PepsiCo's India talent factory

Aone-in-a-million incidence of a genius can be misleading in a population the size of India and China, the joke goes. For, the two Asian giants will have a thousand geniuses each even by that thrifty measure. Still, the number of Indians rotated through the Indian offices of PepsiCo to the rest of the enterprise and other companies is spectacular.

Ramesh Vangal, the first CEO of Pepsi, as the company was called until early 2000, thinks the company's edge in India has clearly been its people. "As companies grow big, they become brittle and cannot handle change; but PepsiCo retains its agility because it has always recruited the best," he says.

His focus on recruitment in the mid- to late-'80s was to hire the best by paying the best, even if it meant changing the compensation structure in the country. "PepsiCo India, in fact, has been a significant provider of talent to not just its other offices worldwide, but also to the corporate world (at large)," says Rajeev Vasudeva, Partner, Egon Zehnder International.

Examples: Former Head of Frito Lays in India, Manu Anand, has gone on to head the business in Thailand and Vietnam. George Kavoor, who used to head traditional trade operations in India, has become the Sales Director in China. Chitra Talwar has gone as Vice President, Sales Operations to PepsiCo Inc. and Vipul Prakash as Director (flavours) to the US parent.

The more visible splash has been in the way ex-PepsiCo high-fliers have badged themselves as movers and shakers of corporate India. Muktesh Pant, who headed food processing operations at Pepsi India in 1992, was hired by Reebok International as its global Marketing Head and is now the global Marketing Head at Yum! Restaurants International, the owner of Pizza Hut and KFC chains. Asim Ghosh, who retired in March 2009, as Managing Director of Vodafone Essar had moved to India as the Co-managing Director of Pepsi Foods in 1989 from Rothmans International. See the list above for more names.

So, what makes PepsiCo India the prime hunting ground for managers? Role-playing opportunities that help its people handle a cross-section of functions, says Ashutosh Khanna, Partner at head-hunting firm Korn/Ferry International.