Apple, is undoubtedly the best company making profits and there is no doubt that the company’s CEO will get the best pay packet compared to other companies around the globe. This has been brought to the notice by Equilar, the firm which provides executive compensation benchmarking has come out with the total amount of money Tim Cook earned since he took up the position of CEO at Apple. The firm calculated the amount earned by Cook since 2011. And the total sum of salary is $701 million (roughly Rs.4,970 crores). The firm said that Cook, collected over $65,038,2235 (roughly Rs.4,610 crores) in stock awards ever since he became Apple CEO, according to Business Insider. Although that’s a huge sum for the majority of us, Cook however is still behind the social media giant, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg. As per the report, the only other CEO who has realized more value in the same time period is Mark Zuckerberg, who exercised 1.2 million options over two years, according to Alex Knowlton, senior research analyst, as per the report. It has been said that Zuckerberg had a strike price of $0.06 and has made options at the same time period worth $5.8 billion (roughly Rs.41,124 crores).
T. Karunakar, CHRO Apollo Hospital, is all set to move base to the UAE now as he is to join Abu Dhabi-based healthcare chain, VPS Healthcare as the group CHRO. It’s a decade-old company with 24 hospitals across the UAE, besides four in India. His was a story of growing with the organization. He spent 16 years at Apollo Hospitals and climbed up from the position of HR manager to that of group CHRO. VPS now plans to expand to the UK market and also start a chain of physiotherapy clinics. The healthcare chain has witnessed rapid growth in the last 10 years and for Karunakar, the job in hand will be to restructure the HR process. He will have to create an organizational structure, align HR goals with the business strategy, and align business objectives with employee goals. Karunakar will also look at putting a balanced scorecard in place, and using a radical thought process to get the backend organized, including the payroll management system.
Ola, India’s largest cab-hailing service, named Ben Legg as Managing Director of its planned UK operations. Legg was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at New York based company AdParlor. He also worked at digital advertising firm Adknowledge, Google Europe, Coca-Cola and McKinsey & Co. “We’re delighted to have a talented leader like Ben at the helm as we start our operations in the UK,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola. Legg will build the senior leadership team and drive operations to establish overall presence in the UK by the end of 2018, the company said in a statement. Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has obtained licenses to operate in South Wales and Manchester, Mint reported recently. The company is set to launch operations in South Wales within the next month, the report said. The move signals Ola’s aggressive expansion to fight Uber in the overseas market and set up base for a large international business, expected to generate revenues alongside its Indian operations.
Private sector HDFC Bank’s second-in-command and long-standing lieutenant Deputy Managing Director, Paresh Sukthankar, has put in his papers amid speculation that he may be joining as the chief of another lender. Sukthankar was widely perceived as a potential successor to HDFC Bank’s CEO and Managing Director Aditya Puri, who is likely to retire by October 2020. The lender plans to finalize a replacement for him by October next year so that he can work alongside him for a year. According to industry experts, Sukthankar’s sudden resignation indicates that he may be joining as the head of another private sector lender. Private sector Axis Bank is also in the midst of appointing a successor to its CEO and Managing Director, Shikha Sharma. The bank had sent a list of three candidates to the Reserve Bank of India for approval last month. Sukthankar, who is in his early 50s, has been associated with HDFC Bank since its inception in 1994. He was appointed as the lender’s Deputy Managing Director in December 2013. In March 2017, the bank’s board had approved his re-appointment as Deputy MD for a three-year period till June 2020.
Emrana Sheikh has joined Johnson & Johnson (J&J) as enterprise HR-Head for India and South Asia. She has moved from Asian Paints, where she was Head-HR for the last three and a half years. Sheikh has over 25 years of experience in both the manufacturing and service industries, ranging from FMCG and automotive to farm equipment and express transportation. Sheikh has spent almost half of her career with Fedex, where she was head of HR-L&D, MEIA region. From Fedex she moved to Mahindra, where she joined as senior General Manager-HR and headed HR for the auto division and international operations. Later, she was elevated as VPHR and went on to lead HR for the automotive division comprising seven plants and 18 sales offices across India. Additionally, she was also Head-HR for international operations of the auto and farm businesses of Mahindra & Mahindra. Sheikh said, “Johnson & Johnson has a 130-year-old history of helping people live healthier and happier lives. With this new role, I hope to contribute to the company’s ongoing focus on innovation and building a diverse workforce, to address the healthcare needs of people today and in the future.” Meanwhile, Indrajeet Sengupta who was CHRO, J&J, has moved to Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages (Coke India) as CHRO. Sengupta had led HR at J&J for eight years, guiding the transformation of the HR function to a progressive business partner. His role included delivering directly to 6000+ employees and associates and enhanced employee experience. He also provided thought leadership with a focus on reputation, external outreach, innovation, talent, diversity, inclusion, employer branding, governance and business conduct. At Coke India, the position of CHRO was lying vacant since Seema Nair’s sudden exit in less than a year. Prior to J&J, Sengupta worked with the food and beverages company, Mars, which owns brands such as M&M, Pedigree, Snickers and Orbit. Sengupta, who passed out of XISS Ranchi in 1995, has spent a large part of his career with GE India. As HR manager at GE, he worked across brands and functions, covering GE Plastics, GE Lighting and GE Medical Systems. He learnt about union relations, manufacturing, learning and development initiatives, 360-degree appraisal system, Six Sigma and human resource information systems implementation. During his 13-year long stint at GE, Sengupta got elevated at regular intervals, with his last designation being head of C&B, Asia Pacific. Sengupta’s immediate mandate at Hindustan Coca Cola is to focus on transforming the HR and facilities management functions, and partnering with the business to evolve HCCB into a company of significant scale and size. Christina Ruggiero, CEO, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages says, “HCCB is in the middle of a very interesting phase in its journey as it evolves into a company of significant scale and size. We aim to leverage his vast experience and expertise of many markets and multiple industries, in building the people capabilities at HCCB.”
Maharashtra’s main urban clusters aced the government’s first-ever attempt to rank India’s leading cities based on their ease of living. While Pune topped the ranking, Navi Mumbai and Mumbai rounded out the top three. Rampur in Uttar Pradesh was adjudged the least liveable city. However, Pune scored only 58 out of a possible 100 points. India’s 111 leading cities, which took part in the exercise, scored a cumulative average of 35.6, a failing grade in the exercise in which all the 100 municipal bodies nominated as smart cities and state capitals participated. Mumbai may have done well despite getting a bad rap from most citizens. However, officials in the Urban Affairs ministry warned that the ranking is as much a reflection of the quality of data cities managed to furnish as the status of the physical infrastructure itself. Since the beginning of this year, cities had been asked by the Urban Affairs ministry to present verifiable data on a slew of parameters. These included the quality of power and water supply, the state of health and education infrastructure, prevalence of crime, levels of pollution, and access to housing, among others. The final rankings are based on a mix of the furnished data, a third-party survey and direct feedback from citizens (about 60,000). “This is the first such attempt to empirically capture the position of India’s cities through an index,” said Urban Affairs minister Hardeep S. Puri, before launching the index. “It’s time to acknowledge that the responsibility of the state is not only to deliver goods and services to citizens, but also to ensure the ease of living of citizens,” he said. The assessment standards evolved by the ministry are closely linked to the sustainable development goals. The ministry also launched a new assessment framework for the 2019 round of its annual sanitation survey, Swachh Survekshan, which will now move towards estimating outcome and sustainability of the process, instead of just visible cleanliness.
Vinod Bidwaik has joined the Swedish heavy-industry company, Alfa Laval, as VP-HR and CHRO for India. He will be based out of Pune. Bidwaik has moved from DSM India—his longest stint— where he was Director-HR. He had joined the pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturer as country HR manager and then rose up the ranks to become Head-HR and later, Director-HR. In the nine years that he spent with DSM, he also handled a short term assignment as HRBP-sales & marketing, Asia Pacific, during which he was based out of Shanghai. Bidwaik has over 18 years of experience, and has worked across sectors, be it manufacturing, media, automotive, life sciences, specialty chemicals and materials science. Bidwaik is a seasoned IR (Industrial Relations) professional and has expertise in dealing with union office bearers. He started his career with Indian Steel and Allied Industries as a management trainee in 1997, and was later elevated to personnel officer. In 2001, he joined the chemical company, Sempertrans Nirlon, as Deputy Manager-HR and IR, from where he moved to Mahindra. After a short stint of 11 months with the automobile company, he moved to the media sector as chief manager-corporate HR, at Sakaal Media Group. Having completed his training in strategic human resource management from IIM, Ahmedabad and strategic intervention from the Strategy Academy, Kolkata, Bidwaik has also authored two books—Holistic Approach to Employee Engagement and Password to Enriched Life. He also holds a master’s degree in personnel management from Pune University.
Rajesh Hurkat admits to exciting times ahead as he takes on a new role to Head- HR for Mattel South-East Asia. “The responsibility gets a lot more exciting as we are talking multiple markets now. South-East Asia consists of multiple countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia that are critical markets for Mattel. I see this as a great opportunity as we look to replicate our HR best practices to a broader audience with the combined markets,” Hurkat said. Having joined Mattel India only a year back in May 2017 as Head-HR, Hurkat has already been a part of a journey that has seen Mattel evolve as a workplace and has also won a few awards. “The employer branding journey at Mattel India is being appreciated widely within Mattel. It has been a great learning experience as we achieved these milestones through tremendous partnership amongst the larger team,” he said. One of the key objectives before him when he joined the organization was to showcase Mattel India and its Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to the world at large. “In the past year, we have been able to showcase the ‘WONDER’ culture at Mattel India, which has helped us to engage better with candidates as we onboard them for the growth journey ahead,” said Hurkat. The company has been able to leverage employer branding to attract the right talent in India, and this is an ideal opportunity for Hurkat and his team to apply these practices to advantage in South-East Asia. According to him, what has helped in his Mattel India journey is his ability to understand the organizational growth journey and building the culture and ecosystem that inspire employees; something that he has learnt working in other MNCs across sectors in the last 14 years. Hurkat began his career in 2004 and has worked with companies such as Vodafone India, LafargeHolcim, Aditya Birla and Mondelez International. He recalled fondly how he led the design and creation of a high-performance work culture for what is claimed to be the biggest chocolate factory in the world and largest in Asia Pacific, for Mondelez at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh. “People are at the heart of any organization. With HR, one gets an opportunity to be the enabler to help the organization win in the market.” he says.
The Centre dismissed Usha Ananthasubramanian as MD and CEO of Allahabad Bank, saying it was needed to secure the interest of this public sector bank that she had led from May 2017. She was to retire soon, but was dismissed ahead of that. Three months ago, Ananthasubramanian was divested of all her powers as MD of Allahabad Bank, after being named in a CBI charge sheet in the Rs.13,500-crore PNB fraud case but had continued to be an employee of the bank. She had been MD and CEO of PNB between August 2015 and May 2017, before moving to Allahabad Bank. Meanwhile, media reports said the Centre has also given permission to the CBI to prosecute Ananthasubramanian and former PNB Executive Director, Sanjiv Sharan. In taking this decision for her removal, the Department of Financial Services had consulted the Board of Allahabad Bank, said a formal notification issued by the Centre. This removal action comes in the wake of her having failed to exercise proper control over the functioning of Punjab National Bank while serving as its MD & CEO, which had enabled the much talked about SWIFT-related Nirav Modi-perpetrated fraud at PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai go undetected for several years, snowballing to a large amount. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, PNB said, “With a view to further improve corporate governance and excellence, PNB is taking all required steps to check any kind of gap, loopholes and deviations in systems and procedures. Norms are being strengthened and standard operating procedures are being revisited. The move in this direction has been appreciated by all stakeholders.” The bank has a strong foundation and is committed to implement ethical standards besides tightening the norms wherever required despite demonstration carried out by Officers’ Associations/Unions at some centers, the statement added.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has appointed Animesh Kumar as Chief People Officer. Kumar has moved from the Future Group, where he was chief people & transformation officer for a very short stint of five months. Prior to that he spent long years at IDFC Bank. Kumar, who was heading the Bank’s human resources division since 2009, moved out of IDFC after NS Rajan joined as the CHRO and CMO. For a few months, he was on a sabbatical. At Zee, he will report to Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL. The mandate for Kumar is to transform Zee into a dynamic workplace that can attract the best talent, enable innovative people practices, and support the growing workforce needs.” Human capital is the most important source of competitive advantage in media and entertainment and I am delighted to lead the HR function of this pioneering brand, which 25 years ago sparked not just a company, but an entire industry in itself,” says Animesh Kumar. For Kumar, this will be his first stint with a media company. An XLRI pass out, Kumar has over 25 years of experience of which a large part was spent with leading banks of the country. Kumar completed his PGDPM & IR from XLRI in 1993 and holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Shri Ram College of Commerce. After passing out of XLRI in 1993, Kumar started his career with Marico. He worked with the FMCG company as HR Manager for more than five years. His next destination was Thomas Cook, where he spent two years as HR manager. In 2001, Kumar moved to the banking industry. He joined Standard Chartered Bank as head of performance & rewards and was with the bank for around three and a half years. In May 2004, he moved to Yes Bank as Country Head-HR, for a short stint of nine months. In April 2005, he had joined ABN Amro Bank as Vice President-HR. In 2009, Kumar joined IDFC Bank as Group Head-HR. There, he rose above the ranks to become head of HR and brand. He was also the CEO of IDFC Foundation. Future Group was Kumar’s first non-banking stint after 17 years. Here, he was to lead transformations, future of work, future of retailing and design of a tech augmented workplace.
Nalin Garg, who was spearheading the human resources function in HT Media. In his quest to venture into a different market and experience a new culture altogether, Garg has shifted base to Dubai as he joined a realty firm, DAMAC Group, as the senior Vice President, people and performance. DAMAC Properties is one of the key players in the luxury real estate market in the Middle East. It offers residential, commercial and leisure properties across the region, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon and the UK. The Group owns and operates the only Trumpbranded golf club in the Middle East. In the first half of 2018, the Company delivered 1,490 units compared to 1,071 units in the same period last year. The Company plans to deliver over 4,000 units in 2018. Garg is excited to work in a multicultural setup with the Group, which has operations in different verticals. Garg will now be part of the Group’s ambitious expansion plans as it increases its presence in new geographies, such as China and London. Garg, a dual master’s in personnel management and Industrial Relations from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and political science from the University of Mumbai, has been exposed to multicultural environments in his past roles. Those experiences will help him build a talent pool from different backgrounds to drive the agenda of the organization.
by Joe Williams
