India a hot destination for CEOs

New Delhi: It seems that the brain drain is becoming a passe. Top executives in several multinational companies are declining senior-level assignments abroad because they do not want to miss opportunities in India, reported Business Standard.

India is becoming one of the hottest destinations for expatriates (both those of Indian origin and foreigners) for top jobs. Thanks to the hefty pay packages being offered by big business houses in India. These pay packets that are equivalent to and sometimes more than global benchmarks.

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This is a key finding of a study of senior recruitment trends by U.S. based SpencerStuart, a leading executive search firm that specializes in recruiting CEOs, presidents and COOs for companies globally. It recruits CEOs for almost half the Fortune 500 companies.

SpencerStuart, which has operations in India, said for key sectors like retail, real estate, power, oil and gas and refining, transportation and logistics, Indian business houses are offering annual salary packages ranging from $750,000 to $1.5 million - excluding stock options.

Nearly half the CEOs and COOs recruited in these sectors are foreigners (including non-resident Indians).

"Expats are increasingly finding India a more exciting market to work than mature markets. And large Indian companies in certain sectors are willing to pay remunerations equivalent to global salaries to get talent which is difficult to get in India," said Anjali Bansal, managing director of SpencerStuart.

As a strategy, SpencerStuart has advised clients to shift regional headquarters from, say, Singapore or Hong Kong to India so that senior Indian executives can operate as heads from India. Several companies are considering this option.

SpencerStuart also said certain countries have been identified for CEO recruitment for India. Contrary to common belief the U.S. is not the favored recruitment ground.

In real estate the happy hunting grounds include Australia, south east Asia and the UK, amongst others. For oil and gas and power they are Kazakhstan, the North Sea area, Canada and West Asia. For retail the hottest recruitment grounds are West Asia, south east Asia (especially Hong Kong) and Europe.

Bansal said that the recruitment ground is essentially from countries that have seen similar development as India.
Source: IANS