent 30 years with JP Morgan Chase. He will continue to work on executive succession, recruitment and coaching. Leopold, carried experience of 20 years with the Citigroup, before joining JP Morgan in 2010. She started her career with the American Stock Exchange in 1996, with degrees in psychology and business management from the University of Massachusetts.
Talking about the move, CEO Dimon spoke about the firm’s attempt to boost diversity- particularly with their focus on school recruitment, retention and hiring of ‘more senior African-American talent,’ and highlighted that a Black woman runs the firm’s retail division.
In a bid to seek growth, Indian billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla is evaluating possible bids for Constellium NV and Aleris Corp. Things are moving at an easy pace and deliberations are at an early stage, and the Aditya Birla Group is yet to take a call, according to close associates within the firm. The conglomerate could decide to pursue an acquisition through Novelis Inc., a unit of Birla’s Mumbai-listed Hindalco Industries Ltd., according to inside sources. This saw the shares of Constellium shoot up by 8.1 per cent in US trading and closed at the highest level in more than two years. The move extended this year’s gains to 92 per cent, giving the company a market value of $1.2 billion. Constellium, the Dutch maker of aluminium products, is weighing options after drawing takeover interest. Ohio-based Aleris had agreed to sell itself to Zhongwang USA LLC for $2.3 billion including debt, but the deal was left in limbo after US officials raised national security concerns about the Chinese bidder and the company withdrew an application for regulatory approval.
“Hindalco successfully managed to turn around Novelis, which was once considered a white elephant,” commented Sanjiv Bhasin, an Executive Vice President at local brokerage firm India Infoline Ltd. “The way forward in the US, especially with an expectation of Trump protectionism, is an acquisition.” Hindalco is focusing on downstream products as it seeks to take advantage of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to boost infrastructure spending in Asia’s third-largest economy. Constellium sells aircraft parts, industrial coil, window frames and car bodies to aerospace, automotive and packaging customers around the world. Aleris makes rolled aluminium sheet products at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe and China, according to its website.
Pushkar Singh Kataria, an electrical engineer from Jabalpur Engineering College, who started his career with Praxair in 1997, has joined Dish TV as head HR. This appointment comes in prior to the Dish TV and Videocon D2H merger, which has been approved by the National Company Law Tribunal and will be completed by October. Kataria who will head HR for the new merged entity will ensure a smooth transition of the workforce when the two entities become one. He will manage strategic leadership, oversee talent management and drive HR excellence.
Commenting on the appointment, Anil Dua, Group CEO, Dish TV, said, “Dish TV is at the cusp of significant transformation. Kataria’s experience will stand us in good stead, on both business and employee fronts.” Kataria’s career with Praxair was a stepping stone for success wherein he became the regional HR head for West India. He then moved to Vedanta, where again he spent close to ten years. His last designation at Vedanta was Vice President, Group HR. He has been the President and Chief People Officer at Reliance Capital for the last four and a half years.
Sodexo has appointed Pradeep Chavda as the new Human Resources Director- India, as Mallika D’Souza, who after a successful stint of five years in India, has moved into a larger role in the Global Seniors Segment at Sodexo in the United States. Chavda brings with him diverse HRD skill sets and capabilities, acquired from working with large-scale Indian MNCs, in both national and international environments for over 20 years. His most recent assignment prior to joining Sodexo was with Bharti Airtel as the HR Head for the Homes Business, managing a total workforce of over 7000 employees. He also has to his credit the global award from SuccessConnect Australia, for the adoption of the best talent management tool. At Sodexo, Chavda will lead and drive the talent management strategy as an instrument of business transformation and development of agile leaders. He will be responsible for building a robust and sustainable people culture to foster creativity, innovation, performance, compliance, and good governance. He will help provide Sodexo the competitive edge to deliver on its promise of offering Quality of Life services— both to employees as well as key stakeholders. A graduate from MS University Baroda, Chavda has further earned a master’s degree in social work and two postgraduate diplomas-one in human resources and the second in industrial relations and personnel management.
In what could be termed as the second innings, a veteran in the energy-sector, Banmali Agrawala takes over as the President, Infrastructure, Defence and Aerospace at Tata Sons. In his previous assignment, Agrawala served as the President and Chief Executive of GE South Asia. He will take up his new role at Tata Sons and will report to Executive Chairman N Chandrasekaran. This will be Agrawala’s second stint at the Tata Group. At his previous stint at Tata Power, Agrawala served as a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Director, Strategy and Business Development. He was also nominated to the Board of other Tata Group companies and joint ventures. “I’m delighted to be back as part of the Tata Group and contribute towards the phenomenal opportunities that the Tata Group has in the core infrastructure related sectors, in India as well as globally. I look forward to taking all my learning and experience from GE on to my new role at Tata Sons,” said Agrawala, on his second innings with the Tatas. Since Chandrasekaran took the corner office at the Bombay House earlier, this is the fourth high-profile appointment at Tata Sons. In May, Saurabh Agrawal was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Tata Sons and Shuva Mandal replaced Bharat Vasani as the group’s general counsel, while he hired Ankur Verma, former Managing Director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s investment banking division in March this year. “The Tata Group has a significant footprint in infrastructure, defence and aerospace sectors. Banmali’s global experience in these industries will be very beneficial as we build scale and aspire for the next phase of growth. As part of the Tata Sons leadership team, his knowledge in several areas, including leadership development, digital infrastructure, innovation and technology will be very beneficial to the Tata Group,” said the man behind this move, N Chandrasekaran. Banmali was with the Wartsila Group for over 21 years and at the time of leaving the Group, he was the Managing Director of Wartsila India Limited and a member of Wartsila Global Power Plant Management Board. A Mechanical Engineering graduate from the Mangalore University, Agrawala is also an alumnus of the Advanced Management Programme of the Harvard Business School.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia, replaced Travis Kalanick who stepped down as the CEO of Uber recently. Uber has seen high tides in the last few months with cases of sexual harassment, firing related to cultural investigation, tussle with regulators, political pressures, alleged distribution of rape victim’s record, drug abuse, car explosion, and so on, which saw the exodus of several top executives on moral grounds. While the cab aggregator was reeling under the pressure of filling the vacant positions quickly, finding the right executive was not less challenging. With several names to choose from, finally the company selected Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO, to replace former CEO, Travis Kalanick, who stepped down because of revolt from the shareholders. Dara Khosrowshahi, an Iranian American businessman, has been the CEO of Expedia, an American travel company. He has been with Expedia since 2005 and has helped expand the organisation globally by bringing in several online travel booking brands. It is a job cut out for him, as he will be burdened with the task of making the company operate and function, as it used to, pre-2017. Several of the senior positions—Senior Vice President, Global Operations Head, President and President Asia-Pacific— were lying vacant. The company is yet to fill the posts of Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Finance. The big task for Khosrowshahi will be to deal with former CEO Kalanick, the key player in Uber’s origin, who has a seat on the board with 10 per cent stock and 16 per cent voting rights in the company. Meanwhile in another move, Vishpala Reddy, Vice-President and Head HR, American Express will move to Uber as Chief People Officer for India and South Asia. The appointment is in line with the ridesharing app’s moves to strengthen its leadership bench in India. Reddy, who started her career with Cognizant Technologies, has worked as senior consultant with Hewitt Associates, in the area of performance and rewards. Reddy played an active role as a board member of the national executive board of NHRDN (National HR Development Network) 2016–17 and has also led their Young Minds Advisory Board.
Cricket has again proved to be the most wanted sports in India. Star India Pvt Ltd, the broadcast rights holder of Indian cricket and the International Cricket Council (ICC), walked away with the sport’s lucrative property, the Indian Premier League, after submitting a consolidated winning bid of Rs. 16,347.5 crore (approx US$2.5bn) recently. Star was the only company among 13 bidders to submit a consolidated bid for IPL rights across all categories in India subcontinent, digital and rest of the world territories. The previous broadcasters who held the rights for ten years, Sony Pictures Network (SPN), submitted a bid of Rs. 11,050 crore for the Indian subcontinent television rights. Social network giant Facebook’s Rs. 3,900 crore bid for digital rights turned out to be the day’s surprise. In addition to its consolidatedbid, Star also submitted bids for each category individually: Rs. 6,196.94 crore for the India subcontinent rights, Rs. 1,443 crore for the digital rights and Rs. 242.54 crore collectively for five global rights (for the rest of the world territories).The total of its individual bids added to Rs. 7,882.47 crore. So Star, the Indian arm of 21st Century Fox and News Corp, put Rs. 8,465 crore premium on the consolidated rights over the sum of the individual property rights. Star beat the rest of the territorial bidders collectively merely by a 3% margin, making it a very narrowly contested auction. In a nutshell, Star will now pay the BCCI, the parent body that governs the IPL close to half a billion dollars (Rs. 3,269 crore) every year, approximately Rs. 54 crore per game for 300 IPL matches to be played between 2018 and 2022.
Rajul Garg joined PeopleStrong as its first independent director after it received multiple investments recently. He is an early investor in tech companies and a business professional with experience in investing and building a company. His first startup was Pine Labs. Then he co-founded Global Logic, a global services company, which was sold in 2013 for $400 million. “We are very excited to have Rajul as a part of PeopleStrong’s growth story. He brings a wealth of experience from the technology product industry, and as we take our HR SaaS product to the global stage, we look forward to his valuable inputs, which the company will gain and benefit from,” said Pankaj Bansal, co-founder and CEO, PeopleStrong. Garg has been the board member of several companies. He is counsellor for several startups, a mentor at IIT and part of TiE and NASSCOM. “I am delighted to formally join the PeopleStrong board. As the advisor, I have been observing their product and the exciting HR SaaS story they are building in India. I look forward to sharing my experiences and contributing to the future direction and growth of the company, said Garg.
Joe Williams
