Global CEOs Who Are Indians

There is a growing number of Global CEOs of Indian origin, according to social media, news reports and online searching (Including Google, which also has an Indian origin CEO).

Last week, IBM tapped Arvind Krishna as its next CEO and this week WeWork confirmed it hired Sandeep Mathrani as its new chief executive.

Here's a definitive list of the same:

Sundar Pichai, Alphabet, the parent company of Google

Satya Narayana Nadella, Microsoft

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe

Rajeev Suri, Nokia

Punit Renjen, Deloitte

Vasant "Vas" Narasimhan, Novartis

Ajaypal "Ajay" Singh Banga, Mastercard

Ivan Manuel Menezes, Diageo

Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks

Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman International Industries

A series of external factors have contributed to the rise of the Indian CEO. Let’s breakdown down some of these factors:

Acceptance of uncertainty: Every company is dealing with some form of disruption. Now picture India, a country of over 1 billion people and an uneven infrastructure. At every turn, there is uncertainty, like, will water emerge from the tap in the morning to brush your teeth or not? It allows innovation and patience.

Seeing around the corner: Indians are specially equipped with the ability to predict, thanks to their embrace of data and constantly, perhaps unconsciously, crafting a Plan B (in case no water comes out).

All odd to make an even: Everything boils down to odds in a country of 1 billion people. The odds of getting admission to nursery in a branded school, then college; of maximizing scores to advance; exams for civil-service jobs; the visa lottery to get overseas.

Today that role falls under "data intelligence" and skill required in modern CEOs. Incidentally, Pichai and Arora are graduates of the prestigious IIT, a group of engineering colleges with acceptance rates reportedly below 2%.

Education: Indian immigrants are among the most highly educated in the US; compared to native-born Americans. At the graduate level over the last few decades, foreign-born students have filled the gap of fewer Americans studying engineering and computer science, though growth is slowing.

Work as a family: When Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo., stepped down in 2018, she got an idea to write thank you cards to the parents of Pepsi's star performers. "I was a product of my upbringing," she said. "It occurred to me that I had never thanked the parents of my executives for the gift of their child to PepsiCo." When she was named the CEO, well-wishers visited her mother’s home in India to congratulate her.

Millennials' parents are more involved in their children's careers than ever, and we can only imagine their reaction to a letter allowing them to share their achievements, too. Indian companies, having long served tea in the break room or welcoming colleagues to the boss' sister's wedding, are drastically ahead of the trend rising in the West of blurry lines between home and work.

Diversity: A survey by Deloitte shows that 69% of employees who believe senior management is diverse see their working environments as motivating and inspiring. Recent research shows that Asian Americans' success has more to do with white Americans giving them a chance and ending discriminatory practices, bringing their wages to parity and treating them with respect.

Authenticity: We have been in the age of authenticity due to a focus on values and character over personality. Nooyi recounts missing her beloved cricket and filling the void with the Yankees. "Everybody in business analyzed the game, and unless we were part of the whole process, we felt very left out. So I combined my love for bat-and-ball sports, with the Yankees' incredible season with this language of business."

Time is precious: Americans tend to be sequential and focus on the binary. This theory jives with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft and his approach. "I view Microsoft as a platform to pursue my passions. And that gives me a lot of meaning. To me, this is the ultimate form of relaxation." Nadella said.

A belief in meritocracy: An immigrant’s rise to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company is a rare and remarkable story, and yet, also supposed to be the way America works. Oversimplified perhaps, this is a narrative that markets, investors and employees cling to, an ideology of U.S. capitalism embodied and embraced by the CEO himself.

Indeed, it might just be the Indian CEO who saves it.