Selected by Indra Nooyi for a key role about a decade ago, Laxman Narasimhan will emulate the former PepsiCo global chief when he takes charge as the next chief executive of cafe giant Starbucks, succeeding its founder Howard D Schultz.
Associates who’ve worked with Narasimhan call out his core strengths in operations and finance, and his ability to connect across management and frontline teams as he joins the league of India-origin executives leading iconic global companies.
The engineer, who led British healthcare and consumer goods company Reckitt for three years, will succeed Schultz, who turned Starbucks from a regional US coffee company into the world’s largest coffee chain over the past four decades and is currently its interim chief executive officer.
Narasimhan, 55, will join Starbucks on October 1 but will take the leadership role in April next year, the Seattle-based company said in a statement late on Thursday. Until then, Schultz will continue to lead the company and Narasimhan will work closely with him.
Narasimhan, a US Citizen, will also be a member of the Starbucks board of directors, it said.
“He is a strategic and transformational leader with deep experience in building powerful consumer brands,” Schultz said in a letter to employees welcoming Narasimhan.
Mathias, a former senior PepsiCo executive who’s known Narasimhan since his days at PepsiCo and McKinsey, said, “Narasimhan made the transition from consulting and finance to operations seamlessly, moving on to head Reckitt. He’s seen retail transformations across beverages, foods and consumer goods.”
Narasimhan is a Pune boy who studied mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Pune, and later went on to study at University of Pennsylvania and Wharton. He joined consulting firm McKinsey in the US in 1993 and PepsiCo was a client of his during that tenure.
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He came back to India in early 2000s and built a solid industrial practice based out of Delhi. In 2012, he was one of the candidates for McKinsey’s India corner office along with Noshir Kaka and Gautam Kumra. He quit the firm around that time and joined PepsiCo as CFO, Americas Foods.
At PepsiCo, he held various leadership roles including global chief commercial officer, and later headed the foods and beverages maker’s Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa operations. At Reckitt, Narasimhan was the first external candidate to lead the maker of Durex condoms, Dettol antiseptic and Mucinex cold syrup, and he steered the company to record sales last year as consumers shopped for hygiene and healthcare products with the breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shares of Reckitt fell 4% on Thursday after he announced his departure as its CEO.
Some McKinsey India senior partners who have worked with Narasimhan said he was always marked for bigger roles.
“Many of us at McKinsey have had the good fortune of working closely with Laxman, who has always been an inspiring leader with deep expertise in building world-class consumer, retail and technology businesses,” said Rajat Dhawan, managing partner – India at McKinsey & Company.
“We take great pride in his achievements. His ability to develop and drive the vision for multinational businesses in a complex marketplace, along with a pragmatic approach, is well-suited for his new role,” Dhawan said. “I have no doubt he will be a wonderful leader for an iconic brand. Personally, I’m also happy for him, as this move back to the US would give him more time with family.”