In another big surprise for the IT industry, Oracle India managing director and industry veteran Bhaskar Pramanik has been abruptly replaced, less than a year after he took over the coveted role. Bhaskar joined as the India MD of the technology giant in April, 2010, replacing Krishan Dhawan, who headed Oracle for five years.
Sandeep Mathur, chief of Oracle India?s Database and Exadata business is the new MD. Oracle is the undisputed leader in the database business and according to trade publication Dataquest, database gave Oracle India 51% of the its revenues in FY10; all telcos in India run on Oracle database.
?We confirm that Bhaskar Pramanik, managing director, Oracle India, is resigning from Oracle to pursue other opportunities. The new managing director of Oracle India is Sandeep Mathur, who was previously vice-president, Technology, leading the company?s Database and Exadata business in the country,? a spokesperson from the company told FE. The spokesperson did not add any more details but FE learnt that Pramanik?s last working day would be March 31.
The departure adds to the season of top management churn in the country?s technology world ? Wipro?s joint CEOs quit in January this year, followed by Ashok Soota, chairman of MindTree. Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft, quit in February.
Pramanik?s departure took analysts by surprise as the firm was doing well in terms of numbers. A market watcher who did not want to be named said the company, however, needed a more aggressive leader ? Sandeep Mathur is known to be one. ?When Pramanik became MD of Oracle India, a lot of people were surprised ? at Sun ( he was corporate vice president at Sun before joining Oracle) he was known to be a benevolent leader. Sun was never known to be aggressive,? he said.
A top executive from an Indian IT services firm said that in the US, the average term for a CEO is not more than 18 months. ?The culture is seeping into India. This explains the recent spurt in short stints of executives in top companies,? he said.