STARTUP SPECIAL...The Man who Put the Spotlight on Startups

The Man who Put the  Spotlight on Startups   ...and the award goes to GLOBAL INDIAN NIKESH ARORA President,  SoftBank Corp Nikesh Arora easily won the Global Indian award, edging out the two other contenders -Prem Vatsa and Sundar Pichai -who were considered by the jury . Said one juror, “One of the criteria is the connect with India.  And Nikesh has lots of that.“ Another noted the way he has invested in India and how he is a big reason for the spotlight on startups. Jurors spoke of his “tremendous track record“ at Google before SoftBank. Yet another juror praised him for being an excellent mentor to entrepreneurs, spending long hours with teams of his investee companies. For Arora, 2015 has been a stellar year. The India-born executive was appointed president of Japanese telecom giant SoftBank in June, and it was hinted he could succeed its iconic founder Masayoshi Son. “It is a great honour to be awarded the Global Indian of the Year (Award). I am, and have always been, proud of my Indian heritage,“ said Arora, 47. “In my new role, I am lucky to be able to support the startup ecosystem in India. I accept this award with both pleasure and humility .“ Just a year ago, he was paid $137 million by the company and appointed its vice-chairman. With Son lavishing praise on Arora, he has emerged as one of the strongest candidates to succeed Son. Arora said, “There were many deserving companies, and adjudication was not easy .The process was robust and all the jury members played an active role, ensuring the best nominee won in each category .“ SoftBank has also been betting aggressively on India, and Arora's relationships in the country will play a major role in fulfilling its global ambitions. When Son and Arora visited India last year, they announced investments worth nearly $1 billion in startups. The company has hinted that it could invest up to $10 billion in Indian firms. The company recently formed a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn to invest nearly $20 billion in India to generate 20GW of solar power. It is billed as one of the largest foreign direct investments coming into India. Arora went to the US for an MBA course. He was a telecom analyst at  Putnam Investments, a startup founder, and a top executive at T-Mobile before joining Google in 2004. That year, Google went public. Arora, who started at Google as president of sales for the European region, rose to be come its chief business officer. He was one of the highest paid executives there. Arora began his career at Wipro in the early days of the personal computer.  “It's amazing how he differentiated himself and moved ahead of the pack so early,“ said IT veteran Ashok Soota, the CEO at Wipro till 1999. Arora's ability to quickly plan and execute large-scale changes and ambitious growth plans were widely appreciated at Google.“Nikesh is himself a prototypical smart creative,“ Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt wrote in his book `How Google Works'. Referring to a  reorganisation at Google in 2012, Schmidt wrote, “Unlike most sales leaders, Nikesh planned and executed the reorganisation in just a few weeks... As a result, the organisation design was stronger than initially conceived, and the team was more invested in its success because it helped create the end result.“ ET19OCT15