India Inc witnesses reverse CXOdus

MUMBAI: For mid-career corporate high-fliers looking to jet into premium business class, life’s just got a little tougher. As if competition for top jobs wasn’t hard enough, the wannabe-CXO now has to deal with ethnic Indians returning from around the globe.
For every Sumant Sinha, former Wall Street-boy-turned Kumar Mangalam Birla’s CFO, or Raymond Bickson, the Taj Hotel’s new Hawaiian CEO, there are a dozen Murali M.N.’s winging their way back home.
Mr Murali quit Citibank last year after 13 years, including three-year stints in Hong Kong and Jakarta, to join StandardChartered Bank’s Mumbai office as head of its home and auto loans business. Mr Murali says he chose India as this was where the action really was. “I am looking for an interesting professional life in a challenging market like India.And if I make as much money as other professionals here—even though it’s not equivalent to overseas compensation packages—it’s fine.’’
Not surprisingly, Indian companies are welcoming these professionals with open arms, especially since many of these prodigals, faced with increased lay-offs and stringent visa requirements in the West and Asian markets, are willing to take pay cuts. Executive search firm Accord Group director Sonal Agarwal says that competition is intensifying for the mid and top slots. “But companies still view returning NRIs as a more expensive resource,’’ she adds.
However, lack of cash doesn’t seem to be a major hindrance for overseas candidates as the gap between salaries in India and the West is slowly narrowing,while it is roughly comparable with other Asian markets.
Socio-demographic conditions, the desire to bring up children in India and the comparative stability that the country offers are other pull factors for NRI executives.
With new-found global ambitions, Indian companies want executives who have experience in other markets, be it to introduce global benchmarks in Indian operations or help Indian firms break into export markets and eventually become multinationals.
AV Birla group’s HR director Santrupt Misra, who has hired six mid- and top-level NRI executives in the last 12 to 15 months, says that it’s natural that companies now look at international candidates as India is truly globalising.