In a letter published in the 'Letters to the Editor' column a few weeks ago, its writer lamented that India produces Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) for global multinational companies (MNCs) in America, while we in Bangladesh are busy wrangling over sending unskilled or semi-skilled workers to the Middle East. Indeed, the observation should set policymakers in particular to thinking what has gone amiss and what could be done.
It is remarkable that among the more than a dozen Indian-origin top executives serving the world-famous companies such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Abode Inc, Twitter etc., there is no one from West Bengal. This means that no Bangalee either from Bangladesh or from across the border has the distinction of making it to the top slot of such prestigious and famed companies. Also highly significant is the fact that all the CEOs of the more fancied multinationals are of South Indian origin except Parag Agarwal who hails from Punjab and has of late been removed from Twitter by Elon Musk after the latter had bought the social platform.
Look at the impressive line of CEOs at the helm of leading global companies: Pichai Sundararajan popularly known as Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google, who is from Madurai, Tamil Nadu; Arvind Krishna of IBM Group, who is also the chairman of the group and hails from West Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh; Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO Microsoft, comes from Andhra Pradesh; Shantanu Narayen is the top boss of Abode Inc, who also hails from Andhra Pradesh.
The latest to join the bandwagon of Indian-origin top executives is Neal Mohon who takes over the most widely used and popular video streaming platform Youtube from Susan Wojcicki. He was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh---an exception to South's monopoly. Almost a year ago, in March, Raj Subramanium became the president and CEO of FedEx. He is from Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala.
Beside such high profile companies, Gap Inc., a casual wear's retail chain, has Sonia Syngal as its CEO and Laxman Narasimhan is all set to be placed in the top executive position of Starbucks, world's largest coffee chain shop.
But the icing of the cake for the India-born heads of tech giants and global brands will be completed by the assumption of the president's post of the World Bank by Ajay Banga, a former Mastercard CEO. Born into a Sikh family in Pune, he has his family roots in Jalandhar, Punjab.
Apart from these US-based companies and the Bretton Woods institution, the renowned French fashion house Chanel and the Britain's bank Barklays choose Leena Nair and CS Venkatakrishnan to grace the chief executive position respectively. Venkatakrishnan hails from Mysore and Nair from Maharashtra.
In this connection, it merits mention that Indra Nooyi, from Chennai held the top position of PepsiCo for 12 years before she resigned in 2018. Parag Agarwal was not so lucky as Elon Musk sacked him. The world's second richest person, whose erratic mood swing is noticeable from his takeover of Twitter even humiliated Parag by a post in which he shared the picture of his dog in the CEO's chair and commented, "Better than Parag".
Let this hubris of the world's once wealthiest person be ignored. The fact is Indians are consolidating their hold on to the number one position of the world's tech giants and companies where an overwhelming majority of the South Indians find themselves at the helm of affairs. A Bangladesh national cannot be blamed for becoming envious of such extraordinary achievements. Then the Americans should feel the heartburning at its worst. Some are quick to point out that the takeover of iconic companies in the West by the Indians is a step in the direction of counter-colonialism. That perhaps would be quite a stretch of mind.
Be that what it is, for Bangladesh the need is to promote the techno-savvy young generation to realise their full potential. Before some among them get to the ultimate destination of MNCs' management summit, this country really needs to improve the status of migrant workers. Instead of rising the percentage of skilled migrant workers, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, it has dropped to 23.30 per cent last year from 44 per cent in 2019. This is pathetic indeed. Without a paradigm shift in human resource development, the nation will miserably lag behind its neighbours and competitors.
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