Most senior IT executives shift to non-IT

By Christo Jacob   |   Thursday, 21 August 2008, 22:45 IST
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Bangalore: We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sail. Now after reaching the topmost level in MNCs, most of the senior executives in the IT industry are loosing their focus and are adjusting their sail to pursue their career in non-IT industry. The move is due to the present scenario in the IT industry, which is demotivating and stagnant for the senior level management, finds a Careernet Consulting survey. Also for these executives, the other industries are making attractive promises as they are also facing a leadership crunch. Mphasis founder and Chairman, Jerry Rao is one among such executives who made a move to a non-IT sector. He joined New Enterprise Associates (India) as Venture Advisors in February 2008. Sudhir Sethi, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, IDG Ventures India, and Vivek Paul, Partner at the Texas Pacific Group too decided to quit Wipro later in their career. Sethi has spent twelve years as a senior executive at Wipro and Paul was Vice Chairman of Wipro and CEO of its global information technology, product engineering, and business process services segments. Perot Systems President and Managing Director Padma Ravichander too had opted to lead the India operations of Mercer's human resource consultancy. Illinois-based Hewitt Associates hired Vishal Pandit to head its South Asia and Middle East operations. Pandit is new to HR consulting, looking after consumer finance at GE Money India, a subsidiary of U.S.' General Electric, before joining his new position. The hiring of generalists is a reflection of how some companies are coping with a talent crunch at leadership roles in a business. With global ambitions flying thick and fast, some of the best companies in the world, including Indian firms are investing serious resources to create a pool of global leaders. These leaders, who already hold key positions, are being groomed to take up top-level responsibilities across geographies. Envisioning the trend Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Infosys, Satyam, Schneider Electric, Calyon and UTi, are some of the companies who have adopted such an initiative to retain the leaders and stop them to scout switching their career.