Outgoing CEOs Of TCS, HUL & Tech Mahindra: How Companies Grew Under Their Stewardship

The top Indian Incs will soon experience a vacuum at the helm of affairs, as top bosses such as Sanjiv Mehta, MD and CEO, Hindustan Unilever; Rajesh Gopinathan, MD and CEO, TCS and CP Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra will be stepping down in 2023. The upcoming leaders will have big shoes to fill the legacy of excellence and expertise left behind by these crowned executives.

On March 16th, after a stellar career of over 22 years with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and a successful stint as MD and CEO during the last six years, Rajesh Gopinathan decided to step down from the company to pursue his other interests. Gopinathan will continue with the company till 15th September 2023 to provide transition and support to his successor. The board has nominated K. Krithivasan as the CEO designate with effect from 16th March 2023. Krithivasan will go through a transition with Rajesh Gopinathan and will be appointed as the MD & CEO in the next financial year.

As the MD & CEO, Rajesh Gopinathan, provided strong leadership and laid the foundation for the next phase of TCS’ growth with significant investments in Cloud, agile and automation.

N. Chandrasekaran, chairman, TCS, said, “I have had the pleasure of working with Rajesh for the past 25 years. During this period, Rajesh has always distinguished himself with exemplary performance in various roles, including his former role as the chief financial officer.”

Under Gopinathan’s aegis, in the last six years, the organization added over $10 billion in incremental revenues and over $70 billion increase in market capitalization. TCS became the second-most valuable company in India, with the market capitalization crossing $167.86 billion in FY23.

The company’s brand value increased by a whopping 212 per cent to $45.5 billion in the past two years, recognising it as the most valuable Indian brand in 2022 by Kantar BrandZ India rankings.

“I have been harboring a few ideas on what I want to do in the next phase of my life. Having worked with Krithi over the last two decades, I am confident that he is best positioned to take TCS to greater heights along with the leadership team. I will be working closely with Krithi to give him all the support that he needs,” said Gopinathan on stepping down from the top role.

Well, this is not an isolated case in 2023, Sanjiv Mehta, MD, HUL too will pass the baton to his successor Rohit Jawa, the new MD and CEO of HUL, effective June 27 2023.

“It has been a most exhilarating ride of 31 years of which for 21 years I have had the privilege of serving Unilever’s businesses in 25 countries in various parts of the world as the CEO. Serving the business in South Asia including Hindustan Unilever as the CEO / executive chairman / president for the last ten years has been an honor of a lifetime. It has been one of the longest tenures in the illustrious history of Hindustan Unilever. I also had the privilege of being the first incumbent CEO of HUL to be on the executive board (Unilever leadership executive) of Unilever,” said Mehta.

His stints in different countries and regions had its fair share of challenges. In the early years, he took over as the chairman and MD of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. “We turned a business which was reeling and in deep trouble into one of the finest companies in the country while delivering mid-teens growth,” Mehta said.

During his tenure as the CEO and chairman of Unilever Philippines Inc, he fought a pitched battle and turned around the business. Similarly, under his leadership in North Africa and the Middle East, the team navigated the financial crisis, the Arab spring and despite the massive crisis in the region, delivered a market beating double digit growth over the five years.

In India, during the last 10 years, he added INR 32,000 crore to the turnover increasing it by 2.3 times. “We improved our EBITDA margin by 860 bps and EBITDA by 3.5 times in the last ten years. The market capitalization increased by five times to over $70 billion which is more than the market cap of many global FMCG companies including Kraft Heinz, Reckitt Benckiser, General Mills, Colgate and many more. Just the market cap increase in the last 10 years would have made HUL the 10th most valuable company in the country.”

Initiatives such as Winning in Many Indias (WiMIl) strategy, the science and art of market development (or market making) and Re-imagine HUL agenda are great examples of a legacy company re-inventing itself with data and technology. “Miles to go before I sleep,” Mehta said in his LinkedIn post.

After a lot of speculation around leadership change at information technology (IT) services provider Tech Mahindra, the term of the current MD and CEO CP Gurnani is ending in December. During the investor’s meeting, he said, “Tech Mahindra won’t get impacted by an incoming leadership change as its business strategy is built around its customers. This is a running train and the reality is that I will have a reasonable transition period between me and the new leader.”

According to a Bloomberg report, Gurnani’s exit from Tech Mahindra comes at a time when the IT company identified products and platforms as a key growth area and carved out the business as a separate vertical and committed INR 700 crore towards it over the next two years. Gurnani has been bestowed with several leadership awards for delivering excellence in his role.

The board announced Mohit Joshi as the MD and CEO designate of Tech Mahindra. Mohit will take over as MD and CEO when CP Gurnani retires on 19th December 2023. He will join Tech Mahindra well before that date to allow for sufficient transition time.

Clearly, the upcoming designated CEOs have an arduous task to match up to the level of these outgoing CEOs. Will they script history? Only time will tell!