Big CEO churn on cards in India: Study

India Inc will see a big churn of CEOs in the next few years considering the volume of attrition seen in the past five years, global executive firm EMA Partner International has said.

According to a study by the firm in the past 5 years, 66% of companies in India changed their CEOs, with MNCs having the highest percentage at 86%.

"We expect the attrition rate to go up, especially in certain sectors like financial services, ITEs and BPO, which are in the process of maturing," K Sudarshan, managing partner of EMA Partner International, said.

Even a mature sector like manufacturing will see changes as many of the stable CEOs, who had been at the helm for a long period, will be retiring in the next few years, he said.

"The manufacturing sector will have to look at younger people as replacements for the old guard who are set to retire in the near future," he said.

The IT/ITEs sector saw the highest rate of change of CEO at 88% followed by banking at 70%, pharma (67%) and FMCG (61%).

Emerging sectors like retail could have a greater impact on the rate of change of CEOs as there might be poaching of experienced people from sectors like FMCG and telecom, he said.

The EMA study said CEO changes in India were primarily led by resignations (41%) or retirement (24%).