Sam Walton, CEO of Walmart had once said, “Capital isn’t scarce. Vision is.” The saga of every great company starts with a visionary idea, taken to another level by the leader of the company. The most remarkable CEOs are those with the ability to make futuristic predictions about their companies and industries. No CEOs are prophets, but an insightful CEO will have skills to chart a course for the future of his or her company.
BW Businessworld’s annual feature, ‘Most Valuable CEOs’ is a tribute to corporate top brass who have not only helped build their respective companies, but have also simultaneously contributed to nation building. This issue depicts Top CEOs in four categories. The special cover package has been anchored by Mumbai bureau head Clifford Alvares, with contributions from BW bureau members across India. Cedar Management Consulting was our knowledge partner and contributed considerably towards rendering our annual accolade for the best corporate leaders in India, an interesting and informative read.
We have shortlisted CEOs, who are natural leaders and visionaries. For instance, Sanjiv Mehta, CEO of FMCG behemoth, Hindustan Unilever is acknowledged as one of the best CEOs because he played a role in building leadership talent and strengthening the organisational capabilities that assisted in expanding his company’s operations.
Varun Berry, who was elevated from COO to CEO of Britannia India, for all the right reasons, was primarily focused on innovation. He brings a fine Greek bakery to Indian households.Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and many others have earned widespread respect for their ability to revolutionise the world with their innovation and vision.
From the “heavyweights” among CEOs, we have profiled C. P. Gurnani of Tech Mahindra and N. Chandrasekaran of TCS and Pawan Munjal of Hero MotoCorp. In the next category of CEOs, of ‘Very Large’ corporate entities, we have K. N. Radhakrishnan of TVS Motors, A.A.V. Ranga Raju of NCC Ltd., Gagan Banga of Indiabulls Housing and K.B.S. Anand of Asian Paints.
In the ‘Large’ category, we feature Siddharth Lal of Eicher Motors, Prasan Firodia of Force Motors, Chrirayu Amin of Alembic Pharmaceuticals and B. K. Goenka of Welspun India. In the ‘Medium’ category, we profile Indra Kumar of Avanti Feeds, Anil Kumar Jain of Indo Count Industries, Madhukar Dev of Tata Elxsi and Shobhana Ramachandran of TVS Srichakra, among others.
This issue contains another package on the quandaries of companies that trail behind the market leader and the second best, in any industry segment. Our story line is, ‘Being Number Three Sucks’. More often than not, the third market player becomes the big loser. And if you have been a market leader in the past and been overtaken by nimbler and smarter competitors, the threat of dwindling down to irrelevance and even extinction, lurks somewhere in the horizon. We are putting big guns like Bajaj Auto, Idea, SnapDeal, Jet Airways, Tata Motors and Axis Bank under the scanner for this segment. This cover story has been anchored by Deputy Editor Sutanu Guru, with contributions from other editorial collegues.
As the Smart Cities Mission turns two, we bring you a special interview with Rajiv Gauba, Secretary in the Union ministry of Urban Development. And of course, our cover story is an insight into some really creative minds.
BW Reporters
The author is the Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of the BW Businessworld Group and the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the exchange4media Group
