Yet another tech CEO of Indian origin

From co-founder to CEO, Jack Dorsey was carrying Twitter’s identity for sometime now. He is not without controversies. Twitter and Facebook came to prominence on somewhat same time. Yet, Facebook became a cash-rich poster boy among the social media, Twitter lagging behind Facebook, unclear how to monetize the Twitter as a product. As a CEO, he was blamed for being CEO on Square and not concentrating on Twitter.

+ Fun fact: Argawal joins the growing ranks of powerful US tech executives of Indian descent. Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter are all run by people who grew up in India.

— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) November 30, 2021

The Indian Diaspora

The Indian diaspora has spread far and wide, this Wikipedia’s map gives some perspective. Indian diaspora spread across the world through out the history. British colonial era is not an exception.

We have several political heads to CEOs. So much so there is a wikipedia page to track the foreign political heads of Indian origin.

And, it’s not something rare to see an person of Indian origin becomes a CEO. Ever since, the news revealed that Parag Agrawal will be the next CEO of Twitter, the Indian SM went gaga over the appointment, celebrated as if person from their own family became the head.

Below are some of the CEOs of tech companies of Indian origin.

To add to this we had Indra Nooyi, who was heading Pepsi for significant duration, and so many more names might have been missed.

Should we be celebrating?

The alarming similarity in the above list is that they’re first generation Indian-Americans. Implying, they went abroad for studies or to fulfill work assignment. Later, they went up the corporate ladder to become the head of their company. To be fair, they deserves to be celebrated. While celebrating their success we have to consider our society’s failure to retain them in our own country.

Recently, we saw Freshworks IPOed in NASDAQ, headed by Indian CEO. There are many more SaaS companies are lining up to go big. The Indian Software Industry is growing, no one can deny that. But, we did missed to attract/retain the talents, and the opportunity cost is huge.

How to attract the talents?

To retain a talent in a company, the employer is expected to build a accepting atmosphere, competitive remuneration, friendly colleagues, grievance redressal, and much more.

If you’re creme de la creme in your field, what would make you to pack your bags and return back to the country you grew up to?

To start with, healthier living condition - clean air, water could be an ask. More tolerable society, to have free speech. Unambiguous judiciary that views everyone same. Maintaining law and order.

Also, as society we must show tolerance to diverse nature of people and accepting people as they are.