KV Kamath – India’s Banker becomes Chairman of Infosys

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Vikas Pota

Earlier today, it was announced that KV Kamath would become Chairman of Infosys – a major Indian and international IT services company that’s based in Bangalore.

In my book titled ‘India’s Inc – How India’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs Are Winning Globally’, I interviewed and included Kamath – although he wasn’t an entrepreneur per se – simply because he’d taken a boring, old world, finance institution and made it globally competitive – displaying all the traits that successful entrepreneurs display while building their businesses. In the book, I called him ‘India’s banker’ as ICICI had truly become a force in India. Their retail operations were slick, their corporate and investment bank delivered exceptional returns etc. The thing that truly marked him out, though, was his fascination with technology. He could have easily been the Chief Technology Officer for ICICI, such was his grasp of the potential technology held to provide a well deserved boost to his company.

For this reason, it came as no surprise that KVK, on retirement as CEO of ICICI, was asked to serve in Infy’s Board. So in many respects, this announcement also doesn’t come as a major surprise to the markets.

Interestingly, Narayana Murthy, founder and soon to retire Chairman of Infosys, also features in my book. Murthy’s known for many things but what stuck out was his commitment to retiring from Infosys as per the governance of the company. In many cases, such words are seen as niceties as it’s widely expected that their next generation will take over, so for this reason its important to mention and celebrate an entrepreneur who’s kept to his word on this – not that anyone has ever doubted it.

Recently, I’ve also read some of the media coverage around succession at Infosys in particular, which despite being interesting to ponder, is in fact a sign of things to come. Mr Murthy and his band of founders will retire soon. Whilst they claim that Infosys will thrive without them, Kamath’s appointment is a litmus test on their faith in the company that they’ve built.

It’ll be worth keeping an eye on Infosys, that’s for sure.

Wipro sells soaps and perfumes…

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Vikas Pota

Having read the following piece (http://publication.samachar.com/pub_article.php?id=6362247) I was reminded that many of the firms that we see in the top rankings of India’s business pages actually started life as something totally different.

Understanding their evolution helps, at least in my opinion, to understand the Indian business landscape a lot better.

There are some notable examples:

For example, as the article states, Wipro actually started off as a consumer goods firm that sold cooking oil and soap to Indians, it was only in 1980 that Azim Premji had his eureka moment and decided to change tack and add an IT business to his group. Subsequently – as we all know – that’s what Wipro’s become known for, but it still stands true that Wipro has a thriving consumer goods business, also.

The other is KV Kamath, who turned a boring development finance agency into a juggernaut in the banking sector. Whilst this doesn’t doesn’t seem to be a major divergence today, in those days it was a huge leap he had to take to make the transition.

My final example is that of Sunil Mittal’s Bharti group, which today is best known for its mobile phone business, but I have no doubt that in a decade or so, we’ll be wondering how he made the leap from telecoms czar to retail guru, with thousands of supermarkets scattered all over India, selling groceries, vegetables and all kinds of stuff that the discerning Indian shopper wishes to buy. Let’s not forget he’s done this before, after all he had a successful venture selling bicycle parts in the 70s and then electricity generators in the 80s.

Of course, we could go into the TATA story just as well, but the point of writing this piece was simply to highlight the fact that these companies have incredible histories, which if you read into and factor into your dealings, makes doing business with them a lot more meaningful.

Do Indian businesses really support sport?

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Vikas Pota

I’m a big fan of all things related to sports, so it comes as no surprise when I say that the UK India Business Council put together a fantastic line-up of sports personalities at their gala dinner last week, which took place at the Royal Courts of Justice and should be congratulated. In attendance were Dame Kelly Holmes, Monty Panesar, Kapil Dev, and the guy who brought the IPL to the world – Lalit Modi.

Earlier in the day, I’d had the privilege to attend the baton relay that had been organised by Buckingham Palace to mark the start of the journey for the Commonwealth Baton, which will end up in Delhi next year. So, with athletics and sport running through my head that day, the cynic in me wondered whether Indian business actually supports sport – beyond Cricket.

We know of examples like Lakshmi Mittal supporting tennis stars, Vijay Mallya, TCS and ICICI being involved in Formula 1, but does support for athletics and other lesser publicised sports really run through the veins of India’s business leaders? In the UK, we have clear examples of corporate money from Aviva supporting athletics, is there an equivalent in India? Will the Commonwealth Games change this?

It was Dame Kelly who made the point most eloquently to me when she said that the benefits of supporting kids from the grassroots are huge. Without this investment, as a society we’re poorer for the simple reason that sports personalities have long been considered the best role models for future generations to emulate.

It’d be great to learn as to whether Indian businesses are opening up to supporting grass-roots sports. If you have a view, let me know.

Are foreign banks interested in the 1 Rupee loan?

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Vikas Pota

Now that the dust from the Indian election has settled and portfolios have been allocated, with the Finance Minister going to Pranab Mukherjee, the question on everyone’s mind concerns whether we’re actually going to see reforms in various industry sectors. In particular, the one that interests me is the financial services industry.

In her joint address of the Indian Parliament last Thursday, President Pratibha Patil spoke of (a) the need to create a new pensions regulator, (b) easing foreign direct investment for international banks, and (c) the disinvestment of various public sector undertakings.

Whilst some of the largest international banks and insurance companies are already there, will the existing stakeholders – including the Indian banking fraternity allow this to happen? Lack of progress, only, holds back plans to make Mumbai an international centre for financial services.

It may be true that British insurers like Aviva, the Pru, Standard Life, Royal & Sun Alliance, and Legal and General have successful partnerships with Indian firms like Dabur, ICICI etc, but they’re held back from further expansion mainly as a result of the 26% cap on foreign ownership. Mr. Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, even commented that insurance penetration in India as being “pathetically low”. And that India must “move along with the rest of the world”.

With critical reforms not taking place, the insurance markets are dominated by inefficiency; stifling innovation and competition; and limiting expansion of life and health insurance to rural areas.

In the banking sector too, foreign banks have earned a good reputation . HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered all have a significant presence in India but the expansion of these and other international players is held back by high capital requirements, equity caps on foreign ownerships, restrictive limitations on new branch licenses, and burdensome licensing procedures.

With a population in excess of 1 billion, India allows only 12 new banking licences per year!

Indeed the need for further reform of the Indian banking sector is highlighted by the fact that only ten of the 27 publicly owned banks are fully computerised!

Whilst HMG will continue to push for change, I believe that the Indian financial services community also stands to benefit from reforms and should push for it.

Not so long ago, KV Kamath, ICICI Bank’s Chairman made a point to me that made me think. He argued that the Indian banking environment and opportunity is limited for international banks for the reason that he didn’t believe that a HSBC would be interested in providing a 1 Rupee Loan to a villager living in the remotest part of India.

In defence of globalisation, wouldn’t it be great if the option existed? They may not want to participate in the growing micro-finance opportunity, but surely that’s a commercial decision for them.