India Inc's C-suite movement surges as companies cautiously get back to work after lockdown

Kolkata: Leadership hiring strengthened in the second quarter ended September with around 1,052 C-suite movements – around 9.6% more than last quarter – taking place as India Inc began to limp back to normalcy after the Covid-induced lockdown.

Most companies opted for internal talent for CEO roles amid continuing uncertainty. For overall leadership hiring, however, external hires outnumbered internal promotions, a study shared exclusively with ET by headhunting firm Sapphire Human Solutions has revealed.

According to the study, out of the 1,052 leadership movements in July-September period, 613 were external hires and 439 were internal movements. Among the 220 CEO movements during the quarter, however, there were 129 internal promotions compared to 91 hired from outside.


“These statistics indicate a strong sense of ensuring continuity at the top by the companies in these most turbulent and uncertain times,” said Satish Ramchandani, partner at Sapphire Human Solutions.

The number of CEOs hired in the second quarter of 2020-21 was 10% less than in the first quarter, he said. Women accounted for 15% of the overall CXO movements.

CXOs in media and entertainment (20%) took the lead in the list of those who changed jobs in the second quarter, followed by those in BFSI (15.8%), industrial (12.8%), consumer (11.6%) and technology (11.4%). Indian companies saw nearly 777 CXO movements during the quarter against 275 among multinationals.

External CEO hires during the July-September quarter included Naveen Tahilyani joining Tata AIA from Axis Bank, Bhavesh Gupta taking charge of Paytm’s lending business, Sunil Duggal joining Vedanta, and Karthik Krishnamurthy quitting Cognizant to join Collabera.

Internal elevations during the same period included Prabhjeet Singh of Uber becoming president of India and South Asia business, promotion of Sanket Ray as president of Coca Cola’s India and Southwest Asia business, Anil Sardana’s elevation as managing director of Adani Power, and Ketan Patel of HP becoming managing director of the ‘Greater India’ region.