Last week, Cisco Systems' chairman and CEO John Chambers named Padmasree Warrior and Pankaj Patel as possible successors when he retires as CEO in two to four years. That has sparked off the question - could there be more such CEO contenders at other global tech giants?
At Microsoft, Hyderabad boy Satya Nadella manages a $19-billion division that builds and runs its computing platforms, developer tools and cloud services. He is president of Microsoft's server and tools business.
There are about half-a-dozen Indians among the top 25 roll call at Microsoft. Together, they hold over 100 patents.
The global R&D heads of two database and business software majors Oracle and SAP are from India. Thomas Kurian is executive V-P, product development, Oracle, and Vishal Sikka is CTO and a board member at SAP. Kurian, who reports to Oracle founder CEO Larry Ellison, oversees Oracle's 3,000-odd product development efforts and is responsible for development and delivery of Oracle's software product portfolio including Oracle database, Oracle Fusion Middleware and business software. Sonny Singh is its senior VP, responsible for worldwide go-to-market strategy.
At Google, Sundar Pichai was recently elevated as senior vice-president, Android, Chrome & Google Apps. Nikesh Arora, senior V-P & chief business officer, is also part of the key leadership.
Need to be bifocal
Without doubt, dozens of top-notch Indian-origin managers are shaping destinies of $20-billion-plus technology firms like Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. But none has yet managed to emulate the likes of Indra Nooyi, Vikram Pandit, Anshu Jain or Arun Sarin by rising to the very top.
Could someone from this new crop of Indians, all still in their forties and already a part of the top management teams at several global tech giants, break into the corner room? "All Indians heading businesses within large companies are CEO material," says Vivek Wadhwa, V-P (innovation & research), Singularity University, and an influential Indian living in California. "The question is what companies they will be CEOs of." His thesis - those that don't make it to the top at these large firms will leave to eventually lead other companies.
Indians have a better shot at rising in younger companies like Google, Cisco or Oracle rather than older ones like IBM, says K Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners International, an executive search firm. "Older companies tend to be more traditional and also have fewer Indians in the top echelons. I believe Indians have a better chance in newer companies."
Similarly, Indians may have better chances in companies where the founder isn't around or in companies that have seen frequent CEO changes, says Ravi Venkatesan, former chairman, Microsoft India and a director on the boards of Infosys and AB Volvo. He quotes Yahoo and HP as hypothetical examples.
Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGate sees another entry opportunity for Indian managers. "Professional CEOs have shorter lives than founder-CEOs. The process of transition (of CEOs) in technology industry has started and the landscape will be visibly different in the next few years in both software technologies and services."
Not that Indians have not headed global technology companies - Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe Systems and Sanjay Mehrotra, president & CEO, SanDisk stand out. However, Mehrotra is a co-founder and these are much smaller than the global biggies like Cisco or Microsoft.
What it takes to be CEO
"I don't see why an Indian won't make it (as CEO of a large tech firm)," says Venkatesan. "But to head global technology giants, you need to be bifocal - one eye on the quarter and the other on the long term. That coupled with the ability to make difficult unpopular decisions, and stomach for doing something big..."
Venkatesan points to Sam Palmisano, IBM's CEO from 2002 and 2012, as an example. "He had the courage to dump the PC business. In 2003, he came to India and saw the rise of Infosys and TCS and brought the IBM board along. He pivoted the whole company around India," he says. "There's no shortage of drive among Indians, but boards look at ability to change the game."
"These are high-tech engineering companies. So the tilt will be towards a top notch engineer," says the former India head of a global tech major.
"Pichai will score over Arora at Google and Kurian will be preferred over Singh at Oracle as the latter, in both companies, are sales focussed. Look at Pichai, he heads Android and Chrome globally - the very core of Google's businesses."
Both he and Venkatesan point out that CEO aspirants need to demonstrate both business vision and tech skills. Indians form key part of the global talent at technology majors, but it'll take much more than engineering skills to head the companies, adds Venkatesan, the author of the soon-to-be-released book, Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere.
It's going to be a suspenseful wait for many Indians who are in the reckoning. "I'm flattered to have been mentioned, but I am focused on my role as chief technology and strategy officer," Padmasree Warrior, chief technology & strategy officer, Cisco Systems, told ET two days after Chambers named her as a possible successor. "When John decides to step down in the next 2-4 years and the board makes the selection of the next CEO, we will all support that decision."
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