Priyanka Sangani & Prasad Sangameshwaran: The king of timing

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Rajeev Karwal is known for many virtues, but silence is certainly not one of them. But the president & CEO of Reliance Retail's consumer verticals division has been unusually silent ever since taking up his latest job.

When he finally broke his silence this week, it was only to announce his exit from the company "" his fifth exit in nine years. When Karwal spoke to Business Standard, he was back to his usual chatty self, as if relieved from the huge burden of expectations from him. He had in fact put in his papers in June.

Industry sources claim that Karwal was forced to leave because he could not deliver the low-cost sourcing that Reliance was looking for. Karwal, expectedly, denies any truth in these allegations. He says that the exit was more because of a work-life imbalance.

While work required him to stick to Mumbai (the Reliance retail business is headquartered in Mumbai), the 43-year-old executive's family is based in Delhi.

And as Karwal says "it's important to work with the heart and mind" in the same place.

For Karwal, a graduate from IMT Ghaziabad, Delhi became the centre of the universe after he was widely credited for the turnaround of the Korean brand, LG, in its third attempt to prise open the Indian market.

After two attempts by the Korean brand (as Binatone and Lucky Goldstar), Karwal as the vice-president in charge of sales and marketing, proved to be their lucky charm.

It could be argued that the charm worked both ways. LG's success spurred Karwal to greater heights as he moved from head of marketing and sales with the Korean company, to Philips India before becoming the managing director and CEO of Electrolux. Karwal quit Electrolux a week before the company sold off its Indian unit to Videocon.

Detractors feel that after LG, Karwal was no longer the man in the right workplace. Karwal agrees. "I have been lucky to be with the right companies at the right time ""Onida in the 1980s, when the brand was at its prime, and LG in the 1990s," he says.

He points out that as the sales and marketing head, he was far more visible as compared to the jobs that followed.

After he winds up his Reliance assignment in a few weeks Karwal intends to take a break, and "express gratitude to his teachers" through his blog that goes by the same name and interact with students from B-schools and engineering institutes. "Then it will be a new year and a new beginning."