SAP elevates five Indian executives to global leadership roles

BANGALORE: For German business software maker SAP, its India unit has become a fertile poaching ground for talent, with the Walldorf-based company elevating at least five Indian executives to global leadership roles during the last year.

The latest such is the choice for India Human Resources Head Bhuvaneswar Naik for a global role in the HR team, based in Singapore. Anil Warrier, a director of talent acquisition at SAP, India has been elevated as global head for early-talent acquisition, based in the UK, in January this year. In December, VR Ferose, managing director of SAP Labs India, was named the head of the Globalisation Services Organisation.

"Companies understand the criticality of India as a fast-growing market and a source of large-scale talent and they often involve Indian executives in decision-making," said CK Guruprasad, a principal at global technology and services division of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. "Moreover, there's a shortage of leadership talent at the global level."

Anirban Dey, who took over as managing director of SAP Labs India from Ferose, said that globally, SAP is welcoming an increasing number of Indians to its senior management team as the country transitions from a back-office location to a fast-growing market.

Based on headcount, India is the third-largest operation for SAP after Germany and the United States, with sales of around Rs 7,000 crore here and an employee base of over 6,000.

Other leaders who were recently chosen for global roles include Dilipkumar Khandelwal, a senior vice-president at SAP India who now heads global development teams in human capital and supplier relationship management, and Pravin Agarwala, who heads its cloud product Bydesign.

According to experts, success and experience in a complex market such as India makes senior executives from here well-suited for challenging global roles. "India is a difficult markets to crack, so people who do well in this market are often given bigger opportunities," said Aditya Narayan Mishra, head of the staffing business at human resources services firm Randstad India.

Unlike markets such as Latin America and China, where local culture is dominant, Indian employees are exposed to an international language and work-culture from an early stage in their careers.