India, Inc.'s new mantra: Serve thy motherland CHAITALI CHAKRAVARTY AND BHANU PANDE
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2006 12:27:41 AM]
NEW DELHI: Even Indians are buying the India Story. Corporate executives are refusing plum foreign postings and settling for the home turf to prove their mettle. Search firms believe the phenomenon has come to the forefront in the last six months and will gather steam in '06-07.
"As many as 7 out of 10 top executives prefer domestic assignments to overseas postings. The trend has reversed in the last five years," says Ronesh Puri, MD of search firm Executive Access.
Adds Deepak Gupta of Korn Ferry, "My conservative estimate is that 60% of the CEOs in multinational companies wouldn't take up a foreign offer."
Search firms attribute it to several reasons. But the primary ones are developed markets have shrunk to such an extent that it's no fun working there anymore.
Second, salary differentials have narrowed down considerably, so dollar salaries are not top in the priority list and most importantly, the quality of the life index in India has improved so much that executives don't hanker after international postings like they used to be in the past.
"Which country offers farmhouses measuring several acres to CEOs?" asks a head hunter.
Also, family life and kids' education have assumed importance in the last few years. Executives are willing to sacrifice cushy foreign postings if they find that their children's education would suffer."
ET is withholding names of executives who have refused overseas postings because they are currently finalising fresh assignments in India.
Market sources said that Rohit Srivastava, head of planning in ad agency Contract, has repeatedly declined an overseas posting, a few senior Gillette executives have recently declined plum offers in Europe and exploring opportunities with companies in India, and some point to the fact that during the last few months even Hindustan Lever saw some top executives declining cushy overseas assignment for a position in India itself.
The investment banking community is also saying no to foreign offers.
According to Mr Gupta, vacancies in the Middle East have become even more difficult to fill. "The tax-free regime of the Middle East used to be a big draw a few years ago. Not anymore. There's so many opportunities in India that even expats are coming in droves," he says.
According to Preety Kumar, managing partner of search firm Amrop International, the developed markets including Europe have become staid with petering growth, and the US has its own issues.
"The scale and complexity of what can be achieved in India is something no other comparative market can match and top executives are increasingly warming up to this idea," she adds.