FMCG sales bosses head for telecom companies

Over the last six months, as many as 20 marketing executives from fast-moving consumer goods companies have moved to telecom firms.

Among the latest to make the move are Shashi Kalathil, who quit as the marketing director of PepsiCo India in June to head VSNL's broadband services, and Naveen Chopra, who joined Hutch as the company's Andhra Pradesh circle's chief operating officer after putting in his papers at Britannia.

"Telecom has emerged the biggest growth story, clocking sales growth of over 60-70 per cent. A chance to be a part of this growth opportunity is luring some of the best marketing talent in the country," said a Bharti Tele-Ventures executive.

Bharti has been one of the most aggressive poachers from the FMCG sector. Early this year, the company snapped up several senior managers like Jayant Khosla and Teddy Bhullar from Coca-Cola India and K Srinivasahalli and Vinay Singh from Hindustan Lever. Khosla is currently the head of Airtel, while Bhullar is the chief executive officer of Airtel's Jammu and Kashmir circle.

Srinivasahalli, who joined Airtel's Andhra Pradesh circle as the chief operating officer, was heading Hindustan Lever's Project Vindhya and Singh joined the telecom company's Kerala operations after leading Hindustan Lever's tea and coffee vending business.

According to industry sources, the alarming attrition rate has forced Coca-Cola to enter into an informal anti-poaching agreement with Airtel.

"Telecom firms today are intensely consumer-focussed retailers, as any FMCG firm. We have tried to hire people from companies like Hindustan Lever and Xerox," said R Nair, head (human resources), VSNL.

According to Ronesh Puri, managing director, Executive Access, a Delhi-based headhunting firm, the FMCG sector is no longer an exciting option for ambitious managers.

"Topline growth has been slow, which puts a lot of pressure on marketing executives," he said.

"If you look at the CEOs of the leading telecom companies in the top 20 telecom circles, more than half of them have FMCG background. With the popularity of products like pre-paid phone cards, the difference between FMCG and telecom marketing has blurred," said another headhunter for executives.