Finding Captains to steer the MEGA ship.

Its always hard to steer an entity  which is almost the size of a small country, and even if we got one good captain, he is not here to stay for more than couple of years.  Yes, i am mentioning about having a good captain for a company which has around 4 lac people in its payroll and the volume of business it handles is around USD 70 billion.   TATA group with its current chairman is about to exit the position in 2012, is finding it hard to find a replacement.  The deadlines for finding the right person is being reset many times.

Its been known to everybody that, in the year 1991, when Mr.Ratan Tata was appointed the chairman, with his title in the name TATA, nobody was sure, on what kind of chairman he will be.  But its now evident that the Name RATAN TATA will be written in Golden letters in the books of India Inc, only because of his sheer talent in bringing up the TATA Group Revenue from USD 5.8bn to USD 70 billion in the year 2009-10, and profit has risen from USD 310 million to USD 2.17 billion in his period.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed on the TATA's decision.

Now its turn for another company (INFOSYS) to find its real ring master.  When the founders who has been the captains of this organisation till this time is getting to Extinct, its a tough challenge for the Board to find the right person for Chairmanship in the coming years.   When the company is planning to become a real multinational company, it will be hard for the new ones to take it to the next step.  Now its turn of Mr.Kamath,  who is  stalwart in india INC.  His talent in troubleshooting the hardest of times is well known throughout the world.  His influence in bringing together Ambani brothers was an excellent example of his strategic thinking.

Lets wish Mr.Kamath ( Elected Chairman ) and Mr.Shibu,( Elected CEO), a wonderful years ahead, and wish them all the success and hope that they will take Infosys to level in the Global map, which no other Indian company has made before. 

But few questions remain open.

• But does our Indian companies have a clear cut successor policy ?
• Does our captains are ready to give the baton to others in the right time ? ( we have to salute Mr.Narayana Murthy, on his decisions on passing on the baton to others in the right time)
• Does our Captains are ready to come out of Family tree structure ?

In the coming decade, india will have to face such situations regularly, and Lets wish for the best to happen in the INDIA Inc.