Narayana Murthy, most admired biz leader

Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy has emerged as India's most admired business leader, for the fifth consecutive year, in the 5th Annual B-School Study conducted by Brand-comm, a leading brand consulting, advertising and PR firm headquartered in Bangalore

About 545 students from 13 leading management institutes across the country participated in the survey.

B-school students admire Narayana Murthy for being a socially responsible individual. He is looked up to as a leader who is honest and passionate about his work. The clarity and consistency in Murthy's personal branding and positioning seem to have been highly effective for the last five years.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group, occupies the second position in the list of most admired business leaders. Though Ratan Tata was in the second position last year as well, the margin between the first and the second positions has widened this year.

The Ambanis, including the late Dhirubhai Ambani occupy the third position, and Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited, Vijay Mallya, Chairman, UB Group, and Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, are jointly placed in the fourth position.

If Ratan Tata is admired for being a visionary and for his commitment for the country's development, Azim Premji is admired for his values towards his employees, for his integrity, discipline and vision for Wipro.

The flamboyant Vijay Mallya, who was low in rankings last year has climbed up to the fourth position and is admired for contrasting set of qualities as compared to the top three. The qualities admired in Mallya are his energy, dynamism, flair, foresight and capacity to innovate.

The changing face of Indian economy seems to have triggered the entry of a whole new set of business leaders into the top 10 this year. With the retail industry seeing a boom period, the 'Badshah of retail' Kishore Biyani has found his way to the top 10 of the most admired B-school leaders.

The other new names in the top 10 include MindTree CEO Subroto Bagchi, ICICI Bank CEO K V Kamath, Air Deccan Managing Director Capt. G R Gopinath and Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani.

Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-comm, said, "There aren't too many surveys that I know that have survived for five years. We at Brand-comm are extremely proud and happy for having been able to conduct this survey successfully for five years now. This study reiterates the value of personal branding. People, like brands, can make a difference to companies."

Infosys and Tata continue to be the two most attractive Indian companies to work for, for the B-school students participating in the study. While Wipro has moved up the rankings, FMCG major HLL, which occupied the third rank last year, has slipped to the fourth place.

Procter and Gamble has also slipped below and moved out of the top 10.

Interestingly, this year's survey has thrown up some new 'most admired companies'. The list includes MindTree Consulting, which has come up many notches to occupy the fourth place. Likewise, Reliance also has come back into the top 10 this year and occupies the fourth place jointly with MindTree, TCS, ITC and HLL. Companies like Oracle, Google, GE, Bharti and HSBC are the other companies who have entered the top 10 this year.

Though both Infosys and Tata were chosen as companies providing the best work environment, work culture and excellent HR practices and were chosen by a majority of the respondents, the IIM students were found to have a strong preference for McKinsey and Reliance.

Tata / Tata Group was named as the 'most admired corporate brand with operations in India.'

Infosys follows Tata in this category, with TCS and HLL, a remote third. TCS has moved up the ladder from being fifth last year. Notably, 'Indian' companies occupy the top 8 slots as best corporate brands and even the IIM students rate Infosys and Tata on par as the best corporate brand.

Pavan Padaki, director, creative planning, Brand-comm, who has been the architect of the study said: "This year the study has affirmed the power of personal branding. This is evident in the fact that despite the death of the great Dhirubhai Ambani and the subsequent family feud, the Ambanis continue to be in the top 5. This is a wonderful example of the enduring impact of personal branding."

"Also, 'sunshine' sectors like BPO, telecom, biotech, pharmaceuticals/healthcare, insurance, BPO, fashion, retail, etc. have failed to attract the B-Schools as potential industry sectors to build their careers. Consulting, software/hardware /EDP, banking/financial services, FMCG, followed by Investment Banking continue to be the top five industry sectors, as a choice for immediate placement for the B-school students."

The study also reveals that, unlike last year, the opinion of B-school students who are next generation business leaders is divided on whether they want to be entrepreneurs or want to work for an organisation. Surprisingly, no significant difference in opinion was found between the IIM and other B-school students in this regard.