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Ambani, HLL, Tata group clinch honours in corporate survey

Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries Limited, has emerged as "India's most admired CEO" in the Taylor Nelson Sofres-Mode (TNS-Mode) survey.

The results of exclusive opinion poll are presented by Hindalco, Aditya Birla group and will be published in the forthcoming third anniversary issue of Business Barons. The magazine hails Dhirubhai as the "Icon of the Century" and says that his "success story is the stuff of which legends are made".

Apart from Ambani, the most admired CEOs' list includes both his sons Mukesh Ambani, vice chairman and managing director, RIL and Anil Ambani, managing director, RIL.

Dhirubhai Ambani secures the top position among the most admired CEOs with highest ranks in the parameters of "leadership", "integrity" and "vision". In the parameter "technology orientation'', he ranks second to Infosys Technologies' N R Narayan Murthy.

The survey was carried out by TNS-mode, the Indian affiliate of the world's second largest market research agency, which reflects the perceptions of the CEOs and senior managers across the country on various aspects of corporate excellence and India's most admired players in the corporate world.

Ambani has been recognised internationally a number of times in the past. However, this is for the first time that Indian CEOs have rated Ambani as the most admired amongst all of them.

He was awarded the dean's medal by the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, for setting an outstanding example of leadership. He has been twice nominated as one of the Power 50 -- the most powerful people in Asia by Asiaweek magazine. Businessweek magazine had also chosen him as a "Star of Asia".

Among the most admired business houses, Reliance follows the house of Tatas, "even though no individual Tata company makes the top 10", as the magazine points out. "Overall, the Tatas aggregated an index of 37.2 to Reliance's 34.0, both comfortably ahead of the third ranked house of Bajaj with an index of 19.4," adds the magazine.

It also says that the "Ambanis have created in one generation what the Tatas have in four. The Reliance group's turnover and assets will by the end of 1999-2000, once Reliance Petroleum goes on stream, match those of the Tatas".

The survey ranks Reliance at number 1, above the Tatas in both ''financial performance'' and ''returns to shareholders'' and number 2 in both the two other parameters of "management quality" and "company ethics".

RIL, India's largest private company, emerges as country's second most admired corporate with an overall index of 20.7 after Hindustan Lever. L&T comes third with an index of 16.8.

Dhirubhai Ambani, Hindustan Lever and the Tatas top the rankings in the Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS)-Mode survey of the most admired CEO, most admired corporation and the most respected business house.

Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata emerged as the second most admired CEO while Infosys Technologies chairman N R Narayana Murthy got the ranking of the third most admired CEO in the survey.

RIL and L&T were the second most admired and third most admired corporations while RIL and the Bajaj Group were second and third most respected business houses in the survey.

Other CEOs featuring in the ''super eleven'' club included Anil Ambani, Rahul Bajaj, Jamshyd Godrej, Keki Dadiseth, Azim Premji, B L Munjal, Mukesh Ambani and late Parvinder Singh.

Ambani secured the top position among the most admired CEOs with the highest ranks in the parameters of leadership, integrity and vision while N R Narayan Murthy made it to the top in the ''technology orientation'' parameter. In this parameter, Ambani was ranked second.

The ''most respected business houses'' also included Godrej, A V Birla, Wipro, Mahindra and Mahindra, BPL, Hero Group, Bombay Dyeing and the K K Birla group.

UNI

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