‘Succession planning’

Even as the pharma pundits keep deliberating about Habil Khorakiwala’s big overseas acquisition plans, back home the tycoon is busy with something entirely different, but with equally important long-term significance. Designing a succession path at Wockhardt for his two sons. The pharma veteran has boldly inducted both his two sons directly into the senior management teams. This move is unlike a few others who have asked their ‘Generation Next’ to start from the junior rungs and work their way up or at least, portrayed it that way. Habil has kept in mind the academic background of his sons while assigning them to the different businesses. While the elder son Huzaifa, an MBA in General Management from Yale University, has been inducted as the Executive Director of the animal healthcare business, the younger son Murtaza, who is a doctor with a Post Graduation in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, has been drafted into the Biotech and Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients (API) business. Given that the shareholders have vetted the appointments in the meanwhile, now it is left to the Khorakiwala scions to prove their worth. Coming back to overseas plans, Khorakiwala has just received the approval from the AGM to raise up to $800 million to fund his acquisitions. Industry watchers believe the tycoon will be completely focused on the US market this time round. The grapevine has it that the tycoon and his new top team may be eyeing a big-ticket acquisition in the form of Saint Louis based K V Pharmaceutical.

Buying time

Deepak Singhania has declared a lockout at his two-wheeler plant in Kanpur. The tycoon claims that the illegal strike by the workers forced him to take this drastic step. Observers feel that Singhania’s lockout order is going to have a ‘ripple effect’ in this industrial city and take in its fold a large number of workers than the 2000 that are directly employed at LML. There are nearly 100- 150 vendors in the city who will feel the pinch if the lockout lingers on. People in the know of the things claim that Singhania has actually also run into a working capital crisis. He has not been able to achieve full capacity on the lines producing his latest offering LML-CRD because of this. Not one to give up easily in the face of adversity, Singhania has been trying his best to find a strategic partner to revive the company. In fact one of the prospective partners has already made a reconnaissance visit to the plant once. The tycoon appears hopeful of entering an alliance in a month or two. Singhania is trying to negotiate with the workers to buy some time. But there is no sign of a resolution as yet. The two-wheeler tycoon, who once gave Rahul Bajaj a run for his money, is clearly running out of time.

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