Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Next CEO of Satyam - Rusi Brij, Vivek Paul or???

An interesting question. There are many names doing the rounds. I think before we answer that question we need to ask ourselves what are the skills that we are looking for?? In my mind, given the current situation, we need to at a minimum have the following:


  • Proven capability in building and managing a significant ITO/BPO organization.

  • Unquestioned Integrity and understanding of what Corporate Governance means in letter and spirit.

  • Deep understanding of Finance and Regulatory Compliance

  • Respect and credibility with existing Satyam Employees as well as Global Customers

There are many more one could list, but the above are "must haves".


Given the above I have - based on my years of experience in the IT Outsourcing Industry and personal knowledge of some of the possible candidates out there - come up with a short list of names that I think would pass the "must have" litmus test.


Rusi - currently Vice Chairman, Hexaware comes to mind as he was (like Ashok Soota in Wipro) the person who built Satyam in its foundation years. He left the company in 2001 to join Hexaware as its CEO and very rapidly turned it around. Knows the company, knows its customers.


Vivek Paul - the name is doing the rounds - took over the mantle from Ashok at Wipro and built it into the company you see today. Big brand.


Saurabh Srivastava - Another great guy. He built IIS Infotech, sold/merged it successfully and since then sits on various Boards both in the private and the government sector. Significant contribution in branding India Inc. in the ITO/BPO Outsourcing space globally. Has tremendous credibility with the Government.

I personally can't choose between them. They are ALL great guys. I am taking the easy way out and have created a Poll (on the left) and will let India Inc. choose.

People will ask why not Narayana Murthy (he has too much of a vested interest in Infosys - potential conflict of interest), Ashok Soota (he is running Mindtree and again has a significant stake there - could be an option if they merge the 2 companies, but thats too much to do), etc.

There are many good people out there - these are my choices.

1 comment:

  1. Why are we looking out of Satyam. It may be that we could find out body from Satyam top leaders . We all know that is very tough time for Satyam and whole market as well. This time CEO of Satyam is like sitting on fire and remain sitting for next few years.

    It's position on fire.

    ReplyDelete