HCL’s Nadar turns mentor, makes way for Nayar

Shiv Nadar, co-founder billionaire of HCL Technologies, decides to step down from his role as the CEO and has passed the baton to Vineet Nayar, reports Venkatesh Ganesh.

India's sixth-largest software exporter HCL Technologies with revenues of $3.5 billion has seen a realignement in top management. Following the footsteps of Bill Gates and N R Narayana Murthy, who decided to don the hat of "Chief Mentor", Shiv Nadar, co-founder billionaire of HCL Technologies, has decided to step down from his role as the CEO and has passed the baton to Vineet Nayar, an XLRI graduate who has spent more than 20 years in the company.

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Nadar would mentor the HCL core management team, including Nayar, Ranjeet Narasimhan, the company's business process outsourcing (BPO) unit head, to incubate new ideas, insulate the company from business risks and provide thought leadership. Additionally, he will oversee the BPO business of HCL, which needs nurturing.

Nayar joined the company as a junior management trainee in 1985, held various portfolios in sales and marketing and was appointed the President of HCL Comnet, a subsidiary company, in 1994. His success in transforming that company was rewarded and he took over as the company's president in 2005, "My role would be to continue HCL's growth trajectory and make it a company that can unleash the potential of our employees," Nayar told Hindustan Times.

"Nadar gave them a sense of ownership, an opportunity to grow and challenged and motivated them at a time when the lure of joining an IBM or Hewlett-Packard was more lucrative both in career and money terms," said K Sudarshan, Managing Partner, EMA Partners India.