David Prosser's Outlook: Sarin signs off in style, silencing critics

Arun Sarin might have been forgiven a sly dig or two at some of his most long-standing adversaries yesterday. Having endured some torrid times during his five years at the helm of Vodafone – including a full-scale shareholder revolt over his reappointment as chief executive three years ago – he now looks to have pulled off that rarest of feats, announcing his intention to walk away while at the top of his game.

It's easy to forget that, just three years ago, plenty of Vodafone followers had Mr Sarin living on borrowed time. Yesterday, announcing his decision to step down from the chief executive's office in July alongside a set of results that exceeded most expectations, it was difficult to find anyone with a bad word to say about the man.

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There was a good reason for that lack of criticism. Mr Sarin has called the big decisions right – and his critics have been proved wrong.

Take the move into emerging markets that encouraged 10 per cent of shareholders to vote against Mr Sarin's reappointment in 2005. This strategy is now universally accepted as having been the right one for a company concerned about growth prospects from its established operations.

Similarly, when Mr Sarin paid top dollar for the Indian mobile phone operator Hutchison Essar last year, his critics were quick to claim he had been over-generous with the terms of the purchase. Yet it was clear from yesterday's figures that the contribution to Vodafone's bottom-line made by India has already become significant, with the country set to be a leading driver of growth at the company.

Nor has Mr Sarin been afraid to dispose of underperforming businesses – his decision to sell off Vodafone's Japanese operation, for example, was the right move – or to walk away from genuinely over-priced acquisitions, as he did with AT&T Wireless.

Vodafone's succession planning and corporate governance standards also deserve some plaudits. Not for the mobile phone giant the kind of unseemly row still rumbling on at Marks & Spencer, for example, where Sir Stuart Rose has been embarrassed by criticism of his move to the office of executive chairman in the absence of the selection of a suitable successor. Nor will Mr Sarin receive any pay-off from Vodafone.

A chief executive cannot be expected to take responsibility for every last detail of his company's business. His job is to paint the big picture – to set the company on the right strategy for growth and then to move on once a suitable successor has been identified to continue and renew the vision. Mr Sarin has pulled off this trick and – perhaps even more impressively – he has so far resisted the temptation to say "I told you so".

There are, naturally some challenges Mr Sarin will bequeath to his successor. For example, his refusal to accept calls for the sale of Vodafone's Verizon stake may have been vindicated, but this is an issue that still has not been satisfactorily resolved.

Still, the final verdict is in the share price, and it is here that Mr Sarin scores most highly. Having taken the top job at Vodafone in the wake of the dotcom collapse, the company's shares were trading at just 110p on his accession. Last week, prior to his announcement, the price was as high as 167p.

Add in the value of a share buyback policy, plus dividend increases, and total returns for shareholders during Mr Sarin's tenure come in at around 70 per cent, well ahead of the vast majority of Vodafone's rivals. No mean feat.