Gen Next at India Inc: New faces get ready to take charge

Change is afoot at India Inc. The old is giving way to the new across several companies. Over the past few years, the children of some of India’s prominent businessmen have joined the family business, paving the way for eventual succession.

In others, individuals outside the family business are being groomed to take over the top jobs. One good case in point is the Tata group, which opted to choose a person outside the Tata family as the person to succeed Ratan Tata.

Irrespective of whether they are family members or outsiders, clearly many Indian companies are now in the process of handing the reins to someone new and possibly younger.For the newcomers, the pressure to carry on the business well or even better than their predecessors will be enormous. Will they succeed to succumb to the pressure? Only time will tell.

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Firstpost presents five names that represent important generational changes (imminent or already taking place) in some of India’s top business houses.

Cyrus Mistry

Earlier this year, 43-year-old Cyrus Mistry was named the successor to chairman Ratan Tata of the Tata group. He currently serves as deputy chairman, and will be appointed as the chairman in December 2012 when Ratan Tata retires.

[caption id=“attachment_162064” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Mistry - who will become only the second group chairman not to have a Tata surname - has a tough task ahead of him. AFP”]  [/caption]

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No doubt, Mistry - who will become only the second group chairman not to have a Tata surname - has a tough task ahead of him: over the next year, he will have to learn about the working of more than 100 group companies spread across seven to eight sectors. But those who know him say that he is more than up to the job.

The soft-spoken London Business School graduate is reported to love golf and cars but stays clear of the social party circuit. His family is the single-largest shareholder in Tata Sons, the holding company of the $80 billion Tata group.

Rishad Premji

Rishad Premji, the oldest son of IT billionaire Aziz Premji is slowly gearing up to take the numero uno position at one of India’s largest software companies, Wipro, according to company observers. Rishad is currently Wipro’s chief strategy officer.

He joined Wipro in 2007 as a business manager and worked at the company’s banking and financial services division.

Earlier, the 34-year-old also worked with Bain & Co at their London office, where he worked on projects across a variety of sectors including automobiles, consumer products and insurance.

He has studied at Harvard Business School, the London School of Economics and Wesleyan University in the US.

Alok Kirloskar

Alok Kirloskar is set to become the managing director of a key international subsidiary of the Rs 2,600 Pune-based industrial conglomerate Kirloskar brothers. Observers believe that the move paves the way for Alok to eventually succeed his father, Sanjay, as chairman.

The 28-year-old will take over a company that will become the holding company for the group’s international business, which is expected to eventually account for half of the group’s revenues.

Vikramjit Singh Oberoi

Another rising star to watch out for is Vikramjit Singh Oberoi, who was named as the successor to 82-year-old Prithvi Raj Singh, a.k.a Biki Oberoi, chairman of the Oberoi group (the timing of that succession, however, is still unknown).

The group boasts an enviable portfolio of prime hotel properties across India and other countries, including the Amarvilas in Agra, Udaivilas in Udaipur and Rajvilas in Jaipur.

Vikram, 47, is currently the chief operating officer and joint managing director of the East India Hotels, the flagship company of the group (he is also Biki’ son). He is a science graduate from Pepperdine University in the US and joined the group in the early 1990s.

The Oberoi family holds about 34 percent in East India Hotels Ltd.

Shravin Mittal

The 23-year old son of Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal joined as a manager in Bharti’s Dutch arm, but it is still unclear whether he will actually take over from his father. However, he definitely ranks among the top sons and daughters of Indian businessmen to watch over the next few years.

Shravin holds an accounting degree from the University of Bath in the UK and has worked with JP Morgan Cazenove and Ernst and Young in London and Merrill Lynch in New York. Shravin is one of the twin sons of Sunil Mittal.