No Headstart

Most CEOs started with modest salaries which pale in comparison with what they earn today.

- Sumant Banerji

WHEN ANIL MANIBHAI NAIK joined the engineering and infrastructure behemoth Larsen and Toubro in 1965 as a junior engineer, his ambition was to earn at least 1,000 a month before he retired. Naik’s first monthly salary in the company was 670 and he had no idea then that he would retire from the company 52 years later as one of its most celebrated top bosses and as one of India’s highest paid CEOs.

Naik breached the 1,000 per month mark in his first year itself and by the time he retired, his remuneration had risen to 137.24 crore. His leave encashment alone was worth 32.21 crore.

A regular on the list of highest paid CEOs in the country for the better part of the 17 years that he was the chairman of L&T, Naik exemplifies most other self-made professional CEOs in India who started off their careers on a sombre note.