Pepsico India gets new CEO

In key top-level changes announced by Pepsi-Co on Monday, its CEO for South East Asia, Manu Anand, will take over as chairman & CEO, PepsiCo's India region from the current incumbent, Sanjeev Chadha, with effect from Jan 1, 2011.

Chadha will take over as PepsiCo's chief for the Middle East & Africa, the company said in a release. He will also be a member of PepsiCo's global leadership team: the PepsiCo Executive Committee. Chadha's new area of responsibility —Middle East & Africa—is one of the largest and most profitable regions of PepsiCo, and is headquartered in Dubai.

Anand, on the other hand, moves into the new role from Thailand, where he was responsible for the foods and beverages business in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands. 

Source: Chadha to make way for Anand at PepsiCo India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Chadha-to-make-way-for-Anand-at-PepsiCo-India-/articleshow/6812555.cms#ixzz13Zu3S8i4

MBAs in demand again

MBAs are again in demand. The education and study-abroad company Quacquarelli Symonds published a survey in October which shows that the rise in recruitment in countries like China and India are outstripping recruitment in Europe and US. The demand for MBA-s increased 32% in the APac region, compared to 9% in USA and 3% in Europe. Many European and North American companies have still not come out of the ravages of recession and are not hriring.

The highest paying field is no more the Banking sector. In the post recession era Pharmaceutical is the highest paymaster. Graduates recruited into pharmaceutical companies earned an average of $92,274, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds report released Oct. 14, followed by those in financial services, with average pay of $90,926. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/business/global/19iht-RIEDSALARIES.html?_r=1&src=busln)

More than 2000 companies, 200 B-schools  (80 in the United States, 67 in Europe, 36 in Asia and the rest in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East) were surveyed. The survey also shows the anomaly in the job market with respect to education. University graduates were still scrambling for jobs which MBA-s were receiving high starting salaries.

What then are the B-schools which get the highest salaries?
Ashridge Business School, London, is the winner. (Average salary of $169,050)
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium is next (Average salary of $140,000)
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in North Carolina were the only two schools outside Europe to make the top 10 in salaries.
According to another B School survey by the same firm, the M.B.A.s most valued by recruiters — even if they were not the highest paid — were from Harvard, Wharton, Insead, the London Business School, Insead’s Singapore campus and Melbourne Business School. 

MBA-s with solid pre qualification experience get paid more and B schools like Ashridge recruits those into their programs who have more work experience. Their program is more like an executive management program. There was a 24% increase in MBA job opportunitites in this year (2010). In 2009 there had been a decline of 5% in MBA hirings. MBAs usually get more consulting and financial services opportunities and the demand in these fields will keep rising according to an article in NY Times.

Laying off after a merger- ICICI Bank

Here's one  to boggle the HR mind. What does a company do if it has to absorb thousands of employees but knows it cant keep them for long. It might just not be feasible. ICICI bank faces such a dilemna.

The merger of ICICI Bank and Jaipur-based Bank of Rajasthan, BoR came into effect from 13 August after the Reserve Bank of India notified it. The merger took place through a share-swap deal that valued BoR at around Rs.3,000 crore, at a ratio of 4.72 shares of BoR for one share of ICICI Bank.


Around 4000 employees of BoR are now with ICICI bank. The newly inducted BoR staff are yet to be given new functional responsibilities in ICICI bank and are continuing in their old roles.ICICI has issued to around 400 of these employees, contracts that will end without any prior notice at the end of a five-year term regardless of the age of the employee. Of them about 75 are GMs, Asst GMs and other senior officials. Employees are prohibited from union activities or bringing any "outside influences". Therefore they just have to accept the terms of the contract.

The BoR employees see this as a strategy to lay off excess staff after five years. About 45 BoR employees at junior levels have quit in the last one-and-a-half months, this person added.
 

In the past, ICICI Bank had acquired two other old private banks—Bank of Madura Ltd and Sangli Bank Ltd. It now employs at least 53,000 people. In May, the bank’s managing director and CEO Chanda Kochhar had said it would not lay off BoR staff or discriminate against them. “Whenever we do a merger and acquisition, we treat the employees of the acquired bank as a part of our parivar (family), we will take care of them (BoR employees) as our own employees; we are not here to retrench people,” Kochhar had said.

Though the contract goes againt the words, it may actually be impossible to make everyone happy and ICICI is taking a humane approach giving all employees (400 out of 4000) five years to look for alternatives. However in the market conditions today, some finance / NBFC professionals at mid level are looking for jobs for a time more than 5 years. 

The full article at http://www.livemint.com/2010/10/19215520/ICICI-will-lay-off-some-BoR-st.html?atype=tp

Trouble in Chennai

The city has come to be known as the Detroit of India for its large concentration of automakers, but a series of labour disputes have rocked it, putting a question mark over industrial peace.

Car markers such as Hyundai Motor India, BMW and Ford Motor India besides Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia India have set up their plants on the city outskirts employing more than 23,000 people.

As the city and other parts of Tamil Nadu woo more foreign and domestic companies, employees of several factories had resorted to strikes demanding recognition of Trade Union, good pay package.

• Employees of Hyundai Motor India went on a flash strike in June this year demanding that the management reinstate 67 employees dismissed earlier for demanding recognition of trade union. 
• Employees of Nokia India also resorted to strike early this year demanding wage revision. About 75 per cent of 8,000 employees working at Nokia's Sriperumbudur facility constitute women employees.  
• Strikes is in all three facilities of tyre major MRF at Arakkonam, Thiruvottiyur and in Puducherry against installation of CCTVs in Tiruvottiyur plant since it invaded their privacy.  
• About 13,000 contract workers of the public sector Neyveli Lignite Corporation have also been on strike since September 19, pressing for various demands including raising of wages and issues relating to bonus.

According to government Policy Note, the number of strikes in 2009 was about 36 and there were 13 lockouts, of which 2.10 lakh man-days were lost. This is comparatively lower to 2008 which witnessed 56 strikes and 30 lockouts with 3.87 lakh mandays lost, it said.

Source: Labour disputes rocking 'Detroit' of India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Labour-disputes-rocking-Detroit-of-India/articleshow/6762957.cms#ixzz12imcKb8D