Expatriate CEOs make way for local talent
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 15:59 IST   |    2 Comments
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Expatriate CEOs make way for local talent
New Delhi: Find it difficult to make the transition and adapt to the local culture among others, some of India's leading expatriate CEOs who were hired to oversee vital functions of the company are leaving the Indian shores, making room for the local talent. "We do agree that expatriate CEOs have made way for local CEOs in a few cases in the past. But we are not seeing any large-scale replacement of expatriate talent with local talent," global executive research firm EMA Partners International Managing Partner (India) K Sudarshan said. According to him, the deteriorating business environment has caused this trend. On two recent resignations by expat CEOs in ING Vysya Bank and GoAir, Sudarshan said: "There is not much to be read from that as these are part of routine churn in companies". Earlier this week, ING Vysya Bank announced that its CEO Vaughn Richtor has stepped down from his position on completion of his three-year tenure and a two-month extension and low-cost carrier GoAir's CEO Edgardi Badiali has also resigned from his post. Nigel Harwood, Chief operating officer of Kingfisher Airlines, had quit his position in 2006. Besides, HyperCity Retail India's Andrew Levermore, JetLite India's Maunu von Lueders and IndiGo's Bruce Ashby also followed the similar path. Sudarshan said that in general expatriates make a good fit in back end, the non market facing roles. "In businesses like airlines, which are still relatively new to the private sector in India, the dependence on expatriate talent is high and will continue to be so in the near future. These businesses require operational expertise and such people are difficult to find in the local market and hence the dependence on expatriate talent," he added. Sudarshan further added, "we have seen that expatriates who have come to India on short-term contracts as subject matter experts in businesses like retail etc, their contracts have not been extended post their initial period (of) 12 months to 24 months." Pharmaceutical research and R&D is also another area where there are expatriate executives serving in Indian and multinational companies.

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