I have been seeing this question a lot in this space for the past few days. Let me put up my perspective here.
I think it’s because of the varied experience and perspectives that they bring to the table.
Building a great company from start is completely different from running it.
Both have different strategies.
Having varied experiences definitely helps in steering a company in the right direction during uncertainties.
Most of these leaders have some sort of connection with India, either they’re born here, studied here, or at least have some Indian relatives.
India is a splash of cultures, traditions, a wide variety of people across all themes.
Having this varied understanding will definitely help you make the right decisions and that’s exactly what a CEO does.
This also helps them in understanding the pulse of a large proportion of the market – as user psychology is a major factor in taking the right decisions, especially in Twitter, Google.
Why?
Ads are a major revenue model here and understanding people is a core pillar.
If we look at it from a strategic point, having someone take the lead from a growing market as they understand it really makes sense.
On the other hand, it is a completely different game when building an idea for a product.
And this is what Americans and Europeans are great at.
In essence, all of us are playing to our strengths.
And leading a tech company seems to be a strong factor for us.
For sure, there are a lot of other factors involved here like education, discipline, values,…. but I believe this is the differentiating factor that moves the needle.
I’m glad that the tech industry is giving us exposure like never before, and I’m happy for these leaders.