 "CEOs in top Indian firms paid better")
Four to five years ago, the figure was roughly half and two years ago it was 30 per cent less. In contrast, multinational corporations (MNCs) s pay about 50-70 per cent less to their top CEOs in the same sector for a similar-sized company.
The hefty packages, however, are available only to an elite club, offered by big Indian corporate groups with turnovers between $3 billion and $10 billion. And, they are concentrated in resources industries, including energy, petroleum and metals, to name a few. In sectors such as fast-moving consumer goods, telecom, information technology or consumer goods, CEOs do not command such large salaries.
| Current average compensation for CEOs at some Indian firms |
| D Bhattacharya MD, Hindalco Inds. Mar 2013 Rs 20.61cr |
| K Venkataramanan MD & CEO, L&T Mar 2013 Rs 14.28cr |
| Braja K Mishra MD, Welspun Corp Mar 2013 Rs 13.72cr |
| Karl Slym MD, Tata Motors Mar 2013 Rs 10.97cr |
| Raymond N Bickson MD, Indian Hotels Mar 2013 Rs 10.33cr |
| Nitin Paranjpe MD & CEO, Hind. Unilever Mar 2013 Rs 10.12cr |
| Arun Sawhney MD & CEO, Ranbaxy Labs. Dec 2012 Rs 9.72cr |
| Antonio Helio Waszyk Chairman & MD, Nestle Ind Mar 2013 Rs 9.47cr |
| Himanshu Kapania MD ,Idea Cellular Mar 2013 Rs 8.75cr |
Insulated against slowdown
Says Nitin Gupta, chairman, Argus Partners: “Top salaries being paid by Indian companies are insulated against any slowdown. Indian companies pay much more than MNCs, because of the risks they take in terms of stability or working with promoters. MNCs also can’t restructure salaries in India as that would impact their global compensation system.”
The view is echoed by other top CEO recruiters.
Points out Anjali Bansal, managing director of Spencer Stuart India: “During a slowdown, companies are increasingly ready to pay the required globally benchmarked compensation for international talent that could help them tide over the period and provide continued growth in international markets. This is particularly true in the larger Indian companies.”
The difference between Indian companies and MNCs is also because of the nature of business. Says a CEO of a top international recruitment agency dealing with top-level appointments: “The compensation is based on the nature and size of business. In an Indian company, the CEO is responsible for a large part of its turnover, profits and market capitalisation.”
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“And, he or she can change them dramatically. For most MNCs, India is still a small part of their overall business. The compensation is commensurate with the global business size.”
Gupta says typically about 60 per cent of CEO compensation is in fixed salary and 40 per cent in variables linked to targets.
He says in India about 80 per cent of the increase in overall compensation has come from the variable part of salary in the past five years. Stock options and bonuses constitute as much as 50 per cent of a CEO's fixed salary and come over and above the normal compensation.
During the slowdown, the money that a CEO gets through variable pay has come down 30-40 per cent as most companies are not setting ambitious targets. This translates into a 12-16 per cent fall in overall compensation for a CEO.
And it is unlikely that he or she will get more from bonuses or stocks either.
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