STAR-AVANI in STARBUCKS TATA GLOBAL JV....

7 DEC, 2012, 04.58AM IST, KALA VIJAYRAGHAVAN,ET BUREAU 

Avani Saglani Davda: Why Tata Sons director thinks a young TAS product is perfect to lead the JV with Starbucks

MUMBAI: Four years ago, RK Krishna Kumar ferreted out a spunky woman in her late 20s in the sales & marketing team of Indian Hotels, the Tata groupcompany that owns the Taj hospitality brand.The chairman of Tata Global BeveragesBSE 2.56 %who is also a director on the board of the group's holding company, Tata Sons, was on the look out for an executive assistant.Avani Saglani Davda, who reported to Indian Hotels' chief of sales & marketing Deepa Mishra Harris, and had risen to general manager after a five-year stint, caught Kumar's eye for two reasons: she seemed ready to handle a project; and for a leadership role.By 2008, Avani was working out of Bombay House, under Krishna Kumar's wing. "He mentored her to eventually catapult her into a challenging role. She was forever taking notes and part of almost every critical meeting handled by him," says a person who has observed her growth from close quarters. Avani declined to participate when contacted to contribute to this profile.The opportunity to display her leadership skills and handle an ambitious project came when the Tatas looked to Starbucks for a partnership in 2011. Whilst Krishna Kumar kept an eagle eye on the developments, it was Davda who worked on it from scratch, travelling to Starbucks' headquarters in Seattle, and meeting, amongst other honchos, CEO HowardBSE -3.85 %Schultz. "She had this steely determination in her approach to completing projects and was aggressive," said a person close to the project on condition of anonymity. Another person who has worked in the Tata Global headquarters points out that he was impressed by her commitment to the task at hand, challenges on the home front notwithstanding."She had a 10-month-old baby when she signed up for the job as EA to Krishna Kumar. And anybody who has worked with KK knows that the he keeps late hours at work. And here she was at 9 at night, unruffled and completing her task.
It was amazing to see her commitment at that stage when usually young mothers tend to get panicky about their babies, "said the official. Today, Davda, 33, has been given charge of the high-profile equal stakes Tata Starbucks joint venture in India, creating a buzz - and some surprise -- among company watchers. Not only is the low-profile Davda the youngest CEO in the Tata system she is one of the few backroom strategists -- who was never in any direct functional role - to be heading a business. Avani, who has worked for the Tata companies for more than 10 years, joined the Tata group as a TAS (Tata Administrative Service) probationer in 2002. After rising from brand manager to GM and in that time focused on buffing up the Taj brand, Avani worked closely with Krishna Kumar, overseeing the Tata group's hospitality, beverages and real estate businesses.
One major initiative Avani was neck-deep into was the makeover of Tata Global (formerly Tata Tea) from just a tea company into a food & beverages marketer. Then came the coffeehouse blueprint, a project in which colleagues expected Avani to play a critical role in the senior management team of the JV, possibly in a marketing role; her appointment as CEO came as a bolt from the blue.What would have tipped the scales in Avani's favour - in addition to her project execution skills - is the belief of Krishna Kumar (a TAS officer himself) of mentoring TAS products and providing them with leadership opportunities.
To be sure, Avani isn't the first mentoree to come out of Krishna Kumar's corner room. The Tata Global chief had also played guru to Abanti Sankaranarayanan who joined Diageo India in 2010 as marketing director, rose to deputy managing director earlier this year, and to managing director by July.Before Diageo, Sankaranarayanan was executive director & deputy chief executive officer at Mount Everest Mineral WaterBSE -1.37 %, a bottled water company that Tata Global had picked up a stake in five years ago and subsequently control with a majority holding.In a press statement announcing the JV between Tata Global and Starbucks Krishna Kumar had dubbed her "the perfect leader for Tata Starbucks... Working closely with Avani for many years now, I am confident she will bring the local business acumen, customer focus and commitment to delivering the highest quality Starbucks experience to our customers in India."The JV had initially announced a roll-out plan for 30 stores by the end of the current calendar year and an initial investment of Rs 200 crore from each partner.The venture currently has three stores open in India (all in Mumbai) and has subsequently revised expansion plans to 100 stores over next two years. Scaling up won't happen in a hurry. A November 2012 Morgan Stanley research report says: "In a bluesky scenario and assuming that Starbucks is notably successful in India with 900 stores by 2020 and has an average unit value per annum of $0.9 million, in line with the current China Asia-Pac Starbucks owned average, the JV would only contribute 14% of consolidated revenues and less than 20% of profits."Given the challenge ahead, is the relative greenhorn Avani the right person for the job? Says Harminder Sahni, managing director, Technopak Advisors: "It doesn't matter if the person heading such JVs is an Indian or an expat. After waiting for over eight years to enter India, it is unlikely that their plans will be anything but aggressive." http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/avani-saglani-davda-why-tata-sons-director-thinks-a-young-tas-product-is-perfect-to-lead-the-jv-with-starbucks/articleshow/17514392.cms