The Hindu

Followed by Ratan Tata, Premji, Mallya and Ambanis 

Bangalore, May 13: For the fifth consecutive year, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd., has been named "India's most admired business leader", in the fifth annual Business School study conducted by Brand-comm, a brand consulting firm here.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, occupies the second place, followed by the Ambanis (including the late Dhirubhai Ambani); Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Group; Vijay Mallya, Chairman, UB Group; and Kumaramangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group.

Announcing the names here on Friday, Ramanujam Sridhar, Chief Executive Officer, Brand-comm, said the B-school students admire Mr. Murthy for being a socially responsible individual. He is looked up to as a leader who is honest and passionate about his work. The clarity and consistency in Mr. Murthy's personal branding and positioning seem to have been highly effective for five years. He is categorised as "the simple entrepreneur with values" while Mr. Tata is "the modest, committed visionary"; Mr. Premji is "the disciplined, caring leader"; and Mr. Mallya "the flamboyant business leader who innovates".

If Mr. Tata is admired for being a visionary and for his commitment for the country's development, Mr. Premji is admired for his values towards his employees, for his integrity, discipline and vision for Wipro. The flamboyant Mr. Mallya, who was low in rankings last year, has climbed up to the fourth position.

With the retail industry seeing a boom period, the "badshah of retail", Kishore Biyani of Pantaloon, has found his way to the top 10. The others who figure include Subroto Bagchi of MindTree; K.V. Kamath of ICICI Bank; Capt. Gopinath of Air Deccan and Nandan Nilekani of Infosys.