The L&T boss who wasn’t

When L&T hired Ravi Uppal in 2009 to head its power business, talk was he will succeed the conglomerate’s iconic bossman AM Naik after the latter’s retirement next month. To be sure, Uppal was inducted into the L&T board in October 2010, and expectations were high.

And Uppal’s resume – he is an alumnus of IIT, IIM and Wharton with over 20 years’ experience in several global capital goods majors such as ABB, Siemens and Volvo -- seemed to stoke them.

Cut to 2012. If sources are to be believed, Uppal has apparently put in his papers and is moving on to Cairn India.
The ascension of L&T veteran K Venkataramanan to CEO and MD in March this year, coupled with the not-so-spectacular show of the power vertical under Uppal’s presidentship, has rewritten the L&T management script.
 “It is not a surprise to me. It was known to Ravi that he will not be the chairman of the company,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, chairman of HeadHunters India, a leading placement and recruitment company.
Several things went against Uppal, said Lakshmikanth. The power scenario in India turned challenging, L&T failed to bag big orders and ‘outsider’ Uppal was up against insider rival aspirants for Naik’s throne. Venkataramanan’s elevation was a signal for Uppal.
That circumstances did not help Uppal to pitchfork L&T into the league of major power players was not overlooked. Worse, the power division which contributes almost 25% to revenues, did not grow well of late, said an analyst who tracks L&T.
“The power arm suffered a major jolt when it failed to get a major 10,000 mw NTPC order which went to BHEL, BGR-Hitachi and some Chinese players. Receivables are high and a stress on working capital and minimal order flow,” said the analyst who sought anonymity.
“Uppal was never made part of the mainstream business, so he would have never become the chairman. But, he could have turned around the power business eventually. His exit is not a surprise, but yes, a big loss,” said Rajesh AR, head of TeamLease Services, an HR consultancy firm. “Ravi was always considered an outsider, a person who brought in global perspective but was not a home-grown guy.”
Some say Uppal’s exit will hurt L&T but not Naik’s succession plan. L&T has a strong management bench as well as plenty of time to decide on a new successor, said E Balaji, CEO, Ma Foi Consultants.
The engineering and construction projects division that Venkataramanan headed, is now headed by the relatively “young and bright” S N Subrahmanyan. The latter, Lakshmikanth said, is now talked about as the likely eventual inheritor of the L&T crown in 2015, when Venkataramanan retires.