Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Indians in demand for regional roles- The Economic Times

The Indian MNC executives are the new regional ‘rajahs’. Move over Japanese and Koreans, senior Indian executives are increasingly staking their claim in bigger regional roles at the CXO level, a space that was till now a reserved sanctuary for executives from the far east or
expats.

Indians are now being perceived as better leaders. Its s a growing popular perception that they can handle complexities of business and issues like multi ethnicity

In the last ten years, the pool of managers who can handle complexity, adversity and also regulatory aspects has grown exponentially.

It is true that for last few years increasing number of Indians are taking up Regional Role especially in Asia Pacific Region and as India Starts to open up this is expected to continue

I also have a regional role and it was not easy reaching here. During this process, I had to fight some very entrenched Interests . For long time, the AP Role was domain of Expats and Chinese. There is reason for it. Initially, multinationalationals posted their experienced managers from USA/Europe to manage the business in AP. In last few decades, as the business in Asia (mostly in China and South East Asia) grew, the need for local managers also grew. First choice was obiviously People from Chinese Race as Chinese had sizable population and were better placed in all these countries.

During all these times, Indians were restriTechnicalTechical Role. However, for past few years, these Tech. Guru's rose in ranks and started to take up management position. They were able to prove their mettle.

In my opinion, It is difficult to Judge who would be a better manager. Chinese by culture are not Extroverts. They tend to be more methodical and process driven, so they would be good in running an existing business. In an army they would make an excellent soldier. But they would find it difficult where data is not available to support decision making process. Indians by nature are more "Thinking". Indian Managers have better leadership qualities and they are unconventional. They would make better candidate to develop and grow a business.

If I were to own a company I would put an Indian responsible to Develop the business and Put an Chinese as operations manager

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