Saturday, April 30, 2011

India Inc's most powerful CEOs 2011: Ratan Tata tops the list for 3 years in a row



Ratan Tata
Source :29 APR, 2011, 06.53AM IST,ET BUREAU 



 Ratan Tata has topped the ET-Corporate Dossier ranking of India Inc's Most Powerful CEOs for the third year in a row, with Mukesh Ambani ofReliance Industries holding on to second position.

Telecom czar Sunil Mittal has moved from fifth to third position this year, while Azim Premji has climbed from sixth to fourth. 

The survey, which was conducted by IMRB in January, puts Anil Ambani at fifth position, a notch lower than last year. NR Narayana Murthy, who topped the ranking for the first three years of the annual survey, still retains his hold on the public imagination and remains in Top 10, at sixth position. 

The most dramatic entry into the Top 10 is that of Naveen Jindal,, who also happens to be a Congress MP, jumps 37 ranks to take his place at tenth position.

The survey, now in its seventh year, asked 500 senior executives from India Inc largest companies to rate India Inc's CEOs on leadership, strategy and innovation, performance, stature, social contribution and governance. Promoters continue their strong performance in power listing, with 52 out of the 100 CEOs are members of wellknown family business houses. 

Analysing the findings, business historian Medha Kudaisya of the National University of Singapore said, "Except for Mr Narayana Murthy, all others come from business communities traditionally associated with trading, money lending, and banking." 

Since a CEO derives his power from the company he controls, it is not surprising to find 13 heads of financial service companies on the list.

At eighth position, Chanda Kochhar of ICICI is India Inc's most powerful woman, followed by Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank , at 24. Other bankers in the top 20 are Aditya Puri and Deepak Parekh of HDFC , OP Bhatt of SBI and Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra. 

There are 40 professional CEOS on the list, including 11 PSU CEOs.

 Power is all in the mind, and the most powerful individuals are arguably those who are able to capture the public imagination with the power of their ideas.

 Along with the main CEO ranking, the ET survey also looks at other categories, such as global Indian business leaders, who have risen to powerful positions while based abroad. 

Topping this list is LN Mittal, followed by Indra Nooyi of Pepsico, and Vikram Pandit of Citi. In an era that has seen the rise of the Indian academicians world-wide, another interesting sub-category of the survey is that of global Indian thought leaders. 

The top three here are consultant Ram Charan , Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Nitin Nohria , dean of Harvard Business School. 

The top three in the powerful MNC CEOs are Ravi Venkatesan , Naina Lal Kidwai and Nitin Paranjpe and in the most powerful women CEOs category, the top honours go to Chanda Kochhar, Kiran Majumdar Shaw and Naina Lal Kidwai. 

How has Ratan Tata managed to retain the top position despite his famed reticence and Radia tapes? 

Russi M Lala, biographer to both Jamsetji and JRD Tata said it is in part due to the reputation built by the previous generations of Tatas. "JRD always believed Ratan would be much like him. If he had been alive today, I am sure he would be proud of what Ratan has achieved," he said.

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