The Fortune 500 Companies is an annual list of the top 500 companies, collated and published by the Fortune magazine since 1955. It is a matter of great pride for an organization to feature in this list.
While the names of the publicly and privately held companies in the original list consist of global & Indian brands, Fortune magazine also releases a list of the top 500 Indian companies annually.
Here, I have compiled a list of the top 100 from Fortune's List of 2017, along with the names of their business heads as well as their professional qualifications.
This report will attempt to gauge the general trends followed around the qualifications and the alma mater of these men and women.
By the end of this report, we will be able to answer the following questions:
- Which B-Schools/graduate colleges produce the maximum number of C-suite Executives in the top-100 companies of India.
- How many business leaders haven't actually pursued a post-graduation and/or graduation course?
- What percentage of Executives prefer to do their MBA from abroad than from Indian management institutes?
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Do you need to be a post-graduate to reach the top?
As illustrated below, 37% of business leaders do not have an MBA or any other form of post-graduation degree. Out of this, Mr Rajesh Mehta of Rajesh Exports has not even pursued an undergraduate degree and is worth $2.6 Billion as of 2017, making him the 61st richest man in the world. Mr Mukesh Ambani, the world's 18th richest man, is only a graduate. 33 Business leaders in this list do not possess a post-graduation degree.
Therefore, out of every 5 business leaders, 2 do not have an MBA or a post-graduation qualification. Therefore it is clear that an MBA/post-graduation is not necessary to rise to the top.
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How many business leaders have done their MBAs locally?
Out of the list of business leaders of the top 100 Indian companies, 21 out of 89 CEOs have done an MBA locally and the same number of professionals have pursued their management degrees from foreign institutes. The latter consists of institutes such as the Wharton School of Management, Harvard Business School, Cornell University, London Business School etc. The most preferred programme pursued abroad, apart from an MBA, is the Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School.
It must be noted that 17 of the 89* business leaders in this list have pursued post-graduation degrees other than an MBA.
*(The data for 11 CEOs was not available)
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Which Indian B-Schools have maximum representation across the top 100 Indian companies?
Unsurprisingly, the holy trinity of IIMs makes up over 50% of the 10 Indian B-Schools' alumni. JBIMS is at 3rd place in terms of representation, thereby upholding its reputation as the CEO factory of India. Up there with the top-10 B-Schools are management institutes such as TAPMI, SIBM Pune, and IMI New Delhi.
Apart from B-Schools, it must also be noted that 9% of these business leaders are also members of the Insitute of Chartered Accountants of India. 2 of the 100 individuals are also lateral entries from the Indian Administrative Services.
Most of these business leaders hail from some of the most prestigious undergraduate institutes in India and abroad such as IITs, NITs, BITS, St. Stephen's, SRCC, etc. The IITs lead the pack, the alumni of which account for 14 of the 91* business leaders featuring in this list, followed by NITs (6) and BITS (5).
*(The data for 9 CEOs was not available)
Here is the list of CEOs of the top-100 companies in India, according to Fortune magazine's list for the year 2017:
(Wherever all three columns contain "NA", it implies that the company is without a CEO due to arrests and criminal investigation against CEOs, sudden resignation, or re-structuring of management)
| Company | Name of CEO/Chairman/MD | MBA/Post-Graduation | Graduation College |
| Indian Oil Corporation | Sanjiv Singh | NA | IIT Roorkee |
| Reliance Industries | Mukesh Ambani | Stanford (Discontinued) | UDCT |
| State Bank of India | Arijit Basu | JBIMS Mumbai | IIT Delhi |
| Tata Motors | Guenter Butschek | NA | Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University |
| Rajesh Exports | Rajesh Mehta | NA | NA |
| Bharat Petroleum | D. Rajkumar | IIM Bangalore | IIT Madras |
| Hindustan Petroleum | Mukesh Kumar Surana | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| Oil & Natural Gas Corporation | Shashi Shanker | IGNOU | ISM Dhanbad |
| Coal India | Sutirtha Bhattacharya | Indian Administrative Services | Presidency College, Kolkata |
| Tata Consultancy Services | Rajesh Gopinathan | IIM Ahmedabad | NIT Trichy |
| Tata Steel | T.V. Narendran | IIM Calcutta | NIT Trichy |
| ICICI Bank | Chanda Kochhar | JBIMS Mumbai | Jai Hind College, ICAI |
| Larsen & Toubro | S.N. Subrahmanyan | SIBM Pune | Kurukshetra University |
| Hindalco Industries | Satish Pai | NA | IIT Madras |
| Bharti Airtel | Gopal Vittal | IIM Calcutta | Madras Christian College |
| HDFC Bank | Aditya Puri | ICAI | Panjab University |
| Mahindra & Mahindra | Anand Mahindra | Harvard Business School | Lawrence School, Lovedale |
| NTPC | Gurdeep Singh | IIM Ahmedabad | Data Unavailable |
| Vedanta | Kuldip Kumar Kaura | London Business School | BITS, Pilani |
| Infosys | Salil Parekh | Cornell University | IIT Bombay |
| Maruti Suzuki India | Kenichi Ayukawa | NA | Osaka University |
| Essar Oil | Lalit Kumar Gupta | NA | Jiwaji University, Gwalior |
| HDFC | Keki Mistry | ICAI | Mumbai University |
| Wipro | Abidali Neemuchwala | IIT Bombay | NIT Raipur |
| Axis Bank | Shikha Sharma | IIM Ahmedabad | LSR |
| JSW Steel | Sajjan Jindal | NA | MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology |
| Punjab National Bank | Sunil Mehta | Wharton School of Management | CAIIB |
| Bank of Baroda | P.S. Jayakumar | XLRI Jamshedpur | Madras University |
| GAIL (India) | B.C. Tripathi | NA | MNNIT Allahabad |
| Canara Bank | Rakesh Sharma | IGNOU | Chaudhary Charan Singh University |
| HCL Technologies | C Vijaykumar | NA | PSG College of Technology |
| Bank of India | Dinabandhu Mohapatra | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| MRPL | M. Venkatesh | NA | MIT, Manipal |
| Steel Authority of India | P.K. Singh | NA | IIT Roorkee |
| ITC Limited | Sanjiv Puri | Wharton School of Management | IIT Kanpur |
| Vodafone India | Sunil Sood | IIM Calcutta, Harvard Business School | IIT Delhi |
| Motherson Sumi Systems | Vivek Chaand Sehgal | NA | Delhi University |
| Union Bank of India | Rakiran Rai Gundaydka | NA | University of Agricultural Sciences |
| Grasim Industries | Dilip Gaur | Harvard Business School | Data Unavailable |
| Idea Cellular | Himanshu Kapania | IIM Bangalore | BITS, Mesra |
| Kotak Mahindra Bank | Uday Suresh Kotak | JBIMS Mumbai | Sydenham College |
| Hindustan Unilever | Sanjiv Mehta | Harvard Business School | Data Unavailable |
| Sun Pharmaceuticals | Dilip Shanghvi | NA | Bhawanipur Education Society, University of Calcutta |
| IDBI Bank | Balasubramanyam Sriram | AIMA,St. Stephen's College | Data Unavailable |
| General Insurance Corporation of India | Alice G. Vaidyan | Harvard Business School | Kerala University |
| Tech Mahindra | C.P. Gurnani | NA | NIT, Rourkela |
| Reliance Infrastructure | Lalit Jalan | Wharton School of Management | IIT Kanpur |
| Hero MotoCorp | Pawan Munjal | NA | NIT Kurukshetra |
| Bharat Heavy Electricals | Atul Sobti | IMI New Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad | Data Unavailable |
| Tata Power Company | Praveer Sinha | NLSI, IIT Delhi | IIT Delhi |
| Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited | S.N. Pandey | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| Central Bank of India | Rajeev Rishi | NA | Panjab University |
| Power Finance Corporation | Rajeev Sharma | FMS Delhi | IIT Roorkee |
| Power Grid Corporation of India | I.S. Jha | NA | NIT Jamshedpur |
| Syndicate Bank | Melwyn Oswald Rego | SIBM Pune | Data Unavailable |
| UltraTech Cement | KK Maheshwari | ICAI | University of Mumbai |
| Petronet LNG | Prabhat Singh | NA | IIT Kanpur |
| Rural Electrification Corp. | Dr. P.V. Ramesh | Indian Administrative Services | Christian Medical College & Hospital |
| Jet Airways (India) | Vinay Dube | University of North Carolina | Knox College, IIinois |
| Bajaj Finserv | Sanjiv Bajaj | Harvard Business School | University of Pune |
| Ashok Leyland | Vinod Kumar Dasari | J.L. Kellogg School of Management | University of Louisville |
| Reliance Communications | Gurdeep Singh | NA | BITS, Pilani |
| Bajaj Auto | Rajiv Bajaj | University of Warwick, UK | College of Engineering, Pune |
| Adani Enterprises | Vinay Prakash | NA | Institute of Engineering & Technology |
| Indian Overseas Bank | R. Subramania Kumar | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| IFFCO | U.S. Awasthi | University of Agricultural Sciences | IIT(BHU) |
| Corporation Bank | Jai Kumar Garg | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| NABARD | Harsh Kumar Bhanwala | IIM Ahmedabad | Data Unavailable |
| New India Assurance Co. Ltd. | Gopalan Srinivasan | NA | University of Madras |
| Jindal Steel & Power | N.A. Ansari | Wharton School of Management, INSEAD | Aligarh Muslim University |
| Andhra Bank | NA | NA | NA |
| Oriental Bank of Commerce | Mukesh Kumar Jain | Delhi School of Economics | Data Unavailable |
| Ambuja Cements | Ajay A. Kapur | The Wharton School | St. Xavier's, Mumbai |
| Yes Bank | Rana Kapoor | Rutgers University | SRCC, Delhi University |
| Allahabad Bank | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| Tata Communications | Vinod Anand Kumar | NA | BITS, Pilani |
| Interglobe Aviation (IndiGo) | Rahul Bhatia | NA | University of Waterloo |
| IndusInd Bank | Romesh Sobti | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| UCO Bank | Ravi Krishan Takkar | NIBM Pune | SRCC, Delhi University |
| Future Retail | Kishore Biyani | NA | HR College, Mumbai |
| Asian Paints | K.B.S. Anand | IIM Calcutta | IIT Bombay |
| Indian Bank | Kishor Kharat | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| Lupin | Vinita D. Gupta | Kellogg School of Management | University of Mumbai |
| Reliance Capital | Jai Anmol Ambani | NA | Warwick Business School, UK |
| UPL | Jaidev Shroff | NA | Mumbai University |
| Gitanjali Gems | NA | NA | NA |
| PTC India | Ashok Haldia | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| Aurobindo Pharma | N. Govindarajan | IIT Bombay | Annamalai University |
| Max Financial Services | Mohit Talwar | Oberoi School | St. Stephen's College |
| Cipla | Umang Vohra | TAPMI, Manipal | MSRIT, Bangalore |
| Dr Reddy’s Laboratories | G.V. Prasad | Purdue University | Alagappa College of Technology |
| CESC | Aniruddha Basu | NA | Aniruddha Basu |
| Bhushan Steel | Neeraj Singal | NA | Panjab University |
| EID Parry (India) | S. Suresh | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| Siemens | Sunil Mathur | NA | ICAI |
| Citibank | Pramit Jhaveri | Simon Business School, Rochester | Sydenham College |
| LIC Housing Finance | Vinay Sah | Lucknow University | Data Unavailable |
| Vijaya Bank | R.A. Sankara Narayanan | Data Unavailable | Data Unavailable |
| MRF | Rahul Mammen | University of Michigan Business School | St. Stephen's College |
| Jaiprakash Associates | Manoj Gaur | NA | BITS, Pilani |
The limitation of this report are:
- The complete educational qualification and data for 20 business leaders was not available via secondary research. This reduces the sample-set from:
- 100 companies to 89 companies in the column titled "MBA/Post-graduation", since data for 11 business leaders was not available.
- 100 companies to 91 companies in the column titled "Graduation Institute", since data for 9 business leaders was not available.
- The undergraduate stream cannot be ascertained accurately with the data available online, so the extent of the influence of a person's graduation stream cannot be determined.
I will also be making a list of the top start-up CEOs of the country and their educational qualifications.
If you have any suggestions to improve this report, let me know in the comments below.
