# Leaders to Watch

> An independent record of the business leaders worth watching


## Posts

- [Shailesh Jejurikar now owns both of P&G's numbers](https://leaderstowatch.com/shailesh-jejurikar-pg-pay-restructuring-organic-growth/): P&G paid its new chief executive $17.9 million last year and its median employee $68,600, down almost $11,000. The more revealing number in the same filings is organic sales growth of 1%.
- [Nikesh Arora added almost a billion dollars of recurring revenue in a quarter and booked a loss](https://leaderstowatch.com/nikesh-arora-palo-alto-networks-q4-fy2026-gaap-loss/): Palo Alto Networks grew fourth-quarter revenue 34% and next-generation security ARR 63%. On a GAAP basis it lost $282 million. Both numbers come from the same decision.
- [Neal Mohan made every video on YouTube more popular, and the money harder to reach](https://leaderstowatch.com/neal-mohan-youtube-view-definition-engaged-views/): From 24 August a YouTube view counts from the first frame. Eight days earlier the bar to start earning was doubled. The number that flatters creators went up and the number that pays them did not move.
- [Jayshree Ullal delivered Arista's first three billion dollar quarter, then guided margins down](https://leaderstowatch.com/jayshree-ullal-arista-first-three-billion-dollar-quarter/): Arista’s revenue grew 37.7% and its non-GAAP operating margin reached 49.9%. The guidance she gave for the next quarter puts that margin lower, and the day after the results she was on television calling memory the new gold.
- [Sudhir Sitapati resigned from Godrej Consumer Products three days after shareholders voted to keep him](https://leaderstowatch.com/sudhir-sitapati-resignation-godrej-consumer-products-august-2026/): Shareholders approved his reappointment on 7 August. He emailed his resignation at 17:33 on 10 August. The company’s own filing records that the resolution now “stands ineffective and shall not be acted upon”.
- [Deepinder Goyal said his new ideas did not belong in a public company. Six weeks later he was back on its board.](https://leaderstowatch.com/deepinder-goyal-eternal-vice-chairman-return/): He resigned as chief executive of Eternal because, he said, the ideas he wanted to chase were better pursued outside a listed company. He returned as vice chairman on 13 March, on a five-year term, and still answers investors’ questions in the shareholders’ letter.
- [Shashwat Sharma has until Wednesday to argue with one number](https://leaderstowatch.com/shashwat-sharma-trai-fast-lane-80-percent-rule/): Airtel's chief executive has until Wednesday to tell a regulator why 80% is the wrong number. His rival's chief executive says the product it protects never mattered anyway.
- [A private equity firm just picked Manappuram Finance's next CEO](https://leaderstowatch.com/manappuram-finance-bain-capital-family-control-ends/): V.P. Nandakumar's family ran the gold-loan lender for seventy-seven years. Bain Capital now has the contractual right to name who runs it next.
- [Vedanta split into five companies. The market has not decided if it believes it yet.](https://leaderstowatch.com/vedanta-demerger-arun-misra-group-ceo/): Arun Misra becomes group CEO the same week Vedanta's four new listings all fell on debut. His one-year term is short enough to look like a trial.
- [Infosys chose an insider to replace Salil Parekh. That was the real decision.](https://leaderstowatch.com/infosys-ashiss-kumar-dash-salil-parekh-succession/): After doubling Infosys to $20 billion in nine years, Salil Parekh hands over to a nearly three-decade company veteran, not an outside AI hire.
- [Ashok Vaswani is not staying for a second term at Kotak Mahindra Bank](https://leaderstowatch.com/ashok-vaswani-kotak-mahindra-bank-exit/): The bank's first CEO from outside the founder's circle is leaving after one uneventful term, the sixth private Indian bank to see CEO turnover in two years.
- [N. Chandrasekaran is leaving Tata Sons after one board member said no](https://leaderstowatch.com/chandrasekaran-leaving-tata-sons-board-dissent/): One dissenting vote in February became a resignation in August. Here is what actually broke down between the chairman and the trusts that control Tata Sons.
- [The Godrej succession that was scheduled two years in advance](https://leaderstowatch.com/godrej-industries-pirojsha-nadir-succession/): Pirojsha Godrej took over on 14 August. The month was named in the family's 2024 settlement, which is exactly why nothing happened when it arrived.
- [Airtel has built a fast lane three times. Twice the regulator took it away.](https://leaderstowatch.com/airtel-priority-postpaid-shashwat-sharma-net-neutrality/): Shashwat Sharma's first product of consequence as chief executive of Airtel India launched on 19 May. Within days TRAI, the telecom department and a parliamentary committee were all asking the same question.
- [Aadit Palicha took Zepto's markdown in private rather than in public](https://leaderstowatch.com/zepto-ipo-pulled-aadit-palicha-valuation/): Domestic mutual funds indicated Zepto was worth $2.5 billion to $3 billion. Its last private mark was $7 billion. The founder pulled the listing and raised money at $4 billion instead.
- [Air India bought the Ethiopian Airlines playbook. India is not Ethiopia.](https://leaderstowatch.com/air-india-tewolde-gebremariam-ceo/): Tewolde Gebremariam spent eleven years building Africa's largest airline. Air India's combined loss more than doubled to ₹22,238 crore while it was looking for him.
- [Nazara did not run a CEO search. It ran an acquisition.](https://leaderstowatch.com/nazara-nitish-mittersain-raymond-stauffer-ceo/): Raymond Stauffer becomes chief executive on 1 September. Nazara is paying $303 million for the company he founded. Nitish Mittersain is giving up the job for the second time.
- [Willie Walsh spent five years speaking for airlines. Now he has to run one.](https://leaderstowatch.com/indigo-willie-walsh-ceo-pieter-elbers/): IndiGo's new chief executive took charge on 3 August, after two consecutive quarterly losses and a predecessor who resigned and was relieved on the same afternoon.
- [Instamart bought its profitability with growth. Nandita Sinha has to buy the growth back.](https://leaderstowatch.com/swiggy-instamart-nandita-sinha-ceo/): Amitesh Jha resigned two days before Swiggy announced Instamart had reached contribution breakeven. His successor inherits the number that did not move.
- [Sridhar Vembu stepped aside because of AI. Now he says it has stopped his industry hiring.](https://leaderstowatch.com/sridhar-vembu-zoho-it-jobs-ai/): Zoho's founder wrote on 2 August that his own company has not created many new jobs in recent years. Naming your own company in that count is the part nobody else does.
- [Blinkit will not follow its rivals into a discount war. It is also the one that can afford not to.](https://leaderstowatch.com/blinkit-albinder-dhindsa-discount-war/): Albinder Dhindsa told analysts on 22 July that competitors have no room left to cut prices. Blinkit has put about ₹3,000 crore into stores and warehouses instead.

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