Roopa Kudva

Published : Saturday, 28 March, 2015 10:49 AM 

 

Roopa Kudva, an extraordinary woman, was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of CRISIL (i.e. Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd), which is the Indian branch of Standard and Poor. Though her name is not too well-known in corporate circles, which are mostly male-dominated, Kudva is still a powerful woman. Her integrity and sincerity are worth applauding. She stands as an example of the immeasurable heights that a woman can attain, if she refuses to bow to the nay-sayers and believes in her capabilities and strengths.

 

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CRISIL is a rating agency. Kudva, who possesses a B.Sc. and a PGDM degree, joined the agency in 1992. She dreamt of becoming a teacher. But she does not regret today what she let go of yesterday. Reading is her passion. The genre which interests and delights her the most is that of the autobiography, her famous one being “Personal History” by Katherine Graham. 

 

In  September 2014, Kudva quit as the CEO of CRISIL. She is succeeded by AshuSuyash. She left the company not because of any internal conflicts but, for the fact that a change in the administration is healthy for the company. She frequently applied this thought to practice while she was the CEO. For instance, she ensured that fresh talent was hired every few years. Interestingly, she believed that it was easy to hire fresh talent but difficult to make the youngsters stick around for a long time, which would prove invaluably productive for the company. 

 

Thus, she devised a strategy for retaining fresh talent – by constantly training them, guiding them and ensuring that they were regularly promoted and given greater responsibilities as per their calibre. This went a long way in ensuring that the youngsters stay with the organisation, contribute to it in a healthy manner and it also took the company to greater heights of success. 

 

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The numbers themselves speak of the success of Kudva’s tactical approach – in the two decades that she served the company, its market share increased from a mere Rs.2,900 crores to a gigantic Rs.14,000 crores. The company is the biggest rating agency in India today. When Kudva quit, the net profit of the company was around Rs.268 crores. Standard and Poor holds around 67 per cent stake in CRISIL now. 

 

A great furore surrounded Kudva’s entry as well as exit from the organisation. A story has been doing rounds that Kudva, one fine day, walked up to the MD Pradeep Shah, and asked him if he would like to hire her for CRISIL. And the surprise does not end at that – she was not even in possession of a copy of her resume! And she was hired after a twenty-minute long interview. Her exit had similarly shocked everybody in the organisation. But she had decided that she needed to move on and make some space for a new transition, which, according to her, would go a long way in ensuring the future success of the company.

 

Her story motivates us because, as a woman, she did not waiver in her decisions at any stage of her life. She is a determined and a focussed woman who believes that one should not let those things come in one’s way which would block the entry of other, more important things. She is one businesswoman who believes in mixing business with pleasure, and sees no harm in the equation. A stalwart for her company and its members, Kudva will always be a figure to reckon with!

 

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