BSE-listed cos witness a high-profile resignation every nine days: Report

Cut-throat competition in the pursuit of success has cost several top corporate executives their jobs in the last couple of years. Since the start of FY16, 81 senior executives holding positions of Chief Executive Officers, Managing Directors, Chief Financial Officers, and board directors in 500 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange have resigned, according to Prime Database. This means a high-profile executive has called it quits every nine days.

The resignations are not officially attributed to performance and “personal reasons” are invariably cited as the cause, according to a Business Line report. But fall in a company’s quarterly profit mostly coincides with the resignation of a top executive.

For example, drug major Cipla saw a 44 percent year-on-year fall in its net profit for the first quarter of last year. In the aftermath of the poor show, the company’s CEO Subhanu Saxena resigned citing family reasons. Cipla’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Umang Vohra was then promoted to CEO.

Another top company with a similar story was Cairn India. The oil and gas vertical of London-listed Vedanta Resources saw its Managing Director and CEO Mayank Ashar quit in June 2016 for personal reasons. In turn, CFO Sudhir Mathur was made the CEO of Cairn India.