A chairman who is also the general manager

Chennai: Can a person be the chairman as well as the general manager of the same company, which is incidentally, the wholly-owned subsidiary of a multi billion dollar company? Conventionally the general manager will be one or two rungs below the chairman.

But Microsoft India has broken that traditional corporate structure. The company recently hired Ravi Venkatesan as chairman and general manager. He was earlier chairman, Cummins India a subsidiary of another US multi national company.

Microsoft India has created the post specially for Venkatesan who will report directly to Sanjay Mirchandani, Microsoft's President for Asia Pacific. Curiously, Microsoft India has a managing director, Rajiv Kaul.

Venkatesan will have direct responsibility for Microsoft's marketing, sales, operational and business development efforts in India and will provide a single point leadership for Microsoft India, in partnership with the leaders of Microsoft's other business units, to work with policy makers, customers and partners.

Microsoft operates four distinct business units in India: the sales and marketing subsidiary; Microsoft's Indian Business Unit, IT Development Centre in Hyderabad, the India Development Centre also in Hyderabad, and the Global Support Centre in Bangalore.

Venkatesan will provide strategic direction to Microsoft India and focus on the success of Microsoft's partners and customers in India.