The
Brief summary of happenings of the day and
complete transcript of the speech of Shri
N. R. Narayana Murthy
Proceedings
of the day – Phase I
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Invitation of Dignitaries on the dias – Shri.
Karandikar, Dr. Bedekar, Dr. Guruprasad Murthy
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Opening with a prayer by Smt. Sumedha
Bedekar
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Welcoming of guest
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Akshay Malkar and Sheetal Bendre
presents roses to Dignitaries
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President Shri S. V. Karandikar’s
introductory speech
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Dr. Guruprasad Murthy introduces the
structure of Planery session
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Dr. P. M. Kelkar: Admits presentations
Will be slightly biased towards pharmaceuticals . Review of
Industry status. Non-competitive to competitive. Moving from
kitchen chemistry to organized production. From protected
to unprotected. Poor quality to customer driven quality. Government
control to private ownership. Manual to IT enabled system.
Labour intensive to labour effectiveness. Manufacturing alone
to Manufacturing with service
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Regulatory challenges – compliance with local
regulations. Industrial and financial policies, knowledge
and compliance of employment laws, contract laws, divestiture
possibilities, insurance policies, factory rules, Industrial
safety and hygiene regulations, Environmental protection,
healthcare compliance policies, FDA clearances. Service complaint
handling, Intellectual property rights.
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In short, Running a MNC is a very complex
business
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Amitpal Singh, Rajkumar Singh: Made
presentation on the theme of the seminar. A company can be
termed multinational if it has operations spread over multiple
countries. There are 63,000 MNCs today. World over financial
institutions are the largest asset holders.
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Dr. S. Siddhan:Innovation – not accessing
markets sufficiently. Innovation is key to knowledge economy.
Prerequisite for innovation dissatisfaction with existing.drivers
for innovation- market pull technology, society. Explicit/tacit
– cannot be bought unlike explicit knowledge. Bringin innovation
and creativity culture in the organization atvarious levels
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Shivani Takalkar and Gaurang Deshmukh:
Rupee on the Ascent sources of Inflow: NRI remittances, FDI,
ECBs. IT exports contributes largest share of exports. Positive
outcomes, Nedd for effective cost management, need to tap
untapped markets, insist on payment in other strong currencies
in the untapped markets Import sector: lowers cost of imports
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Q&A session
Proceedings of the day
– Phase II
- Shri Narayana Murthy arrives and lights up the lamp along
with students
- Dr. Vijay Bedekar said unless we free the education from
the shackles of regulative framework, providing quality
human resource would be indeed a challange. In precolonial
era Indians dominated world trade. As not much dealing with
Europe. What we are doing (rejuvenating) is repeating what
our ancestors did.
- Dr. Guruprasad Murthy gave brief introduction of Dr. VN
BRIMS. He added that we try to inculcate the value system
that Shri. Narayana Murthy. About publication
Shri Bhakre: It is
my privilege and honour NRN mentor of generation and then
mentor of Infosys. 300 graduates from US come to Infosys,
Mysore for training.
- Dr. VN Bedekar Memorial Research Volume released at the hands
of Shri. N. R. Narayana Murthy.
- Rose given to Shri Ashank Desai, Mastek
NR
Narayana Murthy's Speech:
Dr. Bedekar, Dr. Murthy,
Shri Karandikar, Prof. Bhakre, Ashank, Kamlesh, Faculty Members,
Guests and most importantly my young friends. Next time you
should sit in the front. The youngsters should sit in the
front because the future of the country is all about you people.
This program was fixed in conjunction with another important
function that I was supposed to address. But that function
got cancelled for some reason. But I told my secretary that
I want to fo and meet the youngsters, interact with them.
So I came fast. I am going back immediately after this lecture
because I find interacting with youngsters very very important.
There are three things that
we in India can be proud of. They are, First, democracy: it
is a very fledgling democracy, it doesn't work well. Yet it
is a democracy. It is the aspirations of people, voice of
people that brings down governments, that brings about social
changes in the country.
The second is our Secularism.
Even though there has been minor infractions, I must say that
India is one of the rare countries that have stuck to Secularism.
And this is extremely important because if this country has
to succeed, if this country has to become imporant in the
global environment, people of all relegion, prople of all
caste have to work together in harmony and
Third and most important
of these is our youth. I am on the board of several university
abraod: Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Wharton, Ins**,
Just to name a few. While I find a distinct difference between
the older people there and India. I find that I am also an
older person and I can be very frank and open. I find that
the older persons in India , of course there are exceprions
like Dr. Guruprasad Murthy, Dr. Bedekar and others. But by
and large we are diffident, we are scared of competition,
we are very traditional. But on the other hand, when I compare
the youth of India with the youth outside, whether it is at
Stanford, whether it Cornell or wherever it is, frankly, I
do not find any difference. So if there is a future for India,
it is only because our youth will create it, it is only because
of their enthusiasm, their energy. So I never ever lose an
opportunity to interact with our youngsters. The fact that
the youth will create future stands, the youth that stands
for values was very clearly demonstrated in the last week
or so when those of us the elder ones were equivocal, were
dilly-dallying, were not certain, scared of expressing our
view on a very important issue. The The youngsters all over
the country has stood up for what they believed is right.
So I think it is a great example of what youth can do.
Now the topic that has been
chosen today is “Challanges for Indian Multinationals”. India
has been growing at 6% plus in the last 15 years. Since the
Economic reforms undertaken by Dr. Manmohan Singh when he
was the Finance Minister. This year we have grown by 8 plus
percentage. The exports are about 75-80 billion dollars that
has been growing at 20%. Imports are somewhere around 100
plus billion dollars which is very positive because it means
that we are actually building up our infrastructure so that
we can achieve even better growth. 78% of the GDP has been
contributed by the private sector which is again a avery very
important datapoint because at the end of the day, I believe,
its the private sector that will lead the country forward
and of course te stock market index has reached an all time
high. Of course its now lower but that's understandable. Its
still a very impressive 11,000 plus. There are 100 Indian
companies with market capitalisation exceeding a billion dollars
which again is a very clear indication of the fact that our
economy is growing . Companies have more and more of global
mindset and they want to bring in innovation so their companies
become mre and more valuable. We have at the same time worked
to produce $200 PC which is approximately around Rs. 10,000/-
ana a lakh a car – a car which cost one lakh of rupees which
Ratan, Ratan Tata is trying to produce and that's approximately
$2,500. What that means is we are learning the art of producing
quality products at affordable prices. This is extremely important.
If you want to succeed in global market. The challenge there
is, How do you make sure that you produce world class quality
products on time, within budgeted cost at affordable prices.
I think that is the challenge all of us have if we want to
succeed. On the communication sector, on the economic date,
I would say that we have today somewhere around 100 million
telephone line as against something like 1 million of so 15-20
years ago and this growth has come in the last 5 years. However
we are still 1% of the global trade. In fact less than 1%.
Our exports are only a small amount of $80 per person as against
China's $800. Each person in China exports $800. Whereas we
export only $80. Our exports form just about 11% of our GDP.
On the other hand, if you look at other countries like China,
Brazil, Mexico etc. they are somewhere around 30%. Now why
are exports important? The reason is very simple. If you want
to solve the problem of poverty, you have to create jobs and
if you want to create jobs, then you need to be able to sell
your products and services. If you want to sell your products
and services, you need disposable income in the hands of the
people. Unfortunately, in India today at this point of time
barring perhaps 15% of people, which is about 150 million,
the rest of them do not have enough disposable income today
to buy your products and services. So the solution to creating
jobs is to necessarily focus on export. That's exactly what
China has done, that is what East European Tigers did. That
is what Japan did. That is what Mexico is doing. All without
exception, countries which went from low level of development
to higher level of development have all focussed on exports
and that's why creating Indian Multinationals becomes extremely
important. That's the reason why all of us have to focus on
creating more and more and more Indian Multinationals. Now
China had been creating something about 13 million jobs a
year for last 12 years. China has created a whopping 156 million
jobs in the last 12 years. India has done something like 10
million jobs. So,if we have to solve the problem of poverty,
if we have to bring better disposable income to our people,
if we have to create opportunities for our youngsters in Rural
areas, opportunities for the disadvantaged men and women,
the oly solution is to create more jobs and solutions comes
out of, as I said, focussing on exports and creating multinationals.
So I must congratulate this school on focussing on the challenges
of creating Indian MNCs.
Now what is it that we need
to do to create more and more and more Indian MNCs. First
we have to become more confident. We have to overcome our
colonial hangups because whether you like it or not the majority
of opportunities or markets are in the G& countries and
perhaps China because China is growing at a fast growth rate.
You all know how our Indian steel companies, India cement
companies have gained tremendous market capitalisation because
of the opportunities provided by China. Let us all be very
very clear the reason why our cement and steel companies are
doing well in the stock market because there is a conderable
demand for steel and cement in Chana aht that is creating
a shortage in global market and the Indian companies are able
to export more and are not able to import any shortfalls in
the country thereby the prices are going up and that's how
the Indian companies are doing well. Okay, so we have to become
more and more confident to face people from other cultures,
to face people who were our rulers, to face the G& countries,
to negotiate with them, to sell to them, to create a story
in front of them. That is the thing.
Second is, we have to become
more confident to take tough decisions. If you want to fo
into global marketplace, if you want to be a MNC, you have
to take very tough decisions and tough decisions can be taken
only if you become more and more confident. Now what do we
do to to become more confident. First we need to become more
and more open. Openness is a sign of self confidence. Openness
to accept good ideas from other people, openness to subordinate
your egos to people and accept ideas from others, to look
at the leadership of ideas rather than leadership of men and
women or leadership if hierarchy, openness to accept ideas
from people who are younger that us, openness to take decisions
based on data. These are all extremely important.
Next we have to become proactive.
By and large Indians are very reactive. Bbecause of certain
historical background, we have tended to become more reactive.
We don't do things on a proactive basis. If you want to succeed
in the global marketplace, you have to become proactive problem
definers. You have to show proaction in solving problems,
Thats very, very omportant. In fact most of our customers
who deal with Infosys and I am sure all of the other Indian
software comapies, tell us “ You are all very good. You work
hard but somehow you will do what we ask to do. You won't
come up and say, don't you think this is a better way of doing
things. I think you have a problem in your corporation, I
think I have a solution and this is the way to solve that”
So I think we need to do that.
Next we have to accept meritocracy.
Let us be very, very clear. If you want to compete in the
global marketplace, if you want to be an MNC, if you want
to succeed in exporting more and more, if you want to compete
the best in the G& countries, you have to accept meritocracy.
There is no short-cut to that.
Ww also have to become a
learning organisation which means we have to keep our eys
and ears open. We have to get the best ideas from anywhere
from the world on each dimension of our operations, use those
ideas, perhaps adapt them, improve upon them because unless
you are a learning organisation, you will not be able to succeed.
You have to embrace speed
because at the end of the day, one of the most distinctive
advantages of a successful corporation is speed, you must
ask question: are we doing things faster tday as compared
to yesterday, last month, last quarter, last year etc./ very,
very important.
Next innovation or imagination.
You must as the question are we bringing better ideas to the
marketplace today compared to yesterday, last month, last
quarter. Once you start asking, once you start giving opportunities
to youngsters to come out with better ideas then that corporation
will succeed very well. For example we conduct several times
a year an exercise called “Ideation”. There the rule of the
game is that day is anybody above thirty is not allowed to
speak. He or she can write down ideas they can them implement
them of course later on, they can question all of that. But
the day belongs to people below thirty. And that's the day
people come and say: this is something I don't like in the
organisation and this is the way we can improve. It's all
constructive. Its not about finding fault in the organisation.
Its about bringing out better and better ideas.
Next of course is excellence
in execution. Your ideas are absolutely useless unless you
can implement them very well. Unless you can bring about a
better level of excellence in execution of those ideas because
at the end of the day what distinguishes a successful corporation
from a not so successful corporation is how well you execute
those ideas.
Brand building is extremely
important. If you want to succeed as a multinational corporation,
you must build brand. What is brand. Brand at the end of the
day is nothing but a trust mark. It is people saying “we trust
you”. And if you want successful relations , if you want enhance
your revenues, if you want continued relationship then you
have to build a trust with the consumer, you have to build
brand. In fact for example when somebody talks about Lo'real,
everybody in the world knows its a French company. Similarly
if you talk about Sony, The brand od Sony is extraordinarily
high. You talk about Unilever, you talk about Hewlett Packard,
Microsoft. These are all wonderful brands that have been built.
If an Indian MNC wants to succeed, Then they have to create
brands. If you want to create brand, you have to move from
cost to value. In other words, we cannot afford to say “We
will reduce your cost” we will have to say “we will bring
you better value”. All corporation which have built brand
in the world have focussed on value to the customer. As all
of you have studied economics, you understand price is what
you pay, value is what you get. So, Its extremely importtant
that you move from cost paradigm to value paradigm.
Then of course we have to
create better corporate governance. I define corporate governance
as “doing all that is necessary to maximise shareholder's
value on a sustainable basis while ensuring fairness to all
stakeholders – customers, employees, investors, vendor partners,
government of the land and the society” You raise the transparency,
you have to bring a better level of accountability
And then the the other important
thing is, perhaps the most important thing is we have to learn
to work in multicultural teams, . You have to learn to work
with Englishman, You have to learn to work with American Woman,
you have to learn to work with Spanish people, You have to
learn to work with Chinese people. That's a multi-national
that has operations in multiple countries and you have to
learn to leverage the power of all these multicultural talent.
And of course we need Risk
Modelling. Unfortunately most Indian companies are poor in
creating analytical models for Risk Assessment. You cannot
depend too much one customer. You cannot depend too much on one technology,
You cannot depend too much on one geography etc. So
risk modelling is extremely important.
Next of course the managers
in a multinational corporation have to become much more technology
savvy. Unfortunately in India and several parts of the world,
the technology awareness of our managers is not upto the mark.
We hace to enhace that.
I mean I can go on and on
and on. Because all of you have have set a good standard by
completing your tasks ahead of time, I think I would want
to do that. I have a record of completing 5 minutes ahead
of my schedule generally and I want to close my talk because
we still have five minutes. I would rather answer your questions
because that's where I think I will have tremendous learning.
I have only one rule though: Alternate questions will have
to be from women and men. Firstly from girl and then from
a boy
Q&A
Trupti Rane:
I am Trupti Rane and I am MMS . I have a sensitive question
regarding to one weeks' program which is going on in the the
news. I just want to ask today as we are talking about the
indian multinationals going abroad and we are thinking of
opening up in 1991 when India is globalised ita was time when
licence raj was opened up and we came into Indian globe. Similar
way cant today in 2006, Indian government take a step of opening
up all reservation and making
India again so powerful so that we can come up and
compete in the world in a better force or in a better way?
NRNM: First
of all we must all accept that this society has been unfair
to a large section for 4000-5000 years. All of us must accept
it first. There is no question at all that that has to be
addressed. But the way to address is not to say that “We will
bring in reservation at the institutes of higher learning”.
First we have to provide World class primary and secondary
education so that the disadvantaged children can become better.
The can become competition worthy. In fact my suggestion is
this that we have to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for
all these children so that they have good nutrition. Of course
there should be no corruption. People should not eat money
in this and you know that is unfortunately the experience
in India. Once you give good nutrition to these children,
once you put good teachers in our primary and secondary schools,
once you give focus on these children a little bit more ,
have extra classes if necessary, make sure that their text
books are given free. Do that and you will make them as good
as anybody else. Unfortunately, we have failed in doing this.
Let us remember 1. India is still at 65% literacy. 2. 50%
of the schools in Rural India has one teacher for every two
class/sections. Which means that we have not been able to
address the basic issue of primary and secondary education.
Only when we provide world class
primary and secondary education to all the children
then only this country will become a better palce because
everybody will become competition worthy and the country will
move, everybody will improve. Instead of solving that, which
is a very very difficult problem, you can go and say tomorrow
“I will have this much of reservation”. But that's taking
a copout strategy. That's not a difficult thing to do. You
can pass anything in the parliament. But the difficult thing
is to ensure that every village, there's something like 6,50,000
villages in India, you provide best possible education. I
would fully support it. I am 100% for it. I accept that there
has been absolute injustice to the children of disadvantaged
section.
Gaurav Chaubal:
I have a simple question. What according to you is the biggest
challenge for Indian Multinationals?
NRNM: Well
questions are always, answers are difficult. Remember as I
said the biggest challenge is creating brand equity. Tomorrow
if you can create a product which when used by people all
over the world they say it is from this company in India.
I think that is the biggest challenge. If you can create brand
equity, you get sustained revenues, you get good profits,
you attract best quality customers, you attract best quality
employees from all over the world, you attract best quality
investors from all over the world. So the biggest challenges
is creating a brand.
Sangeeta Sale:
Being a women, I want to know what role I play in tomorrow's
India? What role I play in this global picture as a woman
NRNM: If India
has to enhance its exports to 30%-35%, if India has to create
15 Million jobs a year for next 10-20 years, Then only we
get 4-5% unemployment level. Then we cannot afford to keep
the educated women idle. So your role will not be any less
that any man. In fact your role would be much more critical,
much more important than that of any man simply because you
have additional responsibility. First giving birth to wonderful
children. Second looking after them in the initial year or
two. Third, more importantly, I firmly believe that its the
mother that gives values to the children more than father.
So I do think that your challenge is much more that any of
your male colleagues because you succeed in the office, you
have to succeed at home that's what I would say.
Question:
Whether the slow judiciary, poverty, illiteracy in India are
the challenges faced by Indian Multinationals
NRNM: No,
no, no Remember I said we are in a catch-22 situation . If
you say I will first solve the problem of poverty in India,
I want to look out where is the opportunity to create employment
in the company. If you cant create employment then you cant
create disposable income, If you cannot create disposable
income then nobody is there to buy your products and services.
So upfront in the case of all developing countries have to
focus more and more on exports in the beginning. Later on
it will change, Later on it will pick up. The domestic economy
will pick up and then the domestic market will be strong.
In order to do that our judiciary must become quicker in decision
making. We have to solve the problem of illiteracy. That is
the primary task of the government. Unfortunately, we have
failed miserably there. I don't know how many of you have
read Prof. Myran Weiner's book “ The state and the child in
India”. Prof. Myron Weiner used to be the professor of political
science at MIT, US. He has produced a definitive volume on
how the Indian policies, Indian politicians,, the corporate
leaders, the bureaucrats and the elite, essentially the elites,
created nexus where they neglected primary, they neglected
the problem of child labour etc. So I think we have to address
that, to address that we need visionary leaders in our country
amongst our politicians, corporate leaders, our bureaucrats.
Those solutions, I agree with you, has to be addressed within
India but creating jobs in the beginning will have to be focussed
on exports.
Arti Kapta:
Please guide us on ethics and value system a person should
possess to be successful in one's personal and professional
life.
NRNM: There
is a concept called the Golden Rule of Behaviour. I am sure
you know as well as I do and that is to ask a question “How
would I like to be treated in any transaction. If I were in
the position of other party, How would I like to be handled”.
That's all. So ethics is nothing but adhereing to the the
protocol of accepted behaviour in the community which enhances
the confidence, trust, energy and enthusiasm of every other
member of the community in me. That conduct myself in a manner
that the rest of you feel more and more confident about me.
Prof. Deodhar would conduct himself in a manner that you will
have more and more confidence in him. That's all there is
to it. Nothing more. There is no complex algorithm here. Just
ask a question “by my behaviour am I enhancing the trust,
the confidence, the enthusiasm and the energy of the rest
of the community members in me” That's all. There is nothing
else.
Question:
I am in a construction business, We are in the infrastructure
development: airports. The whole judiciary process and political
forces are stalling our projects. What is the kind of message
one should drive? We are part of MNC. But we could not succeed
in India. There are drawbacks which is really spoinling.
NRNM: There
are several reasons for it. First of all we have to improve
the efficiency of the decision making in the government. We
have to improve our bureaucracy. Second we have to enchance
the quality of political leadersship. Third we have to enhance
the number of judges because we have 1/10th the
number of judges per 100,00 population as it is there in the
US. Fourth and most importantly our political leaders must
realise that they are straddling towards the urban and rural
India, rich-poor, educated-not so educated, and all of that.
Only when they think they are leaders of all these things,
that there should not be a zero-sum game of rich v/s poor,
educated v/s uneducated, urban v/s rural, only when they think
that and then ask a question “are we doing something to make
India better country”. Then
it will be simple. You know a civilised society is one where
every generation works hard, works smart and makes all the
sacrifices required to make the life of next generation better.
Just ask that question. Are we doing that?. I don't think
so.
Satish Padhye:
(Inturrupted)
NRN: you are
violating the rule. Discipline is extremely important. We
Indians are not disciplined.
Shweta Naik:
I have a simple question.
NRNM: Somehow
girls seem to think they ask only simple questions.
Shweta Naik:
In the globalised scenario from pas we are looking that IIT
students as well as those from more reputed college are moving
abroad. According to you what steps should be taken to stop
them then that they should implement innovative ideas in India.
NRNM: First
of all we should do nothing to stop anybody. That's not correct.
Your challenge and my challenge is “ What is it that we need
to do so that they are attracted to stay back in the country”
not stop them. Stopping them is very simple: don't give them
the passport. That's not going to help. So I would look at
the problem as “ how can I make this country attractive for
those youngsters to stay back in the country. The second is
let's remember that we are a nation of a billion people. If
a certain percentage of competent indians were to go abroad,
it is actually goof for Indai because the brand equity
of India, the respect for India has been built by these high
class professionals abroad because our engineers,
our doctors, our Silicon Valley entrepreneurs from
India, they've all succeeded. Today respect for India is lot
more that what our diplomats, our politicians, our corporate
leaders, our bureaucrats did for the last fifty years. The
last 15 years these people, people of Indian Origin who have
worked hard, who have demonstrated they are good citizens
to those societies, They contributed tremendously to creating
brand equity. So don't stop them. Work hard to make sure this
place is attractive.
Amitpal:Why
should we go the hard way. There is so much easy money going
around. The countries at the top are as corrupt . But still
why do you want us to go the hard way? You ask us that you
have to go for values and on the other hand we see that the
countries and corrupt people go up and going ahead?
NRNM: no,
no, no. A stable society is one where a significant majority
of the the people follow the rules of the game, follow values.
Just imagine, for example, I don't know , have you driven
in outside India? Have you been to Singapore, UK or Germany?
There everybody is driving according to the rules of the game.
The result is you reach your destination faster, the journey
is comfortable. See here on the road. Nobody is following
the rules of the game with the results what? There are delays
for every body, life is sick, everybody is cursing everybody
else. Everybody is unhappy. That's the reason why we should
follow the rules of the game, we should follow values. Let
me assure you that India is one of the most corrupt countries,
Other countries are not like India. Please let us be very,
very very careful. So in most developed countries corruption
is much much limited than India. In India it has percolated
down to the lowest level. In those countries if it is there,
it is there at the highest level. It does not affect the common
man. Here it has afected the common man. So do you want the
life of common man to suffer? That's why you should have value.
Amruta Mathure:
Sir your sentence “Our assets walk ou of the organiasation
everyday. We have to make sure that they have to come back
the next morning”. Can you just elaborate on the HR challenges
faced by Infosys.?
NRNM: The
biggest challenge that companies like Infosys has is enhancing
the quality of our human resources because at the end of the
day, the only instrument that we have to succeed in the marketplace
is by bringing about change , by bringing about innovation.
That happens because we have the capacity for innovation in
human life. Good companies are distinguished by the availability
of good talents. If you want your company to grow, people
have to make tremendous sacrifices, work hard. People here
put the interest of the company ahead of their personal interest
and doing that requires that our youngsters, all the people
who spend the best part of their lives, best part of their
day in your company and to do that you have to create enough
excitement for the, enough incentives for them to come back
to the office early in the morning at 8'o clock and spend
the best part of their day adding value to you. That is the
biggest challenge. In fact that's why our CFO, one of the
finest, I mean probably the best CFO of the country who win
the first “Best CFO” award in India shifted to human Resources
Development because that's extremely important.
Satish Padhye:
We succeded in IT industry, So can this IT industry knowledge
can help in pharma or auto industry?
NRNM: What
is it that IT industry di?. We did a few things, One, we said
we will focus on external market because there was hardly
any market in India. The moment you say you will focus on
global market, then you.............
..............not go to
government in 1991. In fact 992, “keep all these multinationals
out” In fact I was the president of NASSCOM from 1992-1994.
At that time there was not a single representative of multinational
on our executive council. Ashank knows that. It was very easy
of us to go to the government and say “no, no, no, We don't
want all these reforms. Don't allow multinationals to com”.
But we said “If we have to succeed outside India, then we
have to succeed here first.” We accepted competition. So I
think, there are many many things like this
and this is as applicable to pharmaceutical industry
etc. The first principle is simply this: levelrage the strengths
of India. If the market simply doesn't exist, then go outside
because that will eventually help India too becase you create
jobs, they will have disposable income and they will buy your
products and services. That's the fundamental principle.
Aruna Kolungade:
Before going global, should we not remove discriminatio, disparities
between the states of India? Should we not think first to
develop Bihar and Orissa at least to the level of Maharashtra
and Gujarat?
NRNM: I firmly
believe that a nation is as good as it's leaders. A company
is as good as it's leaders. A state is as good as it's leaders.
If a state produces good leaders then that state would make
good progress. The issue is not for outsiders to impose leadership
of Bihar. I think the people of Bihar have to realise that
if they want rogress, they need good leaders. They have to
elect them because we have accepted democracy. That's the
only instrument we have. So if Bihar wants to become much
more oriented towards industry, if Bihar creates infrastructure,
if Bihar has English medium schools for children to go from
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, so that the children
can study thre, If Bihar creates decent airports, so the people
can go and come back quickly, if Bihar creates good roads,
and all of that, then I am sure people will go there. Why
not?. Let's remember France is the same size of Bihar. Now
while Bihar probably has something like 70 billion dollars
of GDP, France is something like 200 times or 250 times (1.75
trillion dollars). The poin I am making is simply this that
the youth in Bihar have to stand up and say, “enough is nough.
We want this society to progress, we want good leaders”. So
we can't impose it from outside. It has to come from within.
Rajkumar Singh:
Now India is pygmy by Global standards, how much time do you
think that it will take for India to come up to the standards
of China, Japan and then US?
NRNM: China
has already become more than twice India's GDP (1.6-1.7 trillion
dollars). India is still at 70-75 trillion dollars. So I think
China is progressing much faster than India. But we can do
better. Definitely we can do better. We can compete with them
if we reduce bureaucracy. Whenever I talk to people outside
india, They say “Oh, your country is very difficult to business
because you have very bad bureaucracy”. I think unless we
improve reduce bureaucracy, unless we take fast decision,
unless we improve infrastructure, you know, while coming from
Santa Cruz, one hour journey, Whenever I looked both sides,
I saw dirt, I saw very bad houses. I gave ............ memorial
lecture couple of months ago and I spoke on how to handle
urban planning in India. For example, if you take pragmatic,
sensible decisions on urban planning in Bombay, you can create
wonderful living plae for all the people living in slums.
It's a pure economic decision making. Unfortunately we don't
look at long term interests, we do everything on short term
basis. Thats why this country's progress is slow. But if we
can bring about change in that, I am positive that we can
move faster. But I don't know if we can catch up with China
or not, That we have to look at the data, we have to look
at the issues carefully and then we can say.
VVB: We will
have two more questions
Snehal Adsul:
When we talk about Multinational companies, one thing that
comes to mind is long hours. With this long working hours
how can we do justice to our personal life. In simple words
do we have a perfect balance between our professional life
and personal life?
NRNM:My view
is a few genrations in India will have to work very hard,
work smart, have to make lot of sacrifices so that our children,
grandchildren, great grandchildren can have better quality
of life. So we should not worry about our work-life balance.
We should worry about how we can create a better India. Germany,
for example, after World War II made it mandatory for people
to work 12 hours a day and they all worked. So I don't think
as a youngster you should worry about how hard you work.
Vishnu Kanhere:
I have a specific question to you. We look up to to you as
mentor of all of India even younger generation. Mu question
is What can be done to institutionalise this kind of entrepreneurship,
drive, dynamism because Indian MNCs have come up and its is
because of the leadership and dynamism of
individuals. If you look at the rest of us, the rest
of us us would rather do jobs than become entrepreneur. Business
schools like the one in which we are standing here where I
teach also are not able to transmit that dynamism to students.
The students aspire to do jobs rather than go into crucibles
of innovation as you rightly said. How does that diffidence
of earlier generation get removed and we have number of leaders
who will pitchfork India into the next century? How could
it be institutionalised? How could it be professionalised?
In respect of companies as well as in general?
NRNM: I think
first one is role models are very important because if you
want to inspire youngsters, if you want to create enthusiasm
in them, then you need role-models. You have to provide greater
visibility to role models. Role models not so much in terms
of people in top 20 of Sensex. No, that's not what I meant.
What I meant was you should showcase an entrepreneur in a
village. You showcase a small entrepreneur in Thane because
people will have to realise that I don't have to be No.3 in
stock market capitalisation to be a role model. They must
be able to identify easily with the role moels. Similarly
you have to showcase a wonderful role model in creating excellent
institutions like this. You have to create role models in
among people who have fought for principles, you have got
Medha Patkar. I think by making same films on them and showing
them to youngsters, by writing books about them etc. Leaders in
every community and leaders in every organisation have to
walk the talk. Just as Mahatma Gandhi walked the talk, I would
say probably the only Indian who walked the talk. He brought
so much confidence to so many Indians. So I think all of us
have to conduct ourselves in a manner that we raise the confidence
of the youngster. So I would say that the visibility, Showcasing
and walking the talk
Let us all listen to Prof.
Deodhar. We look up to him . We have learnt so much from him.
He has held very, very important positions. I certainly look
forward to hearing from him.
P.
S. Deodhar:
who controls who. Most of the time people control money. There
are reasons the wealth comes out of value of your work.
The whole country is getting
bit skewed. The strength of software has hurt hardware. The
talents are not available in abundance. Running an industry
in India is nightmare. Decline in blue collar job creation.
Students may follow
The present infrastructure
does not allow competitive export of products. There are no
Indian software products.
Proceedings of the day
– Phase III
Amruta Mathure invited the
delegates
Dr. Vijay Bedekar
Dr. GPM briefed about
morning session
Ashwin Dani, Asian
Paints experience:
Foreign exchange was scarce.
It was impossible to substitute for raw materials. Myanmar,
Thailand. APCO Coating as the Word “Asian” was not liked in
Australia. In consumer products it is important to be strong
in your home country. Are we willing to make long-term call
for markets. In paint industry, profitability one should be
No1 or No2. DIY and professional painters require different
products. Branding is very important
Prior to 1991, grassroots
way was the only way to grow. Post 1991, acquisitions was
. Respect cultural sensitivity. In Carribean, it is almost
impossible to make workers come on a weekend.
Dr. Vishnu Kanhere:
Transfer Pricing
Price at which related parties
transfer goods or services to each other.
Why transfer pricing? To
control and management, presentation and disclosure, recording
and accounting, valuation,
Who decides : inter-divisional
negotiations
Which method is to be adopted
How to determine
Advantages of following
the arm’s length principle. No single solution. A judicious
use.
Shri Deepak Ghaisas:
Iflex started in 1993 with
1m dollars, 4 crores, 4 countries, arbitrage on labour cost.
Three ways to make money Different, new, better. .started
with focus in financials, corporate and retail banking, 12
subsidiaries, 38 distributors. Bank in japan open bank in
Jamaica. Challenges are multiple. In core banking solutions.
121 countries presence. 3 advantages. Invention of 0, Columbus
for America, British for English. Market cap is 2 billion
dollars, 250 to 7000 people. 5 Cs to MNCS : Competition, Competency,
Confidence, Culture, Care.
Jagdish Shah: MD, Atul
Ltd.
The fact we are discussing
this subject itself means that we have come a long way. Will
we service. Few closed down, some pull-through, Even to survive
in India, MNC. Before MNCs they come in apply, , feed forward
control. Local point of contact. Just-in-time is expected.
Need fro mindset change. – have a long-mid-term picture. Respect
knowledge, quicker decisions must. Brand building is necessary.
Scale of Operation.
Nature of expectation. Quality
requirements to international standards assumed. Strict adherence
to promises. Product liability. logistics
Speed seamless flow of information
across organizations.
Cultural – connecting to
local people, accept and adapt.
Communication:
Discrimination – Laxmi Mittal
Arcelor
Chemical Industry: hostile
environment. Increasing scrutiny. Level of suspicion is high.eg.
“untouchables” i.e. dyes Newer statutes . adhereing to new
laws, strict packng and transportation requirement. Registration,
Evaluation and Authorisation of chemicals. Wrong drum/label
cost skyrockets,
anti trust laws: around
.5 billion
However, they cannot deter
us as opportunities are huge. Time to show our mettle
IT education is at the root
cause. Educational institutions have a huge role to play
In in 50s running as JVs,
in 90s marketing companies at various companies
Tea Break
Ashish Soparkar
1985-90, 2 years, Listed
at Singapore stock exchange, Selling to 60 countries except
Antartica selling all continents. Invoices in all currencies
Why are we there : pre-90
Post 90s: why we are not
there
English is not knowledge.
Maybe in 20 years people will understand Indian cultural nuances
and that will be Indian moral victory.
Many universities should change their teaching methods. Arguments
should be encouraged
Prof. Bhakre: Aswin
Dani. Export or perish, 40 years leader. Managed to remain
self-sufficient. Perfomance focused management system. Get
the work done from the people. Culturally we are conservative.
Had Loctite been used Bhopal
would not have have happened.
Dr. Guruprasad Murthy
Enunciated lessons learned
Nestle as an example.
Multicultural workplace
will become norm.
Productivity has to increase
by leaps and bounds.
Learn to learn
Learn to live with currency
which is on the ascent
Learn to take decisions
within decreasing reaction time
Learn to live with low interest
rates
Learn to live and do business
in a fast changing environment
Learn to accept size as
a key factor
Learn to improve the quality
of human resources with respect to the credentials of skills,
attitude, motivation.
Learn to understand that
India is still a poor
country
Dr. Bedekar
India was high Industrialisation
of Europe. Cost of labour
was not cheapest
Q&A
Is Handling Cultural aspect
is it HR responsibility?
IT is Not just HR initiative,
business initiative
Seminar Ends with Pasayadan
by Smt. Sumedha Bedekar.
