Meet Meeta Vyas-CEO
Sudeshna Sen
Mumbai 31 October (ET)
IT WASN'T over-riding ambition that made Meeta Vyas the first Indian woman to head a billion-dollar business in the US, or to become CEO of a $300m American company. "It just happened, I took the next opportunity that was there," says Ms Vyas, chief executive and vice-chairman of Signature Brands, a Cleveland-based appliances company.
At 41, the Mumbai-born Ms Vyas may not believe in planning a career path, but she's scorched quite a few corporate records on her way to the top of the American corporate ladder ? via MIT and Columbia University, and companies like Exxon, Fisher Brothers, McKinsey and General Electric.
This is one tough lady, as she would be the first to admit. Ask Jack Welch, and he?d probably agree. Ms Vyas first caught his attention when she insisted, at a time when she was relatively junior, on making him a presentation about how GE was cost and efficiency-driven, but its product development was not market-driven. "He gave me a very tough time. But he liked my idea," says Ms Vyas. It put her on the fast track at GE, but eventually, even that wasn?t fast enough for her ? she wanted a top job.
All of this despite being a woman, non-white and young. "In baseball terminology, that's three strikes against you. I?ve often had to face the perception that "she must have got the job because she?s filling some quota," says Ms Vyas, who's perfectly ready to tackle gender issues as directly as she tackles everything else.
She's a curious mixture of Indian and American. Equally articulate and passionate when talking about Hindu philosophy, her family values and her parents, or about shareholder value, marketing matrices, LBOs and junk bonds. Though she's single herself, she's as appreciative of housewives who run their homes like a business as she is of CEOs.
For most others, rising to the senior management level at General Electric, heading GE's $1-bn kitchen appliances business, or setting up GE's software sourcing operations from India and working on its joint ventures would seem to be enough.
But then, for most, her previous job at McKinsey and Co, where she was part of its first team to test the Indian market would also have been enough.
Not for Ms Vyas, who chose to leave GE two years ago and at 39, become CEO of a company in trouble. "I had experience on the income side at GE, but not on the balance-sheet side. I asked around if anyone had a company they wanted me to run, even if it was a dog," says Ms Vyas. She got Signature Brands, a company formed from the sum of Mr Coffee, a beverage appliances company and Healthometer, manufacturing measuring devices for the home. The company's third line of products is Pelouze, manufacturing food measurement thermometers.
"Essentially, the company had good brands, but sales were flat," says Ms Vyas, "I came in at the board level to rectify that." In two years, she's done it. The company's stock price, which was at $3.5 when she joined rose to $8.25, and a year ago, it was merged with Sunbeam, a larger company.
It wasn't a job that was as easy as she makes it sound. She had to negotiate severance packages for senior management, who she says had a financial mindset. "I'd rather get rid of three people and save a thousand jobs," says Ms Vyas.
She also completely reworked the advertising and marketing strategy. "We were on national television. In the US, you need at least $50m before you can move the needle on national television," she says.
She says it's the best job she's ever had, being a CEO. She believes that most CEOs fail when they choose between strategy and operations. "You can't be a visionary and leave the operations to someone else. You have to be able to talk to the engineers and you have to be able to talk to the board," she says. For her, leadership qualities call for charisma ? which she has in plenty ? a track record, sheer technical competence, and the ability to learn quickly. "You have to be able to change gears very fast," she says.
Which she does very effectively. In mid-sentence, the speed runner in the corporate rat-race who's ticking off Indian businesses which look to the past for glory, is gone. Enter a socially-conscious person, who may one day consider opting out of Corporate America to manage an NGO in India. For Ms Vyas, it's a serious career option, because she believes that NGOs need good business management to become effective and successful. "When I say I'm a CEO, I get everyone?s attention. But whenever I talk about pollution, or health or topics that people need to worry, all the eyes glaze over, I lose the table just like that." |
