In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policy, the Microsoft’s India-born chief Satya Nadella has said that multinational companies need to give back to local communities and generate businesses for them to ensure long-term growth at a time when politicians from major countries are harping on nationalism. “Any company that just collects rent internationally will be in trouble,” said Nadella while talking at the company’s annual developer’s conference ‘Microsoft Build 2017’. The Indian-American CEO said it is important for any company’s long-term growth. “One just cannot set-up shop and give nothing back, one has to ‘create local opportunity’,” he asserted. This becomes more relevant at a time when politicians in major countries are stressing on nationalism and challenging the decades-old globalisation trend. “Every head of state only cares about one thing: it is about their country first. In the US it is about America first, and in Britain it is about Britain first,” he said, referring to US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policy. Trump has vowed to focus his foreign policy on American interests and American national security. In April, he announced a new executive order to promote his America First agenda, ordering the federal government to implement his ‘buy American, hire American’ policies. Trump also called for a review of the H-1B visa programme, saying they should never be used to replace American workers and be must given to the most skilled and highest paid applicants. Nadella emphasised companies must be able to show in terms of what they have done for that country.
Renuka Ramnath, doyen of corporate finance and a private equity veteran, has been made Chairperson of Tata Communications. Renuka was independent Director since December 2014, and succeeds Subodh Bhargava whose term at Tata Communications ended recently. After a successful stint in the ICICI Group for close to two and a half decades, she set-up private equity platform Multiples in 2009. Today Multiples is a US $1 billion independent private equity platform that is backed by marquee Indian and global institutions including pension funds, sovereigns and banks.
T Krishnakumar, Chief Executive of Hindustan Coca- Cola Beverages (HCCB), will replace Venkatesh Kini, as President of Coca-Cola’s India and South West Asia unit. After being with the company for over 18 years, Kini called it quits with the company, citing personal reasons. According to the president and Chief Operating Officer, James Quincey, Coca-Cola Company is designing a new operating model to support the next stage of transformation into a growth-oriented, consumer-centred, total beverage company. Urging the need for the change, John Murphy, president of the Asia Pacific Group, The Coca-Cola Company, stated that the key components of this new model are a revitalised organisational capability and better system alignment to ensure that optimum execution multiplies in marketing plans and investment. India is Coca- Cola’s sixth-largest market by volume sales, and has witnessed stagnant growth in the face of steep excise duty hikes and competition from local players that undercut MNCs with low-cost products.
Online wallet major Paytm coming up with its payments bank, has a crucial change—Shinjini Kumar, the former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive and PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant, who was to be in the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of payments bank, has stepped down. Renu Satti, Vice President, business, will take over as the CEO of the payments bank. Satti started as Manager, Human Resources, nearly a decade back in Paytm and has risen up the corporate ladder since. She has headed different teams at the firm, for online marketplace and mobile wallet. The payments bank will launch its banking services initially in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and then expand to north-east. The first branch will be coming up in Noida, UP. The first branch in north-east will be set-up in Guwahati.
With many laurels under her belt, the ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar added yet another feather to her cap, as she was conferred with the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship. In the process she becomes the first Indian woman to be given this award, which was instituted in 1998 by the prestigious Wilson Centre to felicitate individuals’ actions and accomplishments, either in their careers or through service. Kochhar, 55, has joined the elite group which includes former Indian recipients—former President and space scientist APJ Abdul Kalam and IT honcho Narayana Murthy. Kochhar said she is accepting the award on behalf of women of India and the ICICI Group. “Over the years, we have gone beyond our businesses to take up philanthropic projects in diverse areas from education to healthcare to skilling. Today, we have provided skill training free of cost in technical trades, sales and office skills, to over 1,36,000 people who are gainfully employed,” Kochhar said. Previous recipients of the award include former US Vice President Richard Cheney, US Secretary of State Rex W Tillerson as well as four former US Secretaries of State —Henry Kissinger, General (Rtd) Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. “As I see the list of past recipients of this honour, I feel inspired to be counted as one among them. It is a distinguished and varied list, reflecting not only the wide range of achievements of these individuals, but also the Woodrow Wilson Centre’s commitment to recognise and honour excellence across every area of human endeavour,” Kochhar said. Kochhar began her career with the erstwhile ICICI Limited in 1984 and was elevated to the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank in 2001 and was instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank during the 1990s. She was conferred with the Padma Bhushan in 2011.
Nirmalya Kumar has returned to academia by joining the Singapore Management University (SMU). After an eventful corporate stint in India with the Tata Group, well-known Indian management thinker, Kumar, who has taught at internationally acclaimed management schools including Harvard Business School, London Business School and IMD (Switzerland), has returned to academia. He was the man Friday at Tata Sons’ former chairman Cyrus P Mistry’s Group Executive Council (GEC), advising the latter on matters of strategy. The Kolkata-born academician did his MBA from the University of Illinois and his PhD in marketing from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, in the US. He will assume the position of Lee Kong Chian Professor of Marketing at the university’s business school, which is named after the same Chinese businessman and philanthropist. Concurrently, Kumar is also a distinguished Fellow at the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute.
Kalaari Capital’s Managing Director Vani Kola has snapped her deal from the board of online marketplace Snapdeal, according to regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The Bengaluru-based fund is one of the early backers of Snapdeal and holds about 8% stake in the now embattled company. Kola’s resignation from the Snapdeal board further signals the impending sale of the e-commerce firm to Flipkart and that Kalaari has agreed to a settlement with SoftBank. Kola forwarded her papers to the board of Jasper Infotech, which runs Snapdeal, asking to be relieved of her duties as a board member immediately, the filings pointed out. Both Kalaari and Nexus Venture Partners, the two largest investors in Snapdeal after SoftBank, were at loggerheads with the Japanese group wanting a better value for the stake they own in the web retailer. The rift has delayed the sale of Snapdeal. Kola’s resignation comes at a time when Nexus too has come on board for the proposed sale.
Navneet Kapoor of Target India has joined Maersk Global Service Centres (GSC) as the head of its global business. Kapoor, who helped Target with its digital transformation journey, is expected to similarly lead Maersk GSC’s growth. Leading a digital transformation is becoming increasingly necessary across industries and, especially so, for Maersk GSC, which is a global captive for Maersk transport and logistics, a global leader in container shipping and ports. Maersk India officials said Kapoor replaces Soren K Brandt, who is moving back to Maersk headquarters in Copenhagen to be the new head of portfolio and projects in the transport and logistics IT organisation.
It’s all a family matter, as Nisaba Godrej takes over from her father Adi Godrej as Executive Chairman of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, according to the company. Adi will now be chairman emeritus, the company added in a statement to the stock exchanges. The elevation of Nisa, as she is fondly addressed within the company was expected, although the company had not set a time-frame for this. It marks another milestone in the larger Godrej Group’s succession plan. Adi Godrej turned 75 in April. Earlier, in February, he became chairman emeritus of Godrej Properties Ltd, with son Pirojsha Godrej, 35, taking over as Chairman. Adi Godrej remains chairman of the Godrej Group. His eldest daughter Tanya Dubash, 48, is Executive Director, Godrej Industries and also Chief Brand Officer of Godrej Group. Nisaba Godrej, an MBA from Harvard Business School joined Godrej Consumer Products in 2007. She is currently Executive Director of the company. “Nisa has been the key architect of its (GCPL’s) success and has been directly overseeing innovation,” said Managing Director and CEO Vivek Gambhir, while talking about the move, and went on to add, “She will now work very closely with the management to guide our next phase of growth.” Godrej Consumer also recommended a fourth interim dividend worth Rs. 12 per share to be paid out by 31 May 2017. This brings the total dividend paid out for the year to Rs. 15 per share. The company wasn’t hit as hard as some of its peers were by demonetisation, the government’s decision in November to invalidate old high value currency notes. Since India contributes 50% of the company’s turnover the impact of demonetisation was that much less, an analyst said, asking not to be identified.
Taranjeet Singh has been elevated as the Country Director for India, according to the micro blogging platform Twitter. Singh was earlier leading the charge for sales and marketing support for Twitter’s advertisers in India. In his new avatar, Singh will lead the Twitter India team by driving an integrated business strategy and spearheading cross-functional collaboration, Twitter India said in a statement. He will also focus on accelerating Twitter’s audience and revenue growth in this key growth market. India is among the world’s fastest growing social media markets. It is already among the largest markets for companies like Facebook, WhatsApp and Google. While Twitter does not give country-specific user numbers, it counts India among its top five audience markets globally. Twitter, which allows users to engage with peers, corporates and governments using 140 characters, has over 319 million users globally. Recently, Twitter had launched a lighter version of its platform, Twitter Lite for users in India, ahead of other markets like Indonesia and the Philippines. “Investing in our Indian management team now is a strong vote of confidence that we believe in the strategic importance of India and that our local business growth strategy is successful,” said Twitter Managing Director Asia Pacific Maya Hari. Before joining Twitter, Singh was sales director, South Asia for BBC Advertising. Prior to BBC, he held various positions at Outlook Publishing.
Twenty-year-old Miss New Jersey 2017 Chhavi Verg, was crowned Miss USA 2017 first runner-up, at a show held on 14 May, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Verg, was among the 49 other contestants and had won popular vote on social media, but ultimately lost the title to Miss District of Columbia Kára McCullough. Verg is a fitness freak, a certified personal trainer, and a Bharatanatyam dancer. Verg has stated earlier her parents immigrated from India to the US when she was four years old.
Consumer durables maker Whirlpool Corp who entered India in the late 1980s, much before South Korean companies Samsung India Electronics and LG Electronics India set foot in the market in 1995, will never be in the pricing game. Sunil D’Souza, Managing Director of Whirlpool India, said the firm will never play the pricing game, and does not want to get into unrelated product categories like its peers. It will, however, expand into a few related categories, including the premium segment as part of its plans to cross the $1 billion mark by 2020. Whirlpool formed joint ventures, acquired local companies and made itself a household name. But it could not keep pace with the competitive pricing game played by the Koreans. Its market share fell and revenue did not grow, but surprisingly, the company managed to keep its profits growing. In the past one year, the stock price of Whirlpool of India Ltd, the local arm of Michigan-based Whirlpool Corp., surged 64.4% to Rs. 1,212 from Rs. 737.20 apiece on BSE, outperforming the benchmark Sensex’s 13.68% gain. While announcing its growth in India, D’Souza said that Whirlpool Corp. is looking for growth. There is no better way to find growth than in Asia. India is a priority. The target is to cross $1 billion mark by 2020, but earlier is better. At present, Whirlpool India contributes about 3-4% to Whirlpool Corp.’s global revenue. “We are growing at a high double digit rate. The importance of India as a market is growing simply because the opportunity is huge, because of the low penetration of consumer durables. The global headquarters is offering the right support that we need for faster growth. Indian government initiatives will help boost growth for appliance makers. Smaller towns are growing faster. By 2019, the government has planned to electrify all villages. That’s going to boost sales of appliance companies. Plus, there’s the 7th Pay Commission money, a part of which will translate into discretionary spends. This will also boost sales in smaller towns where penetration is even lower. There’s a long way to go,” he said.
by Joe Williams
