On first sight, Larsen & Toubro?s (L&T) new chief executive and managing director K Venkataramanan looks like a basketball player ? over 6 feet tall, lean and trim and ready to dribble. Until Friday, the chemical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, was tucked in a corner office at one of the engineering units in Mumbai presiding over the company?s hydrocarbon business that built refineries, and onshore and offshore sites, both in India and overseas.

Come April, KV, as he is fondly known within L&T, will take the reins of India?s largest engineering company, with his mentor and predecessor AM Naik shifting his focus to complete portfolio restructuring, institutionalising the independent company structure, mentoring and developing the leadership team and future leaders to face the global challenges.

?We all knew we will be on top in our career, but he made the best of the lot,? says Lalit Mehra, KV?s batch-mate at IIT Delhi. ?We were not particularly a humble lot.? Venkataramanan, nicknamed ?Shorty? for his height, always connected with his batch mates even as he grew up the ranks in L&T. ?Last December, our batch met for a get together on December 11, 2011, his birthday,? says Mehra.

Only once, he chose to leave L&T to pursue his doctorate studies. But, it was nipped in the bud after L&T sent him to Denmark for a nine-month course.

Venkataramanan, who listens to Elvis Presly, old Hindi songs and ghazals, has displayed his execution skills, key to any engineer. ?He is someone I will look upto,? says Rahul Dhir, managing director, oil explorer Cairn India.

In 22 months, L&T the laid world?s longest continuously heated and insulated 590 km pipeline connecting Gujarat and Rajasthan despite two monsoons and a oil processing terminal. ?At the peak, there were 15,000 workers on site,? says Dhir.

?Venkataramanan personally visited the site to ensure timely delivery,? says Dhir who is an engineer from IIT Delhi.

The new chief executive, an avid tennis player and cricket watcher, has both advantages and challenges ahead.

With a four decade career, he knows the flavour of $11.7-billion diversified group, but challenges are shrinking orders from both India and abroad as both global and Indian economy slows down and to raise global revenues to 25% from 17% to de-risk its India dependence .

?Becoming L&T CEO is very difficult because L&T is complex.? says AM Naik, chairman and managing director. ?He has the right knowledge of three fourth of company?s business and there will be no problem in managing L&T, if one has three fourth knowledge.? Venkataramanan has Naik to mentor his three-and-a-half-year term.

?Working under the towering personality of Naik, the new CEO will have the cushion of continued hand holding and direction,? says professor RK Prem Rajan, who teaches HR at management school XLRI, Jamshedpur. ?With the new CEO being charged with the day to day operations, the board seems to have given thumbs up for continuity as opposed to change.?

?If companies face any difficulty or have trouble, he has a choice to come to me,? says Naik after announcing his successor. ?Even a superhuman will find it difficult to manage a large company like L&T.?

?With limited opportunity to author one?s own path for the engineering giant, the most interesting challenge for the new chief executive will be to address the aspirations of the talent powerhouse that Naik has so assiduously built over a period of time,? says Rajan. ?Whether the long-drawn succession process would cause any leakage in the pipeline is something that will be closely followed.?

?How well these talents will be leveraged in the new company structure would also be interesting to watch,? he added.

KV, who is reading former Apple chief executive Steve Jobs? biography at present, knows his challenges well. ?The challenge for me is to cut costs, complete projects on time in a slowing economy, make L&T competitive, expand business in geographies beyond Middle East and South East Asia.? He works 12 hours a day with 400 days leave in his kitty. ?I took leave only for my daughters? weddings,? says he.

Now, he may have to dribble faster to score more points for his team L&T.