A common thread runs through Kishore Biyani's recent initiatives at building new businesses: partnerships with CEOs who have been there and done that. Gone is his penchant for control over ownership and operations. It is, instead, being replaced by a way of working that centres not around Biyani, but around the CEO as an entrepreneur.
So, V Vaidyanathan, previously the head of ICICI's life insurance business, is assembling the pieces for the financial services business of Biyani's Future Group, reportedly with an ownership stake, of an undisclosed amount. Similarly, R Radhakrishnan, the ex-CEO of Reliance Retail's hypermarket business, is building the group's fresh foods (fruit & vegetable) business as a coowner and entrepreneur.
"He (Biyani) knew that, in my heart, I did not want to be an employee, but an entrepreneur," Radhakrishnan told ET in August 2010. "He immediately offered to set up a separate company." Biyani's magic word for Vaidyanathan was "intrapreneurship", or making employees co-owners. "Intrapreneurship removes insecurities and fears from the minds of people, and their commitment levels go up sharply," Biyani had said then.
So, V Vaidyanathan, previously the head of ICICI's life insurance business, is assembling the pieces for the financial services business of Biyani's Future Group, reportedly with an ownership stake, of an undisclosed amount. Similarly, R Radhakrishnan, the ex-CEO of Reliance Retail's hypermarket business, is building the group's fresh foods (fruit & vegetable) business as a coowner and entrepreneur.
"He (Biyani) knew that, in my heart, I did not want to be an employee, but an entrepreneur," Radhakrishnan told ET in August 2010. "He immediately offered to set up a separate company." Biyani's magic word for Vaidyanathan was "intrapreneurship", or making employees co-owners. "Intrapreneurship removes insecurities and fears from the minds of people, and their commitment levels go up sharply," Biyani had said then.