USA’s Love for Indian CEOs

Last Updated : 19 Sep, 2023

With the appointment of Sundar Pichai as the Chief Executive Officer(CEO), Google has joined the club of Microsoft, Pepsi, Deutsche Bank, MasterCard, Adobe Systems, London-traded consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser and other influential companies across the globe. This club of leading Multinational Companies, have one thing in common: They are now helmed by CEOs of Indian origin.

What’s common in all the Indian CEOs? Each one of them is in his 40s or 50s and have graduated from International standard Universities either in the United States or the United Kingdom and very obviously, did their schooling from India. Some of them like Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, are Engineering grads from top-notch Indian Colleges, with both MS and MBA degree abroad. Others like Indra Nooyi, Ajay Banga, and Ivan Menezes are MBAs from IIMs.

But there must be a reason why so many Indians and not others from emerging countries like China, Russia or Japan have made eminent corporate careers? What is it that makes Indians so uniquely appropriate for the top slot at tech firms?

The answer to these questions is simple. Indians Managers get to the top because they persevere. They have the patience to slowly rise in one company and not switch companies every now and then for some extra money offered. They’ve ‘achieved'(and not ‘become’) for what they are now. After more than two decades of hard work at Microsoft, Nadella was named the CEO. Also, Sundar Pichai had been working for Google since 2004. Nooyi had joined PepsiCo. way back in 1994 and has been with them since then. Also, Anshu Jain, Menezes, and Narayen have been patiently working in their respective organizations for more than a decade.

Another point which is important to mention with regard to Indians is their Humility at work. You can be a CEO, who sits in his cubicle whole day, working on files and projects, or you can be a humble CEO, moving all over the office from table to table working with every employee. According to research, “The feeling that the company genuinely cares for its employees, provided a strong bond of loyalty that went beyond financial rewards.” Padma Bhushan laureate Indra Nooyi says: “You need to look at the employee and say, I value you as a person. I know that you have a life beyond PepsiCo, and I’m going to respect you for your entire life, not just treat you as employee number 4,567.” Chipmaker GlobalFoundries’ CEO Sanjay Kumar Jha, is famous for rolling up his sleeves and working alongside his fellow techies.

Adding to these points are the facts that Indians are more focused on long-term strategies and have the ability to dream. Nadella said in his first mail to all the Microsoft employees, “We need to believe in the impossible and remove the improbable.”

Last but not least, a very small yet important point would be The English Language. Indians are well versed in English and speak it fluently as compared to senior executives from China and Japan. Maybe their(other countries) products are good but if they can’t communicate to the world in an attractive way, it’s worthless. We can consider this to be one odd good outcome of the British Colonisation in India, out of innumerable bad ones.

With the rise of personalities like Pichai, Nadella, and Narayen, questions about India’s own technology ambitions are being raised. With Indians filling the executive ranks in so many foreign companies, why hasn’t India developed it’s own Google till now? Where is India’s Microsoft? Why is it that a company like Apple isn’t born in India till now?

It is evident that India is now home to a thriving startup scene (Flipkart, Paytm, Hike, Ola, Freecharge, and the list goes on), and it could be only a matter of time before some of these companies turn into Multi-National Companies. Nowadays, each individual in India is thinking of a startup and there are a plethora of already established ones. I believe we are beginning to see some kind of maturity in India’s approach towards startups and the time when Indian companies would rule the world is not very far away.

List of Indian CEOs in top MNCs

1. Sundar Pichai- Google
2. Satya Nadella- Microsoft
3. Shantanu Narayen- Adobe Systems.
4. Anshuman Jain- Ex-Co-CEO Deutsche Bank
5. Indra Nooyi- Pepsi Co.
6. Ajaypal Singh Banga- Mastercard
7. Ivan Manuel Menezes- Diageo
8. Sanjay Jha- Global Foundries
9. Rakesh Kapoor- Reckitt Benckiser
10. Dinesh Paliwal- Harman International Industries

Article By Harshit Gupta
Kolkata based Harshit Gupta is an active blogger having keen interest in writing about current affairs, technical Blogs, stories, and personal life experiences. Besides passionate about writing, he also loves coding and dancing. Currently studying at IIEST, he is an active blog contributor at geeksforgeeks.