Kudva: Post-1991 Indian firms shifted from promoter control to widespread stock options
Roopa Kudva · For the CEOs of 2026, From One of India's Top Leaders | Roopa Kudva, Ex-CEO Crisil · Dec 12, 2025 · at 6:18
Roopa Kudva, former CEO of Crisil, discusses the structural and cultural changes in Indian enterprise following the country's 1991 economic liberalization.
0:00 / 0:22exact quote · 23.0s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Until then, I would say most companies were about the promoter, by the promoter, for the promoter. What these new age companies brought in was a culture of openness, a culture where people were more equal, a culture where stock options were more widely distributed, so everybody became a partner in the success of these organizations.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Roopa Kudva
Kudva: Executive sponsorship advances women in corporate leadership better than mentorship
“We talk about mentorship. We talk about networking. All of that is, it is important. It is good. But nothing as vital as sponsorship. And ICICI banks sponsored women for the top jobs without all these other programs, you know, and I think that is what made the…”
Kudva: India's venture capital industry emerged in the early 2000s
“And, you know, the whole VC industry, the availability of risk capital in the quantities that you see today was something that happened in the early 2000 or mid 2000, right? The first decade of the century.”
Kudva: Promotions reward expected future contributions, not past performance
“A promotion is not a reward. You know, at most for past performance. Past performance, at the best, gets you a chance to have that conversation. It is what you bring to the table today, or even not today, what you bring, what you are likely to bring to the tab…”
Kudva: Leaders who must be the best cap their company's growth
“It's not about being the best. It's about knowing where your strengths lie. It's creating the space for others to grow. Because if you're the best, then the company will be limited by your capability.”
Kudva: MIT study shows under one-third of managers know top company priorities
“There's actually a study which I saw by Stanford, ah, or sorry, MIT, I think, which in, which, ah, interviewed 4000 managers, and they found that less than One third of them were able to identify what are the top three priorities of our company.”