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Campus to the Corner Room
Large
multinationals have robust campus programmes in place to hire young talent
and groom them into leadership positions.
Profiles of professionals who
have been assigned important roles in the companies that hired them from
campuses
HUL
Sudhir Sitapati | 36
GM & CATEGORY HEAD, SKIN CLEANSING BUSINESS
Campus: IIM Ahmedabad
Year of Hiring: 1999
LEADERSHIP MANTRA: It’s not okay to be apprehensive
about the team you lead, and you should have no malice towards them.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Worked as brand manager and senior brand manager for one
of HUL’s primary brands, Surf Excel, between 2002 and 2006. Became the
regional brand director, laundry for South Asia between 2008 and 2010.
TURNING POINT AS A LEADER: Between 2000 and 2002, as area sales manager, Sitapati
was in charge of the soaps and detergent sales business in Madhya Pradesh.
He led a 20-member team, comprising some older people. He led the team from
the front, planned programmes and did the rounds of retailers. It taught
him that leaders should push themselves to move out of their comfort zone,
and won him a lot of respect.
CORNERSTONE OF THE COMPANY’S CAMPUS PROGRAMME
HUL has programmes like Learn to Lead, a leadership lecture series
wherein senior company leaders share their lessons at top campuses. The
company also helps design curriculums, says Anuradha Razdan, GM, leadership
development. The 15-month Unilever Future Leaders programme enables
cross-functional national and international leadership stints.
BEST LEADERSHIP ADVICE
At the time of campus
placements, Sitapati had options from banks and consulting fi rms, but his
father insisted he opt for a job which allowed him to get his hands dirty.
An ex-boss also taught him to praise others in public and to choose the
battles one must fi ght.
JINDAL STEEL & POWER
Ashish Kumar | 42
CEO, SOUTHERN AFRICA, JINDAL STEEL & POWER
Campus: Thapar Engineering and
Technology Institute
Year of Hiring: 1992
LEADERSHIP MANTRA:
Life offers opportunities and challenges, but with confi dence and
transparency on both professional and personal levels, all things are
possible.
TURNING POINT AS A LEADER:
Arrived in South Africa in 2008 to search for business opportunities
for the group. Within five years, built operations in seven countries and a
team of about 2,000 people.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Acquisition of Shadeed Steel plant in Oman and a Canadian listed coal
company, CIC Energy Corp, for about $116 million by way of a merger of
Jindal BVI and CIC. Also played a key role in the establishment of JSPL
Mozambique, which was incorporated and registered in 2008 — considered a
huge milestone for Jindal Africa.
CORNERSTONE OF THE COMPANY’S CAMPUS PROGRAMME: The Jindal Lead
Management Trainee programme nurtures young talent through a rigorous
programme that entails cross-functional exposure; provides an accelerated
career path to high-potential employees and gives them platforms to
showcase their drive as business leaders, says Rajeev Bhadauria, director,
group HR at Jindal Steel & Power.
BEST LEADERSHIP ADVICE
From Jindal Steel & Power chairman Naveen Jindal: a business leader
must inculcate an insatiable desire for continual business improvement,
incessant empowerment and communication that has an impact.
CITI INDIA
Piyush Agrawal | 37
MANAGING DIRECTOR, COUNTRY RISK MANAGEMENT OFFICER, CITI SOUTH ASIA
Campus: MBA, Wake Forest
University, North Carolina, US
Year of Hiring: 2001
LEADERSHIP MANTRA:
Leadership, to him, is about building teams and inspiring people. You
have to be interested in them, their careers, their well being. Its also
about always doing the right thing, no matter what the circumstances are. ACHIEVEMENTS:
Safeguarding the balance sheet by having the conviction to take a
contrarian view at a time when competition was making popular bets. “We
have embedded risk management in the way we do business,” he says.
MCKINSEY & COMPANY Toshan
Tamhane | 33 PARTNER, MCKINSEY & COMPANY
Campus: IIM A
Year of Hiring: 2002
LEADERSHIP MANTRA:
Take risks — five years later, the worst regrets are about the things
one did not do as opposed to the things one did.
TURNING POINT AS A LEADER: As project manager, almost overnight,
people came to him for direction. The transformational moment came at a
client meeting with top management and senior advisors, when the CEO turned
to him and said, “So, Toshan, what do you think I should do?” ACHIEVEMENTS:
One of the youngest partners at McKinsey. Was a nationallevel table
tennis player and AV Birla Scholar (among top 10 students across IIMs).
CORNERSTONE OF THE COMPANY’S CAMPUS PROGRAMME: “We do not have a
separate HR department for recruitments. Our 65 partners in India interview
candidates for campus recruitments,” says Renny Thomas, partner. The firm
recruits from over 30 top campuses across India.
BEST LEADERSHIP ADVICE This came from a client: Empower others to
make yourself redundant as soon as possible from the situation so that you
can take on bigger tasks (On a lighter note, respond late to emails — the
problem has gone away by the time you get to it!)
Anumeha Chaturvedi
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