ICICI leader Kamath Forbes annual recognition award

Kamath is the third Indian to be honored with the Forbes annual recognition in the last four years. The previous winners were Nandan Nilekani of Infosys Technologies last year and Ratan Tata in 2004. Kamath said 90 percent of the credit for the award goes to ICICI employees and the remaining 10 percent to him for picking the right people.

“No leader succeeds without a team,” he said. Under Kamath’s watch, ICICI’s market capitalization has risen to US$31 billion (euro21 billion) compared to $1.6 billion in 2002, when the original corporate lending institution merged with its commercial banking offshoot.

Asked what is one trait that no businessman should be without, Kamath said it is the “ability to take a decision.” “It might sound funny, but most businessmen hesitate to take a decision. Decisions are not easy a lot of time … how to process all the information and come to a decision you think is appropriate and go ahead and execute it.”