What Next?

This question seems to be haunting Indian start-ups as their mentor Nikesh Arora hangs up his boots at SoftBank.

- Ammar Zaidi

India-born Nikesh Arora, seen asheir-apparent at SoftBank, has quitfrom the Japanese conglomerate in a surprise move recently. Explaining the reason behind his exit from SoftBank, Mr Arora has added that he can't be CEO-in-waiting past his sell-by date. Mr Arora's abrupt decision has been triggered by the intention of Masayoshi Son, the current chief of the Japanese telecom company, to continue in the leadership position for five to ten years more.

Mr Son, the 58-year-old boss of Mr Arora, had earlier planned to quit at the age of 60. However, recently the SoftBank chief had said that he felt that he was "still a bit too young". This prompted Mr Arora, the 48-year- old former chief business officer of Google, to call it a day at the Japanese company. "I was thinking of handing over my job as CEO when I turn 60, but thought maybe I'm still a bit too young and still have energy to continue," Mr Son had said.

In a series of tweets, Mr Arora noted: "Masa 2 continue 2 be CEO for 5-10 years, respect that. Learnt a lot. Clean chit from board after thorough review. Time for me to move on." In another tweet, he said that he did not want to be CEO in waiting "past my sell-by date".

Mr Arora has not commented on his next move. "This will allow me to think about my next move," he notes. He will remain in an advisory role at SoftBank for a year, the company has said in a statement.

Clean chit